Stanford Invitational Speech & Debate Tournament
Policies and Procedures
Registration is now open!
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE: Please plan on the fact that this is a two day tournament for IE’s and congress and a three day tournament for most debate events with MANDATORY registration on Friday for all schools. We will not be giving out packets or awards early, and cannot guarantee delivery of missed packets or awards. If you must leave early and cannot adhere to our schedule, please arrange with another school to pick up your awards and packet. Please stay through the Sunday evening awards ceremony.
STATE SANCTIONING FOR OUT OF STATE SCHOOLS: We believe that all appropriate paperwork has been filed for Utah HS Assoc. sanctioning, and as the tournament has received sanction for the last several years we anticipate no problem. Lois Gorne, President of the state of Washington HS debate assoc., has informed us in prior years that the tournament is in compliance with all WIAA regulations governing out of state tournaments, and that as long as WIAA schools receive approval of their own board than they may attend. If additional paperwork needs to be filed for your state please contact us.
EVENT LOCATIONS:
- FRIDAY: Registration at the Santa Clara Marriott for all events.
- SATURDAY: IE’s at the Santa Clara Marriott; All debate and congress on the Stanford campus.
- SUNDAY: All rounds will be on the Stanford campus.
- MONDAY: All rounds will be at the Santa Clara Marriott.
JOY OF TOURNAMENTS REGISTRATION: Be sure to enter only from a single account, and only once. For some reason several schools each of the last couple of years have entered the tournament TWICE from different accounts - please don't do this, as it appears as two separate, duplicate entries! The easiest way to make sure this doesn't happen is simply to have only one account. If you insist on having more than one account, please be sure to keep careful track of how you are entering.
CONTACT INFORMATION: Please be sure to UPDATE YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION on Joy of Tournaments, including correct and current e-mail addresses and telephone numbers. It is VERY difficult and time-consuming to track down coaches with questions and issues that arise without proper and current contact information.
DOUBLE ENTERING: Double-entry in events is permissible, but there is NO cross entry between debate, LD, Parli, Public Forum, Congress and IE. The tentative schedule shows why cross-entry between debate and events is not possible. No special accommodations are made for those students who wish to double-enter in events, however, so students should expect to be rushed if they choose this option.
ENTRY LIMITS: The tournament allows the following initial entry limits per school:
- Congress: 12
- Parli Debate and Public Forum (each): 4
- JV Lincoln-Douglas: 8
- Varsity Lincoln-Douglas: 8
- JV Policy Debate: 4
- Varsity Policy Debate: 4
- Individual Events: 8 per event
You may request additional entries, and as always, we will attempt to accommodate all of the requested entries that we can. Early entry, strong support of the tournament over a number of years, and competitiveness of the additional entry request may all improve chances of approval of waitlisted entries. In the past we have been able to admit a majority of the requested additional entries, and will of course do what we can to allow as many of your students as possible to enter. Only official acceptance in writing of waitlisted / additional entries by tournament director Matthew Fraser is a firm commitment by Stanford Debate to accept the additional entries, and you should NOT make travel arrangements for additional entries until such official acceptance has been extended.
ENTRY DEADLINE: Entries must be received by us at the “joyoftournaments.com” website by Tuesday, January 17. Entry will be “final” as of this deadline, and fees will be owed on the the entry entered at this point in time. Changes made after this date will incur appropriate "late drop" fees.
JUDGE ENTRY DEADLINE: The judge entry deadline is Friday, January 27, at 5:00 pm. At this point all judge fees will be considered final. This deadline includes the requirement for all Varsity Policy and Varsity LD judges to have judging philosophies posted to the Judge Philosophies Wiki, and anyone missing a judge philosophy after this deadline is subject to penalties.
DROPS: There is no drop fee for drops made by Tuesday, January 17. You pay a penalty of only ½ of the listed entry fee for drops if they are made by Tuesday, January 31 (but after January 17). After January 31 the full entry fee will still be owed for drops, but not the judging commitment IF AND ONLY IF you call in the drop to us or register in person with those changes by Thursday evening at 8 pm, February 9. Calling in drops helps the tournament run smoothly, reduces your judging commitment / fees, and insures that everyone's students get the competitive experience for which they've come. Drops after the drop deadline will be assessed the full fee; no-shows will also be assessed a 25% entry fee penalty (not considered a no-show if the drop is reported promptly at the beginning of registration), and the judging commitment must still be fulfilled for no-shows. Cavalier denial of competition to students of other schools by having no-shows without adequate warning for us to re-pair the round is not acceptable. Registration: Please note the required registration periods on the schedule. Schools should pick-up confirmation sheets to double-check that we have the correct entry information. The exact location of registration will be announced on Friday, February 3 on this site at the top of the very first page (look there for additional updates and announcements as well). Schools must register and pay fees during the listed registration periods on the tournament schedule.
