27^th Anniversary

JV/Novice State Championship
 Eagan High School
December 3 – 4, 2021

Hybrid Tournament

Welcome to the 2021 JV/Novice Debate Championships. Eagan High School is happy to host the state of Minnesota’s up and coming debaters. This year’s JV/Novice Championships will feature Junior Varsity Policy, Novice Policy, Rookie Policy,  Junior Varsity Lincoln-Douglas, Novice Lincoln-Douglas, Junior Varsity Public Forum, Novice Public Forum Debate, Novice Congressional Debate and Junior Varsity Congressional Debate. This year the tournament will be hybrid. Congressional Debate and Public Forum Debate will be held in-person at Eagan High School on both days of the tournament.  Policy and LD will be held online both days of the tournament.  

Congressional Debate: We will once again hold separate Novice and Junior Varsity Divisions for Congressional Debate. All participants in Novice Congress must be in their 1^st year of competition and all JV Congress participants in their 2^nd year of competition.  Congress competition will take place on Friday December 3^rd and Saturday December 4^th, featuring two 2 ½ hour preliminary sessions, a semifinal session, and a Final Super Congress. The number of chambers we run will be based upon entry numbers. Every 15 entries will add a chamber. Up to 2 pieces of legislation – One Primary and One Secondary should be emailed to Ross Eichele at ross.eichele@district196.org and received no later than Wednesday November 17^th  at 4:00 PM. All legislation will be posted here on Tabroom.Com no later than Friday November 19^th.

THESE BILLS ARE NOT AVAILABLE FOR PRELIM ROUNDS: 

A Bill to Support UnderFunded Schools - Semis

A Bill to Regulate Social Media - Semis 

A Bill to End Prison Based Gerrymandering - Finals

A Bill to Limit the Age of President - Finals

General Debate Information: In Policy, LD and PF the first two rounds will be pre-set and all subsequent rounds will be powered high-low within brackets. Brackets in elimination rounds will not be broken so if two debate entries from the same school are matched up in elimination rounds, the decision of which debater will advance will be left to the school’s coaching staff or if the coaching staff doesn’t indicate a decision the higher seed will advance.

Policy Debate will have 5 preliminary rounds with the first 2 rounds being pre-sets and the rest being powered high/low within brackets. JV, Novice and Rookie breaks will be determined by our final entry numbers. The tournament will be using the national policy topic - Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its protection of water resources in the United States.

All MDTA novice topic and argument limits will be in effect throughout this tournament for Novice Division. All MDTA rookie topic and argument limits will be effect throughout this tournament for Rookie Division.  Judges must abide by all MDTA novice and rookie topic and argument limits. The tab room reserves the right to enforce the novice and rookie limits.

Lincoln-Douglas Debate will have 6 preliminary rounds with the first 2 rounds being pre-sets and the rest being powered high/low within brackets. In LD all 4-2 records will clear to elimination rounds. Because we are online this year we will be running single flighted rounds. Resolved: A just government ought to recognize an unconditional right of workers to strike.

Public Forum Debate will have 6 preliminary rounds with the first 2 rounds being pre-sets and the rest being powered high/low within brackets. In Public Forum all 4-2 records will clear to elimination rounds. Even though we are in-person for Public Forum we will still run single flighted rounds.  In Public Forum we will use the November/December Topic - Resolved: Increased United States federal regulation of cryptocurrency transactions and/or assets will produce more benefits than harms.

Entry Fees: Congressional Debate $15/entry, Public Forum $30/entry, Policy Debate $30/entry and Lincoln Douglas $15/entry. There will not be a school fee this year since we are running in hybrid format. Please make all entry fee checks payable to “Eagan High School Forensics Boosters”. The W9 for our booster group is posted on the main page for JV/Novice State at Tabroom.com.  You can send your entry fees to: 

Eagan High School Forensics Boosters

P.O. Box 21174

Eagan, MN 55121

Awards: We will present awards to all advancing debaters in each division of Policy, LD and Public Forum debate.  Speaker awards will be awarded to the top 10 speakers in Policy, Public Forum and LD. The finalists in Congress will receive awards.  Finally, the tournament will award team sweepstakes awards to the top 5 schools based upon points earned in competition through the first elimination round in each event.

Tournament Entries: All tournament entries will be made on the Tabroom.com website, which can be found at www.tabroom.com All entries must be registered on the website no later than Wednesday November 24^th at 5:00 PM and all changes to your entry made no later than 5:00 PM on Wednesday December 1^st. After this deadline your team fees will be set and the tournament will not accept any new entries to the tournament.  All teams are encouraged to check in online at tabroom.com on Friday December 3^rd to confirm their team’s entry is correct. We would like all teams checked in by 2 PM on Friday December 3^rd.

Event Rules: All debate events will follow Minnesota rules and procedures for speaking times and preparation time. We ask that all judges please record speaker points for every debater they hear on a scale from 26 – 30 with points below 26 being reserved for students who exhibit inappropriate conduct during the course of the round and for points above 28 for outstanding performances. Tenth points will be allowed. Speaker points should be awarded in all three of these debate formats (Policy, LD and Public Forum). Speaker points in Congress will work on a scale of 3 - 6 points per speech. The tab room reserves the right to adjust judge’s speaker points that fail to follow the guidelines specified.

Judges: All schools are required to provide 1 judge for every 2 Policy teams or fraction thereof, 1 judge for every 2 Public Forum teams or fraction thereof, and 1 judge for every 2 Lincoln-Douglas debaters or fraction thereof. All schools entering Congress should provide 1 judge for every 5 entries or fraction thereof.  The tournament will have a very limited supply of judges for hire at a rate of $125.00 per day. Any and all requests for hired judges must be made no later than Monday, November 15th. Senior varsity debaters (this means students who are in 12th grade) will be allowed to serve as a school’s novice division judges but only on the condition that the primary judge for each school is their head coach. When entering judges, please indicate in the notes section if they are senior students so the tournament can schedule them in the correct divisions. No more than 1/2 of your team's judges in any given novice format may be current seniors in high school. This requirement helps us to be able to schedule elimination round judges.  All judges are required to stay through the first full elimination round of competition after their competitors are eliminated. Please do not substitute your senior varsity debaters for your judging expertise. Our novice and junior varsity debaters deserve to have the very best judging pool possible. Teams showing up without their full complement of judges will be charged $30 per round for each missing judge.