Fancy Store-Bought Dirt

1996-97 in Quiz Bowl

I had to read this post three times to understand everything it was saying. I'd heard about the events in question but thankfully not witnessed them first-hand.

Apropos of nothing: After that year's (my first at Boston U.) CBCI Region 1 tournament, Jeff came up to our team and said "Y'all did better than I thought you would." In writing years after the fact it does come off as backhanded, though I didn't infer any backhandedness at the time and just assumed it was a simple compliment. One of my teammates made the exact opposite assumption. That was fun.

(I'm not sure whether that was also the year that we saw five Harvard players walking somewhere in unison and decided they looked like a "Which one of these kids is a drug dealer? The answer might surprise you" poster. We all agreed on who the drug dealer was, by virtue of her bearing the least resemblance to a stereotypical drug dealer.)

Back on topic, I think CBCI, Questions Unlimited, and on-line poker are all about equally rigged -- which is to say that I don't think any of them are, despite how widespread beliefs to the contrary may be. I can see where insiders might internally joke about some of the wilder accusations, though letting the jokes slip out is public relations suicide.