Topeka West Invitational 2021

Topic: We will debate the 2021-2022 NSDA Water Resources resolution.

Divisions: We will host a novice and an Open division. Novice will be limited to students in their first year of competitive debate. Open is, as the name suggests, open to all competitors. We will do our best to place more experienced judges in Open, but your students can expect to debate in front of parents and lay judge community members as well. 

Entries: Schools are capped at 4 entries initially. We will give preference to our Flint Hills District schools, then folks who traditionally attend our tournament and/or give us spots at theirs, and then everyone else. Because we aim to avoid common areas and keep kids separated as much as possible, and because our squad is tiny this year, our tournament will be capped at 50 total entries.

Novice Case List: As we are in the third week of October, we believe some easing of limitations to the novice evidence packet are appropriate, but the predictable limits provided by a case list still have an educational value. Therefore, 

1. Teams will be limited to the plan texts included in the 2021 NSDA case lists, which are as follows:

The United States federal government should determine that the significant nexus test is broadly applicable for defining “Waters of the United States” as it relates to the prevention of water pollution in the United States.

The United States federal government should substantially reduce the current lead action level and require a two-step sample protocol.

The United States federal government should ban the use of hydraulic fracturing techniques by energy companies in the United States.

The United States federal government should substantially increase its protection of water resources in the United States by establishing mandatory best management practices for farmland sources contributing to water quality impairment. 

You must perform one of the 4 actions outlined above, however, you are allowed to be more specific than these texts through additional mandates (for instance, you could specify courts or congress as your agent for a WOTUS affirmative). 

Teams found to be in violation will receive an automatic loss on a 7. Please reach out to me if you have any questions about your students’ plan texts.

2. Students are not limited to any evidence sets, types of advantages, or other specific positions, on the affirmative or negative.

Judging: 

We will do our best to fill our judging needs with our community pool. However, coaches should be prepared to judge if there is a need. If assistant coaches or other sponsors are available to judge, we would love to use them! Please let us know. If you have seniors or juniors who would like to judge the novice division, we would love that! We think it is excellent for novices to get an opportunity to adapt to different types of judges, and a mentoring opportunity for your more mature and experienced students.

Schedule

Registration 7-7:30

Rd 1 - 8:00

Rd 2 - 9:45

Rd 3 - 12:00

Rd 4 - 1:45

Rd 5 - 3:30

Awards - Posted on Tabroom and delivered to schools in their home rooms ASAP

Fees

To cover the cost of awards, we ask for an entry fee of $5 per team.

Awards

We will award medals to the top 8 teams in each division at the conclusion of the tournament.

1st through 3rd place will receive trophies. There will be a sweepstakes trophy for the top school. Sweeps will be determined by your best two teams in each division (2 open + 2 novice). 

Covid Mitigation 

The following policies will be in place at our tournament. I will keep you informed of any changes to these policies prior to our tournament.

1. Masks will be worn at all times while inside a building, by all participants (coaches, competitors, and judges), regardless of vaccination status.

2. Rule #1 applies to students who are actively giving speeches in the round as well.

3. We plan to place schools in a “home room” classroom, and will be avoiding common areas, and, as much as possible, the mingling of students and judges outside of the debate rounds themselves. It is possible that a few schools may need to share the cafe - if this is the case, we will distance those school tables and ask schools to stay in their table area.

4. We ask that your students maintain social distancing in our classrooms, by speaking from their own table/desk area, instead of sharing a podium with their competitors.

5. We can’t enforce it, but we will ask all our judges to be vaccinated.