Dear Debate Coaches,

Your squad is cordially invited to attend the annual J. Matt Hill Invitational Debate Tournament.  Our tournament will be hosted on November 20-21, 2015.  We will offer a DCI division (and will follow the bid allocation procedure), and an open division (which if numbers warrant will be split into two divisions as-per the norm).  Please enter using this Link:

http://goo.gl/forms/r3EWytyuuM

The tournament will hold 5 preliminary rounds, with two on Friday and three on Saturday.  Rounds will start at 3:45 with registration beginning at 2:45 in our Auditorium.  Many of you understand the chaos that is THS at the end of the day, so you may want to get here early to avoid some traffic, or after 3:15 to find an easier parking space.  Note the later round 1 start time this year to accommodate for later arrivals.  We ask that you hold your debaters in the Auditorium until 3:10 pm to allow our administrators and other staff members to sweep the hallways. 

This year we will break from our traditional power-matching procedures.  There is a 99% chance I will not be in attendance at the tournament, because my wife and I are expecting our first child to be born the Thursday night before.  I’ll describe how matching etc. will go down later on the sheet.  We will be using Tabroom.com as our tabbing software.

Each school may enter 4 teams, 6 if you are a flint hills school (with no more than 4 in the DCI Division, this will change after every school has been guaranteed what they want in DCI and then I will allow you to go over this cap, but don’t be crazy huge).  Right now, I am limited to 65-70 rooms, which means I will set the first cap at 130 entries and may expand later if additional space opens itself up to me.

The fee is $5.00 per team, or whatever you have charged us to attend your fine tournament. Extras will be allocated in the following fashion: 1. Flint Hills Schools, 2. Schools who have allowed me extras, 3. In the order requests are received.  To be eligible for Sweepstakes, we will take your top team in each division followed by your next two teams, regardless of division, you must be entered in both DCI and open. We will award medals to all quarterfinalists and beyond with additional awards for semifinal and final round competitors.

All teams must have two competitors from the same school, however if there is a day-of emergency, mavericks will be allowed to compete, but will not be eligible for elimination rounds.  This year, the talent show (SRO) is on top of our tournament which will make some spaces tight on Friday night.

In terms of our pool, we will rely on former debaters and long-time judges throughout the fine city of Topeka, and the more experienced judges will be in DCI.  We will also place your head coach/sponsor in the pool for all preliminary rounds, but will only be used as a last resort (and no more than twice), if you have someone who is willing to judge throughout the tournament, please let me know and appropriate arrangements will be made.

Entry fees are due as soon as you can get them to me, and all teams dropped after November 17^th will still be billed. 

See you in November,

Dustin Rimmey                                              Colton Glasscock                               Randy Baldwin

Director of Debate and Forensics               Tournament Director                       Tournament Administrator

TLDR Version of the Invitation

1. Date: November 20-21, 2015

2. Topic: Surveillance

3. Format: 8-3-5 with 5 minutes of prep.

4. Fees: $5 or whatever you charge me

5. Divisions: DCI and Open (may split open into two).

6. Number of Teams: 4-non Flint Hills, 6-Flint Hills, unless you have allowed me more, then we will talk, no more than 4 DCI (until all schools have entered).

7. Extras: First to Flint Hills, second to people who have reciprocated to me, third in the order received.

8. Sweeps: Top 4 teams (one from DCI, one from Open and then your next two best) must be in both divisions to be eligible.

9.  Things might be tight because of the Talent Show on Friday

10. Judges: Our pool will be a mix of experienced and non-experienced judges.  Coaches/sponsors will be in the pool to use as needed, will not ask you to judge more than twice. Judges are clean after prelims, and we will try to vary judges throughout the elimination debates, but they will be considered clean throughout elims to allow for extra flexibility.

11. Tabbing: Will be done via tabroom.com but you must enter with me via the google doc.

12. Schedule

Special Note: BRACKETS WILL NOT BE BROKEN DURING ELIMINATION ROUNDS.