Tournament Info

ENTRY RULES:

In order to guarantee your team's registration, entries including payment by check or purchase order must be received by Friday, October 7, 2016. However, we may need to close registration prior to that date due to space.  We will continue to take registrations after that date if space can accommodate entries. YOU SHOULD CONTINUE TO ENTER YOUR REGISTRATION AND SEND IN PAYMENT TO SECURE IT UNTIL THE DIVISION IS CLOSED ON THE WEBSITE.  In order for us to provide the best tournament possible, all changes should be communicated up until the day of the tournament. However, as of 7 pm CST on Friday, October 7th, fees will be assessed and refunds will no longer be available.

• Schools may enter up to FOUR Varsity LD debaters. Additional Varsity LD entries may be entered on the entry waitlist. Schools will be notified by October 11th to accommodate travel plans. Do NOT make travel arrangements for students on the additional entry waitlist prior to a confirmation of the entry.  If you have special concerns regarding travel arrangements, please contact rickbrundage@gmail.com with questions.

• There are NO entry limits in JV and Novice LD, both divisions of Public Forum, or Congressional Debate.

• There is a school registration fee of $25

• The Varsity Public Forum fee is $75 per team

• The Varsity LD registration fee is $75

• The Congressional Debate entry fee is $35

• The Novice Public Forum fee is $35 per team

• The Novice LD fee is $35

• The JV LD entry fee is $40

• The fees include two meals (Friday's dinner & Saturday's lunch) and shuttle buses as noted in the schedule.

• Please be sure the names of judges and students are accurate. All information should be complete by October 31st to aid in scheduling the tournament.

You may continue to make changes to registration after the website is shut down by emailing rickbrundage@gmail.com.  On the day of the tournament, all changes in registration must be called directly into the tab room before you arrive at the tournament site. The pre-tournament tab contact on registration day is Rick Brundage at 612-860-0585.

INDEPENDENT ENTRIES:

In accordance with the TOC's policy to not accept bids earned by independents or to allow independents to compete at the TOC, we will NOT accept "independent" entries. An independent entry is defined as a team or student who wishes to compete without the approval, knowledge, or consent of their school administration and/or coach(es). All students must compete under the school's name in which they are officially enrolled.  In addition, student-initiated entries will not be accepted.

JUDGING:

In Varsity LD, schools may not hire out their entire judging commitment.  A minimum of one judge must represent each school with entries in the Varsity LD division.  We believe this will further enhance the diversity and quality of our Varsity LD judge pool

LD: We do not flight rounds. This allows us to streamline our schedule and provide a better judging schedule. Therefore, each school must provide one qualified judge for every two LD debaters in each division, or portion thereof. For 1-2 LD debaters in a division, you need one judge; for 3-4 LD debaters in a division, you need two judges, etc.  Judges cannot cross divisions.  For example, if you have two novice debaters, you will need one judge at Scott Highlands Middle School. However, if you have only one Novice debater and one Varsity debater, you would need one judge at each building for a total of two judges. Logistically, one judge could not be scheduled into two buildings to cover those two debaters. We strongly encourage each school to bring experienced judges. 

In Varsity Lincoln-Douglas, please assist us in having the best pool of judges possible by making judges available to us that reflect the quality of the competition.  First year outs are allowed to fulfill a school's commitment, but we strongly encourage the head coach to serve as a critic and be represented on the varsity strike sheet. We respectfully ask that ALL judges be available for LD double octafinals to make the best panels possible.  To increase pool diversity, if there are head coaches in attendance who are not in the judge pool, we ask that they be available for two rounds of judging. 

PF: We do not flight rounds.  Each school must provide one qualified judge for every 1-2 teams, or portion thereof. All Public Forum judges should report to Falcon Ridge Middle School.  To increase pool diversity, if there are head coaches in attendance at the MinneApple who are not in the judge pool, we ask that they be available for two rounds of judging. 

