GFCA Practice Tournament #1

Welcome to the Georgia Forensics Coaches Association Practice Tournament #1!

Please note: Entries in this practice tournament are restricted to schools located in the state of GA and/or neighboring states that regularly travel to GA. If you have any questions about whether that applies to you, email maggiekb@gmail.com. 

Philosophy

This is a practice tournament to orient students, coaches, teams, and future tournament hosts to debating in an online format. While students with online debate experience are encouraged to attend, all participants should keep in mind that the purpose of the tournament is to teach and to learn. As a result, no awards will be given.

This also means that we may have unconventional pairings (same schools or repeat matchups) or judging situations as needed, especially in small divisions.

Events Offered

- Dramatic Interpretation
- Extemporaneous Speaking
- Humorous Interpretation
- Informative Speaking
- Lincoln Douglas Debate (Novice, JV, Open)
- Original Oratory
- Policy Debate (Rookie, Novice, JV, Open)
- Program of Oral Interpretation
- Public Forum Debate (Novice, JV, Open)

All events are synchronous — both students and judges will need to be available for the times listed in the schedule in order to participate.

Chaperon Requirements

Entries must be registered by the official coach of that school. Basically, if someone called your school's principal and said "who is the debate coach here?", their answer should be the adult in charge. The adult should also:

- Verify with the school that participation is allowed at the tournament,
- Have a list of each student competing at a tournament and a method of contacting them,
- Provide updated contact information to the tournament on how to reach the coach during the event,
- Be available to receive phone calls and/or texts throughout the tournament,
- Have a process for “checking in” and “checking out” the students at the end of each day.

Entry/Judging Requirements

Schools are welcome to enter as many participants as they would like, as long as they can cover their judging obligations — we do not have hired judging for this event.

Student Judges

High school students who have completed two full years of high school debate competition may judge in the Rookie or Novice division of their debate event. High school students who have completed three or more full years of high school debate competition may judge in the JV division of their debate event.

High school students may not judge Speech or in Open divisions of any Debate event.

Entry Fees

Entry fees are $10 an entry.

Note About Extemp Judging

Because Extemp requires a number of adults to act as "draw supervisors" in the online format, the judging requirement for Extemp is higher than for other speech events.

Note about Rookie Policy

The "Rookie" division is a new division for students competing in their first four tournaments in any event, in any year, at any level.

Please include camp tournaments or other significant debate experiences. The goal is to have a division for brand new debaters. More experienced students in their first year of high school debate should debate in Novice, not Rookie.

Rookie will be using standard speech times for policy (8-5-3), but of course if students are not ready yet to speak for that length of time, they may end their speeches early.