2017 SDSU “Aztec/Mills Invitational”

Oct 6-8, 2017

Dear Friends and Community Members,

It is with great pleasure that San Diego State University, the SDSU School of Communication, and Palomar College invite you to the 2017 Aztec/Mills Invitational.   

For the first time, we will be hosting the Mills Invitational on Friday at Palomar College and the Aztec Invitational will be at SDSU on Saturday and Sunday. We have worked very hard to ensure optimal schedules to accommodate teams traveling from Palomar to SDSU.

Our hope is that this format advances your students towards their national-circuit goals over the span of one weekend.

This year the tournaments feature:

·         2 IE Tournaments (Fri and Sat)

·         4 prelim rounds of IPDA and NFA LD with 2 Elims (Fri)

·         6 prelim rounds of NPDA debate (Sat-Sun, breaking to doubles if warranted).

·         4 rounds of rookie NPDA debate (Fri)

·         6 prelim rounds of WUDC “Worlds” debate (Sat and Sun)

·         5 prelim rounds of CEDA/NDT debate (Sat and Sun)

Open and Novice divisions will be offered in all respective events, where warranted.

Registration

Mills Tournament

Registration on Friday will take place in H-212 at 9am.

Aztec Tournament

Saturday and Sunday registration will from 7am-9am in front of the Little Theatre near the grassy plaza.

General Guidelines

Tournament Rules – AFA, NFA, WUDC, CEDA/NDT, and NPDA regulations will govern their respective divisions, unless specified elsewhere in this invitation.
 In NPDA debate, hybrid teams and three-person teams may compete.  In WUDC debate and CEDA hybrid teams may participate.

PLEASE NOTE:  In NPDA, no person who has competed for ten (10) or more semesters or has competed at NPDA or NPTE in four (4) different years may compete.

In IEs, no person who has competed for eight (8) or more semesters or has competed at a collegiate national tournament in four (4) different years may compete.

Divisions

The SDSU Aztec/Mills Invitational will offer novice and open divisions of all reasonably populated IEs and debate events (see policy BELOW on collapsing divisions with less than 6 competitors).

Students are considered to be novices in individual events when:

1. They are in their first year (defined as first two semesters of collegiate or high school individual event competition), and

2. They have not placed third or higher in a similar event (Public Address, Interpretation or Limited Preparation) two or more times in any division including high school. For example, a student may be novice in interpretation, but be open in public address events.

 3.“Open” will be reserved for competitors of any year or level (assuming THEY ARE still eligible by national standards), and does not require unique qualification.

4.  In “Rookie” NPDA debate no person who has competed in a tournament either prior to or during college will be eligible (the Cool Off being the only exception).

Entry Procedure-- Entries will be accepted electronically at http://www.forensicstournament.net. Registration must be completed by 11:00 pm on Tuesday October 3, 2017. After that, email all changes to bwhearty@palomar.edu.

Entry Limits- Participants will be limited to a maximum of 3 events per pattern in both tournaments.  It is the sole responsibility of the participants to check in to rooms on time, write names and school codes on the board, communicate with judges, and make it to rounds within the time allotted.  Late arrivals who have not “checked-in” will be subject to an automatic drop. 

IE Patterns/Scheduling –

Pattern A = EXT, INFO, ADS, PRO, POE

Pattern B = IMP, PER, CA, DI, POI, DUO

Pattern C = IPDA/NFA LD

Pattern D = NPDA

Pattern E = CEDA/NDT

Pattern F = WUDC 

Lower Entry Fees/Financial Information

Fees will be assessed at noon on Wednesday, October 4th. In addition to a $25.00 school fee, the following fees will be assessed for students competing in the tournament:

1. $10.00 per IE slot.

2. $65.00 per Team Debate slot (BP, NPDA, CEDA/NDT).

3. $ 25.00 per IPDA or LD competitor.

All checks, cash, or money orders for both tournaments should be made payable to: Palomar College for the Mills portion of swing (Friday at Palomar) and SDSU Forensics Team for the Aztec portion (Saturday and Sunday at SDSU).

