Bump bumped, etc.

I’ve been trying to fill up the weekends with various entertainments as the summer draws to a close, being that, in not too many weeks, my weekends will be exclusively filled up with the entertainment of debate. This last was a pretty nice weekend weather-wise; it would have been a shame to waste it.

I did carve out a little time to set up this year’s Bump, though. Updated the invitation, which is mostly just deciding which jokes can stay and which ones have to go, and throwing in a few new ones for the regulars who come every year so that they won’t stop showing up because invitation isn’t funny anymore. I figured out the trophy order and got that ready for my trophy guy. I had already set things up for tabroom.com, but I’ll certainly be going over it with the proverbial f.t.c. before it goes live in October.

Although I’ve seen no official notification of it (the TOC website is half this year and half last year), I gather that Bump is now a semis qualifier in LD, down from quarters. The thing is, we really don’t have much of a national draw, as we used to in the old December slot, and therefore don’t really fit into the parameters of the quarters qualifier anymore, or at least that’s the official line. From my perspective, tabbing various tournaments at various levels, I sort of have to agree that, for whatever reason, we are not at that quarters level. I mean, witness Yale, with its national draw and almost 50% larger field. On pure math alone, we’re not there. To be honest, I’ve been expecting this change for a long time, and was neither surprised by it nor upset by it. At best we’re on the cusp, and our claim at a semis bid is pretty unshakeable given the quality of the enterprise, but I’d be hard-pressed to defend quarters. I feel bad for the hit that the region takes by losing these bids, which as far as I know have not gone elsewhere locally. Granted Bronx will have a newly coined octos bid, but it is not the equivalent of our lost bids, as that is far and away a national tournament with virtually no regional aspects, aside from the fact that it’s in the region. To call it a northeast tournament would be to call Emory a southern tournament. In other words, I’m not storming through the halls shouting, “Curse you, Jon Cruz!” (At least, not because of this.) Anyhow, I don’t think it will effect the tournament much, and we’ll probably have our same numbers, and maybe a little more with the addition of the novice PF event. To paraphrase Richard Sodikow, I don’t run my tournament as an entry for somebody else’s tournament. That is a good rule to live by, both as a tournament director and as a tournament goer. You are at the tournament you are at. That is the only one that matters.

And needless to say, I won’t be asking for case disclosure. This year.

Meanwhile, of course, the September/October topic has hit the streets. Oh, well. I have nothing against it, considering that it’s among the most important international issues that we face, although the wording is a little coarse (and there will be those seventeen really clever yabbos who run Arkansas vs Wyoming). I sympathize with those regions who don’t have the Modest Novice, who can now skip virtually all elementary LD and go straight to one very specific issue. ModNov is the best thing we ever did, period, but I’ll try to do my best not to break my arm patting myself on the back. Life is what you make it.