Coachean Life

I bow to CP's higher knowledge of numbers. I'm sure these numbers, which he provides, are correct:

Percentage of 1-off judges at Lexington: 8.46%
Percentage of 1-offs at Columbia: 8.33%

Hoewever, I'm also sure these numbers, which I provide, are correct:

13 of round 5 Lex in-competition pairings are not mutual.
1 of round 5 Col in-competition pairings is not mutual.

Hmmm. Given that his non-mutuals can have a span of 12, versus my mutuals with a span of 9, and no reason not to believe a standard distribution, well, I'm not convinced in any direction. It's not that I fail to see his point, but I think he's grabbing all his benefits and ignoring all his harms.

Anyhow, this points to a bigger issue, that I just don't have time to get into yet, which he introduced in his discussion of preffing, and to which he alluded in his reference on his site to the numbers of people who preffed at these two tournaments. I don't think he'll disagree that there is a big difference in the way various teams approach (or don't approach) MJP, aside from the predictable differences of the various circuit teams with their own idiosyncracies. A tournament needs to serve everyone who shows up, while still tilting toward the best possible competition rewarding the best debating at the tournament. If we're going to develop best practices, they actually do need to be the best. And if best practices are actually a set of possibilities rather than one specific practice, the differences need to be articulated clearly. Frankly, I feel that this back-and-forth is helping articulate the issues, at least to me (and since I'm the one harping on the idea of best practices, that's a good thing). CP makes very good, instructive points. One that he hasn't made yet that needs to be remembered is that a tournament is what the tournament director says it is. Lex is strikingly popular (including with me), so I'm not arguing right or wrong here, I'm just comparing scenarios. Until I understand them completely, CP's work is not finished.