Tournament Details

THE TOURNAMENT

Our goal is to provide the finest hospitality with the most competitive policy debate experience available. We are certain that our many hospitality offerings and quality of awards will assure you that we are not profit-oriented.

There will be six preliminary rounds beginning with two presets and one power-matched (high-low, within brackets) round on Saturday and three power-matched (high-low, within brackets) rounds on Sunday. An awards ceremony and elimination rounds beginning with the octafinals will commence on Monday morning. Each side will have eight minutes of preparation time. We will utilize the 8-3-5 format. Students will debate the proposition: "Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially reduce Direct Commercial Sales and/or Foreign Military Sales of arms from the United States."

ENTRY

Each school may initially enter two teams. Top teams should be designated as such and will be given priority. The tournament field will be limited to 64 teams. Admittance is provisional upon receipt of entry fees. When considering teams for admission, our overriding goal is to create the most competitive field possible. Attempts to subvert the spirit of the admission process will be rejected. Under most circumstances, no hybrid teams are allowed, i.e., both members of a debate team must attend the same school. Students should be accompanied by an adult chaperone authorized by the school. The entry fee a two-person debate team is $210. Checks should be made payable to Montgomery Bell Academy.

DEADLINES

Entry and judging fees will be assessed as of December 2 and are non-refundable after this date.

SCOUTING

As a service to the community and to increase the the educational experience, MBA will organize a tournament-wide speech document collection from every debate at the tournament. All participants in the tournament will have access to a Dropbox containing these files. We hope that all competitors, coaches, and judges will participate.