I'll address this point-by-point: We asked for each team to submit a pack because we never, until it actually happened, expected Beltway would be a 21-team event (instead of the 12-14 of previous years). Once it became clear we wouldn't have to use everything, we let teams that hadn't submitted packets get in without them. However, even with this, there were still some excess rounds (Delaware II and III; NYU; Brick Barrientos) and some rounds the majority of which went unused (UMBC, Delaware I, CMU, Pitt). I understand that some may be disappointed by our selection, but in GW's defense it was motivated by three factors: amount of editing required; timeliness of arrival; number of repeats. There were some repeats left -- most of these were my fault, and I do wish we'd caught them all, but we did get many more than we missed. As for our choice of what questions out of what packets we used, I think the question may come down to one of philosophy. When I blended packs together, I tended to select the questions that were most interesting or unusual, rather than the ones that struck me as easiest; this did increase the overall difficulty, yes, but on the other hand, it increased the diversity of each round -- and the driving philosophy behind the past three Beltways has been a diversity of the question base beyond the traditional sports/music/movies/TV axis. In the specific case of your pack, we had a Princeton round that was entirely edited & playable, and three Delaware rounds that repeated with each other a lot. I didn't want Del's submissions to go entirely unused, so I picked a smattering from yours. As for the question of your placement, all I can say is that Beltway had an undeniably stronger field. TRASH regionals didn't have the Gerbils or CMU or NYU or Pitt or Lemony Fresh; Beltway did, in addition to the mid-atlantic regulars. Furthermore, Beltway uses distribution different enough that strength at TRASH doesn't necessarily equal strength at Beltway. The playoff rounds, by the way, came from ACF Detox. Anyway, I'm sorry you didn't enjoy yourself. Certainly I appreciate feedback, whether positive or negative. Edmund
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