Judging Expectations

Judging Obligations

Policy: 3 rounds of judging per team entry

LD: 2 Rounds of judging per entry

PF: 2 Rounds of Judging per team entry

*Reminder that your school is responsible to have judges stay one round past your school being eliminated fully from competition even if they have fulfilled their prelim judging earlier in the week you MUST have a judge available for Elimination rounds.

**No judge may be entered for more than 6 prelim rounds. If sharing between schools, please notify the tournament directors so that can be sorted out.

***Schools with judges who do not show up for rounds will be assessed a $50 fine per round missed in prelims and $100 for Elimination rounds. 

Hired Judging

Policy: $50/round

LD: $40/round

PF: $30/round

*Please request judging hires by contacting Tabroom at silverandblackdebate@gmail.com if you need to arrange for a hired judge or are a judge who wishes to be hired, no later than October 31st.

**Utah schools need to provide their own qualified judges and should hire only in dire circumstances.

Judging Preferences

LD and Policy will be using mutual preferred judging. Entries must be covered by qualified judges. Policy and LD judges are expected to have completed a judging philosophy and posted it in tabroom no later than November 23, 2021.

Judge Conflicts

Please indicate on the tournament entry website all preclusions for all judges. Judges should preclude themselves from any debater who they have previously coached, had a close, personal relationship with, or for any other reason the judge believes they cannot be objective towards them if assigned. This includes any judge who has done any paid or volunteer coaching, even if conducted digitally or otherwise-remotely. Any college debater or coach should preclude herself or himself from any debater whom they have seriously recruited to attend their school. Judges should preclude themselves from judging their alma mater. Judges should preclude themselves from judging any school which they previously coached in the three-years prior to the 2021-2022 academic year.

It is everyone's obligation to communicate any conflicts to the tournament director prior to the start of the tournament.

Judges are also expected to adhere to Event-Specific Rules regarding Judge Conflicts. In the event a pairing is distributed, and a judge, or team, reports a conflict after the fact, resulting in a changing of the pairing, that school will be charged a $50 fine.

Judge Rooms

The tournament will not require judges to remain in an online room but all judges are expected to be “on-call” until all the rounds are started.  If you are obligated and not initially placed in a round, please monitor your cell phone for a call or text message from tab just in case you are subbed into a debate. If you do not respond or are not available to sub in when needed, then your school may be fined a missing judge penalty after an attempt is made to reach you.

Disclosure of Decisions and Oral Critique Policy

The Tournament of Champions serves as both a competitive and educational forum for the nation’s best debaters, coaches, and judges. As such, the Tournament encourages judge-debater interaction by making decision disclosures and giving oral critiques in the policy, PF, and LD debate divisions. Please submit your ballot online or to the ballot table before giving any post-round feedback.