1. Details

Registration

The initial registration deadline is October 18th.When registering, all entries will be initially waitlisted. Once payment is received, your registration will be guaranteed, and your entries will be removed from the waitlist.Payment by check or purchase order must be received by Friday, October 18, 2023. As of 8 pm CST on Friday, October 18, fees will be assessed, and refunds will no longer be available.We understand that many schools are having trouble processing payments this fall, and we will be flexible.

The registration deadline is October 18th. We may need to close registration before October 18th due to space. We will continue to take registrations after that date if space can accommodate entries.To provide the best tournament possible, all changes should be communicated promptly and as they occur up until the day of the tournament. You may continue to make changes to registration after the website is shut down by emailingminneappledebate@gmail.com. On the day of the tournament, all changes in registration must be called directly into the tab room before you arrive at the tournament site.

Fees can be refunded until 8 PM CST on Friday, October 18th; no refunds are available after this date. If space allows for late entries, they must be followed by payment per the procedures listed to be guaranteed.

Any outstanding balances for the tournament must be paid at the registration desk before any entries from your school are allowed to compete.

• Schools may enter up to TEN Varsity LD debaters, TEN Varsity PF teams, and TWELVE CD entries. Additional entries may be added to the additional entry waitlist. The tournament will be capped at 180 total entries in both Varsity PF and Varsity LD.

• There are NO entry limits in JV, Novice LD, and Novice Public Forum.
• There is a school registration fee of $25.
• The Varsity Public Forum fee is $120 per team.
• The Varsity LD registration fee is $100.
• The Congressional Debate entry fee is $75.

• The Novice Public Forum fee is $50 per team.
• The Novice LD fee is $40.
• The JV LD entry fee is $40.

Payment

If you would like to pay by card, please use THIS LINK. Enter the amount you owe (refer to your tabroom invoice) to complete payment.

Please make checks payable to Apple Valley Speech & Debate Alumni Foundation

Click here for a copy of our W9

Checks can be mailed to:

MinneApple Debate
400 S 4th St Ste 410 PMB 51858
Minneapolis, MN 55415-1419

Independent Entries

The MinneApple will not admit any student without their school administration's approval, knowledge, and consent. During the MinneApple, students must be under the care of a school employee or an individual with written authorization from the school's administration to make decisions on behalf of their students.

Unless a school employee registers a team, explicit written permission authorizing the registration must be sent to minneappledebate@gmail.com on school letterhead. Only adults approved by the school's administration may register entries. Students may not register themselves.

The tournament doesn’t allow “hybrid entries.” Students in partnered events must attend the same school.

Violations of these policies will result in the cancellation of registration or disqualification from the competition without a refund.

Harassment and Discrimination Policy

This tournament upholds our school district’s harassment and discrimination policy. Instances of harassment/discrimination should be reported to the tabroom or tournament ombudsperson as soon as possible. Reports of harassment/discrimination will be handled per ISD 196 policy and adjudicated by Tournament Equity Officers or an Apple Valley High School Administrator.

This year our Equity officers are:

Dan Hodges

Michelle Keohane

Tzitel Voss

Judging

In Varsity divisions, schools may not hire out their entire judging commitment. A minimum of one judge must represent each school. We believe this will further enhance the diversity and quality of our Varsity judge pools.

In Varsity LD, we require that teams provide qualified judges.The tournament staff will make the final determination as to whether a judge is qualified. The expectation is that judges should be preferred by enough of the pool to be eligible to fulfill their judging obligation. In the event that a team does not provide a qualified judge, the tournament staff reserves the right to deny MJP to the team or remove entries entirely from the tournament.

Also, in Varsity divisions, please help us have the best pool of judges possible by making judges available who reflect the quality of the competition. First-year outs can fulfill a school's commitment, but we strongly encourage the head coach to serve as a critic and be represented in the judge pool.

Additionally, unless an exception is granted in advance, schools may not hire judges unless all of their on-site coaches are entered into the judging pool.

Please remember that a school's judges are obligated at least through the first full elimination debate or one round past the elimination of its last team/debater after that. To ensure the best judging pool possible and flexibility for pairings, we cannot guarantee requests for partial judging commitments. Given that the Minneapple has only single flights in each preliminary round, this commitment is comparable to a half-time commitment at a tournament with flighted rounds.

Judge's obligations cannot be split across divisions. For example, if you have two novice LD debaters, you will need one judge at Valley Middle School. However, if you have only one Novice LD debater and one Varsity LD debater, you would need one judge at each building for a total of two judges.

If judging obligations are not met, the tournament reserves the right to remove a school's entries to balance the student-judge ratio. This includes cases where judges miss the first round on Friday or Saturday. Debaters may be reentered into the schedule but with losses for the missed rounds.

LD: We do not flight rounds. Therefore, each school must provide one qualified judge for every two LD debaters.

PF: We do not flight rounds. Each school must provide one qualified judge for every two teams.

Congressional Debate: Each School must provide one qualified judge for every five entries or portion thereof.

Hired Judges

YOU MUST SPECIFICALLY REQUEST A HIRED JUDGE BY OCTOBER 18th. LEAVING THE JUDGING COMMITMENT BLANK DOES NOT MEAN YOU HAVE HIRED A JUDGE. Requests are NOT guaranteed until confirmed. We have a limited number of hired judges available and will try to honor requests to the best of our ability. We will prioritize offering some hired judging to a larger number of schools to providing many hired judges to a smaller number of schools. The fee for a judge is $100 per uncovered round in VLD and VPF, $75 per uncovered round in NLD, JVLD, NPF, & WS, and $100 per uncovered entry in CD. If you are interested in being a hired judge, please fill out THIS FORM.

