A Story of a Typical Tournment
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 Host
schools announce the opening of pre-registration for their tournaments
usually one to two weeks before the scheduled tournament date. They
have the option of capping the tournament at a certain number of
teams, making timely pre-registration very important. Pre-registration
with the tournament directors (those in charge of a given school's
tournament) usually ends the Wednesday preceding the tournament.
Each
debater should bring enough clothes, debating items, and money with
them for two days. Most people wear a coat and tie or female equivalent
during debate rounds, but change into casual clothes for the party.
Debaters may have to pay for several meals themselves. Debaters
may find this list helpful:
 Debate Clothes
(formal)
Casual Clothes
Toiletries
Towel
Sleeping
Bag and Pillow
Paper (Most
Debaters use legal sized pads, called "flow pads")
Pens
Watch for
timing speeches
Clipboard
or Folder to write on
Money
Directions
to the Tournament
Cell Phone
and a number to call if lost.
The
day of the tournament, teams are required to arrive between 2:00-3:00
pm Friday in order to officially register. The school representative
gives the tournament directors (TDs) a list of the teams, names,
and novice/varsity distinction. Each school receives a "free
seed," which entitles one of that school's teams to avoid hitting
another seeded team during the first round. A debater receives a
seed by reaching the final round of a sanctioned tournament or competing
in the elimination rounds at Worlds or Northams. Seeds carry over
from the tournament in which they are received until the end of
the APDA year. Two seeded members comprise a full seed team, and
one seeded member and one unseeded member comprise a half-seed team.
Most tournaments can protect all of the seed against each other,
but at very competitive tournaments priority must be given to certain
seeds over others. Full seeds have the highest priority, followed
by half-seeds, followed by free seeds. The school representative
verifies each team’s pre-registration with the tournament directors,
stating which teams are full seeds, and which team will receive
the free seed. Each two-member team receives a letter. For example,
if Amherst brings five teams to a given tournament, the team representative
assigns the teams the labels "Amherst A," "Amherst
B," and so on. An alternative method labels each team according
to the first letter of each team member’s last name. An Amherst
team with Bob Johnson and Melanie Koo would be labeled "Amherst
JK."
After
registering, the schools will be directed to General Assembly (GA),
where they will put down their bags and wait for pairings. Around
4:00 or 4:30, a TD enters the room to announce pairings, the match-ups
for the first round. Pairings for the first round consist of seeded
teams hitting unseeded teams, unless there are too many seeded teams,
in which case the preference system stated above is used. Teams
from the same school may not compete against each other during the
preliminary rounds of the tournament (in-rounds). Some extreme case
may create exceptions to this rule. The TD will read the pairings
in the front of the room, most likely announcing "Gov, Opp,
Room." This means that the first team read of a given pair
is the Government Team, while the second is the Opposition. Finally,
the room number is where the debate will take place. If you do not
hear your pairing, you should approach the TD and ask. Failure to
do so not only leads to confusion, but also slows down the tournament.
After
you have heard your pairing, you should go to your room and wait
for your opposing team and judge. You should write your positions,
names, and school name on the blackboard on the room. The judge
will arrive, the government team will take 10 minutes to prepare
their case, and the debate will begin! Sometimes the judge may be
slow to arrive. Government should begin to prepare their case. If
all of the other rounds near you have started and you have not seen
your judge, you should send one person back to GA or the tab room
to find out what to do. After the debate concludes, return to GA,
and wait for pairings for the second round.
Pairings
for subsequent rounds involve teams with the same record debating
each other with the highest speaking team in a bracket hitting the
lowest speaking team in the same bracket. The same process outlined
above holds true for the second and third rounds, also held on Friday.
There will be a scheduled break for dinner either before the second
round, or before the third round, at which time the tournament will
either have a banquet, or tell schools where to go for dinner.
At
the conclusion of the third round, teams return to the GA to wait
for housing. Students of the host tournament's school will divide
up the debaters to house them in the dorms (it is best to bring
a sleeping bag). Debaters go to their housing, change into more
comfortable attire, and go to the optional tournament-sponsored
party. This party generally ends around 1:00am, at which time debaters
return to their housing and retire for the evening. Debaters should
always show courtesy and respect to their hosts when returning late
at night.
Pairings
for fourth rounds are read between 9:00-10:00 am, and the tournament
usually provides some kind of breakfast. Debaters go to their fourth
round, debate, return and wait for fifth round pairings. The fifth
round concludes the preliminary rounds for the tournament, and the
cumulative record over the first five rounds determine those teams
advancing to elimination rounds (the "break").
After
fifth round, debaters return to GA and the TD’s direct the debaters
to a luncheon banquet. Upon finishing lunch (this is around 2:30
pm), the TD’s read the break, which usually consists of the top
eight teams at the tournament. The break is determined first by
record, then by speaker points, then by ranks, and then by various
tie-breaking factors. The break becomes a set, single elimination
tournament. This tournament within the tournament is seeded based
on each team’s performance that weekend. A team which started the
tournament unseeded could be the first seed for the elimination
rounds. The teams then debate according to the classic bracket system
shown below:
| Seed 1 |
Seed 1 |
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Seed 1 |
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| Seed 8 |
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Seed 1 |
| Seed 4 |
Seed 4 |
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| Seed 5 |
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| Seed 3 |
Seed 3 |
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Seed 2 |
| Seed 6 |
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| Seed 2 |
Seed 2 |
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| Seed 7 |
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A three-judge
panel judges the quarterfinal rounds, and the winners go on to the
semi-final round. The semi-final rounds are announced in GA immediately
upon completion of all four quarterfinal rounds. Five judges judge
the two semis, and the winners go on to face each other in the final
round of the tournament for the championship. After the semis results
are announced, the TDs will also announce the room in which the
final round will take place. Debaters gather their things from GA
and move to the room in which both the final round and award ceremony
will take place. Everyone from each school attends the final round,
as the audience gets to vote in what is a partitioned vote called
the "house vote." In the final round, there are usually
between 9 and 15 judges from the host school, plus an assigned value
of the house vote (for example, if there are 7 judges, the house
vote may be valued at 4). After the final rounds, the judges give
the chair their ballots, at which time the TDs announce to the audience
that they will be counting the house votes. The audience exits the
room through two doors, one for Government and one for Opposition.
The floor votes are assigned based on a percentage of the audience
that voted for a particular side. After the final round, the debaters
wait for the tournament to finish tabulating the results. Upon completion
of this tabulation process, the host team arrives and begins the
Awards Ceremony. The TDs announce the top novice teams and then
the top novices, providing trophies usually to the top five. The
TDs then announce and award the top ten overall speakers, followed
by the top 10 teams at the tournament, reading the decision in the
final round. All competitors customarily rise and applaud the top
speaker and top team at a given tournament. Thank you's and good-bye's
are exchanged, and students begin the return trip to their schools,
usually between 7:00-8:30. This concludes a two-day regular season
APDA tournament.
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