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Swat Debate

This document is also available in MS Word format.

Judging:
Please see the Judging Guide and Point Scale for more detailed explanations of our judging policies.

Judging Priorities are as follows:

1. At no time will a team be judged by anyone affiliated with its school.
2. At no time will a team be judged by anyone it has scratched EXCEPT during the final round panel.
3. Every effort will be made to prevent:
   • A judge seeing the same team twice during in-rounds.
   • A judge seeing the same team twice during out-rounds EXCEPT during the final round panel.

Scratches:

1. Every school may scratch one judge.
2. Every individual team may scratch one additional judge.
3. If a school does not use its school scratch, every individual team from that school may scratch two judges.
4. Further scratch requests will be honored at the discretion of the Tab and Judging Directors.

1. Full Seeds
2. Half Seeds
3. Free Seeds

1. No team will be pulled up more than one bracket. No team will be pulled up more than once. No team will hit the pull-up more than once.
2. Every team is guaranteed at least two rounds as Gov and at least two rounds as Opp.
3. No two teams will hit twice during in-rounds.
4. No two teams from the same school will hit each other during in-rounds EXCEPT in the event of bracket flooding or conflict with priorities 1-3. Tab will NOT break brackets to prevent two teams from the same school hitting each other.
5. Round One will be pre-paired randomly, respecting seeds.
6. Rounds Two through Six will be paired high-low within each win-loss bracket, based on speaker points and ranks.
7. When there is an odd number of teams in a bracket, the middle team from the next bracket down will be pulled up (EXCEPT when this conflicts with priority #1, in which case the team just below the middle team will be pulled up) and paired in by points and ranks.
8. If there is an odd number of teams in the lowest bracket, Tab will normally assign a bye to the lowest team in that bracket. Tab will NOT assign a bye to any team that has already had either an official bye round or a round forfeited to them because of an opponent’s failure to appear. If such a team is the lowest team in the lowest bracket, Tab will assign the bye to next lowest team.
9. During in-rounds, Tab will try to assign as many teams as possible three rounds as Gov and three rounds as Opp. Tab will NOT break brackets to give teams a third Opp or third Gov.
10. In out-rounds, the team with the most previous Govs (including both in-rounds and out-rounds) is allowed choice of sides.

1. Team Record
2. Speaker Points
3. Ranks
4. Adjusted Speaker Points
5. Adjusted Ranks
   Note that we will adjust as many times as necessary / possible.
6. Opponents’ Strength
7. Coin Flip

1. Speaker Points
2. Ranks
3. Adjusted Speaker Points
4. Adjusted Ranks
   Note that we will adjust as many times as necessary / possible.
5. Team Record
6. Coin Flip

• The team that DID show up receives averaged ranks, averaged speaker points and a win for the round.
• The team that FAILED to show up receives ranks of 8 (4 each), speaker points of zero, and a loss for that round.
• IF a team’s failure to appear is due to an unforeseeable emergency, the Tournament Director, in consultation with the Tab Director, MAY award that team averaged speaker points for the missed round. The round is still forfeit, however, and ranks will remain 8.

• The consequences for the team that DID show up are the same as above.
• The team that FAILED to show up forfeits the round in question and all future rounds. It will not be paired in for the remainder of the tournament.
• IF a team’s failure to appear for ALL missed rounds is due to an unforeseeable emergency, the Tournament Director, in consultation with the Tab Director, MAY allow the team to continue debating. In this case, the team will be paired in in the normal way, as if their speaker points for the missed rounds were averaged. Missed rounds, however, will still be forfeit; ranks for missed rounds will still be 8; team members will NOT BE ELIGIBLE for speaker awards; the team will NOT BE ELLIGIBLE to break.

• That person receives ranks of 4 and speaker points of zero for the round.
• That person’s partner may, at their option, EITHER: Forfeit the round and receive ranks of 3 and averaged speaker points for the round, OR ironman the round, leaving outcome, points, and ranks to the discretion of the judge. [See "Ironman" section below]
• IF the absent person’s partner forfeits the round, the opposing team is picked up and receives averaged speaker points and ranks for the round.

• The individual will NOT BE ELIGIBLE for a speaker award.
• The individual may NOT debate in any rounds for the remainder of the tournament.
• The individual’s partner continues to have the option of ironmanning or forfeiting rounds, as described above.
• IF the individual’s partner chooses to forfeit a second round, they will NOT BE ELIGIBLE for a speaker award; they will NOT be allowed to continue debating after the second forfeited round.
• IF the individual’s partner chooses to ironman, they may continue debating throughout the tournament.
• IF an individual’s failure to appear is due to an unforeseeable emergency, the Tournament Director, in consultation with the Tab Director, MAY allow the individual to re-join their partner. The absent individual will still NOT BE ELIGIBLE for a speaker award.

• If a team fails to show up for a round, that team automatically forfeits the round, and as such is eliminated from the tournament.
• If an individual fails to show up for a round, their partner may either forfeit or continue as an ironman. The missing individual may NOT debate in any rounds for the remainder of the tournament.
• IF the individual’s failure to appear is due to an unforeseeable emergency, the Tournament Director, in consultation with the Tab Director, MAY allow the individual to re-join their partner.

• As described above, if people have really good excuses for missing rounds the Tournament Director may exempt those people from some of the normal consequences of failure to appear. This exemption, however, is at the personal discretion of the Tournament Director and is NOT automatic. We will try not to penalize anyone for events beyond their control, but our first priority is to keep the tournament as a whole running smoothly, fairly, and on time.

• "Unforeseeable Emergency" does not mean "foreseeable inconvenience that you didn’t think was likely." Although the final decision about whether the reason for someone’s failure to appear really is an unforeseeable emergency lies with the Tournament Director, we have provided a chart of possible excuses to help you figure out which category yours falls into:

Ironman:

• Debaters may NOT register for the tournament as ironmans.
• If, because their partner has failed to show up for a round, someone ends up ironmanning, they will be allowed to continue debating through the tournament in the normal way.
• Judges should award ironmans SEPARATE speaker points and ranks for each of the positions they speak.
• For the purposes of PAIRING and TEAM AWARDS, Tab will treat these scores as though they were earned by a normal two-person team, and will pair the ironman through rounds in a normal way.
• For the purposes of SPEAKER AWARDS, Tab will average the two sets of speaker points and ranks an ironman receives each round. That average will be treated like a single set of speaker points and ranks given to a normal debater in a normal round.