Missouri '07-'08

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Missouri '07-'08

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

Prognostications/discussions on the state of Missouri quizbowl for the next school year.
Charlie Dees, North Kansas City HS '08
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"At one TJ tournament the neg prize was the Hampshire College ultimate frisbee team (nude) calender featuring one Evan Silberman. In retrospect that could have been a disaster." - Harry White
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Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

So that died.

Anyway, my guesses after ACE camp are-
with or without me, NKC can win Class 4 state. However, that may also come down to the question provider. I think at ACE Brandon and Grant both proved themselves pretty well. I think with me it could be a lot easier.

Without me, I expect Savannah to be the overall best team along with in class 3, as I understand Terin was a little miffed at her team's inconsistency. Hopefully they can get out to better tournaments this year, too, which should help them improve. They have a new coach after the legendary Mr. Luce stepped down (although he still will show up at some practices, from what I hear), so we'll see how that affects things. I'm assuming she won't do anything to harm the team because Luce mentored her. I have seen programs go belly up when a coach with no experience takes over, so hopefully Mrs. Ross's yearlong assistant coaching can assuage that.

If I do play, I see no reason why NKC won't be even better than last year.

Richland and Tarkio should make a battle of epic proportions next year at state for class 2 (well, OK, not epic, but evenly matched anyway). However, Richland has yet to lose a championship game (note the inclusion of the word game).

No idea about class 1.

Other teams -
in class 4 - Liberty lost their whole team from last year. They have 2 players to step up who I expect will be good at speed/local formats and then would fall flat on their faces when you hand them a pyramidal question. Kirksville is returning a really good math kid named Ravi Fernando who's only a sophomore, and their captain from last year Laura who I think got lit stuff more than anything else, so they should be competitive at MSHSAA stuff. Ladue lost 2 of their top 3 players last year, and of course their improvement can also depend on how much they actually take their team to. They only went to Wash U and UMR-Fall last year with their A team (and even then they were missing Marc at Wash U) which I think severely limited their playing ability last year. If they come out to 5 or more tournaments this year I could see them making some decent noise, but if they don't, then I expect a repeat of their performance last year (without upsetting NKC this time lol).

-in class 3 - Smithville will have a massive dropoff. They basically graduated their entire team from last year that was very talented, and are moving up a JV team that is mediocre at best. No idea what a darkhorse team like John Burroughs will do either, although they really need to go to more tournaments next year.

-in class 1 - No more TJ. They lost every member of the Kinast dynasty that remained (Nate and the coach Troy) so i doubt they will do much this year.

Now- getting to the matter of quality improvement next year.
I think there will be some small steps forward in getting better and better quizbowl to Missouri. I'm seeing more of a movement with colleges to host some more pyramidal tournaments (GO TO TRUMAN STATE'S TOURNAMENT PEOPLE, ITS OCTOBER 13 AND ACF-ISH). I know I will be doing whatever I can to improve the NKC sets, and there's a little birdie that a couple new NAQT or mACF tournaments are being plotted out in KC and St. Louis, which I love to hear. There were also some increases in pyramidality in MSHSAA style tournaments last year, so I hope there will be even more, thanks to Shawn Pickrell. If he gets the bid, that would probably take the pyramidal stuff up to the next level here. There are also a few more programs that I think are going to increase practicing pyramidal stuff (Savannah jumps to mind, I hope Liberty's coach starts to do more also). However, I still am expecting a LOT of resistence from most coaches. And I'm expecting whenever a pyramidal tournament is held, the average score will be like 100 ppg, which produces even more dislike for the questions I've noticed. That's where an idea Kent and I came up with comes into play - it was mentioned already, but when a Missouri uses a pyramidal set and the scores suck I would love to see the scores if the exact same set were used in some hypothetical east coast tourney so we can show the coaches proof that there are teams who can learn this stuff.

