Team Policy Debate
At this tournament the affirmative team must have a copy of the 1AC available throughout the round for the negative team to obtain if they should desire it. Any violation of this policy may result in a loss for the affirmative team.
Lincoln Douglas Debate
We double flight LD rounds at this tournament. Second flight competitors are expected to be on time to their round. Tardiness can result in forfeiture of that round. Those in the second flight are welcome to sit in on the first flight if they desire.
Parli Debate
Parli is to be an extemporaneous form of debate where "the preponderance of evidence" is not the determining factor of who wins. The judges will be instructed in orientation to treat all support as equal in terms of importance, but not necessarily in terms of quality or applicability. It is up to the competitors to challenge the opposing support using reasoning, logic, critical thinking, and argumentation.
Club Protect and Power Matching
For MHQ we will have club protect for at least the first two rounds, which will be random match-ups. Once a particular protection interferes too much with the match-ups, they will be removed. Out Rounds will be no protect. For the rest of the Prelim rounds, we will do what's called power match within a bracket. If you have questions on what this means, please consult the Tournament Director.
Debate Out Round Structure
TP/LD Double Elims!! This means there will be a total of 12 rounds of debate for TP and LD. For these events, we will break the top 16 teams and run three rounds of double elimination which will result in eight remaining teams. The Upper Bracket will be run as a straight bracket. The Lower Bracket will be re-seeded each round with high/low match-ups based on prelim records. The two teams that remain undefeated in the Upper Bracket will be seeded first and second for the remaining three single elimination rounds. The six teams remaining in the Lower Bracket will be seeded for the other slots based on prelim records in a high/low setup. The last three single elimination rounds will run on a straight bracket.
Parli will have SIX prelim rounds and two to three Out Rounds depending on the number of registered teams. The Parli Quarter Finals may be removed if we have a low number of teams. Either way, it will be a single elimination hi-lo bracket.