Ranker: 1. What are the relatively-unique selling points of your comp? This could be anything from cost, location, stature of judges, to competitive nature, number of LSA points available, etc.

Our competition is geared to issued that affect the Asian American community.

2. Briefly describe last year's problem. This year's. What did/will participants "get out of" briefing and arguing these problems? How do your problems typically compare to those of other comps?

This year's problem has just been released on our web site thomastang.org.

3. What time of year does your comp take place? When is registration? How many non-sponsor, non-international teams actually paid, submitted briefs and argued at last year's comp. (If yours is a two-stage competition, e.g. regionals and national/international, please break-down answers to the foregoing three sub-questions by stage.) Recognizing that schools are now competing for LSA points, are you committed to promptly providing the Ranker with number of non-sponsor, non-international teams, as well as the school names of the winner, finalist and semifinalists? Please briefly research and identify competitions that are typically at the same time of year (give or take a few weeks). Relative merits of your comp v. theirs?

The competition takes place in the Fall. The regional tournaments are in October and the National finals takes place in November at the annual NAPABA convention. The registration deadline is in September. Last year, approximately 70 teams entered in 5 regional competitions. The top 16 teams advanced to the national competition. As in the past, I've provided you with whatever information that you have requested.

4. For each round of argument, be it preliminary or elimination, please identify the stature of judges.

In the regional competitions, the preliminary round judges are local attorneys, most of whom have much trial and appellate experience and who have judged for me many years. The preliminary elimination rounds are judged by local Asian American judges. At the national competition, the preliminary rounds are a mix of state and federal judges as well as seasoned appellate litigators. All the elimination round judges are federal judges. Now that there are Asian American Circuit Court judges, they'll be judging the competition finals.

5. For scoring of any round of argument, does your comp prioritize oral advocacy or brief-writing -- that is, please disclose whether at any point, your comp weighs one more than the other, e.g. 60/40 rather than 50/50. If so, why?

Scoring is based on a system where each speaker composes 1/3 of the team score and the brief is 1/3 of the team score.