v. important notes on Penn

Hey guys,

Just a couple of things on Penn and how it's different from every other
tournament:

- Most importantly, the tournament is *STRAIGHT LINK*. For those of you
that don't know what this means, it means that you will *not *be running
your own cases. Rather, government team in each round is given the
choice of one of several "resolutions", which must run straight-up.
They have 15 minutes to case before the round starts. We'll probably be
casing together as a team.

Sample resolutions from last year:

You are Dr. Frankenstein and you should create a wife for your monster.
You are Comcast, you should air Al-Jazeera.
You are President Bartlett in West Wing. Your nomination for Attorney
General has been discovered to have at some point supported racial
profiling. We say, don't withdraw his nomination.

(those are the three that I ran last year, and lost all three of them
miserably)

Others were:

The US should militarily fund Taiwan
We should militarize space
US hegemony leads to stability
Israel should intervene on something or another on behalf of Jordan
London should ignore prostitutes or something
You are Simba - don't return to Pride Rock
Nixon should confront the USSR over something
Something about preventing media consolidation, etc.

Last year they had 3 resolutions every round, and one of them was always
a joke/less serious than the others; this year, they say they're doing 2
for the Friday rounds and 3 for the Saturday rounds. I don't think the
resolutions are ever opp-choice.

It sucks when you're gov and get a Hobson's choice of resolutions, none
of which you want to run - BUT it also means that opp (and LO) becomes
so much easier when you know what the other team is planning to run, and
know for sure they won't be running something borderline-spec or
borderline-tight. Also forces you to practice casing, while at the same
time giving you an excuse to put off writing those new cases for another
week.

- The second most important thing about Penn is that it's Pro-Am. This
means that every team has to contain a novice, and most teams will be
Varsity-Novice. Novice-Novice teams get Top Novice Teams awards (and
all novices are eligible for top novice speaker awards), but Penn does
not have outrounds specifically for novice-novice teams. Meaning you
novices should probably debate with a varsity member, since you'll learn
more and also it's the only way we'll get to go. =(

- The third most important thing about Penn is that it is offering a
dino (dino meaning a person who has graduated from the circuit) round
"featuring some combination of Mike Mayernick, Jon Bateman, Robbie
Pratt, Chris Ford, and Greg Arthur." If you don't know those names,
just for now know that they are very very good debaters that graduated
last year, and that you'll probably see a very good/very funny debate
while waiting in GA.

- The fourth most important thing about Penn is that you should go.
It's a killer tournament.

Send reg to danahn@rutgers.edu

-Ed