Irvington High School presents:

Vikings Invitational 2016

Invitational Parliamentary Debate Tournament

Fremont, California

Saturday December 17, 2016

Dear Coach:

Irvington High School invites you and your debate crew to Irvington’s debut tournament, Vikings Invitational, to be held on Saturday December 17, 2016, at Irvington High School in Fremont, California.

We are also pleased to announce that we are able to provide TOC points for those interested in the National Tournament of Champions.

We are asking schools to register online.  As this is a debut tournament, we are capping each school’s entries to five (5) teams per Novice and five (5) teams per Open.  This tournament is open only to high school teams; unfortunately, at this time, we cannot support middle school teams, debate academies, or independent entries.

Please note we will NOT be providing a tournament hotel because it is a one day tournament.  Each school is responsible for organizing their own transport and accommodations as needed.

If you have any questions regarding the tournament that are not answered here, please email Becky Conlon (bconlon408@gmail.com).

Web Based Entry Procedures:

Entries will only be accepted online at tabroom.com. You will also be able to make changes to your entry up to 5:00 pm on Saturday December 10, 2016, with no additional fees. Judge names must be entered by 5:00 pm on Wednesday December 14, 2016 or you will be charged for penalty fees. You can click on the tournament name from the Tabroom homepage to register. You can also search for the tournament by entering "Vikings Invitational" into the search box. It will take you a few minutes to set up your school's account, but once that is done, the system is a breeze. Plus, the system will save all your judges and competitors - so when you enter the next tournament that uses this system, you will not have to type the judges and competitors names again. To enter go to www.tabroom.com. All space will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Print out your invoice from the tabroom.com website.   Go to your registration information page for the Vikings Invitational at tabroom.com.  You will see a link on the right side of the page that says “Print Tournament Invoice.”  Print that invoice and bring it in along with your payment.

Judging

Schools must provide judges; one judge for every two debate teams. Schools will pay a judging penalty fee for any debate team not covered by school judges. Judge names must be posted by 5:00 pm on Wednesday December 14, 2016 or we will assume you are not bringing judges and penalties accordingly will be assessed ($100/team/round). If you have judges who can only come for certain rounds, there is a way to indicate that on the tabroom website.  After you have entered the judge there will be a link for “availability.”  When you click on that link you will be able to turn off judges for particular round.  It’s very important that you enter that information into the website to avoid missed judging fees.

Judges are committed one round past where their school drops from competition. Judges are assumed to be experienced and prepared to judge their assigned debate format.  School judges who fail to check in at the judging table may have their team fined the aforementioned penalties per round.   Please contact us if you're unsure of your judging commitment, or have any other questions regarding judging.

FEES:

This tournament will cost $40 per debate team. Please make checks payable to "IHS Debate Club".  Make sure that the checks are written out and given during tournament registration.

Use the following to assist in determining registration amount due.

_____ (number of Novice AND Open teams) * $40 = ___________

Fees for uncovered debate rounds / judges no-showing / etc: $100/team/round.  We would much prefer you provide judges than money to cover judging fees.

Topics:

One topic will be provided for each parli round.

Divisions:

Competition will be divided into a Novice and Open Division. Novice is normally defined as the first ACADEMIC year of competition ever and has never competed in any Open divisions.  Please note that if a competitor has ever competed in Open Division for ANY debate activity (Policy, Public Forum, Lincoln-Douglas, etc), they are NOT able to compete in Novice, even if they are in their first academic year of competition in parli.

Caps:

Five (5) teams per division per school.

General Rules:

The tournament will consist of five debate rounds in both the Novice and Open divisions.  Both divisions will receive awards.  Speaker awards will be distributed as well.

Entries may also be waitlisted if the tournament reaches capacity. Schools will be moved off the waitlist as space opens up. Schools that have not already taken up their allotted slots in each event will be moved first, and schools with completed judge entries will also be given preference. Remaining waitlisted entries will be moved on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Debate Rules:

We will accept hybrid teams in debate.  We do not accept single person teams. Brackets will be broken to avoid teams from the same school hitting each other. We provide 1 topic per round. Postings will determine which side the team will debate for the round.

Computers/Prep:

There will be no coach prep allowed; however, group prep is permitted.  Computers are allowed for Parliamentary Debate prep. Internet will also be provided, at your own risk. The tournament has no obligation for providing internet (although we will have a guest wireless network) should something happen to the internet, the tournament will continue. You are required to bring your own writing utensils and paper for this tourney. Only material written during prep time will be allowed during the round - NO COMPUTERS ALLOWED DURING THE ROUND, NOT EVEN FOR FLOWING.

SCHEDULE  

Saturday, December 17, 2016

7:30-8:00 School Registration +Fees

8:00 Judges Meeting
8:35 Round 1 Postings
8:45 Round 1 Topic
10:00 Round 2 Postings
10:10 Round 2 Topic
11:25 Round 3 Postings
11:35 Round 3 Topic
12:35-1:35 LUNCH
1:40 Round 4 Postings
1:50 Round 4 Topic
BREAK
3:05 Round 5 Postings
3:15 Round 5 Topic
5:00 AWARDS