"Unsporting" attempts to delay the game

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"Unsporting" attempts to delay the game

Post by naan/steak-holding toll »

Split from the "prompting on bonuses" thread --JTH
NAQT rules wrote:so long as it is not done in an unsporting attempt to delay the game.
Not to derail this thread, but does NAQT have other guidelines about "unsporting" attempts to delay the game? Game-delaying is a very common strategy in NAQT formats, and it's even cost my team games before. Does NAQT see this in general as "unsporting" behavior or simply another facet of their format?
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Re: "Unsporting" attempts to delay the game

Post by Important Bird Area »

In general, we believe that delay strategies using methods specifically allowed by the rules (notably: taking all five seconds on bonus parts; waiting until the end of a tossup after the other team negs and then waiting a second to buzz in) are "sporting" attempts to delay the game.

Our rules I.10 and K.2 also make provision for "unsporting" attempts to delay the game. For obvious reasons, they are extremely rare; consider the case of giving very lengthy full titles with less than a minute left on the clock.
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Re: "Unsporting" attempts to delay the game

Post by jonpin »

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea wrote:Split from the "prompting on bonuses" thread --JTH
NAQT rules wrote:so long as it is not done in an unsporting attempt to delay the game.
Not to derail this thread, but does NAQT have other guidelines about "unsporting" attempts to delay the game? Game-delaying is a very common strategy in NAQT formats, and it's even cost my team games before. Does NAQT see this in general as "unsporting" behavior or simply another facet of their format?
Unsporting here, I believe, means outside of the rules of the game. Waiting to be prompted on bonuses is within the rules; shouting "yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah" after you get a bonus part or ranting about an incorrect answer while the clock is running in a way that prevents the next question from being started would be unsporting.
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Re: "Unsporting" attempts to delay the game

Post by mtn335 »

Some of these are specifically called out elsewhere in the rules; I didn't go look to get the rule number, but one example is repeated requests for time-out at the wrong time, or after a team has already called time-out.
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Re: "Unsporting" attempts to delay the game

Post by Steeve Ho You Fat »

From a moderator's point of view, what should we do if we have Chris Webber in our room?

That is, what if a team that's already used its timeout is down by less than a tossup and says timeout with :03 or less on the clock - as a moderator in that scenario, my instincts are to stop the clock immediately, which causes the scenario where I probably wouldn't have announced the points on the bonus, read "Tossup XX", and turned the page before the clock expires. Do I just arbitrarily make some cutoff, at some few seconds, where if a team does that I tell them they shouldn't have and declare the game over without reading another tossup? Neg the team that tried to do that, then read the tossup to the other team? This scenario hasn't come up for me in a timed tournament, but I bet it has come up at some point.
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Re: "Unsporting" attempts to delay the game

Post by jonpin »

If that happened to me, and I stopped the clock, upon realizing that team did not have a timeout remaining, I would restart the clock, say "you already used your timeout", conclude any business from the previous bonus, and proceed. If the clock expired during that, so be it. If a team that's leading tried to pull that kind of stunt to make me run out the clock while chastising them, I would do that stuff with the clock stopped, resume with the next tossup, and probably report unsportsmanlike behavior. It's fairly simple to keep track of "yes, they have called a timeout / no, they haven't", though, so I probably would just not stop the clock and say "You already used it. Next tossup."
Also worth keeping in mind at NAQT events is one of the catch-all rules:
NAQT Rule K.4 wrote:Instances of misconduct may result in sanctions to be determined by the tournament director. These sanctions include, but are not limited to, suspension of a participant from one or more matches, loss of game(s) for a team, score or clock adjustment, or expulsion of an entire team from the tournament.
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Re: "Unsporting" attempts to delay the game

Post by Important Bird Area »

Note that authority to carry out a clock adjustment rests with the TD.
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Re: "Unsporting" attempts to delay the game

Post by Charlie and Lolcat »

If timeout usage becomes an issue that potentially creates an unsporting delay, perhaps the moderator or scorekeeper should denote "TO" beside each team's running score on the scoresheet to properly document when a timeout was used, and the sheet can thus serve as a reference in case a team tries to use a timeout it no longer has.
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Re: "Unsporting" attempts to delay the game

Post by Important Bird Area »

The most recent version of the NAQT scoresheet indeed has a checkbox to indicate whether or not a team has used its timeout.
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"I wish to make some kind of joke about Jeff's love of birds, but I always fear he'll turn them on me Hitchcock-style." -Fred
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