Future of the Circuit

ufilthycur <*no_reply_at_yahoogroups.com*> · Tue, 22 Oct 2002 14:52:16 -0000

I would just like to weigh in here with the opinion of player who is 
relatively new to the circuit, but with a year of competition under 
his belt (including some real thrashings at the hands of some teams 
made up of those "dirty" old grad students). 

I don't think there is anything wrong with anyone playing for as long 
as they want, up to a certain point. I think the tournaments should 
be limited to individuals currently enrolled and seeked a degree from 
some sort of college or university, with a separate circuit for 
players no longer officially affiliated with a school team. There, of 
course, could be certain tournaments where the two fields could be 
mixed, but I don't feel that a format such as ACF which was 
specifically created for competition among school teams should be the 
arena for this mixing of fields to happen.

I see no problem in playing teams of greater experience level and 
occasionally getting thrashed by one. What is the big deal? I am as 
competitive a person as I know, but I understand when someone has 
more experience at something than I do, so I don't feel especially 
bad when I am not at their level yet. 

Two of the most gratifying matchs I ever played were matchs that I 
came out on the short end to more experienced teams. One was in high 
school when I was relegated to my school's B team for a sort of 
punishment. We actually beat one of the favored teams for the 
tournament in the prelims, and eventually lost out in the 
quarterfinals to the eventual tournament champions by something like 
80 points. I was extremely pleased with that performance because I 
recognized that I was playing with freshman and sophomores and we 
simply weren't experienced enough as a team to win that game. Big 
deal. We got better. Be kicked their ass later that year and 
throughout the next year.

The same situation occured last year in my first season of college 
play. My team, composed solely of players in their first year of 
college competition, took one of the more respected southeastern 
programs to a 20 point decision. Granted, we were probably helped out 
considerably by a packet that made us look rather better than we 
actually were, but that was probably the most satisfying match I 
played all of last year.

So, what I'm saying is that we younger players should not take 
exactly take pleasure in getting drubbed by grad students, but should 
take it for what it is. Quit whining. Write Q's. Start drubbing them 
back.

Patrick Riser (hey guys, please don't thrash me too badly at the next 
tourney I see you. I might start crying)