Howdy-- First, I'll pile onto everyone else's kudos and say that I, as a moderator, and my teams (Valencia Red and Black), all had an excellent time both being in LA and reading for (or playing in) the ICT. In Chapel Hill last year, for example, we weren't able to visit a Hustler store or briefly mourn at the site of River's untimely death in front of the Viper Room. So that was cool. And I thought that the UCLA and USC folks and NAQT put on a well run show. My players also reported that other teams played hard but accepted outcomes and were mostly gracious all around. And congrats to Berkeley D (I think it was D) for beating Valencia Red in the Div. II final--they were the better team, beating us twice. Second, by moderating, I enjoyed putting faces to the many names with whom I'd previously traded questions or corresponded or simply seen post. Finally, what most caught my attention was how many teams in Div. I, where I read, didn't seem to manage the clock. It's not that folks did this poorly; they just didn't seem to think of it at all. My trusty scorekeeper Jason Hernandez of Riverside would often slink toward the clock when there were less than two minutes left (our clock was out of reach from where we sat), expecting a time-out; however, time-outs were only called in three of the 13(?) matches I read. Further, a couple times teams that were leading close matches with less than half a minute to go didn't take their time on bonus parts or otherwise try to limit the other team's chances to get in. One noteworthy exception was UCLA's (I thought) wise move of buzzing in with 2-3 seconds to go while holding a slim lead on Princeton, with the player delivering "Everything You Wanted to Know about Sex but Were Afraid to Ask." He said it fast and didn't obviously stall, which in this moderator's discretion, was fine and killed the match. Anyway, just something I found interesting. --chris borglum P.S.--why am I not surprised that it was a post by Freeburg that has led to a long discussion of which Finnish composers are askable? Sigh.
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