Dear Colleagues,

 

We are excited to be hosting the Biggest Little City Classic on Oct 21-23, 2016 in Reno, NV. The University of Nevada, Reno has been rated one of the top campuses in the nation. The city of Reno offers all kinds of exciting activities for members of your team of all ages. Excellent dining options and affordable accommodations await you. The weather in Mid-October is usually quite nice.

We have designed a schedule that should allow folks flexibility with travel depending on which events they are competing in. We also have made it our goal to be done at a reasonable time each day so that teams can enjoy meals together and relax.

We are offering 4 preliminary rounds of LD, 2 preliminary rounds of IEs, and 5 preliminary rounds of NPDA. We will recognize sweepstakes for IEs, Debate, Overall 2-year, 4-year, and Top Novice.

We offer a unique schedule that attempts to make it easier on squads who only do one platform.
Parli begins at 2 pm on Friday and is over by Saturday night.
LD begins Saturday at 1 pm and finishes Sunday
IEs begin Sunday at 9:30 am and finish Sunday evening.
Student run programs should speak to us about working with you on your fees.  We look forward to seeing you all in Reno. If you have any questions, please reach out to us.

Sincerely,

Phil Sharp
Director of Forensics
University of Nevada, Reno

psharp@unr.edu
(360) 747-2944
Hotel Information

We have secured a block at:

 

The Nugget in Sparks

The hotel is located about 4 miles from campus.

The hotel has recently undergone a renovation.

Rate: $69 Friday and Saturday/$39 for Thursday and Sunday nights (plus taxes and $12.50 resort fee)

Call: 1-800-648-1177 and ask for Group Code: GUNRD

The deadline for reservations in the block is October 7.

 

You may shop around but this might be the best you find at a decent property. This hotel/convention center offers easy room access from the lobby and parking garage without going onto the casino floor. Also, they have a mechanical bull at Gilleys. Get ur done!

 

Directions

To CAMPUS from I-80
Take the Virginia St exit. Head up the hill. The University is on the right about ½ mile up Virginia St. You can’t miss it.

 

Parking on Campus

On Friday, you will need to pay for parking on the first floor of the Brian Whalen Parking Garage or the top floor of the West Stadium Garage. Parking can be purchased at the parking office (16^th&Virginia St) or from the pay machines. TICKETS WILL BE STRICTLY ENFORCED IN ALL LOTS until 5pm

 

Park in the Brian Whalen Garage on Saturday and Sunday. Parking is free on the weekends.  

 

Events

NFA Lincoln-Douglas Debate
We will offer 4 prelims and the appropriate number of elim debates in Novice and Open Divisions. We plan to single-flight the rounds, so one judge will cover 2 competitors.  We will use the 2016-17 NFA LD topic and all NFA-LD rules.  Time limits will be 1AC 6, cx 3, 1NC 7, cx 3, 1AR 6, 1NR 6, 2AR 3.  4minutes prep time per person.

 

Individual Events:
IE’s will be run on Sunday only. There will be two preliminary rounds followed by finals (if an event warrants semifinals, we will attempt to offer it during the first final pattern). We will offer two divisions (novice/open) in each event, but reserve the right to collapse divisions if necessary. For novice division, contestants must be in their first year of competition in event area in either high school or college. Students may be novice for new event areas, even if they are open in others (example: a student did interp in high school but no limited prep. They can go novice in the limited prep, but the must go open in the interp). We will have all 11 AFA events and AFA rules will govern each event. Pattern groups will be as follows:
A: Extemp, ADS, Prose, Poetry, Informative
B: Impromptu, Persuasion, CA, Drama, POI, and Duo
Competitors may enter a maximum of 3 events in each pattern, but be warned: the tournament will make NO special accommodations for students who are in multiple events and are late to a round. If you miss the judge because you are multiple entered you will NOT be able to make it up. If a student advances to LD finals, they may not enter more than 2 events in Pattern B. Competitors may not use selections used in competition prior to September 1, 2016 (the only exception is rookies who competed at the NCFA Spring Fling last spring.) One critic covers six IE slots per pattern.

 

Team Parliamentary Debate – NPDA:
We will offer three divisions (novice/junior/open). We will collapse junior into open if there are less than 16 teams in either division or if open does not have adequate numbers/school diversity for pairing easily. In the event of a collapsed division, we will still break out non-advancing junior teams as appropriate.
To be classified as a novice:
a. The student should have no high school debate experience.
b. The student should be in the first two semesters of collegiate debate.
c. Once the student has advanced to elimination rounds 3 times, the student should be advanced to the junior or open division.
To be classified as junior varsity:
a. The student should be in the first four semesters of intercollegiate debate.
b. The student should not have advanced to elimination rounds 3 times in junior or open division. c. The student should not have advanced to elimination rounds in a debate event at ANY national competition (NFA, NPDA, PKD, PhiRhoPi…).

