[Bards] Question about letters of intent

[Gerald Norris]

I'll reply to your question, then talk about the comparison between
Eistedfodd competition vs., say, King's Champion.
 
There is no requirement for a letter of intent, as far as I can tell for
this competition, but there should be.  What you are seeing here are a
combination of intent and attempt to stir others to join.  Alas, so far of
those who read, I've only seen a handfull or so who have responded
(including myself, who didn't give near as grand an announcement/letter as
the others did).
 
as for the length of the competition.  Ah.  There's a problem.
 
Your comparison of competitions between Kingdom Bard and King's Champion.  
 
King's Champion:
For each of these that I've been to, there are usually multiple fields
working; at least two on most occasion.  Each field judges two fighters
simultaneously.  Little judging is involved, the participants judge
themselves, so there's little lag time between bouts.  So.  Let's take a low
turnout, say, 50 fighters.  Let's average the first and second round bouts
to be five minutes.  We can easily get through the first round in about one
hour.  Second round, one hour.  If it's double elimination, you've now cut
the third round to half, so 30 minutes.  Final round, 13 fighters and a By,
another 30 minutes.  
 
Eistedfodd:
Let's say we have a fair showing of bards for Eistedfodd and we get 10.
It's according to how we run, but let's use this year's rules, two pieces,
picking of finalists of 3 - 5 to perform an additional piece.  Average run
of performance with any intros, etc., 8 minutes.  Because we are using
judges instead of judging ourselves (I've seen one example of a self-judged
bardic competition and I wasn't satisfied with the result; not that I didn't
like who won, but unlike fighting, our venue is harder to self-judge) and
the judges wish to write some notes about each performance (and good for
them!), add another 5 minutes.  1st round (1st performance) 2 hours.  2nd
round, 2 hours.  With this year's rules, the final round is between 3 to 5
participants.  As it's final round, add another minute to each performance
and another minute for judges.  You're talking another hour-plus if we do
all five, and only 15 minutes difference if we get three.  Tie?  Another 15
- 30 minutes.  Total time? 6 hours.  And that's for ten.
 
How do we solve this dillema of marathon bardic championship?  Couple of
ways.  We can limit the time of performance, which will be unfair to some.
We can limit the time judges have for notes, etc., which will be unfair to
others, or we can split the judges into individuals in seperate "arenas",
each judging the first round.  You have to trust your judges, and your
judges have to trust each other.  You significantly knock down the time it
takes to decide a champion AND the contestants can do something beside be in
a room all day.
 
Will it happen this year?  I don't know, I don't get to make that decision.
But I, like you, have wondered why it takes so long for us to choose a
champion at Eistedfodd when we have 1/6th the number of participants in
King's/Queen's Champion, and my solution is to seperate the judges.
 
Annes, I am fully with you on the concept that the Kingdom bard should be
able to capture their audience in a crowd.  I know that the judges find the
crowd distracting, but there might be ways of handling this and keep it
within the venue.  If we were to split the judges to one to an "arena"
(group of chairs for those who wish to watch, roped off area to try to
signify a "quiet zone" (Yah, I know how successful this would probably be,
but other than having heralds announcing the next contestant and for the
audience to please try to hold the noise down, it's the only method I have
of keeping it within the public view)), and have the final round as
something that the royalty take enough issue with to request the attention
of the populace (final rounds of championships and crowns are tension-laden
affairs where you can almost hear a pin drop on the grass), you could
possibly pull it off.
 
Again.  Will this happen?  Is this the best answer?  I know some of the
logistics are flaky (at best), but if we're going to ask for more performers
to join in Eistedfodd, how do we handle them?  If we want to compare this to
other championship selection methods, how do we get there?  Or can we?
 
There, I've gone on too long again.  I'm beginning to fear that people read
the first paragraph or two of mine and then find paperclips that need
counting.
 
I hope this answers your questions, Annes.
 
In service to the dream with a song in my heart, I am,
HL Gerald of Leesville
A bard of Stargate 
 


  _____  

From: bards-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org
[mailto:bards-bounces at lists.ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of Darlene Vandever
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 12:39 PM
To: Ansteorran Bardic list
Subject: [Bards] Question about letters of intent


I've seen 4 or 5 letters of intent now listed here. Are these necessary to
compete or are these letters simply an attempt to raise the competition in
the minds of the people...advertising as it were....since the information on
the bardic site says nothing about needing a letter of entry to compete? 
 
Annes
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