National Debate Coaches Association National Championship
2016 — FL/US
Thank you for considering our tournament. We hope that you will join us in sunny Orlando for the 2016 NDCA National Championship tournament.
The tournament will be hosted by the University of Central Florida in Orlando on April 8 through April 11. Onsite confirmation will be April 8 and competition will start on the morning of April 9. Events on April 9 and 10 will be on the UCF campus and elimination rounds will conclude at the tournament hotel on Monday April 10.
All of the tournament procedures and forms necessary for entry into the tournament appear underneath "Info" on the right hand side of our main page.
If you see people from UCF please thank them for hosting us. They have done a ton of work to prepare for our visit. Please take good care of their campus. It is VERY important that you tell your entire entourage not to unplug anything in the rooms they are in. Past tournaments have put room use at risk by violating this rule. Let's be better.
TOURNAMENT HOTEL
For those of you staying at the tournament hotel internet; in guest rooms and self parking is free. It's part of our group rate so don't let them charge you for it.
REGISTRATION
If you have turned in Appendix C, Appendix D's and sent in your check please use online registration via tabroom it will open at 5 pm on Friday and stay open all night.
If you haven't done those things please come see me in the Executive Board Room at the tournament hotel the Orlando Marriott Airport Lakeside 7499 Augusta National Dr, Orlando, FL 32822 for registration from 6-8 pm. If you can't be there by 8 pm please email me (pacedebate@gmail.com)
ON CAMPUS
You should start your Saturday and Sunday by driving to the Nicholson School of Communication (NSC) 12405 Aquarius Agora Drive, Orlando 32816.
Breakfast for all tournament participants will be served in the atrium of the NSC on both days. On Saturday lunch will be served there. On Sunday lunch will be served in the Pegasus Ballroom of the Student Union which is also where awards ceremony will be held.
All LD debates will be held in the Business Administration 1 building.
All PF debates will be held in the Harris Engineering Center - do not be confused by buildings Engineering 1 and Engineering 2 they are different.
All CX debates will be held in NSC, Health and Public Administration or the Mathematical Sciences Building.
There is a map on the main page of tabroom on the right hand side.
They will also have copies printed out in NSC.
PARKING
On saturday morning there may be UCF students outside NSC to help you find the parking lot. If not....
Right across the street from the Nicholson School of Communication (NSC) is a parking lot listed as "B and C permit parking only" usually red and blue signs. You can park there on Saturday and Sunday. The lot closest to NSC is right by the Visual Arts building which is very clearly marked and you should be able to see as you are driving to NSC.
no parking in Lake Claire - that's on campus residences and they will tow you.
don't park in metered parking unless you plan to keep feeding the meters because they will ticket you even on weekends.
SMOKING
UCF is a smoke-free campus. However, it is a social norm--not a law. So, folks will not be arrested or ticketed. But smokers are encourage to go off-campus. It is a short 100 yard walk from the Nicholson School to the edge of campus.
INTERNET
Use the UCF network. If you have troubles getting on remember the usual tricks.
-disconnect and then reconnect
-try connecting with a different browser
-go to gstatic.com which will then, hopefully, redirect you to the UCF home page where you will be asked to agree to their terms of use.
-go to a different section of the building. they have a robust network but if there are 200 people all in the atrium at the same time trying to get on the network then yeah it might have some issues.
-restart your machine
-if that doesn't work may god have mercy on your soul
TOURNAMENT ADMINISTRATION
Once the tournament starts I'm no longer in charge of tournament. I serve the tabroom committee's. Aaron Hardy, Bruce Miller, Kevin Hamrick and Dan Lingel and work to help make their job easier. Virtually every question you have about how the tournament works is probably answered in our tournament procedures documents which are on the main page of our tabroom website. If you have questions that aren't answered by those documents feel free to come by the tabroom. We have an "open tabroom" which means anyone is welcome to come by and ask questions about how things are being done. I will be the point person for that and you, of course, can also email me about these things. The tabrooms will be in NSC 161 which is also the UCF debate squad room.