On behalf of the New York Parliamentary Debate League, we invite you and your debate team to the New York Parliamentary Debate League January Invitational on March 11th and 12th, 2023. The tournament will be hosted in-person at Friends Seminary in Manhattan, New York City.

1.REGISTRATION

Both team and judge registration is due March 7th, 2023 at 4pm.

We are imposing a cap of 6 entries per school.

2.IN-PERSON NOTES

• The tournament will be hosted at Friends Seminary in New York City.

• School policy states that every school who attends the tournament must be accompanied by at least one responsible adult/chaperone.

• Lunch (pizza) will be provided.

3. LIVE DOC

Live Doc

Please see above for the tournament live doc, where motions, schedule updates, etc. will be posted throughout the tournament.

4.COVID-19 POLICY

** Everybody visiting the building is required to bring proof of vaccination (a picture of a vaccination card suffices).

In light of a recent uptick in COVID, flu, and RSV cases, the DOE and the NYPDL recommend masking indoors.

If you are feeling sick in the lead up to the tournament, please test yourself! We’re relying on an honor system to ensure the health and safety of all participants.

5.JUDGING OBLIGATIONS

** We have judges for hire! Please reach out to us if you would like to be put in contact with a hired judge.

Each team is required to bring one judge for every two teams, rounded unfavorably — if you are bringing three teams, you must bring two judges.

Note: if you are splitting up a single judge role amongst multiple people, you need to have judges present for every round. That means if you have two teams attending a tournament, you need to have judge coverage for 10 rounds. ** Given in-person logistics, we are requiring that any given judge must judge at least 2 rounds.

Judges must be present for all preliminary rounds and the round after their last team has been eliminated from the break. While experienced judges are preferred, judge training is required regardless.

If you are unable to meet the judging requirement, we reserve the right to break up an entry into two judges and/or drop teams from your school. At this tournament, we will be dropping teams who do not supply a sufficient number of judges.

If your judges do not attend judge training, your debaters will not be able to compete.

A judge must be either a) a high school sophomore or older, or b) a high school freshman who has attended at least two high school debate tournaments.

6.SCHEDULE

(All times listed below are in Eastern Standard Time.)

Pre-Round Schedule

• Debaters, coaches, and judges should arrive at 8am for registration. Registration will run until 8:30am.

• General Assembly will be held from 8:30am to 8:45am.

• Judge training will take place from 8:45am to 9:15am.

• There will be an additional judge training during lunch for judges who were unable to attend the morning session or are only judging afternoon rounds.

• Round 1 pairings and motions will be released at 9am. Debaters will then head to their assigned rooms and begin prep while judges finish judge training and navigate to their rooms.

Round Schedule

9:00am - 10:45am: Round 1

11:00am - 12:45pm: Round 2

12:45pm - 1:45pm: Lunch

1:45pm - 3:30pm: Round 3

3:45pm - 5:30pm: Round 4

5:45pm - 7:30pm: Round 5

8:00pm - 8:30pm: Award Ceremony

Sunday (ALL ELIMS ONLINE)

8:30AM - 9:00AM: Check-In and GA

9:15am - 10:45am: Varsity Octofinals/Novice Semifinals

11am - 12:30pm: Varsity Quarterfinals/Novice Final

12:30pm - 1:15pm: Lunch

1:15pm - 2:00pm: Varsity Semifinals

2:00pm - 4:00pm: Varsity Finals

7.BREAKS AND DIVISIONS

This tournament will feature one open division. Varsity and novice teams will debate each other in prelim rounds. Power pairing will start after Round 1. We will break separately to varsity and novice divisions -- most likely varsity octofinals and novice semifinals. Depending on registration size and time, we may adjust breaks.

8. NOVICE DEFINITION

To be a novice, an individual must satisfy both of these conditions:

1. Be a freshman or a sophomore.

2. Be in their first year of high school debate.

9.TEAM COMPOSITION

We encourage teams to consist of two debaters from the same school. However, we allow debaters to compete alone or compete with a debater from another school.

10.RULES

This tournament will be held in the format established by the American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA). We will release three resolutions 15 minutes prior to the start of each round. The resolution and side will be determined by coin toss. For more information about Parli rules please visit our Resources page, where you can find informational YouTube videos, the Vassar style guide, our Rules FAQs document, and more. If you would like to have a Zoom meeting with a member of the NYPDL board for more in-depth training or an overview of the league and our debate format, please email us at nyparli@gmail.com.

11.POINTS

This tournament will count for NYPDL and NPDL (National Parliamentary Debate League) points. Please visit our website for more information about NYPDL points, the NPDL Tournament of Champions, and the NYPDL championship.

Please reach out to molly.bordoff23@trinityschoolnyc.org or nyparli@gmail.com with questions.