Magic City Round Robin Info

Dear Alabama debate colleagues,

It is our pleasure to announce the inaugural Magic City Round Robin: an elite, Alabama-only one day only debate competition hosted at Mountain Brook High School on Sunday, February 2.  As the first round robin in Alabama, we hope to celebrate and honor our state’s debaters who have demonstrated the highest levels of competitive success.  

Events

This year the Magic City Round Robin offers two debate events: Public Forum and Lincoln-Douglas.  

Lincoln-Douglas will use the January/February topic from the National Speech and Debate Association, 

Resolved: States ought to eliminate their nuclear arsenals. 

Times will follow 6,3,7,3,4,6,3 with 4 minutes prep.

Public Forum will use the February topic from the National Speech and Debate Association, 

Resolved: The United States should replace means-tested welfare programs with a universal basic income.

Times will follow 4,4,3,4,4,3,3,3,3,2,2 with 3 minutes prep.

Round Robin Setup and Schedule

The Magic City Round Robin accepts a maximum of eight teams for Public Forum and eight competitors for Lincoln-Douglas.  A round robin is unlike other competitive formats for debate, which operate on an application - only format.  Schools may only have one team or individual per event.  In other words, a school could have at maximum one Public Forum team and one Lincoln-Douglas competitor.  

To promote our in-state tournaments, if an entry has championed a local tournament that school year, they will auto-qualify to the round robin. On the application, simply state the tournament and result, and you will auto-qualify. However, one entry per event per school still applies, so if two different teams from the same school have won tournaments, only one team may compete in the round robin.

Each team admitted will debate every other team in their event present with 2 judges per round.  There will be six rounds: three Aff/Pro and three Neg/Con, with sides assigned in advance.  Judges will not provide verbal commentary, declare a winner, or give reasons for the decision, but will instead provide extensive feedback in their ballots.  Teams will have a ballot count of twelve out of six rounds.  The top two teams with the best ballot records will compete in a finals round.

Tentative Schedule

Applications

To apply, click here and follow the instructions as follows: Application Link

Applications are due by Friday, Jan 24 at 5:00pm central time. After deadline, we will assess the applications. We will then discuss registration proceedings with the coaches of competitors being accepted. So all you need to do now is read the invite, talk to your competitors, and then submit applications.

Accepted Entries Responsibilities 

Entry Fees: 

Public Forum: $150

Lincoln-Douglas: $100

Because we want to have 2 qualified judges each round, these fees will go towards some extra judge hires. We will also provide lunch to all competitors and judges so no one will need to bring money for food. This is not a fundraiser, and we aim to break even, not to earn a profit.

We will allow judge hires at $200 per judge.

Checks can be made to: Mountain Brook High School 

Qualified Judging Commitment:  Schools are committed to provide or pay for one qualified judge per event entry.  To maintain the competitive excellence of the round robin, the metric for a “qualified judge” in this context is determined by experience judging, coaching, and/or debating in their respective events with an up-to-date paradigm listed on Tabroom.  While all judges might be acceptable at other tournaments, we will evaluate judges prior to accepting their fulfillment for a commitment to ensure the competition maintains both rigor and respect for the debaters.  One of the most important factors in determining quality competition is the quality of the judging. Please assist us and the competitors in having the best pool of judges possible by providing judges that reflect the quality of the competition.