ICT schedule discussion

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ICT schedule discussion

Post by Important Bird Area »

NAQT is currently discussing appropriate schedules for ICT.

Options include:
Friday/Saturday (the historical format)
long-Saturday
Saturday/Sunday.

If you're planning to play ICT and you have opinions about this issue, please comment!

(for reference: last year's thread)
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by grapesmoker »

Long Saturday. There is absolutely no reason to drag this tournament out over 2 days, especially since we basically know the format already.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Frater Taciturnus »

Long saturday all the way. Friday Night rounds just made people jump through scheduling hoops and show up in the middle of round 4.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by alexdz »

Long Saturday if possible. If it's absolutely necessary to stretch it into two days, Saturday/Sunday is INFINITELY preferable to Friday/Saturday.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Auroni »

Long Saturday.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by theMoMA »

The Friday games really put a strain on travel. If two days are really necessary, it should be Saturday/Sunday.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Quantum Mushroom Billiard Hat »

theMoMA wrote:The Friday games really put a strain on travel. If two days are really necessary, it should be Saturday/Sunday.
Prefer Saturday, but agree with Andrew.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Mike Bentley »

Yeah not having games on Friday makes it a lot easier to travel from the West Coast to get to the tournament. My vote is for either all on Saturday or Saturday/Sunday.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by ValenciaQBowl »

I have to disagree with the consensus here. I very much prefer a Friday-Saturday traditional format. That allows for Sunday travel home and eliminates the 12-14-hour slog on Saturday. I don't dismiss the problems others obviously have with it, and I expect to be in the minority (if not lone fringe weirdo), but it works for me and my players.

PS--we actually treat the ICT trip as a reward for the hard work the players have put in all year and try to come in on Thursday to have time to see museums and other sights. Many of my players haven't traveled much, so it's a nice way to end the year. However, I'm well aware of the prevailing sentiment (at least among regular college programs/players) regarding doing anything but QB on a QB trip. But for what it's worth, most of the CCs treat the ICT trip that way.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Lagotto Romagnolo »

List of ferry operators in Japan wrote: Prefer Saturday, but agree with Andrew.
What he said.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by grapesmoker »

ValenciaQBowl wrote:PS--we actually treat the ICT trip as a reward for the hard work the players have put in all year and try to come in on Thursday to have time to see museums and other sights. Many of my players haven't traveled much, so it's a nice way to end the year. However, I'm well aware of the prevailing sentiment (at least among regular college programs/players) regarding doing anything but QB on a QB trip. But for what it's worth, most of the CCs treat the ICT trip that way.
You can still do this, though; you would even have extra time because you didn't have to play Friday rounds. And it would really simplify life for the vast majority of the rest of us to not have to travel on Friday.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Sun Devil Student »

I vote for any two-day format (Friday/Saturday, Saturday/Sunday, just please not all on one day). I prefer Friday/Saturday *as long as* we don't have to arrive before, say, 7pm on Friday.
grapesmoker wrote:
ValenciaQBowl wrote:PS--we actually treat the ICT trip as a reward for the hard work the players have put in all year and try to come in on Thursday to have time to see museums and other sights. Many of my players haven't traveled much, so it's a nice way to end the year. However, I'm well aware of the prevailing sentiment (at least among regular college programs/players) regarding doing anything but QB on a QB trip. But for what it's worth, most of the CCs treat the ICT trip that way.
You can still do this, though; you would even have extra time because you didn't have to play Friday rounds. And it would really simplify life for the vast majority of the rest of us to not have to travel on Friday.
What do you mean, not have to travel on Friday? Do you guys get up at 2am on Saturday to take a flight to arrive right before it starts?

Even if you start on Saturday morning, traveling on Friday is unavoidable, so why not move the Friday travel a bit earlier, start three or four rounds on Friday night, and finish the remaining 12 rounds on Saturday?

