Re: Sportsmanship or Legal Strategy?

• From: quizbowllee <charolee_at_quizbowllee.yahoo.invalid>
• Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 18:53:08 -0000
• Message-ID: <b772uk+trgf_at_...>

As both a College Quiz Bowl player and a Middle School Quiz Bowl 
coach, I'd like to weigh in on this issue.

First, as a player - I would've done exaclty the same thing.  The 
rules were obviously not thought out... It's not unsportsmanlike to 
win within the realm of the rules.  It is, however, stupid to risk 
losing when you CAN win within the rules.  

Secondly, as a coach - I would never enter my team in a competition 
where the rules were so incredibly ridiculous.  This has come up a 
few times in my coaching experience... There are a number of events 
in which that I refuse to enter my kids  because I highly question 
the legitimacy of the rules.  I suggest boycotting such events. 

-Lee Henry


--- In quizbowl_at_yahoogroups.com, Patrick King <pakman044_at_y...> wrote:
> Thursday, I was participating in a competition by a
> technology company that had a quiz bowl event.  The
> final game was 4-team game.  Naturally, I was in it. 
> The scoring was:  1st half:  10 tossups, +5/-0/-5
> negs.  2nd half:  10 tossup/bonusses, +5/-0/-5
> tossups, +9/-0 bonii.  The important rule was that
> only one could team could give an answer for a
> question (if they missed, no one else could try to
> answer).
> 
> Going into the last question, my team was up 20-14,
> with the other 2 teams immaterial.  So what I decided
> to do was to interrupt, make a decent guess, and if I
> got it wrong, we still win because our score would
> only drop to 15, with no one else being able to
> answer.  I don't think anyone actually could've gotten
> the question right, but after I admitted that that was
> what I had done, the organizers decided to do one more
> final question (although they did not restore the 5
> points to us), which was immaterial, and so we won
> 15-14.
> 
> My question is, was this a legitimate strategy or was
> this unsportsmanlike?  I've been pummeling my brain
> for the answer to this question, and I still sort've
> feel bad about it.
> 
> Comments welcomed.
> 
> Patrick King
> 
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