National Speech and Debate Season Opener

2024 — NSDA Campus, KY/US

• Invite
• Entries
• Judges
• Pairings
• Live Updates
• Results

Policy (In-Person)

Event Description:

Whole tournament procedures document can be found here.

Policy Debate Specific

Details

Topic

The Season Opener will use the 2024-2025 NFHS policy debate topic.

• Resolved: The United States federal government should significantly strengthen its protection of domestic intellectual property rights in copyrights, patents, and/or trademarks.

• More details can be found at the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) website.

Event Format

The tournament will host 6 preliminary rounds that follow the traditional “8-5-3” high school policy debate format for constructive, rebuttal, and cross-examination time. There will be a total of 8 minutes of preparation time for each team.

Tech Time – Online Competition Only

There will be a 10-minute timer for each team that will run in the event of technology failure. This timer will be managed by the judge. A team forfeits if their 10-minute allocation of time runs out and they have not resumed debating. Judges should immediately notify the tab staff if tech time is being invoked.

Speaker Point Scale

The Season Opener will use a 30-point speaker point scale with tenths of a point allowed, with no ties between the debaters.

Start Times

Teams will be allowed at least 30 minutes of prep time from release of pairings until the official debate start time. Coaches should conclude their coaching 10 minutes prior to the debate. Judges should report to their rooms no later than 5 minutes before official debate start time. In the event the tournament is operating using an online platform, teams and the judge will be required to check in to their room within 10 minutes of the pairing being posted to test connections and audio.

Decision Times

Decision time for judges to submit their decision will be 2 hours from the posted start time of the round. If the judge is unable to render a decision in the allotted time, the tab room will flip a coin to determine the winner of that debate/ballot. If Tech Time has been invoked, the judge should communicate with the appropriate tab room to seek an extension.

Forfeit Times

Any team arriving later than 10 minutes after the posted start time will be at the risk of forfeit imposed at the exclusive discretion of the event tab room staff. Any team experiencing what they believe to be a legitimate delay should make every attempt to communicate with the tab room if they are going to be late.

Debate Tiebreakers

1. Wins

2. High low points

3. Total points

4. Opp wins for prelim rounds

5. Opp seed for prelim rounds

Speaker Tiebreakers

1. Points from preliminary rounds, minus 1 high/low

2. Points from preliminary rounds, minus the 2 high/low

3. Total points from preliminary rounds

4. Opponents’ average wins from preliminary rounds

5. Judge variance

6. Coin Flip

Maverick Debating Rules

A "debate team" entry in this event is a two-person partnership. "Maverick" teams are not allowed to enter prior to the tournament - an entry must be composed of two persons. If a team becomes a maverick (one person) during the tournament due to an emergency, the entry may be "maverick" no more than 2 debates to be able to return and for the entry to continue debating. A maverick may win the debate. If a team has more than 2 maverick rounds, they are not eligible for elimination rounds. Mavericks will not be permitted to debate in elimination rounds.

Novice Definition

The novice division is intended to be for students truly in their first year of debate competition. If they debated at more than one tournament prior to the current season, they are no longer novices.

Novices are debaters who at the start of the season do not have tournament competition experience in any debate format (Policy, Public Forum, Lincoln Douglas, Congressional Debate) prior to the current academic year.

• If a student debated at a single tournament in a school year, that does not count against their eligibility.

• Debating in another debate format (Congressional Debate, Lincoln Douglas, Policy, or Public Forum) does count against eligibility. Competing in speech events only (Oratory, Extemp, etc.) does not.

• Competing in middle school debate divisions does count against eligibility.

• Attending a summer institute does not count against eligibility.

Please ask us if you have any questions or need to check on a specific scenario. We’d be much happier to discuss a specific situation in advance than to have to remove your competitor(s) from the tournament.

Pairing Process

General

The first two rounds will be randomly preset. All power-matched rounds will be paired high-low within brackets as possible.

In elimination rounds, all rounds will be flip for sides, unless teams have previously met, in which case the teams will switch sides from the previous debate.

