Othello
2025 — Othello, WA/US
World Schools Debate
Event Description:
1. During the tournament, all members of the team are allowed to participate during the preparation portion of impromptu rounds:
a) During each round, only 3 members of the team are allowed to compete. The extra debaters are allowed to observe the round, but are NOT allowed to participate in any way and may not take notes or flow the round.
b) Members of the team who are not participating in the debate during a round are not to speak, interact, or communicate with the members of the team who are debating. Knocking (which is a convention of Worlds used to show approval) is permitted.
c) Non-speaking members shall not sit at the same table or group of desks as the rest of the team.
d) During preliminary rounds, sides will be set by the tournament program. Elimination round sides will be determined by a coin toss with the winning team selecting which side they want to defend.
e) The proposition or Government team advocates for the motion to be debated. The opposition team opposes the motion to be debated.
f) Before the round begins, each team must declare to the judge the order of speakers, including the reply speech.
2. Speeches
a) Each speaker delivers an 8-minute substantive speech to introduce
arguments and counter opponents’ arguments.
b) Each team then delivers a single 4-minute reply speech, with the opposition going first followed by the proposition. ONLY the first or second speaker can deliver the reply speech. The third speaker is NOT allowed to give the reply speech.
c) Each team ought to present three main arguments supporting their side, with two arguments presented by the first speaker and the third argument presented by the second speaker of each team.
d) During each constructive speech, the opposing team is permitted to request Points of Information (POI’s) of the speaker.
(1) A POI is only allowed to be requested during the middle 6 minutes of the speech.
(2) The first and last minute of the constructive speech is protected time. No POI is allowed to be requested during this time or during Reply Speeches.
(3) A POI is an opportunity for the opposing team to ask a question of the speaker or to make a statement in opposition. A POI can be asked by any member of the opposing team. The POI can be accepted or denied by the speaker with a simple “No, thank you” or hand motion.
(4) It is considered bad form to harass the opposing team with POIs occurring too frequently while convention also suggests that a speaker take 2-3 POIs during their speech at their discretion.
3. World Schools Motions
a) Topics will be released by the State board periodically. Tournament hosts may also create topics for their tournament. Each tournament should have a mix of prepared and impromptu topics. It is encouraged that teams be able to debate both sides of a prepared motion in a tournament.
c) Impromptu motions should be available on tabroom.com and will be sent to all teams as close to the designated schedule time as possible. Teams should immediately go to their assigned preparation spaces.
(1) Proposition teams will prepare in the competition room.
(2) Opposition teams will prepare in the hallway immediately outside of the classroom where debating.
(3) Teams are allowed to use one reference book; These sources should be of a reference nature: Black’s Law Dictionary, Webster’s Dictionary, almanac, textbook, etc.
(4) All members of the team are allowed to participate during the preparation segment of the round but only 3 may participate in the debate segment.
(5) No electronic devices are allowed including cell phones, laptops, tablets, etc. Use of such devices may result in forfeiture of the round and/or disqualification from the tournament.