The University of Florida Mock Trial Team hosted the Fourth Annual Swamp Invitational on January 22nd and 23rd, 2022. Due to AMTA’s decision to move all Regional tournaments online in the face of the Omicron variant, the LitiGators moved our tournament to be held via Zoom just one week before it began. Though we were disappointed we were unable to have teams come compete in person, we are so proud of everyone who competed and of everyone who helped plan and host the competition.
Jordan Dickens, the 2021-2022 Tournament Director, led the tournament planning process. “We had been planning to have it in person. We did judge recruitment all summer, had teams set, sent out the tournament packet, and we were all ready to go. Then, AMTA announced everything was moved online. We had to start from zero and redo everything.”
The transition led to some hiccups—some judges canceled due to the change, so the tournament team needed to recruit more at the last minute. Though the team was right up to the wire, they were able to handle the tough situation and still host a wonderful tournament.
“I was very proud. We had spent a very long time planning it, and we had a really solid group of teams there,” said Dickens. Some teams who had to drop out of the tournament due to COVID were able to compete after we transitioned online, so some good came of the situation as well.
Two of our teams competed at the Swamp Invitational. Dickens’ own team, Team Aeroflot, won first place, and Team Emirates earned an Honorable Mention!
Thank you to Dr. Laura Sjoberg and Dr. Joel Black for all of their help and hard work in planning this tournament, and a big thank you to Aastha Sinha designing the tabulation system. In the words of our Tournament Director, “the tournament could not have happened without Aastha.” Thanks to the entire executive board for their support, and finally, thank you to Team Royal Dutch as well for running the tournament. We look forward to hosting another successful Swamp Invitational in 2023!