Public Forum 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 15. All entries input after that will be put on a true waiting list.

The entry fee for each PF team will be $125. All competition in public forum debate will take place at the Sheraton Galleria.

For each team entered the school must provide 3 rounds of judging. Hired judging is not available. We will hire a small number of judges to supplement the pool but due to the evolving nature of the event believe that it is best if schools provide the types of judges they believe are most suited to the event. Changes to your judging the week of the tournament will result in a $50 fee in addition to other applicable fees.

The tournament will use the September-October National Speech and Debate Association resolution for public forum debate.

The tournament will offer 6 rounds of preliminary competition. All teams with a 4-2 record or better will advance to elimination rounds.

Time limits will be:

Speaker 1 (Team A, 1st speaker) 4 minutes

Speaker 2 (Team B, 1st speaker) 4 minutes

Crossfire (between speakers 1 and 2) 3 minutes

Speaker 3 (Team A, 2nd speaker) 4 minutes

Speaker 4 (Team B, 2nd speaker) 4 minutes

Crossfire (between speakers 3 and 4) 3 minutes

Speaker 1 Summary 2 minutes

Speaker 2 Summary 2 minutes

Grand Crossfire (all speakers) 3 minutes

Speaker 3 Final Focus 2 minutes

Speaker 4 Final Focus 2 minutes

Each team may use up to two minutes of prep time.

Each speaker will be ranked 1-4 and each speaker will be assigned individual speaker points on a scale of 1-30.

All rounds, including elimination rounds, will be flip for sides and speaker order.

Public Forum debate competition is considered a team activity. Once tournament competition begins should one or both members of a team be unable to participate in a scheduled round of competition the team must forfeit those debates.

The Heart of Texas Invitational considers debate events to be, by definition, open to the public. Interested parties, parents, friends, other competitors, school officials, etc. are all allowed to observe, including note taking, preliminary and elimination rounds of competition in all events.

Public Forum Debate Schedule

Thursday, October 13th – Online check in

5:00 pm - Online check in begins

We will again use online check in Thursday night in all debate events. After you arrive in Dallas, log onto tabroom.com Thursday night after 5 pm. Please do not complete online check in until you are actually in Dallas. There will be a tab for "Online check in" or something similar. The directions should be easy to follow essentially confirming no changes to your entry. All fees should be paid and no judge changes are allowed except for emergency circumstances. 99% of you should be able to check in this way. 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.

Friday, October 14th – at Sheraton Galleria

9 am – Round 1 

12 pm – Lunch

1 pm – Round 2 

3 pm – Round 3 

5 pm – Round 4 

Saturday, October 15th – at Sheraton Galleria

8:30 am – Pairings released on Tabroom.com

9 am – Round 5 

11:00 am – Round 6 

12-1 pm – Lunch

1:30 pm – Quarters (flighted)

3:30 pm – Semis

4:30 pm – Finals

Elimination rounds will be accelerated when possible.