Also, Valencia team, my D1 teammates agree wholeheartedly with you about doing anything but QB on a QB trip. There are people at ICT who have a life outside of quizbowl, and it's easy for those who don't (like me and many people on this forum) to forget that if they don't often deal with such "normal" quizbowl players. (I do, because my entire team is composed of them, but this may not be the case for better teams.)
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Susan »

Sun Devil Student wrote:I vote for any two-day format (Friday/Saturday, Saturday/Sunday, just please not all on one day). I prefer Friday/Saturday *as long as* we don't have to arrive before, say, 7pm on Friday.
grapesmoker wrote:
ValenciaQBowl wrote:PS--we actually treat the ICT trip as a reward for the hard work the players have put in all year and try to come in on Thursday to have time to see museums and other sights. Many of my players haven't traveled much, so it's a nice way to end the year. However, I'm well aware of the prevailing sentiment (at least among regular college programs/players) regarding doing anything but QB on a QB trip. But for what it's worth, most of the CCs treat the ICT trip that way.
You can still do this, though; you would even have extra time because you didn't have to play Friday rounds. And it would really simplify life for the vast majority of the rest of us to not have to travel on Friday.
What do you mean, not have to travel on Friday? Do you guys get up at 2am on Saturday to take a flight to arrive right before it starts?

Even if you start on Saturday morning, traveling on Friday is unavoidable, so why not move the Friday travel a bit earlier, start three or four rounds on Friday night, and finish the remaining 12 rounds on Saturday?

Also, Valencia team, my D1 teammates agree wholeheartedly with you about doing anything but QB on a QB trip. There are people at ICT who have a life outside of quizbowl, and it's easy for those who don't (like me and many people on this forum) to forget that if they don't often deal with such "normal" quizbowl players. (I do, because my entire team is composed of them, but this may not be the case for better teams.)
When Jerry (and/or others) talk about "not having to travel on Friday", they mean that they don't have to travel during the day on Friday (thereby missing classes, meetings, and lab time). Moving the Friday travel "a bit earlier" to accommodate making it to Friday games usually obliterates most of the day. When I was playing as a grad student, I could very rarely afford, in terms of experiment planning, to miss most of the day on Fridays, so I tended to travel Friday evening for most tournaments. Additionally, if you're flying in Friday for Friday night games, there's a greater possibility that weather problems and delays will screw you over big-time (unless you leave even earlier on Friday to allow some extra time for these possibilities); if you were planning on taking a late afternoon flight to arrive in the early evening before playing Saturday morning, a delay would be less likely to make you miss rounds.

I hope you realize that you may be offending people (or, at least, sounding silly) when you talk about those rare fanciful beasts, "people at ICT who have a life outside of quizbowl". We all have lives outside of quizbowl. Some of us want to use our Fridays to conduct those lives.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Frater Taciturnus »

ValenciaQBowl wrote:I have to disagree with the consensus here. I very much prefer a Friday-Saturday traditional format. That allows for Sunday travel home and eliminates the 12-14-hour slog on Saturday.
Its 7 games, re-bracket and lunch, 7 more games! Its not like the rest of the circuit where a slow moderator can slow the tournament down either- Its a 20 minute game! That comes out to about 7-8 hours of game play, plus an hour or so for lunch.

The only way ICT can take 14 hours is if something bizarre happens like Aaron Kashtan or Jerry taking a briefcase containing the next round's questions hostage in protest of the distribution or whatever.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by ValenciaQBowl »

You can still do this, though; you would even have extra time because you didn't have to play Friday rounds. And it would really simplify life for the vast majority of the rest of us to not have to travel on Friday.
Understood, Jerry. But we've always done fine with having Friday day for seeing city highlights and Saturday night for a nice dinner and such. And not having to play so long on Saturday would be preferable to my players. You know I personally am fine with 16 hours (and have done it many summers), but my guys often bitch after about 9-10 hours of buzzing.

In any case, I certainly want you and other teams/players with more difficult time or finance situations to be well served, but given the choice (as the thread asks!), I still prefer the traditional format. Whatever is decided, we'll be happy to be there.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Matt Weiner »

On the other hand, sometimes there are 3 games post-playoff-bracket, there are tiebreakers going into the playoffs, and there is a trophy presentation of not-ignorable length. Combined with any natural delays in rebracketing or dealing with the unexpected, that means the length of the tournament is not just (14 rounds * 30 minutes per round). I think it's worthwhile to say that very important tournaments should avoid the possibility of deciding the championship between two fatigued teams; this is why I pushed to have ACF Nationals moved to a two-day event. All day Saturday followed by a half-day on Sunday so that teams can still travel back at a reasonable hour seems like the best solution here; it's no coincidence that the large high school nationals do it that way.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Susan »

Any idea how many rounds teams are likely to play in a Saturday-only tournament versus a Saturday-Sunday tournament?
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by grapesmoker »

