Double Entry

Speech events will be broken into two groups. Group A will consist of OI, OO,
and DI. Group B will consist of Extemp, Duo, and HI. A participant may enter
up to two different speech events in each group. Debate or congress students
may not double enter.

Varsity and Junior-Varsity Lincoln-Douglas Debate

The resolution will be the September-October National Forensic League topic.
Both LD divisions will follow the 6-3- 7-3-4-6-3 format. Debaters will have 5
minutes of prep time. Ties will be broken based on record, adjusted points,
total points, double-adjusted points, judge variance, opponents’ record, and
flip of a coin, in that order. The break will be to double-octafinals in
Varsity and JV LD debate.

Students in 9th or 10th grade, and those in 11th grade with less than two years
debating experience, may enter JVLD, but should also feel free to enter VLD.
Students with more than two year’s experience and those in 12th grade should
enter VLD. Any student who broke at a national tournament in JVLD last year
should enter VLD. We strongly encourage coaches to choose divisions with the
educational purpose of debate in mind. That purpose is hurt if overqualified
debaters compete in JV. Students shouldn’t enter JVLD to “win trophies”; JVLD
is a learning division.

Policy Debate

There will be a single, open division of policy debate using the 2008-2009 NFL
resolution. Teams will give 8-minute constructive speeches, 3-minute
cross-examinations, and 5-minute rebuttals, and will have ten minutes of prep
time. Ties will be broken using the same criteria as Lincoln-Douglas Debate.
The break will be to quarterfinals (If the field is large enough, an octafinal
round may be added).

Public Forum Debate

There will be a single, open division of public forum debate. We will follow
all of the NFL rules for the event as they stand for the start of the school
year. The tournament will be using the NFL topic for September of 2008. Ties
will be broken using the same criteria as Lincoln-Douglas Debate. The event
will likely break to double-octafinals; break will be determined based on size
of field.

Student Congress

There will be a single, open division of Student Congress. Chambers will be
comprised of no more than 25 members. Breaks will be to semifinals and then to
finals on Sunday. Legislation must be emailed to yalebills@tabroom.com by 7 PM
on September 16th, 2008. Legislation must include the name of the school and
the author. Only one bill may be submitted by each registrant. Legislation
from authors not registered for the tournament, or legislation that has not
been received by that date will not be included. Congress registrations are
also due earlier than other divisions, as we will assign chambers and dockets
and publish both on Friday the 19th.

Speech Events:

Extemp, Oratory, DI, HI and Duo will follow National Forensic League rules and
guidelines. Oral Interpretation of Literature will follow National Catholic
Forensic League rules and guidelines. We will use the NCFL’s guidelines for
published material in interp events. The grace period will be 30 seconds for
all speech events. Any IE participant who exceeds the grace may not receive a
rank of 1 in the round; any further penalty will be at the discretion of the
judge. A participant may only be penalized for a time violation if the judge
has used a precise timing device and notes the penalty on the ballot. Speech
events will break to either quarterfinals or semifinals based on the size.
Speech tabbing will be cumulative throughout the tournament. The Extemp final
round will feature cross-examination in accordance with NFL rules. All rules
are subject to change. The tournament will make you aware of any changes at
registration.