In which we breathe for a minute

There is a moment in the pre-life of a tournament when it all just stops. That is the moment set in the invitation, and on tabroom, as the one where fees are set. Up to that moment, anything can happen. And then it can’t anymore. The tournament enters the WYSIWYG mode. It is what it is. A few people will come down with plague or the vapors or whatnot, but mostly everyone will be showing up, and registrations don’t matter until you hand over the check.

Over the last week, leading up to fee-setting, the Tiggers was a constant flipping of PF teams from waitlist to real as formerly reals were dropped without penalty. In one of the great feats of unexpected magic, although everyone started with 4 entries, when all was said and done, and sticking to the hard limit of 201 (50 rooms), everyone who wanted them ended up with 5 entries. If you ask me, that’s a real bloodbath for large programs, but no one has ever come up with a solution to the problem of handling large programs at limited tournaments. I don’t know if anyone ever will. The other events didn’t have this problem. They’re suitably large, but their limits were never stretched. 153 VLD isn’t exactly chickenfeed, plus there’s 105 NLD, which means plenty for us to do over the weekend. But ultimately everybody got in. Not so with PF. Expect to see even more of that in the future.

Prefs open Thursday. Before then I’ll send out instructions on how we’ll do the judge call, and how you’re obligated until the cows come home, and how we’ll cut off your firstborn’s nose if you’re not there to pick up your ballot, but I’ll do it nicely, as if I know it would never occur to you not to be on time and rarin’ to go, but just in case…

There’s not much else for me to think about, other than finding the visitor parking lot on Friday, which I’ve never found in the past. I usually end up feeding the meters every five minutes, which is far from the best way to spend one’s tabbing time. I’m hoping this weekend to get a chance to see the Tigger’s art museum, which I haven’t done in ages, predating my debate existence, in fact. Otherwise, for a couple of days, it will be peace and quiet. 

Nothing wrong with that.