Stanford National Forensic Institute

31st Annual Stanford Invitational | February 11-13, 2017

 

 

The Stanford Debate Society is pleased to invite you to the 31st annual Stanford National Invitational. Since 1987 students from across the nation have been joining us for this national level competition, and we hope that you'll help us build on this tradition and join us in Palo Alto this year!

 

Please visit debate.stanford.edu/invitational for our full tournament invitation!

 

FUTURE DATES (additional details will be released in the fall prior to each year's tournament); future dates subject to change

• 2018: February 10-12, 2018
• 2019: February 9-11, 2019
• 2020: February 8-10, 2020
• 2021: February 6-8, 2021
• 2022: February 12-24, 2022

 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR 2017 (left for your general reference for future years; 2018 details will be available fall 2017)

• Tournament Dates: Satuday, February 11th, 2017 through Monday, February 13th, 2017

  • Registration Opens: December 5, 2016 expected, will be announced via email
  • Priority Entry Deadline: Tuesday, January 10, 2017 (provisionally)
    • We will continue to accept entries beyond this date, however we plan to accept all teams on the waiting list as remaining room space allows (such as entries from schools in excess of the initial entry cap in each event) after this deadline so that schools may make appropriate travel and accommodation arrangements with sufficient lead time, so remaining space after this date may be extremely limited.  Please plan to register teams prior to this deadline in order to avoid disappointment!
  • Judge Entry Deadline: Tuesday, January 24th, 2016 (provisionally)
    • By this date, we MUST know if you plan to cover each entry's judging requirement via paying the judge fee or by providing a qualified judge.  If providing a judge, we need the name and contact info for each judge, and for judges in Varsity LD & Varsity Policy a complete entry must be listed on the Judge Philosophies Wiki.  Visit the Judge Information page for more information.
    • For any judge information that is missing, we will assess a fee equal to 25% of the cost of buying out of a judge for the event which that judge is listed as covering.
    • We can't guarantee our ability to fulfill any requests to hire judges after this deadline, and for any judges that we are able to provide the fee will be 125% of the fee to hire a judge for the relevant event before the judge deadline.
  • Drop Deadlines: Past years have proven that the only way to keep the tournament accessible to all entrants, even those who can't confirm attendance and arrange travel until later in the process, is the assessment of drop fees.
    • The drop deadline is Tuesday, January 17th, 2017.  Drops after this point are charged 100% of the entry fee.
    • Revisions to the drop deadline schedule for 2017 have proven necessary due to significant increases in registration and high numbers of "TBA" name entries.
  • Fees Received Deadline: Tuesday, January 17th, 2017
    • By this date we must have received all fees for all entries which we have accepted up through Tuesday, January 10th, 2017, plus fees for any and all judges that you plan to hire from the tournament.  Please get this in the mail right after January 10th or earlier so that we receive it by January 17th.
    • We reserve the right to assess an additional fee equal to the school fee owed by your squad in the event that you don't remit payment on time (as described above).
  • (Mandatory) Registration: Friday, February 10th, 2017 at the Santa Clara Marriott from 5:30PM - 8PM (exact times currently tentative)
    • Coaches must register in person, or complete electronic registration (details to be posted closer to the tournament).
    • Teams that do not register via one of the approved methods will be dropped from the tournament.  We must know that you are present, and we can't hold up the pairings in the morning due to any uncertainty about your presence since that impacts well over 1000 people!
    • There WILL NOT be phone registration offered, nor any sort of Saturday morning registration.  If you haven't gotten payment into us in advance or by the close of registration your entries will be dropped, no exceptions.
  • Competition: Saturday, February 11th, 2017 to Monday, February 13th, 2017
    • Exact 2017 tournament schedule decisions are not finalized.  We are evaluating feedback from 2016 and considering all possible schedule permutations in order to improve the schedule if possible.
    • 2017 event schedules:
      • IEs: Saturday and Sunday (finished by approximately noon on Sunday)
      • Congress: Saturday and Sunday (finished by approximately noon on Sunday)
      • Varsity Policy, Varsity LD, Varsity Public Forum & Varsity Parliamentary: Saturday to Monday, most elims on Monday
      • JV Policy, JV LD, JV Public Forum & JV Parli: Saturday to Monday, although Monday will only have later outrounds and should impact only a few schools

• Debate events offered:

  • LD:
    • ​Varsity: 6 prelim rounds, all 4-2s clear with a cap of 64 total elim teams
    • JV: 5 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the "debate' page for guidance)
  • Policy:
    • ​Varsity: 6 prelim rounds, all 4-2s clear with a cap of 32 total elim teams
    • JV: 5 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the "debate' page for guidance)
  • Public Forum
    • ​Varsity: 6 prelim rounds, all 4-2s clear with a cap of 64 total elim teams
    • JV: 5 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the "debate' page for guidance)
  • Parliamentary:
    • ​Varsity: 6 prelim rounds, all 4-2s clear with a cap of 64 total elim teams
    • JV: 5 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the "debate' page for guidance)
  • Congress: 3 prelim rounds with a break to finals.
  • MIddle School Congress: 3 prelim rounds with a break to finals.
  • TOC Bids in 2017 include:
    • Octafinals in Public Forum
    • Quarterfinals in Varsity LD
    • Semifinals in Varsity Policy
    • Top 6 finishers in Congressional Debate
    • IE events, level dependent on final entry numbers (see TOC IE bid tournaments page)
    • *Note that all TOC bids are awarded per the rules and guidelines created by the relevant TOC commitee, and "bid levels" are subject to TOC confirmation (they do list this information on the TOC website).

