Last updated August 29, 2026. These rules govern every Debatable tournament that offers cash prizes, including The Debatable Open, which runs as a week-long rating ladder from Saturday, August 29 through 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Saturday, September 5, 2026.
What you need to know
The tournament contract in six answers. The numbered rulebook below controls if a detail is disputed.
WhenAll weekSaturday, August 29 through Saturday, September 5, 11:59 PM Eastern. Check in and play whenever you are free; the ladder runs the whole window.
RoundCasual one-on-oneEach room draws four published motions. One debater offers, the other answers. The round has five minutes of timed speech.
StandingsEvent ratingEveryone starts at 1500 and every judged round moves both ratings. Ties break on wins, then speaker points, which carry the camera adjustment: Camera +2, Avatar −1, Off or dark −3.
DecisionWritten ballot every roundThe AI panel decides every ladder round. When an event schedules a streamed final, the live audience decides it under the published vote floor and close-vote rule; the week-long Open has no single final.
RecordingEvery round is recordedLadder footage is private by default and publishes to Watch only when every recorded debater approves. Any streamed showcase round follows the event rules.
ProblemsFive minutes to reconnectPanel ballots can be appealed to a human. A missed room or personal connection failure can become a forfeit after five minutes.
The short version
This is a contest of skill. Winners are decided by judged debate rounds, not chance.
Entry is free. There is no entry fee, no paid door, and nothing to waive. No purchase is necessary to enter, to compete, or to win.
One field. Every entrant uses the same pairing pool, standings, elimination bracket, and championship path. We encourage entrants to be 18+.
Cash prizes are 18+. Everyone may compete for the placement and public ranking. Cash can only be paid to an eligible winner aged 18 or over, verified before payout.
Tips are optional and buy nothing. A $5 tip toward the prize pot is accepted and has no effect on entry, pairing, judging, standings, or prizes.
Prizes are fixed and guaranteed by the organizer. They are not a pool of entry fees, so they do not shrink if fewer people enter.
Every round is recorded. Preliminary footage is stored privately by default. Entering means you consent to elimination rounds being broadcast and replayed.
The founder directs the day and hosts the stream. He can drop into any room to keep the day running, and appears to nobody when he does. Preliminary footage is not put on the main stream without separate public-use permission.
Full rulebook
1. Organizer
Tournaments under these rules are run by Debatable (itsdebatable.com). Questions, disputes, and refund requests go to hello@itsdebatable.com. Stripe processes tips; Stripe is not a sponsor of any tournament.
2. The event
The Debatable Open runs as a continuous rating ladder from Saturday, August 29, 2026 until 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Saturday, September 5, 2026. Registration and check-in stay open for the whole window. You compete from your own device on itsdebatable.com: check in on the event page, press Ready, and you are paired against another checked-in entrant when one is free. This event has no elimination bracket and no single final; the ladder is the competition.
The event runs one field. Every entrant shares the same pairing pool, ladder, motions, format, and judging.
There is no fixed session and no required schedule. Register and check in at any point in the window, play as much or as little as you like, and leave and return freely; your rating and record are exactly where you left them. Pairings are made from whoever is checked in and ready at the time they are made, fresh opponents first, and a pairing an entrant does not appear for is recorded as a forfeit for that entrant. No entrant is owed a round, a rematch, or an extension for a connection failure on their own side. The closing time, 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Saturday, September 5, is the same instant for every entrant regardless of where they live.
Rounds are one-on-one spoken debates on the platform's standard lay format: constructive and rebuttal speeches on a clock. Every tournament motion comes from the twenty-motion list published on the event page. Each room receives four motions from that list. A coin flip decides who offers first, and that debater puts one motion up. The other debater then does exactly one of three things. They may take it, in which case that motion is the round and they choose their own side. They may send it back, in which case the first debater must offer a different motion from the list, the second debater must take that one, and the second debater still chooses their own side; each debater may send back at most one motion per round. Or they may counter by putting up a motion of their own from the list, in which case the first debater chooses which of the two motions is debated and also chooses their own side. In every branch, the debater who settles the motion is not the debater who settles the side. A shot clock runs on each step; if it expires, the step resolves from the round's published seed rather than at random, so both debaters and the server reach the same result. Each round is five minutes of speech: ninety seconds each to open, sixty seconds each to reply, with no preparation time inside the round. You are not required to debate a set number of rounds. Standings rank on your event rating. Everyone starts the event at a rating of 1500, and every completed judged round moves both entrants' event ratings under a published Elo update (K equals 32). After the Elo update, the same round applies the disclosed camera-presence rating adjustment: camera on changes nothing, Avatar mode subtracts 10 event rating points, and a switched-off or dark camera subtracts 20, weighted by speech time. The adjustment reduces only your own rating; it never pays your opponent and it can never change who won the round. An exact rating tie breaks on total rounds won, then total speaker points. Speaker points start with the AI panel's argument score, then apply the camera-presence points adjustment: Camera +2, Avatar −1, Off or a dark tile −3. Mixed use is weighted by speech time, and the final number stays between 0 and 100. Neither adjustment can change who won the round. Playing more rounds gives the ladder more information about you and more chances to climb; stepping away costs nothing beyond the rounds you did not play. The ladder freezes at 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Saturday, September 5, and the standings at that instant are final.
