Dates and Format

-          February 5-6

-          Online using NSDA Campus — all events are synchronous except Duo Interpretation

-          LD, Policy and Public Forum will run Friday/Saturday

-          Congressional Debate will run Friday only

-          Speech events (except Duo) will run Saturday only

-          Duo submissions will be due February 1st

-          Complete schedules will be posted on Tabroom.com in early January

Synchronous Events Offered

-          First Year Lincoln Douglas Debate, Second Year Lincoln Douglas Debate

-          First Year Policy Debate, Second Year Policy Debate

-          First Year Public Forum Debate, Second Year Public Forum Debate

-          First Year Dramatic Interpretation, Second Year Dramatic Interpretation

-          First Year Extemporaneous Speaking, Second Year Extemporaneous Speaking

-          First Year Humorous Interpretation, Second Year Humorous Interpretation

-          First Year Original Oratory, Second Year Original Oratory

-          First Year Program of Oral Interpretation, Second Year Program of Oral Interpretation

-          First Year Informative Speaking, Second Year Informative Speaking

-          First Year Impromptu Speaking, Second Year Impromptu Speaking

-          Varsity Congressional Debate — House

-          Varsity Congressional Debate — Senate

Asynchronous Events Offered

-          First Year Duo Interpretation, Second Year Duo Interpretation

Guidelines for Combining or Cancelling Divisions

All Events other than Congressional Debate Senate: If either division (first or second year) in an event is smaller than 10, the two levels will be combined for that event. We will cancel an event entirely if there are fewer than six entries and/or fewer than three schools.

Congressional Debate Senate: We will cancel the Senate if there are fewer than eight schools represented (GFCA Bylaw 4.36(c)).

Note: while we do not have entry caps, we may ask schools to limit entries in particular events as needed to ensure pairable rounds and meaningful competition for all.

Entry Criteria — All Events other than Varsity Congressional Debate

First Year students are defined as students competing in their first year of high school speech and debate activities.

Second Year students are defined as students competing in their second year of high school speech and debate. 

It is the coach’s responsibility to affirm that their debaters are eligible to compete. Email maggiekb@gmail.com if you have questions about a particular student — I’m happy to help you figure it out in advance!

Unlike in previous years, students need not have attended a particular number of previous tournaments to attend state.

Entry Criteria — Varsity Congressional Debate

Students may qualify for Varsity Congressional Debate via any of these methods:

1.       Senate — each GFCA Member School receives two automatic entries for the Senate chamber.

2.       House — each GFCA member school may enter up to ten entries in the House chamber. This qualification method applies to the 2021 tournament only.

Judging Qualifications — LD, Policy, PF, Speech

Experienced students may judge these events. Students must be two years “out” of that division to judge — so a student in their third year of high school speech/debate can judge first year events only and a student in their fourth year or beyond of high school speech/debate can judge first or second year events.

Note: if we collapse an event by combining the First and Second Year divisions, students in their third year of high school speech/debate will no longer be eligible to judge that division. We will notify impacted schools if that occurs.

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

Judging Qualifications — Congressional Debate

Each qualifying school must bring one judge per division entered. As this is a varsity event, all judges must be adults.

Hired Judging

We will have a limited amount of judging available to hire from the tournament. If you know you will need a hired judge, please submit this request ASAP when registration opens so we can make sure to meet as many needs as possible.

Fees

We know this is an incredibly difficult year financially for many schools, and we’re working to reduce fees as much as possible while accounting for adding new events. As always, the tournament will be run at cost, but we believe that we can substantially reduce fees from 2020 levels as a result of eliminating food and site fees for a virtual tournament. For reference, 2020 fees were $35 per student entered. We will update on 2021 fees shortly.

How to Register

Registration will open in early January on Tabroom.com — http://gfca12state.tabroom.com.

Other Notes

The First Year Policy division does not limit students to debating arguments in the novice packet.

LD will be using the January/February NSDA topic. PF will be using the February NSDA topic.