Tournament Resources Doc

Please note that we are not using Discord for this tournament. All important information will be communicated in the Motions/Updates doc.

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Dear Parliamentary Debate Leader,

On behalf of Berkeley High Speech and Debate, we invite you and your debate team to the Ersatz New York Parliamentary Debate League Online Invitational on February 25 and 26. The tournament will take place on Tabroom and Zoom, so all debaters and judges must first set up a free Tabroom.com account.

This tournament will be modeled on monthly NYPDL online invitationals, but will be a bare-bones, no-frills undertaking, lacking the usual NYPDL panache we are all accustomed to. A simulacrum, if you will, a cheap imitation. Set your expectations low. This is a free tournament, and you will get what you pay for.

The New York Parliamentary Debate League was founded in 2016 as a student-run organization dedicated to fostering open and respectful discourse concerning modern day issues in the Parliamentary Debate style. But they are not running this tournament. For more information on those people who are not running the tournament, please visit their website.

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This tournament is eligible for NPDL points.

Rules

This tournament will be held in the format established by the American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA). We will release three resolutions 15 minutes prior to the start of each round. The resolution and side will be determined by coin toss. For more information about Parli rules please visit the NYPDL website, where you can find informational YouTube videos, the Vassar style guide, our Rules FAQs document, and more. If you would like to have a Zoom meeting with a member of the NYPDL board for more in-depth training or an overview of the league and debate format, please email them at nyparli@gmail.com.

Please note that we will not be writing topics for this tournament. We were not kidding about the lack of frills. We will use a random number generator to select topics from past NYPDL tournaments.

Registration

Registration is due February 21 at 4:00PM EST. There is no cost to enter the tournament.

Break and Divisions**

This tournament will feature one open division. Varsity and Novice teams will debate each other in prelim rounds. Power pairing will start after Round 1. We will break separately to Varsity and Novice divisions -- most likely varsity quartrfinals and novice finals, depending on registration size and time.

Novice Definition

To be a novice, an individual must satisfy both of these conditions:

1. Be a freshman or a sophomore.

2. Be in their first year of high school debate.

Team Composition

We encourage teams to consist of two debaters from the same school. However, we allow debaters to compete alone or compete with a debater from another school.

Judging Obligations

Each team is required to bring one judge for every two teams, rounded unfavorably — if you are bringing three teams, you must bring two judges.

Judges must be present for all preliminary rounds and the round after their last team has been eliminated from the break. While experienced judges are preferred, judge training is required regardless. If you are unable to meet the judging requirement, we reserve the right to break up an entry into two judges and/or drop teams from your school.

A judge must be a high school sophomore or older.

Fees and Dropped Entries

There is no registration cost for this tournament. We reserve the right to cap the entries of schools who drop entries two days before the tournament. Waivers of the $0 reg fee are available on request. :)

ersatznypdl.tabroom.com