the lexington winter invitational

http://biglex.tabroom.com
Dear Coaches and Debaters,
It is with great pleasure that we invite you to attend Lexington's annual Winter
Invitational, to be held Saturday through Monday, January 16 through 18, 2016.
This is the second year of this revised schedule.

ALL DIVISIONS WILL CONTINUE TO START ON SATURDAY MORNING

AND RUN CONCURRENTLY!
Public Forum and Lincoln Douglas will conclude Sunday evening;
Policy late elims will continue into Monday.
We are a trifecta TOC qualifier at quarterfinals in Policy, Lincoln-Douglas and Public
Forum debate. Debaters will only be allowed to compete under their own school's
name and if accompanied by a responsible adult as defined by the Massachusetts
Forensic League. Home-schooled students may be entered under their
town/association name and accompanied by a parent/guardian in accordance with
MFL rules. Entering our tournament accepts these rules and those below.

general tournament info (all

divisions)
Registration for Big Lex is entirely online. You can register at
http://www.tabroom.com under the National Circuit or MFL circuits; or you can follow
the Register link off of our tournament website at http://biglex.tabroom.com.
Registration opens November 5th and new entries are due by Thursday, January 7th
at 3:00 PM, though we usually fill long before then so please register early.
Online tournament pairings and email/text updates will also be available online
on the "Pairings" and "Live Updates" tabs at http://lextab.tabroom.com during the
tournament. We will also use the online balloting system in all divisions so
advise your judges to bring a laptop, tablet or smartphone. This page is also linked
off of the "Register" tab on the tournament website.
Fees are fixed and frozen on Monday, January 11th at 11:59 PM. Drops are
possible after this deadline, but that will NOT affect the fees due at registration; entry
fees and judge hires must still be paid for if dropped after the 11 th.
Onsite registration can be done either in person on Friday evening if we are
housing your students, or online through Tabroom. To do onsite registration, log into
Tabroom.com after 5 PM on Friday evening & click "Onsite Registration" next to the

tournament name to confirm your entry. We will collect your checks on Saturday
morning at either Lexington High School or Clarke Middle School.
A $25 per change nuisance fees will be assessed at the registration table for last
minute drops. Invoices are available on Tabroom.com. PO payment plans are
available with prior approval only. You must have full payment at registration to be
allowed to compete.
Contact us: Contact the tournament staff by email at [email protected]. We
cannot accept email or telephone registrations; you must register on tabroom.com.
Housing is available for competing students and student judges in the novice
divisions. We will accept only the first 250 requests; the rest will be placed on a
waitlist and only admitted if debaters among the initial 250 drop out, so early
registration is very important. Housing for each night must be requested on
Tabroom.com. Please understand that meeting the *entry* deadline does not
guarantee that housing is available we have often filled up housing far in advance
of the entry deadline. Students should bring sleeping bags, towels and other
necessities for an overnight stay.
Hotel: The tournament hotel will be the Boston Marriott Burlington in
Burlington, MA, which is about a ten minute drive from the high school. They have
offered us a rate of 99.00 per night, which includes complimentary internet access.
To receive this rate contact Amy LaBossiere, Group Sales Coordinator, Boston Marriott
Burlington | One Burlington Mall Road | Burlington, MA 01803

(781-221-6616 Direct | 781-270-4144) Fax [email protected] Email

Directions to Lexington High School: Route 128/Interstate 95 is the best
approach from any direction. Exit 30 is the second Lexington exit, regardless of the
direction you are coming from; it is marked Route 2A. Follow Route 2A East into
Lexington.
Travel for a little more than a mile until you reach the first full traffic light; there is
a Dunkin' Donuts on this corner. Then turn left onto Waltham Street; pass
through another traffic light; Lexington High School is immediately on your left.
Lexington is twelve miles from Boston's Logan International Airport. You can also fly
into Providence (RI) and Manchester (NH) airports -- they are each about 75 minutes'
drive from Lexington, and the fares are often lower. We are also 20 minutes' drive
from a suburban Amtrak station (Route 128/University Park). Contact us for further
details if you need help.
Fees
Varsity Policy Teams:
$130 each
(LD,PF) $150/policy
Novice Policy Teams:
$75 each
Public Forum Team:$75 each
LD debater:
$55 each

Hired judging:

$100/entry

School Fee:
$25.
(If your registration check is postmarked by
January 2nd, we will waive the school fee.)

Fees will be halved for Urban Debate League programs from outside the Greater
Boston area. Email us at [email protected] for half fees.
We will offer hired judging which you may request to fill your judging obligation.
However, hired judges do not replace of chaperones; each student must be
accompanied by a responsible adult. Request hired judging on www.tabroom.com.
You should not assume your hired judge has been filled until your invoice reflects that
judge request has been accepted. If we run out of hired judges, you will need to drop
entries with unfilled judging.
We look forward to hosting you in January!
Sheryl Kaczmarek, Director of Debate, Chris Palmer, Assistant Coach & the Lexington
High Debate Team