Judge/Critic/Adjudicator Information

Judging Commitment

·         One judge can cover up to two NPDA debate teams.

·         One judge can cover up to two CEDA/NDT debate teams.

·         One judge can cover two IPDA debaters –OR– up to five IE slots per pattern.

·         The same judge cannot cover both Individual Events and IPDA Debate. Please specify whether a judge should be placed in the IPDA pool OR the IE pool when registering.

·         In BP format debate, the adjudicator requirement is n-1 (e.g., 4 teams would require 3 judges).

Please note:

·         Debate judges are needed through the second elimination round, and one round beyond the squad’s elimination.

·         IE judges are committed through finals.

Meeting this commitment is essential for these tournaments.

Available Judges

We REALLY want you to bring your judges and will pay any of your judges HOLDING A bachelor’s degree $15.00 per round for judging beyond their commitment. Please alert us to judges who are willing to judge beyond their commitment.

Uncovered judge fees will be assessed on the following basis:

1. $20.00 per IE slot

2. $75.00 per IPDA slot

3. $100 per Team Debate Slot (BP, NPDA, CEDA/NDT)

Please bring judges!!!

Schedule for both tournaments

Friday Schedule (Mills Invitational)

10:00 11:20 RD 1 Pattern A, IPDA Round 1, LD Round 1, Rookie Rd. 1

11:30-12:50 RD 2 Pattern A, IPDA Round 2, LD Round 2, Rookie Rd. 2

1:00-2:20 RD 1 Pattern B, IPDA Round 3, LD Round 3, Rookie Rd. 3

2:30-3:00 Break

3:00 – 4:20 RD 2 Pattern B, IPDA 4, LD Round 4, Rookie Rd. 4

4:30-5:50 Finals Pattern A, IPDA Elim 1, LD Elim 1

6:00-7:20 Finals Pattern B, IPDA Elim2, LD Elim 2

7:30/ASAP Awards Ceremony

Saturday Schedule (Aztec Invitational)

IE Portion (late start time)     BP (late start time)        CEDA (late start time)

10:00 11:20 RD 1 Pattern A            10:00-12:00 RD 1 BP           10:00-12:00 CEDA 1

11:30-12:50 RD 2 Pattern A            12:00-2:00 RD 2 BP            12:00-2:00 CEDA 2

1:00-2:20 RD 1 Pattern B                           2:00-3:00 – BP/CEDA Lunch

2:30-3:00 Break                               3:00-5:00 – RD 3 BP          3:00-530pm CEDA 3

3:00 – 4:20 RD 2 Pattern B           5:00-7:00- RD 4 BP             530-730 CEDA 4

4:30-5:50 Finals Pattern A                       

6:00-7:20 Finals Pattern B                       

7:30/ASAP Awards Ceremony

 NPDA Debate Portion (8:00am start time)

8:00-9:20 RD 1 NPDA                               

9:30-10:50 RD 2 NPDA                             

11:00-12:20 RD 3 NPDA                           

12:30-1:30 NPDA Lunch                           

1:30- 2:45 RD 4 NPDA                               

3:00- 4:30- RD 5 NPDA                             

5:00-6:30- RD 6 NPDA

Sunday Schedule (Aztec Invitational)

NPDA                                                  BP                                        CEDA

8:00-9:30 –NPDA Partial Octos     9:00-11:00 RD 5 BP,          9:00- 12:00 CEDA Rd 5

9:40-11:00 – NPDA Octos;             11:00-1:00 RD 6 BP             12:00-3:00 CEDA Elim 1

11:10-12:30 – NPDA Quarters       1:00-3:00 – BP Elim 1         3:00-6:00- CEDA Elim 2   

12:40-2:00 – NPDA Semis             3:00-5:00- BP Elim 2                      Awards ASAP

2:10-3:35 – NPDA Finals               Awards ASAP                       

4:00- Awards/ASAP                                               

Tournament Specifics

Limited Preparation Events

This year, impromptu will be “AFA-style,” with the same two quotations used for each new round, with speakers waiting outside the room for their turn to enter and perform.   Additionally, extemporaneous speakers will be allowed full use of the internet, and not restricted to hardcopy, or digital files. **Please register under Guest with SDSU wireless.

