General Tournament Rules/Entry #'s/Sweeps

General Tournament Notes

This policy seeks to maintain independent sweepstakes calculations for two parts (debate and individual events) of the tournament and then to arithmetically equalize the value. This policy maintains independent sweepstakes for the two parts of the overall sweepstakes. Sweepstakes will be calculated through the following formula: 6 points per team debate prelim win, 3 points per LD/IPDA individual debate prelim win, and individual events as 3-2-1 for prelims and 12-10-8-6-4-2-1 for finals. Should a semi-final round be held, all competitors in that round will receive 1 point. After sweepstakes points are computed, each team’s score is calculated as a percentage of the total sweepstakes “pot” in each sweepstakes competition. Hence, there will be forced equality of 100 possible points for debate and 100 points for individual events. The percentage scores of each team will be added together to calculate sweepstakes for the overall category. Overall sweepstakes awards will be presented to the top three schools entered in both individual events and debate. An award will also be presented to the top point-earning two-year school; the winner of this award does not need to be entered in both individual events and debate. The tie-breaking formula for individual events and debate will be as follows:

Individual Event Sweepstakes

1. Total individual events points earned

2. Number of events in finals

3. Comparative ranks of events in finals (Comparative ranks examines the number of 1st place finishes, if tied, then number of 2nd place finishes, etc.)

Debate Sweepstakes

1. Total debate points earned

2. Number of debate entries in elimination rounds

3. Highest placing of debate entries in elimination rounds

4. Comparative finishes in debate entries in elimination rounds (Compare number of finalists, if ties, then number of semifinalists, etc.)

Three additional sweepstakes awards will be presented, in addition to those for overall, individual events, debate in the open division, and two-year school competitions.

Quality Award

The Quality Award is determined by dividing the total sweepstakes points earned by a school by the number of slots that school entered. The school with the highest points earned per slot entered at the tournament will win this award.

President’s Division

MAFA shall award Team Sweepstakes Awards in both an Open division and a President’s division for Individual Events, Debate and Overall Team Sweepstakes Awards. Divisions will be determined by the median entry for the tournament as determined at the close of registration for the tournament. All schools entered at the tournament will be eligible for the Open division. Schools with entries at or below the median will be entered in the President’s division.

Director’s Award

The Director’s Award is a traveling trophy that tracks a school’s sweepstakes points earned over subsequent MAFA Championship Tournaments. For this award, the sweepstakes points earned at previous MAFA Championship tournaments are added to the current year’s points. The school with the highest cumulative total points is named the champion until the next MAFA Championship Tournament. Once a school wins this award, their sweepstakes point total is reset to zero.

Debate Guidelines

A school may enter up to 18 debate entries, with no more than 12 debaters per school per debate format (12 individual debaters or 6 debate teams of two debaters). A debate team counts as 2 entries. An LD entry counts as 1. Take the number of teams and multiply by 2 and add the number of LD entries. This number may not exceed 18. (e.g. 5 debate teams and 8 LD entries, or 6 debate teams and 6 LD entries). In any case, a school’s entry must not exceed 6 teams, OR 12 LD debaters OR 12 IPDA debaters. A student may enter both a team format and LD or IPDA, but will count as 2 of the 18 debate entries. There will be both open and novice divisions if numbers allow. Any student competing in his/her first two semesters of college debate may be classified as a novice. All divisions will debate four (4) preliminary rounds and break to their appropriate elimination round. Lincoln-Douglas debaters may enter one event in flight B of individual events. Please contact MAFA President, Eric Morris if you have questions about debate entry limitations.

Debate awards will be presented to all open quarterfinalists. The top novice in each division will receive an award. The top six speakers in each division will receive speaker awards. The top three schools who earn the most total points across all divisions will receive team sweepstakes awards.

Debate sweepstakes calculations will be made using the preliminary records of the top twelve debaters across the three debate genres. A TIPDA team is two debaters. An LD or IPDA debater is one. Six points will be assigned for each preliminary round win in TIPDA, and three will be assigned to the same in LD or IPDA. Elimination round wins will not count toward sweepstakes.

Individual Events Guidelines & Conflict Patterns

Pattern A: Extemp, Persuasive, Oratory, Poetry, Informative, Prose

Pattern B: Impromptu, DI, POI, Duo, ADS, CA

Schools may enter up to 44 slots in individual events, distributed across all events. Awards will be presented to the top six contestants in each event. There will be three individual events sweepstakes trophies. A top novice award will also be given for each event. Novices are defined as students in their first year of competition at the collegiate level. All individual events will follow the description, rules and guidelines of the American Forensic Association. Only a school’s top six entrants in any one event will count toward sweepstakes.

AFA rules will be followed for all individual events. Students should not enter material that has been used in competition before September 1, 2023. The tournament will follow AFA tabulation procedures. Extemp topics will cover issues pertinent to the socio-political realm with emphasis upon: international affairs, politics, and the economy. Impromptu participants will choose between two topics that will vary by round and section. Topics may be drawn from philosophical quotations, song lyrics, and/or quotations from popular films.

MAFA traditionally does not restrict the number of individual events a competitor can enter in a given flight, so students are free to enter as many as they wish (except for the LD debaters who are limited to only one individual event per pattern plus Lincoln Douglas). HOWEVER, we strongly suggest that competitors and their coaches limit themselves to only three individual events per pattern per student out of respect for the tournament schedule and staff. Do your part to make sure the tournament runs on time. Competitors will be responsible for making it to each of their events within the time allotted for each round.

Eligibility

Eligibility will follow the AFA guidelines. A student must be enrolled in at least six hours of classes at the school they are representing. The student must also not have used more than eight semesters of eligibility (3 or more tournaments of competition constitutes a semester) as defined by the AFA, and must not have had more than four national tournament years (completed in four years in which a national tournament- NFA, AFA, NSC, NPDA, NDT, CEDA, Phi Rho PI, PKD, DSR, etc. was attended by the student). The expectation is that the Director of Forensics for the entries will enforce these rules.