Cluster whats?

Teal queries: “Why are name changes problematic for the tabroom staff? I mean, if the offending team does them online (isn't it just changing a digital A somewhere for a digital B and doesn't really affect anything)? I ask with genuine curiosity and admitted large ignorance.”

First of all, when a tournament registration is open online, people are free to do whatever they want, and can change name, sex, religion, date of birth, mother’s maiden name—no problem. When the registration closes, as in, fees are set and it’s the last stretch before the tournament, tournament directors are doing things like passing along the housing list, buying enough food, setting up enough rooms, etc. Some of these things, like the housing, require a name and sex to be fixed; and in general, one’s time these last few days is spent doing important things. If a team is going to a tournament that has been announced ages ago, that the school attends on the same weekend year after year, it is not much to ask that the team sort itself out by a reasonable deadline. I honestly have other things to do. The fines for changes between the deadline and the tournament exist to get people to stop making these annoying changes rather than to collect any money from them. As I say, I’ve got other things to do, as does anyone running a tournament with three or four hundred people on the way.

As for any change at the table or during the tournament, this actually becomes very counterproductive. At registration, I have to move the entire tournament from out of their buses and into the computer in half an hour. Name changes slow down the entire tournament, resulting in housing assemblies shifting from 10 to 10:30 or later, people getting to their hotels at 11:00, etc. The effect is exponential, and must be avoided. After registration at the table is closed down, I want my tab staff concentrating on pairing correctly with the right judges, and doing so quickly. They do not need the distraction of changing names when they are learning that a strike didn’t get entered or that a judge is unavailable for round 3. Tabbing may look easy to those who don’t do it. I do it every week. It’s fun, but it’s not easy, otherwise it wouldn’t take two or sometimes three of us to do it correctly.

All we are asking is that people respond accurately with their information by a reasonable deadline. In return, we will provide an efficient, well run tournament. Without that accurate information, on competitors and judges both, that efficient, well run tournament becomes extremely elusive. Having attended both efficient, well run tournaments and clusterfarts (nice turn of phrase there), I can assure you that the former are definitely preferable.