Yale tab

I arrived in New Haven early Friday with the three sophomore Sailors (not to be confused with the sophomoric Sailors, whose number is legion). We managed to get away from the school with no issues; the combination of permission slips we’ve cooked up seems to finally be the right one. Hallelujah! Driving up the parkway made for an easy trip, mixing “Wait, Wait” and the Beatles, and there we were. I even liked the hotel; it’s a tiny drive, but only a tiny drive, and it was quite pleasant, and also cheaper, which make it a likely venue for next year, all things taken into consideration.

Once we arrived on campus there was plenty of time before registration to sort out rooms, which at an event like Yale is a real issue. It’s one thing to have rooms on the second floor; it’s another thing altogether to have rooms on the second floor of the Yadda Yadda building but only on Friday, and which buildings are closer to tab so that the ballots get back the quickest and all that sort of thing. And I got to double-check my data, which was a good thing, so that when registration started, we were ready. There were surprisingly few changes at the table, and if I remember correctly, we had ballots ready at the appointed hour for the first round.

As always there is starting friction in any tournament, and here it was compounded by the Thunder Gods and the sheer volume of competitors. Everybody had to get somewhere without being struck by lightning. Or, if they were struck by lightning, they had to do it after handing in their ballots. Fortunately we had Beth O’C (a real O’C, unlike some) with us in tab, who has been attending Yale tournaments either as a competitor or manager since 1492, so when the time came to push ballots, she knew everyone who was who and got them going. The fact that people had to pay fines for missed ballots may have had some effect, but there were still plenty of schmegeggies who managed to miss rounds for one reason or another. And we started pushing for all the rounds usually as soon as Joe V got antsy. Those who know Joe V understand that Joe V is not slow to antsy up, if you know what I mean. And his enforcement skills are unparalleled. Which made for a great tab team, with me and Lynne and Joe V and Beth, plus assorted Bullpups with various assignments all there and doing their thing. A great team.

Anyhow, Friday we managed to get the rounds finished by about 11. Joe and I talked a lot about ways to improve that, but ultimately we couldn’t come up with much, and frankly, if you start at 4 and end three rounds later at 11, and you’re all over the map in a virtual hurricane, that’s not so bad. I’ve been at way smaller venues doing no better. We did lag-pair round three, after consultation with the TDs, who understood the need to get the day ended as reasonably as possible (which is, of course, in keeping with the Legion of Doom running-on-time issue). In a six round tournament, with the quality of judging we had available to us, with As in all the down-one and down-two rounds, this would have little or no effect on the results when the breaks were announced.

Saturday we alternated JV and Varsity, and managed to keep the judging pools separate, which meant a nice leisurely day for all and sundry. And then, in a miracle of tab management and judge strength, we put out simultaneous single-flighted double-octs for both divisions at 8:00, exactly as we had hoped. Which meant that the day was over for just about everyone at about 9:00 or so. The Four Horsetabbers of the Bullpupalypse even got to go out during doubles for a really good spicy penne all'arrabbiata, except for Lynne, whose spiritual name is She Who is Allergic to Everything, who had some other nice thing that didn’t send her to the hospital, which is all we ever ask of a tabfolk dinner.

And Sunday it was just a matter of putting the best possible panels together, and again, given the quality of the field, we were able to put together panels most debaters would die for. The final round was judged almost entirely by Pups, all of whom were ex-debaters of the seriously good persuasion. Excellent.

Through it all--and all is a good word for it because entering that many ballots, with time pressure, is pretty time-consuming--the tab room was a place of high spirits, with music and crossword puzzles (which I only do nowadays to impress other people) but mostly work. I didn’t get much done that I had planned to because there was always something that had to be done. The sheer volume of the thing accounted for that. And I did not have internet access, so I couldn’t beat Anjan to the punch, but I gathered he was photographing skems and the like. We had his flashdrive in tab once or twice to put stuff on it, but I don’t recall giving him much that was of use. If he had come in himself I’m sure I would have been more helpful, but I guess he figured that he didn’t want to spark a disinformation competition, and he did things the hard way. Given the scarcity of skems (we photocopied them on my new little printer, which did a bang-up job), he had his work cut out for him.

So, in the end, kudos to the pups. They wanted a good tournament and they enabled a good tournament, and they had a good tournament. The number of people was manageable, and we were able to accommodate them with the least amount of discomfort. And the pups had solid judging, and plenty of it, including from their own quite respectable ranks. A great way to kick off the year, if you ask me.