A number of times this past weekend, I found
myself saying some combination of, "if only [CBI or
Bucknell, as appropriate for the case] had put as much
effort into [writing the questions, teaching the
moderators how to pronounce common English words, thinking
up more sensible tiebreaker and playoff formats] as
they spent [developing scripts, emphasizing the
importance of the recognition rule, fantasizing about being
on TV, inventing new statistics, justifying why
every team in a 12 team field needs to have four byes,
organizing food service, printing nametags] this tournament
would be better."
NAQT and NAQT hosts are
stretched to the limit in order to provide a good product.
They do not have the hordes of non-qb volunteers which
ACUI brings to the table, instead relying on the
smaller but infinitely more well-equipped existing
quizbowl community to run the tournament. I'll take good
questions and sensible format with a McDonalds lunch over
CBI and a banquet any day.
--M.W.