Reg Details

After talking to some people that’re interested in competing, it seems better to be overly inclusive than exclusive and better to be simple rather than complex. Here’s how it works: if you’ve ever been top 20 TOTY or SOTY or have broken at Nationals, you’re eligible to compete. Additionally, each school receives a two “free seeds”: one for dinos and one for current debaters, so even people who do not meet the eligibility requirements can still compete if their team allots the free seed to them.

Current debaters can debate on teams with dinos, and the free seeds can be mixed (i.e. each can be one dino, one current debater). Competitors will debate with team mates from the school where they debated when on APDA. For example, I’m currently a Harvard Law student but debated while I was at Columbia, so if I were to compete, I’d have to debate with another Columbia student. Hybrids are not allowed except in truly exceptional circumstances. Free seeds can be mixed (e.g. a school can have two free seeds of one dino and one current debater each).

Since the goal is to ensure high quality rounds, it is possible that reg will close early for lower ranked teams, but no team that has already signed up to compete prior to an announcement will be affected. Basically, the way this would work is that teams are divided into tiers (these correspond to the achievement question you're asked on the signup form). The tiers are:

(1) top 5 TOTY, SOTY, Nats Speaker, Nats semifinalist

(2) top 10 TOTY, SOTY, Nats Speaker, Nats quarterfinalist

(3) broke at Nats

(4) top 20 TOTY, SOTY

(5) free seed

The goal is to have an average of 3 of the 5 teams in a pool be from the top two tiers, so if registration looks like it's going to seriously undershoot that goal, then we'll stop accepting registration from teams in the lower tiers. No teams that have already signed up will be affected, so this should provide an incentive to sign up early.