One and All, While the forthcoming remarks are based on mostly experience dealing with the West Coast Quiz Bowl circuit I invite and very much encourage thoughts and advice from the entirety of the circuit. I had a recent conversation with a Berkeley Quiz Bowl member (who'll be kept nameless) at which several interesting points were brought up concerning participation in quiz bowl, how the "circuit" works on a regional basis and what individuals compete in quiz bowl and to what end. Essentially I hope to get at some of the core issues surrounding quiz bowl competition in college. This is NOT a post about what format is best or how to run fair playoffs in a tournament but something more fundamental. While not having seen the composition of every club at every school on the West Coast this year, it seems to me that again the strongest clubs in terms of ability to reasonably compete in a national tournament reside in the 650 and 510 area codes. I am uncertain as to the strength of the CalTech club but with the recent departure of nearly 100% of graduate students I'd say it is in question. Similarly with UCLA, a club which has plenty of up and coming undergraduate talent (Matthew and Charles) and at least one experienced graduate student (Steve). After a few years of absence it's nice to see signs of life at USC. UC Irvine, HELLO, where are you? After a few years of activity at Scripps and Harvey Mudd that duo has gone into hiding. I know of at least 2 bay area students who now go to Pomona college (also part of the Claremont Colleges) and were active participants in the Bay Area High School circuit. There was hope that someone would poke their head above water at UCSD but that's still waiting to happen. I hope someone from UC Davis reads this because you guys really suck for going to one tournament and then playing CBI only. Not to mention the 0 penetration Quiz Bowl has with the 23 campus CalState system, the founding campus (SJSU) within stone's throw of Stanford. So in other words, of several hundred schools in california, not to mention Arizona (ASU) who's pretty much gone and Oregon, who you 1) may count as being in the Pacific North West and 2) has everyone who played pretty much graduated, you could argue that there are 5 active schools in California, again 2-3 of which consistently compete for national titles. So the question I have is then, what makes for a consistently strong circuit with participation at any given regional tournament 80-100% of active schools? When a club gets started how do you maintain participation such that the circuit becomes on the average strong as opposed to, say, top heavy (California)? What I'm now getting at is how participants view quiz bowl. Is quiz bowl something that you do when you feel like it and go in for the purpose of having fun one day out of the week, much the same way one would pass by an coin-op Ms. Pac Man and pop in a quarter and play just for the hell of it? Or do you have a person or group of people who are truly hardcore and down for studying, writing questions and improving their game so as to develop the club into one which is consistently performing on the circuit and will get noticed nationally? What happens when you have a handful of dedicated participants in the circuit seeking to compete in several tournaments a year but do not have the schools locally to accomodate that desire (and for the most part lack the funds to travel to more active regions)? To further that thought, I'd also like to mention something I don't feel certain clubs may understand about quizbowl. We are actively funding each other's ability to participate in the circuit. In other words when Club A competes at Club B's tournament and pays an entry fee, Club A has not only received the benefit (dare I say utility?) of participating in Club B's tournament but Club B now has the ability to then turn around and go down to Club A and play in their tournament. Thus when you are not a club that receives a large amount of money from your school, it tends to suck when you attend one school's tournament (sending say 3 teams) and the other school goes "oh yeah we thought about it but we can't go I think we're washing our hair that Saturday". That is seriously a load of crap. To host a tournament and expect entrants and to then turn around and not attend that of your participant is utter crap. There needs to be a lot more reciprocity amongst circuits, especially in California. To jump off of that, suppose Club A goes to Club B's tournament and pays ~$200 to enter 3 teams only to then notice fairly quickly that the tournament director was, oh I dunno, basking in his own self- aggrandizement while rooms were not properly scheduled, there are 30 minute delays between rounds for some teams and stuttering moderators run amok. There are unwritten do's and don't's concerning running tournaments and more and more it should be the responsibility of the club running the event to make sure the do's prevail. Much like with professional sports, it is the responsibility of the home baseball club to ensure that the visitor's clubhouse is presentable and their basic needs are accomodated, in other words what one might call suitable playing conditions. This most certainly includes having a competent Tournament Director editing the packets into playable format. This also means not even thinking about editing central source questions (UC Irvine, ACF Regionals) and certainly no slap- bowl. As perhaps a corollary to this, bids for things like ACF regionals and NAQT sectionals should be awarded to a club that can consistently do a good job running it. There is, in the opinion of some, too much at stake to have things get screwed up due to inexperience and ignorance. Sure, we like to see new clubs have the opportunity to host a tournament that is nationally mirrored (especially when no question editing is involved) but for God's sake take the time to run it well and if you have any doubts please ask. I realize that there are a ton of egos in quiz bowl but in the interest in doing a service to those around you, take the time to do a good job and defer to other's judgement. Do not think that clubs are happy to spend money and drive miles to play in your crap tournament. Do not invite high schools to a collegiate event if you do not plan on separating the divisions. What have you done other than pissing off those high schools and adding to your own bottom line? If you need help editing a tournament please ask. If you want someone's opinion as to whether or not a packet (or questions) is acceptable then please ask. And here we go to the next point. A company like NAQT has done a fantastic job providing quality quiz bowl questions to clubs around the country, both collegiate and high school. However, NAQT unintentionally so may create the following problem: suppose a club wants to run a junior bird tournament and needs a question source. NAQT may be the quick and easy choice from a labor standpoint. However how then as a club do you develop. Feel free to argue this point, but the number one way to improve is to write questions, bar none. A club that runs NAQT events all year is not going to develop. Clubs will ask Berkeley why it has so many question packets to practice on. The answer is thus quite simple, you host packet submission tournaments and write your own questions for the purpose of swapping and improvement and you reap the benefits. If you host NAQT events all year then yes, you will be reading the same 20 packets so often that you may even memorize the associated question code. Teams need to write more questions not only for their own improvement but for the improvement of the circuit as well. That is I believe the major issue. By writing questions you can truly appreciate the fruits of your labor and have an impetus to want to improve. You then start building up your club and you start to get repeat participation year after year. In a few years, you get a circuit where the distribution curve of team strength tends to look normal. Should question writing begin at the high school level??? Hmmm. I also believe that if ends like this are to be achieved, it would be beneficial to a circuit to have some sort of meeting to coordinate goals and expectations. Again, is quizbowl destined to be an "oo this looks something i wanna do...once" or a "this is something i can do well and help my school and teammates succeed" sort of activity. It is clear to me that teams need to be on the same page with regards to expectations so as to improve the status and ability of the schools around you. A team is only as good as it's next best opponent. Thanks, Ross Ritterman
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