Judge Placement

In prelims, starting with round 3, judges will be placed:

1. first for teams in “break rounds” (considered as those teams with 2 losses);

2. then, second for teams with 1 loss;

3. then, third for teams with no losses;

4. and then, finally for those teams already considered ineligible to clear to elimination rounds based on their record.

Automated Coin Flip & Elimination Rounds

Teams should be present in their competition room no later than 25 minutes prior to the scheduled start time for the debate to flip for sides.

Teams will be notified 5 minutes after release of pairing as to which team has won the Tabroom auto-coin flip (unless sides are locked). The team winning the flip will have 5 minutes to choose and report their side to Tabroom. After 5 minutes, the first team to report will get to choose their side. If neither team reports within 10 minutes of the result of the flip, then Tabroom will assign sides for the debate.

Judging One Winner

Judges must vote for one and only one team within the allotted decision time.

Obligations

Judges are obligated through at least the last elimination round on Sunday, plus one round after the team(s) from the school they represent is/are eliminated from the tournament.

The tournament will assess a $100 penalty for judges who miss a round when obligated in prelims, and $150 in elims.

Philosophies

Judges are required to post a judge philosophy on Tabroom at least one week prior to the tournament.

Evidence and Ethics Challenges

Evidence Challenges

If a team believes an opponent committed an evidence or other ethics violation (except in the cases of prohibited outside assistance – see end of this section), the accusing team should stop the debate and ask the judge to adjudicate the challenge.

This type of challenge includes the following situations:

• a team reads evidence is that fabricated

• a team reads evidence that is meaningfully altered to change the author’s original meaning

• a team misrepresents how much evidence they have read in a debate, such as improperly highlighting their evidence, “clipping cards” (the team says they read more than they actually did by clipping a card short of the indicated end), or “cross reading” (the team skips words or sentences in the middle of the text, but indicates that they read all the highlighted words)

The accusing team will explain to the judge what alleged violation is being asserted. The judge will evaluate the violation based on the evidence available to the judge. Prior to evaluating the challenge, the judge should inform both teams whether the round will continue after the challenge if the accusation is found to be false or if the judge cannot determine the challenge based upon the evidence available to the judge. After the judge informs both teams of the consequences of a failure to sustain the objection or challenge, the accusing team will be given an opportunity to withdraw the challenge. If the accusing team decides to pursue the objection or challenge, then the consequences announced by the judge for a failed or indeterminable objection or challenge will be binding on the teams.

If the judge finds that an ethics or evidence violation was committed, the offending team will be assigned a loss. If a single team member committed the violation, that debater will receive zero speaker points. The judge may assign speaker points to the non-offending debater.

If the violation occurs prior to the non-offending team member delivering a speech, the judge may award points based upon the cross-examination, if applicable. If the non-offending team member has not delivered a speech or participated in a cross-ex, then the tab room will assign the average of the non-offending debater’s speaker points from prior debates.

Any decision to challenge evidence violations or unethical behavior must be made during the round in which the infraction occurred before the judge submits a decision to the tab room. No challenge can be made to conduct committed in any round after the ballot has been submitted to tab room. The judge assigned to the round will decide the challenge made in the round based solely on the evidence submitted by the teams in the round. No appeal, modification or reversal of the judge’s decision regarding the challenge or the consequences resulting from the challenge is permitted.

Outside Assistance Situation

The above type of challenge does NOT include an outside assistance situation (in which a team receives argument assistance or reads or responds to communications from a coach or other person after the debate has commenced, whether verbal or electronic, including the transfer of evidence after the round starts).

In the event of an outside assistance situation, the provisions on Prohibitions on Outside Assistance and Appeals and Ombuds Procedure will be invoked. The outcome of the process will also determine the outcome of the debate.

In the event of this type of challenge, the accusing team should explain the alleged violation. The judge should inform the accusing team that invoking this process means it will go to the Ombuds, and it will also result in a binding outcome for the debate (i.e. if the accuser is found to be wrong or has not provided sufficient proof, they lose). The accusing team may have a brief moment to determine whether or not they wish to proceed. If they choose to do so, it gets directed to the event’s tab room, which will begin the Ombuds process. If they choose not to, and withdraw the challenge, the round should promptly continue.