We are pleased to announce the invitation to participate in the Gotham Scrimmage at New School University to be held from January 28-29, 2017.   This year's policy debate tournament will feature five preliminary rounds of competition for novice teams and six prelim rounds for open teams.  We reserve the right to collapse divisions.  We will be debating the following. Resolved: The United States Federal Government should establish a domestic climate policy, including at least substantially increasing restrictions on private sector emissions of greenhouse gases in the United States.  We will be using a 30-point scale with a tenth of a point increments (e.g. 27.1, 27.2 etc) on individual speaking scores. 

Our tournament is CEDA sanctioned and will comply with CEDA’s Statement on Sexual Harassment and Discrimination and the Statement of Ethical Principles.  Time limits for speeches are 9-3-6 with ten minutes of preparation time.  Rounds one and two will be pre-determined and rounds three through six will be power matched.  Each school is responsible for securing three rounds of judging for every team registered at the tournament.  A limited number of judges can be hired for $40 per round.

NYU has agreed to help with logistics, tabulation and coordination of this event.   The primary purpose of this tournament is to serve the needs of the Northeast community by providing as a learning tournament for newer debaters who have had few, if any, chances to debate in the Fall.  If there is sufficient demand, we will provide entries to open teams that need additional rounds to meet eligibility requirements for Districts.    In that event, novices will be protected for the first two debates and a separate breakout will be held following prelims..  

If you have any questions, please contact Vik Keenan by e-mail at vikeenan@gmail.com. 

SATURDAY JANUARY 28TH

9:00  REGISTRATION

9:45  ROUND 1

12:00 LUNCH

1:00  ROUND 2

3:15  ROUND 3

5:30 ROUND 4

SUNDAY JANUARY 29TH

8:00   BREAKFAST

8:30    ROUND 5

10:45  ROUND 6/ 1ST NOVICE ELIMS

12:45   LUNCH

1:15   AWARDS

2:15  ELIMS

5:00  ELIMS