Last week I submitted the information for the USC 'Alan Nichols' tournament to debateresults, but accidentally didn't allow entries to the site. That error has now been corrected and you may enter at your convenience.
I am also pasting the full invitation below. Please note that the tournament hotel (the Sheraton) has a reasonably priced block of rooms that will expire on November 27th. We have increased the block size from recent years but we do ask that you make reservations as soon as possible. If you have any questions pleas let me know. Gordon Gordon Stables, Ph.D. Director of Debate and Forensics Annenberg School for Communication University of Southern California Office: 213 740 2759 Fax: 213 740 3913 http://usctrojandebate.com October 16, 2007 Dear Friends, You are cordially invited to attend the annual Alan Nichols Debate Tournament to be held on December 29-31, 2007 at the University of Southern California. We invite you to join us for temperate weather and very good competition in the final days of 2007. This year we will be again offering open and junior varsity divisions of policy debate. Both divisions will feature seven preliminary debates. The open division will clear all teams with a winning record, up to a full double octofinals. Based on the entries from the last few years, we expect to an almost full partial double-octafinals in open and a quarter-finals in junior varsity. We are committed to offering a tournament that provides good hospitality and some of the best competition of the year. We have found that the seven preliminary rounds allows a reasonable schedule of elimination round debates without sacrificing the important goal of avoiding allowing speaker point differentials to determine participation in elimination rounds. All of this can now be accomplished in a way that allows everyone to ring in the New Year after the conclusion of the tournament. We are also happy to continue a long-standing tradition, the California Swing Award. Cooperatively with California State University - Fullerton we will be providing an award to the team with the best preliminary record at the two tournaments. Elimination round wins will serve as the tiebreaker for the award. We have a couple of new features for you to look forward to this year: . Elimination day at the hotel - For the first time we will be having all of the elimination rounds on the 31st at the Sheraton. . An all tournament party to celebrate New Year's Eve - The Sheraton is also working with us to host an all-ages party as the elimination rounds conclude. . An effort to improve the value of speaker points. We will be providing a specific scale (using the 26-30 system) that allows quarter points (27.75, 28.25, etc.) and providing guidelines to help us as a community make better use of the speaker points students earn. We hope you will enjoy the opportunity to have quality competition in a friendly December climate. Please let us know if you have any questions. We look forward to ringing in the New Year in Southern California. Warmest Regards, Gordon Stables, Ph.D. Director of Debate & Forensics [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tournament Information Registration: All registration will be handled through: http://www.debateresults.com All entries must be received by December 17, 2007. Format - Debates will use the 2007-2008 CEDA topic and employ a 9-3-6 time format with 10 minutes of preparation time per team. Eligibility for the divisions is determined by CEDA rules. We will offer seven preliminary debates and all teams with a winning record, up to the highest seeded 32 such teams, will participate in elimination rounds. Byes will be given if less than 32 teams have a winning record. Teams - Entries are unlimited per division. Each team must consist of two students formally representing their university. Individual students are not allowed to enter, qualify for, or compete in elimination rounds. Individual debaters can win preliminary debates, but unless the team is intact for more than half of the preliminary rounds that team cannot quality for the elimination rounds. Hybrid teams are not eligible to participate in elimination rounds, unless the hybrid involves an inactive program. Pairings - Brackets will not be broken in elimination rounds. Sides for elimination rounds will be determined by reversing the sides from preliminary rounds or allowing the teams to choose sides based on a coin toss. We will employ a mutual preference judge system for both divisions using six categories that counts each judge based on the number of rounds they are committed to judge. Judge preferences will be made available via www.debateresults.com on December 26th and due no later than 10:00 pm pst on December 28th. Adam Symonds of ASU will be primarily responsible for the operation of the tab room, along with the USC staff. The last preliminary round of 2007 - As the last preliminary round of 2007, round seven will have a slightly different feel. It will be a flip for sides debate. Tournament staff will verify that 25 minutes after the pairings are released, teams have chosen sides. If teams have not chosen sides at this point, tournament staff will conduct a coin toss and will assign sides based on the result. This procedure is necessary to ensure that the tournament runs on time, even though we prefer that the competitors make this decision. Judging - Schools are required to provide qualified judging. One team requires four rounds of judging obligation and two teams require seven rounds of commitment. Judges must have either completed their bachelor's degree or rescinded their eligibility. Anyone who judges in the open division at the Nichols will not be allowed to subsequently enter as a competitor in future Nichols tournaments. We will have a very limited number of hired judges available at $100 per uncovered team. We are also committed to providing generous compensation for those judges who would be highly preferred critics in the late elimination rounds. If this is something that might interest you please contact us. All judges are obligated through the octafinals on the morning of the 31st. Judges are asked to provide an educational environment in each debate and to provide a judgment on that debate. All debates must be decided with only one win and only one loss. The tournament will provide a judgment if the assigned judge is unwilling to complete this request. Speaker Points - We are very concerned that the current speaker point scale and system doesn't help differentiate the quality of individual speakers. Specifically we are worried that the norm has evolved to giving most debaters the same points with only a few judges willing to vary from that norm. Our research, for example, shows that at one of the larger recent tournament (hosted by the University of Kentucky) almost half of every speaker in every debate earned the same speaker points, a 28. The community, it appears, now considers this to be the default setting for speaker points. With 46% of the speakers earning exactly a 28 and then an