In which we start taking steps toward change

Na’ah. I have no comment about TOC. I wasn’t there. So what do I know?

I just got a call yesterday about this year’s Pups. I had already been talking to Vigars about this and that for the Pups at NDCA, but I was surprised that they’re this early. They want to go live with their invite the end of this week! I’ve been putting off sending my thoughts, thinking I had all the time in the world. So much for that. I am asking them to do a couple of things. First, a version of the student advocate. Second, entries only from actual high schools. Third, waitlist only registration. Fourth, judge obligations for all through Octas.

I could write a million words on each of these.

As for the SA, I proposed this around and got either a response that it was a good idea, try it and see what happens, as it will mostly act to put judges on alert that they can't be assholes, which is what I was thinking, or else people thought that I was attempting to use the SA as a tool to adjudicate the content of rounds, which was not what I was thinking. I'm left with the choice of doing nothing, or dipping in the proverbial toe. CP recommended something along the lines of the APDA, and I'm proposing that. We'll see what happens.

As for entries from actual schools, there's a lot of discussion abroad about what makes a bona fide entry. In my experience, teams without real coaches, for whatever reason and in whatever combination, cause the biggest problems to a tournament, and also the biggest dangers if there's an emergency of any sort and a responsible adult is required. That one's fairly easy to address in a one-person situation, but a bit harder in two-person activities. Still, the dipped toe again can't be that bad an idea.

As for wait list, if you're going to worry about who's showing up, monitoring registrations makes sense. Plus this way you can flush out space-eaters who just grab TBA slots willy nilly. TBAs are okay, to a point, because let's face it, it is the beginning of August in the case of the Pups. But that excuse will only go so far, especially for long-distance teams. But of course, we take travelers off the WL first, so that shouldn't be a problem.

And finally, octas and obligations. In my experience octas is the hardest round to pair in MJP because you can lose a big portion of the pool between that and doubles. Given that it's a Sunday morning, and aside from church, no one has anywhere to be, hanging on for one more round won't hurt. Given that the result is way better preferences, and if you were in it, you'd want that for yourself, a Rawlsian solution shouldn't be hard to get by people.

Of course, it's up to the Pups to agree to these things, and work on my wordings as they see fit. We'll see how they take to them.