I would caution viewing the lack of teams from the Northwest as some kind of failing on their part. Maybe some research needs to be done to see if teams that are qualified are choosing not to attend. Maybe it should be figured out why teams are making the choice to not attend. I can think of some teams in the Northwest that have clearly chosen not to attend. Maybe we should ask ourselves why they have made that choice instead of judging them for that choice. I would point out that a similar thing has been happening in the south.
They weren’t prepared for the regional tournament by playing on the same nonpyramidal OAC questions multiple times, and I will argue till my dying breathe on that point.
My point is the lack of playing OAC during the year disincentivizes teams to go to OAC regionals and learn another format for one tournament. I will admit that I hear from coaches that don’t want to teach their players another format just for regionals.
I am not surprised about the Sidney thing. I figured it was something like that. It still points to the fact that I’m not sure that winning regionals by itself mean a whole lot. They don’t get you the best 12 teams.
I literally was just basically saying it sucks there aren't any other participants in the northwest to help fill that region, nothing more.
I also want to point out that I got blasted on twitter by a choice few people earlier this year for writing nonpyramidal OAC questions. I would basically agree with this point for the most part, but every time a league hires me, I ask them (and try to convince them) to order pyramidal tossups and lightning round questions and they always refuse. "We prefer shorter 1 or 2 line questions please" is what I typically hear. I'm not going to refuse to write their questions because they don't want pyramidal questions. I'd rather kids play some kind of quizbowl with short questions but good content than no quizbowl at all.
I would also agree with this. I think my first year on the committee, we flirted with the idea of running a fall tournament. When that didn't come to fruition, I wrote my OAC fall set and tried to get a mirror for each region and nobody would run it other than Tom at OSU. It was a pretty solid set for the most part and the fact I couldn't get any other mirrors to happen was really frustrating and part of the reason I stopped writing the tournament after 2 years of trying.
I've been involved since 1999 and unfortunately, I can't remember a year when the best 12 (or 10 or 8 back in the day) teams were the ones that made it to Columbus. Its an unfortunate consequence of the way the regionals are set up. If you try to seed teams to send them to certain regions for that to happen, you'd have lots of teams refusing to play because they'd have to travel much further than what would seem logical.
ThePocketProtector wrote:My point is the lack of playing OAC during the year disincentivizes teams to go to OAC regionals and learn another format for one tournament.
ThePocketProtector wrote: I will admit that I hear from coaches that don’t want to teach their players another format just for regionals.
ThePocketProtector wrote:This was more the case when “0-2 then barbeque” was a strong possibility. That isn’t the fault of them playing NAQT questions. They weren’t prepared for the regional tournament by playing on the same nonpyramidal OAC questions multiple times, and I will argue till my dying breathe on that point. Would maybe more play in OAC regionals if they were still playing nonpyramidal OAC in league?
BobKilner wrote:I am not surprised about the Sidney thing. I figured it was something like that. It still points to the fact that I’m not sure that winning regionals by itself mean a whole lot. They don’t get you the best 12 teams.
I've been involved since 1999 and unfortunately, I can't remember a year when the best 12 (or 10 or 8 back in the day) teams were the ones that made it to Columbus. Its an unfortunate consequence of the way the regionals are set up. If you try to seed teams to send them to certain regions for that to happen, you'd have lots of teams refusing to play because they'd have to travel much further than what would seem logical.
ThePocketProtector wrote:I don’t think it is your job to educate them. I feel like people in the OAC committee that do not have a business relationship with them should work on educating them. If I do it, then I am just a random guy with an axe to grind. I can’t really say that they would be wrong. If people from the committee would make real efforts, I think things could change. The problem is that the people in charge don’t really understand quiz bowl in any meaningful way. Teach them. It can’t be me, because, come on, who is going to listen to me. Someone, please step up to the plate and try.
NE
1. Copley
2. Hoban
NC
1. Solon
2. Aurora or WRA
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