In which we debrief two—count 'em, 2—tournaments

Last weekend was interesting. It was the first time I've tabbed long distance.

My regular gig this weekend is Little Lex. I've been going to that one since the earliest days of my work with Hen Hud. I always liked visiting a different venue, where my younger debaters could come up against styles different from the local circuit. They tended to do well, and for many, it was their first trip away from home. And I got to know the newbies well for the first time. Many benefits were accrued overall, and I became a big fan. Now I go up because Kaz needs the help—only a fool tabs their own tournament—and we have fun socializing while I'm in the area.

That tournament is pretty straightforward. 4 founds of LD and policy, 6 rounds of PF single-flighted, 5 divisions, lots of good Lex kids around to put out fires before they get out of hand. Start at 8:30, on the road home by 5:30. I did make the mistake of stopping at a McDonalds on the way home, which is way out of character for me, and found myself behind some South American (?) sports team in matching everything, slowing me down enormously. But once you commit to a quarter pounder, you must follow through. But there were easily 30 of these schmegeggies in front of me and the staff behind the counter was obviously in the weeds. So it goes. At least I won't need another quarter pounder in the next year or so.

Meanwhile, on that same day, I also tabbed the Bronx Local, or better still, Wee Sma Bronx. It was like a CFL, three rounds and out, with a lot of same-school pairings. Putting those together is sort of fun, but the thing was, there was staff running the event in situ, and I didn't need to be there at all. Very few problems arose, and those were solved quickly.

I vaguely remember CP daydreaming years ago of some far away day when tabbing wouldn't require people, and certainly wouldn't require a presence in a tab room on site. He was right, at least for the second part. I think that there are too many decisions for a computer to make at the moment, or at least for any reasonable piece of software, and that human intervention is often required. But physical presence? Not so much.

Then again, don't tell anyone this. I still want to drive up and have dinner with Kaz the night before Wee Sma Lex. I want to sit around and argue with Kirby at Rather Large Bronx about why 1998 can't have its tournament back. I want to hang out with Marty Meat at Delbarton and maybe this year get him to actually make good on his promise of dinner afterwards. I want that sushi at the Pod restaurant at Penn. But when I'm finally off on the owl hoot trail, tournaments can rest easy that things can still be run from afar, and at the same time, they'll cut back on their T&E costs.

Then again, I just found an old web site that explains how to tab on cards. Gotta love the interwebs. Nothing's ever merely dead, even when it's most sincerely dead. Tabbing on cards. Been there. Done that. Hardly ever think about going back.