2019 Florida Blue Key @ University of Florida

November 1-3, 2019

Florida Blue Key cordially invites you and your team to join us at our thirty-sixth annual Florida Blue Key Speech & Debate Tournament at the University of Florida. This year’s tournament will be held Friday November 1 through Sunday November 3, 2019.Our team is excited to welcome you to the beautiful University of Florida campus in Gainesville this October-November.

REGISTRATION OPENS on August 30, 2019 at 8:00 a.m. 

TOURNAMENT EVENTS: Our tournament will feature varsity competition in Lincoln Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, Congressional Debate, Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Informative Speaking, Impromptu Speaking, Mixed Extemporaneous Speaking, Program Oral Interpretation, and Original Oratory and novice competition in Lincoln Douglas Debate, and Public Forum Debate. All events follow the NSDA (National Speech and Debate Association) rules and regulations. 

ENTRY CAPS: Schools will have a 8 entry cap in each Speech/Congress events. In Public Forum Debate and Lincoln Douglas Debate schools will have a 7 entry cap per division.

WAIT LIST: Any excess entries will be automatically placed on a waitlist. We highly encourage you to register early as we anticipate capacity to fill quickly.

JUDGE REQUIREMENTS & ACCOUNTS: All schools should provide 1 judge for every 2 Lincoln Douglas Debate and/or Public Forum Debate entries and 2 judges for every 5 Speech and/or Congress entries. Hired judges will be available upon request and approved by tournament administrators. Hired judges are $200.00 per judge. All judges (Speech, Congress and Debate) must have a valid Tabroom account established for online ballots. All events will use online ballots at the tournament.

TOC BIDS: Florida Blue Key is thrilled to announce that we have retained our status as a qualifying competition for the National High School Tournament of Champions (TOC) in Public Forum (octafinalists), Congressional Debate (semi-finalists), and Lincoln Douglas (quarterfinalists). Florida Blue Key is also a bid tournament for the TOC in speech events.

DEBATE TOPICS: We are excited to announce that Public Forum Debate (all divisions) will debate the 2019 NSDA November-December topic and Lincoln Douglas Debate (all divisions) will debate the 2019 NSDA November-December topic.

CONGRESS: Congressional Debate legislation will be released prior to the tournament on tabroom.com and on the Florida Blue Key Debate website. 

SPEECH PATTERNS: Pattern A- Mixed Extemporaneous Speaking, Dramatic Interpretation, Informative Speaking, and Duo Interpretation. Pattern B- Humorous Interpretation, Original Oratory, Impromptu Speaking and Program Oral Interpretation.

ROUND ROBIN INFORMATION: The Round Robin will take place on Thursday, October 31, 2019. Applications for the Round Robin can be accessed via our website http://fbkdebate.org/events/round-robin/.

OTHER INFORMATION & SCHEDULE: Full tournament details are posted on fbkdebate.org. Please feel free to reach out to chair@fbkdebate.org with any questions or concerns.

We greatly appreciate your continued support as the largest student-run speech and debate tournament in the nation. As always, Go Gators!