Well, that's enough now.
Charlie Dees, North Kansas City HS '08
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"At one TJ tournament the neg prize was the Hampshire College ultimate frisbee team (nude) calender featuring one Evan Silberman. In retrospect that could have been a disaster." - Harry White
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Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

http://z4.invisionfree.com/Academic_Com ... topic=1570
If the internet says it, then it must be right.
Charlie Dees, North Kansas City HS '08
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"At one TJ tournament the neg prize was the Hampshire College ultimate frisbee team (nude) calender featuring one Evan Silberman. In retrospect that could have been a disaster." - Harry White
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Post by STPickrell »

charlieDfromNKC wrote:http://z4.invisionfree.com/Academic_Com ... topic=1570
If the internet says it, then it must be right.
To explain the joke in the poll: Winnetonka is a team that dropped out of 5-6 tournaments last year and attended perhaps 1 non-MSHSAA event. Their coach doesn't seem to like quizbowl very much.

One tournament IIRC had their assistant coach (who seems to like quizbowl) show up only to find her coach had canceled on her.
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Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

Here's a list of all Missouri tournaments that I know of this year:

In state tournaments announced so far -
Varsity/Open-
11-10-2007 Smithville (near Kansas City) [questions by Bill Luce]
11-10-2007 Hancock HS (near St. Louis)
12-01-2007 University of Missouri-Rolla [House written]
12-01-2007 Lee's Summit North HS (near Kansas City, but seriously, go to Rolla instead)
01-12-2008 Truman HS (Independence, near Kansas City) [questions by Shawn Pickrell]
01-12-2008 Richland HS [questions by Shawn Pickrell]
01-19-2008 North Kansas City HS [House written, with help]
02-02-2008 Washington University (St. Louis) [House Written]
03-15-2008 Savannah HS (near St. Joseph) [questions presumably Bill Luce]
03-29-2008 Lexington HS (east of Kansas City)


Junior Varsity-
11-17-2007 North Kansas City HS [House written i.e. our coach]
12-01-2007 Lee's Summit North HS (near Kansas City, but like I said, go to Rolla)
12-15-2008 Lexington HS (east of Kansas City) [House written]
01-12-2008 Truman HS (Independence) [House written]
02-02-2008 Savannah HS [House written]

Edited to include question sources.
Charlie Dees, North Kansas City HS '08
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"At one TJ tournament the neg prize was the Hampshire College ultimate frisbee team (nude) calender featuring one Evan Silberman. In retrospect that could have been a disaster." - Harry White
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Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

So the first sort-of quizbowl tournament happened today in Missouri. It was the silly Missouri Western State University history bowl in St. Joseph. The teams were NKC, Savannah, Tarkio, St. Pius X, Chillicothe, Excelsior Springs, and somebody else I'm forgetting. Anyway, there were no prelims, it was just a double elimination bracket that had a ton of byes. We didnt play our 1st game until 11 because we were paired with a team that dropped, then we beat St. Pius and Savannah, and at that point we were the only undefeated team so we had to wait from 12 to 3 to let the loser bracket work itself out. Then we beat Savannah again, and somehow won a tournament only playing 3 games. Thank God it was free, or else I would have been really aggravated. But still, winning in 3 games, with the byes? And I haven't even gotten into the questions. The actual games were 8 minute halves where tossups were read and a correct tossup was worth 5 points and would get you a bonus worth 5 points. A neg was also 5 points. About half of the tossups were multiple choice, which makes me angry, and a very large part of them were about things that aren't at all question worthy and were incredibly vague. Of course pyramidality was nonexistent, but that's almost redundant when I say they had multiple choice. Brandon and I (we were the only people who came) hit a point where it was just so bad that we had to go out and laugh in the hallway. Also, there were myriad hoses and "right but wrong" answers that of course punished us. Also, they asked a question that basically was asking for Berlin, and so I answered Berlin, and I was counted wrong because they wanted West Berlin. And then I couldn't protest it because all motions must be made by the coach, and then when my coach said that that was wrong they just said "well, I'm the judge and I'm ruling it, so you can't protest anymore." How dumb. What I found sad is that some of the teams here seemed to think it was a great tournament and such. So I guess this is two-fold:
This tournament was run by a history department without any affiliation to any kind of quizbowl team, and the questions were all written by professors who have no idea that quizbowl shouldn't be "let's ask about things we like" bowl (and they gave a little speech afterwards that confirmed this, since they gave a talk about the "stumpers" that the TD could always tell were written by specific people with focuses in those areas) and have no idea what a good question or tournament structure is. How do we teach these people that what they're doing isn't good, considering they don't understand quizbowl. I guess this same question applies to teachers who start writing quizbowl questions thinking that just using some info from a textbook to make a one-liner will be appropriate even though they have no idea how to really do this game.
Secondly, how do we convince the teams who think this is fun that there is so much more out there in quizbowl that is much more worthwhile to work on then these cruddy events?

