Couple of quiz bowl notes
Got another trash tournament team title under my belt after continuing an undefeated streak at the Big Lots tournament -- UTC's mirror of the FOGHAT trash tournament. The questions were very good for the most part, and the themes present were sometimes clever, sometimes groan-inducing.

At the same time, a handful of teams were playing on the Junior Bird questions I pretty much edited myself with lots of writing help from plenty of people across the circuit. It was nice to see some kind words about the packets, although I'm confused when I see people complaining that questions were too easy. I actually thought some of the stuff was harder than should've been, but maybe it's good that I somewhat underestimated what people knew. Then again, shouldn't the stuff be accessible even for teams making their first appearance at a trash tournament (hence, not get scared off)? I know fthat from seeing younger teams at the UTC tournaments, they can get frustrated and overwhelmed with a lot of the stuff that has no relevance to them because they weren't born yet.

Finally, there's some interesting rumblings on the state of the game right now from a handful of bright and respected people on a variety of outlets. I'll flesh out my details more later. But quickly, I think that an overall lack of respect between different levels of the game (independent groups vs. "corporate" organizations; newer teams vs. experienced players; hard-core academic vs. somewhat academic vs. trash) and from a number of players of all ages and levels who just like to treat people like crap have hurt everyone from growing. It's hard to offer constructive criticism without thinking it's either a slam or a conspiracy. And it's hard to find constructive criticism because there's too much "This sucks, change it!"