NEDA competitions are divided into three formats: Rapid Fire, Cross Fire, and Traditional.
Rapid Fire Division rules/expectations
‘Rapidfire’ is NEDA’s unique extemporaneous debating competition!
Rapidfire is debated by individual competitors, with sides and topics announced at the start of each round. Topics are selected by the director of each individual tournament, and cover a wide variety of fields and issues.
The debate is to be treated as a pre-policy debate like Crossfire. There are no policy requirements even if the resolution is phrased as a policy resolution. All debates should focus on if the resolution is true or false and should be judged using that same standard.
Debaters may quote research to support their claims or use common knowledge/reasoning to support their claims. Quoted material should not carry more weight than in an argument using common knowledge/reasoning just because it is quoted.
Because all topic research is done individually and immediately before each round, it is possible for debaters from the same school to debate against each other in a Rapidfire round.
The debate should begin 20:00 after the debaters receive the topic.
Rapid Fire Format:
- Affirmative Constructive – 4 minutes
- Negative Constructive – 4 minutes
- First Crossfire – 3 minutes
- Affirmative Rebuttal – 4 minutes
- Negative Rebuttal – 4 minutes
- Second Crossfire – 3 minutes
- Affirmative Closing – 1 minute
- Negative Closing – 1 minute
Cross Fire Division rules/expectations:
Cross Fire’ is NEDA’s unique pre-prepped debating competition!
Cross Fire is a partnered debate event, with a predetermined topic voted on by the membership prior to each semester. While teams will often prepare their arguments beforehand, Crossfire debaters should not read directly from a manuscript or memorize their speeches word-for-word; instead, an extemporaneous speaking style, where notes/evidence contribute to your familiarity with your argument, enables spontaneous, conversational dialogue, and an ability to respond to the evolving line of argument throughout the debate
The debate is to be treated as a pre-policy debate. There are no policy requirements even if the resolution is phrased as a policy resolution. All debates should focus on if the resolution is true or false and should be judged using that same standard.
Debaters may quote research to support their claims or use common knowledge/reasoning to support their claims. Quoted material should not carry more weight than in an argument using common knowledge/reasoning just because it is quoted.
Teams will always be assigned as either Affirmative or Negative by the tournament scheduler. At most tournaments, the Affirmative team will automatically go first; in some tournaments, however, teams will flip a coin at the start of the round to determine whether Aff or Neg is ‘team A.’
The first 4 speeches are an opportunity for a team to establish, clarify, and defend their position while undermining the stand taken by the opposing team. The final 4 speeches involve summary and typing up loose ends – new arguments should not be offered during the final 4 speeches.
- This doesn’t mean the final 4 speeches are mere repetition of things already said; extending constructive positions and responding is essential and not considered a new argument.
- Both teams have 2 minutes of prep time to use throughout the speech; it’s assumed that neither team will use prep time before a crossfire dialogue.
Cross Fire Format:
- First Affirmative Speaker (1A) – 4 minutes
- First Negative Speaker (1N) – 4 minutes
- First Crossfire (1A & 1N) – 3 minutes
- Second Affirmative Speaker (2A) – 4 minutes
- Second Negative Speaker (2N) – 4 minutes
- Second Crossfire (2A & 2N) – 3 minutes
- Affirmative Summary (1A) – 2 minutes
- Negative Summary (1N) – 2 minutes
- Grand Crossfire (ALL) – 3 minutes
- Affirmative Final Focus (2A) – 1 minute
- Negative Final Focus (2N) – 1 minute
Crossfire_Debate_Format (handout version)
Traditional Division rules/expectations:
Traditional is NEDA’s unique pre-prepped policy debating competition!
Traditional is also a partnered debate event, with a predetermined topic voted on by the membership prior to each semester. Speeches in traditional tend to have preconstructed cases, however the utilization of arguments in round without sourced material are still allowed.
The debate is to be treated as a policy debate. This indicates that the affirmative should provide a plan text based on the topical parameters of the resolution.
Traditional Format:
- First Affirmative Constructive (1A) – 8 minutes
- Cross-examination (2N) – 3 minutes
- First Negative Constructive (1N) – 8 minutes
- Cross-examination (1A) – 3 minutes
- Second Affirmative Constructive (2A) – 8 minutes
- Cross-examination (1N) – 3 minutes
- Second Negative Constructive (2N) – 8 minutes
- Cross-examination (2N) – 3 minutes
- Negative Rebuttal (1N) – 5 minutes
- Affirmative Rebuttal (1A) – 5 minutes
- Negative Rebuttal (2N) – 5 minutes
- Negative Rebuttal (2A) – 5 minutes
