You are cordially invited to the Fifth 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 14 and Saturday, October 15, will feature five preliminary rounds, and will break to quarterfinals. Four 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.

Campus Map
Coaches/chaperons check-in is in the library 4-4:30PM.
Students and judges check in with their coach/chaperon.
After checking in, students go to the amphitheater.
Judges and coaches stay in/near the library.
To view the map, click here

Resolutions

At least one prelim round will be based on the following topic area: Mining

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

The topic committee is:
- Angel Ronald
- Esha Shah
- Nick Hansen

Open resolutions will be announced in the cafeteria.

Novice resolutions will be announced at the benches next to the MPR (next to the amphitheater)

Open and novice resolutions will be announced here

Round Rules

Regular rounds will use NPDL in-person round rules.

Open rounds 2-5 will use modified rules - see sidebar

Schedule

Open - Friday, October 14

4:00 - 4:30PM  Coach/chaperon check-in (in the library)
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 15

9:10-9:20AM Coach/chaperon check-in (in the library)
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 15

9:10-9:20AM Coach/chaperon check-in (in the library)
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: $50/entry
Novice: $40/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 9 must still pay the entry fee.

Payment Instructions
Payment is due by October 13.
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.
- In order to avoid judges judging teams from their own school, adult novice judges may be asked to judge open rounds. Similarly, open judges may be asked to judge novice rounds. This means that many open judges should expect to still be judging during open quarters/semis, since those are concurrent with novice prelims.
- 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.
- Each school is allowed one maverick entry in novice. No open maverick entries are allowed.

Independent Entry
- Students competing independently must be accompanied by an on-site chaperon named on their waiver form (see below).
- By October 9, the parents of each student competing independently must submit two waivers
- If students from a school compete as school entries, other students from that school may not simultaneously compete as independent entries.
- All independent entries from a school must compete as "[School Name] Independent" - unless a different name is approved by the tournament director.

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)

COVID Safety Measures

In 2021, we were able to run the Polygon Invitational in person without any reported COVID cases at the tournament. We hope that the safety measures outlined below will help us to successfully do so again in 2022.

All tournament participants must follow the safety procedures, which are based on the Coast Forensic League Tournament COVID Safety Protocols.

www.coastforensicleague.org/covid

'Tournament participant' is defined as a chaperone, a judge, a competitor, or an observer. The protocols for Washington HS students will be determined separately.

We will ask that each participant submit a COVID Safety Form to verify that they are vaccinated or have a negative COVID test. The deadline to submit vaccination documentation is October 11.

www.coastforensicleague.org/covid/safety-forms

All participants must wear surgical masks or N95/ KN95/ KF94 respirators while indoors, except as specified below. Cloth masks are not sufficient.
Participants may briefly lower their masks to drink water.
If weather conditions do not allow participants to eat outside, we designate indoor locations where participants may take off their masks in order to eat.

Weather permitting, students will prep outside.

Each participant must complete the self-assessment below in the morning of each day of the tournament.
If the participant answers YES to any of the questions below, they must stay home and not attend the tournament.
www.coastforensicleague.org/covid/wellness-check

So long as we are able to do so safely, the tournament will be in person. 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.

Awards
We pride ourselves on having the most angular trophies in the nation.

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

Short URL
http://polygon.tabroom.com