Welcome to a very special Christmas edition of Startup Your Week! Whether you open your presents Christmas Eve, Christmas morning, or Christmas evening, you can open your browser at ANY time to read Startup Your Week!
Brant answered more than a few of the questions I received, and I appreciate him doing that. Nevertheless, there are some questions I would also like to touch on, so I have two older questions and one newer question.
Considering what sounded like a very harrowing travel experience for you and your awesome team, what suggestions do you have for traveling quizzers to maximize their potential?
Guess who, FL
A great question. Much like in real sports, home field advantage can be huge. Not only are most of your loyal supporters there to keep you encouraged, but you also have the luxury of not having to travel, and dealing with the burdens of such. Obviously, had our vehicle busted its tire on the way up to West Virginia instead of on the way back, we would have been very late to the tournament, or could have decided simply to turn back, like the people at the beginning of Oregon Trail. Fortunately none of our “oxen” “died” until afterwards, and there was a “fort” nearby for us to stay at.
On the other side of the coin you have a team like last year’s California. They took advantage of the time change, so when everyone else was tired around 10:00 PM at Athens, they were still on Pacific time around 7:00 PM.
I would suggest firstly to get there on time. Leave early so you can arrive early, and make sure your team gets plenty of rest the night before. If not, you might be okay in the morning, but after lunch you’ll crash from exhaustion, and that’s not just for quizzing, it’s with life!
Which are better, the small or the Greek? (Referring to the Blue Ridge Inv. of like ’03)
Paige, FL
Silly Paige! Don’t you know that those two descriptors are not even comparable?
What Paige is undoubtedly referring to is the incident at the Blue Ridge Invitation of 2004 where Paige mistakenly told me that the answer to one of the questions was “the small and the Greek.” So I, as a trusting person, jumped up and said what she told me and shockingly I missed the question!
Now I’m sure if you ask Paige herself (she quizzes for Calvary FL), she may have a different story. It’s up to you to decide who to believe, either that she misspoke (Correct) or I, ha ha, misheard (Incorrect).
Oh, and the answer to your question: the small, because I know some small people but no Greek people.
Wow, Jesse! Insightful article. How would you feel if teams used this strategy against you in the future?
Lily, FL
Thanks for the compliment, Lily! I’m glad you liked it.
As for your question, I of course have no problem if a team would like to execute any strategy against us, because I do like to see teams using their brains and playing smart with regards to strategy. However, my strategies are rarely foolproof, and if a team is really great and gets 300 points a quiz there’s nothing I can really do about it.
But Lily, as I have learned the strategy, I additionally know the counter-strategy, which isn’t really that hard to figure out. My goal in sharing some of this “insight” is to get teams to think strategy while quizzing, instead of going in with the dangerous mindset: “No matter what, we need to score.”
In conclusion, go ahead and try, and if it works, I’ll hopefully notice and congratulate you on it, and if it doesn’t, you’ll hopefully notice and adapt and improve.
Have a Merry Christmas! See you next year!
Jesse