[Archers] Pennsic Archer Champions (Masters) Team.

[fenrisulven at comcast.net]

At full risk of reigniting the "flames" of the selection process for the masters team at Pennsic a little clarification from one who has had to "play these politics" before. 

No worries. Siegfried gently corrected my ignorance when this last came up.  I fully understand now  that, because it is tied to war points, politics is in play. For example, the East might negotiate to trade 2 archery slots to an ally with subpar shooters in exchange for their two dozen elite spearmen . Its the larger strategic picture. 

Now, having said all of this, please know that if you show up at the practice/try outs and shoot well you stand a very good chance of making the team, given enough places and how well you do.  Some years there are 20 places some years there are only 10 

That was not my experience. 4 of 30 slots available one year, then 6 of 30 available the next.  Before I even tried out. 

But know that in the past it was CRITICAL for the East to not just win this competition but to do it's best to crush the opponent. 

I think thats the heart of the problem.  I don't feel the need to crush them by 50 points.  If you're running your team like Marine Corps boot camp, if there's yelling and screaming, if your guests are being brought to tears, if veteran archers need to be talked down from quiting the SCA altogether, if people like me are skipping Pennsic because the drama ruins their Pennsic "experience", if the other team is so demorialized from the annual beatings that they can't muster enough to field a team... then you are doing something wrong.  I think most of us prefer the competition over the win. In other venues, I've been on elite teams that so dominated the game that we ended up holding barren terrain - no one wanted to play with us.  Not fun. 

But, due to turn over, it's like Kevin Costner in Postman, "Things are getting better.  Things are getting better all the time" 

Agreed.  I'm just thrilled that the principals involved are listening to feedback and making an attempt to improve things.  Even though its their game and we are invited guests.  

I know I was vitriolic last time this came up - please understand I had strong feelings about it, and because my RL involves launching political attacks and bloodying people, I sometimes have difficulty dialing it down.  I'm working on that ;)   


Cheers 
Fen   

 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://seahorse.atlantia.sca.org/pipermail/archers-atlantia.sca.org/attachments/20110514/afc687f5/attachment-0002.htm>