Also, the top three were: 1. NKC, 2. Savannah, 3. Tarkio
Charlie Dees, North Kansas City HS '08
"I won't say more because I know some of you parse everything I say." - Jeremy Gibbs

"At one TJ tournament the neg prize was the Hampshire College ultimate frisbee team (nude) calender featuring one Evan Silberman. In retrospect that could have been a disaster." - Harry White
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Post by AKKOLADE »

Deesy Does It wrote:Also, they asked a question that basically was asking for Berlin, and so I answered Berlin, and I was counted wrong because they wanted West Berlin. And then I couldn't protest it because all motions must be made by the coach, and then when my coach said that that was wrong they just said "well, I'm the judge and I'm ruling it, so you can't protest anymore."
Unfortunately for you you got Bryce Avery as your moderator.

Also, was this in a tournament set up or some kind of round robin/swiss pair thing?
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Post by STPickrell »

Deesy Does It wrote:11-10-2007 Hancock HS (near St. Louis)
01-12-2008 Truman HS (Independence, near Kansas City) [questions by Shawn Pickrell]
I'm writing Hancock (Matches #6-11). However this is the first I know that I'm writing Truman; presumably they want me back but this is not yet official.

Hancock is near Saint Louis and they seem open to having out of state teams.

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Post by the return of AHAN »

I'd suggest either not going back and/or writing a letter to the tournament organizers explaining what you didn't like about their tourney, though I'd clear it with your coach, as he may want to bring teams back in the future.
To answer the second part of your question, I'd extend invitations to those other teams to come to your own tournament to show them what you think good quiz bowl is.
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Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

We already do invite those teams to come. It's not my fault if they don't wanna travel an extra hour to NKC from St. Joseph.
Charlie Dees, North Kansas City HS '08
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"At one TJ tournament the neg prize was the Hampshire College ultimate frisbee team (nude) calender featuring one Evan Silberman. In retrospect that could have been a disaster." - Harry White
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Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

Today was the Smithville tournament, which is still going on. I\'ll cross-post my response from the Missouri message board:

