HWS Round Robin

The HWS Round Robin (HWS RR) is an invitational British Parliamentary (BP) debate tournament hosted annually by the Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. Participation in the HWS RR is considered prestigious among BP debaters^{[1][2][3][4][5]} as it is limited to exactly 16 teams that qualify via either an automatic bid given to the champions of major debate tournaments that happen throughout the year, or a competitive application to the tournament's selections committee, with auto-bid teams given priority.^[6][7][8]

Unlike most parliamentary debate tournaments, such as the World Universities Debating Championship, which use power-pairing^[9] to determine preliminary round matches, the HWS RR uses round-robin scheduling to determine team pairings for each of its five preliminary rounds, before advancing the top four teams to the final.^[10] The tournament is also notable for its use of dual judging panels, in contrast to the established practice of allocating just one panel of judges per room.^[11][12]

The HWS RR was started in 2007 by the HWS Debate Team, with the intent of designing an annual tournament of champions for BP debate. While the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) had already long been established at the time, its open nature meant allowing a significant variation in skill among teams.^[13] From 2009 to 2013 the tournament was funded by the Open Society Foundations.^[14][15]

Each year, invitations are sent to all four teams that make it to the Open Grand Final of the WUDC, as well as to the winning team of each of the following 12 major tournaments:

• European Universities Debating Championship
• US Universities Debating Championship
• North American Universities Debating Championship
• Asian British Parliamentary Debating Championship
• United Asian Debating Championship
• Pan African Universities Debating Championship
• Australian British Parliamentary Debating Championships (replaced Sydney Mini from September 2023 onwards) ^[16]
• Oxford Intervarsity
• Hart House Intervarsity
• Yale Intervarsity
• Cambridge Intervarsity
• Cambridge Women's

This means an automatic bid goes to a total of 16 teams, the exact number required for a five-round round robin BP tournament to work. If a team qualifies for more than one auto-bid (by winning more than one of the tournaments listed) or decides not to attend the tournament, then any extra slot is opened up for an at-large bid, where teams that apply are selected based on their achievements in debating.^[17]

The HWS RR is conducted in the British Parliamentary format, the same one used by the WUDC. In BP, there are four teams, of two debaters each, that compete in a single round.

At the end of the round a panel of judges deliberates and ranks each team from first to fourth, with the first-placer receiving the full 3 points and the last-placer receiving no point. Uniquely, the HWS RR uses two panels, which means the maximum number of points a team can theoretically win in a single round is 6 points. Dual rooms began to see use in 2016 as part of research on the reliability of judge decisions.^[18]

The tournament has five preliminary rounds and one final round. During the preliminaries, teams are matched in such a way that they are never in the same room as a team they have faced before. The four teams that accrue the most number of points by the end of the fifth round are advanced to the final round. The winners and runners-up of the final are considered winners and runners-up of the HWS RR for that year.

• World Universities Debating Championship
• North American Debating Championship
• Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championships
• United Asian Debating Championships
• Pan African Universities Debating Championship

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