The Tufts Debate Society is pleased to invite you to our second debate tournament of the season, taking place from January 27th to January 28th.

The theme for the tournament is "Thanks, Obama". Be sure to follow the Facebook event for updates, announcements, and memes. https://www.facebook.com/events/1768465546750616/1773819189548585/?notif_t=like&notif_id=1485223395794220

Format

The tournament will consist of 5 loose-link American Parliamentary Debate preliminary rounds following which we will break to Varsity Octo-Finals and Novice Semi-Finals. 


Registration

The Tournament will be capped at 100 teams. Registration is due at 11:59 pm on Sunday, January 22nd. To avoid confusion, we have decided to move the registration process onto Google forms, which can be accessed via the links below:
School sign-up: https://goo.gl/forms/OG8wQF6wiUiyqUUk1
Team sign-up: https://goo.gl/forms/8a55esFph8K0C8v72
Judge sign-up: https://goo.gl/forms/cyPwCciNj1r7vdgv1


Costs

Cost per team is $120. Teams that pay in cash, venmo, or have yet to attend a Tufts tournament, can expect a $10 break. We will make special concessions for expansion schools, and possibly for schools coming from south of New York City. Please contact us to discuss reg breaks.

Please note that our tournament is strictly Pay-to-Play. Please contact us in advance if you feel you’d be unable to meet that stipulation. 

Please also note that the (n-1)/2 rule applies for bringing judges and the penalty is $60 for each missing judge.

Please contact the tournament directors, Alexa Weinstein and Roberto Breitman, over facebook or gmail if you need an invoice (weinsteinalexa@gmail.com and Roberto.Breitman@gmail.com).

Judging

All judges will be calibrated through a VTF created calibration round. We will reach out to all judges with the mandatory calibration round. Judges who calibrated at NYU Nats may be able to use their calibration score from then. We also reserve the right to split up teams who fail to provide enough judges to meet their criteria. 

No first tournament novices will be counted towards the judging requirements. 

We are actively recruiting Dinos to ensure that we have the best judging pool possible. If you are an interested Dino, please contact us! We’re offering travel reimbursements, reg discounts to the school you represent, and a place to sleep if you need one.


Schedule

Friday, January 27th
2:00pm-3:30pm: Registration*
4:00pm: Round 1
5:30pm: Round 2 
7:00pm: Dinner
8:00pm: Round 3 
9:30pm: Round 4**

Saturday, January 28th
9:00am: Breakfast
10:00am Round 5
11:30am Break to Octo-finals***
1:00pm: Lunch
2:00pm: Quarterfinals
3:30pm: Semifinals
5:00pm: Finals

* Because we want to fit in four rounds on friday, we will drop you if you do not show up by 4
**At tab’s discretion we may hold Round 4 on Saturday morning at 9:00am.
***The break is at the discretion of the Tournament Directors, and dependent on the number of teams at the tournament


Tab

Ryan Lee is our tab director. The tab policy is posted on the APDA forum and in the Facebook event. Our tab observer will be announced shortly.


Equity

Drew Latimer will be our Equity Officer and a second equity officer will be announced soon. They will post the Equity Policy shortly.

Housing

We are pleased to offer accommodations at Tufts University. Debaters will enjoy the finest crash housing. Please contact the tournament directors about any housing questions or special housing requests. 

For debaters who wish to have finer accommodations, the Hyatt Medford is close by and runs a shuttle to Tufts in the morning.

Food

We will provide dinner on Friday, breakfast on Saturday, and a banquet Saturday afternoon. If anyone on your team has any special dietary concerns (vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, lactose free, etc), we will make sure you get fed. 

Entertainment

There will be a party Friday night. 

Directions

If you're driving, you should park at the Dowling Hall Garage located at 419 Boston Ave, Medford, MA 02155. Parking costs $8 per day, though if you contact us enough in advance, we may be able to secure you a parking pass.

For those coming by T: Tufts is located on the Red Line. Anyone taking the T should get off at Davis Square. Campus is then a 10 minute walk away, but there is also a campus shuttle (the Joey), which takes people from Davis Square to Tufts. The Joey schedule can be found here:

http://publicsafety.tufts.edu/adminsvc/ ... s-shuttle/

If you do take the Joey, you should get off at the Olin Center stop (180 Packard Avenue).

Tournament Directors

Alexa Weinstein: 201-970-6202 or alexa.weinstein@tufts.edu
Roberto Breitman: 617-510-2915 or Roberto.breitman@gmail.com