I angrily walked out during our 3rd game against Lee’s Summit North. I apologize for spraying soda on the table when I slammed my bottle down. I left because the questions are perfect examples of why Missouri never ever gets better at quizbowl. Now, since around the nation players are demanding that questions should be held to a higher standard I will outline all of the problems I can remember with this set that made me so furious.
The tossups almost never rewarded anything beyond list knowledge of “can you buzz in faster on the one actual clue I’ll give you, which was invariably a giveaway.” In the “pyramidal” quarter often questions would consist of a line or two of clues that didn’t come close to uniquely identifying anybody, followed by the giveaway. The best example that jumps to my mind is the Henry Fielding tossup which more or less went “This 18th century Englishman wrote plays, novels, poems, journalism, and he is famous for writing the book Tom Jones.” However, this whole practice was very, very common. The reason this is bad is because it creates lots of dead space where it is impossible to buzz in and get something right, and then all of a sudden it becomes a buzzer race, thus defeating the purpose of writing tossups to reward the most knowledgeable team. Another problem with the “pyramidal” tossups were that often they would be written “This person was born on [date] and did [funn clue that has nothing to do with why said person is important]. He also did [giveaway].” The Hawthorne and Plath tossups were the best example I can recall of this problem. The reason why this is bad writing is because it does nothing to reward someone who actually knows about an authors works, or a scientist’s importance, or whatever, and I can’t see any reason why a person’s actual importance should not be emphasized over nonsense clues like “he was born on July 4th, 1804, and served as consul in Liverpool.” Instead, why not ask about plot details of some lesser known works of Hawthorne, or maybe some short stories or something that actually deals with why he is important. Another problem was tossups that make a statement in the opening that has nothing to actually do with the question. The best example of this was “John F. Kennedy was the youngest elected president, but who was the youngest president?” I mean, JFK’s status as youngest president has absolutely nothing to do with T. Roosevelt and when I say nothing I mean NOTHING. It is a totally worthless clue that should be replaced with something discussing, I dunno, TR’s policies or actions as a politician before getting into easier clues about him. There were other tossups that just showed lazy writing, or that were really really vague. Examples include one the was basically “They do stuff with calcium ions, and on one end they have an axon and on another end they have lots of dendrites.” At which point I buzz in and say neurons since, last I checked, those clues apply to neurons. Instead the answer they wanted was synapse. That is just bad writing. There were a number of math calculation errors. There were also lots of tossups that just had one clue, or else that were more or less bad list-association quizbowl. The one that sticks out is the one that prompted me to leave, where the tossup is read “What Joseph Conrad novel” and Lee’s Summit North buzzes in with “Heart of Darkness” and is right. This is just awful because 1) there is absolutely nothing in there to say it is actually Heart of Darkness, like, there were 0 uniquely identifying clues, and 2) Conrad wrote a ton of askable novels. So basically I was penalized for knowing that the answer could be a number of things while the other team goes “hurf nrr Joseph Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness” and gets it because it is a little more famous then his other stuff. This is the kind of quizbowl that teams played in 1990, and is a sad statement of just how truly behind the curve Missouri is because this is a “good” tournament here. The only sort-of highlight were the worksheets, which did actually reward some obscure knowledge. I guess I am going to be the big vocal character about this, but if your tournament offers a really crappy product then I am going to call you out and hold you to a higher standard, and that’s what I’m doing here. Yes my behavior was awful, but it was only a mirror of how frustratingly awful these questions were (made worse by the fact that I have slept for 4 hours in the past 2 days). But if you aren’t going to go through the effort to actually write questions that reward the most knowledgeable team in a game (which last I checked was the main focus of quizbowl) then I will be angry, call you out, and vote for change with my feet.
Charlie Dees, North Kansas City HS '08
"I won't say more because I know some of you parse everything I say." - Jeremy Gibbs

"At one TJ tournament the neg prize was the Hampshire College ultimate frisbee team (nude) calender featuring one Evan Silberman. In retrospect that could have been a disaster." - Harry White
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Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

Smithville's results -
1. Savannah
2. NKC
3. Liberty
4. Lee's Summit North

Congratulations to my teammates for still pulling off 2nd place to the team who's coach wrote the questions. That was the other problem I had with the tournament, that Savannah's coach was writing the questions and that their players know all about how to decipher those questions. I have seen it firsthand where Savannah kids buzz in and get a tossup right before any actual clue is read because "that's how Mr. Luce always writes questions on [answer]."
Charlie Dees, North Kansas City HS '08
"I won't say more because I know some of you parse everything I say." - Jeremy Gibbs

