***Novice update #2*** It has become evident that the Kansas novice caselist for the affirmative coupled with a limited set of evidence for the negative creates some challenges. Namely, the affirmative is able to read advantages that they can accurately predict the negative does not have answers to. For educational reasons, we have decided that at the Washburn Rural Invitational, affirmatives will be limited to the advantage areas covered in the negative packet. If you read an advantage that is outside of a the negative packet areas, you will be given an automatic loss.

**update** I can't read my own survey results for the Kansas novice cases. I was off by a line and we actually voted for removing mandatory minimums, not qualified immunity. The invite has been updated to reflect this.**

We cordially invite you to attend the 2020 Washburn Rural Invitational Debate Tournament, to be held on September 18th, 19th and 20th using the NSDA campus platform for online debates. There will be no in person competition available. The tournament will feature 3 divisions: varsity, open, and novice. 

We are pleased to announce that our varsity division has been labeled as a qualifying opportunity for the Tournament of Champions if a team reaches the final round. This year, due to the online format and the potential for the division to become too large, teams will be limited to four entries in varsity. There will be six preliminary rounds of debate in this division, which will occur on Friday and Saturday. Elimination debates, beginning with octafinals as currently scheduled, will be held on Sunday. Varsity is a designated DCI division, which means that teams from Kansas will be eligible to receive bids to the Debate Coaches Invitational in January.

Participating schools will be required to submit 3 rounds of judging for each entry they place in the varsity division. In the event that schools cannot acquire enough rounds of judging, they may hire qualified judges through the host tournament’s judging pool for 25 dollars per round. Judges must be submitted by the Monday the tournament begins so that we can open judge prefs. Prefs must be entered by noon on Friday before debating begins. If your preferences are not in by that time, you will not be eligible to submit them later. All judges will be obligated for the octafinals on Sunday morning, but a judge list of potential judges will be released on Saturday night. Additionally, judges are obligated one round past when their school is eliminated, even if it means returning to the tournament for an extra day. Medals will be awarded to all teams that clear and the top 10 speakers in this division. We will not have trophies this year due to shipping costs, but will mail medals.

Open division is meant for those students who are less experienced and/or less technical than the varsity division. Students interested in a more traditional style of debate with less experienced judges will find that the open division offers them great competition and the type of debates they are looking for. Please don’t load up this division with kids who belong in varsity division. We intend to use entirely community judges (mostly parents) or former debaters who preferred this style of debate to judge this division. Because we are the first tournament of the year in Kansas, and also because we are utilizing an online platform to train these community judges for the first time, we ask that you are patient with us as we navigate this process. Open division will feature six preliminary rounds, and will not have elimination debates this year, due to time constraints. In this division, medals will be given to the top 8 teams and the top 8 individual speakers. We will not have trophies this year due to shipping costs, but will mail medals. The open division will only hold debates on Friday and Saturday and will follow a completely different schedule than the varsity division. Schools WILL NOT be required to submit judges for the open division.

Novice division will take place on Saturday only and will be limited to those students who have not participated in debate prior to this season. It will be four rounds. In this division, medals will be given to the top 8 teams and the top 8 individual speakers. We will not have trophies this year due to shipping costs, but will mail medals. 

The novice division will use the Kansas novice caselist affirmative areas, and will utilize a negative packet of evidence. All final choices about evidence used on the negative at the tournament will be made by September 1st to allow adequate time for preparation. The five affirmative cases that may be run in the novice division at our invitational are: 

1) abolish the death penalty

2) decriminalize marijuana

3) defund the police

4) end mandatory minimums

5) juvenile sentencing reform

Affirmatives should attempt to not be intentional subsets of these areas. The purpose of the negative caselist is to have predictable debates for novices, not for you to surprise people so that your students can win more debates. If the tournament hosts deem that a plan is intentionally outside of the caselist area, you will receive a loss in the debate. If you have questions about whether or not an affirmative is allowed, please reach out.

All divisions will be power-matched, with two pre-set rounds. Sweepstakes will be based on the school with the best four team record, with at least two entries in varsity division. Schools can feel free to enter as many teams as they would like at our invitational tournament in the open and novice divisions, but will be capped at four in varsity with additional entries waitlisted.  

In the varsity division, entry fees will be $20.00 per team. In the open and novice division, entry fees are $6.00 per team. Entry fees for the tournament are designed only to cover the cost of medals and hosting on the NSDA campus platform.

We are looking forward to seeing you as the season begins.

Sincerely,

Tim Ellis                                            Sean Duff                                                      

Head Debate Coach                       Assistant Director of Debate

Email: ellistim@usd437.net

Schedule (tentative)

All times reported for schedules will be in Central time.

In the open division, we decided to stagger rounds a bit more on Friday than on Saturday, largely because it is the first tournament of the year and we imagine some judges and students will require a bit more time to navigate the technological aspects of online debate.

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to email.