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IDEA and its members promote education and not competition and this philosophy defines the goals and objectives of IDEA debate tournaments.
Tournaments vary in size from small local competitions, which might take place after school, to large international tournaments, which can attract hundreds of debaters and coaches. Many IDEA member associations hold annual national tournaments for schools from the whole country, regional tournaments for schools from a given region, and small local tournaments within communities. IDEA works with member associations that want to organize international tournaments, which are normally held at campsites or inexpensive conference centers.
Debate tournaments consist of a set of preliminary debates, or "rounds," in which all teams participate. In this preliminary stage, teams debate each side of the topic in alternating rounds: a team that is affirmative in the first round will be negative in the second. The first round of a debate tournament normally pairs teams randomly. After the first round, teams are paired based on how well they have performed. With this system of pairing, tournaments insure that teams encounter others at their level. Teams that are doing well at a tournament should find their level of competition increasing with every win, just as teams not doing as well should find their competition getting easier as the day progresses.
After the preliminary rounds are complete, the teams with the best records proceed to elimination. The goal of the elimination round pairings is to have the number one and two teams debating in the final round, which is the round that will be watched by the most people. To achieve this end, in each preliminary round the top seeded team debates the lowest seeded team.
Tournaments involve a number of volunteers acting as judges, whose responsibility is to offer feedback to the teams and to decide who offered the better arguments in the debate. Judges are recruited from the local community and may include teachers or coaches of teams in the event, as well as parents, university students, or other volunteers from the local community. Tournament organizers provide the judges with all the training they should need to evaluate a debate; judges are not expected to be experts either in debate or in the topic being debated.
Judges and organizers of debate tournaments are obliged to follow a code of ethics that has been adopted by all IDEA member associations. These standards for organizing debate tournaments and judging debates can be viewed by clicking here.
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