Alabama State
2025 — Birmingham, AL/US
Dear Coaches,
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We are pleased to invite you to the ASDA State Tournament on the campuses of the Mountain Brook Junior High for Congress and Speech on Friday February 14 and Hoover High School for Debate on Saturday February 15.
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Please take time to navigate the pages listed to the right for all pertinent information regarding this tournament. In addition, I have posted the ASDA rules. There are a few things that I want to highlight.
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1) We are using the February PF topic and the January February LD topic. We are NOT using the NSDA Novice LD topic for the novice division.
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LD topic: Resolved: The United States ought to become party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and/or the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
PF topic: Resolved: The United States should accede to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
BQ topic: Resolved: Creativity is a more powerful force than intelligence.
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2) This year we are running both sessions of Congress on Friday, February 14 to avoid an extra night hotel cost. Please see the schedule on the right.
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3) Large teams please be aware of the entry cap rules. 24 in IE, and 20 in Debate. For Congress, you may enter up to 6 students in 2 of the 3 chambers.
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4) Please, please, please bring judges! This tournament only works if it is single flighted. Judges may be repeated in Congress, IE, and Debate, but cannot be entered in more than one debate event. Because this tournament has such a tight schedule, we need ample judges on hand. If you are significantly under your judge quota, we have the right to drop some of your entries.
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5) I will send out ASDA Coach of the Year ballots via email to coaches at a future time.
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6) Tabroom registration closes on Monday, February 10 at 5pm. Please have entries finalized by this time.
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7) Legislation must be emailed to conolynb@vhcs.us by Thursday February 6. The packet will be sent back out to coaches on Friday, February 7 and posted on tabroom, one week before Congress begins. Each school may submit a maximum of 2 pieces of legislation and we will use the same rules as Districts this year. The docket will be randomly set and there are no sponsorship speeches.
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8) In Speech, if there are 7 or fewer entries, there will be no Final round with place being determined by rounds 1-3. If there are 8 or more entries, there will be a Final round with place being determined by Finals.
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9) In Debate, if there are 7 or fewer entries, we will have a Round Robin tournament in that division. If there are 8 - 15 entries, we will break to Semifinals in that division. If there are 16 - 39 entires, we will break to Quarterfinals in that division. If there are 40+, we will break to Octafinals in that division.
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10) This year the tournament will offer Big Questions. This will run at the same time as the other debate events on Saturday in the same way. Entries into this event will count towards your 20 entry debate cap and will count towards sweepstakes points.
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11) Payment information can be found on your invoice.
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12) NO STUDENT JUDGES ALLOWED AT THIS TOURNAMENT.
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Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you at the tournament.
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Sincerely,
Nate Conoly, State tournament director
conolynb@vhcs.us