Tournament of Champions,debate

Tournament of Champions is a high school debate tournament held annually at the University of Kentucky on the first weekend of May. It is the most prestigious tournament on the "national circuit," representing some of the most competitively successful debaters from the nation's most prestigious individual debate tournaments. The tournament was founded by J.W. Patterson, former director of debate at the University of Kentucky.

Since its inception in 1972, the Tournament of Champions has emerged as the premier championship for high school debaters who frequently compete nationally in policy debate, Lincoln–Douglas debate, public forum debate, and Student Congress.

The Tournament of Champions functions as an independent tournament rather than an overarching organization governing high school debate, like the National Forensic League or National Catholic Forensic League. As such, the Tournament of Champions does not directly control the dozens of other national tournaments which occur weekly across the United States. Rather, the Tournament of Champions (or T.O.C.) uses the results of other tournaments to provide the criteria for qualifying to its own event.

History,Origins

The Tournament of Champions was developed by J.W. Patterson, who has since performed the duties of tournament host. Patterson explained the idea, "When I became Director of Debate at the University of Kentucky in 1971, I raised the possibility of hosting a high school debate tournament. Thus, I spent several months exploring this possibility. I asked several questions. First, was there a need for another high school tournament and, if so, what kind? What time of year should it be held and how big should it be?. Indeed, Patterson's experience in coaching high school policy debate at Muskogee Central High School in Oklahoma prior to accepting a position in the Communications Department at the University of Kentucky provoked Patterson to consider creating a new national championship. However, when considering the need for another national championship tournament, he came to the conclusion that the major national tournaments in the early 1970s had three major problems. Patterson explains, "First, debaters overwhelmingly were crying out for flow-sheet judges. Many of them were being trained at institutes to argue before flow judges but most of them said they received very few such judges, either at Catholic or NFL Nationals and almost never at invitational tournaments. Second, both teachers and debaters complained overwhelmingly about the politics involved in high school tournaments. Many said that up to 75% of the time they were either judged by incompetent people or people with a strong political bias.Third, I heard a major complaint from those going to Catholic and NFL Nationals that there was much too much lag time between their district tournaments and NFL. Thus, Patterson created the tournament with the hope that his competition would redress the major flaws with other national championships like those administered by the National Catholic Forensic League and the National Forensic League.

In its first competition, the 1972 Tournament of Champions was received by highly regarded policy debate teams positively. Patterson explains, "The first TOC was received very well. We had teams from coast to coast. As far as I could tell, there were a few qualified teams who refused to come but most did attend. At that time, most people in the know seemed to think that the top two teams in the country were from Toledo, Ohio, and Milwaukee. These two teams met at the TOC as well as the NFL final the same year".

Advisory Committee

The Tournament of Champions continued to host the nation's best in policy debate following the 1972 tournament. However, after the first eight tournaments, Patterson recognized that the "national circuit" influence of the tournament required that the event adapt. Consequently, Patterson began to formalize a system of "Tournament of Champions Advisory Committees." Patterson said, "After the first few years, I began to realize the importance of seeking high school coaches’ advice on the TOC. Although it was, and still is, a Kentucky invitational tournament, I obviously recognized the importance coaches and debaters place on the TOC. I, therefore, leaned heavily on coaches advice in helping me keep the TOC as a major culminating event. However, while the influence of the committee in making decisions regarding the administration of the TOC did begin in 1980, official formal committees were not established until 1990.

Addition of Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Another major development in the Tournament of Champions' structure was the addition of Lincoln Douglas Debate. "LD" first appeared at the National Forensic League National Championship in 1980, but was not included in the T.O.C. until 1986. Despite Patterson's efforts to include the event as early as 1983, strong opposition from the Advisory Committee prevented Patterson from adding Lincoln-Douglas.

Addition of Public Forum Debate

The next event added to annual Tournament of Champions competition was Public Forum Debate. However, unlike Lincoln-Douglas Debate which boasted support by its proponents for inclusion into the Tournament of Champions, Public Forum Debate faced strong opposition against joining T.O.C. competition from supporters and opponents of the event alike. On one hand, Public Forum structurally was created to rectify the "national circuit" idiosyncrasies like jargon and the extreme workload necessary to compete effectively that plagued Lincoln-Douglas and, on a greater scale, policy debate. Thus, as an event meant to be engaging for laypersons and experts on the event alike, the Tournament of Champions, an event celebrating the national circuit culture, seemed incompatible. Despite this argument, Public Forum was included in Tournament of Champions competition in 2004, but took place as a round robin unlike its peer events. In 2007, Public Forum debuted as a full fledged event with a full field and non-round robin pairings. To aid in eliminating the "national circuit" qualities of the competition in Public Forum, the Tournament of Champions utilized lay judges from the University of Kentucky to adjudicate rounds at the 2008.

Addition of Congressional Debate

Beginning with the 2004-2005 school year, Student Congress Debate was added to the T.O.C. after three years as an independent event

Tournament procedure

In Lincoln-Douglas debate and policy debate, the TOC employs seven preliminary rounds and clears to octafinals. All entries with a 5-2 record have the opportunity to advance into the outrounds; as such, when more than sixteen entries have at least a 5-2 record, the Tournament of Champions holds the appropriate number of run-off rounds to determine which of the lower-seeded debaters will advance. For the first three years of its existence, the Public Forum division of the TOC was conducted in a Round Robin format.

Lincoln-Douglas Debate debates the January-February National Forensic League topic. Public Forum Debate debates the April National Forensic League topic. Policy Debate teams debate that season's national high school topic.

Location

Since its inception, the Tournament of Champions has been held on the campus of the University of Kentucky and at other locations in Lexington, Kentucky near the campus.

Currently, preliminary rounds of Lincoln-Douglas, Policy, Public Forum, and Congress are held directly at the University of Kentucky. However, after competition on Saturday and Sunday, the tournament moves to a central location to conduct its annual "Breakfast of Champions" ceremony as well as the elimination rounds. Since the 2007 Tournament of Champions, the final day of competition has taken place in conference rooms at the Downtown Hilton in Lexington, Kentucky.

Tournament of Champions Qualifying Tournaments

In order to qualify to the Tournament of Champions, competitors in Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Policy debate, Public Forum Debate, or Student Congress must earn two "bids" at designated qualifying tournaments. "Bids" may be attained by reaching the "bid round" at certain tournaments (for instance, a quarterfinal bid gives bids to the top eight competitors, a finals bid gives bid to the top two competitors), which are given different bid statuses based on the strength, size, and geographic diversity of the tournament. All competitors who have received two bids to the Tournament of Champions may apply using the regular application. Historically, every competitor with at least two bids has been accepted. However, the Tournament of Champions only guarantees that debaters receiving three or more bids will be accepted as it would be mathematically possible for the bid distribution to be so diverse that more debaters with two bids exist than spots available.

In the event that there are fewer than 70 fully qualified entries in an event, the Tournament of Champions then proceeds to admit "at-large applicants." A debater is entitled to consideration as an at-large applicant if he or she has acquired one bid during the season. Following the at-large application process, the T.O.C. Advisory Committee in given the responsibility of ranking the applications, which are then combined to fill the remaining slots for the T.O.C.