Event Procedures & Information

General:

Both events will follow the 8-3-5 time convention for speeches and CX, and have 10 minutes of preparation time for all debates. Decision time for preliminary rounds is 2 hours after the scheduled start time. Decision time for elimination rounds is 2 hours and 15 minutes after the scheduled start time.

Both events will debate the 2024-25 NFHS Policy Debate resolution: The United States federal government should significantly strengthen its protection of domestic intellectual property rights in copyrights, patents, and/or trademarks.

All elimination rounds will use online coinflips, except in debates where sides are locked. Coinflips will blast 5 minutes after pairings, and the winner of the flip will have 5 minutes to decide. If they don't then the loser gets 5 minutes to decide, then its up for grabs. Given the 5 minute period before the flip, it is intended that disclosure happens promptly before the flip so the winner can make an informed decision.

Varsity Policy:

Varsity will consist of 6 preliminary rounds, breaking all 4-2s up to a full Double-Octafinals. If there are more than 32 teams with a winning record, we will not adjust the schedule, and will only break the top 32 teams based on seeding.

Schools are obligated to provide 3 rounds of judging for every entry in the Varsity division. Schools should be able to provide judging for every elimination round they are participating in, plus one full elimination round beyond their team's elimination from the tournament. This means that if Doubles is a partial elimination round, all judges are obligated for Octafinals on Sunday morning, schools with entries dropping in Octafinals are obligated for Quarterfinals, and so on...

Varsity will use ordinal mutually preferred judging, with placement being based on a judge's percentile rating. Preference sheets will open the Tuesday evening prior to the tournament, and close at noon on Friday. Preference weights prioritize mutuality over ranking, which means we care more about ensuring a mutually ranked judge instead of a highly ranked judge. So, a judge that is a 32%-36% match will be preferred over a 5%-24% match.

We will use strike cards in all elimination rounds from Quarters onwards, as judging allows. Each team will be allowed one strike. As we get further through the tournament, and judging becomes sparser, we may sacrifice mutual preference for more strikes. Strike cards will be online, and will blast 10 minutes before the pairing. Once all strike cards are in, the pairing will be blasted. Any extra time will be treated as pre-round prep, and round start times will not be adjusted if strike cards are submitted early.

We will host a Second Year Breakout division, ran concurrently with Octafinals and Quarterfinals. All teams consisting of debaters in their first and second year of debate, who are not competing in Octafinals, are eligible to compete. Schools may only have one team compete in the breakout division. All entries eligible should be marked as such during registration. Judges will still be placed using preference sheets, and if judging permits, we will offer a strike card for Finals of the breakout round. The list of teams competing in the Breakout division will be announced via email at the conclusion of Doubles, as teams that dropped in Doubles will be eligible to compete.

Novice Policy:

Novice will consist 6 preliminary debates, breaking all 4-2s up to a full Octafinals. If there are more than 16 teams with a winning record, we may consider breaking to a partial Double-Octafinals. This decision will be based on final entry numbers prior to the tournament, and will be communicated with sufficient time prior.

Schools are required to provide 3 rounds of judging per Novice entry. The first three rounds of judging must be eligible to judge Varsity level debates. The rest of your judging can be current high school students who are only eligible to judge novice debates. Upon registration, any judges who are current HS studentsmust be marked as such with the required registration question. These judges will internally be excluded from the Varsity preference sheet.

Novice will not be using mutually preferred judging, nor will it be using strike cards in elimination rounds. Judging for all debates will be determined after judges are set for Varsity rounds. Judge panels for all debates ran concurrently with Varsity elimination rounds that have strike cards will be determined AFTER all strike cards are entered for that Varsity debate.