2024 Rocky Mountain Debating Championship at MSU Denver

October 12-13, 2024

Dear friends,

You are invited to attend the 2024 Rocky Mountain Debating Championship at Metropolitan State University of Denver! This tournament, a collaboration between the University of Denver and MSU Denver, will be held in the state-of-the-art Jordan Student Success and Aerospace and Engineering Sciences buildings at MSU Denver. Both are conveniently located in the heart of downtown Denver and right next to our famous Tivoli Student Union (home to the Tivoli Brewing Co. Taphouse). We are steps away from Larimer Square, the 16^th Street Mall, Meow Wolf, and Denver’s arts and cultural districts.

The tournament will take place on October 12-13, 2024. This tournament will feature 6 rounds of preliminary debates, a novice breakout, and a semifinals break in varsity (with the option to add a quarterfinal round if we reach a certain number of entries). We will follow YODL rules and procedures for this tournament including a topic strike based on the areas selected for the fall semester. We will not be using open adjudication at this tournament. This is a free tournament open to any all participants. We look forward to hosting you at MSU Denver!!

Sincerely,

John Rief                                 Rob Margesson

MSU Denver                            University of Denver

jrief1@msudenver.edu           robert.margesson@du.edu

Registration Information

There will be no registration fee for this tournament. The judge commitment per school will be N-1. Please supply as many chairs as you can. We are planning to hire a limited number of local judges but will need everyone to pitch in to reach the numbers required to run the tournament. We will assess a fee of $50.00 per uncovered team.

Please enter your teams on forensicstournament.net by Monday, October 7. No new registrations will be accepted after that time. All changes should be sent to John Rief by no later than Wednesday, October 9. If you have questions or special requests, please email John Rief at jrief1@msudenver.edu.

Tournament check-in will take place at the Tivoli Brewing Co. and Taphouse from 7-9pm on Friday, October 11.

Tournament Rules

As noted above, we will follow YODL rules at this tournament including the topic strike and points of privilege procedures. We will not be using open adjudication at this tournament. If you have any questions about these rules, please do not hesitate to contact Rob Margesson at robert.margesson@du.edu. We will go over these rules at the Saturday morning briefing and topic release.

Food and Entertainment

We will not be serving any meals at this tournament. This allows us to keep our costs at nearly zero. Our campus is within walking distance of numerous food options. We will offer a 90-minute lunch break on both days to give teams time to secure food. Please check out this local guide prepared for the 2024 Rhetoric Society of America conference for more information about food, entertainment, and the like.

Lodging and Parking

The SpringHill Suites by Marriot Denver Downtown is located on our campus and you are welcome to make reservations there. We do not yet have a room rate with them but we are working on it and will let you know ASAP. It looks like they will be allowing us a 10-room courtesy block with the option to add more if needed. In the past, the rate has been below $200. There are many other options for lodging both in the downtown area and surrounding suburbs. We recommend that you stay near a light rail line which will allow you to easily make your way to campus each day for a fee of $5.50 per person (round trip). We are also happy to secure parking passes for campus. Please request these in advance by emailing John Rief at jrief1@msudenver.edu.

Schedule

·       Please note that all times are MDT (Mountain Daylight Savings Time)

·       See included map to find buildings.

Friday, October 11

·       Tournament Check-In                 7-9pm                     Tivoli Brewing CO. and Taphouse

Saturday, October 12

·       Check-in                                    7-8am                       Jordan Student Success Building (JSSB) Lobby

·       Drop Deadline                            8am                         JSSB Lobby

·       Briefings                                     8-8:30am                 JSSB Lobby

·       Round 1                                     9am                          JSSB and Aerospace and Engineering Sciences (AES)

·       Round 2                                     11am                        JSSB and AES

·       Lunch                                          1pm                         On your own

·       Round 3                                      3pm                          JSSB and AES

·       Round 4                                      5pm                          JSSB and AES

Sunday, October 13

·       Check-in                                     7-8am                       JSSB Lobby

·       Drop Deadline                               8am                       JSSB Lobby

·       Briefings                                    8-8:30am                   JSSB Lobby

·       Round 5                                        9am                        JSSB and AES

·       Round 6                                       11am                       JSSB and AES

·       Lunch                                             1pm                       On your own

·       Sems + Nov Breakout                    3pm                       JSSB and AES

·       Finals                                              5pm                       JSSB and AES

We hope to see you in Denver!