 

There will be five preliminary rounds, followed by the appropriate number of elimination rounds. All winning records will advance up to 32 teams. Teams will use the 7-8-8-8-4-5 format, with 25 minutes of prep and walking time, beginning at the end of the topic announcement.  The first two rounds will be preset and then round 3-5 will be power matched. Teams will advance to elimination rounds based on the following criteria: win/loss, total speaker points, adjusted speaker points, double-adjusted speaker points. Brackets will be broken.

 

One critic covers two debate teams. All judges are committed through second elimination round, even if their teams are eliminated. All resolutions will be announced to the group in SLH. You are allowed to consult materials and coaches during the 25-minute preparation period. Judges are allowed, but not required, to disclose their decisions but are limited to no more than 5-minute discussions with debaters after each round after they have sent their electronic ballot. Hybrid teams and three-person teams will be allowed to clear. Maverick debating will not be allowed.  A “warm room” listing of team records will be posted following round 2. Nevada students may compete and will be eligible for elimination debates and awards. All judges must provide an email address and have a device from which they can send their ballot upon completion of the round.
Sweepstakes Awards
Sweepstakes trophies will be awarded to (1) the top two debate schools; (2) the top two IE schools; (3) the top two community colleges overall and (4) to the top two universities overall; and (5) the top Novice competitor.
The following formula will be used for Team sweepstakes calculation:
IE: (top 3 competitors per school per event)
1st = 5 pts 2nd = 4 pts 3rd = 3 pts finalist = 2 pts semi’s = 1 pt
Debate: (top 4 teams in each division per school)
3 points for each prelim win plus 2 points for each team that clears.

 

Entry Procedure

You will find the tournament on Forensicstournament.net. Entry deadline is Wed, October 19^th at 8:00pm.
http://www.forensicstournament.net/BiggestLittleCityClassic/16

 

Please provide an email and judge philosophy for each debate judge. Feel free to discuss you pedagogy/rubric for evaluating IEs also.

 

We look forward to hosting you in October. Please feel free to contact us with questions!
Fees

Each debate team entry is $60.00, each LD entry is $30.00, each individual events slot is $10.00, and Duo is $15. There will be a $30.00 school fee.

 

Due to the cost of hired judges, we have the following fees for uncovered teams.  We would much rather have you bring your own judges!  Each uncovered parli debate team will be $125.00. Each uncovered LD person will be $50.00.  Each uncovered IE slot will be $15.00. Each parli judge will cover 2 teams.  Each LD judge will cover 2 LD’ers.  Each IE critic will cover six slots per pattern.   If you know anyone who would like to be hired, have them contact us.

 

Please make checks out to “Phil Sharp, C/O UNR Debate”.   Fees will be set at 8:00pm on Wednesday, October 14^th and schools should expect to pay the set fee amount at registration regardless of subsequent drops. The online entry system will be turned off at that time.

Schedule

 

Friday
1:00pm-1:30 pm Registration – Schulich Lobby
2:00pm Parli Rd 1
3:30pm Parli Rd 2
5:15pm Parli Rd 3
7:00pm Parli Rd 4

Saturday
8am Parli Rd 5
9:45am Parli Elim 1
11:40am Parli Elim 2
12-12:30pm LD Registration
1pm LD Rd1

1:45pm-2:10pm Lunch(Provided)
2:10 Parli Awards- Schulich
2:30pm Parli Elim 3
4pm LD Rd2

5pm Parli Elim 4

6:30pm LD Rd 3

7:30pm Parli Elim 5*

7-8pm IE Only Registration

Sunday
8:15 am LD pairings posted
8-8:45am IE Late Registration

8:30am LD Rd 4
9:30am IE A Rd 1/ Extemp Draw

11am IE B Rd 1
11:20am LD Quarters (Do Pattern B first)
12:30pm IE A Rd 2/ Extemp Draw

1:15pm-2pm Lunch (provided)

2:15pm IE B Rd 2
2:35pm LD Sems (Pattern B first)
3:45pm Pattern A Finals/ Extemp Draw
5:15pm Pattern B Finals
5:30pm LD Finals (Do Pattern B first)

6:30pm IE/LD Awards

 

 

 

*Parli Elim 5 will be moved up to 6:30pm if none of the participants are in LD.