Debate --- why we leave the state to compete

on a small tournament in BN state... it isn't the state champs, but has most of the same issues -- so, we'll repeat this in a couple of weeks... aaargh....

I’m not sure I’ve seen a tournament more screwed up by tab than this one… and they don’t even know THAT they are doing it, nor why what they are doing is a problem… This isn't intentional, unless their ignorance is intentional.

1) Resolutions = terrible, round 4 was “TH values academic freedom over freedom of speech” – since when is academic freedom NOT also freedom of speech. By valuing one you MUST value the other—can we say less than no gov ground… fucking ridiculous.

Semi-s, "TH would ban game shows"… WTF

2) Judges – many rounds there are several good judges sitting in the judge lounge – you know the types – the ones who know what a topicality argument is, what the basic burdens of debate are and a few other basics. Instead, they substitute the husband of a good judge for the one GOOD judge we got – when they guy was there.

They were also worried about husband of good judge being “qualified” to judge impromptu or inform – when all you have to do is sit there and watch the speeches… not decide who did the better debating. Fuck, I really don’t like this.

3) Schedule… here is how it looks:
Friday
10:00 registration
11:00 parli 1
12:15: parli II
1:30 – 6:30 IEs…
6:45 (or, whenever) parli III (finish about 8:30)
9:00 bowling party [except for debaters who need food and sleep.. because, wait for it…

Saturday
8:00 Parli IV
9:30 – 12:15 IEs
12:15: parli semi-finals..

When you read this schedule as a debater the message is clear, “debate is an EXTRA thing. If you debate, it is an event that must be done when it won’t inconvenience the IEers. As a result, my debaters sat around for many hours at a time -- so that they could debate for four hours...

4) Tab: wow… wow… it started as an 18 team tournament (only breaking to quarters when someone asked them to do it…) 5 teams didn’t show for round 1… thus 5 forfeits…

I wonder how the forfeit was tabbed…

And… the whole tournament was supposed to be pre-set (a bad thing and NOT A norm... at all...)– but then 5 teams didn’t show. The chick in charge didn’t want to re-do the round schematics… was going to allow 5 byes PER ROUND… fuck. You’d pretty much need to be 6-0 in a 4 round tournament to break… aargh… at least they re-paired the rounds.

Then – the way the tournament was paired (by hand, mind you) – in their power-match went like this… paired high/low within brackets, random bye (not, lowest team = bye… like it should). One of the two best teams in the tournament got a bye in the 4th round. They should have been debating someone who was 3-0 or 2-1…

I’m pretty pissed about this, we actually put ourselves into a 3 weekend back-to-back schedule and spent about $500.00 to come up here and do this farce.

I’m going to have to talk to BN in-state tourney director about this, and offer to tab the tournament next year… Hubby or Snoopy could have done it with their eyes closed AND could have judged… Cripes, D1/D2/Rex could tab this. It is a 4 round, 13 team tournament, not NPTE. When you have someone in the state that has tabbed nationals – actually, two of them (snoopy and hubby) – why would you do it yourself? Aargh..

As a result, I get this craptastic round to suffer, decreasing my education and confirming my view of debate in BN state. Thank GOD we are going to a realish tournament next weekend.

I have to give them some credit -- I was home at 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon... and, my new debaters got their feet wet..