ATS Debate Tournament: Member Discussion

November 21, 2009

The window to declare has been re-opened. Please see this post immediately.

Thank you,
chissler




In the next few weeks, we will be initiating the next ATS Debate Tournament!

If you are interested in participating, announce your intention to participate in this thread. The number of spots will be determined very shortly, however we should have room to accommodate plenty of members. As we've done in the past, spots will be offered to more seasoned debaters over newcomers, if we have more members looking to participate than we can accommodate. The reason we do this is because a lot of forfeitures are common in these tournaments and by reserving seats for the more seasoned debaters, it is a small measure to prevent this. If you are a new debater, you can participate in "Challenge Matches" to gain some experience and maybe increase your odds at being selected. New debaters are on a first come first serve basis for spots not claimed by experienced debaters.

If you wish to participate, just say so in this thread, and make sure to check both this thread and the debate forum regularly for updates. I strongly recommend that participants add the debate forum to their MyATS display so that they will know when the debate threads are created and when their opponents respond.

Please consider whether or not you have the time to participate before you claim a spot. Debating is stimulating, but also demanding.

Debaters must respond to their opponent's posts within 24 hours. In my experience, a really good debate post takes between 1 and 3 hours to plan, research, and type up, depending on how tough your opponent is. Each round of the debate will require you to make 5 such posts within the space of 7-10 days. There will be 4 or 5 rounds, depending on how many fighters sign up.

That means that if you expect to win the tournament, you will need to devote at least 1 hour every other day for about 2 months. It is a single elimination tournament, so realistically, most participants will only have to make that commitment for a couple of weeks.



We are hoping to have the tournament up and running by the end of the month. Any member who is selected to participate in the tournament will be contacted and notified when your debates are up and running.



Are you not ready to debate (just yet) but still wanting to participate?

You can!

We are looking for judges! We are looking for topics!

If you want to judge, you can not participate in the tournament. And if you want to be a judge, we only ask the following:

Have an account that is in good standing

Have been with the board for at least 1 year

If you want to judge, contact myself, semperfortis or TheBorg. Judges will be contacted before the tournament begins. Not everyone who contacts us will be selected as a judge.

NOTE:

If you wish to judge, contact us privately. Expressing a desire publicly to judge will deem your account ineligible. It has been a longstanding practice of the ATS debate forum that judges remain anonymous.

 

And if you're not ready to judge but you have topics that you would love to see debated, let the three of us know. If we select your topic as a debate topic, I'll give 500 points for your contribution.

Debaters are not eligible to select topics.

Topics chosen will not be known until the debate is authored. Once authored, the member contributing the topic will be awarded their points.

We're looking for conspiratorial topics that may or may not be current, but at least something that our debaters can really dig their teeth into.

So there we have it!

Let's get this tournament rolling!!





[edit on 11-5-2009 by chissler]

[edit on 11-5-2009 by chissler]

[edit on 11-21-2009 by chissler]

[edit on 11-21-2009 by chissler]

[edit on 12-15-2009 by chissler]

(Text removed)



Please re-read the opening post.

Thank you.

[edit on 11-5-2009 by chissler]

I would like to participate. I have not yet been part of a ATS challenge debate or tournament, but am excited for this to be my first. Very willing and able to commit the necessary time.

Count me in I can't turn down a good debate

I am in!

please god give me subjects I can win. Shesh oh Pete am I sick of loosing cause of subjects that are impossible to win.

We need more political subjects this round. Dangit!



[edit on 11/5/2009 by whatukno]

reply to post by whatukno


No politics man! those are the subjects I suck at...lol

Sign me up too cant wait for a good debate.....!

oops double post! Dunno how this happend

Sorry!

[edit on 11/5/2009 by GUNSINWAR]

Can we nominate members for the debate team? I personally have no desire to debate, but there are some members here who have an impressive gift for debate and sound reasoning skills I'd love to nominate - in case they're too shy to jump in themselves!

[edit on 5-11-2009 by frankensence]

Considering I was the first to whine about the debate tournament, I am most certainly in

Thanks for this Chissler

reply to post by frankensence


While the gesture is noble, a member has to nominate themselves to participate.

reply to post by chissler


I would like to be considered for a spot in the tournament!

Sounds interesting, I would like to throw my hat into the ring also! Politics may not be a good debate on this site too many of us get rammy!

Originally posted by hangedman13
Sounds interesting, I would like to throw my hat into the ring also! Politics may not be a good debate on this site too many of us get rammy!

Yes, but the debate tournament is different to the normal forums. Any derogatory comments and personal attacks will result in a forfeit or loss

I haven't debated on ATS before but it was one one of my to-do things for a while. If there's still a spot available for us 'new debaters' then i would love to give it a go. Sign me up.

Originally posted by serbsta
I haven't debated on ATS before but it was one one of my to-do things for a while. If there's still a spot available for us 'new debaters' then i would love to give it a go. Sign me up.

Strange to see that there hasnt been as much interest from seasoned fighters so far.

Lots of new people though, which is good to see

I'm really going out on a limb here but I would like to be considered to join the new debaters.

I haven't debated since college and that was in the early 70's.

Sounds like fun to me.

For the "New Potential Fighters" these are the basic rules for the debates.

You may find minor alterations to these, but as a general guideline, this will serve to let you know what you are thinking of getting into.

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.

There is a 10,000 character limit per post.

Any character count in excess of 10,000 will be deleted prior to the judging process.

Editing is strictly forbidden. For reasons of time, mod edits should not be expected except in critical situations.

Opening and closing statements must not contain any images and must have no more than 3 references. Videos are NOT allowed unless specified prior to the opening of the particular debate.

Excluding both the opening and closing statements, only two images and no more than 5 references can be included for each post. Each individual post may contain up to 10 sentences of external source material, totaled from all external sources.

Links to multiple pages within a single domain count as 1 reference but there is a maximum of 3 individual links per reference, then further links from that domain count as a new reference. Excess quotes and excess links will be removed before judging.

The Socratic Debate Rule is in effect. Each debater may ask up to 5 questions in each post, except for in closing statements- no questions are permitted in closing statements. These questions should be clearly labeled as "Question 1, Question 2, etc.

When asked a question, a debater must give a straight forward answer in his next post. Explanations and qualifications to an answer are acceptable, but must be preceded by a direct answer.

This Is The Time Limit Policy:

Each debate must post within 24 hours of the timestamp on the last post. If your opponent is late, you may post immediately without waiting for an announcement of turn forfeiture. If you are late, you may post late, unless your opponent has already posted.

Each debater is entitled to one extension of 24 hours. The request should be posted in this thread and is automatically granted- the 24 hour extension begins at the expiration of the previous deadline, not at the time of the extension request.

In the unlikely event that tardiness results in simultaneous posting by both debaters, the late post will be deleted unless it appears in its proper order in the thread.

Judging will be done by a panel of anonymous judges. After each debate is completed it will be locked and the judges will begin making their decision. One of the debate forum moderators will then make a final post announcing the winner.

Semper

Bring it!

It's my virgin attempt, I look forward to having my debate cherry popped in this tournament

I hereby and herewith commit to participation in the Debate Tournament and extend respect to those organizing it.

[edit on 6-11-2009 by Skyfloating]

Edit to remove.....REMOVE

[edit on 6-11-2009 by DevolutionEvolvd]