Best Practices and Procedures - Amazon S3



Online TOC – Best Practices and ProceduresContents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Online TOC – Best Practices and Procedures PAGEREF _Toc35445794 \h 1General/Tournament-Wide PAGEREF _Toc35445795 \h 4!!! IMPORTANT CHANGES – Online TOC 2020 !!! PAGEREF _Toc35445796 \h 5Philosophical Principles for All Events PAGEREF _Toc35445797 \h 6Harassment Policy PAGEREF _Toc35445798 \h 7Appeals and Ombuds Procedure PAGEREF _Toc35445799 \h 8Use of Technology in Rounds PAGEREF _Toc35445800 \h 9Prohibitions on Outside Assistance PAGEREF _Toc35445801 \h 10Judging PAGEREF _Toc35445802 \h 11Obligations PAGEREF _Toc35445803 \h 12Eligibility PAGEREF _Toc35445804 \h 13First-Year-Out Judges PAGEREF _Toc35445805 \h 14Expectations PAGEREF _Toc35445806 \h 15FAQs PAGEREF _Toc35445807 \h 17Policy PAGEREF _Toc35445808 \h 18Online Debate – General PAGEREF _Toc35445809 \h 19Location PAGEREF _Toc35445810 \h 20Improving Home Internet Performance PAGEREF _Toc35445811 \h 21Recommended Technology PAGEREF _Toc35445812 \h 24Acquiring Home Internet PAGEREF _Toc35445813 \h 26Practicing Online Debate PAGEREF _Toc35445814 \h 27Pre-Tournament Checklist PAGEREF _Toc35445815 \h 28Signing into a Room PAGEREF _Toc35445816 \h 29Pre-Round Check-In PAGEREF _Toc35445817 \h 30During a Round PAGEREF _Toc35445818 \h 31Policy Specific PAGEREF _Toc35445819 \h 32Pairing Process PAGEREF _Toc35445820 \h 34Judge Placement PAGEREF _Toc35445821 \h 35Elimination Rounds PAGEREF _Toc35445822 \h 36Judging PAGEREF _Toc35445823 \h 37Evidence and Ethics Challenges PAGEREF _Toc35445824 \h 39Lincoln Douglas PAGEREF _Toc35445825 \h 41Online Debate – General PAGEREF _Toc35445826 \h 42Location PAGEREF _Toc35445827 \h 43Improving Home Internet Performance PAGEREF _Toc35445828 \h 44Recommended Technology PAGEREF _Toc35445829 \h 47Acquiring Home Internet PAGEREF _Toc35445830 \h 49Practicing Online Debate PAGEREF _Toc35445831 \h 50Pre-Tournament Checklist PAGEREF _Toc35445832 \h 51Signing into a Room PAGEREF _Toc35445833 \h 52Pre-Round Check-In PAGEREF _Toc35445834 \h 53During a Round PAGEREF _Toc35445835 \h 54LD Specific PAGEREF _Toc35445836 \h 55Pairing Process PAGEREF _Toc35445837 \h 57Judge Placement PAGEREF _Toc35445838 \h 58Elimination Rounds PAGEREF _Toc35445839 \h 59Judging PAGEREF _Toc35445840 \h 60Evidence and Ethics Challenges PAGEREF _Toc35445841 \h 64Public Forum PAGEREF _Toc35445842 \h 66Online Debate – General PAGEREF _Toc35445843 \h 67Location PAGEREF _Toc35445844 \h 68Improving Home Internet Performance PAGEREF _Toc35445845 \h 69Recommended Technology PAGEREF _Toc35445846 \h 72Acquiring Home Internet PAGEREF _Toc35445847 \h 74Practicing Online Debate PAGEREF _Toc35445848 \h 75Pre-Tournament Checklist PAGEREF _Toc35445849 \h 76Signing into a Room PAGEREF _Toc35445850 \h 77Pre-Round Check-In PAGEREF _Toc35445851 \h 78During a Round PAGEREF _Toc35445852 \h 79PF Specific PAGEREF _Toc35445853 \h 80Judging PAGEREF _Toc35445854 \h 82Evidence and Ethics Challenges PAGEREF _Toc35445855 \h 83Evidence Norms PAGEREF _Toc35445856 \h 84Tab Discretion PAGEREF _Toc35445857 \h 85Congressional Debate PAGEREF _Toc35445858 \h 86Online Debate – General PAGEREF _Toc35445859 \h 87Location PAGEREF _Toc35445860 \h 88Improving Home Internet Performance PAGEREF _Toc35445861 \h 89Recommended Technology PAGEREF _Toc35445862 \h 92Acquiring Home Internet PAGEREF _Toc35445863 \h 94Practicing Online Debate PAGEREF _Toc35445864 \h 95Pre-Tournament Checklist PAGEREF _Toc35445865 \h 96Signing into a Room PAGEREF _Toc35445866 \h 97Pre-Round Check-In PAGEREF _Toc35445867 \h 98During a Round PAGEREF _Toc35445868 \h 99Congress Specific PAGEREF _Toc35445869 \h 100Online Procedure PAGEREF _Toc35445870 \h 101Memo to Participants Coaches and Judges PAGEREF _Toc35445871 \h 102Speech PAGEREF _Toc35445872 \h 111Speech PAGEREF _Toc35445873 \h 112Online Procedure – Non-Extemp Events PAGEREF _Toc35445874 \h 113Online Procedure – Extemp Events PAGEREF _Toc35445875 \h 115General/Tournament-Wide!!! IMPORTANT CHANGES – Online TOC 2020 !!!Significant changes for Online TOC 2020 (beyond just being online)General – All eventsEducation and Openness PolicySchedule CommitmentHarassment PolicyUse of Technology in RoundsProhibitions on Outside AssistancePolicy, LD, Public Forum Coin Flip Procedures (elims, and in the case of PF, prelims)Evidence and Ethics ChallengesPF – Evidence Norms (specifically, setting up and using email chains for sharing cards)Philosophical Principles for All EventsGeneral Disclaimer on RulesThis document establishes the rules and procedures for operation of the Tournament of Champions. It is not possible to predict every possible situation that may occur during the tournament. Any issue, problem or other instance not dealt with explicitly in this tournament procedures document will be considered and decided by the tab room for the event in which the question arises. All tab room officials will strive to make fair and transparent decisions to expeditiously resolve conflicts and avoid tournament delays that might jeopardize a timely tournament conclusion. Tab room officials will strive to consult with the Tournament Director when feasible, but given the size of the event, there may be situations in which the event tab room will make final decisions to resolve issues, problems or other instances not specifically addressed by this document.Education and Openness PolicyWhile the TOC is a competitive event, we strongly believe that it is an educational endeavor. Persons, including coaches, debaters, parents, school officials, and members of the public, may observe and take notes in TOC debate rounds. Any sources read as evidence in round should be available to other competitors should they make a request for the citation after the evidence has been read. All persons observing rounds should recognize the rights of others and communicate and act with respect for participants, competitors, colleagues, critics, tournament hosts, and audience members. Specifically, observers should in no way interfere with or disrupt the normal operation of rounds. Failure to abide by this may result penalties, including fines and/or removal from the tournament. Communication or conduct which engenders ill-will and disrespect for forensics ultimately reduces the utility of forensics for all who participate in it and should, therefore, be avoided.Each school understands that teams participating at the tournament may audio and/or visually record competitors during rounds. It is the responsibility of coaches to ensure that their debaters and parents are aware of and understand such tournament recording is permitted. It is also the responsibility of coaches to ensure their judges understand that such recording is permitted and that judges do not penalize recording. The TOC prohibits sharing and/or distribution of recordings without its express written permission. Schedule CommitmentParticipants are committed to being observant of times and time zones and will adhere to schedules for events they are participating in, understanding failure to do so may invoke fines and/or penalties, including disqualification. Tournament officials will consider granting exemptions only in cases of extreme emergencies (health, for example). Conduct PolicyAll debaters and guests attend the online TOC at the invitation of the University of Kentucky and must abide by all rules established by the tournament invitation, the TOC Tournament Rules & Procedures documents, and any rules set by the University of Kentucky for guests on campus.Harassment PolicyPolicyAll TOC participants should recognize the rights of others and communicate and act with respect for opponents, colleagues, critics, tournament hosts, and audience members. Communication or conduct which engenders ill-will and disrespect for forensics ultimately reduces the utility of forensics for all who participate in it and should, therefore, be avoided.The Tournament of Champions follows the University of Kentucky’s policies and procedures concerning harassment, bullying, and discrimination. A compliance officer with the Office of Institutional Equity and Equal Opportunity will be on call for the duration of the tournament. The Tournament Director must first be contacted if an issue involving allegations of harassment, bullying, or discrimination arises.All debaters, coaches, judges, staff and all other individuals present at the TOC, or participating in activities associated with the TOC, are expected to know and are required to abide by this Policy. TOC participants should also adhere to the policies and procedures of their own educational institutions, and abide by all local, state and federal laws, avoiding discrimination, bullying, or harassment on any basis prohibited or regulated by law or applicable policies.Coaches, program directors, judges, researchers and assistants must ensure their conduct complies with this Policy during the TOC avoiding, mitigating and preventing situations that may generate discriminatory, offensive, bullying, or harassment actions, including during a judge’s post-round explanation of a reason for decision in a round. Coaches and program directors are encouraged to discuss this Policy with all their school’s participants prior to the TOC and are expected to take any reasonable and necessary actions to ensure compliance by participants who are affiliated with their respective schools, including hired judges. By participating in the TOC or in activities associated with the TOC, each individual shall be deemed to have agreed to comport themselves in accordance with this Policy.ResourcesFor more information regarding University policy and procedures on harassment please see:UK Discrimination & Harassment Policy – Title IX Policy - – and Ombuds ProcedureAny party seeking an appeal to any rule or regulation set forth in this document should follow these procedures, depending on the subject matter of any challenge or appeal:Most evidence and ethics challenges within the course of a debate are handled by the judge in the round. See the Evidence and Ethics Section below for each specific event.Harassment, bullying, or discrimination complaints are to be brought to the attention of the Tournament Director and then will be handled by Office of Institutional Equity and Equal Opportunity. See the above Harassment and Discrimination Prevention Policy for those procedures.Technology issues should be directed to the TOC’s tech team.Procedures for resolving all other complaints, including outside assistance, and challenges or appeals not explicitly set out in this document will be conducted by an Ombudsperson (or committee of Ombudspersons) appointed by the Director of the Tournament.The Ombuds (in consultation with the Director when deemed necessary and feasible) will strive to make fair and transparent decisions to expeditiously resolve conflicts and avoid tournament delays that might jeopardize a timely tournament conclusion.Appeals and/or protests must follow the following procedure:Protests are filed with an official ombudsperson on duty appointed by the tournament director. The tournament will provide a form for filing protests:Name of coach filing the protest (a coach of record must file the protest) and school, city, state.Name of person being protested and their school.Event and round being protested.Section/room and speaker number of person/team being protested.Specific infraction being protested, described with supporting detailAfter the infraction has been observed/discovered, the protest must be filed in a timely matter. Decisions of the Ombudsperson(s) are final. If a perceived violation occurs in a subsequent round, another protest may be filed.Use of Technology in RoundsRecordingEach school understands that teams participating at the tournament may audio and/or visually record competitors during rounds. It is the responsibility of coaches to ensure that their debaters and parents are aware of and understand such tournament recording is permitted. It is also the responsibility of coaches to ensure their judges understand that such recording is permitted and that judges do not penalize recording. The TOC prohibits sharing and/or distribution of recordings without its express written permission. Use of Technology in Policy, Public Forum and Lincoln Douglas DebateUse of laptop computers, tablet computers, smart phones and other electronic devices able to access the internet is permitted during events. The use of computers during debates is permitted for both flowing and research purposes including retrieval of evidence stored on hard drives and accessing resources via the internet. Use of the internet for the purposes of participating in competition in the online TOC is permissible. Students should not attempt to use electronic devices to initiate or respond to contact with outside parties during a debate. This rule is meant to restrict the debaters from initiating or responding to any outside contact during a debate round. Example: A student’s cell phone ringing during a debate would not violate the rule. A student calling, emailing, chatting, text messaging or responding to any contact from their coach during a debate would violate this rule. For adjudication and penalties, please see the section on Prohibitions on Outside Assistance.Use of Technology in Congressional Debate and all Speech EventsUse of the internet for the purposes of participating in competition in the online TOC is permissible. Students should not attempt to use electronic devices to initiate or respond to contact with outside parties during a round. This rule is meant to restrict the debaters from initiating or responding to any outside contact during a debate round. Example: A student’s cell phone ringing during a debate would not violate the rule. A student calling, emailing, chatting, text messaging or responding to any contact from their coach during a debate would violate this rule. Beyond that, please refer to the event specific rules.For adjudication and penalties, please see the section on Prohibitions on Outside Assistance.Prohibitions on Outside AssistanceOverviewThe Tournament of Champions appreciates concerns about potential misuse of the online format to facilitate cheating that might be more easily observed and deterred in a traditional brick and mortar context. The Tournament of Champions takes those concerns very seriously and is establishing these safeguards to promote the integrity of competition in an online venue. This includes: Reinforcing prohibitions on outside assistance during rounds. Substantial penalties for participants and their schools for cheating. All participants will be expected to sign and adhere to a code of conduct.Coaches should review that code of conduct, these rules, and their own school’s honor and integrity policies with all their participants – coaches, judges, and squads.The tournament operates with an expectation that teams entering and participating have the requisite level of respect for speech and debate as an institution that will deter them from undermining the integrity of that institution. We are asking all competitors, judges, and coaches to participate and act in good faith to preserve the competitive integrity of the tournament.ProhibitionsStudents are prohibited from seeking outside assistance during competition rounds, whether in-person or electronically. Coaches, including a school’s judges as well as private coaches, and teammates are prohibited from providing outside assistance during competition rounds, whether in-person or electronically. Once a round starts, students should only be communicating with their partners, opponents, and/or judges, as appropriate to their event. A limited exception will be allowed for communications with TOC tournament officials or tech assistance in situations that require such (for example, an in-round emergency, missing judge, and the like).ProcessInfractions will be evaluated through the Appeals and Ombuds Procedures in this document.PenaltiesStudents found to have violated the above prohibitions will be removed from the tournament.Coaches, including a school’s judges as well as private coaches, found to have violated the above prohibitions will have their entire school removed from the tournament.JudgingObligationsMinimum obligations:Policy and LD judges are obligated through the Octafinal round.Public Forum judges are obligated through the Quarterfinal roundFor Congressional Debate and Speech Events judges are obligated through Finals. All judges are obligated also one round past the school’s elimination in elimination rounds. So, for example, if your school’s last LD student is eliminated in quarterfinals, your LD judges must be available to judge the LD semifinal round. We are always very short on judging towards the end of the tournament, so we greatly appreciate any volunteers willing to stick around for the late elimination rounds. The tournament will assess a $500-dollar penalty for judges who miss a round when obligated.EligibilityImportant NoteThe tournament director reserves the right to approve any and all judges in all events.Judging Qualifications (who counts to meet a judging obligation)Unless the judge is the Director of Debate or an Assistant Debate Coach officially employed by that school, the Tournament Director and/or Tab Room Staff have the right to refuse any judge who is not qualified in the event in which they are entered.For LD and Congressional debate, any judge who has judged at a tournament this season in the event they wish to enter the pool at the TOC