8th Mukai College Classic
October 3 – October 5

September 11, 2020

Dear Colleagues:

Please join us for the Mukai College Classic on the weekend of October 3-5, 2020!

The 8^th annual Mukai will have no entry limits and will have all three division of competition available for our guests: open, junior varsity, and novice. Mukai entries must be finalized by Monday, September 28th.

The Mukai will be hosted utilizing classrooms.cloud.

The tab room staff will be announced soon.

There will be no entry fees.

Please let me know if you have any questions (samuelallen2@weber.edu).

Tournament Policies and Procedures

Registration: Registration will happen on tabroom as normal, which is also where we will be releasing all the pairings and results.

Topic: We will debate the 2020-2021 Cross Examination Debate Association annual resolution:

Resolved: The United States Federal Government should reduce its alliance commitments with Japan, the Republic of Korea, North Atlantic Treaty Organization member states, and/or the Republic of the Philippines, by at least substantially limiting the conditions under which its defense pact can be activated.

Tournament Procedure: We would like to encourage folks to bring their Novice and JV debaters to our tournament. We will not break brackets. Hybrid teams are permitted. Prior to the tournament, maverick entries are NOT accepted. Once the tournament begins, maverick situations will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Tournament Schedule: The tournament will have six open preliminary debates (three debates on Saturday and three debates on Sunday), followed by elimination debates breaking to the octa finals on Monday. We will have six JV and Novice preliminary debates (three debates on Saturday and three debates on Sunday), followed by breaking to quarters on Monday. The tournament employs the 9-3-6 format with ten minutes of preparation time allocated to each team.

Host Participation: Weber State teams may compete in the tournament. If so, they are eligible to receive speaker awards and to compete in elimination rounds. We will enter via tabroom and declare our participation publicly.

Sexual Harassment and Discrimination: We subscribe to CEDA’s policy against Sexual Harassment and Discrimination.

Audio and Video Recording Policy: (Following Binghamton here)

Recording rounds, releasing videos, or videos without prior permission of the participants is prohibited. Debaters should feel free to audio record their own speeches. Debaters and judges should have their cameras on at all times whenever possible. There are many situations where being on camera could create problems. In those situations, it is the team’s director’s responsibility to confirm the identity of the debater or judge with the tournament prior to the start of rounds. Any misrepresentation of the unidentified speaker will result in the removal of the team from the tournament. Anyone registered as a debater or judge on tabroom is allowed to watch any debate unless the participants ask them to leave. Anyone not registered as a debater or judge must get prior approval from everyone before being allowed to watch the debate. This includes parents, high school students, and coaches who have zero judging commitment. We ask observers to turn off their video as a default unless asked otherwise by the debaters. We encourage Directors/Faculty coaches to reach out on behalf of debaters directly to other programs if there are certain coaches that your debaters wish not to be observed by. We know this might not be possible or desirable in all circumstances.

Judging Obligations and Procedures:

We continue to employ a mutual preference judging (MPJ) placement system.

All squads are required to bring or pay for three rounds of judging for every team entered for the first five teams, and four rounds for every team over five.

Uncovered Team: $150 per uncovered team. If you cannot find judging for yourself, please get in contact with us and we will ensure judging can be hired. If you are from a new or underfunded program, and cannot afford judging, please contact us and we’ll ensure that this expense doesn’t prevent you from competing.

Weber State University strives to make debate as accessible as possible. This includes hiring judging to ensure a diverse judging pool.

Each judge will be required to declare one and only one winner and one and only one loser in each debate to which they are assigned by the tab room. Judges will also be required to assign speaker points and speaker ranks to each participant in the debate. In each debate, speakers are rated on a scale of 1- 30, including tenths of a point, with no ties. Speaker ranks are accepted in whole numbers only from 1 to 4.

Judges are expected to disqualify themselves from hearing any team or school with which they may have a personal or professional conflict. Conflicts may be entered in the comments section of the judge entry section at tabroom.com

Decision and Tech Times: (Following Wake here)

PRELIMS: We are adding in 20 minutes of “tech issues” to the prelim time for each debate. This time is designed to account for the inevitable issues surrounding the online platform. Total time for judge decision for a prelim debate is 2:35. If a judge wishes to request for an accommodation, please email samuelallen2@weber.edu.  We will attempt to make accommodations on a case-by-case basis balancing the overall need to keep the tournament on time with a judge’s individual request.

ELIMS: We are adding in 30 minutes of “tech issues” to the elim time for each debate. This time is designed to account for the inevitable issues surrounding the online platform. Total time for judge decision for an elim debate is 3:00. We ask that teams as they are waiting prepare for their potential opponents. 3 hours after the start time, we will publish the next debate and it will start 30 minutes after.

 On Hospitality

We would like to honor the classic tradition of the hospitality room by sending each registered organization a box full of snacks and Mukai merch to celebrate your commitment to debate during a pandemic. Although we can’t be together, we can send our support in the form of calories. Your “From Weber” box should be outfitted with three boxes of snacks and Mukai stickers. Please inform us of any dietary restrictions as soon as possible (samuelallen2@weber.edu).

We will also be hosting communal rooms that each participant can join to enjoy a movie, music, or the game all together. There will be an unthemed room for general socializing minus the exposure of a fast-spreading virus.

We thank you for your commitment to Weber State Debate.