The MNUDL would like to invite you to participate at the 2024 UMBrooks at the University of Minnesota!

Tournament Overview

FORMAT: There will be 3 rounds of policy debate this weekend - this is a Saturday only tournament, hosted in person on the UofM campus' west bank. Policy prep time limit will be 8 minutes. Novice packet information is here.

All divisions will use online balloting as well as reminders sent through tabroom - therefore, all judges and debaters should have tabroom accounts linked to their entries.

Buses should drop off and pick up at the roundabout outside the Humphrey School. There should be someone there to meet you and lead you to Blegen Hall room 5 or 10.

Schedule

8:30-9:30 am Registration (in Blegen Hall - signs will be posted)
10:00 am Round 1
12:00-1:00 pm Lunch and community building
1:00-3:00 Round 2

3:30-5:15 Round 3
5:30 pm Awards (Blegen 5 and 10)

Community building

For UMbrooks, our spirit day will be School Swag Day! We encourage debaters, coaches, and judges to wear their college or high school swag!

Registration

If you are going to be short on judges please let us know. It is possible, but not guaranteed, that we may be able to cover your judge obligation with hired judges. Teams short on their judge obligation will be fined $140 per missing judge. If there are not enough judges to run the tournament, we will drop partnerships from schools missing judges until we are able to run the tournament.

Expectations of your team's onsite coach:

You, the onsite coach, will have your contact information listed as the primary contact on the signup page.

The onsite coach listed will check in with tabroom (612-300-6543) about all changes to registration before 9:30am with 100% accuracy

You will have current and correct contact information for you judges, co-coaches, and students. We also advise that you have information for contacting students' parents and any relevant student health information in case any of your students have a medical emergency.

You will communicate the judge expectations to your judges.

You will communicate the schedule to your students and transportation provider.

All debaters and judges will have linked tabroom accounts to facilitate online balloting.

Resolution

Resolved: The United States federal government should significantly strengthen its protection of domestic intellectual property rights in copyrights, patents, and/or trademarks.

Fees and Judges

Fees are set at $20 per entry. This helps us cover the cost of a full lunch (catered by Boca Chica), snacks, and the cost of using the site.

Please make checks payable to:

Minnesota Urban Debate League 2211 Riverside Ave, CB 26 Minneapolis, MN 55454

Concessions

Concessions will not be available at this tournament but lunch will be provided after round 1 and snacks will be provided as teams arrive as well as before awards after round 3.

Tabulation Procedures:

All divisions will be lag paired in order to help assure the tournament runs as close to on time as possible while still providing quality competition.

As a general rule, partnerships more than 15 minutes late to their debate will be marked as forfeited. Extenuating circumstances may override this rule but it is up to the discretion of the tab staff. Judges must check with tab before assigning a legitimate forfeit. Efforts will be made by tab to locate missing teams before marking them forfeited, but ultimately it is up to those students and their coaches to arrive to the debate in a timely manner.

If there are not enough entries in a division to host 3 unique debates then the tab staff will be in contact with the teams with entries in those divisions to figure out a workable solution.

If a school does not fulfill their judge obligation then the tab staff reserves the right to drop as many partnerships from that school as would cause them to meet their judge obligation. This includes a scenario where a judge leaves mid-day without fulfilling their obligation. The tab staff will attempt what they can to prevent dropping partnerships, but ultimately if there aren't enough total judges to cover the pool of competitors then some entries from that school will need to sit out. Tab will attempt to contact a coach on the team that is having entries dropped starting with the primary contact listed, but if it cannot be done in a time frame that would keep the tournament running on time then the tab will make the unilateral decision about which entries to bench.

Minnesota Lineal Champion Belt:

The belt is in play at this tournament! The previous holders, Edina AC, have vacated the belt due to two tournaments of non-competition. The winner of the Varsity division of UMBrooks will be the new Minnesota Lineal Champion!

Tournament Location:

University of Minnesota, Blegen Hall, 269 19th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Dropoff location for buses: 301 19th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Payment

Please make checks payable to:

Minnesota Urban Debate League

2211 Riverside Ave. CB 26

Minneapolis, MN 55454