1st Annual Binghamton University Online Debate Tournament

INVITE

Eligibility: Anyone who is enrolled in a college, university, high school, or vocational school is eligible to compete. If your affiliation is not already listed please register your affiliation through the website so we can appropriately pair the tournament. Any participant that fails to upload speeches before established deadlines will forfeit the match. The more forfeits you have, the lower you will be ranked regardless of all other factors.

Cost of Entry: There is no cost to enter the tournament. However, we request that each affiliation provide one judge for every two competitors they register. If you are unable to provide the adequate number of judges please contact Joe Leeson-Schatz at debate@binghamton.edu to arrange for alternative arrangements.

Resolution: RESOLVED: The United States Federal Government should ban all testing that requires the use of animals.

Registration Dates: Registration will be accepted until April 14th, 2013 at 11:59pm EST. Register for the tournament through the website here. The tournament will then be run according to the following schedule...

Preliminary Dates April 17th through April 21st

4/17 - Post Your Proposition Constructive in Your Affirmative Debate

4/18 - Post Your Opposition Constructive in Your Negative Debate

4/19 - Post Your Proposition Rebuttal in Your Affirmative Debate

4/20 - Post Your Opposition Rebuttal & Closing Remarks in your Negative Debate

4/21 - Post Your Proposition Closing Remarks in Your Affirmative Debate

4/22 & 4/23 - Judging for preliminary debates

Qualifying Debates (top 50% of competitors): April 24th through April 30th

4/24 - Post Your Proposition Constructive in Your Affirmative Debate

4/25 - Post Your Opposition Constructive in Your Negative Debate

4/26 - Post Your Proposition Rebuttal in Your Affirmative Debate

4/27 - Post Your Opposition Rebuttal & Closing Remarks in your Negative Debate

4/28 - Post Your Proposition Closing Remarks in Your Affirmative Debate

4/29 & 4/30 - Judging for Week 2 Debates

Finals (top 10% of remaining competitors): May 1rd through May 7th

5/1 - Post Your Proposition Constructive in Your Affirmative Debate

5/2 - Post Your Opposition Constructive in Your Negative Debate

5/3 - Post Your Proposition Rebuttal in Your Affirmative Debate

5/4 - Post Your Opposition Rebuttal & Closing Remarks in your Negative Debate

5/5 - Post Your Proposition Closing Remarks in Your Affirmative Debate

5/6 & 5/7 - Judging for Week 3 Debates

Format of Debates: Speeches are to be posted by midnight PST (3:00AM EST of the following day) the date they are scheduled for to avoid having their rounds forfeited. Each competitor will engage in one proposition and one opposition round per week they are competing.

Proposition speaker's opening speech: 4 minutes

Opposition speaker's opening speech: 5 minutes

Proposition speaker's rebuttal: 3 minutes

Opposition speaker's rebuttal and closing remarks: 4 minutes

Proposition speaker's rebuttal and closing remarks: 2 minutes

Please note: Debaters whose videos are more than 30 seconds longer than the maximum length for any given speech will forfeit their debates.

Awards: All competitors qualifying for the final debates will receive awards ranging from $5 to $100 in value. Most will be comprised of gift cards. Several awards are sponsored by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Mercy for Animals. We are in the process of seeking additional sponsors to increase the value of awards.

Debate Evaluation: Debaters attempt to persuade their judges of their position. They should strive to inform lay audiences, even as they recognize that their judges will have professional or academic training in argumentation. Debaters are encouraged to consult and quote research on the topic by supporting their arguments with relevant and credible evidence. The goal of a successful debater should be to construct a well-reasoned and well supported argument that is responsive to their opponents. In addition to competitive win/loss records, participants will also be evaluated on the effectiveness of their skills. Participants will be ranked on a 1-6 scale in each of these categories (6 is the maximum ranking for excellent performance and 1 is the lowest ranking). Rankings will be considered along with competitive records to determine the eight debaters who will advance to qualifying and final rounds.

Required Equipment to Compete: Participants will need to be able to access the World Wide Web, record and watch streaming Internet video footage and communicate via e-mail. All judges and debaters will need (1) A personal computer with a broadband Internet connection, capable of running a web browser and accessing YouTube. (2) A means of recording videos of at least 5 minutes in length. This can be achieved with a webcam and microphone on a laptop computer, an external camera and laptop, or iPhones, Android Phones, or Blackberry devices with the YouTube app installed. (3) An account on YouTube.com.

Please note: We strongly recommend that you ensure the functionality of your computer and Internet connection prior to the tournament. We also recommend that you access YouTube.com and ensure that you can successfully upload and view videos before the start of the tournament.