Anyone else going to Oregon Tile that isn't on the list? Or has the SDO poached the field of Open-goers in the West by landing on an adjacent weekend
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I think poaching is an entirely overargumentative word to use in this situation, especially when you know I'm reading, as well as the fact that Dave, Chris and I discussed this before either of us announced our 2012 tournaments.
It's obvious from day one that a tournament in San Diego should be held in the winter months - January, February. Yet so many people are so hung up on this idea of "poaching", as if tournament directors have a God-given right to have monopolies over weekends in their respective areas of the country, that trying to hold a tournament in San Diego over MLK or Prez Weekend would just get five letters of hate mail for every entrant, which just isn't worth it. Yeah, duh, San Diego over MLK weekend. It's a no-freaking-brainer, but our Scrabble scene has degenerated so much, that the thought of trying to hold another SDO in 2013 is at this moment, completely laughable.
But you made the implication, so I'll let you do your research [correctly]. SDO is "poaching" very few people. Look at the numbers of Oregon Tile's recent attendances. Now look at the list of people playing at SDO - who would I even be poaching? Three people?. Cali<-->Pac NW = expensive. Cali<-->other parts of Cali = cheap. Most people just wouldn't go to a tournament if there was no SDO, just as they would go to no tournament if there was no OTile.
Tile simply runs into the same problems as many tournaments - the location isn't conducive to seeing the biggest attraction of the tournament (the wonderful city itself), the city's Scrabble scene is fractured by this childish political drama, and quite frankly, there's another tournament 4 months later that IS in a convenient location in the city, and caters to a much higher % of the Scrabble-playing community (i.e. NONEXPERTS.) Look at the trend of DO. Why should OT be any different?
And the fact that half of Dallas Opens were held one week away from the Vancouver tournament really doesn't help much of anything, either. I want to compete with Vancouver as much as I want to compete with OTile; that is, I don't want to at all.
There's a lot more to organizing a tournament than just saying, "ooh, let's pick this week!" It just doesn't work that way, at least not in one of the vacation capitals of the country. Maybe Seattle is different, although last I checked the 2011 tournament was held by the airport because ALL OF DOWNTOWN was booked that holiday weekend. People don't want to spend their money to be in the suburbs.
Hopefully I have come across without being too hostile. Learning not to take stuff as personally, but I think you inadvertently raised a general issue that needs to be addressed.
I gave my shot at organizing, but until our community stops acting like entitled four year old brats, and people start realizing that tournament weekends don't come with mandates of heaven, my hat is hung, as far as big events are concerned.
But the [very small] light at the end of the tunnel for this issue: I hadn't intended on going to OTile this year, but it turns out I can swing it as part of a bigger trip, so I'll likely be signing up in a couple days. Would prefer to be listed on xt on my own terms, though.
OK, admittedly your scheduling got a bit wedged by whatever other things you have going, and likely so did Dave. The two of you may well have had no other available weekends from your own perspective but the ones that were taken. Apologies if this is what happened, I'm not much of a mindreader from this distance (is anyone?) Also, for all I know O-Tile contestants are a VERY late-signing lot. When I looked last night the main division had 16 players (this morning 17). As Joey noted, the CSW division isn't helping (14 when I last looked) but that still means the current O-Tile line-up (for all groups) is smaller than just the main division last year, barring everyone signing up in the final weeks. Where are they? (Upon further review, you only have about 60. Something else is also at work that I'm not seeing.) Dallas and Vancouver: no overlap anyway, different geographic zones. Portland and Vancouver: more problematic. And from the sound of things, the main western winter holiday events (Reno MLK, Phoenix Pres'D) are run by WGPO sympathizers (more sure on PHX). But MLK would be out for me personally as a tournament weekend anyway (just getting back from visiting my brother in FL) though the mid-Feb. slot is playable (but Sam has set up in Vegas, a city I have no real desire to go to). Scheduling is hard.
It's obvious from day one that a tournament in San Diego should be held in the winter months - January, February. Yet so many people are so hung up on this idea of "poaching", as if tournament directors have a God-given right to have monopolies over weekends in their respective areas of the country, that trying to hold a tournament in San Diego over MLK or Prez Weekend would just get five letters of hate mail for every entrant, which just isn't worth it. Yeah, duh, San Diego over MLK weekend. It's a no-freaking-brainer, but our Scrabble scene has degenerated so much, that the thought of trying to hold another SDO in 2013 is at this moment, completely laughable.
But you made the implication, so I'll let you do your research [correctly]. SDO is "poaching" very few people. Look at the numbers of Oregon Tile's recent attendances. Now look at the list of people playing at SDO - who would I even be poaching? Three people?. Cali<-->Pac NW = expensive. Cali<-->other parts of Cali = cheap. Most people just wouldn't go to a tournament if there was no SDO, just as they would go to no tournament if there was no OTile.
Tile simply runs into the same problems as many tournaments - the location isn't conducive to seeing the biggest attraction of the tournament (the wonderful city itself), the city's Scrabble scene is fractured by this childish political drama, and quite frankly, there's another tournament 4 months later that IS in a convenient location in the city, and caters to a much higher % of the Scrabble-playing community (i.e. NONEXPERTS.) Look at the trend of DO. Why should OT be any different?
And the fact that half of Dallas Opens were held one week away from the Vancouver tournament really doesn't help much of anything, either. I want to compete with Vancouver as much as I want to compete with OTile; that is, I don't want to at all.
There's a lot more to organizing a tournament than just saying, "ooh, let's pick this week!" It just doesn't work that way, at least not in one of the vacation capitals of the country. Maybe Seattle is different, although last I checked the 2011 tournament was held by the airport because ALL OF DOWNTOWN was booked that holiday weekend. People don't want to spend their money to be in the suburbs.
Hopefully I have come across without being too hostile. Learning not to take stuff as personally, but I think you inadvertently raised a general issue that needs to be addressed.
I gave my shot at organizing, but until our community stops acting like entitled four year old brats, and people start realizing that tournament weekends don't come with mandates of heaven, my hat is hung, as far as big events are concerned.
But the [very small] light at the end of the tunnel for this issue: I hadn't intended on going to OTile this year, but it turns out I can swing it as part of a bigger trip, so I'll likely be signing up in a couple days. Would prefer to be listed on xt on my own terms, though.
Cheerz.
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Also, for all I know O-Tile contestants are a VERY late-signing lot. When I looked last night the main division had 16 players (this morning 17). As Joey noted, the CSW division isn't helping (14 when I last looked) but that still means the current O-Tile line-up (for all groups) is smaller than just the main division last year, barring everyone signing up in the final weeks. Where are they? (Upon further review, you only have about 60. Something else is also at work that I'm not seeing.)
Dallas and Vancouver: no overlap anyway, different geographic zones. Portland and Vancouver: more problematic.
And from the sound of things, the main western winter holiday events (Reno MLK, Phoenix Pres'D) are run by WGPO sympathizers (more sure on PHX). But MLK would be out for me personally as a tournament weekend anyway (just getting back from visiting my brother in FL) though the mid-Feb. slot is playable (but Sam has set up in Vegas, a city I have no real desire to go to). Scheduling is hard.
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