The good case for IM's

This Saturday was the CMU Intramurals. I do love IM's, and I think they're absolutely essential to growing a team. First it's one of the few opportunities a team has to draw in additional players. You also get good training for your players in the untaught arts of moderating and tournament management, without crazed coaches or intolerant college teams attacking them. Also you have the benefit of actually presenting your organization as doing something other than sponging student activity money. Finally, it's just a good thing to get a clear view of exactly how much knowledge is internal to quiz bowl. Stuff that is "obvious" in quiz bowl, that is unheard of outside of it. There's so much of that that's out there in the game, and unless you actually see that in action, you make the false assumption that new players are either stupid or ignorant, when it's just that they haven't had the opportunities you have had.

I was happy with the set, having done the first edit on it. It wasn't perfect, we found a few bugs with it, and we've already fixed them. It did, however, do exactly what an IM set should do. Give people a good time, present them with a feeling that they can do this, and encourage them to come to practices or to subsequent IM's. NAQT IM's had previously gotten the rep of being inaccessible to new players, but it looked from the stats that even the newest of players were getting the handle of the game. And of course, since we didn't have to have the existing team compete in the tournament, we didn't scare anyone away by having them be crushed. All in all, I think everyone enjoyed it whether playing or helping to run it. And though it was a financial loss, it wasn't something that will cripple the team from going to other tournaments, and if we get a few more people from it, I think that's worth it.

Day 5.
5A. CNN
5B. Book-A-Minute
5C. OurSportsCentral
5D. The Avalon Project
5E. De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors