The Macalester Moot Court Novice Championship
The Macalester Moot Court Novice Championship
December 5 – 6, 2025
Macalester is pleased to host an online, end-of-season competition for novice Moot Court teams. With a guarantee of six rounds of competition and an emphasis on judging by those with AMCA experience, we hope this competition will be both a great competition and a chance to build for the future.
Eligibility: To be eligible, no competitor shall have had college-level moot court competition prior to the Fall 2025 season, interpreted as not having entered an AMCA regional competition on a prior topic.
Entries: A school may register for up to three teams before November 15, or until capacity is reached (180 two-person teams). Names of competitors may be entered later, after all regional tournaments have been held. After November 15, schools may enter two additional teams, or until capacity is reached. Being an online tournament, the maximum size of the tournament is limited by the Zoom environment, which allows up to 1,000 participants in 100 breakout rooms. See below for a link to registration.
Judging: Each two-person team entered must supply one judge to the competition; e.g. a school with three teams must provide three judges. The first judge supplied by a school must be a coach or graduated alumni of moot court. Additional judges may be alumni, law students, or a current student who has previously qualified to an AMCA PRONT. (One judge slot can be filled by two different people across the two days of the tournament.) In all cases, we encourage teams to seek judges who will keep in mind both the educational and competitive aspects of a tournament aimed at younger competition. The schedule has been designed with sufficient time after each round for oral and written feedback.
Entry fees: $50 per team.
Tournament Schedule:
Friday, December 5 (all times *Central*)
3:30 – 4:30 p.m.: Judge and Competitor Check-in
4:40 p.m.: Judges’ Meeting
4:50 p.m.: Welcome to Competitors
5:00 p.m.: Round 1
6:30 p.m.: Round 2
8:00 p.m.: Round 3
The first three rounds will be pre-set by random draw.
Saturday, December 6
9:30 a.m.: Competitor and Judge Check-in
9:50 a.m.: Pairings Released
10:00 a.m.: Round 4 – Matched High-High from the top
11:30 a.m.: Round 5 – Matched High-Low within Quartiles
1:00 p.m.: Break for Lunch and Re-seeding
2:00 p.m.: Round 6 – Matched High-High, including Semifinals
3:30 p.m.: Final Round
4:30 p.m. Awards Ceremonies
Notes:
Round 4 and 5 pairings will be based on the first three rounds (six ballots). For Round 5, the tournament field will be divided into four quartiles. (E.g., A tournament with 80 teams would have four groups of twenty teams each.) Pairing high-low within a quartile would mean 1 vs 20, 2 vs 19, etc.
Round 6 pairings will be based on the results of the five rounds and ten ballots. The top four teams at this point will be paired 1 vs 4 and 2 vs 3 in semifinal rounds that have three-judge panels.
Awards: Trophies will be mailed to both top individuals and top teams. Ballots and a tournament results packet will be sent to all teams.
For questions concerning payment for registration, contact Beau Larsen at [email protected], and for all other tournament questions, contact Patrick Schmidt, [email protected]