will be considered a qualified judge. Any judge who has not met this qualification may ask for an exception on a case by case basis. Such exceptions would be granted only to people who have significant prior experience with the event. In all other cases judges who wanted to be added to the pool, will be added as “free strikes”.In LD, judges who are constrained from judging 20% of the competitors or more may not count for more than 4 rounds of a school’s judging obligation.For Policy debate – For judges to count toward the commitment, they must have judged at least four rounds during the regular season at varsity high school tournaments. Exemptions will be made for those that have made a good faith effort to fulfill the requirement, e.g. putting yourself in for a full commitment at a tournament. Judges who do not meet the requirement are considered a free strike and do not count toward the commitment.Judge Philosophies:For Policy, Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum, all judges must submit a judging philosophy to Tabroom. No Policy, LD or PF entry will be considered complete until all affiliated judges have submitted a judge philosophy. For Public Forum judges you can find a judge philosophy template here: JudgesPolicy First-Year-Out JudgesFirst year out judges count in policy debate. They are not free strikes and can provide rounds for a school’s judging obligations. Lincoln Douglas & Public Forum First-Year-Out JudgesFirst-year-out judges are free strikes and DO NOT count toward a school’s judging obligation. They must be entered a minimum of two rounds like all other judges. ExpectationsGeneralThe primary role of judges is to serve as educators. All judges are expected to adjudicate their rounds fairly, limiting their evaluations to the arguments delivered by the students in the round before them. The TOC encourages judge feedback and post-round discussion with the debaters, as appropriate.In Policy, LD, and PF, judges are expected to assign one winner and one loser per round, by the decision time communicated by the tab room. The tab room will flip a coin to determine the winner of any round where the judge is unable to render a decision in the time allotted.Double-Flighted Event Details Judge commitments for LD and PF are considered “doubled-flighted” rounds of commitment (so 4 double-flighted rounds of commitment are really 8 single-flights). For LD, the tab room may not always be able to schedule every judge in both the A and B flights of a round, given judge preference constraints.Judge ConflictsPlease indicate on the tournament entry website all preclusions for all judges. Judges should preclude themselves from any debater who they have previously coached, had a close, personal relationship with, or for any other reason the judge believes they cannot be objective towards them if assigned. This includes any judge who has done any paid or volunteer coaching, even if conducted digitally or otherwise-remotely. Any college debater or coach should preclude herself or himself from any debater whom they have seriously recruited to attend their school. Judges should preclude themselves from judging their alma mater. Judges should preclude themselves from judging any school which they previously coached in the three-years prior to the 2018-2019 academic year. It is the judge’s obligation to communicate any conflicts to the tournament director prior to the start of the tournament.Judges are also expected to adhere to Event-Specific Rules regarding Judge Conflicts.In the event a pairing is distributed, and a judge reports a conflict after the fact, resulting in a changing of the pairing, that school will be charged a $200 fine.Judge AbsencesAll judges are obligated to adjudicate the round which the tab room assigns them. Any judge who fails to report to judge their debate before the forfeit time (15 minutes after the posted start time for the debate) faces sanction by the tab room, including disqualification of the debate entries from the judge’s school. Any judge who knows they will be late should make every attempt to inform the tab room if they have a legitimate time conflict (an emergency arises, illness, etc.).Fines – Schools will be fined $500 per round missed round by one of their judges.Disclosure of Decisions and Oral Critique PolicyThe Tournament of Champions serves as both a competitive and educational forum for the nation’s best debaters, coaches, and judges. As such, the Tournament encourages judge-debater interaction by making decision disclosures and giving oral critiques (time-permitting) in the policy, PF, and LD debate divisions. Please submit your ballot online before giving any post-round feedback.FAQsCan I judge an event other than the one my student qualified for?Yes, on a case by case basis, which must be approved IN ADVANCE by the Tournament Director and not merely through private communication with the tab room.What if I can only arrive to the tournament late?As long as you can cover your commitment, the tournament will make an effort to accommodate your schedule. If you cannot cover your commitment, the school you represent will need to hire additional judging to fully cover the school commitment.PolicyOnline Debate – GeneralLocationTo participate in the TOC, one should assume that leaving their home will be strongly ill-advised (and in some locations strictly prohibited). That means teams need to prepare how to communicate with each other remotely and to ensure the strongest possible internet connection during competition times. Gathering or meeting outside the home is in no way a precondition for competing in the TOC.Improving Home Internet PerformanceThe best way to improve your home internet is to use an ethernet and plug it into your router. This is better than Wi-Fi and has drastically improved performance in tests done thus far.For most computers it requires an adapter like this: an ethernet cord, price depends on length.The second-best way to improve your home internet is to ensure you are debating in the room where your router is and there are no objects between you and the router. This also stabilizes video greatly.Here are a list of other recommendations from Zoom ():Reboot the RouterIf you’ve experienced connectivity issues, you may want to reboot your router before your next video meeting, which flushes its stale connections. Admittedly, rebooting may not be the resolution, but it’s still a good way to prevent problems (especially if the router is on 24/7 for months or years).Adjust Your PositionTo maximize signal quality, you must do one of two things: move the router or move yourself. The closer you are to your router, the better your signal quality. Just like any other radio device, Wi-Fi routers have a particular range. As you move further from it, you’ll get choppy packet delivery (your video and audio could freeze).Minimize InterferenceAn aspect of Wi-Fi connections that even the most well-versed people miss is obstruction. Since your packets basically float in mid-air to the router, avoid putting concrete structures, fingers, and other solid objects between your wireless antenna and the router. If you’re communicating from a mobile device, hold it near the bottom, as most mobile wireless antennas are situated near the top of the device. If your phone’s camera is off to a side, chances are that the antenna is on the opposite side. Keep this in mind when holding your phone in a landscape (horizontal) position.Also, washing machines, microwaves, furnaces, and other electric appliances can interfere with your Wi-Fi transmissions. Everything that uses electricity (even a light bulb) emits small amounts of radiation that could interfere with radio-based communication. We’re not telling you to stay in the dark and light some candles, but at least keep high-energy appliances from sitting between you and the router.Don’t Crowd the RouterThink of your router as a railroad depot. Every connected device is a train that came to park there. Once all the shunts are occupied, the depot shines a red light signaling other trains that it’s full. Your router doesn’t have a red light, but it still gets overwhelmed.If you connect more devices to it, you put pressure on its hardware and it eventually uses a “first-come, first-serve” packet management model to compensate. This is disastrous for people trying to converse through video. Typical home routers are meant to handle at most 9 or 10 connected wireless devices. They can theoretically handle up to 255, but we must stress the word “theoretically.” For the optimal video experience, a router needs minimal load in terms of both bandwidth and simultaneous connections.By the way, running a service that hosts connections to multiple people also counts towards overwhelming the router. Anything you do on wired Ethernet will also have an impact on Wi-Fi.Update Your RouterRouters don’t just magically come with perfect firmware straight out of the assembly line. Chances are your manufacturer is going to notice some bugs that impede your ability to communicate effectively. Wi-Fi suffers the most from this because its standards are always being revised and a vast number of features exist that are not present in Ethernet. Look through your device manufacturer’s website and ensure that you have the latest firmware for your router.Enable WME/WMMIf you bought a router that advertises itself as being optimized for video and VoIP, you’ll likely find an option somewhere within its configuration interface that allows you to enable Wireless Multimedia Extensions (WME) or Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM). These are two terms used to describe an interoperability feature within some routers that puts a higher priority on media transmissions than on other data. It means that your router will put aside transmission of other packet data in favor of your video and audio transmissions. For more information, refer to your router’s manual.Configure Zoom as a Priority ApplicationOftentimes, while you’re configuring WME/WMM on your router, you’ll be able to define which applications have the highest priority. Add Zoom as one. For the port range, tell your router to start at 8801 and end at 8810 (the range your Zoom client application uses).Use a Less-Crowded ChannelWi-Fi networks are like big house parties. When the scene is getting too crowded, it’s time to take a breather at the balcony. In a large network with multiple Wi-Fi access points, your packets might be neglected when sent on a radio channel that’s too occupied. To mitigate this, configure the router to use another channel on the network.Don’t know if your channel’s busy or not? Unsure of what channel you should use? Wireless network diagnostic tools like MetaGeek’s inSSIDer can help you find this information.Go Dual-BandDual-band routers operate at two different frequencies: 2.4 GHz band (the more common of the two, which is prone to interference from other devices) and the 5 GHz band. The higher frequency really doesn’t offer many advantages, but it does decrease the likelihood that you’ll experience nasty interference and offers a dedicated SSID (wireless connection) that you can use strictly for VoIP and Zoom meetings. Buying a dual-band router gives you this kind of flexibility. Call the 2.4 GHz network “Web” and the other one “Multimedia.” When joining or hosting a conference, connect to the “Multimedia” band and you’re set!Recommended TechnologyImportant NoteThe first thing to note about technology and online debating is you need to practice with your existing laptop to establish a baseline. In early testing what comes in a laptop (in terms of webcam, audio and microphone) is sufficient for debates.The main thing that will impact your video and audio is your internet connection, not your hardware. There are some genres of technology that you can invest in that will noticeably improve performance (not such that “I can’t compete without this” but rather “this is nice to have”, like debating with and without a stand).Ethernet and adaptersThis is probably the most required piece of technology. Debate teams should be ready to debate from their home and in that case, they should plan to debate plugged into their router.If they don’t have an ethernet plug in on their laptop, they need an adapter, this one is $12: slightly more than $20 you can get an adapter that increases the amount of USB ports a laptop has AND provides ethernet plug in: they need an ethernet cord; how expensive it is depends on how long you want it to be.Headphones and Microphone vs HeadsetIn early testing with UK debate we found any headphones and a plug-in microphone to be slightly better than a headset.Most everyone has a pair of headphones and should plan to use them during a debate. We make no recommendations here because whatever you have available will be fine to improve performance.For plug in microphones this one attaches to your computer, produces strong audio and is $30 microphone worked well for $45: survey of a large sample size of recommend articles reveals this one as another strong option at $47: headsets the only one we have tested thus far is:“Logitech 981-000536 G430 7.1 Gaming Headset with Mic”Assuming members of a team already have headphones of some sort, it may be wiser to invest in USB microphones. This headset provided fine audio (better than with no headset), but the microphone did not perform as well as the plug-in options. Debaters also don’t have to learn how to debate with a headset on, which is nice.WebcamsPracticing joining a zoom meeting will reveal any issues that exist with your webcam. Personally, my laptop webcam has some sort of Windows 10 error with it. I couldn’t resolve it, so I purchased a $20 webcam you plug into a USB port. Works fine.Most webcams for the purposes of debate are interchangeable so default to what is most in line with your budget and that is readily available.Acquiring Home InternetReactions from private companies are dynamic, but the trendline has been they recognize that work and learning are shifting to home environments and are working to increase cast announced such a program: did Spectrum: will provide updates of similar programs as we learn more about them.Practicing Online DebateGetting Zoom for free:First step is to fill out the online form here: school might have a pre-existing or fast developing relationship with Zoom due to online learning that you can use for debate purposes.How to host a practice debate:Assuming no pre-existing relationship with Zoom at your school:1. Sign up for an account at: . Host a Meeting in the upper right. Click “with Video on”3. Click Invite button in the lower middle4. Click copy URL. Send that to those who you want to participate.5. The participants connect, and you can hold a debate. With a Basic Zoom account, you will have to start a new meeting after 40 minutes (unless they waived that for your school). With a Pro zoom account there is no time limit.Practice Weekend on toc.classroomsDuring the weekends of April 4th and April 11th we will allocate each squad time in a virtual room for them to practice. Squads should plan to practice having zoom meetings before these dates. This will give everyone an opportunity to become familiar with the site we will be using for the TOC. Details about coordinating your squad’s time will come out after the total number of entries in the tournament is determined.Pre-Tournament Checklist1. Each school needs to designate an adult in charge and provide the tournament with their email and phone number.2. Each team should post their emails to their wiki page at: . Each team should update their wiki with latest arguments to help improve pre round communication4. Each judge from a school should include their preferred email in their judging philosophy on 5. Everyone will have to affirmatively sign (electronically) a code of conduct for the tournament. The exact statement will be similar to a school’s honor code. It will include provisions about cyber-bullying, cheating, adhering to schedules, etc.Signing into a RoomWhen you go to check into a room there will be a screen to type your name. Competitors and judges should add identifying words prior to their name to distinguish themselves from observes. For example, “Competitor—John Doe”, “Judge---Jane Doe” etc. “Kentucky LG---Lincoln Garrett” would also suffice.Pre-Round Check-InThe schedule for the online TOC will include a new element: the pre-round check-in.Within ten minutes of a pairing being released on Tabroom all participants and the judge need to check into their assigned room.Everyone will turn their video and audio on and off and make sure all things are functioning properly. Email chains will be setup during this time as well. It is also strongly advised that when checking in, you engage in any necessary argument disclosure with your opponent in a timely fashion.They will then mute their mic and turn off video but stay connected in the room. They can then prep as normal.Failure to complete the check-in on time will result in a forfeit.The schedule will be constructed in such a way that check-in does not negatively impact prep time.During a Round1. The only person who should have their mic on is the active speaker. Everyone else should mute their mic during a speech.2. In Verbatim, debaters should locally record before starting a speech to use in case of extreme tech failure as a back-up (doing this in Zoom isn’t good because you must end the meeting to access the recording).3. Be aware that during events with cross examination the risk of cross talk and degraded audio is the highest. Competitors will have to adapt from their experience in a live tournament and try to minimize cross talk.4. The active speaker should be occasionally checking to make sure that all participants audio is still working/there have not been disconnections.5. If a technology issue befalls someone during a debate there will be a direct communication channel setup with relevant staff to help resolve the issue. This information will be published in every online room at toc.classrooms.A useful guide to managing technology situations:a. The biggest culprit is likely your internet. You should compete plugged into your router via ethernet. You should think and talk with your family about minimizing disruptions during competition time in your home. You may consider buying a longer ethernet cord so you can occupy a quieter section of your home.b. No one should prepare during any tech downtimec. If someone is the active speaker, they should take more care to ensure that someone does not lose connection mid-speech. Pausing a speech and then resuming after someone re-connects is the simplest way to resolve technology issues.d. If you are a non-active speaker you should only attempt to pause the active speaker if you have suffered a significant degradation of audio that persists for more than mere seconds. 