Riverhawk Invitational

2024 — Pasco, WA/US

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Open Congress

Event Description:

Students will be allowed to use computers in-round for flowing, note-taking, the reading of speeches, and looking up pre-prepared evidence. The tournament will not be liable for any computer crashes or technological issues, and students should bring paper copies of evidence and speeches to be prepared for this occurrence.

Divisions:

• Novice Division: Open to all students who have no debate experience prior to this school year, and who have not placed first through fourth in any debate division at two invitational tournaments with 15 or more schools.

• Open Division: Open to any debater regardless of experience or class standing.

Legislation:

• The official legislation adopted by the State will be the legislation used for the tournament. A copy of the legislation is available on the Tabroom site. Please have your students in Congress bring their own copies of the legislation. NO COPIES WILL BE PROVIDED.

Docket Setting:

• We will follow the docket setting method suggested by the WSFA committee. Each school represented in each house will draw numbers to determine the order for a legislation draft. They will then take turns picking bills to be debated. This will determine the docket for the session.

Scoring:

• Each speech will be awarded up to 6 points by the judge in the round. The parliamentarian will score the PO. After each session, judges will rank the top eight speakers, including the PO. The cumulative total of these ranks in preliminary rounds will determine the students who will advance to Super Congress.

• The parliamentarian’s one-time ranking of the chamber at the end of preliminary rounds will be used to break any ties that result both in determining who breaks to Super Congress.

• If the number of entries results in more than one chamber of Congress for a division of competition, Session III will be a Super Congress. After Session II, the top 6 to 10 members of each chamber (based on total judge rankings from sessions I and II) will advance to the two-segment Final Session. The legislation identified by the State as Super Congress Legislation will be the only legislation discussed during this round. Awards will be based on the cumulative rankings of judges during the final round. Parliamentarian rankings will be used to break ties. There will be a top PO award as determined by the Parliamentarian.

• If there is only one chamber of Congress for a division of competition, Session III will be a regular session, and final scores for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places, will be determined by the accumulation of judges’ rankings for all three rounds. Outstanding PO will be determined by the parliamentarian.