Judge Information

Judging Information

Judging Obligations

It is the responsibility of the school’s moderator to ensure that its judges have the appropriate training and experience to adjudicate at this tournament.  At a minimum, all judges should be high school (or equivalent) graduates and should have at least several years of involvement in the applicable event.

School affiliated judges are obligated for all rounds (preliminary, runoff and elimination rounds) through the first elimination round for Policy, LD and Public Forum Debates, and, all elimination rounds when your students are competing and one additional elimination round beyond the last elimination round of your students’ competition.  In Speech, judges are obligated for all rounds.  

Other than speech events, fees for missed rounds will be assessed $75 per preliminary round and $100 per runoff and elimination round, Fees for missed speech rounds will be assessed at $50 per preliminary round and $75 per elimination round.  Excessive missed rounds may result in additional penalties. 

Judging Philosophies

All Policy, LD and Public Forum judges must post reasonably detailed judging philosophies prior to preferences and strikes opening and should be done at least one week in advance.  At the discretion of the tournament, failure to post an adequate judging philosophy will make that judge ineligible and result in the removal of that judge from the school's entry.  Schools will not be able to enter judge prefs to the extent philosophies are not posted.

Hired Judges

There will be a limited pool of hired judging available. Schools are encouraged to request hired judges early and preference will be given to schools traveling great distances.

Policy Debate:                            $50 per round

Lincoln-Douglas Debate:             $50 per round

Public Forum Debate:                  $300 per judge

Congressional Debate:                $200 per judge

Speech Events:                          $150 for judge

Other Information

Schools may make judge name changes in Policy, LD or Public Forum until 9:00 p.m. NY time on October 10. NO EXCEPTIONS.  The tournament will release MPJ and strike sheets shortly thereafter.  Any judge change for those events afterwards will make the judge ineligible which may result in a missed judge penalty or entries being ineligible to compete.

All judges must have their accounts set up before registration.  In tabroom, all judges will be required to provide a cell phone and email where they may be reached during the time they judge at the tournament.