You are cordially invited to the Polygon Invitational at Washington High School in Fremont, CA. We will offer two divisions of parliamentary debate. The Open division will be run Friday, October 12 and Saturday, October 13, will feature five preliminary rounds, and will break to semifinals. Three of the open preliminary rounds will be “polygon” rounds with adjustments to regular parliamentary debate rules. The Novice division, with four preliminary rounds, will be Saturday only.

Short URL

polygon.tabroom.com

Schedule

(all rounds are single-flighted)

Open - Friday, October 12

4:00PM-4:30PM Registration

4:30PM-4:40PM Judge Instructions

4:40PM Round 1 topic announcement

6:10PM Round 2 topic announcement

7:40PM-8:00PM Dinner

8:00PM Round 3 topic announcement

Open - Saturday, October 13

9:20AM-9:30AM Judge Instructions

9:30AM Round 4 topic announcement

11:15AM Round 5 topic announcement

12:45PM-1:15PM Lunch

1:15PM Semifinals topic announcement

2:45PM Finals topic announcement

4:15PM-4:45PM Awards

Novice - Saturday, October 13

9:20AM-9:30AM Judge Instructions

9:30AM Round 1 topic announcement

11:15AM Round 2 topic announcement

12:45PM-1:15PM Lunch

1:15PM Round 3 topic announcement

2:45PM Round 4 topic announcement

4:15PM-4:45PM Awards

Fees

Varsity: $30/entry

Novice: $20/entry

Fines

Late entry: $30/entry in addition to entry fee

Late drop: $50/entry

Ballot not picked up or submitted on time: $50/incident

Payment Instructions

Payment is due at or before on-site registration. See instructions here:  https://washingtondebate.club/pages/polygon

Judges

The judge requirement is 1 judge for every 2 entries The judge requirement is calculated separately for Open and Novice.

Open judges are obligated for both days; novice judges are only obligated for Saturday.

All judges are obligated through the end of the tournament, but may be dismissed earlier at the discretion of the Tournament Director.

All Open division judges must be at least 18, have graduated high school, and be fluent in English.

All judges eligible to judge Open are also eligible to judge Novice. In addition, students with at least 2 years of high school debate experience may judge Novice.

Entry Limits

Every school may enter up to 6 entries in Open and up to 6 entries in Novice.

Any further entries will be waitlisted, and then admitted if there is enough space.

Novice Eligibility

A team may compete in the Novice division if both students on that team:

- are in their first year of high school debate competition,

- did not attend a summer debate camp,

- did not attend more than 3 middle school debate tournaments,

- are not in their third or more year of speech/Congress competition.

School Eligibility

All students must be enrolled in a high school.

All students must compete under the name of the school they attend.

All students must be accompanied by their school-approved chaperon.

All chaperons must be present and available during the entire tournament and must have student medical consent forms on hand.

Hybrid entries are not allowed. Maverick entries are not allowed, but the coach may request that the tournament director make an exception for a novice entry in the event that one of the partners has a last-minute emergency that prevents them from attending.

Rules

NPDL Rules

NPDL rules will be used unless specified otherwise. NPDL rules go as follows:

All rounds will consist of six speeches:

1AC: a 7-minute speech given by the first affirmative speaker

1NC: an 8-minute speech given by the first negation speaker

2AC: an 8-minute speech given by the second affirmative speaker

2NC: an 8-minute speech given by the second negation speaker

1NR: a 4-minute speech given by the first negation speaker

1AR: a 5-minute speech given by the first affirmative speaker

Points of Information will be allowed in any of the first four speeches. Points of Order will be allowed in any of the last two speeches.

All rounds will be preceded by a 20 minute preparation period, during which teams may consult any static materials they choose, including those on the internet, but a team may not consult dynamically with other teams, coaches, or persons outside the team.

A team may only bring into each round materials written by hand by the team during the 20 minute preparation period. Internet use shall not be allowed in round.

Novice Rules

1AC: a 5-minute speech given by the first affirmative speaker

1NC: a 5-minute speech given by the first negation speaker

2AC: a 5-minute speech given by the second affirmative speaker

2NC: a 5-minute speech given by the second negation speaker

1NR: a 3-minute speech given by the first negation speaker

1AR: a 3-minute speech given by the first affirmative speaker

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Polygon Rules - Open Round 3

Judges and competitors will not be allowed to take notes during the round. Competitors may take notes during preparation time, but may not use those notes during the round.

Polygon Rules - Open Round 4

1AC: a 6-minute speech given by the first affirmative speaker

1CX: a 2-minute cross-examination of the affirmative by the negative

1NC: a 7 minute speech given by the first negation speaker

2CX: a 2-minute cross-examination of the negative by the affirmative

2AC: an 7 minute speech given by the second affirmative speaker

2NC: an 7 minute speech given by the second negation speaker

1NR: a 4 minute speech given by the first negation speaker

1AR: a 5 minute speech given by the first affirmative speaker

Each team may decide which team members asks/answers any given question in the CX.

Polygon Rules - Open Round 5

Each team may make up to 6 POIs during the round. The speaker who has the floor may not decline or delay POIs, but must instead yield the floor as soon as a speaker on the opposing side says ‘Point of Information.’ Time is not paused for POIs. POIs should not be longer than 15 seconds. POIs may not be made during protected time (first and last minute of each constuctive) or during rebuttals.

Open Rooms

Competitors and judges may not prevent observers from watching rounds or taking notes while observing during open rounds, except that observers who are disruptive may be removed by judges. A novice debate round should be made open to observers only if all debaters competing in that round agree to that.

Topic Areas

Open: at least one preliminary round will have a resolution about housing in California

Novice: at least one preliminary round will have a resolution about the environment

Parking Instructions

There are three parking options:

1) Drive down Country Drive and park near the Tak Fudenna Stadium.

2) Drive down Fremont Boulevard and park in the lot at the intersection of Fremont Boulevard and Country Drive

3) Drive down Eggers Drive and park in the staff parking lot near the athletic fields (there is some construction there, but you can still park)

Washington HS Campus Map

Click here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ptb7HChHoGjdNG43HMftfCdZQEa3A_MP/view?usp=sharing

Disclaimer

The above policies are tentative. The tournament reserves the right to change them at any time.