How amazed I was to login for the first time in about 5 days and see what I saw. On the one hand it is great to see that the community is vibrant and willing to put a good amount of time into considerable debate about this. On the other hand some messages are uncalled for and statements have been made that do not reflect knowledge of all available information. Certainly we can be hasty in our assessment of situations at times and that's only human. I will offer the following sentiment based upon my own experience not to evoke sympathy on your parts nor for you to rally behind my words but only as someone wishing to impart to you what I have witnessed. My first year of playing quizbowl collegiately I was thrilled to be able to travel to Boston to play in a national tournament. That was exciting. Never having been to Boston before it was to, a very cool experience. Not to mention seeing Fenway Park first hand. How awesome. Not only the travel but to be part of something so big. I recall leaving thursday afternoon and having to rent cars and then drive from Providence to Boston. We got an incredible deal on Southwest airlines: $99/leg. Going to North Carolina and Michigan, two more places I'd never been to were equally exciting. I always had an idea of what North Carolina would be like and most of it was confirmed: I think it's a very beautiful place. Michigan too (and also Ohio, staying at a teammates house near Toledo about an hour or more away to save on hotel costs). All in all, my experiences in quiz bowl has been fun. Being able to qualify for tournaments and travel is fun. At least to me. Not all of it was fantastic. I put up $600 to pay for our club's hotel in North Carolina (plus $19.95 or whatever it was to watch Zoolander and Orange County in our hotel room with the Harvard folks which was equally enjoyable and might I add that Vik Vaz is just one funny guy). I think in terms of risk and return and being in a position where I'm not going to play quiz bowl all of my life and probably not be very much involved with it in a few years I'd say my time and money were well spent fronting the cash to participate. In short, regardless of where in the United States NAQT decided to put their tournament (AK and HI included) I do not doubt that if my desire was to play then I would do everything I could to see that I do. Whether or not that requires booking with a crap airline or finding ways to be creative. I would find it difficult to turn down a holiday in London too, I'll admit. That having been said, quiz bowl is a fun experience. We do it for fun, and as Jason Z. mentioned, if we can't afford it and there is just no other way to get around monetary constraints then unfortunately a year of NAQT or ACF or whichever national tournament will be missed. Luckily I have been in situations where my student government came through and gave us money or I had sufficient room on a credit card to front money so my team could stay in a hotel. While people in the east coast may not be as excited about going to Los Angeles as I was going to Boston and Chapel Hill I think the bottom line is that it can be done. For those who would classify yourselves as of the "hardcore" variety then I'm sure one way or another you will be able to make it to Los Angeles. I would trust the folks at UCLA and CalTech to run any tournament without thinking twice. It is always a pleasure going to their tournaments and I can say that they will do everything possible to make the tournament enjoyable. All in all, to be able to do something you thoroughly enjoy, especially in this situation, nothing is impossible. The debate seems to be how willing each of us is to expend resources to enjoy what has always been one of the best events on the quiz bowl calendar. -Ross Ritterman (BA, UC Berkeley 2002)
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