We will email coaches and judges a Discord link on Friday night. You can use that to go to GA on Saturday morning. 

Final Announcements

1. We have posted an online tournament best practices document, which has tips and expectations about using technology and the Discord interface. Please read the document in its entirety. Please test your equipment before the tournament, especially your audio. Talk to a teammate on Discord. It will help things go more smoothly.

2. We have finalized the online round rules based on feedback we received in the NPDL Forum.

3. We have updated the list of people who have submitted their Discord IDs in the sidebar. If you don't see your name, please complete the Google form ASAP.

4. The forfeit rules are (1) Be in your room five minutes after pairings are published. and (2) if your round experiences significant delays due to technological issues, and it appears you cannot finish by 20 minutes before the next round is scheduled to start, the judge should contact tab, who will likely declare a forfeit. For the first round, there should be some leniency on Rule #1 if people are still figuring out Discord,. Debaters should announce that they are back in the room 20 minutes after prep starts, but we don't expect that to be an issue.

5. If you haven't checked in before the start of Round 1, we will assume you are not there, and drop you from the tournament.

6. We have tweaked the schedule a bit concerning the first hour. Please arrive in GA between 8 am and 8:15 to check in. We will make announcements at 8:30. We will then release pairings. All judges and debaters should go to their room immediately after pairings are published. Prep for Round 1 will start at 8:40.

7. We will be using topic strikes for all four rounds. Topics will be published with the pairings. Once both teams and the judge are in the room, Opp will strike a topic (within one minute), Gov will then strike a topic (within one minute), and the remaining one will be the topic for the round. After strikes, the teams will have 20 minutes to prep, however they like, and with no limits on materials or communication with other people. They should not "leave" the Discord room, but may open other windows or use other devices to prep.

8. As explained in the round rules, no evidence may be cited in Rounds 1 and 3. Debaters may cited limited evidence in Round 2 and 4, and must provide an evidence document to the judge before the round if they wish to use evidence in their speeches.

9. Be aware that West Coast and East Coast have different norms about grace periods for speeches. On the East Coast, 30 seconds grace is standard, so an 8 minute speech is effectively an 8:30 speech. The West Coast is more strict, though most judges will let debaters finish their thought after time ends. We expect that the tournament will use the West Coast norm, but it is important that the judge confirm the grace rule before the round starts. Please plan to stay after the tournament for a brief feedback forum. We want to learn what worked, and what didn't, so that we can make the next online tournament better.

5/10/2020 Announcements 

1. The tournament will use the NPDL E-Tournament Rules. You can view the draft rules here. You can submit your feedback on the rules on our forum. If any changes are made between now and the tournament, we will announce them.

2. All team will have the option of striking one or more judges, depending on the final size of the pool. Strikes will open at 9 am Wednesday, and close at 5 pm Friday, and can be entered in Tabroom.

3. The equity officers and John Patrick "Gonzo" Gonzales (coach at Cleveland HS in Oregon) and Mikendra McCoy (coach at Mountain House HS in California).

4. We added GA to the schedule at 8 a.m., so that we can check everyone in and go over some ground rules before starting.

5/3/2020 Announcements

1. The topic committee members are Eliza Haas (OR), Everett Rutan (CT), and Sam Timinsky (CA).

2. We are soliciting applications for Equity Officer for the NPDL E-Tournament. The equity officer would address discrimination/fairness issues that arise at the tournament but do not affect round outcomes. The Equity Officer would not judge, but would nonetheless get credit for covering the judging expectation for two teams from the Equity Officer's school.

If you are interested in being considered for the position, please email npdlboard+NPDLE@gmail.com

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Dear NPDL Members: 

We are pleased to invite you to a web-based parliamentary debate tournament on Saturday, May 16, 2020. The tournament will feature 4 online rounds of parliamentary debate. This is intended to be a casual competition that will give students an opportunity to debate, and help NPDL test web conferencing software for future debate tournaments. (Note: this is not an online TOC or TOC replacement.)

Registration

There will be no entry fees. The tournament is open to NPDL member schools only. Each NPDL member school may enter two teams, and may waitlist additional teams. We will take teams off of the waitlist as needed to hit our target tournament size (30-40 teams).

There will be only one division, open. 

Please register by May 2nd.

Technology

All debaters and judges will use Discord. You must have a Discord account to participate. A computer, tablet, or smartphone is also required. All debaters and judges must enter their Discord ID here. If you don't remember whether you've submitted yours, check the list in the sidebar on the right.

Judges

You are encouraged to provide one (or more) experienced judges who are comfortable with video conferencing (ideally, Discord). If you cannot provide such a judge, please contact us, and we will likely waive any judging requirement for your school. Schools that enter more than two teams should, if possible, provide two judges meeting those criteria.

All participants must also designate a responsible adult, who can be reached quickly at all times during the tournament. 

We welcome volunteer judges, provided they meet the above requirements.

Recording

Rounds may not be recorded.

Awards and NPDL Points

There will be no physical awards. This tournament is not eligible for NPDL tournament points.  Those who do well will receive bragging rights only.

Food

You can’t be serious.

Tentative Schedule (All times Pacific)

8a - 8:15 Arrive in GA for check-ins

8:30a Announcements in GA

8:40a Pairings, prep for Round 1

9a Round 1

11a Round 2

1:30p Round 3

3:00p Round 4

5p Awards

     Feedback Forum

Please direct any questions to npdl.board+NPDLE@gmail.com

Yours, 

The NPDL E-Tournament Committee

Joel Jacobs

Rodda John

Artem Raskin

Sam Timinsky