IN ALL LD DIVISIONS AND PF, please remember that a school's judges are obligated one round past the elimination of its last team/debater.  To ensure the best judging pool possible and flexibility for pairings, we cannot guarantee requests for partial judging commitments. Given that the Minneapple has only single flights in each preliminary round, this commitment is comparable to a half-time commitment at a tournament that has flighted rounds. 

If judging obligations are not met, the tournament reserves the right to remove a school's entries to balance the student-judge ratio. This includes cases where judges are missing the first round on Friday or Saturday. Debaters may be reentered into the schedule but with losses for the missed rounds.

MUTUAL JUDGE PREFERENCE:

In Varsity LD only, the Minneapple will afford teams the ability to rate judges as well as strike a small portion of the field. In order to accomplish this, we require that all teams submit judge names by October 31st. If a judge's name is changed or removed from the pool after this date, the tournament will assess a $50 fee. This fee is charged to prevent teams from adversely affecting all other teams preferences. This fee will be assessed at registration and will be due before teams are permitted to compete. All judges in the Varsity LD division are required to submit a judging philosophy at http://judgephilosophies.wikispaces.com/ by October 31st. Teams whose judges have not submitted a paradigm will not be permitted to submit a preference sheet without exception.

Any teams who have not fulfilled their judging obligation or who have judges without paradigms listed online before the deadline will not be permitted to preference judges without exception. 

Any judge who is not listed on the preference sheet will become a free strike. The tournament will list these judges on the round pairings. Teams wishing to exercise their free strikes must notify the tab room prior to the next round's pairing to ensure that their strikes are honored. 
 
HIRED JUDGES:

YOU MUST SPECIFICALLY REQUEST A HIRED JUDGE BY OCTOBER 8th ON TABROOM.  LEAVING THE JUDGING COMMITMENT BLANK DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVE HIRED A JUDGE. Requests are NOT guaranteed until confirmed. We have a limited number of hired judges available and will try to honor requests to the best of our ability.  Schools may not hire out their entire judging commitment in Varsity LD.  A minimum of one judge must represent each school with entries in the Varsity LD division.  Please make every attempt to bring your own judges for each division. The fee is for a judge is $175 per uncovered entry.  Requests after that designated date will incur a late fee charge of $130.00. If you are interested in being hired by the tournament, please send an email to rickbrundage@gmail.com.

CHAOS CONTROL FEES:  

Because the judge pool is integral to the efficiency and quality of the tournament, a 'chaos control' fee of $40.00 will be assessed per missed round per judge and must be paid by the end of the tournament.  Schools must have their judging obligations filled for all rounds including rounds one and two on Friday or pay for hired judges to fulfill those round requirements. 

REGISTRATION CHECKS:

Please make checks payable to:
Apple Valley Speech and Debate Boosters
Attn: Franz Hofmeister, Treasurer
7645 Gibraltar Terrace
Apple Valley, MN 55124

PAYMENT OF ENTRY FEE:

Fees for all events must be paid by Friday, October 7th, 2016. This policy was necessitated by too many schools with inaccurate registration of entries and payments in a less-than-timely manner. All entries will be automatically placed on a waiting list until fees are paid. Once the tournament receives your fees, or a copy of your submitted purchase order, your entries will be removed from the waitlist and entered into the tournament. Entering now will hold your spots as long as your fees are received by October 7th, 2016. If your school is traditionally slow to process paperwork, email or fax a copy of the purchase order before October 7th. The fax number for AVHS is 952-431-8282.

Fees can be refunded until 7:00 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, October 7th; no refunds are available after this date.  If space allows for late entries, they must be followed by payment per the procedures listed in order to be guaranteed.

Any outstanding balances for the tournament must be paid at the registration desk before any entries from your school are allowed to compete.
 
HOSPITALITY:

We are pleased to offer complementary meals for Friday's dinner and Saturday's lunch for the competitors and coaches. We will offer vegetarian and non-vegetarian options.  Breakfast for the coaches and judges will be complementary.

Debaters can plan on breakfast items being available for purchase at our concession stands on Saturday morning. There will be light concessions available at each building throughout the tournament.

