TCFL Spat N’ Squeak Tournament

May 18, 2024
Sherman Oaks Center Enriched Studies
18605 Erwin Street
Tarzana, CA 91335

Schedule
7:00-8:00 am- SET UP BY SOCES TEAM
8:00- 8:30 AM - Registration/Check-in (Coaches & Judges- Library)
8:30 - 9:00 AM Character Congress PO meeting
8:30 - 9:00 AM Judges Instructions
9:00 am Round 1 Draw begins
9 am-10:10 am Round 1 Panel A
10:10am-11:20am Round 1 Panel B
11:30 am-12 pm Lunch
12:10 pm Round 2 Draw begins
12:20-1:30 pm Round 2 Panel A
1:30 pm-2:40 pm Round 2 Panel B
2:10 pm Finals Draw begins
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm Final Round Panel A
4:00 pm – 5:00 pm Final Round Panel B
Awards will follow ASAP

What is Spat N’ Squeak?
In 1989, Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies hosted the very first “Spat n’ Squeak” Invitational Tournament. Since then, this tournament has become recognized for its unique, unpredictable, and hilarious competitive events and rules. “Spat n’ Squeak” allows competitors to relax and experience a tournament unlike any other in our region. Why? “Spat n’ Squeak” has its own unique set of rules and events. Essentially, it is a mock Speech tournament where many of the events are quirky variations on regular CHSSA/NFL sanctioned events (ie- instead of “Impromptu Speaking” there is “Impromptu Eulogy”) while some are entirely distinct (ie- “Television Speaking”) and others are very similar to the regular events with slight twists (ie- “Humorous Presentation”).

Event Patterns

Pattern A: Character Congress, Character SPAR, Stand-Up Comedy, Team SPAR, Television Speaking

Pattern B: Acceptance Speech, Humorous Presentation, Impromptu Eulogy, Infomercial Speaking, Trio

In duo and trio events, students, alumni, parents, and coaches FROM THE SAME SCHOOL AFFILIATION ONLY may compete as a team.

See description of events here

Entries

All members of the TCFL Speech and Debate Community may enter this tournament. That includes students, coaches, parents, and alumni… All entries will be done through Tabroom! Each school sending a Character Congress Entry must send legislation to compete. Legislation is due by May 8th. Remember that legislation can be much more creative in this tournament.

Fees

$20 per event entry, $40 per duo/trio event entry.

Judges

Each school is obligated to provide one qualified judge per every 4 entries or fraction thereof. As with any speech tournament, alumni, parents, and coaches may judge.

Judges should have laptops or IPADS for doing ballots on Tabroom. Please make sure every judge has a Tabroom account before the tournament. In all rounds, judges will rank competitors from first to tenth place. Anyone higher than tenth place will be given a rank of ten. There will absolutely no ties anywhere…

Entry Deadline

Tuesday, May 14, 2024, by 11:55 pm. E-mail Brandon Batham at brandonbatham@gmail.com for any questions. Please submit your judges by the same deadline of May 14th!

Because of the differences that exist in human perception, a subjective quality is present in the scoring of Speech and Debate rounds. Even with rules and evaluation criteria for guidance, judges will not evaluate the same performance identically. While we do everything possible to maintain consistency in scoring, winning results are not guaranteed.

Upon entering, you agree to the following:
No Foul Language or speech that sullies the reputation of participants is allowed.
NSDA points will not be received for this competition. Nor is this event sanctioned by CHSSA or NSDA.
This is a “dress-down” event so you can be casually dressed, bit some competitors may dress as the characters they represent in the Character Congress.
You represent your school, team, parents, grandparents, and ancestors going back 1,000 years. If you do anything to sully or bring disrepute upon yourself, the tournament operators are not responsible. However, you may be subject to public flogging with a wet noodle and removal from the tournament.

Awards
The top three participants in each event will be ranked and receive a very “personalized, useful and unique award.”

A Grand Sweepstakes Award will be presented to the school that does the best in the entire tournament based on a points system. The points system that determines the winner (the winner being the school with the highest point total) is as follows:
First Place in an event: 13 points
Second Place in an event: 10 points
Third Place in an event: 8 points
Finalist in an event: 6 points