1. Event Information

General:

All debates will be over the 2025-26 NFHS Policy Debate resolution: TBD

All debates will follow the 8-3-5 time convention for speeches and cross-examination. Varsity entries will be allotted 10 minutes of preparation time per debate. Novice entries will be allotted 8 minutes of preparation time per debate.

Decision time for preliminary rounds is 2 hours after the scheduled start time. Decision time for elimination rounds is 2 hours and 15 minutes after the scheduled start time. Judges should feel free to submit before the decision time. If the judge believes they will not be able to make a decision within that timeframe due to circumstances out of their control (debate started late, debaters are taking egregious amounts of time between speeches and prep, etc.), it is the judge's obligation to ensure the debate remains on time so they can render a decision in time. If the judge finds themselves unable to do that, they must notify the tabroom immediately. Any decisions not submitted within 15 minutes past the allotted time will be decided by a coinflip by the tabroom.

All elimination rounds will use online coinflips, except in debates where sides are locked due to teams meeting in preliminary rounds. Coinflips will blast 5 minutes after pairings, and the winner of the flip will have 5 minutes to decide. If they don't then the loser gets 5 minutes to decide, then its up for grabs.

Disclosure of previously read arguments must be made promptly after the pairing is blasted, and before a coinflip deadline for any elimination round. This disclosure should include, at minimum, the affirmative being read (if previously read) OR previous 2NRs versus the disclosed affirmative.

All entries will be able to fill out an ordinal preference sheet. This will open the Tuesday before the tournament, and close at 2pm on Friday. Varsity and Breakout debates will prioritize highly rated, mutually preferred judges. Novice will prioritize a mixture of highly rated, mutually preferred judges and HS student judges, with students typically judging lower / mid-bracket debates, while adult judges will be placed in "break rounds".

Varsity Policy:

Varsity will consist of 6 preliminary rounds, breaking all teams with a 4-2 or better record to a full Double-Octafinals. If there are more than 32 teams with a winning record, we will not adjust the schedule and will only break the top 32 teams based on seeding.

All entries advancing to the semifinals of Varsity will receive a bid to the Tournament of Champions, hosted by the University of Kentucky in April.

Schools are required to provide judging coverage for all entries, as described in detail here.

We will offer strike cards beginning at the Quarterfinals. Each debate will be initially paired with a seven judge panel, unless it is impossible to do so, and each team will have the opportunity to strike two judges from the panel. Strike cards will be facilitated through Tabroom.com, and will blast five minutes after the last decision in the previous round is submitted. Each team will have ten minutes to complete their strike card. Based on the entered strikes, Tabroom.com will automatically reduce the panel to the largest odd number possible. So, if no judges are struck, a seven judge panel will remain. If 1-2 are struck, a five judge panel will remain. If 3-4 are struck, a three judge panel will remain.

Second Year Breakout:

We will host a Second Year Breakout bracket ran concurrently with the first three elimination rounds. All Varsity entries consisting of debaters in their first or second year of debate are eligible to compete. Judges will be placed after panels in the regular Varsity debates are finalized. In finals, it will likely consist of judges struck off of panels by strike cards.

Novice Policy:

Novice will consist of 6 preliminary debates, breaking to a full Octafinals, as judging permits. If judging is too tight to permit a full Octafinal debate, we will break all 4-2s or better to a partial elimination round.

All novice debates will be restricted to arguments within the Kansas Novice Packet, which is a modified version of the NDCA novice packet and can be found here: TBD. All evidence read in debates must be from this packet. Cards can be retagged and reorganized, but the core argument set must consist of what is in this packet. New arguments from packet evidence are also prohibited. Any teams reading outside arguments or evidence will forfeit their ability to win the given debate, but the round should continue for academic purposes.

However, in order to maintain the integrity of the tournament and not give teams unfair advantages, all grievances must be brought to the Tabroom staff within one full debate round of it happening. For example, if your team loses round 1 to non-packet evidence and you make us aware of it during round 2, the decision will be reversed. However, once round 3 begins the next morning, the decision will not be reversed. Reasonable exceptions to this rule will be made (for example, your students did not make you aware of it immediately or you were busy judging) but must be accompanied with any grievance brought.