LOCATIONS, REGISTRATION, AND SHUTTLES:

Registration for each division is at Apple Valley High School. Varsity LD registration and rounds will take place at Apple Valley Senior High School. JV LD preliminary rounds will be at Valley Middle School. Novice LD preliminary rounds rounds will be at Scott Highlands Middle School.  Congressional Debate and Varsity Public Forum preliminary rounds and elimination rounds will both be held and remain at Falcon Ridge Middle School for the entire tournament. Novice Public Forum preliminiary rounds will be held at Valley Middle School.  Novice Public Forum elimination rounds will be at Falcon Ridge Middle School.  All schools are less than 10 minutes driving distance of each other. It is critical to the tournament that all of your debaters and judges are at their designated location for the first round each day. Shuttle buses will be available from AVHS on Friday before round one to take debaters to each site but will not return debaters to AVHS Friday night. Coaches need to make arrangements to pick up debaters at the various sites.  Shuttles will NOT be available on Saturday morning from AVHS but will be available to return all LD debaters to AVHS for lunch and LD elimination rounds. Public Forum and Student Congress will remain at Falcon Ridge for all preliminary and elimination rounds.  Given the many locations, we strongly encourage out-state competitors to have a rental vehicle.

AWARDS: 

Once again, our awards feature the apple theme. Varsity LD will break to partial triple octafinals and awards will be given to double octafinalists, while JV LD and Novice LD will break to octafinals. Varsity Public Forum will break to double octafinals.  Novice Public Forum will break to quarterfinals. Congressional Debate will break to finals. All LD debaters in elimination rounds and both team debaters in Public Forum that advance to octafinals and beyond will receive a red marble apple. The top six ranking finalists in Congressional Debate will receive apples and all finalists will receive an award.  The top PF and varsity LD speakers will be recognized. We will also award sweepstakes trophies based upon the performance of the school's top two debaters in each division in both Public Forum and LD, and an overall team sweepstakes award based on the top two entries in each division of debate (Varsity, JV, and Novice LD, Varsity and Novice Public Forum, and Congressional Debate).

LD AND PF TIME LIMITS AND RESOLUTIONS:

In LD, we will use the NFL 6-3-7-3-4-6-3 time limits with 4 minutes of preparation time. Each division of LD will debate the NFL November/December resolution.

In PFD, we will use NFL rules and time limits. Each division of PFD will debate the NFL November resolution.

LD/PF PAIRINGS PROTOCOL:

Rounds one and two in all divisions will be randomly paired. Rounds three through six will be paired high-low within brackets. Brackets will not be broken in elimination rounds. Varsity speaker awards are based on speaker points in preliminary rounds.

CONGRESSIONAL DEBATE:

We seek legislation submissions using templates at: http://congressionaldebate.org/resources/legislation-templates and emailed to minneapplecongress2016@gmail.com. There is no limit to the number of submissions a participating school may make.  However, only one piece of legislation may be submitted per Congressional debater. See below for deadlines and posting dates. See the "Congress Schedule" page for more information.

IMPORTANT DATES:

October 7th

Registration Due (capacity may be full prior to this date)
Check Payment/Purchase Order Due

Golden Apple Award Nominations Due 
Distiguished Alumnus Award Nominations Due

Final Fees Assessed at 7:00 PM CST.  No refunds are available after this date.

October 8th

Hired judge requests due

Additional entry waitlist notified

October 10th

Congress Legislation Due

October 13th

Hotel Booking Deadline

October 14th 

Congress Legislation Released

October 21st

Congressional Debate final legislation areas released.

October 31st

Final Judge Names Entered
Varsity LD Judge Paradigms submitted to http://judgephilosophies.wikispaces.com/

November 1st

Mutual Judge Preference sheets available. 

After November 1st:

ANY changes to your entries or judges should be entered on the website until it is closed. Then all changes should be emailed to rickbrundage@gmail.com.  Changes on the day of the tournament must be telephoned in to Rick Brundage at (612) 860-0585 as soon as you know them.