8 September 2024

Dear Colleagues:

The Marshall University and Ohio University speech and debate teams invite you to back-to-back tournaments on the beautiful campus of Marshall University in Huntington, WV from Friday, 18 October 2024, through Sunday, 20 October 2024.

The tournaments strive to be comprehensive in recognition of the important roles both speech and debate play in the forensics community. As such, we will be offering the following:

• A speech tournament consisting of 2 preliminary rounds and 1 final round of all 11 NFA speech events + Broadcast Journalism on Saturday, 19 October 2024, as part of the Marshall University tournament;
• A speech tournament consisting of 2 preliminary rounds and 1 final round of all 11 NFA speech events + Broadcast Journalism on Sunday, 20 October 2024, as part of the Ohio University tournament;
• Four (4) preliminary rounds and elimination rounds of IPDA Debate on Friday, 18 October 2024, and Saturday morning, 19 October 2024, as part of the Marshall University tournament; and
• Six (6) preliminary rounds and elimination rounds of NFA Lincoln-Douglas Debate on Saturday, 19 October 2024 (beginning at 11:00 PM ET), and Sunday 20 October 2024 (beginning at 10:30 AM ET), as part of the Marshall University tournament.

Competition in speech events and IPDA Debate will be in-person. Competition in LD Debate will be hybrid.

Importantly, the tournament schedule is designed to maximize speech and debate event cross-entry:

• A student may enter both IPDA Debate and LD Debate.
• A student may enter IPDA Debate and all speech events at Marshall University tournament if they do not advance to elimination rounds and Pattern B events if they do. (Go ahead and enter a student in Pattern A events, and we will drop them at no cost if they cannot compete.) They also may enter all speech events during the Ohio University tournament.
• A student may enter LD Debate and Pattern A events at the Marshall University tournament. A student may enter LD Debate and Pattern B events at the Ohio University tournament.
• A student may enter up to three speech events per Pattern at both tournaments.

The invitation in the attachment (Files to Download) provides additional information about both tournaments. If you have questions, please feel free to contact Dennis Taylor at taylor41@marshall.edu or +1 304.541.0332 or Jennifer Talbert at jtalbert@ohio.edu or +1 216.410.0041.

Sincerely,

Dennis C. Taylor & Jennifer Talbert

Director of Forensics & John A. Cassese Director of Forensics

Marshall University & Ohio University