Yea, I agree. part of the reason is probably due to SoCal's inability to develop a player capable of dominating HSNCT level lit. Fionaan from SaMo's 05-06 team was the closest we ever got. speaking of that team, they're still in my mind the gold standard of SoCal hs quizbowl. the current set of teams in the SoCal circuit this year also seems to be a little weaker than usual in science, then again I'm also still comparing what I saw last year with the old SaMo duo of Ben and Bennettihavenoidea wrote:Maybe this is a little early, but I don't see anyone from SoCal pulling a 9 - 1 prelim at HSNCT anytime soon.
Sorry for that tangential comment, but perhaps the top teams in SoCal can come to some sort of informal agreement to send only Team B and C regulars to tournaments running A sets. Here's my rationale:
1) Is beating a team on an A set a legitimate indicator of quizbowl ability?
2) Ok, so assuming we have two top teams playing each other... what good is playing on a packet that will pretty much invite buzzer races on every question a la Science Bowl?
3) the clues in A sets have been getting ridiculously transparent at times. Even teams who obtain knowledge by osmosis have a reasonable chance beating a team that would probably destroy them on bonus conversion.
Even though I can't speak for the current situation in Arcadia, I'd imagine our coach will be somewhat hesitant attending ACF (or similar) tournaments.
It's also a nice surprise to see so many new posters from the circuit.