Not knowing NAQT's thought processes in this decision, I can only speculate. But I am a damn good speculator. While unexpected, I don't see Myrtle Beach as necessarily a bad choice. Tournaments have been affiliated with a high school or college for two main reasons: 1) staff 2) rooms. I gather that many people flew in to staff the NAQT ICT last year. Given that collegians are not playing and are not faced with a choice of playing or staffing, it seems plausible that NAQT believes they can find enough staff to run a tournament without a local pipeline. That brings us to rooms. I would think that NAQT would not make this choice were there not enough rooms of sufficient quality in the site. On a side note, I'm guessing that this will be more expensive than previous tournaments. What NAQT may save by not folding money back into the circuit and giving it a host team or teams, it probably is spending at least that much extra to the Myrtle Beach Convention Center (which I assume is more expensive than using a collegiate site) and other expenses to bring additional staff into the area. I'll be curious to see if these probably additional expenses are covered by a raise in fees and/or an increases field size. I also think this works because most high school teams I have talked to want a "sexy" location. The college circuit is used to running tournaments on the cheap, but to high school teams that just sounds like going to the Travelodges of tournaments when they want a five star hotel with all the amenities. No matter the quality of questions, for many people if the ambience is horrific, the entire tournament will be remembered in a bad light. Myrtle Beach is certainly a cooler place than some East Bufu location like Manhattan, Kansas. As for Eric's questions, I suspect that if any local school or college were affiliated with the tournament, it would have been announced. Since no school is responsible, I'm guessing the idea originated within the brain trust of NAQT. This may be due to a lightning bolt of inspiration, a desire for a tournament embedded within a Myrtle Beach vacation, the suggestion of actual high school teams likely to play (who says NAQT doesn't respond to feedback?), a calculated plan to overcome perceived shortcomings in previous HSNCTs or a host of other reasons. I think the only reasons one could have to be up in arms about this decision are if you think that rooms/staff/logistics will not be possible in Myrtle Beach or if you think that a clearly superior bid was submitted and not accepted. Of course NAQT is under no obligation to explain every single decision, and it is probably counterproductive to do so even if they wanted to. Anthony, who will reply sanely only to sane people
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