The Philadelphia Catholic Forensic League sends the top 6 competitors in each league event to the NCFL Grand National Tournament, Memorial Day weekend, this year in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Our qualifier season will be held in two parts this year, beginning with Debate Qualifiers on February 28.

 

1. Location. Policy Debate, Lincoln Douglas, and Public Forum will be contested at Shafer Middle School in Bensalem; thanks to Chris Berdnik and team for hosting. (Speech and Congress are on March 28 at Holy Ghost Prep. If you aren't coming to debate quals, stop reading this email now)

 

2. Schedule. The tournament is in February but we are using the March topics. The opening meeting will be at 8am, with rounds beginning at 8:30. Worst case scenario has rounds end at 8:30pm. We are hopeful, almost confident, that this is extreme and that we will be able to speed up the tournament and end by 6:30. However, plan to be there late.

 

All entries are guaranteed between 2 and 4 debates, depending on the size of the event. Rounds 3 and 4 (if necessary) are power matched. Then, the top 8 entries will be seeded in a bracket and the winners qualify to nationals. The losers have a second chance debate to fill our 5th and 6th slots. 

 

3. Entries. Each league member school may send two entries in each event to qualifiers. Students must have competed at a PCFL league tournament - including the La Salle and Pennsbury invitationals - in one of the three events (CX, LD, PF) in order to be eligible for any of those three events at qualifiers. Students need not previously have competed as a team. Double-entry is not permitted.

 

Only bring students who will be able to attend nationals if they qualify.

 

4. Judges. Judge burdens are expanded in order to have panels of judges for each debate. The requirements are two judges for one entry and three judges for two entries. Judge burdens do not combine across events - 1 PF team and 1 LDer means 4 total judges. Because we will stagger events through the day, CX judges can double-count in another event, assuming qualification - you can't be a PF judge just because you think your event is harder, you need to have experience.

 

All judges must be experienced and qualified. The Debate Chair (that's me!) will verify the experience of all judges in the category they are registered. The Executive Board may vote on any judges unknown to us and chose not to accept the judge; this decision is based on relevant and recent experience, not our opinion on the quality of the judge.

 

All judges are obligated through the entire tournament in their event. Even if none of your entries make the bracket, we need your judges for both qualification rounds.

 

5. Swing slot. All debaters must have the same number of rounds, so we cannot have byes. Since an odd number of entries increases the length of the day, schools are invited to enter a random draw for a swing debater/team in each event. The swing debater/team must follow all qualification standards outlined above, and will debate in the event that an odd number of entries arrives to start the tournament. If the swing competes, there are no restrictions on their ability to qualify.

 

Submitting your name for the swing slot means you are promising to a) provide an extra entry, and b) provide an extra judge. Submit your interest in a swing slot in each category to me by Friday, February 13. I will meet up with another PCFL coach at Penn to conduct a random draw and invite a swing debater. If the initial school winning the draw cannot provide an extra entry and judge, the opportunity will pass to the next school in the list.

 

6. Fees and hires. Entry fees for all the season-end tournaments are due at JV Finals in April. Carl will send an invoice.

 

We will have a small number of hired judges available at $80. Request any need for hires SUPER EARLY. I'll do the best I can.

 

7. Registration. Register at pcfldebate.tabroom.com. It is open; it closes on Tuesday, 2/24 at 5pm. 

 

8. Topics. We will use the March topic in PF and LD