Re: Eligibility in D2

Suds1000 · Tue, 12 Feb 2002 23:57:49 -0800

First off, when I think "upperclassman", I think
of anyone who's not a first-year player (i.e. a
sophomore, junior or senior).

Jason
said:

"Otherwise, you shouldn't be pretending to yourself that you
lost because they had more *experience* than you -- it
was because, in reality, they were a better team that
you, irregardless of year."

No one's debating
that the teams that beat us were better than us
(otherwise they wouldn't have won the games). Jeez, I
should've been expecting another classic case of "Shut up,
stupid freshman. Write some questions and get better."
Gimme a break. I'm in the process of doing that (i.e.
getting better by practicing and studying), but I still
haven't had enough practice or been to enough tournaments
to hear all those lead-ins again and
again.

Also, I'll definitely grant you that my and other HS
programs are quite good and prepare some freshmen very
well. But you can't deny that playing at the high
school and college level are VERY different. The answers
are less canonical, the players are faster, and the
point totals are higher. In response to your claim that
4 yrs of HS = 3-4 years of college, I disagree
completely. It's a totally different atmosphere and a
completely different game.

Please, don't get me
wrong. Though it may have seemed that way before, I'm
not whining that we didn't win the tournament. That's
not the point. All I'm saying is that as a general
rule, players who are more experienced will do better
in games and NAQT needs to look into that. I don't
think it's really relevant who won the tournament, or
who performed well, or whatever. All I know is that
when I play a game of quizbowl at the D2 level on NAQT
questions, I'm expecting to play a game with players who
have at least close to the same amount of experience
as I do.

If you want to call me names, so be
it. I'm a developing player on a developing team of
developing freshmen. I'm working within the current system
to get better, and right now, the best solution is
playing in D2 at NAQT tournaments. If that makes me a
wuss, that's fine with me.

Defending his
freshmanship & D2 status and hoping not to start a flame
war,

Sudheer
UIUC Academic Buzzer Team