Every round of this event is decided by the AI panel. The audience-vote rule in section 7 applies only when an event schedules a single streamed final; the week-long ladder has none.
3. Eligibility
Entry is open to ages 13 and up, at no cost. We encourage entrants to be 18+. Entrants under 18 compete with a parent or guardian's permission.
Cash prizes are 18+. Everyone competes in the same field for the same placement and ranking. Cash can only be paid to an eligible winner aged 18 or over. Age is verified only if a payout is due.
Cash prizes are void where prohibited or restricted by law. It is your responsibility to confirm that competing for a cash prize in a skill contest is lawful where you live. Entry itself is free everywhere.
The organizer, and anyone in the organizer's household, may compete but cannot win cash prizes.
One entry per person. Duplicate accounts forfeit all entries.
4. How to enter
Register on the tournaments page with a signed-in account before the organizer starts the tournament and locks the roster. One door, one field, no cost:
Entry is free. Sign in, click once, and you are in. There is no fee, no card, and no waiver to request, because there is nothing to waive.
There is no age selector at entry. Everyone enters the same field. If a placement earns cash, the organizer verifies that winner is 18 or older before paying it.
A tip is optional and separate. The prize money is funded by the organizer. If you want to contribute, a $5 tip can be paid through Stripe checkout after you enter. A tip is not an entry fee, is not required at any stage, and has no effect on entry, pairing, motions, judging, standings, or prizes. Nobody is asked for one more than once, and no part of the competition treats a tipping entrant differently from any other.
Registration stays open for the whole event window. Register, check in on the event page, and press Ready when you want a round; check out and return whenever you like. Only registered, checked-in entrants can enter the queue or join a competitive room; everyone else can watch.
5. Prizes and payouts
First place: $100. Second place: $50. Third place: $25. These are the figures for The Debatable Open, August 29 to September 5, 2026, and they go to the top three of the event rating ladder when it freezes. They do not move with the size of the field, in either direction.
Prizes are fixed amounts guaranteed by the organizer regardless of how many people enter. Nothing collected from entrants sets the prize level, and no part of any prize depends on the number of entries or on tips received.
Cash prizes follow the single field's final standings, first, second and third. Before paying, the organizer verifies that the recipient is 18 or older and otherwise eligible.
If a placement cannot be paid because the entrant is under 18, the prize is prohibited where they live, or the entrant is in the organizer's household, that placement's title and ranking still stand and the cash moves to the next highest-placing entrant who can be paid.
In a ladder event, first through third are simply the top three of the frozen ladder under the published tiebreak order. In a bracket event, third place is decided by the published tiebreak order among semifinal exits, or by a played third-place round if the host schedules one.
Payouts are sent within 14 days of the results being confirmed, by a method arranged directly with each winner (bank transfer, PayPal, or similar). A human reviews the final ballots before any money moves; an AI verdict alone never releases funds.
Winners may be asked to verify identity and age, and to provide tax information where required, before a payout is released. Verification is asked of winners only, at payout, and never of the field: no entrant is asked for identity documents to compete. Taxes on prizes are the winner's responsibility.
6. Cost, tips and refunds
There is no entry fee. Entering The Debatable Open costs nothing, so there is nothing to refund on an entry and no charge of any kind is made for competing.
Tips are refundable on request. A tip is a voluntary contribution and buys nothing, so if you change your mind, email the organizer before the event ends and it is returned in full. A refunded tip has no effect on your entry, which stands either way.
Withdrawing costs nothing and can be done from the tournament page at any time.
If fewer than 8 entries have played by the time entries close, the organizer may either run the bracket with prizes as posted, or cancel the bracket and say so on the tournament page. Because nobody paid to enter, a cancellation costs no entrant anything; any tips received are returned in full.
7. Judging and appeals
Every round is judged by the AI panel. When an event schedules a single streamed final, that final is decided by the audience. The two are different instruments and a tournament uses each where it belongs: the panel is a consistent, published standard you can prepare against and appeal, and the room is who you were actually trying to convince. The week-long Open runs as a ladder with no single final, so the panel decides every round of it.
Prelims and every elimination round before the final are judged by Debatable's AI panel under its published, versioned rubric. How the panel works, its published criteria, and its reliability figures live at the judge integrity page. Every ballot includes a written reason for decision.
The final is decided by a live audience vote. Voting opens when the last speech ends and stays open for three minutes. Whichever side the room votes for wins the tournament and the first-place prize.
The panel still judges the final and its ballot is published beside the vote. It does not decide the round. It exists so the final leaves the same written record every other round leaves, and so a debater can see what the published standard made of a round the room called the other way.
