William R. DeMougeot Debates
Dear Community:
The University of North Texas Debate Forum and the Department of Communication Studies at UNT are
pleased to invite you and your debate teams to attend the annual William R. DeMougeot Debates on
January 8-10, 2014. The tournament this year will include three divisions of debate on the 2014-2015
CEDA/NDT topic, have quality preliminary rounds in Open, Junior, and Novice divisions, and clear to an
appropriate number of elimination rounds for each division.
As our colleagues at the University of Texas at Dallas mentioned, this tournament is held in conjunction
with the “Fear and Loathing in Dallas” tournament in order to provide two opportunities for quality
competition in Texas’ lovely January weather. Participation in the DeMougeot debates is a prerequisite
to winning the coveted “Texas Two-Step Award” given to the team with the best prelim record at the
two tournaments.
The schedule for the two tournaments is changing this year to better accommodate travel, expenses,
and family time. We are removing the day off between the two tournaments, using the same hotel for
both tournaments, and all preliminary rounds will be hosted on the UTD campus. On January 7th,
registration will be held at the tournament hotel starting at 5pm, Prelims are on the 8th and 9th, and
elimination rounds will be held on the 10th.
Preliminary and elimination rounds will be held on the University of Texas-Dallas campus due to ongoing
construction at UNT. This is a large change, but we believe will work out well for everyone involved.
We will offer debates in three divisions (open, junior varsity, and novice). We expect all three divisions
to be large enough to remain distinct this season. However, we will collapse the Novice division into the
Junior Varsity division if necessary. Please complete all elements of the entries by 5:00pm on Friday,
January 3, 2013. We will submit final orders for all food purchases that afternoon so correct information
by the entry deadline is necessary. We will also need to close entries into order to begin the judge
preference process. We definitely need final entries for both TEAMS and JUDGES by 5:00pm January 3rd.
Please use the Tabroom.com for entering the teams, judges, and food preferences. We will be basing
our food orders off the dietary information provided on Tabroom. PLEASE make sure your team’s
dietary information is correctly entered so that we can accurately make our food orders.
Hotel Accommodations –
We strongly encourage all tournament participants to stay at the host hotel. Tournament registration,
tournament receptions, and all rounds on Monday, January 7 will occur at the hotel. The tournament
will once again be at the Wyndham Plaza Suites. The Wyndham Plaza Suites is located just north of the
Westin Park Central and the LBJ freeway. It is a quick drive between the hotel and the UT Dallas campus.
Every room in the hotel is a suite. The rooms are quite large. The block rates are $84 for a double and
$79 for a single room. This rate will include internet access at no additional charge. The hotel offers
ample free parking. The group is listed as UTD Debate Tournament 2015.
Reservations can be made by phone by calling 972-233-7600. Reservation cut-off date is December
29th. I recommend making reservations ASAP.
Hotel Details:
Wyndham Plaza Suites – Dallas Park Central
7800 Alpha Road
Dallas, TX 75240
Front Desk: 972-233-7600
Our contact at the hotel if you encounter any trouble securing a reservation:
Elyse Rose
972-233-7600 Ext. 611
REGISTRATION:
We will accept entries for the tournament through, January 3, at 5:00 pm. If there are any problems,
email me at louiepetit@gmail.com. Registration will take place at the tournament hotel on Wednesday
January 7th in the late afternoon/early evening.
DIVISIONS:
We will have three divisions of debate at the tournament this year. Open division is open to any
undergraduate student with eligibility. The junior division and Novice divisions are open to anyone who
meets the CEDA eligibility standards for junior or novice participation.
JUDGING:
Each team seeking to enter should provide a qualified judge who will be available to judge at least four
(4) preliminary rounds and who will comply with tournament rules. A judge covering the requirements
for two teams should prepare to judge seven (7) preliminary debates. A qualified judge is a currently
active coach, graduate student, or former college debater. EVERY judge will be committed through the
octafinal debates in the Open division.
We will have very few hired judges available this year. Please inform the UNT staff (Brian Lain and/or
Louie Petit) at least two weeks in advance if your team will need to pay the fee for uncovered teams.
Funds gained by such fees will go towards to the hiring of qualified judges. Judges will be assigned on
the basis of mutual preference with an emphasis on promoting diversity in the judging pool.
Please indicate to the tournament administration if a judge cannot judge all three divisions. Please
repeat any such limitation in person at registration. Judges assigned to a debate by the tab room will be
responsible for submitting a correctly completed ballot at the end of that debate. Judges should not
leave the tournament unless their commitment has been fulfilled.
FORMAT AND RULES:
We will use the 9-3-6 format, with ten minutes preparation time per team in open and junior divisions.
Debate teams consist of TWO persons from the same school. Hybrid teams are acceptable, and may
advance to elimination rounds. There will be seven preliminary debates in the Open division with the
tab room randomly assigning the sides to each team in round seven. The Junior Varsity and Novice
divisions will have six preliminary debates. The schedule changes slightly each year so be sure to
examine the tournament schedule located at the end of this document.
The teams advancing to the Elimination rounds will be determined by the following criteria: the
tournament will advance all teams with a record of 4 or more wins to elims up to a full double-octa. We
will also hold an appropriate number of elimination rounds in Junior Varsity and Novice divisions.
Judges will be allowed and encouraged to use one-tenth speaker points to distinguish between
speakers. Judges should refrain from giving the same points to the speakers in the same round.
In the event of illness a single debater may debate 2 rounds alone but may not be allowed to clear based
on the tournament director’s discretion. We will NOT break brackets in elimination rounds. We will
enforce a 2:45 limit on decision times for judges beginning with the posted start time of the round. The
tournament will defer to the Council of Tournament Directors guide to resolving other matters.
FEES:
The entry fees will be $60 per person in attendance regardless of division. One team requires four (3.5)
rounds of judging. Two teams require seven (7) rounds of judging. Uncovered teams will be assessed an
additional fee of $40 per uncovered round & such judging fees will be used to secure the services of
additional judging. We believe that our tournament will provide both high quality hospitality and strong
competition relative to total costs of attendance. Please make checks payable to “North Texas Debate.”
Schools that elect to hire judges that are not affiliated with a participating school or judges that schools
elect to forgo covering their fees, the hiring school will be responsible for the judges per person fee. The
judge being hired and the school hiring should work out an agreement prior to the tournament.
All registrations will be considered final January 3rd at 1:00pm. Any drops after January 3rd 1:00pm will
be non-refundable due to the tournaments contract with the carious catering companies. Any additions
added after January 3rd will be assessed an additional $15 fee.
Sincerely,
Brian Lain, Director of Debate
Louie Petit, Associate Director of Debate
Steve Pointer, Head Debate Coach
Andy Casey, Debate Coach
Brian Kersch, Assistant Coach
Matea Ivanovic, Assistant Coach
Jason Sykes, Assistant Coach
The North Texas Debate Forum