Evidence Challenges and Clipping

The Milo Cup will operate within the following guidelines for evidence challenges.

**If a debater/team wishes to make an evidence challenge within a debate, this challenge should be made between speeches, and the round should immediately stop. The judge must clarify that the team is, indeed, staking the round on the evidence challenge: the winner of the challenge will be assigned a bye, and the loser of the challenge will be assigned a loss and zero speaker points. After the judge reminds both debaters/teams of the consequences of continuing the challenge, the accusing debater/team will be given an opportunity to withdraw the challenge. If the accusinging team proceeds after the reminder, the challenge is the sole voting issue in the round, and from there, the specific nature of the challenge can be articulated to the judge. If the accusing debater/team abandons the challenge after the reminder, the specifics of the challenge are not to be articulated and the round proceeds as normal.**

This type of challenge includes the following situations:

      - a debater reads evidence that is fabricated

      - a debater reads evidence that is meaningfully altered to change the author’s original meaning

      - a debater receives argument assistance or reads or responds to communications from a coach or other person after the debate has commenced, whether verbal or electronic, including the transfer of evidence after the round starts

The accusing debater will explain to the judge what violation is being alleged. The judge will evaluate the violation based on the evidence available to the judge. Prior to evaluating the challenge, the judge should remind both debaters/teams that the round will not continue after the challenge, that if the accusation is found to be false or if the judge cannot determine the challenge based upon the evidence available to the judge, the challenging debater will be assigned a loss and zero speaker points, and that if the accusation is found to have merit and the judge can determine the challenge to be valid, the accused team will be assigned a loss and zero speaker points.  

Any decision to challenge evidence violations or unethical behavior must be made during the round in which the infraction occurred before the judge submits a decision to the tab room. No challenge can be made to conduct committed in any round after the ballot has been submitted to Tabroom. The judge assigned to the round will decide the challenge made in the round based solely on the evidence submitted by the teams in the round. No appeal, modification or reversal of the judge’s decision regarding the challenge or the consequences resulting from the challenge is permitted unless the judge does not follow these procedures.

The Milo Cup will utilize the NDCA's procedures for handling clipping.

Those procedures can be found by clicking this link and downloading the document there.