Sun Devil Student wrote:What do you mean, not have to travel on Friday? Do you guys get up at 2am on Saturday to take a flight to arrive right before it starts?
Susan already answered this, but in fact I have done things like get up at 4 or 5 in the morning to fly to a tournament that I will play the same day. We won Minnesota Open doing that, so I guess it's not the worst strategy in the world!
Also, Valencia team, my D1 teammates agree wholeheartedly with you about doing anything but QB on a QB trip. There are people at ICT who have a life outside of quizbowl, and it's easy for those who don't (like me and many people on this forum) to forget that if they don't often deal with such "normal" quizbowl players. (I do, because my entire team is composed of them, but this may not be the case for better teams.)
I have zero sympathy for this position, especially stated in such a condescending matter. Quizbowl tournaments are for playing quizbowl, not for sight-seeing. You can do that on your own time, when doing so doesn't force the rest of us into schedule contortions that involve missing work, lab, and so on (how about that "life outside of quizbowl thing?"). Quizbowl tournaments run the whole day, sure. You're not a child who needs to nap after 5 hours nor are you participating in a strenuous physical activity. You're sitting around pushing buttons on a buzzer system.

As for ACF Nationals being a two-day event, I was under the impression that a large motivator for this was to set up a system in which the top teams would get to play each other more than once.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Cheynem »

Yeah, last year having ICT on Friday night forced me to pay (OUT OF MY OWN POCKET) hundreds of dollars to buy a plane ticket to fly out on Friday as I could not leave Thursday as I was giving a grad school presentation. Even more galling is the fact that the matches on Friday night take up relatively little time--I mean, my team had time to eat a long dinner at Denny's and get lost in Dallas and still get to bed at a pretty decent time after the matches had completed. I hate two day tournaments, in general, so yeah, let's just have this one day.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Auks Ran Ova »

Yeah, I would prefer an all-Saturday schedule; failing that, a Saturday-Sunday schedule would be okay.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by naturalistic phallacy »

Ukonvasara wrote:Yeah, I would prefer an all-Saturday schedule; failing that, a Saturday-Sunday schedule would be okay.
I agree with this.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Captain Sinico »

ValenciaQBowl wrote:...we've always done fine with having Friday day for seeing city highlights and Saturday night for a nice dinner and such...
You... realize you can still do this with a format that doesn't have Friday games, right? In fact,you can do it even moreso.

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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Jesus vs. Dragons »

I have to agree with Borglum on this one. Perhaps it is a bit easier for me to say this because I have no worries about classes on Friday and my trip would be paid for, so I do see where a two day tournament could be a very big inconvenience for those who do face those problems, but a two day tournament is just my personal preference.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by manary »

I, and the rest of Caltech, would prefer Saturday-Sunday. Barring that Fri-Sat is OK. I don't have the stamina to play 12+ quiz bowl hours in a day, and we have to fly out Friday night no matter what to get from the West coast in time, and we would still probably leave Sunday night either way.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Captain Sinico »

I'd prefer Saturday-Sunday, then Saturday-only. I am strongly disinclined to play a Friday-Saturday format, as it would possibly necessitate my missing class and work on Friday.

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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by ValenciaQBowl »

You... realize you can still do this with a format that doesn't have Friday games, right? In fact,you can do it even moreso.
I . . . do, Michelangelo! But as I noted above, my main reason is not the fun travel part but that my players, at least some of them, really do fatigue as we approach 10 hours, and I'm convinced that a one-day ICT will take that long or longer. I understand (and personally, as a player, agree with) Jerry's point that folks are only holding a buzzer, but the fact remains that some people will become mentally drained after a long day of QB. And my players have traditionally complained and not played well after long one-days. Maybe this means they are wusses and explains why so few have continued after Valencia, but it's true nonetheless.

Also, though I hesitate to prolong this, I will note that I'm not sure I agree with the "moreso" part. Getting done on Saturday by 5-ish and being able to go out to a nice dinner and have the tournament behind them and hear about their experiences is a lot of fun, and it feels like a real celebration of the year. I understand that we can just as easily have dinner on Friday night before an all-day Saturday, but I still like what I like. As Ethan stated above, we CCs have fine budgets compared to many of you, though, and I also get that most circuit QB teams are not interested in this type of "celebrating," so I fully understand why so many of you prefer something different.

