Tomorrow I head off to the City of Brotherly Love. (I just
looked this up: adelphos is Greek for brother. So there.)
The VCA knows this, but if you’re a new recruit, you might
find it interesting. For a long time Penn was a tournament in need of a weekend.
When I first started out, it was in September, and I remember roaming the
campus and eating at food trucks and lolling about in the sun. And, of course,
judging. Then it was in the winter, I think, and then it was on Monticello
weekend, and I have a strict rule of never attending a college tournament when
there’s a high school tournament available (or, when the team was big,
attending both but never the former over the latter), so I lost track of the
Brotherly Lovers as they scuttled around the calendar. The thing is, there are
claimed weekends and teams are tied to attendance at these weekends, and there
you are (as Emory recently learned in their very public spanking). You may be
the nicest people in the world, but you simply can’t break in where someone
else already is. Weekends should not be wars of competing tournaments: no one
wins in that sort of situation.
Still, Penn was a tournament built to support its efforts
working with local high schools, as compared to stuffing its pockets for its
own gain. Not that there’s anything wrong with making a profit in a tournament,
or for that matter, a college making a profit off the high school community;
you need to know where the draw the line with your Cap Bad arguments. So Penn
was a more-honorable-than-thou operation, and when CP got involved with them,
the idea was floated that there could be a niche for them on Presidents’
Weekend. Think about it. There are a few extremely big tournaments on the left
and right coasts, and there was no way that another tournament would draw away
from these. It wasn’t going to be a battle royal for the same people. It would
offer an alternative, primarily to those who might consider going to
Harvard and ultimately decide agin' it. And given that Harvard packs them in in the mightiest of numbers, it
wouldn’t hurt that tournament in the slightest. Were there people who weren’t
going to Harvard that would come to Penn?
The answer was slow in coming, but it did come. There was
indeed a market for another Right Coast tournament on Presidents’ Weekend. PF,
which had already been a Penn speciality, was the first to break out. We’re
going to be in that lovely 165 neighborhood this weekend, with a Quarters bid.
LD, with a recently acquired Finals bid, is at a nothing-to-sneeze-at 88. And
there’s Parli and Policy and very competitive IEs and 5 divisions of Congress.
The job has been done. Penn is one of the places to be this weekend.
One nice thing about the tournament: a hanging-out building
with a healthy food court and a great creperie. All the rounds are within
reasonable walking distance of that central building. And it’s two days rather
than three, although, granted, those are pretty busy days. Amazingly enough,
Penn has classes on Presidents’ Day. Go figure. I guess since Ben F wasn’t a
President himself, they just say screw it and get on with business. I guess
they do get time off for British Postmasters’ Day, whenever the hell that is.
CP, before he became an insufferable albeit loveable curmudgeon blaming me
for everything that doesn’t work in tabroom.com, did an incredible job of
normalizing college tournaments. Prior to his work behind the scenes, the
college tournaments that I now work were a risky bet at best. Thanks to him,
they now run like clockwork (or at least as much like clockwork as a tournament
can). I think it’s important to remember that credit should be given where
credit is due.
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