This is not to pick on Harvard's juniorbird tournament, as it's been done/discussed by other schools as well, but I want to address the philosophy of "It's alright that two tournaments are on the same day, if one is ACF and the other is an NAQT juniorbird" (details may vary). While many freshmen may not want to immediately jump into questions such as those found (or thought to be found) at tournaments such as Cornell's or Maryland's, it's just not right to assume none of them would want to play in both a juniorbird and a normal-level tournament. By their sophomore year, many players have had a full year of play, and while they're still eligible for a juniorbird, they are more than ready to play in a normal tournament. What better way to prevent younger players from gathering experience than preventing them from playing as many tournaments as possible? Another point: teams of freshmen and sophomores often take along upperclassmen/geezers to drive, read, and/or coach at the tournament. Some upperclassmen even enjoy this. Just as an example, when Maryland sent teams last year to Swat's juniorbird and COTKU (plenty far enough away from each other as to not be an issue), I was miffed that I couldn't go to SNEWT and help out. Yes, sometimes calendars are compressed (okay, it happens a lot), and we can't always have tournaments when we like. But I always hate to hear a tournament director say that it's ok; "we wouldn't attract the same teams anyway." It's just not always true. a new geezer, josh
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