1. The Written Battles will start promptly at 4:30 p.m. Teams or team members will not be allowed to enter the gym once the battle has begun. Please try to arrive by 4:15 p.m.

2. The entire team, including the alternates, may participate in the Written Battles.

3. Pencils and answer sheets with the authors’ last names will be provided. Please DO NOT bring any books, notes, etc.

4. Choose one team member with good penmanship to write the answers and the authors’ last names on the answer sheet.

5. At the First Written Battle, there will be 30 questions. At the Second Written Battle, there will be 30 questions plus three tiebreaker questions.

6. A Youth Services librarian will read each question twice. Each team will have 30 seconds to quietly discuss and decide on an answer, with the team captain making the final decision about what is written. Teams will not be able to ask the librarian to explain or to repeat any questions, so it is important to listen carefully while the questions are being read.

7. The three tiebreaker questions will be used only in the event of a tie.

8. A list of the authors will be printed on the answer sheet.

9. At the end of the Written Battle, teams should leave their answer sheets on the floor.

10. If any team’s behavior becomes disruptive and disturbs the concentration of the other teams, that team will be asked to leave the Written Battle.

11. Any student who finds it necessary to leave the gym may do so quietly. No one will be allowed to re-enter the gym after leaving.

12. Because of limited space, team managers and other interested adults will be asked to wait in another room.

2. Spectators are welcome; however participants and family members involved in afternoon battles may not attend morning battles.

3. Battle participants, managers and spectators are not to discuss questions in between battles.

4. Each team will participate in four battles on Oral Battle Day. Six team members may participate in each oral battle. The alternates may watch the battles but may not participate. Different team members may be alternates in different battles. After a battle begins, no late-coming team members may join the battle.

5. A coin will be flipped to see which team will go first. Team captains will draw 10 questions each (a total of 20) for the battle.

6. The librarian will read each question twice. Each team may confer up to 20 seconds. The captain will then stand up and clearly give the author’s last name and the answer to the question. Other team members may not talk to the captain or to each other after the captain stands up, nor should there be any communication between the team and the audience.

7. The librarian will award points for each correct author and answer. If the answer is incorrect, the question will be read once more for the opposing team.

8. If members of the team answering the question violate rule #6 during a battle, the librarian will stop the captain from answering any further and not award any points to that team. The question will then be given to the opposing team for a possible 4 points.

9. While a team is conferring or answering the question, members of the opposite team must not indulge in disruptive conduct such as loud laughing, loud talking or communicating with the audience. If such behavior occurs at any time during the battle, the librarian will give the offending team one warning. If the behavior persists, the librarian will deduct four points as a penalty from the team’s final score.

10. The decision of the librarian in charge is final. If there are any questions pertaining to the battle, only team managers may discuss them with the librarian in charge after the battle. If the team managers still have concerns, they may consult with the Youth Services Supervisor.

11. Once the Battle is over, each team’s score will be listed on a sheet for that room’s Battles. At the end of the morning or afternoon, each team will be assigned between one and eight points on the basis of how that team did against all the others in that room. Eight points will be given to the team with the highest raw score and one point will be given to the team with the lowest score.

12. If there is a tie in the raw score for a room, the points assigned to those positions will be added together and divided. [Example: Two teams tie for 3rd place. The points for 3rd place (six) and the points for 4th place (five) will be added together and divided by two, with each team receiving 5.5 points. The next team will receive four points.]

13. The points received by each team in all four battles will be added together. The morning team with the most points and the afternoon team with the most points will play each other in the Championship Battle.

14. If there is a tie between two or more teams, the team that won the most battles will advance to the Championship Battle.

15. If a tie still remains, the team with the highest raw score will advance to the Championship Battle.