>> If I were a player who was considering ACF, I might be disheartened by a game where I had only heard of three of twenty tossup answers. The circuit is developing to the point where what are universally derided as easy answers by most players are still going to flummox players fresh out of high school, and where more and more study is needed to approach basic levels of competency (imagine trying to learn golf by starting out on a course with lots of water hazards and hard shots - even if you don't finish last in a tournament, you may find it too frustrating). << The thing here, though, is that ACF seems to have fixed the undue obscurity problem, and now is the time to bring new players in. Glancing over the finals packet from this year's regionals, tossups featured such answers as "Washington Irving", "the larynx", "Iran", and "Marcus Garvey" -- and more answers perfectly usuable at a high school tournament, albeit with easier leadins of course. The stereotype of ACF as low-scoring and unenjoyable is no longer valid. Now is the best time to start something like a Division II, or just to market to less experienced teams in the normal division. I know it feels less painful to be beaten to a tossup on "Iran" halfway through ("hey, I know what that is, better learn more clues") then to sit through a tossup on "Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka" and watch someone who's memorized a list pick it off at the end ("why the hell does anyone know that?"). --M.W.
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