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Announcing Tournaments is Good

Discussion of quizbowl topics not related to specific tournaments
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Charlie Dees
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Announcing Tournaments is Good

Post by Charlie Dees »

Hey, so it has just come to my attention that Washington High School is running a tournament on January 24th, the same day as the Mizzou Tiger Bowl. This is the second tournament now that has been secretly scheduled against a tournament we run, and this is very frustrating because we live in the modern world, and that modern world includes an internet that has sites like this one, moaca.org, and hsquizbowl.org that allow us to freely announce our tournaments. There are those of us who are interested in being able to accommodate other tournament hosts and teams who are interested in attending our tournaments, but there is no way for us to be able to work through these problems unless everyone is open about things. It should simply be standard etiquette at this point to publicly announce your tournament somewhere so that everyone else can plan things properly. Please, if you are a future tournament director reading this, take this to heart. If you know of someone hosting a tournament in the future (like the people at Cuba or Washington, or anywhere else) that does not post their announcement anywhere besides private emails, please urge them to post an announcement somewhere. At this point, not posting an online announcement anywhere, whether you realize it or not, is extremely inconsiderate to both interested teams and other tournament directors.

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scphilli
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Announcing Tournaments is Good

Post by scphilli »

In fact, it's so good, some people do it twice! Right, John? ;)


<div class="editby">Edited by <a href='http://s4.zetaboards.com/Academic_Compe ... cphilli</a>, Nov 19 2008, 04:24:12 PM.</div>

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DeckardCain
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Announcing Tournaments is Good

Post by DeckardCain »

I guess this is as good of a time as any to call out Rock Bridge for scheduling against our spring tournament, which had been announced on this site and moaca.org for months.

Seriously, people, don't do this; it does no one any favors. It hurts you, since you'll draw fewer teams; it hurts other tournaments; and it hurts multiple teams, since they'll now have to choose which tournament to attend. The season is long enough that there are several weekends on which you can schedule that won't result in a conflict with a nearby tournament.

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Jeffrey Hill
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Announcing Tournaments is Good

Post by Jeffrey Hill »

So this weekend, there is MU's Tiger Bowl, Washington's tournament near STL, and Smithville's tournament just north of KC...

The MACA website is listing a tournament at Waynesville on March 7, the same day as our Spring Tournament, which was announced several months ago, and has been either the first or second Saturday in March since 2005! Matt already called out Rock Bridge for taking our date, but of particular note, Waynesville is 30 miles from Rolla (and in fact came to the 2006 installment of the tournament) and will likely take much of our field away. Though I am definitely glad to see Crocker, Iberia and Dixon are returning to our well-established tournament instead of the closer Waynesville tournament.

Yes, I know it's pretty much impossible to have only one tournament on a given weekend, but having multiple tournaments in the same general area of the state is unacceptable.

Other conflicts I have noticed:
- Knob Noster is hosting their first ever tournament on February 21, the same day as the NAQT qualifier. The schools are plenty far enough apart that it wouldn't be a big deal if it weren't conflicting with the NAQT qualifier.
- Marshall is hosting a tournament on March 14, the same day as Savannah. They are borderline far enough apart, but Savannah's tournament has been that or the next weekend for over a decade and traditionally pulls a multi-state field that should essentially reserve the entire northwestern quadrant of the state for it.

At the very least, schools in the KC area and in the St. Louis area should only have one potential nearby tournament to go to. In the March 14 case, KC is roughly the same distance from Savannah and Marshall.

I suppose this could open up a potential discussion of how far apart must tournaments be to occur on the same day, or how the state could be divided into sections that should only have one tournament on a given day.

Charbroil
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Announcing Tournaments is Good

Post by Charbroil »

Mmm...not that the sentiment expressed here isn't good, but since the coaches of these schools probably don't check this forum or know all that much about other schools' tournaments (especially given that they did schedule against you), have you considered emailing them about the conflict and requesting that, in the future at the very least, they schedule on different dates?

WillHack
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Announcing Tournaments is Good

Post by WillHack »

For example, I bet that a lot of coaches only check the MOACA tournament list (that's what mine used to do, I think). If the tournament hasn't been posted by them, then she wasn't likely to know about it. I think she checks here now (we've become a more proactive team), but I bet this is a problem with many teams.

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Charlie Dees
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Announcing Tournaments is Good

Post by Charlie Dees »

Well, the big problem is that lots of these tournaments aren't even posting on the MOACA list.

WillHack
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Announcing Tournaments is Good

Post by WillHack »

Exactly.

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socalcaptain
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Announcing Tournaments is Good

Post by socalcaptain »

I don't necessarily think there should be, say, specific regions, per se. But, teams should be more courteous in announcing tournament dates.

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Charlie Dees
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Announcing Tournaments is Good

Post by Charlie Dees »

WillHack wrote:Exactly.
No, not exactly. These are coaches from schools what are members of MACA who have no excuse to not know about the MACA list since they are on it's website and paying members of it.

WillHack
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Announcing Tournaments is Good

Post by WillHack »

I was agreeing with your post, Charles. Are you saying that you were inexact?

Assuredly, there are some lazy/forgetful coaches out there. Not much of a surprise, I don't think.

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Charlie Dees
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Announcing Tournaments is Good

Post by Charlie Dees »

Sorry I misread your post.

FZW Coach
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Announcing Tournaments is Good

Post by FZW Coach »

It is a cultural thing. When I first started 7 years ago, the only way we heard about tournaments was either through a mailing to the school or through mass e-mail.

We did run sessions at the MACA conference to make sure everyone was aware of tournaments. Marshall's coach and Liberty's coach both compiled long lists of every tournament of which they were aware. Many coaches found out about tournaments through those sessions.

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Charlie Dees
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Announcing Tournaments is Good

Post by Charlie Dees »

Hey everybody - if you know about a tournament that is secretly being hosted without telling the rest of the world about it, especially when its the claimed date for the NAQT Missouri Qualifier, it is your responsibility to tell the tournament director to post their information somewhere on the internet (I don't even care where, as long as it's easily accessed!) Having things like this secret Warrenton tournament crop up are nothing short of terrible etiquette.

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Jeffrey Hill
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Announcing Tournaments is Good

Post by Jeffrey Hill »

Every single future tournament I am aware of (besides Districts/State) is now on the board calendar and has a discussion thread. If there are any other unannounced tournaments you know of, please add them to the calendar and start a thread.

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