FOOD & LODGING: Food will be available on campus at the Tressider Union and Old Union buildings. The tournament hotel is the Marriott of Santa Clara, with a rate of $89 + tax per room per night (up to four in a room). A credit card is required to hold reservations, and 72 hours notice is required to cancel rooms, otherwise the first nights room cost will be charged if the room cannot be resold by the hotel. Reservations may be made online with this link. The number for the Marriott is (408) 988-1500. Make sure to identify yourself with the "Stanford Debate Invitational" to get the special rates. This rate is guaranteed for Friday and Saturday nights, is available on a limited basis for early arrivals and stay over guests. Early hotel reservations are encouraged as last year several schools were turned away. If you cannot get in to the Marriott because they are sold out you may contact us for suggestions.
We strongly recommend making reservations with the Santa Clara Marriott as soon as possible. The link to make reservations with the tournament rate of $89 per room is here, or you can call 408-988-1500, and indicate that you are with the Stanford Invitational to receive the tournament rate.
INDEPENDENT ENTRIES:
PLEASE NOTE THAT INFORMATION AND LETTER TEMPLATES FOR INDEPENDENT ENTRIES IS NOW UNDER ITS OWN PAGE LABELED "Indep Entries."
REGULAR VS INDEPENDENT ENTRIES (IMPORTANT): For the Stanford Invitational, regular entries are those which are officially sanctioned by the school AND for which the school provides an employee chaperone who will be attending and supervising the attending students for the duration of the tournament.
Any entry which does not meet these two important criteria (official sanctioning by their school and accompaniment by a chaperone who is an employee of the school) is considered by the Stanford Invitational to be an "independent entry," and must successfully complete all steps of this independent entry process to attend the Stanford Invitational. Even though an entry is "independent," the attending students must still be accompanied by a parent or designated ADULT chaperone. If you are at all uncertain about your 'status,' please read the information tab under 'indep entry' and complete all required steps, and if you have any questions, contact tournament staff. While we hate to DQ competitors during the event, we have and will do so for those who truly are coming as 'independent' but haven't followed the process we've laid out.
At any large tournament, logistical difficulties can on rare occasion occur in any number of matters, from tabulation to rules enforcement, to scheduling issues and judge disputes of various forms. Ultimately, the executive tournament director's discretion prevails on these rare occasions or when any sort of logistical difficulties arise.
AWARDS:
- Congress: top 5.
- Events: final round participants, top semi-finalists. Breaks to semis in varsity events with 40 or more competitors.
- Debate and LD: top 10 speakers in each division, partial double-octas on in varsity LD if entry warrants, octas in varsity policy.
SWEEPSTAKES: the top five overall school performances will be awarded handsome trophies. Sweepstakes will be calculated on the basis of open division competitors only as follows:
Events:
- Quarterfinalist: 1 point
- Semi-finalist: 2 points
Congress:
- Finalist: 2 points
- 7th-4th place: 4 points
- 3rd place: 6 points
- 2nd place: 10 points
- 1st place: 15 points
Parli and Public Forum:
- Octos: 2 points
- Quarters: 4 points
- Semi-finals: 6 points
- Second Place: 10 points
- First Place: 15 points
Lincoln Douglas:
- Double octas: 1 point
- Octas: 2 points
- Quarters: 4 points
- Semis: 6 points
- 2nd place: 10 points
- 1st place: 15 points
Policy:
- Double octas: 2 points
- Octas: 4 points
- Quarters: 8 points
- Semis: 12 points
- 2nd place: 20 points
- 1st place: 30 points
LD and Policy Varsity Speaker Award Points
- 10th - 5th speaker: 1 point
- 4th speaker: 2 points
- 3rd speaker: 3 points
- 2nd speaker: 4 points
- 1st speaker: 5 points