Tournament Procedures

1. The tournament will be paired two days before competition using a patterned round robin.

1. In Round 1, within each Group, position 1 will debate position 6, position 2 will debate position 5, and position 3 will debate position 4.

2. In Round 2, within each Group, position 1 will debate position 5, position 2 will debate position 3, and position 4 will debate position 6.

3. In Round 3, within each Group, position 1 will debate position 4, position 2 will debate position 6, and position 3 will debate position 5.

4. In Round 4, within each Group, position 1 will debate position 3, position 2 will debate position 4, and position 5 will debate position 6.

5. In Round 5, within each Group, position 1 will debate position 2, position 3 will debate position 6, and position 4 will debate position 5.

2. Two mutually preferred judges will be assigned to each preliminary round when those rounds are paired.

3. At registration, judges will be told which rounds they are judging, which rounds they are standby judges, and which rounds they are off. Judges will not be told in advance which debates they are watching.

4. Complete pairings, including rooms, judges, and competitors, will be made available no less than 15 minutes before the start time for each round.

1. A representative for each team will come to the Topic Announce Room 10 minutes before the start time for the round.

2. The higher seeded team in each debate (or their representative) will choose their side in the round. Their opponent will be assigned to the other side.

3. Once each of the higher seeds has chosen their respective side, tournament staff will confirm the pairing with sides marked.

4. Five minutes after confirming the pairing, the topic for the debate will be released.

5. A unique topic will be used in each of the five preliminary rounds.

1. The top 2 teams from each Group will advance to elimination rounds.

2. Teams advancing will be determined by:

1. Points. Total points will be used as the first ranking mechanism. The point table is available in Appendix A (A.2).

1. Three points will be awarded for each 2-0 result,

2. One point will be awarded for each 1-1 result,

3. Zero points will be awarded for each 0-2 result.

2. Head-to-head. In the event of a tie in points, the team with more head-to-head ballots in the round robin stage will be ranked higher.

3. Total ballot count. If head-to-head is tied, the team with more total ballots won in the round robin stage will be ranked higher.

4. Z-Score. If total ballot count is tied, the team with the higher combined Z-score(the addition of both debaters’ Z-scores) in the group stage will be ranked higher.

5. Season Ranking. If team Z-score is tied, the team with the higher NPTE ranking at the time of the tournament will be ranked higher.

6. Random Number. Each team will be assigned a random number, the team with the larger number will be ranked higher. This tiebreaker will be repeated in the case of random number ties.