Welcome debaters, judges and audiences to the First ATS Debate Tournament For 2005! This year there are many new members wishing to bring new ideas to the table and duke it out against some of our experienced members like Jamuhn and Rain King. Who will come out on top and win the first tournament of 2005? Only the debates will tell.

The Debates for round one have been posted and opened and all that remains is for the affirmative side from each debate to fire the opening salvo and commence the engagement.

Here is a copy of the rules for this tournament. They have also been posted at the beginning of each topic.

Each debater will have one opening statement each. This will be followed by 3 alternating replies each. There will then be one closing statement each and no rebuttal.

No post will be longer than 800 words and in the case of the closing statement no longer than 500 words. In the event of a debater posting more than the stated word limit then the excess words will be deleted by me from the bottom. Credits or references at the bottom do not count towards the word total.

Editing is Strictly forbidden. This means any editing, for any reason. Any edited posts will be completely deleted.

Excluding both the opening and closing statements only one image may be included in each post. No more than 5 references can be included at the bottom of each post. Opening and closing statements must not contain any images, and must have no more than 3 references.

Responses should be made within 24 hours, if people are late with their replies, they run the risk of forfeiting their reply and possibly the debate.

Judging will be done by an anonymous panel of 11 judges. After each debate is completed it will be locked and the judges will begin making their decision. Results will be posted by me as soon as a majority (6) is reached.

Good luck to everyone!