In which we mull over the NYCFL Kristmas Klassik

NYCFL tournaments are pretty well-tooled, at this point. We could fit four rounds into the day, but the membership prefers three rounds, and even though their preference is screwy in my mind, it is the membership that drives the structure, not the all-knowing tab person. We get everyone checked in by 9:00. I give opening remarks at 9:30. Rounds are at 10 and 12, then there’s a half hour break for the judges to chow down, and another round at around 2:30 or so. Awards around 5:00, and there you are.

Unfortunately, the wifi at Regis isn’t robust enough to handle e-ballots, but so it goes. The CFLs at Regis have become the only paper tournaments left on my agenda, and there’s something warm and cozy about them. Given the fact that the judge pool is mostly fairly inexperienced parents or fairly inexperienced student judges, paper ballots aren’t the worst thing in the world. Not learning the whole E thing is one less thing for them to worry about. Not that the whole E thing is particularly complicated, but noobs perceive of it as complicated when added to the rest of the judging business, and the perception is all that is needed to make it real. 

Part of the well-tooling of the event is the mishaps. We will not be able to find judges who are hiding in plain sight, either filling their pie holes in the judges’ lounge or hogging a debating space taking six days to write a two-sentence RFD. (Which will, BTW, be “Both sides were excellent. Pro was more persuasive.”) A half dozen students will come to the registration desk and ask where to sign in, and I’ll tell them to talk to their coaches. Parent judges will try to check in with me, mostly because I’ll be looking relatively official. The idea that schools are responsible for their teams and their judges always proves elusive. I’m not quite sure why. You print a list of your people from tabroom, you check off the names when they arrive. It’s not rocket surgery.

I guess it just goes to show the range of coaching abilities. Some schools never fuss or muss, and other schools always fuss and muss. We can see them coming from miles away. I could easily provide you a list in advance of which schools will be the most annoying at any given tournament, and be correct with 95% accuracy. In the phantom zone of tournament management, I will say that this one thing is true: if you are one of the no-fuss-and-muss schools, I am at your service if something actually does go wrong for you. And if you are one of the always-fuss-and-muss schools, it’s the letter of the law and it’s your problem, not mine. Does that make me an evil person? Na’ah. Just human.

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