Once again, we'll be completely fine with a Saturday only or Saturday-Sunday (I like this less, as I personally prefer having Sunday night with my family before early teaching on Monday). We love quizbowl and will play on an ice floe surrounded by angry Arctic otters if need be. We like it so much we'll even go to Marianna, Florida, to play! But given a choice, we'll go with Friday-Saturday and then live with the decision that's made.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

anything but Friday
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by millionwaves »

I prefer Saturday only, then Saturday-Sunday. I would be very disappointed if ICT were to have rounds on Friday.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Terrible Shorts Depot »

Friday night rounds are rough on any team that has to travel a considerable distance (like, say, Carleton!). Missing class is really not something I want to do.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by maxis7 »

In order of preference:

Saturday - Sunday > Friday - Saturday > Saturday only tournament

Not having to take Friday off is something positive but a long slog on Saturday, sure to be made even longer by the need for tiebreaker games, is not something to look forward to. A Saturday-Sunday tournament would be the most preferable.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Mechanical Beasts »

If voting is ever a factor in what happens (as is almost inevitably the case, unless NAQT is not actually interested in the thread), there should certainly be a runoff; I'm sensing that the "no, not Friday!" vote is split especially.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Not That Kind of Christian!! »

Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:If voting is ever a factor in what happens (as is almost inevitably the case, unless NAQT is not actually interested in the thread), there should certainly be a runoff; I'm sensing that the "no, not Friday!" vote is split especially.
This.

(I agree that Saturday-only is vastly preferable, and that having games on Fridays is a very, very poor idea.)
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Gautam »

Not Friday, please. Saturday-Sunday is better than Saturday only, which is several times better than Friday-Saturday. It would be unfortunate if I had to miss Friday classes.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by dtaylor4 »

I too would prefer a Saturday/Sunday or Saturday-only tournament.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Captain Sinico »

In that case, I don't understand, Chris Borglum, why Friday-Saturday is better than Saturday-Sunday for your purposes. It seems to me that I'd prefer actually the latter if I didn't want to play a two-day tournament but was out to maximize my sight-seeing time. You've given the reason of convenience of travel back on Sunday, but, as you have to travel there as well, convenience of travel argues both ways, don't you think?

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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

If the tournament were to be run on Friday night, it would simply be non-negotiable that I would be forced to miss those rounds. I think all of you advocating for Friday night rounds are simply not thinking through to realize that maybe the reason we are advocating for other things than you is because we have less flexibility, and that the fact that you have more flexibility means you are in a better position to help us out by realizing that there are differences and then choosing to go with the schedule that can accommodate the most people within your own flexible schedule, and not to advocate for a schedule that has the potential to ruin the travel plans of many other teams when more reasonable alternates exist. Unless you are using this as a way to maximize your chances of winning by watering down the field strength, which is a viable strategy I suppose, but would be really shitty.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by ValenciaQBowl »

You've given the reason of convenience of travel back on Sunday, but, as you have to travel there as well, convenience of travel argues both ways, don't you think?
For me, no. I like a calm Sunday night at home with my family before the work week. But this is a personal preference, and no effort has been made on my part to suggest it's better than anyone else's preference. However, since it is now being hinted that my choice is being made to make hard-working students miss their classes and labs, or because I'm incapable of understanding the lesser flexibility of other teams or players (despite my best efforts to make clear that I understand the difficulties others face and their reasons for wanting a different schedule), or even that the support of the traditional schedule might be based on a perfidious desire to disenfranchise other teams (despite the fact that the ICT is really just a post-season exhibition for CCs), I'll say no more on the matter and for the fourth time say that we're fine with whatever is decided.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

Crazy Andy Watkins wrote:If voting is ever a factor in what happens (as is almost inevitably the case, unless NAQT is not actually interested in the thread), there should certainly be a runoff; I'm sensing that the "no, not Friday!" vote is split especially.
Right, at this point I care so deeply about preventing rounds on Friday that I'm willing to support either Saturday or Saturday/Sunday. If Friday is ruled out then I'll probably develop a more nuanced opinion.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Captain Sinico »

Well, thanks for explaining things, you perfidious, disenfranchising bastard you.

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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by ValenciaQBowl »

I love you, Mike Sorice, and I don't care who knows it.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Sun Devil Student »

Jeremy Gibbs Free Energy wrote:If the tournament were to be run on Friday night, it would simply be non-negotiable that I would be forced to miss those rounds.
I suppose we should do our best to accomodate anyone with strict Friday schedules, without prying into why Fridays are non-negotiable. While I personally could afford (with a little difficulty) to miss my Friday classes and work, considering that this is *one* time in a whole year, it appears that there are a substantial number of you who can't, not even once, and that it's not just a few people who would have schedule problems with Friday night.