1 second of latency does not warrant pausing a speech. Losing all audio completely warrants alerting your partner to get the speech paused etc.e. Unplugging USB devices like microphones or cameras then plugging back in usually fixes most issues.f. Exiting and reentering the room fixes some issues.Policy SpecificTopicThe TOC will use the annual NFHS policy debate topic.Event FormatThe tournament will host 6 preliminary rounds that follow the traditional “8-5-3” high school policy debate format for constructive, rebuttal, and cross-examination time. There will be a total of 10 minutes of preparation time for each team. There will be a 15-minute timer for each team that runs in the event of technology failure. This timer will be managed by the judge. A team forfeits if their 15-minute allocation of time runs out.Speaker Point ScaleThe TOC will use a 30-point speaker point scale with tenths of a point allowed, with no ties between the debaters.Start TimesTeams will be allowed at least 30 minutes of prep time from release of pairings until the official debate start time. Coaches should conclude their coaching 10 minutes prior to the debate. Judges should report to their rooms no later than 5 minutes before official debate start time. Teams and the judge will be required to check in to their room within 10 minutes of the pairing being posted to test connections and audio.Decision TimesFor preliminary rounds, decision time for judges to submit their decision will be 2:15 hours from the posted start time of the round. For elimination rounds, the decision time is 2:30 from the posted start time of the round. If the judge is unable to render a decision in the allotted time, the tab room will flip a coin to determine the winner of that debate/ballot.Forfeit TimesAny team arriving later than 15 minutes after the posted start time will be at the risk of forfeit imposed at the exclusive discretion of the event tab room staff. Any team experiencing what they believe to be a legitimate delay should make every attempt to communicate with the tab room if they are going to be late.Number of Clearing TeamsWe will clear to a double octafinal round. To qualify for elimination rounds a team must go 4-2 or better.TiebreakersWinsHigh low pointsDouble high low pointsTotal pointsJudge VarianceMaverick Debating RulesMaverick teams are not permitted to enter prior to the tournament. If a team becomes maverick due to an illness of a partner during the tournament, the ill debater may miss no more than 2 debates to be able to return and continue debating. Mavericks may win the debate. Mavericks will not be permitted to clear to elimination rounds.Hybrid TeamsNo hybrid teams are allowed to compete at the tournament. Each entry must be comprised of two students from the same school.Pairing ProcessAll power matched rounds will be paired high-low within brackets as possible.The field will be ranked prior to the tournament in order to balance the preset rounds. A member of the UK debate staff will do this ranking and will include a variety of variables including TOC bids and overall performance at TOC qualifying tournaments.Judge PlacementPrelimsIn prelims, starting with round 3, judges will be placed: [A] first for teams in “break rounds” (considered as those teams with 2 losses), then [B] second for teams with 1 loss, then [C] third for teams with no losses, then [D] finally for those teams already considered ineligible to clear to elimination rounds based on their record.Strike CardsStarting with the quarterfinals, teams will be given strike cards to assemble the panels, when possible, with the number of judges on the card and the number of strikes allowed to be determined by the number of judges available for that round based on MPJ. We will be using Tabroom’s online strike card feature to facilitate this process.Elimination RoundsBracketThe elimination round bracket will be released the night before the final day of elimination rounds.Side AssignmentIn elimination rounds, all rounds will be flip for sides, unless teams have previously met, in which case the teams will switch sides from the previous debate.Automated Coin FlipTeams will be notified 5 minutes after release of pairing as to which team has won the Tabroom auto-coin flip (unless sides are locked). The team winning the flip will have 5 minutes to choose and report their side to Tabroom. After 5 minutes, the first team to report will get to choose their side. If neither team reports within 10 minutes of the result of the flip, then Tabroom will assign sides for the debate.JudgingEligibilityFor judges to count toward the commitment, they must have judged at least four rounds during the regular season at varsity high school tournaments. Exemptions will be made for those that have made a good faith effort to fulfill the requirement, e.g. putting yourself in for a full commitment at a tournament. Judges who do not meet the requirement are considered a free strike and do not count toward the commitment.One WinnerJudges must vote for one and only one team within the allotted decision time.Entourage RuleThe “entourage rule”- All qualified individuals at the tournament contributing to any school’s competitive effort must be in the judge pool for a minimum of 3 rounds.Any school found violating this rule will be issued a $500 fine.***New 2019 – First-Year-Out JudgesAs of 2019, these judges are now eligible to count towards a school’s judging obligation in Policy and are *no longer* considered “free strikes.”***Revised 2019 – ObligationsJudges are obligated through at least the Octafinal round, plus one round after the team(s) from the school they represent is/are eliminated from the tournament.The tournament will assess a $500-dollar penalty for judges who miss a round when obligated.PhilosophiesJudges are required to post a judge philosophy on Tabroom. No entry will be considered complete until all affiliated judges have submitted a judge philosophy. For examples, please peruse the judge philosophy website. The penalty for any judge who fails to post a judge philosophy before the tournament starts will be that the school the judge is representing will lose school judge preferences.***Revised 2019 – Judge ConflictsPlease indicate on the tournament entry website all preclusions for all judges.Judges should preclude themselves from any debater who they have previously coached, had a close, personal relationship with, or for any other reason the judge believes they cannot be objective towards them if assigned.This includes any judge who has done any paid or volunteer coaching, even if conducted digitally or otherwise-remotely.Any college debater or coach should preclude herself or himself from any debater whom they have seriously recruited to attend their school.Judges should preclude themselves from judging their alma mater until 10 years after they have graduated and/or worked with the team, whichever comes later.Judges should preclude themselves from judging any school which they previously coached in the three-years prior to the 2019-2020 academic year.It is the judge’s obligation to communicate any conflicts to the tournament director prior to the start of the tournament.In the event a pairing is distributed, and a judge reports a conflict after the fact, resulting in a changing of the pairing, that school will be charged a $200 fine.Mutual Preference Judging ProceduresWe utilize mutual preference judging based on a category system, using a round count system, with the size of each category defined by the tab room prior to the tournament based on the total number of rounds of judging.Preference sheets will be due prior to start of the tournament at a time announced by the tabulation staff.Evidence and Ethics ChallengesMost Evidence & Ethics ChallengesIf a team believes an opponent committed an evidence or other ethics violation (except in the cases of prohibited outside assistance – see end of this section), the accusing team should stop the debate and ask the judge to adjudicate the challenge. This type of challenge includes the following situations:a team reads evidence is that fabricateda team reads evidence that is meaningfully altered to change the author’s original meaninga team misrepresents how much evidence they have read in a debate, such as improperly highlighting their evidence, “clipping cards” (the team says they read more than they actually did by clipping a card short of the indicated end), or “cross reading” (the team skips words or sentences in the middle of the text, but indicates that they read all the highlighted words)The accusing team will explain to the judge what alleged violation is being asserted. The judge will evaluate the violation based on the evidence available to the judge. Prior to evaluating the challenge, the judge should inform both teams whether the round will continue after the challenge if the accusation is found to be false or if the judge cannot determine the challenge based upon the evidence available to the judge. After the judge informs both teams of the consequences of a failure to sustain the objection or challenge, the accusing team will be given an opportunity to withdraw the challenge. If the accusing team decides to pursue the objection or challenge, then the consequences announced by the judge for a failed or indeterminable objection or challenge will be binding on the teams.If the judge finds that an ethics or evidence violation was committed, the offending team will be assigned a loss. If a single team member committed the violation, that debater will receive zero speaker points. The judge may assign speaker points to the non-offending debater. If the violation occurs prior to the non-offending team member delivering a speech, the judge may award points based upon the cross-examination, if applicable. If the non-offending team member has not delivered a speech or participated in a cross-ex, then the tab room will assign the average of the non-offending debater’s speaker points from prior debates.Any decision to challenge evidence violations or unethical behavior must be made during the round in which the infraction occurred before the judge submits a decision to the tab room. No challenge can be made to conduct committed in any round after the ballot has been submitted to tab room. The judge assigned to the round will decide the challenge made in the round based solely on the evidence submitted by the teams in the round. No appeal, modification or reversal of the judge’s decision regarding the challenge or the consequences resulting from the challenge is permitted.Outside Assistance SituationThe above type of challenge does NOT include an outside assistance situation (in which a team receives argument assistance or reads or responds to communications from a coach or other person after the debate has commenced, whether verbal or electronic, including the transfer of evidence after the round starts). In the event of an outside assistance situation, the provisions on Prohibitions on Outside Assistance and Appeals and Ombuds Procedure will be invoked. The outcome of the process will also determine the outcome of the debate. In the event of this type of challenge, the accusing team should explain the alleged violation. The judge should inform the accusing team that invoking this process means it will go to the Ombuds, and it will also result in a binding outcome for the debate (i.e. if the accuser is found to be wrong or has not provided sufficient proof, they lose). The accusing team may have a brief moment to determine whether or not they wish to proceed. If they choose to do so, it gets directed to the event’s tab room, which will begin the Ombuds process. If they choose not to, and withdraw the challenge, the round should promptly continue.Lincoln DouglasOnline Debate – GeneralLocationTo participate in the TOC, one should assume that leaving their home will be strongly ill advised (and in some locations strictly prohibited). That means teams need to prepare how to communicate with each other remotely and to ensure the strongest possible internet connection during competition times. Gathering or meeting outside the home is in no way a precondition for competing in the TOC.Improving Home Internet PerformanceThe best way to improve your home internet is to use an ethernet and plug it into your router. This is better than Wi-Fi and has drastically improved performance in tests done thus far.For most computers it requires an adapter like this: an ethernet cord, price depends on length.The second-best way to improve your home internet is to ensure you are debating in the room where your router is and there are no objects between you and the router. This also stabilizes video greatly.Here are a list of other recommendations from Zoom ():Reboot the RouterIf you’ve experienced connectivity issues, you may want to reboot your router before your next video meeting, which flushes its stale connections. Admittedly, rebooting may not be the resolution, but it’s still a good way to prevent problems (especially if the router is on 24/7 for months or years).Adjust Your PositionTo maximize signal quality, you must do one of two things: move the router or move yourself. The closer you are to your router, the better your signal quality. Just like any other radio device, Wi-Fi routers have a particular range. As you move further from it, you’ll get choppy packet delivery (your video and audio could freeze).Minimize InterferenceAn aspect of Wi-Fi connections that even the most well-versed people miss is obstruction. Since your packets basically float in mid-air to the router, avoid putting concrete structures, fingers, and other solid objects between your wireless antenna and the router. If you’re communicating from a mobile device, hold it near the bottom, as most mobile wireless antennas are situated near the top of the device. If your phone’s camera is off to a side, chances are that the antenna is on the opposite side. Keep this in mind when holding your phone in a landscape (horizontal) position.Also, washing machines, microwaves, furnaces, and other electric appliances can interfere with your Wi-Fi transmissions. Everything that uses electricity (even a light bulb) emits small amounts of radiation that could interfere with radio-based communication. We’re not telling you to stay in the dark and light some candles, but at least keep high-energy appliances from sitting between you and the router.Don’t Crowd the RouterThink of your router as a railroad depot. Every connected device is a train that came to park there. Once all the shunts are occupied, the depot shines a red light signaling other trains that it’s full. Your router doesn’t have a red light, but it still gets overwhelmed.If you connect more devices to it, you put pressure on its hardware and it eventually uses a “first-come, first-serve” packet management model to compensate. This is disastrous for people trying to converse through video. Typical home routers are meant to handle at most 9 or 10 connected wireless devices. They can theoretically handle up to 255, but we must stress the word “theoretically.” For the optimal video experience, a router needs minimal load in terms of both bandwidth and simultaneous connections.By the way, running a service that hosts connections to multiple people also counts towards overwhelming the router. Anything you do on wired Ethernet will also have an impact on Wi-Fi.Update Your RouterRouters don’t just magically come with perfect firmware straight out of the assembly line. Chances are your manufacturer is going to notice some bugs that impede your ability to communicate effectively. Wi-Fi suffers the most from this because its standards are always being revised and a vast number of features exist that are not present in Ethernet. Look through your device manufacturer’s website and ensure that you have the latest firmware for your router.Enable WME/WMMIf you bought a router that advertises itself as being optimized for video and VoIP, you’ll likely find an option somewhere within its configuration interface that allows you to enable Wireless Multimedia Extensions (WME) or Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM). These are two terms used to describe an interoperability