Policy schedule and information

Entries input before Sept. 15 are on a waiting list and will be moved into the tournament when fees and/or a PO is received IF they are received before September 25. All policy and LD entries input after that will be put on a true waiting list.

Varsity policy debates will be held on the St. Mark’s campus Saturday and Sunday. Quarterfinals and beyond will be held at the Sheraton Galleria on Monday.

We will use a 30 point scale, allowing tenth points, for speaker points in policy debate.

Each school is invited to enter one varsity policy debate team. We will take 40 first teams (one school, one team) that enter and pay fees by September 15.

If you plan on applying for additional teams please try to enter them as soon as possible. They will automatically be put on a waiting list. As soon as they attend a tournament please send an email with their results to pacedebate@gmail.com. We will use a modified rolling admissions system, accepting teams as soon as we believe they have met the criteria. We understand that the earlier you can buy plane tickets the better. We work really hard to balance our concerns for your planning with our desire to have the most competitive field possible.

The fee for each team will be $125. We have an escalating schedule of drop fees depending on how late you drop your teams.

Each team is expected to provide four rounds of QUALIFIED judging for each team entered. At minimum we ask that your judge be at least one year removed from high school debate and have a background in judging policy debate. Additionally, we ask that your judge be committed to the principles of switch side policy debate and commit to selecting one and only one winner of each debate. If you have any questions about what constitutes a qualified judge please contact the tournament director, Tim Mahoney, at pacedebate@gmail.com.

If you are unable to provide qualified judging we will happily hire judges for you at the rate of $40 per uncovered round.

Each judge provided is committed to judge through the octafinals or one round beyond the school’s elimination from the tournament, whichever is longer.

Please have each of your judges submit their judging philosophy to: http://judgephilosophies.wikispaces.com/.

Failure to do so prior to October 1 may result in a $100 fee. Judge changes after MPJ is posted may be charged $50 in addition to other relevant fees and, in many circumstances, will not be allowed at all.

We will not break brackets should teams from the same school meet in elimination rounds.

We agree with Greenhill "that a willingness to take part in a collective case list – in both spirit and in practice – is an essential characteristic to accepting the invitation to our event" in policy debate. At minimum, we expect comprehensive 1ac information and representative negative information to be posted on the wiki:

http://wiki.debatecoaches.org/Policy+Debate

We reserve the right to remove from the tournament teams who fail to comply with this norm.

Our speech times are 8-3-5 with 10 minutes prep time.

Varsity Policy Debate Schedule

MPJ sheets are due before Thursday night at midnight.

Thursday, October 13th – Online check in begins continuing through Friday night at Midnight

5:00 pm - Online check in begins

There will be a fee of $200 if you register electronically without actually being in Dallas. Please don't force me to assess this fee.

Saturday, October 15th – at St. Mark’s

7:00 Pairings available from tabroom.com

8:00 am Round One

10:30 am Round Two

12:30 pm Lunch

2:00 pm Round Three

5:30 pm Round Four

Sunday, October 16th – at St. Mark’s

7:00 am Pairings available from tabroom.com

8:00 am Round Five

10:00 am College Debate Preview Reception – Green Library

11:00 am Round Six

2:00 pm Assembly in the Great Hall - Announcement of Elimination Rounds and Speaker Awards

3:00 pm Double Octofinal Round

6:00 pm Octofinal Round

Monday, October 17th - at the Sheraton Galleria

8:30 am Senior Speakers breakfast by invitation (strike cards for quarterfinalists)

9:00 am Senior Speaker - Celia Buckman, New Trier Township High School

10:00 am Quarterfinal Round

12:30 pm Semifinal Round

3:30 pm Final Round