Two teams of two compete through six rounds of argument, giving persuasive speeches on a particular topic.
During a rebuttal speech the speaker is not allowed to bring up any new points of information or talk about anything that has not already been covered.
For instance, if the resolution is Resolved: this house would abandon the use of torture on enemy combatants.
the Leader of the Affirmative would be responsible for defining the meaning of this house , enemy combatants and any other key pieces of the resolution.
Working off the example resolution above, the plan would be something like, " Congress will pass a law expressly stating that any and all forms of inhumane treatment towards peoples in times of war or peace would be expressly forbidden at any level of command".
Each speaker is expected to sum up the important issues of the debate into what are called voters.
Each voter is a point of information that a team feels best explains why they have won the debate.
During a Rebuttal the speaker is not allowed to bring up new points of information and if they do so it will not be included in the judges decision.