One too many?

• From: stipenn
• Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 09:52:32 -0800
• Message-ID: <000TAQ370.000Q25S2H.12170551-quizbowl_at_...>

On the heels of posts on the evils of
over-representation of one category or sub-category, I'd just like to
point out that this *is* something that does happen at
collegiate tournaments, as well. Here are a few examples of
things that were submitted for PB10:

* A long
packet with two TUs on the digestive system.
* A
short packet with about 10% TV questions (2 tossups +
~70 bonus points)
* A long packet with *three* TUs
on neuroscience
* A short packet with two
literary criticism boni
* A long packet with FOUR
literature TUs on female authors who were alive in
1980.

And, as an example from NAQT, there was one set of
questions (fall 1998, IIRC) where there were exactly two
questions on "The Simpsons", and both of those were in the
same packet.

What bothers me about this is that
these are things that violate the concept of a
'balanced' packet. Moreover, the fact that most of these are
problems in tossup distribution magnifies the problem (I
know Guy Jordan didn't appreciate the first playoff
round at Beaver Bonspiel IV, which had nine TUs on
science and classical music, just as I didn't appreciate
playing Swarthmore twice on the two packets that had the
least science).

I guess the 'take-home' lesson
from this would be: think about what you're writing,
and whether you would want to be *some other* team
playing on this packet.(*) If not, then you need to make
some changes.

--STI

(*)Originally, I was
going to say "whether *you* would want to play on this
packet," but then I realized why that wouldn't work. :)