additional 24% earning a 27.5 it also appears obvious that the actual scale in practice is too small. When 70% of the debaters earn one of two items on the scale it is obvious why tiebreakers, speaker awards, teams clearing and seeding appear so arbitrary. To that end we are going to provide additional options to judges and in exchange we ask you to consider your points as part of the larger scale. Our charge is that we would prefer that judges utilize speaker points to differentiate between the performances of individual debaters in each round. We ask you to use the following scale 26 Needs improvement 26.25 26.5 26.75 27 Below Average 27.25 27.5 27.75 28 Average 28.25 28.5 28.75 29 Very Good 29.25 29.5 29.75 30 Perfect The determination of how these points should be awarded still obviously resides with individual judges. We do ask you to consider two additional guidelines: . Speakers should be differentiated in each debate. It is certainly conceivable that debaters would earn similar points, but we would ask judges from awarding more two speakers with the same points in a given debate. The quarter points are a means you reflecting differences in performances. . We ask that judges not regularly award the bulk of their points at or below the 'below average' (27) standard or at or above the 'very good' (29) standard. In order for speaker points to have some sense of meaning individual judges must feel comfortable providing evaluations across the range of items. These are guidelines that we are requesting your assistance in implanting. We feel it is in everyone's competitive and educational interests to have a meaningful speaker point scale. Awards - We will provide a nice selection of awards for all teams participating in elimination rounds and for the top speakers in each division. Fees - Team fees are $125 each. This includes entry and selected meal costs for each team and one coach. There will be an additional $50 fee for all other coaches, judges, and members of your entourage that will take in part in tournament amenities. These fees cover trophies, several meals, and our general hospitality. Transportation fees are optional and $25 per person. All checks should be made payable to the Trojan Debate Squad. Hired judges are $100 per team. We will seek to accommodate schools with financial difficulty. Ground Transportation - LAX and the downtown area provide a wide array of rental vehicle options. We realize, however, that the costs of renting vehicles for the entire swing can impose a heavy burden on programs, as well as requiring the presence of a 25-year old driver. The cost issue is especially true for the Nichols tournament. Hotel parking at the Sheraton is valet only and is approximately $20 per day. School parking is also fee-based at $6 per day. If you park on campus, you should enter through the gate at Jefferson and McClintock (Gate #5). In order to provide a remedy for this problem, we will do what we can reduce the need for rental vehicles. You can easily take cab service from LAX to the Sheraton. We are also offering a transportation shuttle to and from the hotel each day. We ask that when you register you indicate how many people from your school will require transportation and we will charge you $25 per person. We ask that this information be provided in your online registration so we can effectively plan for the number of people who will be transported. We can only guarantee ground transportation for those requests made by December 17, 2007. We have traditionally offered vendor options if you need a shuttle service to the second half of the swing at California State University at Fullerton, but we don't usually have any takers. If you need to arrange ground transportation on the 1st please let us know. Tournament Hotel - We have secured a large block of rooms at the Sheraton Los Angeles Downtown Hotel. This is the same property that we have used in previous years. We are pleased to have secured a $99.00 per night rate for up to four guests per room at this property. There is a small block available for Thursday December 27th and a large block available for the remainder of the tournament dates for tournament participants. Contact the hotel at (213) 488-3500 to make reservations. Ask for the block for the 'USC Debate Squad.' We strongly encourage you to use this option. New Year's in Los Angeles can be very expensive. Making reservations outside the block with the Sheraton can cost you at least $199 per room over those dates. The block is available on a first-come, first-serve basis to our guests. The block typically fills so please reserve as early as possible. The block will close on November 27. Even if rooms are available past that date we cannot ensure the group rate. You can access the Sheraton's website to find more information about the property or contact them. 711 South Hope Street Los Angeles, California 90017 Phone (213) 488-3500 Fax (213) 488-4110 Additionally, the Vagabond Inn is located close to USC at 3101 South Figueroa. They can be reached at (213) 746-9108. They are not offering a special tournament rate and the shuttles will not operate there. Campus Internet - USC has an open guest wireless network for public use. New Year's Eve in LA - There are many options for those of you want to explore one of the world's great cities on New Years, but we are also going to host a tournament party at the Sheraton. More details to follow, but this will be an all-ages event with hotel employees in charge of verifying those over 21. Questions - We are very interested in making your trip enjoyable and a great competitive experience. Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions. If you have any tournament related questions, please contact Gordon Stables at (213) 740-2759 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tournament Schedule December 28, 2007: 7:30 - 9:00 PM Registration and Coaches Reception - The Sheraton Hotel December 29, 2007: 7:00 AM Pairings Released for Rounds One and Two @ Sheraton & Campus (Shuttle Begins from Tournament Hotel) 8:15 Round One start time 11:00 Round Two start time 1:00 PM Lunch Break 2:00 Pairings released for Round Three 2:45 Round Three start time 5:45 Pairings released for Round Four 6:30 Round Four start time December 30, 2007: 7:00 AM Pairings Released for Rounds Five and Six @ Sheraton & Campus (Shuttle Begins from Tournament Hotel) 8:15 Round Five start time 11:15 Round Six start time 1:00 PM Lunch Break 2:00 Pairings released for Round Seven 2:25 Sides must be determined 2:45 Round Seven start time 5:00 Dinner & Announcement of Speaker Awards and Double-Octofinals pairings 7:00 Double-Octofinals start time December 31, 2007: All Events at the Sheraton 7:00 AM Octofinals Pairings & Elimination Round Bracket Released @ Sheraton 8:15 Octofinals start time 11:30 Quarterfinals start time 3:00 PM Semifinals start time 6:30 Final Round Start Time TBA Tournament party @ Sheraton _______________________________________________ CEDA-L mailing list [email protected] http://www.ndtceda.com/mailman/listinfo/ceda-l
