The Constitution
Timeless, not detailed.
This document holds only the principles that shouldn’t change. Everything else — scoring detail, topic selection, edge cases — lives in a rulebook built to evolve.
Vision
A global debate sport where the goal is not just to win, but to make judges and spectators think: "Wow... I never thought of it that way." The sport values perspective, reasoning, communication, and respectful disagreement.
Ranking
Public ranking uses letters instead of numbers: A, B, C ... Z, AA, AB, AC ... Elite players are One Alphabet Players. Everyone begins in the lower alphabet leagues and climbs upward.
Match Structure
Standard matches run 10 minutes, free-flowing, with one judge and one referee. Players first attempt to agree on the topic and who speaks first. If they cannot agree who speaks first, the referee decides — final.
Rule Philosophy
Phones, outside assistance, and physical contact are not allowed except in special leagues that explicitly permit them. Threats result in a permanent ban. Preventing your opponent from speaking is not illegal — it is poor strategy, and judges score accordingly.
AI
Online, judges and referees may be human or AI. In physical tournaments, judges and referees are human only. AI players compete exclusively in dedicated AI competitions.
Judge Philosophy
Experienced players are expected to judge, because judging provides another perspective on the game. To compete in either flagship One Alphabet tournament, a competitor must have judged at least 10 official matches.
No Age Restriction
Anyone can compete regardless of age. The sport itself has no age restriction; practical safeguarding for minors is handled in the rulebook.
Flagship Tournaments
The Unknown Road to One Alphabet promotes Two Alphabet players into the One Alphabet League, currently online, with physical qualification to follow once infrastructure allows. Twilight Race to Get the Ace is contested within the One Alphabet League to determine A, the highest-ranked player, planned annually each January.
Emergency League
A temporary online league activated during major world events — conflict, regulation, pandemic, disaster — to preserve high-quality debate on significant ongoing events as part of the permanent archive.
Archive
Every official match is recorded: video, audio, transcript, topic, players, judge, referee, tournament, date, league, metadata, AI summaries, and searchable tags. The goal is one of the world's largest public libraries of human reasoning.