"At one TJ tournament the neg prize was the Hampshire College ultimate frisbee team (nude) calender featuring one Evan Silberman. In retrospect that could have been a disaster." - Harry White
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Post by ieppler »

Deesy Does It wrote:I angrily walked out during our 3rd game against Lee’s Summit North. I apologize for spraying soda on the table when I slammed my bottle down.
I really, really hope you did something like this.
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Post by Ford08 »

So this might be a little old now but class 2 will come down to who ever team wins the southwest.
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Re: Missouri '07-'08

Post by Khalil Khayyam »

Is Savannah still hosting a tournament?
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Re: Missouri '07-'08

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

Yeah, it's this Saturday. NKC isn't going due to the fact it's spring break and nobody on our team felt a compelling reason to wake up early for that particular tournament since we could be working, traveling, or chilling at home.
Charlie Dees, North Kansas City HS '08
"I won't say more because I know some of you parse everything I say." - Jeremy Gibbs

"At one TJ tournament the neg prize was the Hampshire College ultimate frisbee team (nude) calender featuring one Evan Silberman. In retrospect that could have been a disaster." - Harry White
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Re: Missouri '07-'08

Post by Khalil Khayyam »

Thank you.
Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise
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Re: Missouri '07-'08

Post by Maxwell Sniffingwell »

Er... why isn't this in Comparisons?
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Re: Missouri '07-'08

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

Fred moved it here months ago for some reason.
Charlie Dees, North Kansas City HS '08
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"At one TJ tournament the neg prize was the Hampshire College ultimate frisbee team (nude) calender featuring one Evan Silberman. In retrospect that could have been a disaster." - Harry White
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Re: Missouri '07-'08

Post by dragonman »

Does anybody have results for the Hancock tournament in November?
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Re: Missouri '07-'08

Post by NKCtrashman »

For any of you non-Missouri folks here are the results from todays and yesterdays MSHSAA State Championships:

Class 4: 1st-North Kansas City (6th State Championship)
2nd-Kirksville
3rd-Ladue
4th-Eureka
Class 3: Ist-Notre Dame(Cape Girardeau)
2nd-Priory
3rd-Savannah
4th-Hallsville
Class 2: 1st-Richland (12th State Chhampionship)
2nd-Plattsburg
3rd-Schuyler County
4th-Purdy
Class 1: 1st-Thomas Jefferson Independent
2nd-St. Joseph Christian
3rd-Pilot Grove
4th-North Shelby

Full results can e found here: http://www.mshsaa.org/Activities/Info/A ... ition.aspx
Brandon Roney

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State Champs 07, 08, 09
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Re: Missouri '07-'08

Post by Tegan »

Congrats to NKC et. al.
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Re: Missouri '07-'08

