Bumpidian musings

First of all, I sat at the registration table myself, forcing people to actually look at their registration sheets and count noses, calling out a few who had ignored certain requirements (like, you know, judges), insisting on adults showing their faces (they were indeed in attendance in all cases, meaning no one got tossed), and entering updates to the TRPC data myself, meaning that when I handed off to O’C and JV and Kaz, all was correct, and round one did not exist merely to take attendance. After I collected the data, SuperSquirrel collected the money, The People’s Champion collected the housing updates, and the Panivore distributed t-shirts. I’ve never seen a more well-oiled registration machine. Less than an hour from opening the door to distributing the first schematics. Let’s see you do that!

Secondly, a new institution, the Fines-For-Charity Fund. What we said in the invite was, no complicated fine structure for changes after registration closed Monday, just put $25 in the box at the table and we’ll pass it along to charity. In addition, every time somebody blew off a round they were supposed to judge, we made them toss in another $25 (or in especially egregious cases, $50). I had originally intended to take these judge fines as Bump profits, but I found that it was so much more authoritative to take them for charity instead, making me thoroughly unhesitant about enforcing them. I love the excuses people offered. “Wanted to go shopping” has a slight edge over “There’s three rounds on Friday?” (from a coach who runs a tournament with three rounds on Friday), but only marginally. As the VCA knows, I get especially exercised at all tournaments over judges who think that their obligation is somehow merely a suggestion of participation. Why do people think that, somehow, they shouldn’t have to judge the rounds they are obligated to judge? I simply don’t get it. I’m not talking about people who whine about judging every round (no one ever listens to them anyhow) but people who actually don’t show up, or who tell you that they’ll be there at some starting point that isn’t the tournament starting point. I’ve heard all kinds of discussion about judging, from MJP to Strikes and Dice, but let me tell you, first let’s look at Personal Responsibility. At the point where you don’t have it, I’m going to charge you money. And the good news is, it will go to charity. So, pay up, sucker! Or—and this is far from an idle threat—you will not only not proceed to elimination rounds at this tournament, but you will not be allowed entry into any future tournament tabbed by yours truly until your account is settled. Not that I tab all that often, mind you, aside from, like, everywhere, every week. In other words, ignore your obligations at your team’s great risk.

The result? Everyone paid up handsomely. $370 in fines, doubled by the DJ will equal $740 for charity. I’m beginning to love problem judges. They may be a drag on a tournament, but in the long run they’re a benefit to society. This aspect of fines and punishment will be an institution at all future Bumps. So if you plan to be an asshat, be prepared to pay for it.