> Actually, I'm going to let you in on a little secret, Matt. You see, > you're very fortunate in that you're amazingly good at this game, so > it's understandable that you wouldn't understand why people who > aren't wouldn't want to play anymore. We can list off all of the > scores that we want and and argue about who would score 50 ppg, but > it really doesn't matter. Here's the secret: people aren't turned > off by quizbowl because they lose; they are turned off from quizbowl > because they never had a chance to win. I'll let the numbers speak for themselves on your other points, but this calls for a response. I am not "fortunate" (nor am I "amazingly" good but that's another topic) to be a competent quizbowl player. I was barely able to break 20 ppg on high school questions before my senior year way back when. I simply read packets, read books that come up (oh noes real knowledge!), and wrote questions until I got better. It's nothing anyone else couldn't do and it goes to the heart of this debate. No, someone off the street may not be able to score 300 points on an ACF packet, nor can he do that on an NAQT packet or at an independently run invitational (which is now part of ACF according to your series of ad hoc hypotheses designed to protect your original wrong statement). However, ACF, by its straightforward academic nature, is the easiest format to get better on. You can't get better at CBI, ever, because it tests random trivia and speed. You can get somewhat better at NAQT by acquiring academic knowledge in the ACF matter, but you will also have to waste your time memorizing things with no inherent value like "the 50 most recognizable smells" and "countries that are the size of US states." Everyone has a chance to win at ACF if they put the work in. People are turned off not because this is untrue but because they feel that, as they were high school bigshots who had a 4.0 GPA, they clearly know everything coming into college and are entitled to be handed the tournament trophy every time without putting in additional work. Anyone who truly wants to play without the level of commitment needed for ACF has more NAQT, CBI, trash, and poorly run invitational tournaments than one person could possibly get to in a single year. People who quit quizbowl outright because of the alleged difficulty of 3 out of the 50 tournaments held each year are just whiny, spoiled brats who are looking for any excuse, no matter how inconsistent, and whom quizbowl can certainly do without.
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