Since the traditional format has apparently been keeping such people from attending part or all of ICT in the past, I would agree that a schedule change to accomodate them is a good thing, and so I would switch my vote to Saturday-Sunday.
grapesmoker wrote:You're not a child who needs to nap after 5 hours nor are you participating in a strenuous physical activity. You're sitting around pushing buttons on a buzzer system.
Well yeah, 5 hours is okay, but if it's *10* hours, that's another matter entirely. And while we may not need to nap, we absolutely do need to eat at regular intervals (don't you?). Also, I apologize for any offense (to Jerry and anyone else); I was speaking for my teammates as a whole, not for myself (and using "life" in the sense of "things not work/school/career-related"; my teammates have very highly developed social lives which I am mostly not a part of). I also would dispute the notion that we are not children, at least deep down inside. I realize that my team feels hunger more acutely than most and that we do not always act especially mature (and maybe even I don't sometimes), and if that is blameworthy, then I really don't have an answer to that. As long as no one questions our sportsmanship, my team does not mind being called out for acting like freshmen... most of them are precisely that. :)

My team needs only two things to be happy:
1) the tournament is over by Sunday around noon, as we have a long flight back and a lot of homework (as do most teams!), and
2) the Saturday portion of the tournament does not go beyond 6pm.

So actually, if NAQT can squeeze 17 rounds plus breakfast and lunch into 8am - 6pm, then go for it, but I suspect that is as impossible as ASU winning both divisions of ICT. However, 12-13 rounds on Saturday and 4-5 rounds on Sunday (or something like that) seems like it should work.

Would that be okay for everyone else? Let's do the best we can.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

Even if many people *can* afford to miss their Friday classes, many would surely prefer not to do so.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Cheynem »

It's not just Friday, either. If ICT is a little ways away, teams might have to leave on Thursday!

Also, as a grad student, missing "one day" is usually unacceptable. Many grad classes meet only once a week, so that's like missing a whole week of classes for a non academic reason. Grad classes also frequently require participation/presentations. Also, many grad students teach, and it's pretty not cool to cancel class/get a "sub" for a non academic reason. In short, this is not just like skipping Freshman Lit for some people.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

Fridays are non-negotiable because I have classes with required attendance on that day, and having had basically the same schedule last year, it is nigh impossible to get from Columbia to a major airport, then fly to whatever site might be hosting the SCT, then make it to the hotel in time for round 1. I should not have to sacrifice a part of my grade so that I can attend the entirety of a quizbowl tournament that has few enough rounds to instead be run on days when all of us don't have classes. And my extremely rushed scenario depends on having the money to fly to the ICT - chances are we don't and would instead have to drive, meaning that we will have no choice but to miss all of our Friday matches because it takes something like 7 or 8 hours to drive to that place ICT is going to be which they keep not announcing.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

Even if, like me, you can skip your Friday (or even Thursday) classes with impunity, it creates unnecessary stress to have games on the evening of what would be a travel day for most teams.

Quizbowl travel disasters happen all the time. When they do, they often tend to be resolved by the end of the travel day in question. If ICT continues to have a Friday/Saturday schedule, we are eventually going to see a contending team screwed over because one or more of its players could not be there on Friday night, due to having a flight delayed or canceled.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Charbroil »

Sun Devil Student wrote: So actually, if NAQT can squeeze 17 rounds plus breakfast and lunch into 8am - 6pm, then go for it, but I suspect that is as impossible as ASU winning both divisions of ICT.
Unless NAQT has changed its ICT schedule, isn't the guaranteed number of rounds 13 rather than 17? Going from last year's results, the most rounds any team played was 16 (DI Harvard A), and that was as a result of having to play both a tiebreaker and the DI Undergraduate final. Thus, the real issue here is whether people mind playing 13 rounds in a single day. I would imagine that they don't, given that HSNCT has 15 rounds on Saturday and I don't think anyone has ever complained about not getting to go out for dinner--assuming ICT can be run on the same schedule as HSNCT, somewhere between two and four teams might have to leave for dinner at 6:30-7:00 while everyone else leaves before 6--hardly a terrible sacrifice, in my mind, for the purpose of not burning through a weekday traveling.
Sun Devil Student wrote: Also, I apologize for any offense (to Jerry and anyone else); I was speaking for my teammates as a whole, not for myself (and using "life" in the sense of "things not work/school/career-related"; my teammates have very highly developed social lives which I am mostly not a part of).
You know, the possession of a social life isn't unique to your teammates, and as you mentioned earlier, ICT is just one weekend, so that whatever disruption to your teammates' social lives which will ensue from a Saturday only tournament should be tolerable.

