Yaatly Online Debating League

 Championship

April 8-9, 2023

Metropolitan State University- Denver

 Your squad is cordially invited to the in-person YODL Championship.  At this culminating event, we’ll continue our experiments to explore best practice in BP debating and recognize the excellence of squads and teams demonstrated throughout the year. 

Highlights

 The Championship will continue a number of approaches that are significantly different from current BP practice.  In brief, the major differences at this tournament are:

●      Each debate decides topic via an updated in-person topic striking process

●      Points of privilege allowed during the round to address equity concerns in-round

●      Escalated equity issues handled by the tournament host or designee with the option of involving the host institution’s equity and compliance office.

●      Open deliberation following the debates, to be observed by the debaters.  Please read about our updated open deliberation policy for in-person debating here. For our Championship tournament, elimination round deliberations will be closed.

Schedule

 Friday, April  7

7:00 - 9:00 pm             Reg & Coaches’ meeting | Tivoli Brewery

Saturday, April 8

8:00 am                        Check-in | Baerresen Ballroom, Tivoli Center

8:30                              Drop deadline; opening briefing

9:00                              Round 1

11:15                            Round 2

1:00                              Lunch

2:30                              Round 3

4:45                              Round 4

Sunday, April 9

8:30 am                        Check-in | Baerresen Ballroom, Tivoli Center

8:45                              Drop deadline

9:00                              Round 5

11:00                            Round 6

1:00                              Lunch

1:45                              Break Announcement

2:00                              Quarterfinals

4:00:                             Semifinals & Novice Finals

6:00                              Finals

ASAP                             Awards party | Location TBD

Snacks (healthy and possibly unhealthy) will be provided for tournament participants throughout the entirety of the tournament.

Registration & Fees

Entries are due by midnight, Saturday, April 1 via Forensicstournament.net.

Each school is entitled to register as many teams as you’d like, provided you cover your entry with a sufficient number of full-time judges.  Judge requirements are determined using the N-1 formula, where N = the number of teams you're entering.  In other words, if you intend to enter 3 teams, they’ll need to be covered by 2 full-time judges.  If you hire judges to cover your commitment, we reserve the right to limit your entry due to judge unavailability.

Entry fees will cover hired judging, facilities rental, awards and hospitality.  Fees are as follows:

Entry per person (debaters, judges & observers): $40

Uncovered teams (for each team not covered at N-1): $40

You may make payment in the form of cash, check, or credit card. Checks are to be made out to Metropolitan State University of Denver. Those wishing to pay via credit card will receive an invoice at registration with on-line payments instructions. On-line payments will be collected remotely in the week (or two) following the tournament.    

Judges

When you register your judges, you should indicate whether each judge is qualified to Chair a deliberation panel upon registration.  Generally, experienced, mature and confident judges should be designated as a Chair as they will have additional responsibilities in this tournament that differ substantially from judges’ typical responsibilities.

1.    Chairs are expected to manage Points of Privilege offered by the debaters.  Points of Privilege are intended to  allow debaters to address potentially-offensive behavior by others in the round.  If a debater requests a Point of Privilege, the Chair should stop the speaker’s time, allow the debater raising the point to state their concern and then respond either by counseling the speaker on more appropriate behavior, counseling the debater raising the point that their point is not valid or by deferring decision by taking the point “under advisement.”

2.    Chairs are expected to lead open deliberation about the ranking of teams that will be observed by the teams competing.  As such, Chairs should feel confident managing the deliberation so that all teams are given due consideration in the decision and that all members of the panel are given ample opportunity to weigh in on their decision.  Debaters must listen silently to the deliberation and may be excused at the discretion of the Chair if they refuse to do so.  Following the deliberation and ranking, the Chair may offer a brief summary adjudication to the debaters but is not required to do so.