MJP

In Varsity LD, the Minneapple will allow teams to rate judges and strike a small portion of the field. To accomplish this, we require all teams to submit judge names by 8 PM CST on November 4th. If a judge's name is changed or removed from the pool after this date, the tournament will assess a $50 fee. This fee is charged to prevent teams from adversely affecting all other team's preferences. This fee will be assessed at registration and is due before teams are permitted to compete. All judges in the Varsity LD division must submit a judging philosophy on tabroom by 8 PM CST on November 4th. Teams whose judges have not submitted a paradigm will not be permitted to submit a preference sheet without exception. Judge Preferences will open on November 6th.

Any teams who have not fulfilled their judging obligation or have judges without paradigms listed online before the deadline will not be permitted to rate judges.

Any judge not listed on the preference sheet will become a free strike. Teams wishing to exercise their free strikes must notify the tab room before the next round's pairing to ensure their strikes are honored.

In Varsity PF, we will offer limited judge strikes.

Judge Conflict Policy

The tournament will use the TOC rules when evaluating judge conflicts.

JV/Novice Eligibility

At the Minneapple, a novice is a student in their first year of debate competition regardless of the event.

A JVer is a student in their second year of competition in a high-school format, regardless of the event. To clarify, a year of competition in any event that is offered to high-school students (LD, PF, Policy, etc) counts towards eligibility, even if the student was entered in a middle-school division.

Please note that the novice definition is more restrictive. Essentially, any previous season of experience in any debate format means the student is not eligible to compete in our novice division. We feel that it's important that the novice division is reserved for true beginners at the Minneapple.

We're aware that norms vary in different parts of the country, and the type of competition available to younger students can be quite different. So, if you feel this rule doesn't quite fit your circumstances, please reach out to us directly, and we'll make a determination.

Chaos Control Fees

Because the judge pool is integral to the efficiency and quality of the tournament, a 'chaos control' fee of $100.00 will be assessed per missed round per judge and must be paid by the end of the tournament. Schools must have their judging obligations filled for all rounds, including rounds one and two on Friday, or pay for hired judges to fulfill those round requirements.

Time Limits and Resolutions

In LD, we will use the NSDA 6-3-7-3-4-6-3 time limits with 4 minutes of preparation time. Each division of LD will debate the NSDA November/December resolution.

In PF, we will use NSDA rules and time limits. Each division of PFD will debate the NSDA November resolution.

LD/PF Pairing Protocols

Rounds one and two in all divisions will be randomly paired. Rounds three through six will be paired high-low within brackets. Brackets will not be broken in elimination rounds. Varsity speaker awards are based on speaker points in preliminary rounds.

NSDA Rules

The MinneApple will use NSDA rules for all events, but the enforcement of all rules is left to judges in the round. If NSDA pilot rules are available for an event, they will be in effect at the tournament.

Decision Times

LD Decision Times: We will again be using decision times in LD this year. Decision time means there will be a deadline by which the judge must decide each debate. Each round’s decision deadline is based on the Tabroom pairing start time. If the judge does not enter a decision by the decision time, it is within the Tabroom’s power to randomly assign the winner of that debate. We intend to enforce this, but we hope we don't have to.

For prelims, we will enforce a 75 minutes decision time. For elims, it will be 80 minutes.

Congress Information

Legislation: Schools must useCongressionalDebate.org legislation templates and submit -- via this Tabroom registration site -- up to 4 per school. Only Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, or Rich Text Format (RTF) file types will be accepted - no PDFs. Legislation may be rejected if it does not meet standards enumerated for relevant legislation within the jurisdiction of the United States Congress. If there are many submissions from schools, we will select the best from among each school's proposals for the overall tournament docket. If there is not enough legislation, items from recent NSDA dockets will be added. See below for deadlines and posting dates.

Rules/Procedures: The MinneApple usesNSDA rules, including pilot rules.Click here for full details (updated for 2022).

Advancement and Finals: Using NSDA tabulation protocols, about one-third of the preliminary session field advances to semifinal chambers of 9-12 students and a final session chamber of 10-14 students. Direct questioning will be used for the semifinal and final rounds.

Awards/TOC Bid Level: The top six students receive MinneApple apple awards, and non-placing final session participants will receive an award. The top PO from each preliminary chamber and the final session PO will receive a gavel. All final-round contestants, plus the next highest-ranked student in each semifinal chamber, earn one bid/leg to the University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions.

Student Leadership Award: While student vote will not determine the tournament's outcome, a special award modeled after the NSDA National Tournament leadership award will be conferred upon one final round debater who earns preferential ranking by their peers.

Judges: One judge for every five Congressional debaters. This judging obligation may not be shared with other divisions. Since the Minneapple offers small chambers to allow students more meaningful opportunities to debate, more judges will be needed. Please note any experience as a parliamentarian in the notes area when registering judges.

Important Dates

October 18th

Registration Due (capacity may be full before this date).
Final Fees are Assessed at 8 PM CST. No refunds are available after this date.
Check Payment/Purchase Order Due.
Golden Apple Award Nominations Due.
Distinguished Alumnus Award Nominations Due.
Hired judge requests are due by 8 PM CST.
Additional entry waitlist notified.

October 18th

Congress Legislation Due

October 24th

Congressional Debate Legislation Released.

November 4th

Final Judge Names Entered by 8 PM CST.
Varsity LD Judge Paradigms submitted on tabroom

November 6th

Judge preferencing is available.

After November 4th

ANY changes to your entries or judges should be entered on the website until it is closed. Then all changes should be emailed to minneappledebate@gmail.com.