Who may vote: anyone signed in with a real account, one vote each, changeable until voting closes. Guest and anonymous accounts cannot vote. The two people in the round cannot vote on it.
Two stated limits on the vote, fixed in advance. If fewer than ten votes are cast, or if the two sides finish within two percent of each other, the panel's ballot decides the final instead. Both rules exist so a handful of clicks or a coin-flip margin cannot hand over a cash prize, and both are published here before the event rather than applied after a close result.
Questions and brief interruptions are allowed and recorded. A concise, relevant question that exposes a gap can improve responsiveness or persuasion. Heckling, repeated interruption, talking over an answer, or an irrelevant gotcha can lower those scores. Nobody loses points merely because the other person interrupted them.
The AI receives a calculated speech pace. More than 250 words per minute is flagged as spreading. Speed alone does not cost points. The judge lowers clarity or strategy only when listener-unfriendly density, poor signposting, or compressed reasoning makes the argument hard to understand on one hearing.
Camera presence changes only the standings tiebreak. Camera adds 2 points to the argument score, Avatar subtracts 1, and Off or a dark tile subtracts 3. Mixed use is weighted by speech time. Camera mode never changes the winner or the six argument dimensions.
Either debater may appeal a panel ballot within the appeal window shown on the round page. Appeals are reviewed by a human, never re-run through a model. An audience vote is not appealable, because there is no ballot to review; what is appealable in the final is the panel ballot published alongside it, and an upheld appeal there does not change who the room voted for.
Standings become final after the last appeal window closes. After that, results are final.
8. Broadcast and recording
Every tournament round is recorded. This includes preliminary rounds, elimination rounds, and the final.
By registering and checking in, you agree that your voice, video, display name, motion, round content, ballot reveal, questions, and interruptions will be captured and stored by Debatable.
Before Speech 1, every assigned person must acknowledge the recording notice inside the room. The round stays closed until every seat has acknowledged and the recording indicator is live.
There is no recording-decline path inside a tournament room. If you cannot be recorded, do not enter the room. Withdraw from the tournament or contact the organizer before the event.
Anyone under 18 needs parent or guardian approval to enter a recorded tournament round. Registration, check-in, and the in-room notice ask you to confirm that approval.
Preliminary footage is private by default. Debatable may generate private clips from a recorded question or exchange for the participant or host, but a preliminary replay or clip is not published or cut into the main broadcast without separate public-use permission.
Elimination rounds, including the final, may be streamed publicly on the watch page and connected channels. Entering includes consent to that elimination-round coverage.
Avatar mode may be used instead of a raw camera image. Audio, questions, interruptions, the animated avatar, display name, motion, and ballot reveal are still recorded. Avatar carries the disclosed 1-point standings adjustment.
The event is public to watch and private to enter. Anyone may open the draw, standings, bracket, and public spectator view. A spectator token has no camera, microphone, or participant seat. A participant token is issued only to a signed-in account assigned to that exact tournament room.
The founder directs the event live and hosts the stream between rounds. Directing means watching the rooms as they run: he can enter any room in the tournament at any time to check it is working, to see whether a round has stalled, and to decide what the stream cuts to next.
When the host watches a room, the room cannot see him. He joins with no camera, no microphone, no name in the participant list, and no way to speak into the round. Neither debater is told, because a round that changes because somebody important walked in is not the round you entered. He can watch; he cannot take part.
Recording does not guarantee that a particular round will be shown live or published later.
9. Conduct and fair play
During your own speeches, the words must be yours, spoken live. Having another person or an AI feed you lines in real time is grounds for disqualification. Notes and pre-round prep are allowed.
Harassment, slurs, or targeted abuse toward any participant means immediate disqualification.
Impersonation, account sharing, or manipulating pairings or results forfeits entry and any prize.
The organizer's conduct rulings during the event are final.
10. Technical failures
If you disconnect mid-round, you have 5 minutes to rejoin before the round is forfeited.
If a platform-side failure prevents a round from completing fairly, the host may rerun the round or adjust the schedule.
Missing your scheduled round by more than 5 minutes is a forfeit of that round.
11. Changes and cancellation
The organizer may adjust the schedule, round count, or break structure to fit the field, and may postpone or cancel the event for technical or safety reasons. If the event is canceled, nobody is out of pocket, because entry is free; any tips received are returned in full. Material rule changes before an event are posted on this page and on the tournament page.
12. Legal
This is a free-entry, skill-based competition. No consideration is required to enter or to win: entry costs nothing, tips are voluntary and buy nothing, and outcomes are determined by performance rather than chance. Reaching the final requires winning rounds through the session against a published rubric, and the final itself is decided by whether the room found you more convincing, which is the skill the event exists to measure. No outcome at any stage is random.
To the extent permitted by law, the organizer's total liability to any entrant is limited to the amount that entrant paid, which for an entry is nothing.