Malaysian Debate League (MDL) Rules & Regulations

Registration:

1. This tournament is open to all, ​EXCEPT students in primary schools and who have
yet to enroll in a secondary educational institution by the 1st leg of MDL, 2018.
2. This tournament allows open/composite teams.
3. Composite teams will be able to register a minimum of ​1 team​.
4. Participants that want to register under an institution they are representing will be
able to do so. However, they will be required to register a minimum of ​2 teams to
compete in the Malaysian Debate League.
5. MDL practices a ​N1 policy​ for its teams and judges.
6. If you want to register a team but are unable to find a judge for the team, you have
an ​option of registering your team without a judge and 1 judge will be
allocated to your team. You will still have to pay the registration fees for your
judge.

Payment Options:

1. All payments are to be made to our account directly. Invoices will be sent out within
48 hours​ of your registration.
2. Open/Composite teams will be required to make upfront payment for the entire
competition ​7 days​ prior to the start of the competition.
3. Team registered under an institution can choose to make full payment 7 days prior
to the first leg of the tournament in full or choose to make ​half the payment ​7
days ​prior to the first leg starting​, with a ​guarantee letter sent to us
guaranteeing the second half of the payment will be made ​7 days prior to the last
leg​ of the tournament.
4. You will only confirm your spots when payment has been completed or if a
Guarantee Letter is provided to us.

MDL Points Collection System, Team Policies & Rules

1. The Malaysian Debate League - Cycle 1 will be in the Asian Parliamentary Debate
Format where we teams will have 3 speakers to a team.
2. There will be 4 preliminary rounds and each win contributes to an accumulation of 1
point. This will be observed as we conduct any other wins collection system leading
up to the break.
3. Knockout rounds will have winner of each round accumulate “​0.5​” ​points and the
losing team collecting “​0.25​” ​points​. This happens for the Quarter Finals, Semifinals
& Finals of each leg.
4. Each registered team will be allowed to rotate their speakers in and out as long as 1
member is a constant speaker in the team throughout the 3 legs. Each team is seen
 to have ​4 members who has their judge included in their team. Teams can rotate
other personnel in & out if they chose to do so to allow for flexibility in attendance.
5. “Perfect Attendance Perk”​: Teams that do not add any new members for all 3
legs and retain its original 4 members will be rewarded with an additional “​1.5​”
points at the end of the 3rd leg and will account towards their overall point
collection. This does not apply if members only manage to do this for 2 legs even if
some members may have to rotate out due to emergencies.
6. Institutions that send 2 or more teams will ​NOT be allowed to accumulate their
points together as a contingent. Each registered team will retain their points
collected from 1 leg to the next. This is to allow fair access to the championship to
Open/Composite teams.
7. Teams that break in the top 2 for all 3 legs consistently will be awarded ​“0.5” points
at the end of the 3rd leg.
8. “Junior Hero Perk”​: Teams comprising of ​ONLY secondary educational students
will be given an additional ​“1” point every time they break into the knockout rounds
of any legs in MDL, to account for the difficulty of the feat. This does NOT apply to
teams that have Malaysian Worlds Schools Debating Championship (WSDC) debaters
in them and any student that has debated in the out rounds of the Asian Schools
Debating Championship (ASDC).
9. Teams that attend the tournament but do NOT provide a judge attached to their
team, will not be allowed to break into the knockout rounds.
10. Please take note that we are not responsible for the judge not showing up if one has
been allocated to you based on your registration options, in the case where your
team is unable to claim the ​“Perfect Attendance Perk”​.
11. Each leg will have its own set of themes that will be announced prior to the start of
the first leg. Be prepared to have 3 fun-filled weekends.
12. If there is a tie for any of the top 3 position at the end of all 3 legs, we will use your
accumulated speaker scores​ as a deciding factor to break ties.

Points Collection Example:

40 Teams participating - 4 Prelims & 3 Out-Rounds.

Breaking teams According to the “Debate Breaker” Application - Available on IOS:

Please refer to the table on the next page for a better understanding of this event.
 Breaking Positions Points QF Points SF Points Finals Points
(Best Case Scenario)

1st 4 Win: 0.5 Win: 0.5 Win: 0.5

Loss: 0.25 Loss: 0.25 Loss: 0.25

2nd 4 Win: 0.5 Win: 0.5 Win: 0.5

Loss: 0.25 Loss: 0.25 Loss: 0.25

3rd 3 Win: 0.5 Win: 0.5 Win: 0.5

Loss: 0.25 Loss: 0.25 Loss: 0.25

4th 3 Win: 0.5 Win: 0.5 Win: 0.5

● High School Team Loss: 0.25 Loss: 0.25 Loss: 0.25

According to the table above, your team breaks 4th out of 8 teams and makes it to the semi
finals of the first leg, but loses at that level. Your team breaks with ​3 wins according to the
data above which translates into ​3 points​. The win in the quarterfinals will give you an
additional ​“0.5” points and the loss in the semifinals will give you another ​“0.25” points​.
In total, you would have collected 3.75 points in the first leg.

Your team also qualifies for the ​“Junior Hero Perk” ​which allocates “1” point to the team,
then the team will end the first leg on ​“4.75”​ points.

The highest points a team can collect from a 4-preliminary round leg with 3 knockout
rounds will be “​7” points according to the system we are using. The least, of course; a ​“0”​.
(This excludes the 2 perks mentioned above in the tournament rules & regulations)

The points differentiation is small and this allows for a very close and competitive
experience where a majority of the teams will be in for the title up till the 3rd leg.