NAQT reaction

• From: hing_fan
• Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 06:49:06 -0700
• Message-ID: <000SF3MUI.000RL13CG.12170551-quizbowl_at_...>

Not having seen any reaction to the NAQT ICT, I
thought I might sound off in the interest of generating
discussion. First two disclaimers. Though I represent Georgia
Tech, I am not one to hold the ACF way as gospel and
depise all other formats. Second, though I am not the
world's greatest player, and with all due respect to the
many quality teams we played this weekend, I did
expect us to finish well above 30th.

What
happenned to the A in NAQT? Previously I had embraced the
mix of good academic questions with current events
and trash, but they seem to have gone much further at
this tournament. The distribution seemed to be one
third trash, one third current events, and one third
general knowledge. Leaving approximately nothing from
categories traditionally considered academic. Having spent
the weekend sick and medicated, it wasn't until this
morning that it occurred to me that I actually answered a
question on gaydar. Gaydar. The first power tossup I ever
remember getting was Friedrich Durrenmatt's The
Physicists. This weekend, the first three I got were God, the
Devil, and Bob, Orangina, and Hee Haw. I'm quite
confident that I know more about German Literature than
whatever the hell category we would put Hee Haw in, but
not having gotten the tossup on Das Faustbuch, I was
more or less done with that category. And since when
is it necessary for half of the questions to have
either 6 word phrase or 8 letter word in
them?

For the few academic questions there were, is it
absolutely necessary to eliminate anything that may have
come up at another tournament this year? Here I refer
specifically to the money illusion toss-up. I realize there
were also questions on the Wealth of Nations and the
ten letter term dead weight, but money illusion
belongs in a bonus if anything ever did. Taras Bulba,
Elizabeth Gaskell, and others are all fine and appropriate
for a championship tournament, but that doesn't mean
we can't ask anything or anyone more than one or two
people can be expected to have read.

So that's
what I think. That being said, however, hats off to
both Chicago and Illinois for what can only be called
extremely impressive championship matches. I'm sorry I
won't be at ACF nationals to see them square off
again.

Also, kudos to NAQT and BU for running the tournament
smoothly and timely, and thanks to the many teams and
players who were friendly and cordial.

Kevin
Crawford