3/23/19 update:

3/20/19 update:

The topic area for one preliminary round will be: major information technology companies

The topic area for another preliminary round will be: India/Pakistan

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3/4/19 Notes/Reminders:

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Update 2/15/19: We are pleased to announce that we are adjusting the judging requirements, in order to make it easier for out-of-town teams to attend. Any team that is traveling from outside the Los Angeles area may bring one judge for every two teams, or fraction thereof. We have adjusted the Tabroom settings accordingly. Similarly, traveling teams may purchase a judge for $250, which will cover two teams from one school. (Local schools: the Tabroom settings will reflect the new ratio, but we ask that you still provide one judge for every team. As always, if this presents a hardship, we are happy to discuss exceptions on a case-by-case basis.)

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Dear Qualified Competitors and Coaches,

We are delighted to invite you to the 2019 NPDL Tournament of Champions, which will feature seven preliminary rounds of parliamentary debate, followed by elimination rounds. We will bring together the most successful high school parliamentary debaters in the United States for the premier tournament of the year.

Required Forms

1. AUTOQUAL

Please click here register as an auto-qualified team for the 2019 NPDL-TOC. The deadline to accept bids as an auto-qualified debater is 11:59 PM Pacific on March 3, 2019.

2. AT-LARGE

Please click here to apply for an at-large bid for the 2019 NPDL-TOC. The At-Large Application will open on February 1, 2019. Cases, recording, and waiver submissions may be uploaded as part of the application form, or may be emailed to npdlboard+TOC@gmail.com. (If emailing separately from application form, please include all attachments with one email message.) The deadline to submit at-large applications is 11:59 PM Pacific Time on March 1, 2019.

The resolution for the sample cases is as follows: The United States federal government should ban professional football.

Note: At-large guidelines at right include links to sample cases.

3. SCHOOL RELEASE FORM AND PARENT RELEASE FORM

A coach or adult representative must upload school and parent release forms for each team member (4 forms total) here These forms are found in the sidebar. Digitally signed forms are NOT accepted; forms must be signed by hand before being scanned.

Schedule

The tournament will be held on April 6 and 7, 2019, at New Roads High School in Santa Monica, CA. We plan to finish finals by 7:00 pm on Sunday, and strongly encourage everyone to stay through finals if possible. The finals venue will be magnificent, and we hope that finals will be an exciting community event of the kind experienced at many other national championships. The final round will be debated, regardless of the schools represented in the round.

Entry Fees

The entry fee for one team will be $150, which must be received no later than March 31, 2019. Schools making drops after March 31, 2019 will be responsible for all entry and judge fees.

Fees may be paid online or by check payable to the National Parliamentary Debate League, and mailed to

National Parliamentary Debate League

1522 Parkmont Drive

San Jose CA 95131

Checks should indicate the school name and address.

Judging

Each school from outside the Los Angeles area must provide one judge for every two teams or fraction thereof. Local teams must provide one judge for every team. Judges must be high school graduates, and they should have at least one year of parliamentary debate judging or competition experience.

All judges are required to post paradigms by 5:00 PM Pacific Time on March 22, 2019. A judge without a paradigm by the deadline will not count toward a school’s obligation.

Each school submitting entries must provide a judge bond by the tournament of $250. Each school should provide a separate check in this amount to the Tournament Director before the first round of the tournament; the check will be shredded at the end of the tournament if a team owes no money. If a school has multiple delinquent judges, additional fees will be assessed as nuisance fines. If a school has more than two rounds of total judge delinquencies, all of the school’s entries will lose their prefs for the remainder of the tournament. If judge bonds are mailed with entry fees, please provide in the notes section of the check which is for the judge bond and which is for the general fees. Judge bonds must not be submitted on-line.

The judges you bring are obligated until one round after all teams from your school are eliminated.

Hired judges will cost $250 per judge. You may request hired judges through Tabroom. Once a hired judge is assigned to you, you will be financially obligated for that hire even if you bring a judge. Please make your request at least one day before the due date for judge entry.

If you wish to be considered for the hired judge pool, please complete this form. Hired judges will receive $100 per day and meals.

Food

Water will be freely available at the tournament site. We ask that participants bring reusable bottles to help minimize waste.

We will not be using food vouchers this year. Food trucks will be on site during lunchtime both days. Breakfast and lunch will be provided to coaches and judges.

Fee Waivers

If any of the above fees would be a hardship for you, please email the tournament director at npdlboard+TOC@gmail.com by March 20, 2019 to request a partial waiver.

Fines

All fines must be cleared before elimination rounds are announced. Nuisance fines will be assessed for the following:

$50

Team does not submit entry fees or hired judge fees prior to the posted deadline (if applicable)

Team has a judge add or change after the posted judge deadline

Team’s judge is more than ten minutes late to a round

Team’s judge requires tab staff intervention to set up or link a Tabroom.com account

$100

Team’s judge misses a single round

Team’s judge is missing a paradigm at the start of the tournament

$250 (judge bond)

Team’s judge is missing for more than one round (does not stack on previous fine; $250 total fine)

Mutual Judging Preferences

We plan to use mutual judging preferences to assign judges. Prefs will open at 9:00 AM on March 24, 2019 and close at 5:00 PM on April 3, 2019 (Pacific Time). Please contact us if you need assistance entering prefs. Any changes in the tournament’s intention to use prefs, or the timing or procedures, will be announced on tabroom.com in advance.

Committees

At-Large Committee

Lilly Hackworth (CA/University of Chicago, IL)

Julie Herman (Mountain View/Los Altos, CA)

Kyle Hietala (Washington, D.C.)

Jessica Jung (UC Berkeley, CA)

Iain Lampert (Valley International Prep, CA)

Radhika Mehta (Columbia University, NY)

Alex Webb (Lewis & Clark College, OR)

Topic Committee

Nadia Cochinwala (UC Berkeley, CA)

Eric DiMichele (Regis High School, NY)

John Meany (Claremont McKenna College, CA)

Jenny Owen (Lincoln High School, OR)

Artem Raskin (Washington High School, CA)

Everett Rutan (CT)

Tournament Hotel

We have arranged a discounted rate with the Comfort Inn Santa Monica, which is very close to the tournament site. The rate is $150 for a room with one bed, and $167 for a room with two beds. The telephone number is (310) 828-5517. The discount code is 2525, National Parliamentary Debate League. The discount expires on March 5, 2019 or when the hotel fills up for those nights, so book early, even if you’re not certain how many rooms you will need (reservations may be cancelled until 24 hours before the tournament).

More Information

Additional information is available in the sidebar on the right, and at toc.parli.us. More will be added as the tournament approaches.

We look forward to hosting you in Santa Monica this Spring!

Joel Jacobs, NPDL-TOC Director

Sarah Sherwood, Tab Director

Akunna Uka, Site Director

P.S. Interested in hosting the 2020 NPDL Tournament of Champions? No later than April 1, 2019, please complete this form.