WELCOME TO THE DEBATE GROUP PF HOLIDAY INVITATIONAL!

There will be prefs, there is no entry fee, and you don’t have to bring your own judge. Coaches can enter to debate and students are allowed to judge. We only offer PF. Please follow the deadlines for registration and judge additions, both of which can be seen on the right.

The tournament will be held entirely on Discord.

Formal School Names are required. Hybrid entries are allowed but competitor names and school names have to be real. Independent Entries are also chill.

We will be using the NSDA September-October 2020 PF Topic (Medicare for all)

Donations

We are collecting donations for the Equal Justice Initiative, an organization that is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, challenging racial and economic injustice, and protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.

As debaters, we learn a litany of valuable portable skills in argumentation and research to which many impoverished people in the US don't have access.  In the debate space, we constantly read arguments about dismantling that inequality, but it's important we do so outside of round as well.

We STRONGLY encourage anyone that is capable of donating to do so (every single penny counts). The Debate Group will not be taking any share of the donations and will directly be given to charity.

Click this link to donate: gf.me/u/zb8ftt

General Info

We’re The Debate Group, an organization dedicated to increasing accessibility to debate through our free mentoring program and lecture series. This tournament is another attempt at subsidizing debate education, so while competing, please keep in mind that the purpose is to make debate a more inclusive place and learn, not just to win.

thedebategroup.wordpress.com

Discord Info

Make sure to create an account before joining the discord. As soon as you join, please read #rules-info and follow instructions there. 

Invite Link: https://discord.gg/BrrVsdZCur

Schedule

Note: All prelims will most likely have to be double flighted, we will have panels for all out-rounds except for if partial-triples are required. Elims will also be accelerated if possible. The bracket will NOT be broken. Finally, all times in CST.

Friday (1/1/2021)

R1 5:00 - 7:00 PM

R2 7:30 - 9:30 PM

Saturday (1/2/2021)

R3 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

R4 2:00 - 4:00 PM

R5 4:30 - 6:30 PM

R6 8:00 - 10:00 PM

Sunday (1/3/2021)

Partial Trips 11 AM - Noon

Doubles 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM

Octos 2 - 3 PM

Quarters 3:30 - 4:30 PM

Semis 5:00 - 6:00 PM

Finals 6:30 - 7:30 PM

For any questions regarding tournament logistics and policy, please check the contact info or look at Discord.

Recommendations:

In order to keep the tournament running smoothly, there will be text channels in each room to send speech docs. Please use them so that audio issues and evidence exchanges don't create significant delays.

Have a third person or judge available for coin flips, feel free to do this however you want.

Competitor Guidelines

ZERO TOLERANCE for harassment and violence to anyone in the room. If it happens once, you will be immediately removed from the tournament. This includes being aggressive if 'post-rounding' or asking judges about their decisions. Feel free to ask smart, pertinent questions but if you are rude to the point where a judge has to report it to tab, you will be dropped.

Adults: Feel free to compete even if you have graduated/coach other schools.

**As a student judge, if you feel uncomfortable judging a coach or graduated student, let tabroom know and we will change out the judges ASAP**

Progressive Argumentation 

We are not taking a stance as to whether progressive arguments are good or bad for debate. However, this tournament is intended to be similar to a national circuit tournament for our mentees. Please keep whatever is read realistic and similar to that of strategies that would be viable at national tournaments. We will not punish those strategies or grant L25's to any progressive arguments but encourage everyone to keep this in mind.

Judging Guidelines

Feel free to disclose orally, write short ballots. Make sure to hit the "start round" button as soon as the round starts and submit your ballot within the time limit so the tab doesn't have to chase you down. You are NOT required to orally disclose but we encourage it and 

You can assign speaker points up to tenths. Please do not give 30's to all competitors and feel free to take your time in making decisions, we have assigned ample amounts of time to make a decision that you should be satisfied with.

Rules 

This tournament will use all NSDA rules for competition standards and NDCA PF Wiki guidelines for disclosure.