GFCA Varsity State

Coronavirus/COVID-19 Update

The Executive Committee is monitoring the situation and reviewing "best practices" for events in Georgia and will send recommendations to all schools on Monday. We are still planning to host the tournament.

Dates and Location

March 6-8 at Lassiter High School, Marietta, GA

See schedule page at right for details.

Events Offered

- Dramatic Interpretation
- Duo Interpretation
- Extemporaneous Speaking
- Humorous Interpretation
- Impromptu Speaking
- Informative Speaking
- Lincoln Douglas Debate
- Original Oratory
- Policy Debate
- Program of Oral Interpretation
- Public Forum Debate

Entry Criteria

Students may qualify for Varsity State via any of these methods:

1. Invitational Tournament Results — see GFCA By-Laws for details. You can verify whether a student has already qualified here.

2. Member School — each GFCA Member School in good standing will be given one (1) Member School entry to the state tournament. The Member School entry must have met the minimum number of required tournaments of two (2) in that event prior to the Varsity State Tournament. Member schools may either:

     (a) Use Member School Entry as long as it is the sole entry for that school in that event at the State Tournament.

     (b) Use Member School Entry to create an even number of qualifiers in team events.

3. At Large Qualification — each GFCA Member School is eligible to apply for “At Large Bids” to Varsity State. We will send out directions for application in early 2020. In the meantime, note that schools may only apply students who have attended at least two tournaments in that event, and schools cannot receive an At Large Bid in an event where they have already qualified four or more entries.

How to Register

Registration is now open.

All students will initially be wait-listed while we verify entry criteria.

What to Put in the “Qualifiers” Field

When you register an entry on Tabroom, you will see that there are two “Qualifiers” fields that you have to fill out.

- If the student qualified through Invitational tournaments, put their “Qualifying Tournament” in one field and a “Participation Tournament” in the second field.

If it’s a two-person event and they have different tournaments, divide by student, ex. Field 1 “Ghanate — Chattahoochee, Westminster,” Field 2 “Li — Carrollton, Sequoyah”

There’s no need to list more than one qualifying and one participation tournament.

- If you are using your Member School Entry, put “Member School” followed by the two tournaments they attended, ex. “Member School — Cherokee” and “Member School — Peachtree Ridge”

- If you are applying for an At Large, check the box next to “At-large Applicant?” and then put the names of at least two tournaments that the student attended in that event. Then fill out the At Large Application here: https://tinyurl.com/2020atlarge

Judging Qualifications

- Policy — In order to be eligible to judge Policy Debate at the Varsity State Tournament, individuals must have judged at least eight (8) rounds at the high school level in Policy Debate since June of the year before the state tournament.

- LD and PF — In order to be eligible to judge Public Forum or Lincoln-Douglas Debate at the Varsity State Tournament, individuals must have judged at least (8) rounds at the high school level in that debate event in the two years before the state tournament.

- Speech — While we do not have specific round requirements for speech, please do make sure your judges are familiar with the speech events offered at the tournament.

Please ask debate judges to make sure they have an updated judge philosophy on Tabroom.com — it really helps the students that they are judging!

Other Notes

LD will be using the NSDA March/April topic. PF will be using the NSDA March topic.

Deadlines and Checklist