Welcome!

It is our great pleasure to invite you to the Saint George’s Invitational Tournament (December 7-9) for a weekend that promises some of the toughest debates and best hospitality in the entire Pacific Northwest.

The tournament will run Friday afternoon through Sunday afternoon, featuring six preliminary rounds and aiming for an octafinals break in Open Policy. 

The tournament is proud to offer a Tournament of Champions (TOC) bid to teams reaching the Final Round. 

We will additionally host competitive fields in Open Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum, and Congress.

As of November 15, we are also adding Novice Divisions in Policy, Lincoln-Douglas, and Public Forum. 

Feel free to text directly with questions about the Saint George’s tournament (509-993-0644) or contact the tournament at:

Looking forward to seeing you in December,

Chad Rigsby

Fees and Logistics

Registration will take place on tabroom.com.

We will waive the School Fee ($50) for any registrations paid before November 15. 

To pay online with a credit card, check out the Saint George's Online Registration.

Each school may enter up to three teams in each division—three in Policy, three in Lincoln-Douglas, three in Public Forum.  Each school may enter up to four Congressional debaters. 

We will accept entries until Nov. 26, or until we are full, whichever comes first.   We will allow drops without penalty until Dec. 4.  After that, any team dropping out of the tournament will forfeit their entry.  We will waitlist teams as divisions reach capacity.  After formal registration closes, we will begin moving teams from waitlists, as space allows.  We will also consider allowing schools to enter fourth teams in a division. 

School Fee:  $50 (waived for schools that register and pay online before November 15)

Policy Team Fee:  $50

Lincoln-Douglas Fee:  $25

Public-Forum Fee:  $40

Congress Participant Fee:  $25

Uncovered Policy Judge Fee:  $350 or the tournament will drop the school’s competitors to fit coverage.

Uncovered LD Judge Fee:  $250 or the tournament will drop the school’s competitors to fit coverage.

Uncovered Public Forum Judge Fee:  $100 the school’s competitors to fit coverage.

Checks should be made out to “Saint George’s School.”

We will have online payment set up by mid-October.  Teams fees will be waived for schools that sign up this way.  The Saint George’s Business Office will refund competing schools by check for any drops before November 26.

No hybrid teams please.

Important Dates

Release Waitlist Teams:  November 23

Fees Set:  November 26

Finalize Judging:  November 26

Registration Closes:  November 26

Prefs Due:  5 pm December 6

Judging

Each school is required to supply judging to cover their entry:  one judge covers two Policy teams, or four Lincoln-Douglas debaters, or four Public Forum teams.  One judge covers four Congressional debaters. 

We have a limited pool of hired judging available.  If you need to hire a judge, contact Chad Rigsby at chad.rigsby@sgs.org.  We will try to put you in contact with an available judge—no guarantees! 

Policy judges should make sure that their philosophies are available tabroom.com, and that they flag any conflicts of interest in advance. 

We will use mutual preference judging.

Debate judges are committed for one round after the elimination of competitors from their school; failure to show for essential rounds may result in fines or sanctions against individual teams, especially if the tournament has to pay to cover the missing judge.

Schools are also responsible for verifying that the judges in their employ have passed necessary state background checks.

Debate Rules

Policy teams will debate the 2018-2019 NSDA topic.  Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum will use the November-December NSDA Lincoln-Douglas topic. 

Policy times are 8-3-5 with 8 minutes prep.

Rounds 1 and 2 will be pre-set in all divisions; after that, debate rounds will be power matched accordingly.

We do not break brackets in elimination rounds—if two teams from the same school hit in out rounds, we will advance one team over the other, based either on coaches’ decision or their seeding.  Coaches should come to the tab room in that event and direct us as to their preference.

All debate rounds will have set start times before 9 pm, per WIAA rules.

Congress Rules

Congress will run simultaneously with debate so students may not cross enter in those events.

Rules will incorporate the newly adopted NFL Congress rulings. There will be NO student choice.

Legislation: The official legislation adopted by the WSFA will be the legislation used for the tournament. A copy of the legislation will be available on tabroom.com at our tournament site on December 1 (WSFA release date).

Please have your students in Congress bring their own copies of the legislation. No copies will be provided.

Separate Legislation for Super Congress is included in the WSFA packet and will ONLY be used for Super Congress.  

Additionally, the recent updates to the WSFA rules governing student congress allow the use of computers in Congressional Debate.  Students will be allowed to use computers in round for flowing, note taking, the reading of speeches and looking up pre-prepared evidence. Internet use will not be allowed, and scorers will be seated in a way to catch violators of this rule. The use of computers is at the risk of the individual competitor.

Power strips will not be provided for competitors and students may not rearrange the seating chart in order to allow access to power. Students are not allowed to use computers that are currently in the classroom. Competitors who unplug objects in a classroom will be disqualified from the tournament.

Lodging

For teams arriving from out of town, we have reserved a block of hotel rooms at reduced rates.   Preferred options include:

Quality Inn Oakwood

7919 N. Division St.

Spokane, Washington 99208

(509) 467-4900

12 minutes from the Saint George’s campus; breakfast included, free wireless.

This block of rooms is reserved at $92/night + tax.  To receive the group rate, call Beth Anne, and mention that you’re with the “Saint George’s Debate Tournament.”  Act fast—there are a limited number of rooms at this rate.

Food

Debaters should bring cash to cover food expenses.  Debaters and coaches should expect food trucks at Saint George’s at meal times, and plan on available concessions throughout the weekend. 

Saint George’s is about a ten-minute drive from plenty of fast food, including Subway, Carl’s Jr., Taco Time, Atilano’s, Zip’s, and several other places.

 Tournament Schedule

Friday

Registration              3:45 pm

Round 1                     4:30 pm

Round 2                     6:30 pm

Round 3                     8:30 pm

Saturday

Round 4                     8:30 am

Round 5                     11:30 am

Round 6                     2:30 pm

Awards                       5:00 pm

Quarterfinals              6:00 pm 

Sunday

Semifinals                  8:30 am

Finals                         11:00 am