SpeechWire Tournament Services - Forensics Tournament Software

PLUM offers a single, open division of Parliamentary Debate following most NPDA guidelines. Prep: 15 minutes. Speech times: 7-8-8-8-4-5. Topics are announced in the competition room as soon as all parties are present. By entering this tournament, all teams and coaches agree coaching, group prep, and consultation of outside material (except for an ordinary dictionary and the NPDA rules for debate) are not allowed during preparation time at PLUM tournaments. To help teams focus on future and not past performance, there is no warm room. There will be no disclosure in the round. There will be no use of flex time. Debaters are expected to begin speaking a reasonable time after the previous speech. All results will be available after the tournament.

There are three preliminary rounds, the first two randomly preset, and the third power-matched to advance the best teams. Team sides in round three are determined by joint preference or coin flip before the topic is announced.

Teams advance to elimination rounds on these ordered criteria: win-loss record, total points, and adjusted points (low point round dropped). PLUM aims to provide the most debating opportunity to the most students. Accordingly, all teams with a winning record (3-0 or 2-1) advance to elimination rounds, along with a sufficient number of 1-2 teams to provide a number of teams divisible by 4. At times, logistics require that a team is advanced past the first into the second round. The first elimination round is designated the Bronze Round; teams that do not advance out of this round are named Bronze Winners. The second elimination round is designated the Gold Round; teams that lose this round are Silver Winners, and teams that win this round are Gold Winners. Teams are paired for elimination rounds by records, but switches may be made to assure a full Gold Round (i.e., to avoid close-outs if possible). Because of possible judging shortages, some elimination rounds may have fewer than the usual three judges; in case of a two-judge split, the team with the better preliminary round record advances.

Any informed, responsible adult may serve as a judge for the events, including undergraduate students who are not debating during the season. To keep costs low, we seek out volunteer judges from nearby school faculties and from the community. All judges are considered clean for elimination rounds.

Tournament awards consisting of personalized framed certificates will be presented to all teams advancing to elimination rounds, and to the top five speakers. The best two teams from each school will earn points toward season sweepstakes awards to be presented at the final PLUM tournament. Sweeps points will be assigned as follows: gold winner 10 points, silver winner 8 points, bronze winner 6 points, each preliminary round win 3 points. Season individual sweepstakes awards are presented to the top 10% of all speakers who participated during the season.

Entry fee is $25 per team, which includes their evening meal at the Bethany Dining Center. Each judge you bring covers two teams. There will be an additional $50 fee for each uncovered team. Meals for non-competitors are $9. An add/drop fee of $15 will be assessed after noon on the Monday before the tournament. Make checks payable to BETHANY LUTHERAN COLLEGE. Major credit cards will be accepted.

Entries should be entered into SpeechWire by noon on Friday, November 8 at 5 pm.

Contact Jon Loging at Jon.Loging@blc.edu or 507-344-7420 if you have any questions.

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