2022 Conway Classic @ Gonzaga University

Schedule here. https://bit.ly/gonzagaschedule

The Gonzaga University Debate Program cordially invites your team to attend the 72nd Conway Classic. Due to public health concerns the tournament will be hosted 100% online using NSDA campus.

The Conway will be held Friday January 7th - Sunday, January 9th. Our tournament will offer 6 preliminary rounds in Open and Novice divisions in CX/Policy, Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum. Unfortunately we will not be offering Congress or Individual Events, but plan to bring all those events back in 2023 when we return ton an in-person tournament format. 

We will once again serve as a Tournament of Champions (TOC) Bid Qualifying Tournament in Policy debate at the Semifinals. All teams advancing to the semifinals in our Open division will earn a bid towards TOC qualification.

We will also present the the highest non-Senior speaker in the the Open Policy division with the Jessica Hockensmith Scholarship. This award is a full scholarship for the student or a teammate to attend the Gonzaga Debate Institute the following summer. We look forward to seeing you for what promises to be an exceptional tournament. We hope that you have a happy holiday season and that your travels bring you virutally to Spokane in January. 

Online entry will be through Tabroom.com. You will need to set up your schools account if you do not already have one. https://www.tabroom.com/setup/web/edit.mhtml?tourn_id=21821

Fees and Payment

$50 per Policy Team

$30 per Public Forum Team

$30 per LD Entry

$20 per round uncovered judging fee in LD/PF

$40 per round uncovered judging fee in CX

You can pay your fees online with a credit card. If you’d like to do this please visit our secure payment site at https://commerce.cashnet.com/GUDebate2 and clicking on the link for “Conway Classic”

If you are paying by check please make them payable to Gonzaga Debate.

Payment should be sent to:

Gonzaga Debate

AD Box 20

Gonzaga University

Spokane, Washington

99258

If you are paying by PO please make every attempt to get that to us in advance (scan and email is fine).

Schedule

https://bit.ly/gonzagaschedule

We will accept drops without payment until January 4th. All drops after that will be charged the full entry fee.

Judging

Each policy requires requires 3 rounds of judging. Each LD and PF team requires 2 rounds of judging. One judge can cover up to 2 CX teams, or four Lincoln Douglas or Public Forum entries, and six individual event slots. Judges cannot be in multiple pools. 

Please be sure all conflicts and restrictions (such as schools that the critic cannot see.) Please also indicate the times that the judge will be available, and match it to the schedule to make sure they know when rounds will begin.

Debate judges are committed one round past the round their team was eliminated in. For example, if you clear no teams in debate, you are still obligated for the first elimination round. If your team loses in the quarters, your judges are still obligated for the semis, etc.

Judges will all need accounts on tabroom in order to access their online ballots. We’ll have old fashioned ballots for those who need them, but our hope is that most judges will take advantage of online balloting.

Debate Rules

The 2022 Conway will be held January 7-9 (4 preliminary rounds Friday, 2 preliminary rounds and 2 elimination rounds on Saturday, and remaining elimination rounds on Sunday). We will offer 6 preliminary rounds in two division (Open and Novice) across three debate formats (CX, LD, PF).

All 4-2's will clear to elimination rounds up to a full double octafinals. 

CX times are 8-3-5 with 8 minutes prep

The topic for CX debates will be the the 2020-2021 NSDA resolution

Lincoln Douglas and PF will use the NSDA January/February topics

Washington State Novice case areas and argument restrictions DO NOT apply since this is a 2nd semester tournament.

Novice eligibility for debate divisions will be determined as follows: To be eligible for the novice division each debater on the team should be in their first year of debate. 

Rounds one and two will be pre-set in all debate events. Rounds three through round six will be power matched accordingly.

We do not break brackets in elimination debates. If two teams from the same school are seeded in such a way that they meet in the elimination rounds no debate will occur. One team will advance to the next out round based on coach decision. Coaches should come to the tabroom and let us know who to advance. If you don’t we will simply advance the higher seed.

Elim sides will be determined by tabroom coin flip.

As per WSFA rules we cannot sanction a debate that occurs after 10pm on Saturday (which means quick decisions and short prep in CX elims.

All students competing at the Conway must be representing their enrolled high school. No independent entries are allowed. In Policy and Public Forum debate, both team members must be from the same school; no hybrid entries are allowed.

Competitors may access the internet during debates for the purpose of transferring speech documents, accessing online files, and conducting spot research.

Other questions about debate please email Frappier@gem.gonzaga.edu