NACutie...
helping you score.

5/15/01: Further Tournament Etiquette.

Really, truly, I didn't want to have to write more about etiquette, but I face horrendous breaches of decency at every tournament I attend. Hopefully, with the advent of summer (summer tournaments? Hah!), I will get around to posts on internet etiquette and any other topic you want me to write about--suggestions go here. Or perhaps I'll simply drink heavily every weekend and ignore this website. Ooh, that might be fun.

More Tournament Etiquette. Deal.

1. If the moderator tells you you're wrong when you buzz in on a tossup, don't try to turn your incorrect buzz into the start of a blitz, even if you're playing by ACF rules. It's too late - and it's especially dumb when you don't know the rules on blitzing anyway.

1a. When the moderator tells you to be quiet, BE QUIET. Don't start whining about how lame the packet is and about how much you hate the question-writer.

2. Free food at tournaments is very exciting. However, please make sure that:
a) it's for you, and
b) that you don't injure yourself in your enthusiasm to obtain it.

3. It's always fun to hear your packet read at a tournament, but please don't interrupt matches to go in and watch. If you must enter the room after play has begun, come in at the half, especially if it's a timed match. If for some reason you are unable to do this and insist upon being an annoyance to everyone else in the room, try to at least ACT vaguely apologetic when the moderator suggests that you be more considerate next time.

4. Editors exist for a reason: to make your questions better. Sometimes, of course, they don't do a very good job. But when the editors at a tournament have far more experience than you do, it's inadvisable to publicly proclaim the superiority of your question-writing. In particular, avoid walking into the room in which two of the top teams at a tournament will be facing off on your packet and announcing, "Don't mind me. I just want to see how much damage they did to my questions." The resulting mediocrity of your questions will just make you look like an ass.

5. Lots of people have annoying team-mates. But the following responses to them are not recommended:
a) Swearing at them.
b) Telling them they're stupid.
c) Telling them they're bad players.
d) Sighing when they neg or when they speak.
e) Smirking at their mistakes.
f) Rolling your eyes when they talk.
g) Punching them when they disagree with you.

6. If you consider one of the major quizbowl formats to be "dreck," don't go to Nationals and whine about the questions: either stay home or make your complaints constructive. Yelling "Good God! Is that all they wanted?" and smirking won't make you look smart--it will make you look like a jackass. Also, your legitimate criticisms will lose their credibility when you follow them up with whining about questions in your own field that you think are too easy.

I'd like to think that this is my last post on tournament etiquette, but I somehow doubt it. But do email me, be it with suggestions or just to say hello... I will miss you all over the summer. At least while I'm drunk.

NACutie is in no way affiliated with NAQT, apart from the occasional sectional. NAQT is a registered service mark of the National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC.