As the competitive landscape changes, so to will the round robin.  This year’s event will feature two Round Robins:  

• The 9th Alexis Elliott Memorial Round Robin:  The traditional round robin intended for debaters from the previous season with the strongest competitive records.

• The inaugural Rising Stars Challenge:  A new event intended for promising returning novices entering their first year of Junior Varsity or Varsity competition.  

Data from studies on intercollegiate debate participation universally report that novice level competitors are more representative of general student populations in terms of gender and race but that in the transition to varsity competition many students from marginalized backgrounds cease participating.  The Rising Stars Challenge is our attempt to support the growth of JV and Novice debate in NFA-LD by opening the season with a celebration of the students who return to intercollege debate.  

The Alexis Elliott Memorial Round Robin is an annual selective invite-only debate competition featuring many of the most competitive debate students from the previous season.  This year’s round robin includes the 2021 National Forensics Association LD National Champion, the 2021 Pi Kappa Delta NFA-LD National Champion, 3/5 returning Top 8 finishers in LD at the 2021 National Forensics Association national tournament, and over half of the returning Top 16 finishers from the National Forensics Association National Tournament.  

 Live Doc:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/108wDTpTmF_J45mmv2Bifp4ySkcP6Omi5wTQuwKpUaok/edit?usp=sharing