Judging Information

Judging Obligations

Public Forum Debate:     1 full team judge for every 3 Public Forum Teams

Policy Debate:                3 rounds of judging for 1 Policy Team

Lincoln-Douglas Debate:

                               3 rounds of judging for 1 Lincoln-Douglas Debater

                               5 rounds of judging for 2 Lincoln-Douglas Debaters

                               7 rounds of judging for 3 Lincoln-Douglas Debaters

Numbers continue accordingly at the same intervals. It will be reflected in your tabroom registration.

Congressional Debate     1 full time judge for 7 debaters

Speech                          1 full time judge for 6 entries

NOTE: The Policy and Lincoln-Douglas Debate events have moved to a per round obligation.  This is new for these two events.

School affiliated judges are obligated for all preliminary rounds, any runoff rounds, the first full elimination round, all elimination rounds when your students are competing and one additional elimination round beyond the last elimination round of your students’ competition.  Based upon historical practice, we expect a runoff round in Public Forum Debate and Lincoln-Douglas Debate.  Fees for missed rounds are as follows:

         All Events Other than Speech:    $75 per preliminary round and $100 per runoff or elimination round

Speech:                                    $45 per preliminary round and $60 per elimination round

Judging Philosophies

All LD and Policy judges must post reasonably detailed judging philosophies prior to preferences opening.  We strongly encourage posting them at least one week in advance.  At the discretion of the tournament, failure to post a judging philosophy will make that judge ineligible and result in the removal of that judge from the school's entry.

Hired Judges

There will be a very limited pool of hired judges available at the following rates. There is no guarantee that all requests can be honored, so please plan on providing your own judges.  No school can hire its entire judging obligation.

Policy Debate:                          $50 per round

Lincoln-Douglas Debate:            $50 per round

Public Forum Debate:                $300 per judge

Congressional Debate:               $200 per judge

Speech Events:                         $150 for judge

Other Information

Schools may make judge name changes in Policy, LD or Public Forum until 9:00 p.m. NY time on October 8, 2018. The tournament will release MPJ and strike sheets shortly thereafter.  Any judge change for those events afterwards will make the judge ineligible.

All ballots in Policy, LD and Public Forum will be online.  Accordingly, all such judges must have their accounts set up before registration.  All judges must provide a cell phone or email where they may be reached during the time they judge at the tournament.