<Second Proposed dynamic: Have all matches be
50 tossups, with conferring allowed on tossups (to
reward some form of team play). I believe this was done
at the old Loyola HS tournament. That way, everyone
competes ON THE SAME QUESTIONS.>
In the Vermont
State HS Tournament, we play two nine-minute rounds
(and a lightning round) where the first is
toss-up/bonus and the second is all toss-ups. I think if you
ask the players here, most prefer the toss-up round
because it increases the pace of the game and is
generally more exciting, especially if the game is close.
While I understand that through bonuses players show a
greater diversity of knowledge, at least in Vermont HS
play, where the difficulty of bonuses is widely varied
and even the point value changes (20-30) at the
discretion of our tournament director, I would much prefer
not having to deal with bonuses at all.
As
for bounce-backs, I think many of you underplay the
importance of the first chance at your bonuses. Perhaps they
would increase the advantage of a more balanced team,
but more often then not outcomes will still be
decided by momentum and the lay-out/order of the
questions.
-Kevin Commo