In which for once we didn't have that long, lonely drive home down Route 84 through the unexplored Connecticut hinterlands

And so, the weary warrior returns from battle. In this case, the Massachusetts Speech and Debate League Online #1. Or Maspandeleon #1, as I prefer it. Sort of sounds like the sacred book in some second-tier fantasy series. “Seeketh the holy Maspandeleon, young warthog, and thou shalt be rewarded.”

Whatever.

 

It wasn’t a big tournament. A couple of PF divisions of 27 each, plus a pesky little 8-person LDer. Most attendees, judges or debaters, had no problems with the tech. There was an outage of the rooms that lasted for a remarkably short period of time, and when things spun up again, everyone went back to what they were doing without a glitch. Hardy souls, those Massachutes, or whatever you call them. Massachuwegians?

 

(Speaking of the outage, read this: https://www.azuen.net/2020/09/26/the-loneliest-moment/

  Some folks may need the particular reality check therein.)

 

A couple of days before the tournament I hosted an open house for judges to check their tech. Maybe a third of them took me up on it. This was an idea Pennsylvania Jeff had floated on our Tab Slack, and I think it’s a good one, and I’ll continue doing it. Coaches and students have NSDA memberships and team rooms and all sorts of resources for practice. The odd parent judge, not so much. Inexperienced parents worry about a lot of issues, especially not screwing things up for the students. They shouldn’t have to worry about literally getting into the back of virtual room.

 

Another issue we discussed on our Tab Slack was that when students’ tech failed, not to allow everyone to go off to a private room. We would go so far as to make this a DQ for all involved. We did have one poor schmegeggie at the Maspandeleon that no amount of shaking the tech could could straighten out, and I did allow private sessions since I knew the players well enough to trust them. But even that one was problematic, and took up a lot of my time. At a tournament with, say, 3 divisions of 270, as compared to 2 of 27, no way. In other words, the idea of banning side trips was confirmed in the tournament crucible. 

 

Virtual tab rooms are sort of fun. But the Maspandeleon was small, as in me doing all the pairing, Massachuwegian Josh Cohen pulling all the other levers, and Tim “Laundry Sorter” Averill horse-whispering the judges. Judge whispering? Anyhow, some others dropped by as well, so it was an easily personable assemblage. I even played some music from the tab playlist for a while. It was almost like being there. Thinking ahead, I’m planning on separate event tab rooms at the big tournaments, with one group tutti-of-the-fruitis tab room for business other than pairing. That is, when Catholic Charlie and I are trying to find 2-3s to replace the 1-2s at Bronx, the last thing we need is to hear Sheryl Kazsplaining judge obligations to someone remote in Papeete.  (Or someone in remote Papeete, if you will. A Papeetwegian?) 

 

And I’m starting to believe that running unrunnable divisions is becoming my specialty. That LD with 8 people, 4 of them from the same school—try to do that on an empty stomach. 

 

This coming weekend, I’ll be a spear carrier for Catholic Charlie at a tiny local. Then the week after that, Byram Hills, at which the debate numbers have become quite respectable. The wrinkle there will be double flights, which Kaz apparently thinks are the devil’s workshop. You can’t imagine my joy and rapture knowing that I’ll be finding out for myself soon enough.