Speaking of which, do they know you're saying this...
Sun Devil Student wrote:I also would dispute the notion that we are not children...
...about them? Especially given that you're equating being a freshman with being a child, which seems a bit much, in my mind.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by grapesmoker »

If you can be tried as an adult in a court of law, you will be treated as an adult for the purposes of scheduling quizbowl tournaments.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Skepticism and Animal Feed »

I will go so far as to state that regardless of your assumptions about the disposition, maturity, or due respect of the average quizbowler, you can construct a winning argument as to why there should be no ICT rounds on Friday.

It's just THAT bad of an idea, people.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by Sun Devil Student »

Charbroil wrote:
Sun Devil Student wrote: So actually, if NAQT can squeeze 17 rounds plus breakfast and lunch into 8am - 6pm, then go for it, but I suspect that is as impossible as ASU winning both divisions of ICT.
Unless NAQT has changed its ICT schedule, isn't the guaranteed number of rounds 13 rather than 17? Going from last year's results, the most rounds any team played was 16 (DI Harvard A), and that was as a result of having to play both a tiebreaker and the DI Undergraduate final.
NAQT's website write-up about the 2009 ICT described it as 17 rounds, but yeah, most teams wouldn't be playing for all 17. Still, though, even 13 rounds is quite a feat when you have essentially no downtime (lunch doesn't count because you're in a rush to get to a food source, eat, and find your way back in time for the next round).
Charbroil wrote: You know, the possession of a social life isn't unique to your teammates, and as you mentioned earlier, ICT is just one weekend, so that whatever disruption to your teammates' social lives which will ensue from a Saturday only tournament should be tolerable.
I'm not saying otherwise; however, there's a limit to the length of time they can play quizbowl in a day, after which they generally want to go out to dinner and sightsee for a while (and their performance suffers badly if forced to keep playing rounds - not a good thing if those rounds are playoffs!).
Charbroil wrote:you're equating being a freshman with being a child, which seems a bit much, in my mind.
I'm simply admitting that we sometimes don't act mature; they can be perfectly responsible when necessary, but you haven't seen some of their hilarious antics. (I can't be the only person to observe such things among people.) Also, by Jerry's standard, we are children for feeling tired after several hours of pushing buzzers, and if that's the case, I won't deny the truth.

Maybe playing for many years gives you some kind of mental stamina just like exercise gives you physical stamina, so that 10 hours of quizbowl no longer makes you feel tired. I don't know, because I haven't reached that point, nor has anyone else in my organization. Right now, we still suffer from fatigue, which is why we'd prefer not playing more than 10 hours of the tournament on any single day. If your opinion is more important than mine, I accept that, and I will take the performance hit at ICT if that's what works best for the majority, but NAQT wanted to hear opinions, so I offered mine.

Like most of you, I'm planning to play in ICT regardless of the schedule, so I am content to be only one out of many opinions.
Whig's Boson wrote:I will go so far as to state that regardless of your assumptions about the disposition, maturity, or due respect of the average quizbowler, you can construct a winning argument as to why there should be no ICT rounds on Friday.

It's just THAT bad of an idea, people.
Having been persuaded by just such arguments on this thread, I agree entirely.
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Re: ICT schedule discussion

Post by grapesmoker »

Sun Devil Student wrote:Also, by Jerry's standard, we are children for feeling tired after several hours of pushing buzzers, and if that's the case, I won't deny the truth.
My other standards for adulthood include being able to recognize hyperbole deployed for rhetorical effect.

Look you guys, I know people get tired during tournaments and whatnot. I was pretty tired at the end of my both CO and ACF Nationals 2008, that's fine. But some people are making it out like it's some kind of Bataan death march of the mind, when it's really just fairly normal fatigue that isn't really all that bad. We're all big kids here, we can all handle this.
Whig's Boson wrote:I will go so far as to state that regardless of your assumptions about the disposition, maturity, or due respect of the average quizbowler, you can construct a winning argument as to why there should be no ICT rounds on Friday.

It's just THAT bad of an idea, people.
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