Topics & Topic Strikes

Topics will be posted at tinyurl.com/npdl-S25topics

Middle School entries will NOT use the topic strikes procedure. The Middle School topic for each round will be the topic in the first left-most column, labeled in cyan blue.

TOPIC STRIKE PROCEDURE FOR NOVICE & OPEN

1. Once you receive pairings, go directly to your NSDA Campus Room (Saturday) or ZOOM Breakout Room (Sunday).

2. The three topics for the round will be posted here at the designated topic announcement time.

3. Immediately after topics are posted, the Opposition (Negative) team has one minute to strike one topic. If they do not arrive by the end of their strike time, the Government (Affirmative) team picks the topic for the round.

4. After Opposition strikes, Government has one minute to strike one topic. If they do not arrive by the end of their strike time, Opposition picks the topic for the round.

5. Either team should then paste the chosen topic for the round into the chat at the start of preparation time.

6. The judge should copy the topic from the chat, paste it into the RFD section of their ballot, and save the ballot edits.

7. The teams prep the chosen topic for 20 minutes. Teams don't need to stay in the room during prep time, but must return after 20 minutes to begin the round.

8. Topic strikes and prep time should proceed even if one or more participants are having technical issues.

9. Once prep time ends, each team has a total of 10 minutes of tech time for the round. For Round 1 only, tech time is 20 minutes. Tech time may be used at any point during the round to address technical difficulties. After a team uses all of its tech time, it must proceed or forfeit the round. Tech time also counts as forfeit time.

10. The judge should supervise the topic strikes. If the judge is not present in the room for topic strikes, but both the teams are present, they should report the judge's absence to npdl.board@gmail.com. After that, the debaters should return to their round room, do the strikes without the judge, and begin prep.