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Yale Debate Association Seventeenth Annual Invitational Tournament

Dear Speech and Debate Coach:

On behalf of the Yale Debate Association, we invite you and your team to the seventeenth annual Yale University Invitational Tournament from Friday, October 2, 2009 to Sunday, October 4, 2009. The tournament will consist of competition in Varsity and JV Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, Policy Debate, Congressional Debate, Parliamentary Debate, and six Speech events.

Year after year, our tournament grows and gains national recognition for its high level of competition. Last year, 120 schools from 21 states helped to make the sixteenth edition a huge success. The Yale tournament provides a wonderful opportunity to gain some early season practice and compete against schools from across the nation. Like last year, we expect quarter-finalists in Varsity Lincoln-Douglas, octofinalists in Public Forum debate, and Congressional Debate Super Session participants to earn a bid to the Tournament of Champions. This year, we are also pleased to introduce Parliamentary Debate to our tournament. This new division will benefit from the judging expertise of the Yale Debate Association, the top-ranked college parliamentary team in the nation. We hope that this division will also help to open the tournament to new schools.

Tab will be directed again by Chris Palmer of Newton South in Massachusetts. Currently slated to join us are Jim Menick of Hendrick Hudson (NY) and Joe Vaughan of Scarsdale (NY) in LD tab, Jenny Cook of the University School (FL) in Public Forum, and Sheryl Kaczmarek of Newburgh Free Academy (NY) in Policy. Speech tab staff includes Jonathan Chavez and Lisa Honeyman of Newton South (MA), Dave Yastremski of Ridge (NJ), Barb Giuliano of St Joseph’s Prep (PA), and many others. Mike Vigars of Trinity Prep (FL) will again direct Congressional Debate. All are nationally recognized and successful tab coordinators. For the past decade, they have been essential to our ability to run a smooth tournament.

The information provided with this invitation and on our tournament website, http://yale.tabroom.com, should answer any questions that you may have about our tournament. If you need additional assistance, please email us at yale@tabroom.com. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if your team is experiencing financial difficulties.

Best wishes for a restful and enjoyable summer and we look forward to seeing many of our old friends in New Haven in October.

Sincerely,

Pam Brown Austin Kase

The 2009 Yale Invitational Tournament This year’s competition will feature the events described below. Speech events will be broken into two groups. Group A will consist of HI, OO, and DI. Group B will consist of Extemp, Duo, and OI. These are different groupings than in years past. A participant may enter up to two different speech events in each group. Debate or congress students may not double enter.

Varsity and Junior-Varsity Lincoln-Douglas Debate The resolution will be the September-October National Forensic League topic. Both LD divisions will follow the 6-3-7-3-4-6-3 format. Debaters will have 5 minutes of prep time. Ties will be broken based on record, adjusted points, total points, double-adjusted points, judge variance, opponents’ record, and flip of a coin, in that order. The break will be to double-octafinals in Varsity and JV LD debate.

Students in 9th or 10th grade, and those in 11th grade with less than two years debating experience, may enter JVLD, but should also feel free to enter VLD. Students with more than two year’s experience and those in 12th grade should enter VLD. Any student who broke at a national tournament in JVLD last year should enter VLD. We strongly encourage coaches to choose divisions with the educational purpose of debate in mind. That purpose is hurt if overqualified debaters compete in JV. Students shouldn’t enter JVLD to “win trophies”; JVLD is a learning division.

Policy Debate There will be a single, open division of policy debate using the 2009-2010 NFL resolution. Teams will give 8-minute constructive speeches, 3-minute cross-examinations, and 5-minute rebuttals, and will have ten minutes of prep time. Ties will be broken using the same criteria as Lincoln-Douglas Debate. The break will be to quarterfinals (If the field is large enough, an octafinal round may be added). There will be no policy rounds on Friday night; instead, we will host an open room with wifi available for collaborative tournament prep. This room will stay open during Saturday rounds.

Public Forum Debate There will be a single, open division of public forum debate. We will follow all of the NFL rules for the event as they stand for the start of the school year. The tournament will be using the NFL topic for October of 2009. Ties will be broken using the same criteria as Lincoln-Douglas Debate. The event will break to double octafinals.