Tournament Rules

1. Judging fee: A judging fee of NT$ 4,000 is waived, if you bring ONE school teacher/parent judge for 8 students. If there are more than 8 students from your school, then you need to provide TWO parent/teacher judges.

2. Accuracy in personal info: If there is any misinformation in the student’s status (name, grade, school, etc.), you must notify us immediately, as intentional or not, fabrication or misrepresentation of personal status can cause automatic disqualification at the tournament. Please note that inaccurate information you have noticed during the tournament cannot be corrected until the tournament has ended.

3. Dress code & manners: Please dress formal. Don’t be rude to opponents. Shake ha nds thanking the judges and your opponents.

4. Food & Drink: Bring enough snacks and drinks, and eat between the rounds. Eating in the classroom will be allowed. However, you must take care of your own trash; if you don’t, you might be temporarily suspended from the tournament until it is cleaned up.

5. Video Recording: You CANNOT video record the debate rounds, unless you have the permission of EVERYONE in the room. However, if other participants in the room give you the permission to record, ONLY then you can record the entire round. However, ADL's professional photographer has OPEN ACCESS to all rooms at all times to video and take pictures of all matters related to the event. 

6. Ballots will be returned: Ballots are now online and you can see them immediately once posted, if you are a tabroom.com member. Even if you are not, the ballots will be sent to your coach or to individual students who represent themselves. However, no one will receive the judge’s ballot the same day, as ADL needs time to download, organize, and disseminate. 

7. Random vs. fixed arrangement: During the prelim rounds, the system will automatically prevent competition between teams of same school as much as possible. During the finals, however, if multiple teams from the same school advance, then the teams of same school might compete. 

8. Elimination rounds: Please don’t leave prematurely until the speaker awards are announced, even if you have lost all the rounds, as you could have still won a speaker award, which is separate from the debate award.

9. Final rounds: Those who have qualified to at least the octo-final rounds are a winner, and an appropriate award will be issued at the end of the day.

10. High school student judges: High school students who have not advanced to the final rounds are obligated to serve as judges for middle and elementary divisions. You will be paid each round you judge and given NSDA service points if you are a member. This kind of community service is rare and thus will stand out on your college application since most high school students are not good enough to neither understand nor judge debate. If you don't fulfill this duty, you risk the chance of being disqualified. 

Code of Conduct

1. Punctuality: If you are not in the room on time, the debate will start without you. If your team is absent, your opponent wins automatically. Under pressure, a judge might decide to skip grand crossfire.

2. Electronic devices during the debate and speech rounds will be permitted, ONLY if they are disconnected from the internet and muted. One caught using the internet during the rounds, will be suspended from the tournament. But internet usage in between the rounds is allowed.

3. Judges' Decision is Final: A judge may disclose or close the decision, meaning for various reasons (usually due to time pressure), a judge may refrain from explaining the results in detail. However, it is the duty of the judge to write clearly the reasons for voting on the ballot.

4. Judges' Fairness: ADL has handpicked the very best judges available in Taiwan. However, if you feel that you were judged unfairly, please don’t complain to anyone on the day of the tournament, as no one will have the time to listen. Wait until you have received your ballot. Then address your concerns directly to your debate coach during the class time, so everyone can learn from the experience.

5. Grievances about unfairness: ADL will not listen to unsubstantiated grievances unless you have a video clip of the action in question.

6. Participants' code of conduct: Participants must not

a) make insulting comments, jokes, insults, or insinuations about another person’s culture, race, religion, gender or sexual orientation whether in the presence of that person or not; or

b) engage in any form of violence or uninvited physical contact with another individual.

7. Coaches' Code of Conduct: 

a) coaches cannot confront judges in an aggressive manner after a debate; 

b) feedback between teams and judges must be given and received in a constructive and non-confrontational manner. 

8. Parents' code of conduct: 

a) Parents CANNOT video record the debate rounds, unless EVERYONE in the room give you the permission to do so;

b) during the contest, parents CANNOT TALK with their child via vocally, facially, or bodily; 

c) parents CANNOT COMMUNICATE with their child during the contest by means of showing notes, passing notes, or by texting via devices;

d) in addition, if parents see an issue, please report to the judge "at the end of round" in a respectful manner, and certainly do not raise ANY issue before nor during the round, unless it is invited to do so by the judge. Also, please do not speak directly to the other debaters in an accusatory manner at all times even after the round. 

9. Everyone's code of conduct: Any contestant or a judge leaving the tournament prematurely MUST first obtain permission to leave because you could have advanced to higher rounds or needed to judge in later rounds, but by you leaving prematurely creates a delay and chaos in later rounds.

10. Breach of code: If a participant believes that another participant has breached this Code of Conduct, s/he may report the breach to the tournament tab room officers. If found guilty, the violators will be disqualified from the tournament.

Debate Rules

1. Make copies of your case: Your opponent has the right to scrutinize your evidence, so please bring enough copies for your opponent.

2. If you don't speak loud or clear: Then, your opponent has the right to sit/stand near you to discern your arguments. 

3. Time your own speech: Contestants must time themselves; cannot entirely depend on the judges.

4. Open Crossfire: If both teams agree, partner assistance will be allowed during the crossfire.

5. Judge Adaptation: Before each round, debaters can read about how a particular judge decides by simply clicking the "judge's name" listed on the tabroom or clicking "DJ Paradigm." If for some reason, the judge has no paradigm in the tabroom, then you can simply ask the judge how s/he personally votes. A good debater can use different strategies to persuade judges of different backgrounds. Thus, be mindful that it is not the fault of the judge that s/he is not convinced, since the burden of proof and persuasion lies with the debater.

Speech Rules

1. Submit for approval: You should submit your speech to ADL for approval to be safe.

2. Cannot repeat the same speech: Cannot deliver the same speech you did last year.

3. Make copies for the judge: A judge might request to see your speech script. Thus you need to bring enough copies to the tournament for the judges. 

4. Impromptu resources allowed: Impromptu contestants can bring in hard copies of articles, organizers, notebooks, dictionaries, and etc. into the rounds to prep for their speeches.

a. Drawing: The first speaker draws 2-4 topics/questions, choose one, and return the other; the other contestants draw in like manner, in the order of speaking. If a contestant draws a topic/question which s/he has spoken already in a different round must return it and draw again.

b. Preparation: As soon as a question is chosen, the contestant will prepare a speech without prepared notes.  However, students may use published books, magazines, newspapers and journals or articles.

c. No other material will be allowed in the prep room other than stated above – e.g., speeches, handbooks, briefs and outlines are prohibited from the prep room.

5. Time limit: After you have spoken for a half minute past your speech limit (5. 5 minutes for Elementary and 10.5 minutes for Secondary), a judge might or might not allow you to continue and finish your speech. After one minute past the time limit, a judge might decide to disqualify you.   

6. More instructions on Elementary Speech

Events: https://asiandebateleague.com/research/speech-links/adl-kids-speech-events/

7. More instructions on Seconary Events: https://asiandebateleague.com/research/speech-links/njfl-speech-guidelines/