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The ALSA Asian Forum Debate Competition will be conducted in the Mace debating format. All teams will compete in 3 preliminary rounds, and will be ranked based on their victory points, margins of win/lose, and total team score. The top 2 teams will advance to the Grand Final round and compete for the title of ALSA Asian Forum Debate Champion.

A debate will consist of two teams, one to propose the motion and one to oppose it. The team proposing may be known as “The Proposition”, “The Affirmative” or “The Government”, and the team opposing may be known as “The Opposition” or “The Negative”. Each team is comprised of 2 speakers.

A debate shall be adjudicated by a panel comprising an odd number of adjudicators, or, where this is not possible, by a single, experienced adjudicator. A debate will be timed by a timekeeper and moderated by a chairperson.

Each speaker is allowed 7 minutes for his/her substantive speech. During each substantive speech, the timekeeper will give a signal after 1 minute has elapsed, and give another signal after 6 minutes has elapsed. Between these signals, Points of Information (POI) can be offered. A double signal is given after 7 minutes of each substantive speech, which indicates the end of the allocated speaking time. A 30 second grace period is then allowed for each speaker to conclude their speech. At the end of the grace period, a triple signal will be given to indicate that the speaker must stop speaking immediately.

After both speakers from both teams delivered their substantive speeches, a further 5 minutes will be allowed for the first speaker of each team to deliver a summary speech. A summary speech shall contain a concise rebuttal/counter-argument, as well as a summary of the major issues in the debate and the way in which both teams approach that “point of clash” . No POI may be offered during the summary speech. The first summary speech shall be delivered by the opposition.

A debate will be conducted in the following order:

Chairperson's introduction 2 minutes

1st proposition substantive speech 7 minutes

1st opposition substantive speech 7 minutes

2nd proposition substantive speech 7 minutes

2nd opposition substantive speech 7 minutes

Opposition summary speech 5 minutes

Proposition summary speech 5 minutes

Adjudicators retire to decide on the winning team 10 minutes

Adjudicators return to announce decision and deliver constructive criticism 5 minutes

Motions

Motions , also known as topics, are full propositional statements that determine what a debate shall be about.

The affirmative team must argue to defend the propositional statement of the motion, and the negative must argue to oppose it.

The motion to be debated in a particular round between the teams matched therein is to be chosen in the following manner:

The teams discuss preferred choices separately (less than 3 minutes). Prioritize the motion in order of preference.

The teams give their motion preference to their LO.

LOs compare preferences:

The least prioritized motion of each team is automatic vetoed;

If both teams' most prioritized motion is the same, they debate upon that motion;

If teams' most prioritized motions are different, but their least prioritized motion is the same, the motion to be debated is determined by a coin toss. Affirmative representative calls and if calling correctly, teams debate upon affirmative's most prioritized motion; if calling incorrectly, teams debate upon negative's most prioritized motion.