Parkway West Debate: Tournament Day

What to expect.

Getting a good nights sleep is more important than having that one last card of evidence.
Be sure to gather all your belongings (clothes, cases, evidence, flow paper, pens) the night before and NOT the morning of.

Eat a good breakfast and double-check everything.
You don't have to wear your debate clothes to school- you can put them in Hurst's room in the morning. Just remember that this means you need extra time to change before we leave.
Come get your excused slips for being let out of 7th hour early.

Most tournaments will have us leaving at 3:00, so you should be in Hurst's classroom with all of your stuff at 2:30-2:45.
On Fridays we usually have a bus to/from the school, but on Saturday you should figure out your own ride.
On overnights, we will usually leave much earlier in the day on Friday and get back on Sunday.

Once at the school, we will all go to the cafeteria and "claim" a table to be ours. Whenever you have free time (inbetween rounds, waiting for breaks to be posted, etc.), you can come back there and hang out. You can leave all of your belongings on the table.
If you have an individual event, you do that before the debate rounds start-you usually have around 30 minutes after we get to the school before the 1st round.
Every school is assigned a code, and every debater/interper has a letter (example: 14 is the school code, and B is your personal letter). When you get to the school, schedules will be posted around on the walls-look at a paper with your event and search for your code (14B).
For debates, this code will tell you what room you are in, what flight you are, and sometimes whether you are aff or neg. *In debate, there are a lot of entries, so all rounds are split up into two flights-flight A and flight B. If you are flight A, your round starts first, and if you are flight B, your round starts 45 min. later.
For interp, this code will tell you what room you are in, and what order you are performing in.

While you are at the tournament, you are representing West High. When you act inappropriately it not only makes you look stupid, it makes all of us look stupid.
Also, many judges are coaches that are standing around in the cafeteria with you- if you act out, you give them a negative impression that might influence their vote in a debate/event.
If you are acting out, someone will ask you "Have you talked to Zhang lately?" which means stop acting inappropriately or somebody gonna get a hurt real bad.

Remember that you can never control what the outcome of a debate/event is- your opponent can drop your entire case, speak in pig latin, take off their pants, and still be voted up by a judge. Do your best in the round, but just remember that you only control 50% of the equation.
Most of all, tournaments are a lot of fun if you learn to relax and enjoy yourself.

Tips from the experts for surviving a tournament