Policy on Collapsing Divisions

If there are fewer than six (6) entries in an event, it may be collapsed into the next highest division. If this occurs, top novices will be recognized at the Awards Ceremony.  

ELIMINATION ROUNDS/IE’s 

Criteria for Elimination Round – IN NOVICE, any event with less than seven (7) contestants may not have a final round. For events with 7 or more competitors competing in all preliminary rounds, a final round will be held.

In OPEN, a final round of less than seven (7) contestants will STILL be held in each event.

Advancement to Elimination Rounds – No more than half of the field will be advanced to finals. Students will be rank ordered first by lowest cumulative rankings, and then by the highest cumulative ratings. 

Advancement in Elimination Rounds - Students will be rank ordered first by lowest cumulative rankings in the final round, then by judge’s preference and finally by the highest cumulative ratings in the final round and preliminary rounds.

PROCEDURAL ISSUES/NPDA

Novice- To be classified as a novice:

·         The student should have no high school debate experience.

·         The student should be in the first two semesters of

collegiate debate.

·         Once the student has advanced to elimination rounds more

than 3 times, the student should be advanced to the junior

or open division.

Disclosure – Disclosure is at the judge’s discretion. Oral critiques are fine but please keep on schedule!

Preliminary Rounds –

·         Power-matching for all preliminary rounds will be high-low in win-loss brackets.

·         When brackets are uneven, teams from the middle of the lower bracket will be pulled up to the next bracket.

·         Rounds One and Two will be random-matched.

·         Rounds Three and Four will be power-matched based upon the results of all previous rounds.

Elimination Rounds - Advancement to and seeding in elimination rounds will be first based upon record, followed by total speaker points, then adjusted speaker points, next by opposition record, and finally by Z-Score.

Per NPDA rules, brackets WILL be broken in elimination rounds.

PROCEDURAL ISSUES/CEDA

We will have five preliminary rounds on the 2017-2018 CEDA resolution with appropriate numbers of elimination rounds per division.  There will be three divisions (Novice/Junior/Open).  We will follow CEDA rules for eligibility.  If collapsing of divisions is warranted, it will be our priority to maintain a pure novice division.  Time limits will be 9-3-6 with 10 minutes of prep. Rounds 1 and 2 will be preset, 3 and 4 will be lagged off 1 and 2, and 5 will be powered separately. Teams will advance to elimination rounds based on the following criteria: win/loss, total speaker points, adjusted speaker points, double-adjusted speaker points, and ranks. Brackets will not be broken. Policy debaters will not be able to participate in individual events. One critic covers two debate teams. We will use ordinal ranking for judge preference.  A policy critic cannot judge IE’s or Parli or BP, since they will be run concurrently. Hybrid teams will be allowed on a case-by-case basis. 

PROCEDURAL ISSUES/WUDC

Preliminary Rounds

·         Power-matching for all preliminary rounds will be compliant with WUDC procedures (Round 1 randomized, Rounds 2+ power-matched)

Preparation Time

·         In compliance with the WUDC guidelines, competitors are not allowed to use electronic devices during prep time. Also, competitors are not allowed to prep with their coaches and other staff.

Novice Division

·         A novice speaker is a speaker that has competed in intercollegiate speech and debate (aka Forensics) for less than one calendar year (12 months).

·         We will have awards for the top novice team as well as the top novice speaker.

·         To register your team/speakers as novice, you must contact the tab director by the end of the first day of the tournament.

AWARDS

·         All finalists for IEs and all advancing debate teams will receive awards for each respective tournament.

·         WUDC will be giving awards to finalists, semifinalists, top speaker, top novice speaker, and top community college team.

·         Additionally, sweepstakes awards will be issued to the top 3 institutions for debate and the top 3 institutions for IEs.  These awards will be given separately for 2-year and 4-year divisions.  

·         Combined tournament sweepstakes awards will be offered for top 2-year school and top 4-year school competing in both tournaments.

