Entourage/Observer Rules

Observers Policy and Entourage Judging Rule: (Borrowed in large part from the Blake tournament) 

Observer Policy -- No student observers. But we will stream as much as possible. 

Coach observers are allowed to watch their own team's rounds only.  Each round (excluding Congress) is allowed one coach observer from each entry in the room. To be allowed to do this, the coach observer must be on the active judge list for the Sunvite Tournament for that team in that division.  They must be in the judge pool that their students are competing in for 1 prelim and the one elim round. A coach cannot watch teams that are not their own.

We truly believe watching your debaters is critical for education and coaching. This policy will run thru prelims and elims.  We hope to live stream a good deal of rounds for debaters to observe.  To be an observer you must have signed up in the "observer" event and have a tabroom account. 

Clarifications on who can be asked to leave the round.

**Coaches of the teams involved - no one can ask them to leave - they can watch their students.

Any observer must have their camera on during tech check time and verify who they are and follow proper naming protocols.  The observer cameras should be off during the debate and during the RFD.  Observers should not comment on the decision. 

Entourage -- This is tied to coach observers.  If you want to watch your team, then you will be in the pool to judge.  See above.

FAQ Items

1) Observer judges will all be in the elim pool.  Judges that count toward the commitment should be eligible for ALL elim round judging.

2) If you coach a second school you cannot observe that other team unless you a) email me the other school so we can ensure the conflict and b) add an extra prelim for every school you intend to watch. So, for example, two schools would be either 2 prelim/1 elim or 3 prelims. 

3) If you are an observer/coach you don't get to pick your rounds.  So, if you enter that you are not available to judge on Saturday, we assume you have personal issues taking you away from the tournament.  You cannot say you are not available to judge Saturday and then be there watching rounds on Saturday.

4) If you are part of a school commitment to meet their required rounds then as a judge you are in for all elimination rounds to which that school is obligated.  

5) If you are in the LD/PF Varsity pool then you may watch novice/JV however, if you're in Novice/JV you may NOT observe Varsity. We have student judges in Novice/JV and I think this sets the appropriate boundaries/guidelines.