SPAR Fest

Bonus Event – SPAR

SPARFEST

Open to any competitor who does not break to Super Congress at any level or Finals in International Diplomacy. The judging burden for this event is one judge for each two competitors. High School students, including students who are competing in this tournament but are not competing in SPAR, may judge.

SPAR does not count towards either the Foley Speaker’s Award or Sweepstakes.

Spontaneous Argumentation (also known as SPAR): A brief, ten-minute debate performed without advanced preparation on a subject of interest. At this tournament, the format will be as follows: The affirmative and the negative will be given two topics. At the end of a one minute preparation period, the affirmative will begin to debate on one of the two topics. The affirmative is allotted a two-minute constructive speech followed by a one-minute cross-examination. The negative will then have one minute to prepare a two-minute constructive speech which will be followed by a one-minute cross examination. Both speakers will then be allowed one minute for rebuttal without preparation time. (Novice and open divisions.)

Special SPAR Rules:

1) SPAR is being offered as a bonus event on Friday from 8:00 to 9:00 PM.

2) There are NO judge strikes in this event.

3) There are NO judge conflicts in this event. That means that a judge can judge a person from his/her own school.

4) There is NO one year out rule for judges in this event.

5) Debaters who are not competing in SPAR may judge SPAR.

6) Each SPAR competitor will be issued a ballot with eight debate result lines. The debater will take that ballot with him/her to each round. Each judge will initial either a win or a loss on each ballot and award speaker points to each debater.

7) There will be eight preliminary rounds.

8) All rounds will be held in one large area. Debaters will start at a numbered judge and move eight times in a positive order (e.g. if a competitor started with judge 5, she would go to judge 6 in her second round and judge 7 in her third round etc. The judge’s table will be marked with the judge’s number).

9) Time limits will be strictly enforced.

10) The 8^th round judge will collect the ballots from the two competitors that s/he has judged in the 8^th round and turn them in to TAB.

11) Judges are NOT permitted to give critiques or write comments on the ballots. Sorry, but we have to maintain strict time limits to make this work!

12) The top four competitors from Thursday will advance to a semifinals round on Saturday evening which will be held against out rounds in debate. If one or more of the top competitors in SPAR also breaks in debate, that person will NOT be eligible for SPAR out rounds. Instead, the next highest competitor(s) who did not advance to the out rounds in regular debate will be “pulled up” to the SPAR semifinals.

13) The top two Open division SPAR competitors will appear on stage at the beginning of the Awards Ceremony. The winner will be determined by audience preference.