MLafer wrote:charlieDfromNKC wrote:Wow, they got zeroed by a team that went 3-7 (DuBois Area) and got zeroed themselves by Eden Prairie B. There is a certain level of teams who attend HSNCT that are so bad that I want to know why they even came in the first place. Does anybody else wonder this? I know it's incredibly rude, but it begs asking.
Agreed, it's like if some high schoolers tried to play the Chicago Open
Difference there being I make myself fully aware of how hard the question are going to be, and that the competition will be immensely difficult. However, I should also point out that I'm the only high schooler on the team.
And don't give me anything about "coaches know what they're up against." We played Porter Consolidated (who attended HSNCT) at U Tulsa's tournament. While we played their B team so it is expected that they wouldn't be as good, we still gave an awful beating. Afterwards, their coach said to us "I had no idea any team could be
that good." (I should note that we aren't
that good, we just had the most NKC-friendly packet of the day because we got a ton more powers). And they attended nationals, and if they had no clue in the world anyone was as good as us, then they certainly had no clue that anyone could be SOOO much better than us (cough Maggie Walker). I severely doubt these teams truly practice on National level questions, and if they do there must be something not getting through that they need to learn this stuff to do well.
Another point of this is that, while it is good to get exposure, there is a certain level at which losing and being clueless yet still going to the top events ceases all effectiveness. Case in point - when I joined NKC's quizbowl team at the end of my freshman year they were basically the worst team NKC's ever had, a very far cry from the 4 time state champions led by Mike and Andy Wehrman. I came in to practice and massacred these players on my very first day, and I wasn't even good then. With these players, there got to be a point where practices only benefited me because they couldn't compete with the n00b and they ceased to care. These players were mostly juniors and almost none of them came back the next year. Also, I should note that they hardly won anything the entire season and in speaking with them they lost any motivation to improve with that bad a performance. I would be shocked if the same doesn't apply here.