feature within some routers that puts a higher priority on media transmissions than on other data. It means that your router will put aside transmission of other packet data in favor of your video and audio transmissions. For more information, refer to your router’s manual.Configure Zoom as a Priority ApplicationOftentimes, while you’re configuring WME/WMM on your router, you’ll be able to define which applications have the highest priority. Add Zoom as one. For the port range, tell your router to start at 8801 and end at 8810 (the range your Zoom client application uses).Use a Less-Crowded ChannelWi-Fi networks are like big house parties. When the scene is getting too crowded, it’s time to take a breather at the balcony. In a large network with multiple Wi-Fi access points, your packets might be neglected when sent on a radio channel that’s too occupied. To mitigate this, configure the router to use another channel on the network.Don’t know if your channel’s busy or not? Unsure of what channel you should use? Wireless network diagnostic tools like MetaGeek’s inSSIDer can help you find this information.Go Dual-BandDual-band routers operate at two different frequencies: 2.4 GHz band (the more common of the two, which is prone to interference from other devices) and the 5 GHz band. The higher frequency really doesn’t offer many advantages, but it does decrease the likelihood that you’ll experience nasty interference and offers a dedicated SSID (wireless connection) that you can use strictly for VoIP and Zoom meetings. Buying a dual-band router gives you this kind of flexibility. Call the 2.4 GHz network “Web” and the other one “Multimedia.” When joining or hosting a conference, connect to the “Multimedia” band and you’re set!Recommended TechnologyImportant NoteThe first thing to note about technology and online debating is you need to practice with your existing laptop to establish a baseline. In early testing what comes in a laptop (in terms of webcam, audio and microphone) is sufficient for debates.The main thing that will impact your video and audio is your internet connection, not your hardware.There are some genres of technology that you can invest in that will noticeably improve performance (not such that “I can’t compete without this” but rather “this is nice to have”, like debating with and without a stand).Ethernet and adaptersThis is probably the most required piece of technology. Debate teams should be ready to debate from their home and in that case, they should plan to debate plugged into their router.If they don’t have an ethernet plug in on their laptop, they need an adapter, this one is $12: slightly more than $20 you can get an adapter that increases the amount of USB ports a laptop has AND provides ethernet plug in: they need an ethernet cord; how expensive it is depends on how long you want it to be.Headphones and Microphone vs HeadsetIn early testing with UK debate we found any headphones and a plug-in microphone to be slightly better than a headset.Most everyone has a pair of headphones and should plan to use them during a debate. We make no recommendations here because whatever you have available will be fine to improve performance.For plug in microphones this one attaches to your computer, produces strong audio and is $30 microphone worked well for $45: survey of a large sample size of recommend articles reveals this one as another strong option at $47: headsets the only one we have tested thus far is:“Logitech 981-000536 G430 7.1 Gaming Headset with Mic”Assuming members of a team already have headphones of some sort, it may be wiser to invest in USB microphones. This headset provided fine audio (better than with no headset), but the microphone did not perform as well as the plug-in options. Debaters also don’t have to learn how to debate with a headset on, which is nice.WebcamsPracticing joining a zoom meeting will reveal any issues that exist with your webcam. Personally, my laptop webcam has some sort of Windows 10 error with it. I couldn’t resolve it, so I purchased a $20 webcam you plug into a USB port. Works fine.Most webcams for the purposes of debate are interchangeable so default to what is most in line with your budget and that is readily available.Acquiring Home InternetReactions from private companies are dynamic, but the trendline has been they recognize that work and learning are shifting to home environments and are working to increase cast announced such a program: did Spectrum: will provide updates of similar programs as we learn more about them.Practicing Online DebateGetting Zoom for free:First step is to fill out the online form here: school might have a pre-existing or fast developing relationship with Zoom due to online learning that you can use for debate purposes.How to host a practice debate:Assuming no pre-existing relationship with Zoom at your school:1. Sign up for an account at: . Host a Meeting in the upper right. Click “with Video on”3. Click Invite button in the lower middle4. Click copy URL. Send that to those who you want to participate.5. The participants connect, and you can hold a debate. With a Basic Zoom account, you will have to start a new meeting after 40 minutes (unless they waived that for your school). With a Pro zoom account there is no time limit.Practice Weekend on toc.classroomsDuring the weekends of April 4th and April 11th we will allocate each squad time in a virtual room for them to practice. Squads should plan to practice having zoom meetings before these dates. This will give everyone an opportunity to become familiar with the site we will be using for the TOC. Details about coordinating your squad’s time will come out after the total number of entries in the tournament is determined.Pre-Tournament Checklist1. Each school needs to designate an adult in charge and provide the tournament with their email and phone number.2. Each team should post their emails to their wiki page at: . Each team should update their wiki with latest arguments to help improve pre round communication4. Each judge from a school should include their preferred email in their judging philosophy on 5. Everyone will have to affirmatively sign (electronically) a code of conduct for the tournament. The exact statement will be similar to a school’s honor code. It will include provisions about cyber-bullying, cheating, adhering to schedules, etc.Signing into a RoomWhen you go to check into a room there will be a screen to type your name. Competitors and judges should add identifying words prior to their name to distinguish themselves from observes. For example, “Competitor—John Doe”, “Judge---Jane Doe” etc. “Kentucky LG---Lincoln Garrett” would also suffice.Pre-Round Check-InThe schedule for the online TOC will include a new element: the pre-round check-in.Within ten minutes of a pairing being released on Tabroom all participants and the judge need to check into their assigned room.Everyone will turn their video and audio on and off and make sure all things are functioning properly. Email chains will be setup during this time as well. It is also strongly advised that when checking in, you engage in any necessary argument disclosure with your opponent in a timely fashionThey will then mute their mic and turn off video but stay connected in the room. They can then prep as normal.Failure to complete the check-in on time will result in a forfeit.The schedule will be constructed in such a way that check-in does not negatively impact prep time.During a Round1. The only person who should have their mic on is the active speaker. Everyone else should mute their mic during a speech.2. In Verbatim, debaters should locally record before starting a speech to use in case of extreme tech failure as a back-up (doing this in Zoom isn’t good because you must end the meeting to access the recording).3. Be aware that during events with cross examination the risk of cross talk and degraded audio is the highest. Competitors will have to adapt from their experience in a live tournament and try to minimize cross talk.4. The active speaker should be occasionally checking to make sure that all participants audio is still working/there have not been disconnections.5. If a technology issue befalls someone during a debate there will be a direct communication channel setup with relevant staff to help resolve the issue. This information will be published in every online room at toc.classrooms.A useful guide to managing technology situations:a. The biggest culprit is likely your internet. You should compete plugged into your router via ethernet. You should think and talk with your family about minimizing disruptions during competition time in your home. You may consider buying a longer ethernet cord so you can occupy a quieter section of your home.b. No one should prepare during any tech downtimec. If someone is the active speaker, they should take more care to ensure that someone does not lose connection mid-speech. Pausing a speech and then resuming after someone re-connects is the simplest way to resolve technology issues.d. If you are a non-active speaker you should only attempt to pause the active speaker if you have suffered a significant degradation of audio that persists for more than mere seconds. 1 second of latency does not warrant pausing a speech. Losing all audio completely warrants alerting your partner to get the speech paused etc.e. Unplugging USB devices like microphones or cameras then plugging back in usually fixes most issues.f. Exiting and reentering the room fixes some issues.LD SpecificTopicThe TOC topic for LD will be the January/February LD topic selected by the National Speech and Debate Association.Event FormatSpeech constraints: 6-3-7-3-4-6-3 with 5 minutes of preparation time.Speaker Point ScaleThe TOC will use a 30-point speaker point scale.Start TimesDebaters will be allowed at least 30 minutes of prep time from the release of the pairings until the official start time of the A Flight debate. Coaches should conclude their coaching 10 minutes prior to the debate. Judges should report to their rooms no later than 5 minutes until start time. B Flight debates and judges should operate on the same timeline, with start time 61 minutes after the start of the A Flight.Report Times1. Flight A debaters are eligible to forfeit a debate if they are not present in the room they are debating in 1 minute after the posted start time.2. Flight B debaters need to be present in the room they are debating in 61 minutes after the posted start time of a debate (i.e. start time for Flight A). This is true regardless of whether the flight A debate decision is in. Failure to comply will result in a forfeit.3. Both Flight A and Flight B debaters should check into the room with the judge within 10 minutes of a pairing getting posted to check connections and audio.Decision TimesThe decision time deadline for preliminary rounds is 1 hour and 10 minutes after a debate begins in its respective flight.The decision time deadline for elimination rounds is 1 hour and 15 minutes after a debate begins in its respective flight.Forfeit PolicyForfeit times – Any team arriving later than 5 minutes after the posted start time will be at the risk of forfeit by the tab room. Any team experiencing what they believe to be a legitimate a delay should make every attempt to communicate with the tab room if they are going to be late.If a debater becomes unable to debate due to an illness during the tournament, they may miss no more than 2 debates to be able to return and continue debating. Speaker points will be averaged in this situation.Any entry that forfeits for a reason other than illness or serious emergency approved by the tab room will be withdrawn from the tournament.Number of Clearing TeamsWe will clear all teams with a 4-2 win-loss record or better.TiebreakersWinsHigh low pointsDouble high low pointsTotal pointsJudge VariancePairing ProcessAll power matched rounds will be paired high-low within brackets as possible.The field will be ranked prior to the tournament in order to balance the preset rounds. A member of the UK debate staff will do this ranking and will include a variety of variables including TOC bids and overall performance at TOC qualifying tournaments.Judge PlacementPrelimsIn the prelims, starting with round 3, judges will be placed first for debaters in “break rounds”, considered as those with 2 losses, then those with 1 loss, then no losses, then those already considered ineligible to clear to elimination rounds based on their record.Strike CardsStarting with the quarterfinals, debaters will be given strike cards to assemble the panels, when possible, with the number of judges on the card and the number of strikes allowed to be determined by the number of judges available for that round based on MPJ.elimination rounds must be returned to the tab staff 10 minutes after their release. Failure to do so will result in the tab room selecting a three-judge panel for the given debate.Elimination RoundsBracketThe bracket will be released the night before the final day of elimination rounds.Side AssignmentsIn elimination rounds, all rounds will be flip for sides, unless debaters have previously met, in which the debaters will switch sides from the previous debate.Automated Coin FlipTeams will be notified 5 minutes after release of pairing as to which team has won the Tabroom auto-coin flip (unless sides are locked). The team winning the flip will have 5 minutes to choose and report their side to Tabroom. After 5 minutes, the first team to report will get to choose their side. If neither team reports within 10 minutes of the result of the flip, then Tabroom will assign sides for the debate.Strike CardsFor elimination rounds in which strike cards are used, we will be using Tabroom’s online strike card option. Failure to respond 10 minutes after their release will result in the tab room selecting a three-judge panel for the given debate.JudgingQualificationAny judge who has judged at a tournament this season in the event they wish to enter the pool at the TOC will be considered a qualified judge. Any judge who has not met this qualification may ask for an exception on a case by case basis. Such exceptions would be granted only to people who have significant prior experience with the event. In all other cases judges who wanted to be added to the pool, will be added as “free strikes”.One WinnerJudges must vote for one and only one debater within the allotted decision time.***Revised 2019 – Entourage RuleThe “entourage rule”- All qualified individuals contributing to any school’s competitive effort must be in the judge pool for a minimum of 2 rounds.Any school found violating this rule will be issued a $500 fine, and teams from the school will have their judge preferences removed.First-Year-Out JudgesJudges who are only one year removed from high school competition will not count towards any school’s judging obligation; they are considered “free strikes.” They must still be entered in the judge pool.ObligationsJudges are obligated through at least the Octafinal round, plus one round after the team(s) from the school they represent is/are eliminated from the tournament.The tournament will assess a $500-dollar penalty for judges who miss a round when obligated.PhilosophiesJudges are required to post a judge philosophy on Tabroom. If a judge has a coaching relationship with competitors beyond the school they are identified as judging for, those competitors need to be identified at the top of the judge’s philosophy. For information about coaching relationships, please see the Judge Conflict Policy below.Mutual Preference Judging ProceduresWe utilize mutual preference judging based on a category system, using a round count system, with the size of each category defined by the tab room prior to the tournament based on the total number of rounds of judging.Preference sheets will be due prior to start of the tournament at a time announced by the tabulation staff.Judge Conflict PolicyJudges should constrain themselves, *and* competitors should mark judges as conflicts/constraints, in the following instances:The judge attended the same school as the competitor;The judge and the competitor are related;The judge worked for the competitor’s school as a coach or judge, paid or unpaid, during the past two years. This does not apply if the judge was only hired to judge at the school’s tournament;The judge attends a school that has offered to hire the competitor to coach or judge in the future, or the competitor attends a school that has offered to hire the judge to coach or judge in the future;The judge has been a primary instructor, e.g. a school coach or personal coach, to the competitor;The judge and competitor have, or have had in the past, a personal friendship or romantic relationship or have socialized in non-debate settings;The judge is being provided transportation or housing by the competitor’s school at this tournament;The judge has offered the competitor a job, e.g. an institute position or a coaching position;The judge’s coach (current or within past two years) coaches the competitor or a competitor’s teammate(s). Examples:Judge A graduated last year from School B. Judge A’s coach has moved from School B to another team, School C. Judge A should not judge any competitors from School B or School C.Judge D is coached in college by Coach E. Coach E also provides coaching to a student at School F. Judge D should not judge any competitors from School F.The judge works for a school that is recruiting the competitor, or which the competitor is