·       Finally, a limited amount of speaker awards will be issued for all debate events, with no less than the top-5 speakers in each respective division, recognized.

Sweepstakes Awards

Sweepstakes Points – Points will be assigned by this formula:

Event: 1st Place, 2nd Place, 3rd/SF, 4th/QF, Finalist/OF

·         BP: 20 (Top Team), 10 (Finalist Teams), 6 (Semifinalist Teams)

·         NPDA*: 20, 16, 12, 8, 4

·         CEDA: 20, 16, 12, 8, 4

·         IE’s: 10, 8, 6, 4, 2

·         IPDA/LD: 7, 5, 2- Bronze and LD format

·         Duo: 10, 8, 6, 4, 2

SPECIAL AWARDS

Dr. Paul Gaske Award (SDSU): This monetary award is given in memory of a former SDSU Director of Forensics, who sought to blur the lines between debate and individual event competition.  This award is given to the single top-performer competing in any version of team debate and also in individual events in the Aztec Invitational.

Dr. Patrick Mills Award (Palomar): This award is given in memory of the greatest limited prep speaker to ever compete for SDSU. Dr. Mills served as a Professor of Communication at Palomar for over 26 years.  This award is presented to the top limited preparation speaker in the Mills Invitational.

NPDA Debate Information

NPDA Central Topic Announcement –

Mills: Location of the topic announce will be in the courtyard of the MD building.

Aztec: NPDA topics will be announced in front of the Little Theatre outside of Hepner Hall and the School of Communication, near the grassy plaza where registration was held. Debaters will be given 20 minutes from the time the topic is announced, to make it to their room.  Participants should take care to know the main buildings on campus, utilize the maps that will be issued, and take advantage of the many students who will be directing competitors to their assigned buildings.

LOGISTICS

Parking –

Mills: All parking for the Aztec Invitational will take place in Lot 12.

Aztec: All parking for the Aztec Invitational will occur in Parking 12 (formerly PS-4), where no special passes are required, and ticketing will not occur.  Please refer to map (embedded in the invite below) for specific location and directions. NOTE: If you choose to park in a different lot, you must purchase a parking pass or you will be subject to receiving a ticket.

Food

Food will be supplied to all judges, adjudicators, and tournament staff. Afternoon Pizza will be supplied to competitors on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Please plan accordingly for any special dietary restrictions and note that there are NO supermarkets in the immediate vicinity around the campus.

Lodging

There is no official tournament hotel.  Please take advantage of the off-season hotel and motel packages throughout the area.  

Nearby Lodging Suggestions:

Mills: Please see link for comparison of nearby lodging options, current availability, and discount inquiries (e.g., AAA, Veteran Status, and other affiliated discounts at:  https://www.tripadvisor.com/HotelsNear-g33028-d8268772-Palomar_College-San_Marcos_California.html

Aztec: Please see link for a comparison of nearby lodging options, current availability, and discount inquiries (e.g., AAA, Veteran Status, and other affiliated discounts at:  http://www.hotels.com/de1653953/hotels-near-san-diego-state-university-san-diego-united-states-of-america/

We hope you consider attending the 2017 Aztec Invitational and Mills Invitational taking place on the Palomar College campus on Friday and the SDSU campus on Saturday and Sunday.  These tournaments are sure to provide incredible early-season competitive experience and point opportunities to schools that choose to attend.

We look forward to seeing you and your squad in San Diego in October!  

Sincerely,

Marquesa Cook-Whearty, MA

Mills Invitational Tournament Director

Assistant Director of Forensics  

Palomar College

Email: mcookwhearty@palomar.edu

Jason Edgar

Aztec Invitational Tournament Director

Director of Forensics SDSU

School of Communication

Email:

Appendix A: Campus Map

Printable map of Palomar College:

http://www2.palomar.edu/telescope/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/campus-map-10_23_14-3.pdf

Printable SDSU Colored Map Link: https://sunspot.sdsu.edu/map/sdsu_map.pdf

*As always, maps and more detailed information about tournament navigation will be issued to teams at registration.