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Difference between revisions of "Introduction to Circuit Debate"
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Introduction to Circuit Debate (view source)
Revision as of 19:31, 28 December 2021
, 19:31, 28 December 2021→What does a National Circuit tournament look like?
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=== What does a National Circuit tournament look like? === | === What does a National Circuit tournament look like? === | ||
In the era before online debating, National Circuit tournaments would typically be hosted at high school or college campuses, attracting hundreds or even thousands of speech and debate students, depending on the size of the tournament. People would travel to National Circuit tournaments from across the country, which necessitated paying for transportation and housing for the tournament (not to mention paying tournament entree fees and paying your judges). Typically, people's choice to travel to a tournament depended on whether it was "worth" going to. That is, if a tournament awarded many bids, such as an octa-finals or quarter-finals level tournament, the number of debaters competing in that tournament would increase, and debaters would be willing to travel from further out since their chance of getting the bid was perceived to be higher. These tournaments with higher bid levels also typically have better judge pools, too. Smaller tournaments, such as finals or semi-finals bids, typically attract debaters from around the area and might have more lay judges and rounds, even as a tournament on the national circuit. | |||
Norms for LD debate also vary throughout the country. The West Coast is known for running more policy style arguments, while the Texas area is known for running a mix of LARP and kritiks, and the East coast is known for running tricks, theory, and philosophy. One's experience in LD would be dramatically shaped by the region where they debated, as judges within that region would be more proficient in evaluating certain types of arguments. | |||
Now that many tournaments are online, some things have changed, and others have not. Competing has become far more affordable, since one does not need to worry about affording transportation and housing for tournaments. Still, though, tournaments with higher bid-levels typically attract more debaters and better judges than tournaments with lower bid-levels. Attending tournaments has become far easier, though, since one does not need to worry about the location. The norms of LD, as a result, have become slightly more spread out. While in the in-person era, nearly all rounds in the West Coast would involve policy, in the online era, it wouldn't be as rare to find a round involving kritiks, for example. | |||
Almost all National Circuit tournaments follow a similar structure. They will take place during some weekend, and feature both prelimination and elimination rounds. Tournaments typically have around 6 prelimination rounds. During the first two prelimination rounds, you will be matched with a random opponent and assigned a random side with one judge. During the remaining four rounds, you will be matched with an opponent whose record (wins-losses) is equal to yours, and assigned a random side. By the end of the 6 prelimination rounds, you will have affirmed 3 times and negated 3 times. If you have won at least 4 of your prelimination rounds, you will have qualified for the elimination rounds. Depending on the size of the tournament, elimination rounds will start either at triple-octafinals (top 64), double octa-finals (top 32), or octa-finanls (top 16). During the elimination rounds, you will have a panel of 3 judges, and the side will be determined by a coin flip at the beginning of the round. If you lose an elimination round, you are out of the tournament. To attain a bid, you will need to reach a certain elimination round depending on the "bid level" of the tournament. | |||
At the conclusion of the tournament, awards are typically given out for the top speakers of the tournaments (determined by your speaker points) and for the elimination round that you have reached. | |||
== Foundational Ideas == | == Foundational Ideas == | ||