You are cordially invited to the Second Annual 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 18 and Saturday, October 19, will feature five preliminary rounds, and will break to quarterfinals. Three of the open preliminary rounds will be “polygon” rounds with adjustments to regular parliamentary debate rules. The Novice division, with four preliminary rounds and a final round, will be Saturday only.

Short URL

polygon.tabroom.com

Varsity Student Survey

http://bit.ly/polygonfeedback

Topic Announcements

http://bit.ly/polygontopics

Equity Complaint Form

Our equity officer is Sierra Maciorowski. If you have an equity complaint, please fill out this form:

http://bit.ly/polygoncomplaints

Protests

If you want to file a protest, write down what happened and what rule was violated, give the protest form to your coach and have them bring it to tab. Your protest will be assigned to Sierra Maciorowski, Joel Jacobs, and/or Artem Raskin.

Schedule

(all rounds are single-flighted)

Open - Friday, October 18

4:00PM - 4:30PM  Registration (Library)

4:30PM - 4:40PM  Judge Instructions (Library)

4:40PM  Round 1 topic announcement (Cafeteria)

6:10PM  Round 2 topic announcement

7:40PM - 8:00PM  Dinner

8:00PM  Round 3 topic announcement

Open - Saturday, October 19

9:10-9:20 Coach check-in (Library)

9:20AM - 9:30AM Judge Instructions (Library)

9:30AM  Round 4 topic announcement

11:00AM  Round 5 topic announcement

11:20AM Everyone must leave cafeteria by this time and pick up their belongings. Polygon will not have access to the Cafeteria after this time.

12:30PM - 12:40PM gather in the Amphitheater (outside the Cafeteria)

12:40PM - 1:10PM  Lunch

1:10PM  Quarterfinals topic announcement (prep in Room 22)

2:40PM Semifinals topic announcement

4:10PM - 4:30PM  Awards

4:30PM Finals topic announcement

Novice - Saturday, October 19

9:10-9:20 Coach check-in (Library)

9:20AM - 9:30AM Judge Instructions (Library)

9:30AM  Round 1 topic announcement (MPR)

11:00AM  Round 2 topic announcement

12:30PM - 1:10PM  Lunch

1:10PM  Round 3 topic announcement

2:40PM Round 4 topic announcement

4:10PM - 4:30PM  Awards

4:30PM Finals topic announcement (prep in Room 22)

Fees

Varsity: $40/entry

Novice: $30/entry

Fines

Late entry: $50/entry in addition to entry fee

Ballot not picked up on time: $50/incident

Ballot not submitted on time: $50/incident

Late payment: $50

There are no drop fines, but entries dropped after October 7 must still pay the entry fee

Payment Instructions

Payment is due October 17. See instructions here:  https://washingtondebate.club/pages/polygon

Chaperones

The on-site chaperon is responsible for checking in their school during the on-site registration Friday, 4PM-4:30PM.

The on-site chaperon must be reachable by the tournament director at all times during the tournament.

Because the on-site chaperon must be available at all times during the tournament, they may not also be entered as a judge. Schools with only 1 or 2 entries may ask the tournament director for an exception at least 1 day prior to the judge entry deadline.

The on-site chaperon is responsible for having on hand the medical forms and parent contact information of all students in attendance.

The on-site chaperon must be able to reach any of their school’s students or judges and escort them to the tab room if needed.

The on-site chaperon must remain on campus for the entire duration of the tournament and ensure that their students and judges do not leave campus.

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.

We will be using online ballots. All judges must have a device that can access the internet.

Coaches are responsible for ensuring that each of their school’s judges has a Tabroom account with working email and text notifications.

Coaches are also responsible for ensuring that their judges familiarize themselves with our judge guide (bit.ly/polygonjudges) prior to the tournament.

Entry Limits

Every school may enter up to 8 entries in Open and up to 8 entries in Novice.

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

In the event that the tournament fills up early, entries will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

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 school entries must compete under the name of the school they attend.

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

Hybrid entries are not allowed. Students from schools that don't have a debate team may request an exemption from this rule.

Each school is allowed one maverick entry in novice. No open maverick entries are allowed.

Independent Entry

For high school students to enter independently, the head coach or school administrator of their school must contact the Tournament Director by October 1 requesting that they be allowed to enter independently and explaining why it is not possible for them to enter as a school. The Tournament Director will then either approve or reject the request. If the request is approved, a $100 processing fee will be added to the invoice.

The parents of each student competing independently will be asked to fill out a waiver. The waiver will be attached to the Tournament Director’s response to the independent entry request.

If students from a school compete as school entries, other students from that school may not simultaneously compete as independent entries.

Independent entries must be entered under “[School Name] Independent”.

Rules

NPDL Rules

Except as specified below, NPDL rules specified in Article XI Section 7.A-D will be used.

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 or use 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 5-minute constructive speech given by the first affirmative speaker

1NF: 2-minute flex time controlled by the negative

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

1AF: 2-minute flex time controlled by the affirmative

1AR: an 7-minute rebuttal speech given by the second affirmative speaker

2NF: 1-minute flex time controlled by the negative

1NR: a 9 minute speech given by the second negation speaker

2AF: 1-minute flex time controlled by the affirmative

2AR: a 5 minute speech given by the first affirmative speaker

Flex time may be used by the controlling team to prepare arguments, have the two partner talk to each other,  and/or cross-examine the other team. In the case of cross-examination, either partner may ask/answer questions.

No POIs in this round. Points of Order allowed in 1NR and 2AR only. In rebuttals, debaters are allowed to make new responses if it is their first opportunity to do so.

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 constructive) or during rebuttals.

Speaker Points

Instead of individual speaker points, judges will be asked to assign an MOV (margin-of-victory) score. MOV measures how close, in the judge’s estimation, the round was. MOV is assigned to a team rather than to each partner individually. The winning team will be assigned an MOV of between 51 and 99. The losing team will be assigned an MOV of between 1 and 49. MOV scores of the two teams must add up to 100. In an average round, the winning team should receive an MOV score of 75, while the losing team should receive an MOV score of 25.

Tiebreaks

1. Winloss score from prelim round(s)  

2. Points score from prelim round(s) , except the 1 best & worst  

3. Points score from prelim round(s) , except the 1 worst  

4. Points score from prelim round(s)  

5. Opp seed score from prelim round(s)  

6. Coinflip score from prelim round(s)

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.

Resolutions

The topic committee will consist of Michael Daugherty, Lilly Hackworth, and Ben Shahar

At least one novice round will use the following topic area: nuclear weapons proliferation

At least one open round will use the following topic area: US visa reform

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: http://bit.ly/polygonmap

Disclaimer

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