Welcome to Big Lex 2023...the first IN PERSON Big Lex since 2020!

As we get closer to the tournament additional information will be posted here, and eventually in our Live Doc, but here are the highlights!

1) We have secured a block of rooms at the Burlington Marriott (the same hotel we used before the pandemic). The Marriott has agreed to honor the same room rate as the guests paid in 2020 (which I promise you is an amazing deal). The block rooms will include free breakfast and the newly renovated restaurant will also be open for dinner.

2) Adult Judges and coaches will be invited to dine in our judge's lounges for lunch and dinner on Saturday and Sunday (and there will be breakfast items for those not dining in the hotel). Students (including student judges) will be able to purchase concessions items for breakfast (if they did not eat in the hotel or at home) and will be served lunch and dinner on Saturday and Sunday at no cost, with meals provided by the school's food service, except for Sunday night's pizza and other things party.

3) We will offer six prelims in all events -- Varsity Policy, Novice Policy Packet, Novice Policy Open, Varsity LD, Novice LD, Varsity PF, Novice PF -- and will break as many 4-2s as possible, given the need to finish PF and LD on Sunday and the need not to do more than four policy rounds on either Saturday or Sunday. The last of the Policy Elims will finish on Monday.

4) We are planning to hold all events at Lexington High School THIS year.

5) We anticipate that food and awards costs will be up this year, but we have attempted to hold the line on entry fees by keeping the LD fees at pre-pandemic levels and regularizing the team event fees at a level marginally above some events and marginally below others.

6) Everyone probably knows how hard it is to find in-person judges this season, and we fear we will face similar issues so we beg and most enthusiastically implore you to bring as many of your own judges as possible. We will not be able to completely cover a school's judging obligation in any event and will not be able to provide hired judging at all until after we have the cushion every tournament needs to run well, so please don't assume we will be able to grant all or even most of your hired judging requests.

7) We will use Mutually Preferred judging in Varsity LD and Varsity Policy and Judge Strikes in Varsity PF, assuming all of a school's judges have posted paradigms.

Looking forward to seeing you in Lexington in January!

Kaz, Janet and the Lexington Debate Family