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

First off, congratulations to all the teams, all staters, etc. The field seemed very generally competitive, and something I was struck by was the balance of players on a lot of teams (it seemed like there were a lot of teams where 2 or more players were getting a substantial number of points, which led to interesting all state performances). That said, you all knew it was coming, so here's my write-up:
The questions – I was disappointed by the quality of about half of the questions for the day. I don’t remember all of them specifically, but I remember a lot of general problems with them. The most frustrating problem was bizarre answer selection. The worst offender was your pop culture and general knowledge categories, where things like “corkscrews,” naming fast food chains, Akira (I don’t care what you say, that is not “classic” pop culture), a tossup on “Commercial Drivers licenses,” and all kinds of other bizarre things that are not enjoyable to answer. Another problem is that it seemed like 20% of the set was written to be at a level where nobody could have any shot of answering the questions. I mean, Jesus, a bonus about the Brontes where you ask for an individual character from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. That’s a horrible idea, and what’s really crappy is that 2 or 3 other parts were really hard too in the same bonus. There were really inconsistent bonuses like that, which is just a bad idea. Your pop culture was horrible – it mostly seemed geared towards entertaining the parents in the room who remember these things from when they were kids. Do you know why that’s stupid? Because the parents aren’t playing, their kids are. Write about things that the field, not the audience, could be prone to answering. I don’t remember a single question on rap or anything that made the top 40 in the last, oh, 10 years. Actually, I don’t really remember any questions about pop culture from the last decade, you know, the stuff that kids have the best chance of knowing. Now, don’t take this the wrong way, there is plenty of answerable stuff from all the way back to the 50s, like major figures in popular music, or good movies that have stood the test of time, but limiting to that is just as bad as limiting yourself to post 1990. The questions were very poorly distributed. In round 2 I remember everyone on our team commenting that, after math just kept coming up over and over again, that it seemed to impossible to kid ourselves that the match fit the 20% math requirement. There were other problems, like the final game where there was literally a tossup labeled “literature” with the answer “Nicholas Sparks.” I don’t think I really have to explain why that isn’t anything but pop culture. Also, there was a lot of buzzer chicken going on all day, like the Al Capone lateral thinking nonsense (hmm, Valentine’s day he was in Miami, are you kidding me?). There were certainly acceptable questions thrown into the set, but I think your sets need to be severely overhauled in the pop culture distribution, eliminate the “classic” pop culture distribution (or if you insist, don’t put things that have nothing to do with it in there, like identifying soda brands, some of which were invented in the last 10 years), the general knowledge, and they need to be much more stringently categorized. On top of that, you need to write things that have a shot of getting answered and not ramming your own personal preferences of John Wayne films and pride of Virginia down our throats, among other difficulty problems. Also, I really have a problem with a foreign language bonus requiring you to conjugate a French verb 4 different ways. That’s just really unfair to any team that does not have the chance to learn French, especially since Spanish I think is more commonly taken. If you absolutely must have that crap, at least allow for some points from multiple languages.
The tournament direction – I really must say, MSHSAA state is one of the most unenjoyable tournaments I attend, and I can’t really say I’m sad to be done with that phase of my playing. I find the match length to be excruciatingly long, and simply find the number of games unacceptable for determining a state champion. This is the most important tournament of the year people, actually show some interest in maximizing the number of games and minimizing the chance to get fluke results. This means getting rid of top 4 single elimination and doing some form of either double elimination or playoff pool, and I am fully convinced that this is the the only reason Savannah didn't win their class since there's no real way to say that they aren't the best class 3 team. I also find some of the staffing to be subpar. I’m really calling out my room for the Hickman game here in round 2. I know he is a “legend of the game” or some thing like that, but when he can’t properly hear an incorrect answer and his reading and general management of the match is so slow that it forces the game to be an hour and a half long, good God, he has no business being allowed to moderate at state. I really think there should be an implementation to certify state approved moderators to make sure that they don’t cause crazy delays like he did. Specifically I remember him accepting “Casey at Bat” instead of “Casey at the bat,” which I protested and explained was wrong. Fortunately Hickman’s captain did the right thing and admitted his error, because I’m pretty sure this moderator was about to turn me down on the basis that he had heard “the.” Then, instead of just giving NKC the 5 points and settling it because we clearly just demonstrated knowledge of the answer, he insisted on reading us a replacement 5 points at the end of the game once all the other protests had been resolved. Now how silly. When I said back to him that I didn’t understand why we couldn’t just have the points I then got yelled at by his wife for arguing with a moderator’s ruling, which is also absurd. At the beginning of the match, this duo made a big deal about how each team was supposed to have brought spotters and somewhat chastised us for not being prepared, and then ridiculously insisted on switching them at the half. What kind of stupid rule is that? Sounds like something from a Football Coach! Anyway, I felt like the tournament in general was a farce run by said football coaches with no actual interest in focusing on good quizbowl , and I can only say I’m glad I never have to play that again, and can only hope for change to come soon.
Charlie Dees, North Kansas City HS '08
"I won't say more because I know some of you parse everything I say." - Jeremy Gibbs

