Heyyy I made a Discord post because someone wanted to see an "Everything Wrong with ONCT" thread or whatever, so here it is-- obviously not exhaustive, but it is exhausting:
Personal grudges first:
-I staffed ONCT both days and the trash side event on Friday. Solo. I expected a partner for Sunday, as I was assigned one, but he was moved to a different room. Having one screen and being expected to read, scorekeep, keep the pace, and look for cheating is
ing nuts. Sorry. I felt like
for not being able to really maintain the integrity of quizbowl when being pressured about time in the control room when the real timing mistake was a round miscommunication with the people paying for the tournament.
-Staff problems in general. There was NO vetting, no legit outreach to get more qualified staffers (one of the best Olds in the game didn't even get an offer?) in there, people under the age of 18 staffing (some minors staffing alone, though i know what doubled rooms there were were those with minors), minors expected to handle the heated environment of a nationals tournament (previous point redacted), and technical misconduct from a staffer (resolved), TDs and staff being directed to rooms where there is already an available staffer, no direction for how to handle bikers besides gather evidence discreetly so there ends up being 15 staffers and Admins/TDs in a voicecall with ONE suspected cheater that i think everyone can see if they scroll up? but not join, getting
on by one important person because apparently us staffers suck sometime, when we've been given NOTHING to work with.
General:
-some people who represent aqbl are great and i want to say i'm friends with at least one. i feel so bad, but some of the hubris, defensiveness, and downright UNPROFESSIONAL behavior from the face of an organization is laughable. i'm unprofessional as
, but seeing snide comments and whataboutism when faced with genuine, oft constructive criticism isn't a good look. have some tact. other orgs have done this for a long time for a reason, so
ing on them for trying their best and then having an unfavorable attitude when it's your turn isn't a good look. it alienates people who could help aqbl. we are stronger as a community-- i am tired of the "aqbl against the world" mentality.
-you have good writers. why did you not use them for the nats set? not my concern and also i love the smh people but this was weird.
-the cheating was out of control. this falls back to staff, but yeah. everything that was bad from waiting times to biking allegations to the protest room being undermanned could have been avoided. if you learned from the other organizations instead of roasting them, maybe you would have had the best nationals. who knows?
Insights from others:
-Henry Atkins came through with an excellent post:
"One thing to be aware of is that, contrary to what it may seem, most people in quizbowl are actually willing to cut well-intentioned efforts a lot of slack. People want to see AQBL succeed. The trick is not alienating those who can help by being defensive or combative. If AQBL (or its public face) were to take the attitude to ONCT "yeah our bad, here's how we're going to handle it in the future" from now on, I think they'd see a lot of goodwill and help. There's really no need to self-flagellate or dwell too much beyond that"
i rock with this because I staffed at least 6 AQBL events. i signed up for them and turned down tournaments that paid better throughout the year. legit wanted to see them thrive so badly because quizbowl for more people sounds great! the outreach they've done is great! the retention, i cannot speak for, but that could have been guaranteed without any guesswork if they just kept from burning bridges by being petty against different organizations. i would maybe understand if it was a retaliation, but it was unprovoked. the best thing the public-facing portion of AQBL could have done for months is reflect and remain somewhat professional, maybe even reserved.
-Jack Edmondson came through with a good point as well:
"Did ONCT require chaperones or coaches to be present in calls? I staffed a lot of online events this year and it was always like ten times better when they were there"
maybe it's a different discussion, but THE FINALS WERE LIVESTREAMED ON TWITCH and there was a last-minute ask for parental permission before it happened, which did not need to be confirmed by a parent phone number or email, but the weak honor system of the players typing to confirm. with the cheating problem not curbed by fhd honor code in the discord server, how do we trust this?permission slips for this kind of event in advance is essential, and this disregard is staggering. maybe i'm a loser for getting too hung up over this.
also yeah having guardian/coach supervision is important. i would've felt at ease with an adult in the virtual room to curb players from making comments or posts that aren't sportsmanlike. it's a huge time commitment, but a chaperone puts me in a better mental state.
thanks for bearing with this. sorry for the format :( i-m on mobile uwu