NOF Explainer: Async Congress & Debate

Congressional Debate is often regarded as one of the most rewarding events in forensics.  Despite the intimidating name to newcomers, Congress provides the opportunity for competitors to research, strategize, write, and speak off the cuff, all while advocating on the side of their own choosing.

But where does Congress fit into an async-tournament world?  Sure, it was hard enough to get the event off the ground when most tournaments went online in 2020, but soon enough, new norms were created.  The event began to flourish and has been one of the most successful events at NOF tournaments.  But async is a different matter.  

Obviously, async doesn’t offer competitors the chance to respond to previous speakers.  It also doesn’t allow the chance for competitors to ask clarification questions.  It’s not the same event.  But that doesn’t mean that it’s worse.  In fact, Async Congress can be a wonderful opportunity to students who may be intimidated by speaking in front of large groups.  It allows them to record their opening speech video in the privacy of their own home or classroom, and to submit that video to be compared against others’.  Moreover, the stripped down docket size means that only one piece of legislation is offered.  Thus, students who may not have the time or energy to research multiple pieces of legislation can still participate.

Similarly, debate events are often left out of the picture for async tournaments. However, we are excited to launch Async Debate for our fall tournament.  While Async Debate, like with Congress, won’t allow for the direct clash of ideas, it will instead allow debaters to focus on honing their delivery & presentation of their aff or neg case. This also means we will have the opportunity to see an LD aff case versus a public forum neg case.  Which one is more persuasive to a judge?

Here’s how Async Congress works:

Competitors will research and prepare for the single piece of legislation, just the same as they would for an in-person or a synchronous online tournament.  But when it comes time to perform, the competitor will record a video of their speech, instead.  The competitors may choose to either be in favor of the legislation or against it. Or, you can not choose, and record both a Pro and Con video to submit and win first and second place! These videos will then be submitted to the judge, who will then rank the competitors in the usual manner.  It’s important to note that the tournament will not have a parliamentarian, and thus, no parliamentarian score will be included in the ranking.   

Here’s how Async Debate works:

Competitors will research and prepare their opening speech for their favorite debate event - whether that is LD, IPDA, NFA-LD, NOF Parli, Public Forum, Policy, or World Schools. For debate formats that require an impromptu topic (such as IPDA, NOF Parli, or World Schools) we will release a topic 24 hours before the video submission deadline.  For other events, just use the topic you would normally be competing with at a synchronous tournament as of December 12.

Competitors can record their affirmative, their negative (or even both!) speeches to submit to the tournament.  Competitors will then be randomly assigned to a section of 6 speeches (like an IE) where judges will rank the effectiveness of the debate speech. It may be a bit wild - an Aff LD versus a Neg Policy speech - but we think it will also be really interesting for judges. Rather than deciding a “winner” like synchronous debate rounds, judges will instead rank the speeches like an individual event round. If you submit two videos, you could even be competing… against yourself!

Bottom Line

So, while there are some differences between the synchronous and async versions of Congress & Debate, both have benefits and drawbacks. Async Congress and Debate are new, but familiar. It’s important to remember that async tournaments often serve a slightly different purpose than synchronous or in-person tournaments. Competitors who live remotely or have unstable Internet can compete in tournaments that were previously unavailable to them. Others who are intimidated by the number of people watching them speak might find greater comfort in speaking to just a single camera, which they can submit when they’re ready. The list of benefits goes on and on.

Good luck to all the competitors who will be treading some new ground competing in these events at our Fall 2022 Async Tournament!