planning to attend;The judge has, or in the past has had, a romantic relationship with any member of the competitor school’s coaching staff;The judge coaches other students from the competitor’s school or the judge coaches with other members of the coaching staff of the competitor’s school;Coach and Prep SharingWith the exception of summer workshop participation, student competitors and judges who coach or share debate preparation under the aegis of the same school, private coach, or private company should mark each other as a conflict.If a student is coached by Individual A, they should mark as a conflict all judges representing students coached by Individual A.If a judge coaches Competitor A, they should mark as a conflict all individuals with whom Competitor A shares preparation, and all individuals with whom Competitor A shares a coach.If a student receives coaching or shares preparation through School A, they should mark as a conflict all judges who work for School A.If a judge works for School A in a coaching capacity, they should mark as a conflict all students receiving coaching from or sharing preparation with School A.If a student receives coaching or shares preparation through Company A, they should mark as a conflict all judges who work for Company A.If a judge works for Company A, they should mark as a conflict all students receiving coaching from or sharing preparation with Company A.A coaching relationship exists if a person has worked with that debater on arguments, ideas, drills, research, strategies, or any other element of their debate performance. This includes relationships that are short term and long term, and formal or informal. There are two exceptions to this policy:A coaching relationship does not arise as a result of a judge providing feedback to a student competitor after adjudicating a tournament debate round in which the student participated. However, adjudicating practice debates outside of the context of a competition does create a coaching relationship that should be marked as a conflict by both the judge and student competitor.Judges do not need to mark as a conflict competitors who attended a summer workshop at which the judge was employed, unless an additional coaching relationship continued beyond the workshop context. Students do not need to mark as conflicts judges who taught at a summer workshop they attended, unless an additional coaching relationship continued beyond the workshop context.During the tournament, if it is determined that this policy has been violated, all competitors coached by the judge(s) that should have been constrained will have their judge preferences removed immediately;Any other relationship between a judge and competitor that might reasonably be thought to compromise the judge’s impartiality as a judge. To determine whether a relationship meets this test, you might ask yourself, “If I were a competing student and knew nothing about my judge except that they bore the relationship in question to my competitor or my competitor’s coach, would I have any doubts about their impartiality?” If the answer is “yes,” you should mark judges or competitors to whom you bear that relationship as constrained.When filling out the mutual preference system teams have an affirmative obligation to select as “conflicts/constrained” those judges they know will be required to conflict themselves as identified in the “Judge Conflict Policy” portion of this document.The tab room will “correct” mistakes in preferences by randomly moving judges up categories to ensure the requisite percentages are met. Judges will all be ranked as A+ for teams not turning in a preference sheet.Coaches should put all conflicts into the Notes box on Tabroom for each of their judges. It is the coach’s affirmative obligation to discover and report all conflicts. Judges should also identify (at the top) in their published judge philosophies those competitors with whom they have a coaching relationship as described above.Judges who are constrained from judging 20% of the competitors or more may not count for more than 4 rounds of a school’s judging obligation.Failure by judges and/or competitors to properly identify conflicts may result in removal of preferences for the school(s) involved.DiversityThe University of Kentucky strongly supports a diverse and inclusive academic environment. As such, the Tournament of Champions values the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion with regard to tournament practice. In particular, the TOC seeks to offer a diverse and inclusive judge pool. Examples of diversity-enhancing measures include:Utilization of the diversity enhancement function on . Those who self-identify as diversity enhancing including but not limited to persons of color and women may “opt in”.The TOC is committed to providing financial incentives to the creation of a diverse judge poolThe tabulation staff will seek to enhance the diversity of preliminary as well as elimination round judge assignments. These efforts will seek to balance the goals of inclusion with the policy of mutual preference judging.As a point of clarification, this position does not imply that judges should be used over their commitment, but that the tab room will seek to actively use those judges where they are obligated and/or have made themselves available to judge. The TOC will, as part of its mission, work to expand the overall pool of diversity-enhancing judges.Evidence and Ethics ChallengesMost Evidence & Ethics ChallengesIf a team believes an opponent committed an evidence or other ethics violation (except in the cases of prohibited outside assistance – see end of this section), the accusing team should stop the debate and ask the judge to adjudicate the challenge. This type of challenge includes the following situations:a team reads evidence is that fabricateda team reads evidence that is meaningfully altered to change the author’s original meaninga team misrepresents how much evidence they have read in a debate, such as improperly highlighting their evidence, “clipping cards” (the team says they read more than they actually did by clipping a card short of the indicated end), or “cross reading” (the team skips words or sentences in the middle of the text, but indicates that they read all the highlighted words)The accusing team will explain to the judge what alleged violation is being asserted. The judge will evaluate the violation based on the evidence available to the judge. Prior to evaluating the challenge, the judge should inform both teams whether the round will continue after the challenge if the accusation is found to be false or if the judge cannot determine the challenge based upon the evidence available to the judge. After the judge informs both teams of the consequences of a failure to sustain the objection or challenge, the accusing team will be given an opportunity to withdraw the challenge. If the accusing team decides to pursue the objection or challenge, then the consequences announced by the judge for a failed or indeterminable objection or challenge will be binding on the teams.If the judge finds that an ethics or evidence violation was committed, the offending team will be assigned a loss. If a single team member committed the violation, that debater will receive zero speaker points. The judge may assign speaker points to the non-offending debater. If the violation occurs prior to the non-offending team member delivering a speech, the judge may award points based upon the cross-examination, if applicable. If the non-offending team member has not delivered a speech or participated in a cross-ex, then the tab room will assign the average of the non-offending debater’s speaker points from prior debates.Any decision to challenge evidence violations or unethical behavior must be made during the round in which the infraction occurred before the judge submits a decision to the tab room. No challenge can be made to conduct committed in any round after the ballot has been submitted to tab room. The judge assigned to the round will decide the challenge made in the round based solely on the evidence submitted by the teams in the round. No appeal, modification or reversal of the judge’s decision regarding the challenge or the consequences resulting from the challenge is permitted.Outside Assistance SituationThe above type of challenge does NOT include an outside assistance situation (in which a team receives argument assistance or reads or responds to communications from a coach or other person after the debate has commenced, whether verbal or electronic, including the transfer of evidence after the round starts). In the event of an outside assistance situation, the provisions on Prohibitions on Outside Assistance and Appeals and Ombuds Procedure will be invoked. The outcome of the process will also determine the outcome of the debate. In the event of this type of challenge, the accusing team should explain the alleged violation. The judge should inform the accusing team that invoking this process means it will go to the Ombuds, and it will also result in a binding outcome for the debate (i.e. if the accuser is found to be wrong or has not provided sufficient proof, they lose). The accusing team may have a brief moment to determine whether or not they wish to proceed. If they choose to do so, it gets directed to the event’s tab room, which will begin the Ombuds process. If they choose not to, and withdraw the challenge, the round should promptly continue.Public ForumOnline Debate – GeneralLocationTo participate in the TOC, one should assume that leaving their home will be strongly ill advised (and in some locations strictly prohibited). That means teams need to prepare how to communicate with each other remotely and to ensure the strongest possible internet connection during competition times. Gathering or meeting outside the home is in no way a precondition for competing in the TOC.Improving Home Internet PerformanceThe best way to improve your home internet is to use an ethernet and plug it into your router. This is better than Wi-Fi and has drastically improved performance in tests done thus far.For most computers it requires an adapter like this: an ethernet cord, price depends on length.The second-best way to improve your home internet is to ensure you are debating in the room where your router is and there are no objects between you and the router. This also stabilizes video greatly.Here are a list of other recommendations from Zoom ():Reboot the RouterIf you’ve experienced connectivity issues, you may want to reboot your router before your next video meeting, which flushes its stale connections. Admittedly, rebooting may not be the resolution, but it’s still a good way to prevent problems (especially if the router is on 24/7 for months or years).Adjust Your PositionTo maximize signal quality, you must do one of two things: move the router or move yourself. The closer you are to your router, the better your signal quality. Just like any other radio device, Wi-Fi routers have a particular range. As you move further from it, you’ll get choppy packet delivery (your video and audio could freeze).Minimize InterferenceAn aspect of Wi-Fi connections that even the most well-versed people miss is obstruction. Since your packets basically float in mid-air to the router, avoid putting concrete structures, fingers, and other solid objects between your wireless antenna and the router. If you’re communicating from a mobile device, hold it near the bottom, as most mobile wireless antennas are situated near the top of the device. If your phone’s camera is off to a side, chances are that the antenna is on the opposite side. Keep this in mind when holding your phone in a landscape (horizontal) position.Also, washing machines, microwaves, furnaces, and other electric appliances can interfere with your Wi-Fi transmissions. Everything that uses electricity (even a light bulb) emits small amounts of radiation that could interfere with radio-based communication. We’re not telling you to stay in the dark and light some candles, but at least keep high-energy appliances from sitting between you and the router.Don’t Crowd the RouterThink of your router as a railroad depot. Every connected device is a train that came to park there. Once all the shunts are occupied, the depot shines a red light signaling other trains that it’s full. Your router doesn’t have a red light, but it still gets overwhelmed.If you connect more devices to it, you put pressure on its hardware and it eventually uses a “first-come, first-serve” packet management model to compensate. This is disastrous for people trying to converse through video. Typical home routers are meant to handle at most 9 or 10 connected wireless devices. They can theoretically handle up to 255, but we must stress the word “theoretically.” For the optimal video experience, a router needs minimal load in terms of both bandwidth and simultaneous connections.By the way, running a service that hosts connections to multiple people also counts towards overwhelming the router. Anything you do on wired Ethernet will also have an impact on Wi-Fi.Update Your RouterRouters don’t just magically come with perfect firmware straight out of the assembly line. Chances are your manufacturer is going to notice some bugs that impede your ability to communicate effectively. Wi-Fi suffers the most from this because its standards are always being revised and a vast number of features exist that are not present in Ethernet. Look through your device manufacturer’s website and ensure that you have the latest firmware for your router.Enable WME/WMMIf you bought a router that advertises itself as being optimized for video and VoIP, you’ll likely find an option somewhere within its configuration interface that allows you to enable Wireless Multimedia Extensions (WME) or Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM). These are two terms used to describe an interoperability feature within some routers that puts a higher priority on media transmissions than on other data. It means that your router will put aside transmission of other packet data in favor of your video and audio transmissions. For more information, refer to your router’s manual.Configure Zoom as a Priority ApplicationOftentimes, while you’re configuring WME/WMM on your router, you’ll be able to define which applications have the highest priority. Add Zoom as one. For the port range, tell your router to start at 8801 and end at 8810 (the range your Zoom client application uses).Use a Less-Crowded ChannelWi-Fi networks are like big house parties. When the scene is getting too crowded, it’s time to take a breather at the balcony. In a large network with multiple Wi-Fi access points, your packets might be neglected when sent on a radio channel that’s too occupied. To mitigate this, configure the router to use another channel on the network.Don’t know if your channel’s busy or not? Unsure of what channel you should use? Wireless network diagnostic tools like MetaGeek’s inSSIDer can help you find this information.Go Dual-BandDual-band routers operate at two different frequencies: 2.4 GHz band (the more common of the two, which is prone to interference from other devices) and the 5 GHz band. The higher frequency really doesn’t offer many advantages, but it does decrease the likelihood that you’ll experience nasty interference and offers a dedicated SSID (wireless connection) that you can use strictly for VoIP and Zoom meetings. Buying a dual-band router gives you this kind of flexibility. Call the 2.4 GHz network “Web” and the other one “Multimedia.” When joining or hosting a conference, connect to the “Multimedia” band and you’re set!Recommended TechnologyImportant NoteThe first thing to note about technology and online debating is you need to practice with your existing laptop to establish a baseline. In early testing what comes in a laptop (in terms of webcam, audio and microphone) is sufficient for debates.The main thing that will impact your video and audio is your internet connection, not your hardware. There are some genres of technology that you can invest in that will noticeably improve performance (not such that “I can’t compete without this” but rather “this is nice to have”, like debating with and without a stand).Ethernet and adaptersThis is probably the most required piece of technology. Debate teams should be ready to debate from their home and in that case, they should plan to debate plugged into their router.If they don’t have an ethernet plug in on their laptop, they need an adapter, this one is $12: slightly more than $20 you can get an adapter that increases the amount of USB ports a laptop has AND provides ethernet plug in: they need an ethernet cord; how expensive it is depends on how long you want it to be.Headphones and Microphone vs HeadsetIn early testing with UK debate we found any headphones and a plug-in microphone to be slightly better than a headset.Most everyone has a pair of headphones and should plan to use them during a debate. We make no recommendations here because whatever you have available will be fine to improve performance.For plug in microphones this one attaches to your computer, produces strong audio and is $30 microphone worked well for $45: survey of a large sample size of recommend articles reveals this one as another strong option at $47: headsets the only one we have tested thus far is:“Logitech 981-000536 G430 7.1 Gaming Headset with Mic”Assuming members of a team already have headphones of some sort, it may be wiser to