General Information

General Information

Registration Procedure and Fees: Attending schools must complete initial entries by 5:00 PM on Friday, October 26, so that we can estimate the number of schools and students attending.  Schools with existing entries may continue to add entries beyond this deadline; drops after this deadline will forfeit the competitor entry fee.  Entries cost $10 for single-person events and $20 for two-person events.  At final registration, please plan to bring checks payable to Charlotte Latin School.  The school's W-9 is available for download on Tabroom.com.

Judging Requirements: Please do your part to bring qualified judges for all events in which your students enter.  Instruct your judges on the basics of completing Tabroom.com electronic ballots and to remain in the judges’ lounge whenever they are not in rounds.  This will help the tournament run smoothly.  Please be aware that if your judges fail to report for their assignments, your school will be assessed penalty fees of $25 per missed ballot. Each school must provide qualified, adult judges (defined as having at least graduated from high school) based on the following requirements:

1 judge for every 3 Lincoln Douglas Debate entries or fraction thereof.  Lincoln Douglas Debate judges are available for hire at $120 for a full judge or prorated at $40 per uncovered entry.

1 judge for every 3 Public Forum Debate teams or fraction thereof.  Public Forum Debate judges are available for hire at $120 or a full judge for prorated at $40 per uncovered entry.

1 judge for every 6 speech entries or fraction thereof.  Speech judges are available for hire at $120 for a full judge or prorated at $20 per uncovered entry.

1 judge for every 12 Congressional Debate entries or fraction thereof.  Congressional Debate judges are available for hire at $120 for a full judge or prorated at $10 per uncovered entry.

Eligibility, Supervision Requirements, and Liability Release: Students currently enrolled in grades 6-12 who meet all of the eligibility requirements set forth by their school district and any relevant state sanctioning bodies are eligible to enter.  It is essential that each attending school have a chaperone that is a legal representative of that school and that the school's administration has approved its participation.  Parent volunteers, unless in possession of a letter signed by the school principal authorizing them as a legal chaperone, are not adequate to meet this requirement.  Charlotte Latin reserves the right to deny entry to any students, parents, and coaches who cannot demonstrate that their school has met this requirement.  Entry via Tabroom.com further indicates that the attending students, their parents, and their school take full responsibility for their participation in this program, assume all risks involved in said trip, and agree to hold Charlotte Latin School harmless for any accident, regardless of degree, and any injury incurred to said attendees to, from, and during said tournament, and do fully release Charlotte Latin School for any liability therefore.

Observers and Scouting: Schools are encouraged to bring new students to watch rounds.  All rounds are open to observers so long as they are a respectful audience.  No competitor, judge, parent, or coach shall request that observing students be denied entry to a round, be denied the ability to flow the round, or be denied the ability to take said flow with them at the conclusion of the round.  Scouting is enthusiastically encouraged.

Disclosure, Results, and Ballots: Tabulation staff will record wins/losses, ranks, and speaker points as appropriate in each event.  Judges are strongly encouraged to write exhaustive, constructive comments.  Disclosure and oral critiques are required at the conclusion of Lincoln Douglas and Public Forum rounds, and encouraged at the conclusion of Congressional Debate and speech rounds.  Judges must complete all disclosures after submitting ballots to a runner and must be limited to no more than five minutes.  After the tabulation staff completes the audit of each round, ballots will be sorted and made available for review by coaches, while records and ranks will be made publicly available via Tabroom.com.

Tie Breaks, Sweepstakes Formula, and Awards: Ties will be broken in Policy, Lincoln-Douglas, and Public Forum Debate based on win-loss record, total speaker points, then dropping high/low speaker points.  Ties will be broken in speech events based on cumulative ranks, reciprocals of ranks, then preferences of judges in head-to-head rankings.  Ties will be broken in Congressional Debate based on parliamentarians' ranking. In speech events, the tournament will base final placement solely on the results of the final round.  The sweepstakes formula will award six points for each first place finish, descending by a point per place to one point for sixth place in each event.  In order to weight speech and debate equally for sweepstakes awards, the tournament will convert schools' scores into percentages earned of the available points in speech and debate, and then those two percentages will be averaged.  The tournament will award sweepstakes trophies to the top three schools overall.

Tournament Hotel: The tournament does not provide negotiated room rates with any local hotels, but recommends the:

Courtyard Marriott Charlotte Southpark
6023 Park South Drive
Charlotte, NC 28210
Phone: 704.552.7333
Fax: 704.552.2056

Questions and Contact: Please feel free to contact Jonathan Peele, Director of Forensics at Charlotte Latin School, via email jpeele@charlottelatin.org, office 704.846.1100 x770, or home/cell at 910.273.7798.  For emergencies only on the day of the tournament, contact campus security at 704.578.0013.