This year the Franklin R. Shirley will be held online. We had held out announcing this in the hopes that it might be possible to host some element of in-person debates. However, the University is not allowing guests of campus to enter classroom buildings for the foreseeable future. Hosting in-person does not seem to be an option.

We have several highlights of the Shirley that will remain:

1 - Gary Larson running the tabroom including the preference adjustment system. If any judge wishes to self-identify please indicate on this form.

2 - Awesome competition 

3 - Room for as many Varsity teams as you can bring

4 - Wake hospitality - Yes, we will do an awards ceremony and hope to potentially send some hospitality your way.

5 - Yes breaking brackets. Breaking Bracket procedure can be found here.

6 - Coordinated Graduate School Interest - If you have debaters potentially interested in learning about graduate schools. Please have them fill this form out. We will notify all directors of these programs with a list immediately before and after the tournament.

Some New Elements:

1 - 6 prelims with triples - We are finalizing the schedule. For planning purposes; we anticipate releasing pairings at approximately 1:30 PM EST on Friday. The combination of difficulty getting early morning Friday rooms and expression that 8 rounds was too much in an online world, led us to believe that a 6 round schedule while not completely alleviating room conflicts or burn-out would be a little bit better. 

2 - Return of a First Year Quarterfinals Break-Out (concurrent with Doubles) and First-year Speaker Awards - First Year Speaker and Team Form can be filled out here.

3 - Coin-Flips for Elims in the Online world - Make no mistake, we believe in the value of side-equalization and want it the minute we return to an in-person world. However, last year we found communicating potential sides was simply too difficult when coaches had questions. This was made even more complicated when breaking brackets came into play.

Helpful Links:

- Fees can be paid here.

Looking forward!!!