Ziggy National Championship

     We love tournaments—and we know you do, too. We know that Stoa NITOC and NCFCA Nationals coming up in a few months. We also know not everyone will be able to attend, and we also know that even many of those who are attending are looking for more opportunities to sharpen their skills.

     That’s why we’re offering the Ziggy National Championship. We’ll be running two separate tournaments—one for debaters using the Stoa resolutions, and one for debaters using the NCFCA resolutions. The tournaments will run on different schedules, to take into account NITOC and NCFCA Nationals, respectively, but they are open to all—no league affiliation required.

     Whether you want another shot at debate success, want to prepare for Nationals, or just want to have a fun time (or all three!), this tournament is for you. We hope to also offer prizes, which we will be working on announcing over the coming weeks and months.

     TP teams also have the option of disclosing their Affirmative case for a tournament-sponsored case list during registration. Although you don’t have to, we do encourage openness as we believe it makes for higher quality debate (for reference, when Isaac was a TPer, he and his partners would regularly tell people their case well before rounds).

TOURNAMENT STRUCTURE/FORMAT

     These tournaments will have 6 prelim rounds with 5 days to complete each round, and then about 2 days for each outround (quarters, semis, and finals). That not only gives us room to adjust the outround timing if necessary, but also means that debaters will have more flexibility for their rounds.

Prelims for each tournament will happen on their own schedule; outrounds for both tournaments will run concurrently.

PRELIM SCHEDULE (for Stoa debaters)

Round 1: April 17–21
Round 2: April 22–26
Round 3: April 27–May 1
Round 4: May 2–6
Round 5: May 7–11
Round 6: May 12–16

PRELIM SCHEDULE (for NCFCA debaters)

Round 1: May 3–7
Round 2: May 8–12
Round 3: May 13–17
Round 4: May 18–22
Round 5: May 23–27
Round 6: May 28–June 1

OUTROUNDS SCHEDULE (all debaters)

Semifinals: June 2–3
Finals: June 4–5

TOURNAMENT RULES

     We’ll be following the Ziggy “Fast-Paced Tournament” rules. This means debaters MUST maintain at least 40% of their time available for debate scheduling. Basically, we want to make sure that people are treating this tournament with the seriousness it deserves and are devoting more than just a couple hours during the week. If two teams are unable to find any time to schedule a round, and one of the teams does not offer at least 40% of the time allotted for that round as available, that team may be required to forfeit.

     In the event that both teams have made a good faith effort to schedule a round but cannot find any time to debate at all, both teams will receive a mutual loss/zero speaks for that round.

     Judges are required to meet a quota of rounds (no fewer than 2 and no more than 4 debates)—failure to do so, absent a few exceptions, will result in penalties for the team the judge is registered by. So make sure (a) your judge knows their responsibility and (b) register more judges if you know your judge is busy. See Rule 21 for more details.

     Judges will be free to sign up for rounds on their own like in a normal Ziggy tournament—we will not pre-assign rounds. However, a limited number of judges may request in advance to judge outrounds (not all requests will be granted, depending on need).

PRICE

Early Bird Price: $30 – per person/per style entry

• Stoa deadline: By or before April 7, 11:59pm CT 
• NCFCA deadline: by or before April 21, 11:59pm CT

Normal Price: $35 – per person/per style entry

• Stoa Deadline: By or before April 14, 11:59pm CT
• NCFCA Deadline: By or before April 28, 11:59pm CT May 2, 12:00 PM (Noon) CT