Events

Speech Events

Speech events will be broken into two groups:

Group A will consist of Declamation, Duo Interpretation and Oral Interpretation.

Group B will consist of Extemporaneous, Dramatic Performance, and Original Oratory.

A student may enter up to two different speech events in each group.

All speech events will follow National Catholic Forensic League rules and guidelines. Speech events will break to either quarterfinals, semifinals or finals based on the size of each field.

Please note that this tournament follows the NCFL guidelines about laptop usage during Extemp prep.

Varsity Lincoln-Douglas Debate

The resolution will be the January/February NFL topic. VLD will follow the 6-3-7-3-4-6-3 format. Debaters will have 4 minutes of prep time. Ties will be broken based on record, adjusted points, total points, double-adjusted points, judge variance, opponents’ record, and coin flip, in that order. The break will depend on numbers registered. MJP will be used in VLD to rank the judges.

Please Note: This year, there will not be a separate Novice LD division. As such, all entrants wishing to participate in LD debate should register for VLD.

Public Forum Debate

There will be a single, open division of public forum debate. The tournament will be using the NFL topic for January, 2012. Ties will be broken using the same criteria as Lincoln-Douglas Debate. The break will depend on numbers registered.

Student Congress

Congressional Debate at the 2012 Columbia Invitational will be run in one open division; chambers will contain no more than 25 members, and ideally we will be around 16-20 per chamber.  If numbers warrant, a semisupersession will be added to the schedule.  Regardless, the Supersession, featuring a multifaceted scenario and committee work, will be held Sunday beginning at 10 am.  Advancement to the Supersession (and Semi- ) will be by nomination and credits; Congress Honors by judge nomination and a preferential ballot cast by both the judges and competitors.  Supersession question time will feature 2 minutes each for the sponsorship and first negative speeches, and 1 minute for all subsequent speeches, divided into 30-second blocks per questioner. Each school entering Congress should submit one piece of legislation; each school may submit up to one piece of legislation per student.  Please submit all bills by January 11th, 2012 to columbiainvitational2012@gmail.com. All legislation will be shared before midnight on 1/11/12.

» please note

All rules are subject to change. The tournament will make you aware of any changes at registration.