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Re: Giant elitism thread and the Gates of Heaven

I as a student of Tuna's for one month (and it really helped alot--thanks
Tuna) would like to thank him for his post.  It seems as if he can be
characterized as the guiding concious of CEDA.  While people whine because
there are judges out there that are random bullets and that they can't win
with he gets to the real issues.
	What I can't understand is that Henesse claims that the best
deabters can debate exceptionally well in front of a lay judge and
convince him/her that to vote for them is the correct thing.  But then
everyone complains that they need to limit who can be a judge because they
can't always count on that ballot, given a certain style.  There are also
people who say that they refuse to deabte in CA (which I have been told
has the worst judging pool in the nation) because they are random bullets.
 I don't know about that.  I spend most of my time in CA deabting and
enjoy it.  Sure, there are the judges that I don't like to get because I
don't get to deabte the style I want to, but isn't winning picking up the
judges ballot?  And to refer to something Tim Mahoney said once on the
speed thread, "I'm persuaded by speed."  It seems to me that teams need to
adapt.  In high school I complained that I lost b/c of bad judges and in
college (and at Vermont's camp) I realized that what is essential in a
"good" deabter (and I say this from watching UMKC, NWL, Emory, Emporia,
KSU, as well as hitting them) is the one that can adapt.  Why take away
the challenge and make deabte such a routine thing where the team that
wins is the fastest with the best blocks, the most, money, and everything
else that is claimed.  To limit nationals and the rest of the ideas that
are out there (except for MPJ) prevents "the new elite" from emerging. 
Let the people who work hard and who LOVE the event play too.  It's not
just for you, it's for all of us.  Oh, and BTW, I'm not sure I did break
even at very many Open tourneys I went to, but I was able to go 6-2 at
Nats, lose in a fun round to Kieran and Paul, and have other good rounds
that semester too with other schools, and I don't think i'm that bad a
debater. . . . .
References:
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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