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Date: Tue, 07 Oct 1997 08:28:50 +0000 (GMT)
From: "Giles Stoddard GNet (*744) 4189" <giles.stoddard@gecm.com>
Subject: If you hate to disagree with me, why do it?
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Nancy Stebbing said: 

#>
#>I hate to disagree with Giles- but here goes.
#>
#>Many mid-  to lower- level teams learn a great deal from getting wallopped by
top teams every once in awhile.  They learn new plays, see real flow, and have
a chance to push themselves harder than they might otherwise.  The Tour has
completely eliminated this learning process, serving the needs of the top
teams, but at best ignoring (and at worst discounting) the needs of the other
teams

The tour is only 5 tournaments in a year. So there is still the chance for
teams to get "wallopped" by top teams every once in a while reather than at
every tournament. I have personally learnt a lot more this year by playing five
games at a tournament where the score could have gone either way on each game,
than from any game I've lost to nil. Being able to turn a game around from 6-0
down and win it can teach a team alot. Being 6-0 down against Shotgun then
loosing 13-0 has taught me alot less.

#> My guess is that the teams that went to Worlds were actually hurt by the
fact that they were facing the same teams over and over again at home.  It's
terribly easy to get comfortable with a certain style of play which work's in
one situation, but is useless in another.  Anyone from the Worlds teams care to
comment?  After all, I could be wrong.  

I'm not from a Worlds team, but I would disagree with this. The Worlds team
don't learn alot from winning 13-0 against a weaker team. Agreed we may not
have enough competition at the top level in the UK compared to the USA, but it
is better for those top teams to play in European tournaments to learn from 
playing other teams of the same standard. 

#>As for moving up and down-  I strongly disagree.  Due to a several problems
at individual tournaments, teams at the 12-13 break had a single game (usually
the first game Saturday morning) to move up.  

What's the problem with playing first thing on a Saturday morning? 

#>So if that game was lost, the rest of the tournament was wasted- no chance to
move up and a small number of other challenging games.  This might not be a
problem of the Tour per se, as it was a tournament specific problem, but the
Tour set-up didn't help the matter either.

The pool games on Saturday meant that you had to come first or second in the
pool to get in to the 5-12 play-offs. So if you want to throw your first game
on Satuday I would have thought there's everything to play for in the next
three games.

#>I hope that the organisers, who worked their butts off to pull the Tour off
and do deserve thanks and credit for their hard work, will seriously consider
the feedback they requested at the end of the Tour.

Agreed, both the positive and negative feedback.

Giles

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