You are cordially invited to the Fourth Annual Polygon Invitational at Washington High School in Fremont, CA. We will offer two divisions of parliamentary debate. The Open Division will be run Friday, October 15 and Saturday, October 16, will feature five preliminary rounds, and will break to quarterfinals. Three of the open preliminary rounds will be “polygon” rounds with adjustments to regular parliamentary debate rules. The Novice division, with four preliminary rounds and a final round, will be Saturday only.

COVID Safety Measures

A tournament participant is defined as a chaperone, a judge, a competitor, or a staff member. 
Observers are not allowed this year.

We ask that by the end of October 14, each participant submit the COVID Safety Form

If the participant is a student, their parent/guardian should submit the form on their behalf. The form submission should include one of the following:

a) Their COVID vaccination record, formatted as a PDF with a QR code, obtained here: https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/

OR 

b) Their negative COVID test dated no earlier than 3PM on October 13. This test must be a PCR test done by a qualified testing site, not a rapid test done at home. For a list of qualified testing sites, see https://testing.covid19.ca.gov/covid-19-testing-task-force-laboratory-list/

Each participant must complete the Wellness Check in the morning of each day of the tournament (see sidebar).

We ask that any participant who tests positive for COVID on or before October 31 emails washingtondebate.boosters@gmail.com within 24 hours. We will then use the emails obtained from the forms above to inform participants who were in the same round as the participant who tested positive for COVID. These notifications will not disclose the identity of the person who tested positive.

All participants must wear surgical masks or N95/KN95 respirators at all times while on the Washington HS campus, except as specified below. Cloth masks are not sufficient.
Students may take off masks only during the break periods designated on the schedule in order to eat or drink. Students must be outdoors while eating or drinking.

Food will not be provided. Please bring a lunchbox.

Weather permitting, students will prep outside.

In the event that holding the tournament in person becomes unsafe due to a COVID spike, a forest fire, or other unforeseen circumstance, the tournament will revert to being run online. The schedule and the entry fees would stay the same. Refunds would not be issued.

Resolutions

Topic Areas

At least one prelim round will be based on a pre-announced topic area.
Open: Berlin housing policy
Novice: tech monopolies

Strikes

We will have topic strikes in elims, but not in prelims.

Topic Committee

- Virginia Kerr (Nueva)
- Chris Ikonomou (New Roads)

Round Rules
Regular rounds will use NPDL-TOC round rules.
Open rounds 3-5 will use modified rules (see sidebar).

NPDL Approval
This tournament has been approved to count for NPDL rankings and will be a qualifier to the 2022 NPDL Tournament of Champions.

Schedule

Open - Friday, October 15

4:00PM - 4:30PM  Coach check-in
4:40PM  Round 1 topic announcement
6:10PM  Round 2 topic announcement
7:40PM - 8:00PM  Break
8:00PM  Round 3 topic announcement

Open - Saturday, October 16

9:10-9:20 Coach check-in
9:30AM  Round 4 topic announcement
11:00AM  Round 5 topic announcement
12:30PM - 1:10PM  Break
1:10PM  Quarterfinals topic announcement
2:40PM Semifinals topic announcement
4:30PM Finals topic announcement

Novice - Saturday, October 16 

9:10-9:20 Coach check-in
9:30AM  Round 1 topic announcement
11:00AM  Round 2 topic announcement
12:30PM - 1:10PM  Break
1:10PM  Round 3 topic announcement
2:40PM Round 4 topic announcement
4:30PM Finals topic announcement

Fees
Varsity: $40/entry
Novice: $30/entry

Fines
Late entry: $50/entry in addition to entry fee
Ballot not picked up on time: $50/incident
Ballot not submitted on time: $50/incident
Late payment: $50
There are no drop fines, but entries dropped after October 10 must still pay the entry fee.

Payment Instructions
Payment is due by October 14.
See instructions here: https://washingtondebate.club/pages/polygon

Chaperones
- The on-site chaperon is responsible for checking in their school during the on-site registration Friday, 4PM-4:30PM.
- The on-site chaperon must be reachable by the tournament director at all times during the tournament.
- Because the on-site chaperon must be available at all times during the tournament, they may not also be entered as a judge. Schools with only 1 or 2 entries may ask the tournament director for an exception at least 1 day prior to the judge entry deadline.
- The on-site chaperon is responsible for having on hand the medical forms and parent contact information of all students in attendance.
- The on-site chaperon must be able to reach any of their school’s students or judges and escort them to the tab room if needed.
- The on-site chaperon must remain on campus for the entire duration of the tournament.

Judges
- The judge requirement is 1 judge for every 2 entries. The judge requirement is calculated separately for Open and Novice.
- Open judges are obligated for both days; novice judges are only obligated for Saturday.
- All judges are obligated through the end of the tournament, but may be dismissed earlier at the discretion of the Tournament Director.
- All Open division judges must be at least 18, have graduated high school, and be fluent in English.
- All judges eligible to judge Open are also eligible to judge Novice. In addition, students with at least 2 years of high school debate experience may judge Novice.
- We will be using online ballots. All judges must have a device that can access the internet.
- Coaches are responsible for ensuring that each of their school’s judges has a Tabroom account with working email and text notifications.

Judge Instructions
There will be no oral judge instructions during the tournament, for COVID safety reasons.

Instead, judges should review this judge guide

Coaches are also responsible for ensuring that their judges familiarize themselves with our judge guide prior to the tournament.

Entry Limits
Every school may enter up to 6 entries in Open and up to 6 entries in Novice.
Any further entries will be waitlisted, and then admitted if there is enough space.
In the event that the tournament fills up early, entries will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Novice Eligibility
A team may compete in the Novice division if both students on that team:
- are in their first year of high school debate competition,
- did not attend a summer debate camp,
- did not attend more than 3 middle school debate tournaments,
- are not in their third or more year of speech/Congress competition.

School Eligibility
- All students must be enrolled in a high school.
- All school entries must compete under the name of the school they attend.
- All school entries must be accompanied by their school-approved chaperon.
- Hybrid entries are not allowed. Students from schools that don't have a debate team may request an exemption from this rule.
- Each school is allowed one maverick entry in novice. No open maverick entries are allowed.

Tiebreakers
1. Winloss from prelim round(s)  
2. Points from prelim round(s) , except the 1 worst  
3. JVar based on Population - Z2 from prelim round(s)  
4. Coinflip from prelim round(s)  

Independent Entry
See sidebar

Short URL
http://polygon.tabroom.com