Sportsmanship/legitimacy

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 151959

Alla:
Dumbledore IMO does the similar thing in PS/SS. He awards the points
to Neville for moral courage and JKR did say that she specifically
wanted to make a point of how important moral courage is.

a_svirn:
And how important is that? He gave him ten points for moral courage 
and fifty points apiece to Hermione and Ron for keeping cool logic 
in the face of fire and for the best game of chess Hogwarts seen in 
years respectively. Does it mean that having a cool head on one's 
shoulders and being a good chess player ranks higher on Dumbledore's 
personal scale than being morally courageous? Five times higher, to 
be exact? 

Alla:
Was Neville standing up to his friends stupid? Yes, I would
definitely say so, since he was an additional obstacle on their
quest to "save the stone from Snape" for all they knew. But for
Neville they could have gotten there faster.

a_svirn:
Yes, but for all *he* knew they were up to their tricks which would 
probably cost Gryffindor another hundred of points unless he'd stop 
them. Why then was it so stupid? Perfectly sensible, I'd say. 

Alla:
Such example is the Pierre de Coubertein medal for true
sportsmanship that gets awarded on the Olimpics.

Here is the brief story from Wikipedia about one recipient of this
medal. <snip>

Of course, nobody awarded him the second place in the race, which he
abandoned, but he did not leave without recognition and that
recognition IMO was rightfully his, just as Harry's points for moral
fiber were IMO rightfully his.

a_svirn:
You've just provided the perfect foil for Dumbledore's unfairness. 
Samaranch unlike Dumbledore managed to reward Lemieux without 
punishing other combatants. Dumbledore rewarded Harry at the expense 
of the others. Because this is completion and Harry's reward was 
Krum's and Cedric's punishment – they had to give up their fairly 
gained advantage. And surely they didn't deserve it. It wasn't their 
fault that they were clever enough not to think the worst of 
Dumbledore. 

Pippin:
The fact is, we don't know how the tasks are
scored -- it could be the way you suggest, or it could be like figure
skating, where you are scored on artistic merit as well as technical
performance.

a_svirn:
Artistic merit in figure skating is only *one* of the grades, 
though. And your place in the contest is depended on *both* of them. 
If you fail technical performance, you can hope to gain some more 
points for artistic merit. What's more, *all* the participants get 
evaluated on both scores. Harry, however, ended up being the only 
one whose fiber was evaluated. It implies that Krum's, Cedric's and 
Fleur's either wasn't evaluated at all (imagine that only one figure-
skater get points for technical performance and artistic merits both 
while all his opponents only get marks for technical performance), 
or got next to nothing in terms of points. Which, surely, was 
grossly unfair either way. 

Pippin:
Oh, there's fear of reprisal. As Karkaroff says, if his champion is 
not
treated fairly, Durmstrang will not participate next time.

a_svirn:
Yes, that must have made them quake in their shoes. 

Pippin:
In any case, the argument that widespread cheating invalidates
the rules doesn't work in the real world -- try it in tax court and
see how far it gets you :)

a_svirn:
It wasn't quite what I said though. My point is that including one 
rule that *allows* cheating (magical contract) invalidates all the 
other rules. 

Tonks:
I am not aware that it is DD who sets the rules for the Tri-wizard
Tournament. I thought they were very old rules that can not be
changed.  Rules that perhaps only a few totally understand. I wonder
if part of the game isn't to figure out the rules as one goes.

a_svirn:
The Tournament is above all a very dangerous game. There have been 
deaths in the past, champions and spectators having been slain 
during the proceedings. If Dumbledore consented to host such an 
event without even perfectly understanding its rules he was either 
the world's most irresponsible person or senile. 
As for being one who sets the rules – he did set the age limit rule. 
Could have abolished magical contracts if he wanted to.