invest in USB microphones. This headset provided fine audio (better than with no headset), but the microphone did not perform as well as the plug-in options. Debaters also don’t have to learn how to debate with a headset on, which is nice.WebcamsPracticing joining a zoom meeting will reveal any issues that exist with your webcam. Personally, my laptop webcam has some sort of Windows 10 error with it. I couldn’t resolve it, so I purchased a $20 webcam you plug into a USB port. Works fine.Most webcams for the purposes of debate are interchangeable so default to what is most in line with your budget and that is readily available.Acquiring Home InternetReactions from private companies are dynamic, but the trendline has been they recognize that work and learning are shifting to home environments and are working to increase cast announced such a program: did Spectrum: will provide updates of similar programs as we learn more about them.Practicing Online DebateGetting Zoom for free:First step is to fill out the online form here: school might have a pre-existing or fast developing relationship with Zoom due to online learning that you can use for debate purposes.How to host a practice debate:Assuming no pre-existing relationship with Zoom at your school:1. Sign up for an account at: . Host a Meeting in the upper right. Click “with Video on”3. Click Invite button in the lower middle4. Click copy URL. Send that to those who you want to participate.5. The participants connect, and you can hold a debate. With a Basic Zoom account, you will have to start a new meeting after 40 minutes (unless they waived that for your school). With a Pro zoom account there is no time limit.Practice Weekend on toc.classroomsDuring the weekends of April 4th and April 11th we will allocate each squad time in a virtual room for them to practice. Squads should plan to practice having zoom meetings before these dates. This will give everyone an opportunity to become familiar with the site we will be using for the TOC. Details about coordinating your squad’s time will come out after the total number of entries in the tournament is determined.Pre-Tournament Checklist1. Each school needs to designate an adult in charge and provide the tournament with their email and phone number.2. Each team should post their emails to their wiki page at: . Each team should update their wiki with latest arguments to help improve pre round communication4. Each judge from a school should include their preferred email in their judging philosophy on 5. Everyone will have to affirmatively sign (electronically) a code of conduct for the tournament. The exact statement will be similar to a school’s honor code. It will include provisions about cyber-bullying, cheating, adhering to schedules, etc.Signing into a RoomWhen you go to check into a room there will be a screen to type your name. Competitors and judges should add identifying words prior to their name to distinguish themselves from observes. For example, “Competitor—John Doe”, “Judge---Jane Doe” etc. “Kentucky LG---Lincoln Garrett” would also suffice.Pre-Round Check-InThe schedule for the online TOC will include a new element: the pre-round check-in.Within ten minutes of a pairing being released on Tabroom all participants and the judge need to check into their assigned room.Everyone will turn their video and audio on and off and make sure all things are functioning properly. Email chains will be setup during this time as well. It is also strongly advised that when checking in, you engage in any necessary argument disclosure with your opponent in a timely fashion.Email chain subjects should be descriptive: “TOC Round 6 Kentucky AB vs Northwestern CD” for example and they should include all the debaters. You should add the judge upon request. After the first email in the chain is sent, subsequent emails need to hit “Reply All” to ensure everyone receives a copy of the evidence. They will then mute their mic and turn off video but stay connected in the room. They can then prep as normal.Failure to complete the check-in on time will result in a forfeit.The schedule will be constructed in such a way that check-in does not negatively impact prep time.During a Round1. The only person who should have their mic on is the active speaker. Everyone else should mute their mic during a speech.2. In Verbatim, debaters should locally record before starting a speech to use in case of extreme tech failure as a back-up (doing this in Zoom isn’t good because you must end the meeting to access the recording).3. Be aware that during events with cross examination the risk of cross talk and degraded audio is the highest. Competitors will have to adapt from their experience in a live tournament and try to minimize cross talk.4. The active speaker should be occasionally checking to make sure that all participants audio is still working/there have not been disconnections.5. If a technology issue befalls someone during a debate there will be a direct communication channel setup with relevant staff to help resolve the issue. This information will be published in every online room at toc.classrooms.A useful guide to managing technology situations:a. The biggest culprit is likely your internet. You should compete plugged into your router via ethernet. You should think and talk with your family about minimizing disruptions during competition time in your home. You may consider buying a longer ethernet cord so you can occupy a quieter section of your home.b. No one should prepare during any tech downtimec. If someone is the active speaker, they should take more care to ensure that someone does not lose connection mid-speech. Pausing a speech and then resuming after someone re-connects is the simplest way to resolve technology issues.d. If you are a non-active speaker you should only attempt to pause the active speaker if you have suffered a significant degradation of audio that persists for more than mere seconds. 1 second of latency does not warrant pausing a speech. Losing all audio completely warrants alerting your partner to get the speech paused etc.e. Unplugging USB devices like microphones or cameras then plugging back in usually fixes most issues.f. Exiting and reentering the room fixes some issues.PF SpecificTopicThe TOC will use the April Public Forum topic chosen by the National Speech and Debate Association.Event FormatPublic Forum will use the National Speech & Debate Association format and rules for speech times, Crossfire format, and preparation times.This includes recent 2019 changes to speech times, Grand Crossfire format, and evidence paraphrasing. For more details see pages 24-25 and 29 in the HS Unified Manual 2019-2020 ().Automated Coin FlipTeams will be notified within 5 minutes after release of pairing as to which team has won the Tabroom auto-coin flip.The team that wins the flip may choose one of two options: EITHER the SIDE of the topic they wish to defend (pro or con) OR the SPEAKING POSITION they wish to have (begin the debate or end the debate). The remaining option (SIDE OR SPEAKING POSITION) is the choice of the team that loses the flip. Once speaking positions and sides has been determined, the debate begins (the con team may lead, depending on the coin flip results).The team winning the flip will have 5 minutes to choose and report their choice to Tabroom, and the team that loses the flip will then be able to report their choice. If the winner does not report their choice within 5 minutes, the first team to report will get their choice, leaving the other option choice to the latter reporter. If one or neither team reports within 10 minutes of the result of the flip, then Tabroom will assign outstanding sides and/or speaking positions for the debate.Flight B flip happens 60 minutes after the Flight A flip.Start TimesTeams will be allowed at least 20 minutes of prep time from the release of the pairings until the official start time of the A flight debate. Coaches should conclude their coaching 5 minutes prior to the debate. Judges should report to their rooms no later than 5 minutes until start time. All participants in both flights and judges should check into their rooms within 10 minutes of the pairing being posted to check connections and audio.Forfeit TimesAny team arriving later than 15 minutes after the posted start time will be at the risk of forfeit by the tab room. Any team experiencing what they believe to be a legitimate a delay should make every attempt to communicate with the tab room if they are going to be late.TiebreakersWinsHigh low pointsDouble high low pointsTotal pointsJudge VarianceMaverick Debating RulesMaverick teams are not permitted to enter prior to the tournament. If a team becomes maverick due to an illness of a partner during the tournament, the ill debater may miss no more than 2 debates to be able to return and continue debating. Mavericks will not be permitted to clear to elimination rounds.Hybrid TeamsNo hybrid teams are allowed to compete at the tournament. Each entry must be comprised of two students from the same school.Strike PolicyEach team may strike up to five judges in the pool.JudgingOne WinnerJudges must vote for one and only one team within the allotted decision time.First-Year-OutsFirst Years- In all debate events, judges who are in their first year of judging may not count towards covering an entry’s judging obligation; first-year judges are considered “free strikes.”ObligationsJudges are obligated through at least the quarterfinals, and further, one round after their team is eliminated in the elimination debates.The tournament will assess a $500-dollar penalty for judges who miss a round when obligated.PhilosophiesJudges are required to post a judge philosophy on Tabroom. No entry will be considered complete until all affiliated judges have submitted a judge philosophy.For those who have not written a philosophy before, there will be a template posted on the TOC Tabroom website () to assist with facilitating writing a philosophy.For those who already have philosophies, it is advised you review the template to see if there are additional items you might address in your philosophy.Evidence and Ethics ChallengesMost Evidence & Ethics ChallengesChallenges to evidence or ethics will be determined by a committee of three to be appointed by the Tournament of Champions administrators. That committee should not include the tab staff. Two additional alternate committee members should be announced in the case that one or both members of the three-person committee are involved in the challenge. Serving on the committee counts for judge obligations.In the case where a team believes their opponent to have committed an evidence or other ethics violation (except in the cases of prohibited outside assistance – see end of this section), the accusing team should stop the debate, and ask the judge to refer the challenge to the tournament committee. This needs to occur immediately during the debate or immediately after the debate BEFORE a judge offers a decision. This is an ethics challenge and so the challenging team will win or lose based upon the challenge.This includes the following situations:a team reads evidence is that fabricateda team reads evidence that has added or deleted words from a quote.The accusing team will write up the challenge and present it to the committee.If the committee does in fact find an ethics or violation, the offending team will be assigned a loss and zero speaker points for the round.Any decision to challenge evidence or ethical behavior must be made during the round where the infraction occurred, or before the judge submits their decision to the tab room. No challenge can be made to a previous round after the next has commenced.Outside Assistance SituationThe above type of challenge does NOT include an outside assistance situation (in which a team receives argument assistance or reads or responds to communications from a coach or other person after the debate has commenced, whether verbal or electronic, including the transfer of evidence after the round starts). In the event of an outside assistance situation, the provisions on Prohibitions on Outside Assistance and Appeals and Ombuds Procedure will be invoked. The outcome of the process will also determine the outcome of the debate. In the event of this type of challenge, the accusing team should explain the alleged violation. The judge should inform the accusing team that invoking this process means it will go to the Ombuds, and it will also result in a binding outcome for the debate (i.e. if the accuser is found to be wrong or has not provided sufficient proof, they lose). The accusing team may have a brief moment to determine whether or not they wish to proceed. If they choose to do so, it gets directed to the event’s tab room, which will begin the Ombuds process. If they choose not to, and withdraw the challenge, the round should promptly continue.Evidence NormsDebaters may request evidence from the opposing team. Debaters reading evidence must immediately present full carded evidence with full citations to the requesting team. In an online debate, this should be exchanged with the participants immediately via email. An email chain should be established prior to the debate in anticipation of such situations, such that all that is necessary is attaching and sending. In in-person instances where evidence is stored on an electronic device, students must hand over the electronic device to the requesting team and cannot try to withhold the electronic device for purposes of personal preparation.Prep time for the requesting team will not start until evidence has been turned over to the debater requesting said cards. Teams may prep during this evidence request time, this should encourage teams to have their evidence ready and available to present immediately. Judges should discourage teams from attempting to “game the system” if evidence requests become overly burdensome or create excessive delays in the debate.For evidence used in Public Forum debates, we recommend as a best practice that all evidence be cited using one of the prominent citation styles (MLA, Chicago, APA, or the standard Policy debate citation style). Failure to do so is not itself a violation of the rules set forth in this document, but following these norms constitutes an educational and ethical citation practice. The TOC will also utilize NSDA rules for evidence paraphrasing. For more details see page 29 in the HS Unified Manual 2019-2020 ().Tab DiscretionThe tab room will only remove a judge for an operational failure to follow tournament instructions and procedures.An official complaint of discrimination/harassment must go to Tournament Director and then will be handled by University of Kentucky Office of Institutional Equity and Equal Opportunity.The content of debates and decisions will not be re-litigated by tab or the tournament, and judges will not be removed or otherwise sanctioned for the way they voted or decided a debate except in the event of an official complaint of discrimination/harassment (above).Congressional DebateOnline Debate – GeneralLocationTo participate in the TOC, one should assume that leaving their home will be strongly ill advised (and in some locations strictly prohibited). That means teams need to prepare how to communicate with each other remotely and to ensure the strongest possible internet connection during competition times. Gathering or meeting outside the home is in no way a precondition for competing in the TOC.Improving Home Internet PerformanceThe best way to improve your home internet is to use an ethernet and plug it into your router. This is better than Wi-Fi and has drastically improved performance in tests done thus far.For most computers it requires an adapter like this: an ethernet cord, price depends on length.The second-best way to improve your home internet is to ensure you are debating in the room where your router is and there are no objects between you and the router. This also stabilizes video greatly.Here are a list of other recommendations from Zoom ():Reboot the RouterIf you’ve experienced connectivity issues, you may want to reboot your router before your next video meeting, which flushes its stale connections. Admittedly, rebooting may not be the resolution, but it’s still a good way to prevent problems (especially if the router is on 24/7 for months or years).Adjust Your PositionTo maximize signal quality, you must do one of two things: move the router or move yourself. The closer you are to your router, the better your signal quality. Just like any other radio device, Wi-Fi routers have a particular range. As you move further from it, you’ll get choppy packet delivery (your video and audio could freeze).Minimize InterferenceAn aspect of Wi-Fi connections that even the most well-versed people miss is obstruction. Since your packets basically float in mid-air to the router, avoid putting concrete structures, fingers, and other solid objects between your wireless antenna and the router. If you’re communicating from a mobile device, hold it near the bottom, as most mobile wireless antennas are situated near the top of the device. If your phone’s camera is off to a side, chances are that the antenna is on the opposite side. Keep this in mind when holding your phone in a landscape (horizontal) position.Also, washing machines, microwaves, furnaces, and other electric appliances can interfere with your Wi-Fi transmissions. Everything that uses electricity (even a light bulb) emits small amounts of radiation that could