Debate Coaches Invitational

DEBATE COACHES INVITATIONAL

2024 DCI and DCI Silver

Qualifications:

In order to attend DCI, students and coaches will need to enter through tabroom, and also submit an application with their season results. All teams that are entered on tabroom will be contacted with the application. Teams must be entered on Tabroom to declare their desire to attend by December 11. Applications will be sent out that afternoon, and applications will need to be submitted by December 13. The top 20 teams by cumulative DCI bids will be automatically admitted to the tournament. The remaining 4 teams will be selected via an at-large process by the DCI committee. The field of 24 teams will be announced on December 14.

In the event of a tie in bid count that would result in more than 20 teams being admitted via bid count, all teams involved in the tie will not be automatically admitted. Instead, all teams involved in the tie will be treated as at-large entries and evaluated by the DCI committee. So if there is a 4 way tie with 14 bids for entries 18-21, only 17 teams will be automatically admitted and those teams with 14 bids will be considered at-large entries. Any teams that enter the DCI division but are not selected to compete at DCI will be placed in the DCI Silver division.

Judging:

Schools will be required to bring 1 judge for every team that is admitted to DCI. Each judge will adjudicate a maximum of 3 debates, so that they have time to write thorough comments in tabroom. Judges should have ample debate experience and be capable of providing feedback to students in written format. Judges are not permitted to disclose decisions. If they are reported for disclosing their decisions, schools will be fined and the judge will be removed from the pool.

Fees and Awards:

Fees will be $50 per entry. In addition to out-rounds participants, every student will receive a custom medal. Additional awards include speaker awards and an engravable traveling trophy to the tournament victor. Entry fees will also cover the luncheon which will be provided by the tournament.

Format & Logistics:

DCI - The tournament will be split into four different pods with 6 teams each. Each pod will have a round robin format, with 5 preliminary debates, 3 on Friday and 2 on Saturday. Following preliminary debates, the top two teams from each pod will advance to a quarterfinal. In preliminary debates, there will be 1 judge in each room. Elim panels will consist of 3 judges each. In preliminary rounds, tab is closed, which means that no decisions should be released to students and all feedback should be provided via tabroom. Elimination rounds will announce results in the room and give oral reasons for decision (along with any comments that judges would like to provide via tabroom). Due to the round robin format of this tournament, each school will be able to receive a maximum of 4 teams in the DCI division. Any additional teams outside of your top 4 applicants will be moved to DCI Silver.

DCI Silver - This tournament will have 5 preliminary rounds. Following preliminary rounds, the tournament will break to a quarterfinal round. DCI Silver has open tab and can have oral feedback from judges throughout the tournament. We reserve the right to change elimination round format based on the size of the field in DCI Silver (we may do 6 prelims and semifinals or some other format based on the total number of entries).

Administration:

The committee responsible for administering the DCI consists of Brian Box, Carolyn Cook, Tim Ellis, Ryan McFarland, and Larry Swanson.

We look forward to seeing you and your students in January! If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact any DCI committee members