January 10, 2017

The Sacramento State University debate team and the Department of Communication Studies invite you to participate in the 2017 Hornet Cup Tournament to be held at Sacramento State March 4-5, 2017.  We will have six preliminary rounds of NFA-LD debate in both novice & varsity divisions with appropriate elimination rounds. 

We have secured a limited number of rooms at the Courtyard Sacramento Airport Natomas. The hotel is offering a rate of $95.00 for up to four people per room. The cutoff date for the block is Feb 3.  The booking information is included below. Please let us know if you need recommendations for other properties.

We will offer light breakfast on Saturday and Sunday, and lunch on Saturday.  If you are traveling from outside the region, please don’t hesitate to contact us to discuss any help you need to make the trip easier. If you have questions feel free to email Kristen Tudor at khtudor@csus.edu.

Kristen Hamilton Tudor

Director of Debate

(916) 278-5489 (office)

(916) 212-5305 (cell)

Jared Anderson

Head Debate Coach

(530)591-3913 (cell)

Adam Austin

Graduate Assistant Coach

Tournament Information

Hotel:  The Courtyard Sacramento Airport Natomas is located at 2101 River Plaza Drive, 95833.  The rate is $95.00 plus tax per night for 1-4 people per room. The block is small, so I encourage you to reserve early. Reservations can be made using the link below, or by calling the hotel at 1-(916) 922-1120 and asking for the Sac State Debate block.  The block will be held unitl February 3. If you have trouble making reservations let me know. If you need recommendations for a different hotel, we can also help with that.

Link to hotel: https://goo.gl/bI9e87

Transportation:  The Sacramento Airport is about a 20 minute drive from campus and the tournament hotel.  There are plenty of rental car companies in the airport.   To get to campus or the hotel from the airport, take I-5 south, then merge onto highway 50 east towards South Lake Tahoe.  Exit at Howe/Power Inn Road and follow the signs to campus.

Campus:  Sac State’s address is 6000 J Street, 95819. No parking permit is needed on the weekend.  Most rounds and registration will be in Mendocino Hall, so parking in Lot 2 is the best option. See a campus map here:

http://www.csus.edu/nsm/about%20nsm/resources%20docs/color_map.pdf

Entry Info:  Please enter at Tabroom.com. We plan to run this tournament electronically, including pairings and ballots. Please be sure your judges have a device that they can use to enter ballots online (a smart phone works). If you need any help with this system please contact us in advance and we’ll help you figure it out.

Tournament Procedures:  We will use the 2016-2017 NFA-LD topic and adhere to NFA rules.  Divisions may collapse if necessary, but we will attempt to protect novices.  There will be no breaking of brackets in elimination rounds.  We will, if necessary, have partial-elimination rounds in order to break all winning records.  We will utilize the RKS Decimal scale for speaker points; points are awarded in one-tenth increments and no ties are allowed.

Fees & Judging:  The fee for each debater is $40, which does include light breakfast and snacks Saturday and Sunday and lunch on Saturday.  Each school is expected to provide one judge for every two debaters entered.  The uncovered debater fee will be $75.00.  We’ll pay hired judges $15 per round.  Please make checks payable to “CSU Sacramento Communication Studies Department.” 

It is important that schools make every effort to fully cover judging commitment with qualified judges. Anyone interested in being a hired judge should contact Jared Anderson or Kristen Tudor.

Awards: In addition to awards for all elimination round participants, we will have awards for the top 5 speakers in each division. The Hornet Cup will be a sweepstakes award recognizing the top team based on the results of the top 3 participants from each team (.5 points for each prelim win, 1 point for first elim win, 2 points for subsequent elim wins).

Tournament Schedule

Saturday, March 4

8:30am: Registration & coffee in Mendocino Hall

9:30:  Round 1

11:00:  Round 2

12:15  Lunch on campus (provided)

1:45:  Round 3

3:15:  Round 4

4:45: Round 5

Sunday, March 5

8:30am: Pairings & coffee in Mendocino Hall

9:00:  Round 6

10:45  Elim 1

12:15 Elim 2

2:00/asap: Elim 3

Subsequent elims, if needed, will start ASAP. Awards will follow.