Dear Colleagues,

We are happy to invite you to the 2025 C. Thomas Preston Jr Study Break Debate Tournament, to be held Saturday, December 6^th  on the campus of Webster University.  This tournament is an annual event that welcomes students who are new to debate.  Our format and divisions are designed to nurture students within a relaxed, friendly environment.  We encourage schools to bring their debate classes to this tournament.  Several programs have made the Study Break a part of their debate class curriculum and continue to do so.

The tournament features...

 a novice IPDA division with strict eligibility requirements

• a junior IPDA division for students with some college experience
• certificates for all participants in addition to awards for top teams
• no entry fees this year to allow for larger school entries
• an invitation for experienced undergraduates to judge…education for the varsity debaters and a way to ease hired judge fees for schools!
• a one-day format that allows students and coaches to preserve some of their weekend for non-forensic adventures!
• a schedule that allows many schools to travel earlier in the morning and avoid hote expenses
• a separate individual events tournament running on Sunday. 

We promise a day of fun, along with excellent educational and competitive experiences.  We hope to see you and your students on the Webster campus for this year’s Study Break—the 39th in a long tradition of novice debate excellence!  Come help us celebrate the debate activity and its collegiate future! 

Sincerely,

 Gina Jensen                                                  Tom Serfass                                       Madi Teska

Tournament Director                                  Assistant Director of Forensics       President                         

Director of Forensics                                   Webster University                           MO Omega Chapter of PKD

Webster University                                                   

Tournament Schedule

                                               2025 C. Thomas Preston, Jr. Study Break Debate Tournament

                                                                    Saturday, December 6, 2025

  8:30 - 9:30                                     Registration—TBA

 9:30                                                 Topic Announcement

10:00                                                Round I

11:00                                                Topic Announcement

11:30                                                Round II

12:30                                                Lunch Break

  1:30                                                Topic Announcement

  2:00                                                Round III (powered hi/hi)

  3:00                                                Topic Announcement

  3:30                                                Round IV (powered hi/low)

  4:45                                                Awards Ceremony

  5:30                                                Topic Announcement

  6:00                                                Finals Showcase Rounds of Each Division

                                                                             Tournament Notes

 Teams are encouraged to keep the spirit of this tournament in mind when entering students.  For novice eligibility, students should have no experience in debate prior to the current semester.  For junior eligibility students should have a maximum of less than four semesters of debate experience at the collegiate level.  Additionally, we ask that novice teams who have competed in more than two tournaments this semester strongly consider entering the junior division.  Additionally, we prefer that schools not enter junior teams who have extensive debate experience.  In all cases, we encourage novice students who are in their first semester of college debate and have enjoyed competitive success to enter the junior division. 

 Please do not approach this tournament as a vehicle for earning IPDA  sweepstakes points or more trophies for your accomplished debaters.  Enter your students in divisions that will honor the intent and tradition of the tournament.  We welcome your experienced and competitively successful debaters to experience the adjudication and teaching side of the activity as members of our judging pool.

 The IPDA division will use 5-2-6-2-3-5-3 time limits.  For IPDA, following the striking of resolutions, teams will have 30 minutes of preparation time. There are no limits on access to materials, Internet, or pre-round coaching.  Only materials prepared during preparation time, as well as the tournament invitation, can be used during the debate.  We will provide teams passwords for wireless Internet access.   

Team breaks and placings will be determined by (1) win/loss record, (2) adjusted speaker point totals, (3) speaker point totals, and (4) opposition record.  Speaker awards will be determined by (1) adjusted speaker point totals, (2) speaker point totals, (3) speaker ranks, and (4) z scores.

 Awards will be presented to...

• all participants--certificates or other appropriate awards
• the top two teams in each division
• the top speakers in each division
• the top teams in each division

For lodging, schools might try the following hotels...

Sheraton Westport Plaza............ 314-434-5010…very nice but further away

Best Western Kirkwood Inn....... 314-821-3950…nice and close

Holiday Inn SW Route 66.......... 314-821-6600…nice and close

                                                       Fee Schedule and Judging Policy Study Break

 Entry Fee:                                        No Charge This Year

 In order to not charge teams this year, we ask that you try very hard to cover as much of your entry as you can.  Schools with a large entry and no judges will be charged $35 per team.  Each judge covers 2 teams. Unrestricted judges are preferred!  Half-time judges must be free to be assigned the two rounds in which they are most needed.  Experienced undergraduate students are welcome and encouraged as critics to either be hired out or cover your school’s entry.

                                                                             Entry Instructions

 The entry deadline is Tuesday, December 2^nd at  6 pm CST.  You can enter on www.Forensictournament.net .