interfere with radio-based communication. We’re not telling you to stay in the dark and light some candles, but at least keep high-energy appliances from sitting between you and the router.Don’t Crowd the RouterThink of your router as a railroad depot. Every connected device is a train that came to park there. Once all the shunts are occupied, the depot shines a red light signaling other trains that it’s full. Your router doesn’t have a red light, but it still gets overwhelmed.If you connect more devices to it, you put pressure on its hardware and it eventually uses a “first-come, first-serve” packet management model to compensate. This is disastrous for people trying to converse through video. Typical home routers are meant to handle at most 9 or 10 connected wireless devices. They can theoretically handle up to 255, but we must stress the word “theoretically.” For the optimal video experience, a router needs minimal load in terms of both bandwidth and simultaneous connections.By the way, running a service that hosts connections to multiple people also counts towards overwhelming the router. Anything you do on wired Ethernet will also have an impact on Wi-Fi.Update Your RouterRouters don’t just magically come with perfect firmware straight out of the assembly line. Chances are your manufacturer is going to notice some bugs that impede your ability to communicate effectively. Wi-Fi suffers the most from this because its standards are always being revised and a vast number of features exist that are not present in Ethernet. Look through your device manufacturer’s website and ensure that you have the latest firmware for your router.Enable WME/WMMIf you bought a router that advertises itself as being optimized for video and VoIP, you’ll likely find an option somewhere within its configuration interface that allows you to enable Wireless Multimedia Extensions (WME) or Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM). These are two terms used to describe an interoperability feature within some routers that puts a higher priority on media transmissions than on other data. It means that your router will put aside transmission of other packet data in favor of your video and audio transmissions. For more information, refer to your router’s manual.Configure Zoom as a Priority ApplicationOftentimes, while you’re configuring WME/WMM on your router, you’ll be able to define which applications have the highest priority. Add Zoom as one. For the port range, tell your router to start at 8801 and end at 8810 (the range your Zoom client application uses).Use a Less-Crowded ChannelWi-Fi networks are like big house parties. When the scene is getting too crowded, it’s time to take a breather at the balcony. In a large network with multiple Wi-Fi access points, your packets might be neglected when sent on a radio channel that’s too occupied. To mitigate this, configure the router to use another channel on the network.Don’t know if your channel’s busy or not? Unsure of what channel you should use? Wireless network diagnostic tools like MetaGeek’s inSSIDer can help you find this information.Go Dual-BandDual-band routers operate at two different frequencies: 2.4 GHz band (the more common of the two, which is prone to interference from other devices) and the 5 GHz band. The higher frequency really doesn’t offer many advantages, but it does decrease the likelihood that you’ll experience nasty interference and offers a dedicated SSID (wireless connection) that you can use strictly for VoIP and Zoom meetings. Buying a dual-band router gives you this kind of flexibility. Call the 2.4 GHz network “Web” and the other one “Multimedia.” When joining or hosting a conference, connect to the “Multimedia” band and you’re set!Recommended TechnologyImportant NoteThe first thing to note about technology and online debating is you need to practice with your existing laptop to establish a baseline. In early testing what comes in a laptop (in terms of webcam, audio and microphone) is sufficient for debates.The main thing that will impact your video and audio is your internet connection, not your hardware. There are some genres of technology that you can invest in that will noticeably improve performance (not such that “I can’t compete without this” but rather “this is nice to have”, like debating with and without a stand).Ethernet and adaptersThis is probably the most required piece of technology. Debate teams should be ready to debate from their home and in that case, they should plan to debate plugged into their router.If they don’t have an ethernet plug in on their laptop, they need an adapter, this one is $12: slightly more than $20 you can get an adapter that increases the amount of USB ports a laptop has AND provides ethernet plug in: they need an ethernet cord; how expensive it is depends on how long you want it to be.Headphones and Microphone vs HeadsetIn early testing with UK debate we found any headphones and a plug-in microphone to be slightly better than a headset.Most everyone has a pair of headphones and should plan to use them during a debate. We make no recommendations here because whatever you have available will be fine to improve performance.For plug in microphones this one attaches to your computer, produces strong audio and is $30 microphone worked well for $45: survey of a large sample size of recommend articles reveals this one as another strong option at $47: headsets the only one we have tested thus far is:“Logitech 981-000536 G430 7.1 Gaming Headset with Mic”Assuming members of a team already have headphones of some sort, it may be wiser to invest in USB microphones. This headset provided fine audio (better than with no headset), but the microphone did not perform as well as the plug-in options. Debaters also don’t have to learn how to debate with a headset on, which is nice.WebcamsPracticing joining a zoom meeting will reveal any issues that exist with your webcam. Personally, my laptop webcam has some sort of Windows 10 error with it. I couldn’t resolve it, so I purchased a $20 webcam you plug into a USB port. Works fine.Most webcams for the purposes of debate are interchangeable so default to what is most in line with your budget and that is readily available.Acquiring Home InternetReactions from private companies are dynamic, but the trendline has been they recognize that work and learning are shifting to home environments and are working to increase cast announced such a program: did Spectrum: will provide updates of similar programs as we learn more about them.Practicing Online DebateGetting Zoom for free:First step is to fill out the online form here: school might have a pre-existing or fast developing relationship with Zoom due to online learning that you can use for debate purposes.How to host a practice debate:Assuming no pre-existing relationship with Zoom at your school:1. Sign up for an account at: . Host a Meeting in the upper right. Click “with Video on”3. Click Invite button in the lower middle4. Click copy URL. Send that to those who you want to participate.5. The participants connect, and you can hold a debate. With a Basic Zoom account, you will have to start a new meeting after 40 minutes (unless they waived that for your school). With a Pro zoom account there is no time limit.Practice Weekend on toc.classroomsDuring the weekends of April 4th and April 11th we will allocate each squad time in a virtual room for them to practice. Squads should plan to practice having zoom meetings before these dates. This will give everyone an opportunity to become familiar with the site we will be using for the TOC. Details about coordinating your squad’s time will come out after the total number of entries in the tournament is determined.Pre-Tournament Checklist1. Each school needs to designate an adult in charge and provide the tournament with their email and phone number.2. Each team should post their emails to their wiki page at: . Each team should update their wiki with latest arguments to help improve pre round communication4. Each judge from a school should include their preferred email in their judging philosophy on 5. Everyone will have to affirmatively sign (electronically) a code of conduct for the tournament. The exact statement will be similar to a school’s honor code. It will include provisions about cyber-bullying, cheating, adhering to schedules, etc.Signing into a RoomWhen you go to check into a room there will be a screen to type your name. Competitors and judges should add identifying words prior to their name to distinguish themselves from observes. For example, “Competitor—John Doe”, “Judge---Jane Doe” etc. “Kentucky LG---Lincoln Garrett” would also suffice.Pre-Round Check-InThe schedule for the online TOC will include a new element: the pre-round check-in.Within ten minutes of a pairing being released on Tabroom all participants and the judge need to check into their assigned room.Everyone will turn their video and audio on and off and make sure all things are functioning properly. Email chains will be setup during this time as well.They will then mute their mic and turn off video but stay connected in the room. They can then prep as normal.Failure to complete the check-in on time will result in a forfeit.The schedule will be constructed in such a way that check-in does not negatively impact prep time.During a Round1. The only person who should have their mic on is the active speaker. Everyone else should mute their mic during a speech.2. In Verbatim, debaters should locally record before starting a speech to use in case of extreme tech failure as a back-up (doing this in Zoom isn’t good because you must end the meeting to access the recording).3. Be aware that during events with cross examination the risk of cross talk and degraded audio is the highest. Competitors will have to adapt from their experience in a live tournament and try to minimize cross talk.4. The active speaker should be occasionally checking to make sure that all participants audio is still working/there have not been disconnections.5. If a technology issue befalls someone during a debate there will be a direct communication channel setup with relevant staff to help resolve the issue. This information will be published in every online room at toc.classrooms.A useful guide to managing technology situations:a. The biggest culprit is likely your internet. You should compete plugged into your router via ethernet. You should think and talk with your family about minimizing disruptions during competition time in your home. You may consider buying a longer ethernet cord so you can occupy a quieter section of your home.b. No one should prepare during any tech downtimec. If someone is the active speaker, they should take more care to ensure that someone does not lose connection mid-speech. Pausing a speech and then resuming after someone re-connects is the simplest way to resolve technology issues.d. If you are a non-active speaker you should only attempt to pause the active speaker if you have suffered a significant degradation of audio that persists for more than mere seconds. 1 second of latency does not warrant pausing a speech. Losing all audio completely warrants alerting your partner to get the speech paused etc.e. Unplugging USB devices like microphones or cameras then plugging back in usually fixes most issues.f. Exiting and reentering the room fixes some issues.Congress SpecificOnline ProcedureLegislationThe tournament will release legislation similar to past years. We will release the legislation by March 27th.Chamber SizeWe will be reducing chamber sizes to 10 to 12 students.Electing Presiding OfficerThe parliamentarian will use strawpoll.me to run the Presiding Office election if there is more than one candidate.Acknowledgement, Precedence and RecencyThe Presiding Officer can call on three methods for other competitors to become recognized to speak. The PO can:1. By a show of name placards. This involves a competitor making their name placard visible and prominent in their screen.2. By clap rection. This is a button on Zoom that can be pressed that puts a symbol in the competitor’s screen.3. By thumbs up reaction. This is a button on Zoom that can be pressed that puts a symbol in the competitor’s screen.The Presiding Officer will keep track of precedence and recency as they normally would (generally with pen and paper).Voting for BillsThis will be done visually, by show of name placards.Memo to Participants Coaches and JudgesNational Debate Tournament of Champions ? University of KentuckyCongressional DebatePlease read all the enclosed information, carefully.Item #1 - Contestants-177802349500All contestants must prepare one “Morning Hour” speech. They will deliver this speech during Session 0. The “Morning Hour” is inspired by time in the U.S. House of Representatives, and our contestants will give one compelling speech discussing issues pertinent to their state/region, ideology, etc.Considerations for judging:The speech is a soapbox and may indicate the imperative need to solve a problem, may or may not indicate a solution, may attempt to change attitudes on an issue, or may simply raise awareness.Legislators may acknowledge correlative points made by peers, but the focal point for the speech is not necessarily direct clash/debate with other speakers.Students may employ more rhetorical strategies, stylistic devices, or even creative risks in these speeches that may slightly deviate, surpass, and vary from the traditional decorum/style of congressional debate speeches.This should not simply be a “recycled” speech on past debate on legislation. Be innovative!Answers during the two-minute direct questioning period should be considered by the judge, insomuch as how well the student can defend the position advanced in the speech.The Parliamentarian will serve as Presiding Officer during this session and will select speakers and questioners.Item #2 - Coaches & JudgesPlease double-check judges in to make sure their cell phone is listed.All judges will need to fill out a paradigm specific to their Congressional Debate Even if you judged last year, please update your paradigm on your judge profile.Item #3 - Contestants & Coaches-177802603500We will post chamber assignments On Friday morning. Contestants always should ask judges to introduce themselves, in case the tournament makes last-minute substitutions.Item #4 - Coaches & Judges-177802603500All judges are expected to attend the judge instructional session.National Debate Tournament of Champions ? University of KentuckyCongressional DebateDirect Questioning Format-177801460500All cross examination will follow the direct questioning format. All Morning Hour speeches will have 2 minutes, while all other debate will follow standard questioning timing rules. All questioning periods are broken into 30-second segments, with one questioner per segment, who may ask multiple questions of the speaker during that segment. Additionally:The PO must keep a separate questioning recency (to ensure equal opportunity for legislators to ask questions) and should promptly adjudicate the end of each 30-second period.If a questioner does not use her/his full 30 seconds, the presiding officer has the discretion to call on another speaker or absorb the time.No suspensions of the rules to extend questioning are permitted.Questioners may not prefer questions with information external to the speaker’s remarks.Questioners may interrupt a speaker during his/her response, but the manner in which they do so is subject to critique by judges – remember, this is Congress – there is a standard of decorum and courtesy that members should be held to!Questioners should strive to expose flaws in the speaker’s arguments by asking a series of questions about the speaker’s remarks. These questions should subject the speaker’s arguments to intensive and focused scrutiny. There should be no “softball questions.” The segment is for asking questions; not for making new arguments or rehash old arguments. Questions and answers should be concise and to the point. To that end, questioners may politely interrupt speakers during their responses when, for instance, they ramble or do not directly answer the question.Direct Questioning Judging Considerations: Speakers always should be evaluated on how well they answer questions, and this should factor into the score for each speech. This should factor into the holistic ranking of legislators at the end of the session.Evaluation of Speakers:Brevity of responses (short and clear, to the point)Non-evasiveness (is the speaker answering the question being asked?)Quality of argument defense (does the speaker successfully defend his/her argument?)Evaluation of Questioners:Coherence and relevance of questioning line (are questions connected? Do they expose flaws in arguments?)Brevity of questions (short and clear, to the point)Quality of follow-up questions (is the questioner responsive to the speaker’s initial responses in the CX segment?)Quality of argument scrutiny (does the questioner successfully probe or poke holes in the speaker’s arguments?)Degree of courtesy and decorum in necessary interruptionsEvaluation of the PO:Adherence to time guidelines (does the PO enforce the 30 second limit?)Fairness in calling on questioners (fairly distribute opportunities among those who want to ask questions?)NSDA rules allowing for laptop computers (inclusive of tablets/iPads) in debate events applies to the TOC, with exceptions indicated below. Judges will monitor students and may elect to penalize violators or students using their laptops