Letter of Invitation

Dear Colorado friends,

You are invited to attend the 2026 Roadrunner Scrimmage at Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU Denver) in Denver, Colorado! This British Parliamentary style scrimmage will be held at MSU Denver in our Central Classroom Building. We will offer three rounds of competition on Saturday, September 5, 2026. This scrimmage will follow YODL rules and procedures including a topic strike process using topic areas we will release about a month before the scrimmage. This is a free event open to anyone who would like to attend. Given the short nature of the event and the fact that it is a scrimmage, we are expecting a local draw. We will provide a light breakfast and lunch for all participants. Please register by no later than August 31 so we have time to order food and reserve rooms. Please send all correspondence to John Rief.

We look forward to hosting you at MSU Denver!

Sincerely,

John Rief, MSU Denver, jrief1@msudenver.edu 

Jason Jordan, MSU Denver, jjorda44@msudenver.edu                   

Staff 

Conveners: John Rief and Jason Jordan

Tab: John Rief

CA Team: TBA

For all registration questions and other pre-event assistance, please contact John Rief at jrief1@msudenver.edu.

Registration Information

There is no registration fee for this scrimmage. The baseline judging commitment is 1 judge per institution. Beyond this baseline, the judging commitment per school will be N-1. So, every team should plan to supply a judge. Schools with more than one team will follow the N-1 rule. That is, institutions with 1 or 2 teams will owe 1 judge. Institutions with three or more teams will supply judges using the rule. Please supply as many chairs as you can. We are planning to hire several judges but you will need to contact John Rief at jrief1@msudenver.edu to secure them toward your commitment. The earlier you do this, the better. If you have secured a judge with John Rief, this judge will count toward your commitment. 

Please enter your teams on forensicstournament.net by Monday, August 31. Any teams that have registered by this time can make edits (including drops, additions, new team configurations, and changes to judging personnel) up until Friday, September 4. If you have questions or special requests, please email John Rief at jrief1@msudenver.edu.

Scrimmage Procedures

As noted above, we will follow YODL rules at this scrimmage including the topic strike and points of privilege procedures. We will not be using open adjudication. We will go over these rules at our pre-scrimmage briefing on Saturday morning.

We will use the YODL adjudication manual as our primary source for rules and norms throughout the scrimmage. While we will not be requiring judges to complete YODL certification, we do expect that everyone will be familiar with the YODL manual. Please note that while we are using YODL rules, this scrimmage does not count toward YODL points and is not officially sanctioned by YODL.

For any issues not addressed in the YODL manual, please consult the WUDC manual. Should any questions or concerns arise, these are the documents our CA team, tab, and scrimmage leadership will reference.

A slate of topic areas will be released around one month before the scrimmage. We will make these topic areas available on forensicstournament.net and via email to currently registered teams. Teams will be given an opportunity to recommend specific topic wordings to the CA team shortly after the release of these areas. The due date for suggestions will be provided once the topic areas are released.

Food

We will be serving a light breakfast and lunch. Please contact John Rief at jrief1@msudenver.edu with any dietary requests, restrictions, and allergies on or before Monday, August 31.

Parking

We will be paying for parking and will release a code to everyone a week ahead of the scrimmage. Please consult the attached map (below) for the best places to park.

Schedule

• Please note that all times are MDT (Mountain Daylight Savings Time) and are subject to minor modifications. You will be informed of any changes well in advance.

Saturday, September 5

• Check-in 8-9am (Central Classroom Building, Room 109)
• Drop Deadline* 9am (Central Classroom Building, Room 109)
• Briefings 9-9:30am (Central Classroom Building, Room 109)
• Round 1 10am (Central Rooms)
• Round 2 12pm (Central Rooms)
• Lunch* 1:30pm (Central First Floor Hall)
• Round 3 2:30pm (Central Rooms)                     

*If you have not checked in by this time, your teams and adjudicators will be dropped from the tournament.

**Lunch will be available starting at this time. Competitors and judges are encouraged to get food during deliberation and eat during post-round discussion.

Campus Map

You will find the Central Building in the lower right hand (southeast) section of campus on the interactive map linked above. The best parking area for the scrimmage is Holly. 

We hope to see you at MSU Denver in September!

Topic Areas (TBA)