lincoln douglas debate

tournament
We offer Novice and Varsity LD on Saturday and Sunday, January 16-17. The Varsity
division will break to Double Octafinals and the Novice division to Octafinals. We will
use the NFL January-February resolution. LD rounds will be held at Clarke Middle
School, 17 Stedman Rd, Lexington, MA 02421.
Entry Limits: Initially, each program is limited to 5 entries per division. Extra
entries will go on a waitlist. We will regularly monitor the waitlist and add new
schools first before giving additional entries to already admitted schools.
Judges: Schools should make every effort to cover their entries with qualified
judges. Schools must provide one judge per 1-3 entries in each division. You must
cover your entries separately in each division: if you have two varsity and one
novice, you need two judges, one for each pool. Experienced debaters (third or fourth
year) may judge novice, but may not cover varsity entries. Very qualified judges are
expected in varsity. We will use MJP in Varsity. We cannot accept judging changes
after prefs open; judge name changes after that point will be assessed a drop fee.
Elims: If the schedule permits, we will attempt to offer a run-off round after Rd 6 in
Varsity LD to ensure that at 4-2 teams have the chance to compete in an elimination
round. Should we do that, ALL judges remain obligated to judge in Doubles, and after
that one round beyond their furthest advancing competitor. Judging in a run-off round
does not free you from judging in doubles tournament offer run-off rounds in
recognition that clearing or not clearing based on a tenth of a speaker point over six
debates is harsh, but without all potential judges, running doubles debates is
impossible.
Tentative Schedule
Friday
5:00 pm
Online registration*

Sunday
8:00 am

Round 5

9:00 10pm Housing (HS

cafeteria)
Saturday
8:00 am
9:00 am
11:00 am
1 pm
2:00 pm
4:30 pm
7:30 pm
cafeteria)

Onsite Registration*
Round 1
Round 2
Lunch
Round 3
Round 4
Housing (Clark

10:30 am
Octos
12:30 pm
1:00 pm
Quarter
2:30 pm
3:30 pm
5:00 pm
6:15 pm
7:30 pm

Round 6 Varsity / Novice

Lunch
Varsity Doubles / Novice
Novice
Varsity
Varsity
Varsity
Varsity

Semis
Octos / Novice Finals
Quarters
Semis
Finals

* Only one of these is necessary; if you register online pay in advance or during round
1 at tab.

public forum debate

tournament
We offer a single division of Public Forum on Saturday and Sunday, January 16-17,
2016. We will use the NFL January resolution, to be announced December 1 by the
NFL. PF rounds will be at the high school.
Entry Limits: Initially, each program is limited to 4 entries per division. Extra
entries will go on a wait list, but please note that our first priority is to admit
additional schools rather than granting already admitted schools a fifth, sixth or more
entries.
Judges: Schools should make every effort to cover their entries with trained judges.
Schools must provide one judge per 1-3 entries. You may not cover PF entries with
judges from other divisions. We will offer a judge training at 8:30 AM at the
tournament. We will offer a small number of judge strikes in Public Forum Debate; we
cannot accept judge name changes after the strike sheet has opened.
Elims: If the schedule permits, we will attempt to offer a run-off round after Rd 6 in
Public Forum to ensure that at 4-2 teams have the chance to compete in an
elimination round. Should we do that, ALL judges remain obligated to judge in
Doubles, and after that one round beyond their furthest advancing competitor.
Judging in a run-off round does not free you from judging in doubles tournament
offer run-off rounds in recognition that clearing or not clearing based on a tenth of a
speaker point over six debates is harsh, but without all potential judges, running
doubles debates is impossible.
The PF tournament will follow the same schedule for Varsity LD above.

policy debate tournament

We will offer Novice and Varsity Policy Saturday through Monday, January 16-18,
2016. We will run six preliminary rounds in Varsity and five preliminary rounds in
Novice. The Varsity division will break to Double Octafinals and the Novice division
to Octafinals. Policy rounds will be at the high school.
Entry Limits: Initially, each program is limited to 4 entries in Novice Policy and 6
entries in Varsity Policy. Extra entries will go on a wait list. Since the high school is
shared between policy and public forum, we may more heavily limit novice policy in
favor of accepting a few additional teams in Public Forum.
Judges: Schools should make every effort to cover their entries with qualified
judges. Schools must provide one judge per 1-2 teams in each division this means
you need to cover your varsity entry separately from your novice teams. For
example, if you have two varsity teams and one novice team in policy, you need
two judges, one for each pool. Advanced, experienced debaters (third or fourth
year) may judge in the novice division but may not cover varsity entries. Very
qualified judges are expected in the varsity division. We will use MJP in Varsity. We
cannot accept judging changes after prefs open; judge name changes after that
point will be assessed a drop fee.
Tentative Schedule
Friday
5:00 pm
Online Registration*
9:00 10pm Housing (HS
cafeteria)
Saturday
8:00 am
8:30 am
11:00 am
1:30 pm
2:00 pm
5:00 pm
7:30 pm
cafeteria)

Onsite Registration*
Round 1
Round 2
Lunch
Round 3
Round 4
Housing (HS

Sunday
8:00 am
11:00 am
1:30 pm
2:00 pm
Quarters
5:00 pm
Semis
7:30 pm
Monday
8:00 am
Finals
11:00 pm
1:30 pm

Round 5
Round 6 / Novice Octos
Lunch
Varsity Doubles / Novice
Varsity Octos / Novice
Housing (HS cafeteria)
Varsity Quarters / Novice
Varsity Semis
Varsity Finals

* Only one of these is necessary; if you register online pay in advance or during
round 1 at tab.