Gonzaga University

Conway Classic

Speech and Debate Tournament

January 8-10, 2021 

ACCESS TOURNAMENT SCHEDULES HERE

PLEASE NOTE: WE HAVE MADE THE DIFFICULT DECISION TO CANCEL OUR IE AND CONGRESS EVENTS FOR 2021.

ALL DEBATE DIVISIONS ARE STILL HAPPENING.

WE PLAN TO RETURN TO A FULL SERVICE TOURNAMENT IN 2022.  

The Gonzaga University Debate Program cordially invites your team to attend the 71st Conway Classic.  The 2021 tournament will be 100% online/remote and hosted on the classrooms.cloud platform. A big change for this year is that we are moving to a three day debate format (Fri-Sun) in order to most effectively transition our full service tournament to an online format. As we get closer to the tournament we will be sending out more details on Classrooms.cloud and the procedure we'll follow at the Conway. With our move online it is required that all your students and judges have a tabroom account. They will not be able to access the classrooms platform without. 

We are pleased we will once again serve as a Tournament of Champions (TOC) Bid Qualifying Tournament in Policy debate at the Semifinals. All teams advancing to the semifinals in our Open division will earn a bid towards TOC policy qualification.

We look forward to seeing you for what promises to be an exceptional tournament. We hope that you have a happy holiday season and that your virtual travels bring to Spokane in January.

Sincerely,

Gonzaga Debate Team

Entry

Online entry will be through Tabroom.com. You will need to set up your schools account if you do not already have one.

Fees and Payment

$50 per Policy Team

$50 per Public Forum Team

$50 per LD Entry

You can pay your fees online with a credit card. If you’d like to do this please visit our secure payment site at https://commerce.cashnet.com/GUDebate2 and clicking on the link for “Conway Classic”

We also except Purchase Orders. Please send those to frappier@gonzaga.edu prior to the tournament. 

Please note: If your program is facing budgetary difficulties please reach out so we can look into ways to help defer those costs so your students can compete. 

Deadlines

We will accept entries until we are full. Once we are full we will no longer accept entries but you can waitlist student. You are encouraged to enter early.

We will accept drops without payment until January 4th.  All drops after that will be charged the full entry fee.

Judging

Each judge you bring covers 2 CX teams, or four Lincoln Douglas or Public Forum entries.

If you need hired judging please visit the hired judging exchange on our tabroom site. This will allow you to see what judges have offered up rounds and how to contact those folks.  All the hiring exchange is for is to connect buyers and sellers. Negotiating payment, actual payment, etc. is all done between you and the judge. The tournament has no role in this. 

Please be sure all conflicts and restrictions (such as schools that the critic cannot see.) Please also indicate the times that the judge will be available, and match it to the schedule to make sure they know when rounds will begin.

Debate judges are committed one round past the round their team was eliminated in. For example, if you clear no teams in debate, you are still obligated for the first elimination round. If your team loses in the quarters, your judges are still obligated for the semis, etc.

Judges will all need accounts on tabroom in order to access their online ballots. We’ll have old fashioned ballots for those who need them, but our hope is that most judges will take advantage of online balloting.

Debate Rules

CX times are 8-3-5 with 8 minutes prep

The topic for CX debates will be the the 2020-2021 NSDA resolution. Resolved: The United States federal government should enact substantial criminal justice reform in the United States in one or more of the following: forensic science, policing, sentencing. (https://www.speechanddebate.org/topics/)

Lincoln Douglas and PF will use the NFL  January/February topics

Washington State Novice case areas and argument restrictions DO NOT apply since this is a 2nd semester tournament.

Novice eligibility for debate divisions will be determined as follows:  To be eligible for the novice division each debater on the team should be in their first year of debate. If you have to try to make an argument to justify a student being in novice they should likely be in JV.

Rounds one and two will be pre-set in all debate events. Rounds three through round six will be power matched accordingly.

We do not break brackets in elimination debates. If two teams from the same school are seeded in such a way that they meet in the elimination rounds no debate will occur.  One team will advance to the next out round based on coach decision. Coaches should come to the tabroom and let us know who to advance. If you don’t we will simply advance the higher seed.

As per WSFA rules we cannot sanction a debate that occurs after 10pm on Saturday (which means quick decisions and short prep in CX elims.

In Policy and Public Forum debate, both team members must be from the same school; no hybrid entries are allowed. For this year only we are allowing independent entries but we must have authorization from your schools administration for the entry. Please send that information to the email below prior to the tournament.

Other questions about debate please email Frappier@gem.gonzaga.edu