Getting rooms out of some of these colleges is a nightmare.
The Gem of Harlem is less than two weeks away, and we’re way short of where we
need to be, and all we can do is wait. It is not surprising that colleges don’t
understand the tournaments their teams host. They’re not in the life, and they
don’t realize the magnitude of the operation. They wonder, Why would anyone
need to know in advance if they’re going to a tournament a thousand miles away?
The foolishness of you people!
Sigh.
We’re in similar straits with Penn, but at least there we
still have some time. Unfortunately there we also have a gazoo-load of
waitlisted entries.
Sigh again.
So we turn to the immediate future, and Bigle X, where we
need 48 rooms for the two LD divisions, and we’re really close with 44. Maybe
Kaz is thinking that a good run of dengue fever will take out the 16 extra
entries at the last minute, but I would imagine that a few scrambled tables in
the library or whatever will cover the overflow. There had been talk of us
moving to the high school, which I would have preferred because you can walk
into town, but it didn’t happen. The middle school is out on the far reaches of
life as we know it, although there is a Dunkin Donuts you can walk to. Also a
bagel place, if I recollect correctly, and some other place that sent Vaughan
one year into anaphylactic shock over the shellfish in the meatballs or
something like that. I just remember him turning purple. In any case, for some
reason he refuses to go back there. What a wimp!
Otherwise things look fine. They’re using limited judge
obligations, but most of the judges are obligated for the whole thing, and we
can work around that. If I’d said it once I’ve said it a million times, that judges
should be obligated for the whole damn thing, and that tab rooms should simply
insure that they have reasonable schedules, which ultimately depends on the
tournament having lots of extra judges. From my perspective, minimal
obligations (like 2 rounds over a whole tournament) simply makes no sense. Yes,
it’s what colleges do, but no, it’s not what high schools do. A round off?
Nice. Four rounds off, sitting on an uncomfy chair in the judges’ lounge
drinking bitter stale coffee and watching I Love Lucy reruns on your laptop?
Not so nice. Ultimate result: some desirable judges are not judging your round
because they are not obligated to do so. Is that what you really want? Kaz and
I have gone over this a hundred times, but it is what it is. I did manage to
disabuse Big Bronx of it this year. I mean, it’s no big deal to tab, but the
effect is clear: fewer available judges means less desirable preferences. It’s
indisputable. And the benefit? All that bitter stale coffee, I guess.
C’est la vie.
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