"At one TJ tournament the neg prize was the Hampshire College ultimate frisbee team (nude) calender featuring one Evan Silberman. In retrospect that could have been a disaster." - Harry White
Tegan
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Re: Missouri '07-'08

Post by Tegan »

Deesy Does It wrote:Your pop culture was horrible – it mostly seemed geared towards entertaining the parents in the room who remember these things from when they were kids. Do you know why that’s stupid? Because the parents aren’t playing, their kids are. Write about things that the field, not the audience, could be prone to answering. I don’t remember a single question on rap or anything that made the top 40 in the last, oh, 10 years.
CDfNKC,

These questions are from a standpoint of ignorance. I wasn't there, I've never seen a Missouri match. In short: I know nothin':

1. In Missouri, is "Classic Pop Culture" an established category or subcategory, or in a given year is it expected that the writer will write to a particular category like this?

2. Is there supposed to be a "distribution" with in pop culture and miscellaney as such?

Deesy Does It wrote:When I said back to him that I didn’t understand why we couldn’t just have the points I then got yelled at by his wife for arguing with a moderator’s ruling, which is also absurd.
Was this woman an official of the match? If she wasn't that was brutally unprofessional!
Deesy Does It wrote:At the beginning of the match, this duo made a big deal about how each team was supposed to have brought spotters and somewhat chastised us for not being prepared, and then ridiculously insisted on switching them at the half.
I have to ask: what is a "spotter"? I thought I would have heard just about everything, but I do not understand the meaning of this position?

Deesy Does It wrote:What kind of stupid rule is that? Sounds like something from a Football Coach! Anyway, I felt like the tournament in general was a farce run by said football coaches with no actual interest in focusing on good quizbowl , and I can only say I’m glad I never have to play that again, and can only hope for change to come soon.
All I have to say is, that's a damn shame! There's no reason for states to do this to players. Illinois has improved some, but still has a ways to go. It seems like Missouri has even longer to go, and likely for the same reason:
1. Either old farts who fear change, or
2. Those representing the weak and/or lazy who see the need to keep stronger teams in check.

You have my sympathies. The only thing I can say: Do what you can to work the system -- find those like you and do what you can to start changing the system .... as you become a tax payer, influence the administrators to make changes ... insist that your local teams get on board. Serve as a moderator .... see if you can get into a position of influence .....

Best of luck to you!
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Re: Missouri '07-'08

Post by Byko »

Tegan wrote:You have my sympathies. The only thing I can say: Do what you can to work the system -- find those like you and do what you can to start changing the system .... as you become a tax payer, influence the administrators to make changes ... insist that your local teams get on board. Serve as a moderator .... see if you can get into a position of influence .....

Best of luck to you!
Well said, Tom. Change takes LOTS of time and is often unrecognized and unrewarded--in fact, it may frequently feel like you're accomplishing nothing at all. Build up some patience, and maybe you can help make things better. You have good intentions--that's important to start.
Dave Bykowski
Furman '00
Michigan '02
PACE 1998-2009
Director, JROTC National Academic Bowl Championship
Tegan
Coach of AHAN Jr.
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Re: Missouri '07-'08

Post by Tegan »

Deesy Does It wrote:In Missouri the official rules dictate that there is an official in the match who's entire responsibility is to recognize the player who buzzed in and reset the buzzer. That's the spotter, and it's a massive waste of human resources.
YHTBFKM! :shock:

Charlie, I bow to the champion .... whenever I think how far we have to go in Ilinois, I will realize that there is at least one state that has miles further to go.

I extend an open invitation ..... you're always welcome on the right side of the Mississippi!

And best of luck in college ..... saying the obvious, you've got true talent for this, and some college team is going to be lucky to have you aboard.
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Re: Missouri '07-'08

Post by AKKOLADE »

For those looking for the discussion of pop culture subjects, head over to this thread.
Fred Morlan
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