NYCUDL High School State Championship Tournament
Maspeth High School
On behalf of the New York City Urban Debate League and Maspeth High School, you are cordially invited to the NYCUDL High School City Championship Tournament on April 1st and April 2nd for two days of exciting, fun and intense debate.
We will offer three debate formats: Public Forum, Lincoln Douglas and Policy Debate.
Judges’ training will be available for individuals interested in judging all events.
All questions, concerns and/or issues about the tournament should be directed to:
Tournament Manager: Courtney Kaufman – 917-774-6539 or
Looking forward to seeing you all,
Aubrey Semple – Program Director, New York City Urban Debate League
Courtney Kaufman – Tournament Manager, New York City Urban Debate League
Registration
Registration will take place on Tabroom.
GENERAL REQUIREMENTS:
Students can qualify in two ways:
1. Earn a winning record at a one-day tournament (e.g. if a tournament offers 3 rounds, 2-1 would be considered a winning record; 4 rounds, 3-1).
2. Reached eliminations at a multi-day tournament, hosted in the state of New York.
For events that require a partner (Policy & PF), both partners must meet these qualification standards.
THE TOURNAMENT HAS THE RIGHT TO REJECT TEAMS/SCHOOLS FROM COMPETING IF THEY DO NOT MEET THESE REQUIREMENTS.
A student MUST enter in the Open division for all events if:
1. The student has competed in a previous season of debate (in or outside of the NYC Urban Debate League).
2. If the student wishes to compete in Open.
A student MUST enter in the Novice division for all events if:
1. All members on the team are first year debaters.
2. A student competed in one (1) tournament in a previous season.
ONLINE REGISTRATION DEADLINE FOR ALL ENTRIES IS 5PM – MARCH 22nd, 2017
If a school registered for the tournament and does not provide teams on the registration, the registration will be considered incomplete and will not be accepted, therefore making the school ineligible to compete. This rule applies to the judge requirement (see judging section)
Fees & Meals
School Fee: $50/school
Team Fee: $40/team (Policy & PF)
Student Fee: $25/person (LD)
If you need assistance with the fees, please contact Aubrey Semple ()
2 meals per day will be provided for coaches, judges and students as part of your school fee.
The tournament will provide:
Saturday: Lunch and Dinner
Sunday: Breakfast and Lunch
Judging
Each school MUST provide one judge for every two (2) teams competing (for LD and Policy) and one judge for 3 entries in PF) that are registered for.
We will offer judge training for new/inexperienced judges.
Judges must check in on the morning of the tournament on both Saturday and Sunday.
ALL JUDGES ARE REQUIRED TO STAY IN THE TOURNAMENT UP TO THE FINAL ROUND OF ALL EVENTS.
CONDUCT POLICY
We expect that all judges will pay attention in the debates they are judging and will work to provide a fair decision based on the arguments presented in the debate.
We also expect judges to behave in a way that is appropriate in a middle school environment. Any judges that exhibit behavior inconsistent with this expectation can and will be removed from the tournament by the tournament director at his discretion.
Unless there is a violation of the conduct policy by the judge or the team(s) in the debate, the tab room views the judge’s decision regarding all arguments made in the debate as final. If the tabroom determines that a judge or the team(s) violate a conduct policy expectation, the tabroom may alter the decision in a way that it feels is fairest for the debaters involved.
Topics
Public Forum:
We will follow the NSDA April National PF Topic and Resolution.
Policy Debate
We will follow the NSDA 2016-2017 National Policy Topic and Resolution.
Topic: China
Resolution: Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its economic and/or diplomatic engagement with the People’s Republic of China.
Lincoln-Douglas Debate
We will follow the NSDA April 2017 National LD Topic and Resolution.
Late Arrival Policy
Once check-in closes at 9:00am for all events, late arrivals will forfeit the first round and will debate Round 2 (even if only late by a few minutes). During round 1, late arrivals should observe and flow debate.
For Day 2, teams that fail to enter their debates on time (15-minute waiting period will be enforced), a forfeit will be administered.
We must emphasize this rule to have an efficient, timely and well-managed tournament.
Awards / Speaker Points
We will provide awards for the top 20 speakers in all events, participants of elimination rounds and certificates for teams with winning records that did not advance to elimination rounds.
We will utilize the following tiebreaker structure to determine teams advancing to elimination rounds:
o 1st – Preliminary win/loss records
o 2nd - Total points
o 3rd – Ranks
o 4th – Opponent wins
We will utilize the following tiebreaker structure to determine top speakers:
o 1st – Total points
o 2nd – Ranks
o 3rd – Preliminary win/loss records
o 4th – Opponent points
o 5th – Opponent ranks
o 6th – Opponent win/loss records
For Public Forum, we will clear winning records, up to 16 teams in Novice and 8 teams in Open
For Policy Debate, we will clear winning records, up to 8 teams in Novice and 4 teams in Open.
For Lincoln-Douglas, we will clear winning records, up to 8 teams in Novice and 4 teams in Open.
If two teams from the same school are scheduled to debate each other, we will ask the coach to select a team to advance to the next round.
Speaker points will be on the on the scale of 25-30 pts for all events. Half points are allowed but 1/10th are NOT allowed. Ranks will be on the scale of 1-4 in all events. Debater cannot have the same rank but can have the same speaker points.
IMPORTANT DATES
To submit teams into Tabroom: Wednesday, March 22nd, by 5pm
Check-in / Day of tournament registration: Saturday, April 1st by 9:00am
TRAVEL DIRECTIONS TO THE TOURNAMENT
Location:Maspeth HS
Address:54-40 74th Street, Queens, NY 11373
Buses: Q18, Q38, Q47, Q58, Q59, Q67, QM27, QM25
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
ALL EVENTS
Day 1 – Saturday, April 1st, 2017
8:00am – Registration
9:00am – Round 1 (Preset)
11:00am – Round 2 (Preset)
1:00pm – Lunch
1:30pm – Round 3 (Power matched)
4:00pm – Round 4 (Power matched)
6:00pm – Dinner
7:00pm – Dismissal
*Round 5 will be posted online and will be available on-site, 7:30am on Sunday.
Day 2 – Sunday, April 2nd, 2017
8:00am – Round 5 (Power matched)
10:00am – Awards and announcement of teams clearing to elimination rounds
11:00am – Elimination Round #1
1:00pm – Elimination Round #2
3:00pm – Elimination Round #3
5:00opm – Elimination Round #4
We will accelerate the schedule for PF and LD by using single flights if there are enough judges to do so.