Dear Debate Directors, Coaches, Friends, and Colleagues:

The UNLV Debate Team is pleased to invite your school to the UNLV Golden Desert Debate Tournament.  The tournament will be hosted on the campus of the UNLV February 2-4, 2019.  We pledge to offer incredible high-level debate competition, reasonable fees, world famous Las Vegas style hospitality, and a tournament run efficiently, on-time, and fairly.

This year our tournament will have varsity and novice divisions in policy debate and Lincoln-Douglas debate and a varsity division in public forum debate and (NEW THIS YEAR!) Congressional Debate. Tournament registration will be held exclusively on Tabroom.com. The TOC Advisory Committees have designated the Golden Desert as a qualifier at the quarterfinals level in Policy Debate and Gold Public Forum debate, the octofinals level in Silver Public Forum Debate, and the semifinals level in Lincoln-Douglas debate. 

All entries will be placed on a wait list until all fees are paid; the earlier you register for the wait list AND pay, the earlier I can confirm your entry and you can proceed with other arrangements.  Being on the wait list does not guarantee your entry in the tournament; payment does.  Please do not make plane reservations until I have removed all of your teams from the wait list. The Golden Desert Debate Tournament has $200 per school fee, which we happily will waive if you stay at one of our tournament hotels, or if you are a Clark County, NV school. 

Once again, we plan to honor one coach as the "Ted Belch Coach and Educator of the Year." Information about this award and its selection criteria appears later in this invitation.

We look forward to welcoming you to FABULOUS LAS VEGAS in early February.  Please contact me directly if you have questions.

Dr. Jacob Thompson, and the UNLV Debate Team

Tournament Director UNLV Golden Desert Tournament

Director, UNLV Debate Team

Associate Professor in Residence

Department of Communication Studies

Greenspun College of Urban Affairs

University of Nevada, Las Vegas