Inland Empire District Qualifier

for the 2021 National Tournament

 AWARDS Presentation Click here 

Support Link: https://meet.google.com/xzd-yrmd-yok

Updated Schedule 2/18 9:00pm

FRIDAY 19^th:

                9AM Asynchronous Speech ballots blasted to judges

11AM Judges need to have hit start round

SATURDAY 20^th:

                9AM Debate Round 1 (2 flights LD)

9AM Asynchronous Speech Ballots Due

                       Double entry letter of intent DUE

                11AM Asynchronous Speech Final Ballots blasted to judges

                11AM Debate Round 2 (2 flights LD)

                1PM Debate Round 3 (2 flights LD)

                3PM Debate Round 4 (single flight LD, No Policy)

                3PM Asynchronous Speech Final Ballots due

                4 PM Debate round 5 (single flight LD, No Policy)

                6PM (or earlier) Awards presentation will be released

If you’ve ever even considered the idea of your students competing at NSDA Nationals, this is the time. Once again this year, the event will be held online. No airfare, no hotels, no food budget. Additionally, the NSDA has doubled the number of entries our district is allowed. And, to top that, two students per school who compete at all in the Inland Empire National Qualifying Tournament, can enter national supplemental events if they don’t qualify in a main event. Got students interested in World Schools Debate? We can make that happen. This year is as easy as it’s going to get if you or your students want the bragging rights that go along with NSDA Nationals.

There is, of course, a catch. (Isn’t there always?) Your program does have to be a member of the NSDA. Many of you have been members in the past. Annual dues are $149 and include access to a variety of resources, including coach certification training. The NSDA would love to see you join/rejoin, and you can likely talk them into discounted dues. After that, each student who competes needs to be a member, which does carry a lifetime membership fee of $20. All fees must be paid before the date of the competition.

For students to compete in the national qualifier, they must be at the degree of merit—25 points. You can enter points as far back as two years. The more points your students have, the more degrees your team has and the more you can enter in the qualifying tournament. (It’s based on school strength, which is noted at the top of your roster on NSDA.org and is also noted in Tabroom when you enter the tournament.) The more entries we have, the more students can go to nationals.

We will do our best to make every event with an interested person carry but that may require us asking you for additional entries in an event so that the national requirements are met. Please work with us and enter as many people in as many event as you can. Each event must have at least two schools represented (8 for senate) and at least 4 (16 for House and 10 for BQ) entries to carry. More info on the requirements for each event, entry limits etc can be found below or in the High School Unified Manual and Pilot Manual. 

 Please make sure to submit your nominations for the following district awards:

High School Coach of the year

Student of the year

Communicator of the year

Alum of the year

Volunteer of the year

Assistant coach of the year

New coach of the year

Administrator of the year.

If a link is not provided, please send a nomination the the district chair at inlandempirensda@gmail.com

EVENTS

Schools have a total cap on the number of entries in Speech, LD, PF, and Policy. Congress has a separate number and BQ allows unlimited entries. Your strength can be found on your school profile page at SpeechandDebate.org and when registering entries on tabroom.com. Strength can be increased by paying for student memberships and entering points. Students must be members with more than 25 merit points, have active accounts and be linked to that person in Tabroom. Please send the district chair a message if you need help navigating this or understanding any of the following information. 

Students may only enter 1 or 2 of the following events (LD, PF, POL, HI, DI, DUO, POI, OO, INF, IX, USX). They may ALSO enter a congress event and/or BQ however BQ will be occurring simultaneously with other Debate Events. Any student in a partner even may not enter another event with a different partner. Any students who are entered in more than one even must complete a single entry letter of intent form specifying their preference order for events in case they qualify in more than one event. Partners must attend in the event with their partner if they qualify unless BOTH partners qualify in a solo event and BOTH partners have prioritized the solo event over the partnered event in their letter of intent. 

Debates (LD, PF, POL):

Debates requires a minimum of 4 entries from at least two schools and two entries may qualify for nationals*. Based on previous years, we tend to have very few entries. If we have 6 or fewer entries, then we will use a round Robin format. Each school may enter up to 4 entries per event. LD and PF may be flighted. 

All debate events will be held live on Saturday through NSDA Campus. 

Speech/IEs (HI, DI, DUO, POI, OO, INF, IX, USX) :

Speech events requires a minimum of 4 entries from at least two schools and two entries may qualify for nationals*. Based on previous years, we tend to have very few entries. If we have 7 or fewer entries, then we will hold only three rounds for that event. Any event with more than 7 entries will have a final round. Final round will be triple judged. Each school may enter up to 4 entries per event. 

All speech events will be held asynchronously. 

DUO: Duos must be split screen and not in the same room. For more info, please see the Unifies Manual linked above. 

EXTEMP: Extemp topics will be released to COACHES on Wednesday and recording must be uploaded and submitted in a provided google forms link by Thursday evening at 7PM. Coaches must certify that they supervised the prep time and students did not receive the topics before the prep time began and that they did not use more than the allotted 30 minutes. 

*If there are 16 or more entries in an event, three entries will qualify for nationals. 

Congress:

Senate requires students from at least 8 different schools to be represented and two students may qualify for nationals. If fewer than 8 schools are represented- no Senate competition may be held. Typically we have not been able to hold this event. If it carries we will likely have two sessions in a single chamber (if 16 or more students are entered we will have two chambers and the second session will be a final). 

House requires a minimum of 16 competitors from at least two schools and two students may qualify for nationals. We plan to have two chambers of at least 8 students compete for session one and session two will be a final round with 8-10 competitors. 

Legislation will be the Washington State Spring 2021 Legislative Packet

Congress Events will be held Friday afternoon. 

Big Questions:

Big Questions requires a minimum of 10 competitors from at least two school and one student may qualify for nationals. All entries must be individual debaters (no partnerships). We plan on 4 preliminary rounds with a single elim bracket out rounds (likely just a semi and final). This follows the district tournament pilot rules.  There is no limit on the number of entries per school in this event. 

Big Questions will run simultaneously with other debates on Saturday. Rounds may be flighted.  

JUDGING:

Judges are obligated through the entirety of that category and may be used in any event within that category. No first year out students. Please make sure to train your judges and utilize the NSDA judge training resources. 

CONGRESS: Judges should be neutral-this can be marked in tabroom as you enter the judge. One judge for every 4 entries. Times: 3:30pm-10:00PM Thursday February 18th. 

Speech: One judge for every 4 entries. Please use as many neutral judges as possible. Let us know if there are any conflicts (like parents with a student competing but are otherwise neutral etc.). Ballots will be blasted at 9AM Friday 19th. Judges should mark start round by 11am and ballots will be due by 9AM on Saturday the 20th. Finals will be released by 11AM Saturday the 20th and judges should hit start round ASAP. Final ballots are due by 3PM Saturday the 20th. 

Debate: One judge for Every 2 entries. Rounds begin at 9AM and may go as late as 8PM. Judges may be used in any of the four debate events (BQ, LD, Policy, PF).