The Superb Owl will offer open and novice policy divisions, open PF and LD divisions, and an open Congress division. Policy will run three days with elimination rounds on Sunday; LD, PF, and Congress will run on Friday and Saturday.

We will use the January/February LD topic and the February PF topic. Legislation for Congress will be due January 17 and the docket will be released on January 20. 

We offer TOC bids for policy finalists and PF finalists.

Registration will open in November. Check back here for details and updates.

The Evanston Township High School Superb Owl Invitational, January 31-February 2.

Policy Debate: Friday-Sunday

Public Forum, Lincoln-Douglas, and Congressional Debate: Friday and Saturday

In Policy debate, we will hold two rounds Friday afternoon, 4 rounds plus octafinals on Saturday, then quarters to finals on Sunday. This tournament will also serve as RCC T5 for the Chicago Debate League.

In Public Forum and Lincoln-Douglas, we will hold three debates Friday afternoon, then three debates and all elimination rounds on Saturday. All debates will be single-flighted. We will endeavor to break all 4-2's, but may have to cap elims at octafinals depending on size. 

Congressional Debate will have one session Friday evening, one session Saturday morning, and then a finals session Saturday afternoon.

We offer Finals Bids to the TOC in Policy and Public Forum debate. 

Divisions: Varsity CX, Novice CX, Open PF, Open LD, and Open Congressional Debate.

We will break to octas in both divisions of CX. Entry in Varsity and Novice CX will be initially limited to eight teams per school per division; space permitting, we will try to accommodate teams beyond those limits. We will offer mutual preference for judging in varsity CX and varsity LD, as well as strikes in Public Forum debate.

We will be using the February topic for Public Forum Debate and the January-February topic for Lincoln-Douglas debate. 

Fees: The entry fee for policy is $60 per team; CDL teams with financial hardships should contact us about discounted entry fees. The entry fee for PF is $50 per entry. The entry fee for LD and Congressional debate is $25 per student.

Online Balloting: We will be using Tabroom's online balloting system in all divisions to speed up the tournament. We will communicate more about this as we get closer to the tournament, but it is worth noting that judges should have internet capable devices with them at the tournament. There will be an open guest network for wi-fi.

Judging: One judge for every ten Congress entries; 3 rounds for every LD debater; 3 rounds for every PF entry; 3 rounds for every Policy entry.

Providing enough hired judges has always been our greatest difficulty; hired judges through the tournament must be requested on Tabroom. The fee for hiring a judge in Congress is $250; the fee for coverage in LD, PF, or Policy is $50/round. Additionally, we have only a limited supply of judges for hire, available on a first-come first-served basis. We don't want your money; we want your judges. 

Location: Evanston Township High School

1600 Dodge Ave.

Evanston, IL

60201 

Please enter through DOOR 2, on the west/back side of the school, on Friday and Saturday. The main entrance, on Dodge Ave, will be very busy on Friday and entirely closed on Saturday. 

Food: To keep costs down, we will again have schools pre-order meals for Friday's dinner and Saturday's lunch and dinner. Please use the meals tab on the registration site to place your orders: dinner on Friday and Saturday will be Dominos pizza, lunch on Saturday will be Subway subs. Concessions will be available throughout the tournament. We will not have meals for students available for purchase on Friday and Saturday; schools who wish to purchase dinner on Friday or lunch and dinner on Saturday must do so through the website. 

Our ETHS family will again provide fantastic food for judges and coaches throughout the weekend. 

Housing: Margarita European Inn is offering special tournament rates beginning at $89.00. Contact Kim Leitner,  615.561.8797, kleitner@margaritainn.com.

Humane Practices: We are committed to running a pleasant, healthy, humane tournament. To that end, we will work hard to start rounds on time and finish competition each evening by 9:15 PM. We will do our best to offer healthy snack options through concessions and in the judge lounge. We will be continuing four special awards: the Crystal E Educator's Award to a critic nominated by students as giving the best feedback to debaters; the Wildkit Coach in Training award to the student judge who writes the most educational and encouraging ballots at the tournament; the Traveler's award for the longest distance traveled to the tournament; and the Orange and Blue Cup to a team nominated by students for being exceptionally pleasant to debate against. 

Registration and Deadlines: Entries and judges are due by 6:00pm on Friday, January 24th; all fees are final at that time. The Tabroom site will remain open for teams to make changes up until Thursday, January 30th, but fees and judging obligations are calculated based on your entry on the 24th. 

Questions? Concerns? Contact us at clarkfoster96@gmail.com.