Seasonal Championships

The Seasonal Championships (Seasonals) is a one day tournament that gives students the opportunity to debate multiple times early in the year, and immediately implement feedback offered by experienced adjudicators.  Teams will debate in three-on-three debates, with eight minute speeches (Championship Division) and six minute speeches (Novice Division) and mandatory points of information.

Seasonals is an excellent tournament for advanced and novice debaters alike and is excellent preparation for teams entering Premier Advanced, Premier Junior and Advanced Open. Seasonals is also a good preparation tournament for regionals.

Seasonals is a one day tournament. The winner of the tournament will be the team with the most wins after the round robin stage.  In the event that multiple teams end up on the same number of wins, speaker points will be used to determine the winner of the tournament. The top 4 to 8 teams will be announced for each division.

Due to heightened Covid alert levels, in 2021 Seasonals will be run online using Zoom. Dependent on Covid alert levels, students will be permitted to debate together (e.g. at one student’s house or at their own school).

Divisions

Seasonals will have two divisions, Championship and Novice. The goal of the new novice division is to encourage entries from schools which haven’t traditionally entered weekend tournaments. Teams in the Novice division will only debate against other teams in the Novice division. Teams must meet the following requirements to be elligible to compete in the Novice division:

• This must be either the first or second weekend tournament (Seasonals, Regionals or Impromptu Cup) for all members of a Novice team (i.e. they have participated in a maximum of one weekend tournament).
• The school must not have had a team make the quarter finals at a weekend tournament (Regionals or Impromptu Cup) in 2020. If you are unsure please email info@asd.org.nz and we can tell you if you qualify.

Key Details

When: Sunday 14 March
Where: Online via Zoom
Who: The tournament is open to all Year 10-13 students.  We recommend entering your most senior speakers as a first priority.  The tournament will be particularly valuable to those who intend to compete in the Auckland Regional Championships.
Team Cap:  Schools are guaranteed entry to five teams. (Schools may also enter a mix of teams, i.e. 2 in the championship division and 2 in the novice division).
Cost: $60.00 per team (fee subsidies are available for low decile schools)
Timetable: Four round robin debates from 8.30am – 6.30pm.
How to enter: Complete the entry form below.
Deadline for entries:  5pm, Tuesday 9 March (no entries will be accepted after this time)

Tournament Format

Speakers: Three speakers per team (teams may rotate reserves throughout the day)
Format: Limited preparation
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Speech Length (Championship): 6 minutes, points of information permitted
Speech Length (Novice): 6 minutes, points of information permitted

Timetable