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The University of North Texas William DeMougeot Debate Forum and the Department of Communication Studies at UNT are pleased to invite you to the Fall 2018 TIFA tournament and the UNT Invitational. The tournament will include all individual events, NPDA and NFA-LD. The tournament will be held on the UNT campus November 2-4, 2018.

The tournament will be held in the following building that are all located next to each other – Language, Curry, General Academic Building and Physics. There will be parking passes available at registration.

The tournament hotel is the Springhill Suites located at 1434 Centre Place Drive, Denton, Texas 76205. It is a quick drive between the hotel and the UNT campus. Every room in the hotel is a suite. The rooms are quite large and can sleep 5 people. The block rate is $104. This rate includes internet access, parking, and FREE BREAKFAST every morning. Overall this is an exceptional value for such an amazing facility. There is a NASCAR event at the Fort Worth speedway so hotel space in Denton is limited and very expensive for the weekend of November 1-4.

The group is listed as “UNT Fall TIFA” and has rooms available on the nights of November 1^st thru November 4^th. Please make sure to use the group name if booking over the phone – UNT Fall TIFA.

The group cutoff date for reservations is Friday, October 19, 2016. While rooms may be available at the last minute, the hotel will only guarantee the block of rooms and the tournament rate for those reservations made before October19, 2018. We suggest that your reserve your rooms as soon as possible.

We assure warm hospitality, quality awards, and efficient scheduling. We look forward to seeing you on November 2^nd for some outstanding competition. Should you have any questions regarding tournament logistics, please contact, Louis Petit. He can be reached by email – louis.petit@unt.eduSincerely,

Tournament Information

Individual Events (both parts):

Contestants in prepared events may not use materials used by the student in competition prior to September 1, 2018. AFA-NIET and TIFA rules govern all individual events. The tournament host reserves the right to cancel an event if entries do not warrant holding the event.

Pattern A: Extemporaneous, POI, Persuasive, DUO, Poetry, CA

Pattern B: Prose, Impromptu, Informative, Dramatic, ADS

NOTE: Contestants in Extemporaneous Speaking must be ready to submit contest topics to the judge or be disqualified from the competition.

A student may enter three (3) events per pattern. There is no limit on number of entries per school per event, however, only the top 4 per event will count toward sweepstakes points. Sweepstakes points will be assigned as follows: 1^st place – 12 points; 2^nd place – 10 points, 3^rd place – 7 points, finalist not placing will receive 5 points and semi-finalist not advancing will receive 2 points.

NPDA Debate for TIFA Part of the Swing:

Six prelim rounds (4 preset), plus the appropriate number of elimination rounds. The tournament host reserves the right to cancel an event if entries do not warrant holding the event. Parliamentary teams will debate resolutions varying by round. All debates will follow NPDA rules. All winning records are not guaranteed a break to elimination rounds. The format: 7-8-8-8-4-5

A “novice” team is comprised of debaters, neither of whom has participated in more than two semesters of NDT, CEDA, and/or high school debate. A student who has competed in high school LD debate only may still be considered a novice during their first year of competition in either college in Team Debate or NPDA.

Please NOTE:

One judge covers two (2) NPDA teams.

One judge covers two (2) LD entries.

One judge covets eight (4) I.E. entries.

A judge cannot cover both LD/IPDA and IE entries

BUILDING USAGE:

We will be using four (4) buildings but they are all next to each other.

AUDB – Auditorium Building

GAB – General Academic Building

LANG – Language Building

PHYS – Physics

PARKING:

We will be providing parking passes to the UNT visitor lots. These will be available at the hotel upon request at the front desk. Below are the locations to the closet lots:

Welch & West Mulberry Street

Avenue C & West Mulberry Street

Welch & West Sycamore Street

There is also parking along West Hickory Street and Avenue A that is first come.

Judging and Entry Fees

JUDGING:

ENTRY FEES – TIFA Tournament

ENTRY FEES – UNT Invitational

NUISANCE FEEs

1. For each judge dropped after the drop deadline, there will be an additional $50.00 fee.

2. From Noon Wednesday, October 31^st until Noon Thursday, November 1^st, there will be an $10 charge for dropped IE entries and a $20 charge for dropped debate entries in addition to the original fees.

3. After Noon, Thursday, November 1^st, there will be a $20 charge for dropped IE entries and a $50 charge for dropped debate teams in addition to original entry fees.

4. Judges who do not pick up their assigned ballots on time (within 10 minutes after the round is scheduled to begin) will be penalized $25. If their fine is not paid, the judge’s students will be deemed ineligible for elimination rounds and the school’s ballots will be held until the fees are paid.

Schedule – Fall 2018 TIFA (Tentative)

Justin Blacklock
Email address: jblacklock@alamo.edu
Phone number: 361-816-1455

2018 Fall TIFA / UNT Invitational