for non- Congress related business in chambers by choosing not to rank them, as well as deduct points. Serious infractions will be reported to the tab room. The University of Kentucky does not guarantee access to their network or stable, consistent connections, nor will they provide tech support during the tournament.Guidelines for Laptop Use in Congressional Debate – TOC-177801714500Computers may be used to research during the Congressional Debate session. Computers or other electronic devices may not be used to communicate directly or indirectly with any source (coaches or assistants included) during the competition session (e.g. a coach researching and leaving evidence in your Dropbox or Drive during the session for you to retrieve, receiving a message directing you on where to find evidence, etc.). Internet access, use of e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging, or other means of receiving assistance from sources inside or outside of the competition room are prohibited.Penalty: Contestants found to have violated provision A will be disqualified from the tournament and will forfeit all rounds and NSDA points.Availability of Evidence: Contestants electing to use computers have the responsibility to promptly provide a copy of any evidence read in a speech for inspection by the judge or opponent. Evidence may be produced electronically but must be provided in a format readable by the opponent and the judge.Contestants electing to use computers are responsible for providing their own computers, batteries, extension cords, and all other necessary accessories. Tournament hosts will not be responsible for providing computers, printers, software, paper, or extension cords for contestants.Contestants choosing to use laptop computers and related equipment accept the risk of equipment failure. Judges and/or contest directors will give no special consideration or accommodation, including no additional speech time or prep time, should equipment failure occur.National Debate Tournament of Champions ? University of KentuckyCongressional Debate2020 Schedule Revised All times EasternFriday, April 1710:00 am Chambers Released 11:00am - 1:00pmSession 0 (Morning Hour)3:00pm - 5:30 pm Session 1Saturday, April 1811:00am - 1:30pmSession 23:00pm - 5:30pmSession 3Semifinalists will be posted ASAPSunday, April 1910:00 am Chambers Released11:00am - 1:30pm Semi?nal Session 13:00pm - 5:30pm Semi?nal Session 2Monday, April 2011:00am Final Session (Room TBA)3:30pm Final Session AdjournsAwards will be scheduled by the TOCRules Chamber assignments will be released Friday morning, Students should not reveal their school identity publicly in a chamber. This maintains the integrity of competition.For each session, a presiding officer is elected, precedence and recency reset, and debate on legislation may not carry over. Once elected, presiding officers may not step down to speak.All speeches, except in finals, are 3 minutes, with a 2-minute questioning period for sponsor and first negative speeches, and 1 minute for subsequent speeches. Direct questioning, in 30-second blocks, will be used for all speeches in all sessions.A chamber may not speak three times consecutively on the same side. After two consecutive speeches without an opposing speech, the PO must move to Previous Question if no student is prepared with a speech in opposition. This is not to merely “frown on one-sided debate” nor reference “cycles.” This is about keeping debate fresh and clash-worthy. Students should not assume they are guaranteed a speech on each legislation; they should be prepared on all docket items.Students are permitted to access the Internet during the session for research purposes only. Direct or indirect electronic communication with a coach or other person during the session is prohibited. The TOC makes no guarantee of Internet access.Preliminary SessionThere will be ten preliminary chambers of 10-12 students each. Two judges are assigned in rotation to each chamber, as well as one designated parliamentarian. Each judge ranks eight (8) contestants (presiding of?cers are eligible). After Session 3, the parliamentarian selects the best presiding officer (PO) from among the three who served in the preliminary sessions – to advance to semifinals. The remaining four (4) top delegates in each chamber – based on lowest rank totals – advance to the semifinal session.Of the 10 Presiding Officers who are selected by the Parliamentarian, six will be chosen to preside in semifinals. The remaining four will advance, but will not serve. The top six will be chosen on the basis of total points received from the scorers and parliamentarian during their time presiding, with ties broken by total cumulative ranking in chamber.MORNING HOUR (Session 0): legislators address an issue of importance to themselves or their constituents.Legislators have three (3) minutes to deliver morning hour speeches. The topic may be of national concern or a state/local problem that Congress has the ability to remedy. The topic of the speech may not be the same as any legislation scheduled for debate at the TOC, nor should legislators simply deliver an old speech on a bill/resolution. Creativity, originality, and seriousness of purpose are encouraged in the creation and delivery of a Morning Hour speech.The Parliamentarian for that chamber shall serve as chair during Morning Hour. The chair recognizes each legislator once. There are no “pro/con” speeches, so after each speech the chair recognizes delegates for a two-minute, direct questioning period and calls for the next legislator who wishes to speak. Judges will consider quality of questions asked, and while friendly questions are permissible, they are discouraged in favor of more meaningful interaction. This should influence ranking, too.This session is intended for students and judges to become accustomed to the online format. There will not be traditional ranks during this session, but the Parliamentarian may take this session into account when ranking the chamber at the end of the prelim sessions.Semi?nal SessionThere will be three semi?nal chambers of 16-17 students each. Two scorers are assigned each session to each chamber, as well as a parliamentarian. Each judge ranks eight (8) contestants (inclusive of presiding of?cers). The highest-quality PO, as selected by the parliamentarian, shall advance to finals. The remaining top four (4) contestants in each chamber shall advance to finals. In the session where the PO candidate does not preside, they may debate.Two of the six serving POs will be assigned to each chamber, and the parliamentarian shall flip a coin to determine which session each presides. Precedence and recency reset for each semifinal session.Final SessionFinals shall consist of 15 students, three of whom are the top PO advanced from each semifinal chamber. At least three judges (one designated parliamentarian) rank eight (8) contestants (in finals, exclusive of presiding officers).Speeches are four minutes, with the same questioning parameters used throughout the tournament.Each of the three POs shall serve for eight floor speeches, and may not give a speech during the final session. Each PO will draw a random number to determine order of presiding. The champion presiding officer shall be selected based on judge ranking in the final round, with ties broken by the final session parliamentarian’s rank. The runner-up final session POs will be recognized as “Presiding Officer Finalists.”There will be 24 speeches total. Each student may speak a maximum of twice. The session will end at 2:30 pm, or whenever all students have reached their maximum speeches, whichever comes first. Placement of the top six speaking contestants shall be calculated in the same manner as advancement is described above. Remaining students are honored as finalists.National Debate Tournament of Champions ? University of KentuckyCongressional DebateProcedures-177801460500The following rules are designed to promote procedural unity among the chambers. They cannot be altered or ignored by a chamber through the use of a motion to suspend the rules.DECORUM: The PO is responsible for enforcing proper decorum. Moving to suspend the rules for an open chamber is out-of-order at the TOC.MOTIONS AND RECOGNITION: Seeking recognition for motions or speaking may take place through visual means or through the use of a “hand raise” function in the competition software. The particular method used in each chamber may vary depending on the chamber’s preferences.Each session constitutes its own legislative day, however, for NSDA merit points, each calendar day has a recording limit of 24 points. Debate on legislation may not be carried from one session to the next, so each session must conclude with orders of the day, where students vote on legislation.RECOGNITION OF SPEAKERS: There is some question as to recent trends that attempt to “randomize” recognition before precedence and recency are set (such as “Activity” or “Longest Standing”). Those are now illegal as per NSDA rules. It is entirely acceptable for a PO to simply say s/he will randomly call on speakers. The PO’s recognition method is subject to critique by judges. Precedence and recency reset for each session (including each semifinal session). Following earlier sessions, POs may take speaking order from previous sessions into account, and may even employ a “reverse recency,” so that someone recognized late in an earlier session has the opportunity to speak earlier in a new session. Because of the nature of the electronic competition, a seating chart will not be provided.QUESTIONING: The PO recognizes legislators who wish to question a speaker using the direct questioning guidelines. The PO should strive to be equitable and fair, and the parliamentarian will monitor for flagrant abuse.AGENDA ORDER: Each chamber will establish its own agenda order by majority vote.OPENING DEBATE: Whomever begins debate on legislation introduces that item to the chamber. Since none of the legislation in the docket has been submitted by contestants, the PO will recognize a SPONSOR based on recency; this sponsor is held to the standard two-minute questioning period under any session.VOTING: The PO determines the method of voting on each question before the chamber. Notes on voting:Final votes on legislation, amendments, and motions to appeal the chair require a recorded vote.Voice voting is acceptable for all other votes, but a recorded vote must be taken if any one legislator calls for a division of the chamber.A roll call vote is not permitted, since voting record is not of consequence in Congressional Debate.ALL simple majority votes are based upon the number of legislators PRESENT and VOTING in the chamber; therefore, the PO does not need to call for or count abstentions. For all votes requiring a fraction of the chamber to agree to a motion or question (2/3, 1/3, 1/5, etc.), the chair determines whether the chamber agrees with the motion/question using the number of legislators PRESENT in the chamber. Because of this system, the PO must track the number of legislators in the chamber at all times.AMENDMENTS: Legislators submit amendments to the PO through the chat function. A motion to amend is necessary to consider the written amendment; such a motion is in order any time after the SPONSORSHIP SPEECH. Once the motion is made, the PO decides if the amendment is germane. The PO may consult with the Parliamentarian to make this decision. If the amendment is found to be NOT germane, the chair rules it OUT OF ORDER and the amendment process stops. If the chair rules the amendment germane, s/he should read the contents of the amendment to the chamber. A 1/3 second of the members PRESENT in the chamber is required to debate the amendment. If the chamber votes a second, debate on the amendment commences immediately. Legislators may move to lay on the table or move the previous question on the amendment at any time. The first speech on the amendment is a SPONSORSHIP speech. The chair determines speaker recognition for the SPONSORSHIP speech on the basis of recency; the author of the amendment is NOT guaranteed the sponsorship speech. The sponsor accepts responsibility for the mechanics of the amendment and yields to two minutes of questioning. All amendment speeches receive a score and count towards recency. A majority vote is necessary for the chamber to adopt the amendment.OVERTIME SPEECHES: Any regular floor speech that extends more than ten (10) seconds beyond the maximum speaking time of three minutes shall be penalized one (1) full point by the Scorer(s) evaluating the session. The PO is required to keep accurate time of each speech and report it to the Scorer(s) when the speaker has finished. The Parliamentarian/Scorer(s) shall heavily penalize the PO for inaccurate timing and/or reporting. Use of time by speakers is subject to judge critique.For any circumstances not specifically covered by these rules, Congressional Debate at the TOC defers to NSDA rules, then to Robert’s Rules of Order, Newly Revised 11th Edition.Questions? Contact TOC Congressional Debate Tournament Administrator, Kevin Berlat ? kjberlat@SpeechSpeechOnline Procedure – Non-Extemp EventsThe TOC will be utilizing recordings in speech events that are not Extemporaneous Speaking.The primary reason we are doing this is reliability. Having a technology lag or breakdown during a speech performance is uniquely problematic. Small declines in technology can have a big impact on how a performance is perceived. We wanted to opt for the most reliable way for a judge to see a strong performance.In cooperation with the National Speech and Debate Association we believe we have developed a unique solution to online speech competitions.There will be a window of time for each competitor to record a performance in the NSDA’s newly created online speech platform. What this platform allows competitors to do is record their performance, re-watch it and decide if they want to delete the submission and try again or save the submission. What it doesn’t let you do is edit or the doctor the videos.After a competitor hits save the performance goes into a sortable database of other performances. This is password protected.During the competition we will release pairings. Judges and students will check in to their virtual room. The judge will be given a password to access these video performances. They type in the name of the competitor and it will queue up the video. After the video is pulled up, the judge will hit “Share Screen” in Zoom. This way all the students and the judge can watch the performance. This repeats until the judge has watched all the performances assigned to that room. They will then fill out an online ballot like in previous TOC’s.This model will still result in strong judge feedback and the opportunity to gather together and watch performances but will greatly improve the reliability of the video of competitors.GuidelinesThe NSDA platform will be completed some time between April 8th and 10th. There will be a 5-day window for submitting performances. The staff of the TOC will use the intervening time to check to make sure the videos are ready to be reviewed by judges. The tournament will then take place on April 17th through 20th.Between now and approximately April 8th competitors should practice setups for performing to produce the best recording they can.That includes how to setup a section of your home to perform, acquiring an adequately wide lens camera among other technical considerations.ScriptsFor Original Oratory and Informative Speaking, competitors at the Tournament of Champions should have available copies of both their script and bibliography.For Interpretation Events, competitors at the Tournament of Champions should have available copies of both their cutting of a script, as well as the complete original text as published (photocopies are acceptable).Applicable RulesTo the best of our ability in the online platform, all speech events, except Oral Interpretation (also known as Prose/Poetry), will follow NSDA rules and procedures. Oral Interpretation will use NCFL rules and procedures.Rules DocumentsBoth sets of rules –NSDA (High School Unified Manual – 2019-2020) andNCFL (NCFL Bylaws (Fall2019)),are posted here:Tabroom TOC website – in the right-hand column.UK Tournament of Champions website – ProceduresOnline Procedure – Extemp EventsDrawOne of two methods will be used:1. A software designed to handle Extemp draw electronically2. Breakout rooms---the adult in charge of exempt draw will create a breakout room for themselves and a student. They will be the only two people in the room. Draw will happen similar to in person with the adult communicating the questions to the student and them then selecting one.PrepAfter a student has their question they should prep in front of their camera, mic muted for the duration of preparation.Giving a speechAfter preparation time concludes a student can visit their virtual room and give their speech in front of the judge.Applicable RulesTo the best of our ability in the online platform, all speech events, except Oral Interpretation (also known as Prose/Poetry), will follow NSDA rules and procedures. Oral Interpretation will use NCFL rules and procedures.Rules DocumentsBoth sets of rules –NSDA (High School Unified Manual – 2019-2020) andNCFL (NCFL Bylaws (Fall2019)),are posted here:Tabroom TOC website – in the right-hand column.UK Tournament of Champions website – Procedures ................
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