Event Procedures & Information

General:

Both events will follow the 8-3-5 time convention for speeches and CX, and have 10 minutes of preparation time for all debates. Decision time for preliminary rounds is 2 hours after the scheduled start time. Decision time for elimination rounds is 2 hours and 15 minutes after the scheduled start time.

Both events will debate the 2024-25 NFHS Policy Debate resolution: The United States federal government should significantly strengthen its protection of domestic intellectual property rights in copyrights, patents, and/or trademarks.

All elimination rounds will use online coinflips, except in debates where sides are locked. Coinflips will blast 5 minutes after pairings, and the winner of the flip will have 5 minutes to decide. If they don't then the loser gets 5 minutes to decide, then its up for grabs. Given the 5 minute period before the flip, it is intended that disclosure happens promptly before the flip so the winner can make an informed decision.

Varsity Policy:

Varsity will consist of 6 preliminary rounds, breaking all 4-2s up to a full Double-Octafinals. If there are more than 32 teams with a winning record, we will not adjust the schedule, and will only break the top 32 teams based on seeding.

All entries advancing to the semifinals will receive a bid to the Tournament of Champions, hosted by the University of Kentucky in April.

Schools are obligated to provide 3 rounds of judging for every entry in the Varsity division. Schools should be able to provide judging for every elimination round they are participating in, plus one full elimination round beyond their team's elimination from the tournament. This means that if Doubles is a partial elimination round, all judges are obligated for Octafinals on Sunday morning, schools with entries dropping in Octafinals are obligated for Quarterfinals, and so on...

Varsity will use ordinal mutually preferred judging, with placement being based on a judge's percentile rating. Preference sheets will open the Tuesday evening prior to the tournament, and close at noon on Friday. Preference weights prioritize mutuality over ranking, which means we care more about ensuring a mutually ranked judge instead of a highly ranked judge. So, a judge that is a 32%-36% match will be preferred over a 5%-24% match.

We will use strike cards in all elimination rounds from Quarters onwards, as judging allows. Each team will be allowed one strike. As we get further through the tournament, and judging becomes sparser, we may sacrifice mutual preference for more strikes. Strike cards will be online, and will blast 10 minutes before the pairing. Once all strike cards are in, the pairing will be blasted. Any extra time will be treated as pre-round prep, and round start times will not be adjusted if strike cards are submitted early.

We will host a Second Year Breakout bracket ran concurrently with the first 2-3 elimination rounds in Varsity. The final number of breakout rounds will be determined based on the number of eligible breakout entries---our goal is to provide as many rounds as possible. All entries eligible for this bracket should be marked as such during registration. These rounds will use MPJ, like regular Varsity rounds, but will be paired AFTER the concurrent Varsity elimination round, so that the ideal judge panels are placed in those debates.

Novice Policy:

Novice will consist 6 preliminary debates, breaking all 4-2s up to a full Octafinals. Unless there is a significant number of entries with winning records that will not advance, we will not do a partial Doubles. It is up to the discretion of the tournament administration whether or not to make this decision, and it will be communicated based on final numbers during awards at the latest.

Schools are required to provide 3 rounds of judging per Novice entry. The first three rounds of judging must be eligible to judge Varsity level debates. The rest of your judging can be current high school students who are only eligible to judge novice debates. Upon registration, any judges who are current HS students must be marked as such with the required registration question. These judges will internally be excluded from the Varsity preference sheet.

Novice will not be using mutually preferred judging, nor will it be using strike cards in elimination rounds. Judging for all debates will be determined after judges are set for Varsity rounds. Judge panels for all debates ran concurrently with Varsity elimination rounds that have strike cards will be determined AFTER all strike cards are entered for that Varsity debate.

Novice Argument Packet:

The novice division will use the Kansas Novice Packet, which is a modified version of the NDCA novice packet and can be foundhere. All evidence read in debates must be from this packet. Cards can be retagged and reorganized, but the core argument set must consist of what is in this packet. New arguments from packet evidence are also prohibited. Any teams reading outside arguments or evidence will forfeit their ability to win the given debate, but the round should continue for academic purposes.

However, in order to maintain the integrity of the tournament and not give teams unfair advantages, all grievances must be brought to the Tabroom staff within one full debate round of it happening. For example, if your team loses round 1 to non-packet evidence and you make us aware of it during round 2, the decision will be reversed. However, once round 3 begins the next morning, the decision will not be reversed. Reasonable exceptions to this rule will be made (for example, your students did not make you aware of it immediately or you were busy judging) but must be accompanied with any grievance brought.