Tournament Procedures

2020 NPDL-TOC Procedures

PAIRING

 Teams from the same school will not be paired against each other during preliminary rounds. Brackets will not be broken in elimination rounds.

Hybrids will be considered by the tab staff to be unique schools and will not be protected from any entries.

If teams from the same school are paired against one another in elimination rounds, the coach has the option of allowing the teams to debate or a walkover. If a hybrid team is paired against a team from one of the constituent schools in an elimination round, the teams will debate unless both coaches agree that one should advance.

Tiebreakers

1. Total ballot count

2. Opponent seed

3. Z-score

4. Speaker points – 2H/L

5. Random number generation/coin toss

The tournament will use mutual preference judging for all rounds except the final round. For the final round, community representation and experience will also be taken into consideration, and there will be one invited guest judge, the Honorable Haywood Gilliam, a federal judge and former college parliamentary debater.

OBSERVERS AND RECORDING

All rounds are open to the public and may be recorded.

Participation in the tournament constitutes consent to being recorded and to publication of the recordings on the Internet. All recordings are the property of the National Parliamentary Debate League.

Teams may not refuse entry to spectators.

Judges and tournament staff may ask spectators to leave the room if their behavior is disruptive to the round, or their presence raises safety concerns.

PROTESTS

Any protests must be brought to the protest committee immediately after the round in question by a coach, or chaperone if the coach is not on site.

SPEAKER POINTS

The NPDL-TOC will use a speaker point scale between 24 and 30, with points below 25 being reserved for overtly offensive performances. Points may be awarded in increments of 0.1.

25 - Poor performance

27 - Average debater

28.5 - Deserves to clear to elimination rounds

29.5 - Best debater at this event

30 - Best debater you (the judge) have ever seen

JUDGING

Preliminary rounds will be adjudicated by 2 judges. For Round 7, the tab staff may in their discretion assign one judge to certain rounds in which they are certain that neither team will clear to elimination rounds.

Each judge should disclose their decision and provide a brief oral reason for decision (RFD). The total time for RFDs should not be longer than a combined 10 minutes for the round.

Judges and coaches are responsible for ensuring that all judge conflicts are marked in Tabroom.

TOPIC STRIKES

The tournament will offer topic strikes for all rounds.

At the scheduled round start time, the Opposition team will have one minute to strike one of three topics. The Government team will then have one minute to strike one topic. The remaining topic will be the topic for the round.

If neither member of one team is present in the round room at the scheduled round start time, the other team shall select the topic for the round. If neither team is present, then the first topic listed shall be the topic for the round.

During topic strikes, debaters may communicate only with their partner, their opponents, and the judge; they may also communicate with tournament staff regarding logistics.

After a topic is selected, prep time begins. The Government team shall prep in the room, and the Opposition team shall prep immediately outside the room, unless both teams agree to a different arrangement.