QUESTION?!?!

[WikkiWikki]

Why is it that if you qualify to Nats in 2 events, you can only attend Nats in one? Ex. Qualifying for DI and duo, only allowed to go in duo.

This may be a stupid question....but I'm a stupid person soo...

[SniffyGuy]

to tell you the truth i dont know the reasoning behind the rule (nor do i know why the only year in recent memory without the rule was last year).
I suppose they didnt like the fact that so many people double finaled. But you know what i say to that? Screw you! If someone is good enough to final in two categories at nationals, they must be pretty good, and the thus make the competition all the better for it.

[Assistant Coach]

True, but I can understand NFL's reasoning. When you look at the pool of contestants at nationals, there are clearly more than 6 entries per event who deserve to be in Finals, so I think it is understandable to disallow contestants from double-entering. I mean, this isn't a regional or state competition. It's nationals! 90% of the people are hella good!

Also, I don't understand why the national office changes the rule so much. I know the reason they allowed double entry for the first time last year was because there was too much shady, questionable activity going on between coaches in many districts where they would force their students who double qualify to drop one event so a fellow coach could bump a competitor up. Basically, they felt the students were being used and not allowed to decide for themselves which event to compete in. However, it seems that this problem is inevitable because when they made the rule that you could only single enter at districts to prevent the double qualification problems, coaches flipped out, and likewise, when they implemented the double entry rule at nationals last year, I think too many people complained about the fact that there were a handful of students in finals for 2 events. I agree with this belief, and I think the current policy is perhaps the better of 2 evils.

[SniffyGuy]

i dont know that i agree with that. i mean, in my opinion, why is it bad that someone gets to national finals in two categories. as an observer, its great to see someone like tom finley perform not once but twice. I also think it goes against the nature of competition to try and institute an "everybody gets a chance" sort of thing. Generally, the best performers will qualify in an event from any particular district. It doesnt make sense to me that we then say that they cant compete, thus, logically, lowering the overall quality of the competition.

[Bushy]

Anyone who went double'd at NFL's last year will remember the schedule.

Holy smolies, I still haven't gotten over it.
Duo was the earliest round in the morning, and latest round at night, and then there was one thrown in there at like 3 PM. First round was at 7:30 or 8 AM, and last round of the day most times didn't get started until 10:30 or 11 PM. It was murder, but that's the way they had to schedule it if a person was double qual'd. They didn't want people having to leave because of being DE'd, so they did it that way, and they got tons of flak for it.

I didn't double qual, I just watched HI rounds when they were on though, and it was still really tough. I think anyone that can double final at nationals totally deserves to be there, despite any "Everyone gets a chance" dealie, you don't just get up there by accident, they worked hard, and that was their real payoff moment.

[SniffyGuy]

holy smolies eh?

[Assistant Coach]

Well, I suppose. But saying the current system decreases the quality of the competition is somewhat of an exaggeration. I saw DUOs that made it to sems, and were much better than the finalists. My point, is a large majority of the entries deserve to be in finals, there are only room for 6 though. And just because someone can't be in 2 finals doesn't mean the tourney's legitimacy is at stake. On the other hand, someone like Thomas Finley was great to watch in finals twice. As I said, no system is perfect, but I think the current rule is probably for the best, because it gives more competitors a chance to shine and it avoids nasty scheduling problems. Yah, anyone in Atlanta last year knows that the schedule was crazy!

[Cinderella]

In my district we could only enter in one event at quals, perhaps to avoid the "choice making"

[reins485]

Tennessee has seen both sides of the coin on this issue. Two years ago. i believe, an HI won the barkley forum but was unable to go to nats beauce he was in duo, and i think they made sems. Last year, the girl on the national championship team was doubled in di and broke to octos i think in di. This year the girl who won emory in hi/di dropped her duo partner before nat quals so she if she qualifed she could go in hi and not have the duo part to worry about preventing her from going in hi. The girl who was third at emory in prose/poetry who moved her peice to di was in the final round at nat quals in both duo and di but she didnt place high enough to go in duo but did in di and is going in di this year. However, the guy who won emory in prose/poetry is not going to take his peice even though he won di at the nat quals tournment b/c he also won duo.
All this to say that the rule does prevent quality people from moving on. If nationals is truely about having the best in every single event they would get rid of the rule. So what if these kids want to do two events and get worn out. Its up to them to decide but if nationals wants to insure we see the best in every event. then they must allow people to do both events at nationals b/c otherwise good people are not going in some times their stongest event. I oppose the rule but the main thing is the national office needs to pick away and stick to it b/c its unfair to change it every year.

[Chewie]

Basically, Simon, the NFL cabinet is a bunch of evil whores. Except Crabtree. He gave me cake, once. I think.