  Please note that JV Policy, JV LD, JV Parli and JV PF will have a number of elim rounds on Monday, although of course this will only effect a small number of students / schools.

• Speech events offered:

  • Varsity IE's: 3 prelim rounds with domestic & international extemp in opposite patterns!
    • Pattern A: National extemp, oratory, dramatic, spar, and expos
    • Pattern B: International extemp, duo, humorous, impromptu, oratorical interp, informative and program oral interp
  • JV IE's: 3 prelim rounds with domestic & international extemp in opposite patterns!
    • Pattern A: National extemp, oratory, dramatic, spar, and expos
    • Pattern B: International extemp, duo, humorous, impromptu and oratorical interp
  • Quarterfinal rounds in Varsity IE's: All Varsity IE's with 60 or more entries will break to a quarterfinal round (events with 30 to 59 entries will break to semis).
  • JV division in all IE events: Students who did not compete in any high school speech events prior to August 2015 are eligible to compete in our JV division.
  • Finished by approximately noon on Sunday: based on feedback, the IE tournament will continue to conclude by approximately noon on Sunday.

• TOC Bids: The 2017 Stanford Invitational is an octafinal qualifier in Public Forum, a quarterfinal qualifier in Varsity LD, a semifinal qualifier in Varsity Policy and a top 6 qualifier in Congressional Debate.  A number of IE events also award TOC bids for final round placement.  Please refer to the TOC website for more details on bid levels and qualification.

• Registration or optional electronic registration: Mandatory tournament registration will be held at the Marriott of Santa Clara on Friday, February 11, from TBA (evening hours). The tournament will be offering a courtesy electronic registration (details to be announced closer to the tournament). In order to be eligible to register electronically, a school’s fees (in their entirety) must have been received by the tournament no later than Wednesday, Feburary 9th and they must have no changes to their judges. Please note that no changes to Varsity LD or Varsity Policy judges will be accepted at registration whether in person or over the phone as strike and ranking sheets will have already been issued and processed.  No registration by phone will be offered, as anyone ineligible for e-registration needs to come to registration in-person or their teams will be dropped (no registration of any sort will be offered on Saturday morning)!

• Tournament hotel: The tournament hotel is the Marriott of Santa Clara.  The property offers discounted rooms in the Stanford Debate block.  The block is now open and rooms are available at $129 (quad occupancy).  For more information, visit the Tournament Hotel page.

• Middle School students: All events are open to 8th grade students this year! We do, however, encourage all participating middle school students to sign up for our Middle School Student Congress event which is open to students in grades 7 & 8, as we believe this is the best fit for most middle school students.

SPECIAL AWARDS:

• Champions receive an excellent award: Your squad will be excited to know that in addition to their trophy the following students will each receive a special award. The past few years this has been a Kindle Fire, iPod or iPod Nano! For the 2017 tournament we will have another great award for the:

  • Champion in Varsity Policy

  • Champion in Varsity LD

  • Champions in Varsity Parli debate

  • Champions in Varsity Public Forum debate

  • Champions in each Varsity IE event

  • Champion in Student Congress

  • Note: Champion is defined as the 1st place winner only. Awards are for students only.

• IE Champions also receive a partial scholarship to camp: In addition to their trophy and iPod Nano the champions in each Varsity IE event will receive a 50% scholarship to attend the Stanford National Forensic Institute in Individual Events. Champions in each JV event will receive a 25% scholarship to attend the 2017 Stanford National Forensic Institute in Individual Events. Scholarships are not combinable for multiple event winners, or transferrable to other students or events.

Questions: Questions about the 2017 Stanford Invitational should be directed to tournament director Rich Boltizar or our other staff by e-mailing invitational@stanforddebate.com. You may also try calling the Stanford Debate office at (650) 723-9086, however email is the most efficient way to reach our staff, and likely will receive a much quicker response.

We view this tournament as an opportunity to provide a service to the high school speech and debate community, and hope that is apparent to past attendees. We welcome feedback about how we can continue to improve the Stanford Invitational. So that we may accommodate all of your students who wish to compete, please take care of your tournament registration as soon as posible, and please book your hotel as soon as is feasible. This will ensure a pleasant and trouble-free tournament for everyone, and allow us to host you in the way you deserve!

 

Rich Boltizar

Director of Debate, Stanford University

Executive Tournament Director, Stanford Invitational