The pUbLiC fOrUm extravaganza!

Instead of your average online quarantined tournament, this one’s a little...different.

General Info: 

The tournament will be held from 5/29 to 5/31 and will be held over discord. Debaters from the same school will be allowed to hit each other and formal school names are not required. Coaches and former competitors are allowed and encouraged to participate and students are allowed to judge.  

The discord for the tournament hasn't been set up completely, but it's there: https://discord.gg/C7caVH6

Structure:

Speech and Prep times can not be changed by the judges or debaters in the round, however teams can make theoretical justifications for the obligations of the different speeches. The Affirmative will always speak first and the negative will always speak second. 

Speech Times:

1AC: 6 minutes

1NC (1nc can answer 1ac - up to the judges’ discretion whether mandatory or not): 6 minutes 

Open Cross (All speakers can participate): 3.5 minutes

1st Rebuttal: 6 minutes

2nd Rebuttal: 6 minutes 

Open Cross(All speakers can participate): 3.5 minutes

1st Summary: 4 minutes

2nd Summary: 3.5 minutes

1st FF: 3 minutes

2nd FF: 3minutes

Competitors: 

- Your primary event doesn’t matter - feel free to compete and have fun

- Debaters are encouraged to send speechdocs because of audio issues with online tournaments

- There is no entry fee and no required judging; encourage your friends to judge though

- Progressive arguments are allowed and encouraged (based on judge discretion)

- We will have a judge preference system through MJP

- Feel free to question judges on their decisions. If you are excessively aggressive/rude and are reported, you will be disqualified. 

Judges:

- Disclosure is mandatory. Feel free to write short ballots, but give the debaters oral feedback

- Assign speaker points based on debaters performance in the round - please do not give all debaters 30s

Resolutions: 

The Affirmative will defend the implementation of 2 separate resolutions - they can choose how to allocate their times between the resolutions. The affirmative can choose not to link offense to one resolution, but the neg can still read disadvantages pertaining to that resolution. For prelims, the September-October Resolution will be set, and the second resolution will be decided during the coinflip. For outrounds, both resolutions will be decided during the coinflip.

SET FOR PRELIMS: September-October

ADDITIONAL RANDOM FOR PRELIMS: November-December, January, February

OUTROUND RESOLUTIONS: September-October, November-December, January, February, March, April 

- Opponent can opt out if they did not debate March of April

Coin Flip:

The winner of the coin flip will either decide the resolution(s) for the round, or choose their side - affirmative or negative. For clarification, the Affirmative will always speak first and the negative will always speak second. The judge will conduct the coin flip.

Tentative Schedule (If Entry Counts exceeds predictions, we will break to doubles and co-champ finals or have finals on June 1 - up to debater discretion):

Wednesday, May 26 (11:59 pm):

- Judge Preferences open

Thursday, May 27 (11:59 pm): 

- Judge Preferences close

Fri, May 29: 

- R1: 1 PM CST

- R2: 4 PM CST

- R3: 7 PM CST

Sat, May 30: 

- R4: 1 PM CST

- R5: 4 PM CST

- R6: 7 PM CST

Sun, May 31:

- Octas: 11:30 CST

- Quarters: 2 CST

- Semis: 5:30 CST

- Finals: 8 CST