Wurzel-Flummery wrote:Another question: Do you personally actually enjoy NAC more than you would HSNCT and/or NSC and if so, why?
I don't know, not having attended either of those tournaments, but I assume I'd enjoy them more because of the increased games and better questions. However, NAC this year was a fairly enjoyable experience. The questions were much better than they have been in years past (see my first post in this thread), and the tournament was well-run.
drno wrote:That still doesn't change the fact that the questions are poor and do not help determine an actual national champion. Do your teammates like having no idea what to study or being hosed?
The second part of this is just not true any more. While I'll concede that the question are far too short and too easy to determine a true national champion (think A-set length, IS set difficulty in the fourth quarter), the overall quality of the questions is much improved from, say, five years ago. I counted one, maybe two hoses the whole tournament, and I'd say the main reason we did as well as we did was that I actually started getting serious about studying. The studying I did (on quizbowlpackets.com, on the IRC channel, on the Torrey Pines database) gave me a large portion of the answers I got. After the tournament was done, I had a number of teammates come up to me and ask what they could do to get better, and I referred them to the same resources I used. It's not just tossups on blenders and the Statler brothers anymore.
Westwon wrote:There are several reasons why teams play
instead of NAQT, HSAPQ, NSC, or other options. This conversation seems focused on the scenario where the team plays
because the school administration, for reasons that have nothing to do with money, prefers it that way even after being told that the team wants other options. That seems like the least likely reason why a team would pick certain tournaments.
If you want to change which tournaments your team plays in, start by talking to your teammates and your coach. Since you know them and their motivations better than we do, pick a reason you think will work on them. If they know you are serious about Quizbowl, "because I/we want to" might be a very good reason. If you are unable to persuade your coach or any of your teammates, then you probably have to decide between playing tournaments you don't like, quitting Quizbowl, or playing hobo style. If you have some teammates on your side but not your coach, and you have made a serious effort with your coach, then you probably should find some teachers you get along with and talk to them about the situation and how to move forward from where you're at. The same is true if you have a coach who is willing to enter the right tournaments but doesn't want to enter more than one or two.
If you haven't talked to your teammates and/or coach about this yet, either because you like the tournaments you are attending or because your opinions are newly formed and thus haven't been acted upon yet, then just say that and we can stop giving you advice on how to deal with an administrator who doesn't exist.
Thank you for this, it's a great guide even outside of the context of this scenario. The money thing only comes into play with national tournaments, as that becomes a much greater undertaking than getting four kids into a car on a Saturday. That's really where we have to involve the administration for financial support. Regular season tournaments, however, I think we're in a good place with. We made it to Chatham last year, enjoyed it, and are looking forward to attending more pyramidal events this year. Regular season tournaments are independent of the administration for the most part--Chatham was not school-affiliated, and our coach only found out we had gone the Tuesday after. There seems to be a core of people for next year who are willing to play pyramidal quizbowl, and there's not much to stop us from doing so in the regular season.