Finals Livestreams:

Public Forum (PF) – https://youtu.be/WgPUHKhQ2pM

Lincoln Douglas (LD) – https://youtu.be/jDE7kgAHyp4

Original Oratory (OO) – https://youtu.be/xLcF7z6Vgro

Interpretation (DIOI) – https://youtu.be/qZJ4Ab0ExaA

After being shut down in 2020 due to our event’s coinciding with the very stressful March shelter-in-place order, we are back and all virtual for 2021! Please join Stratford Debate for our 3rd (should-be-4th) annual Shamrock Invitational! We are so glad to have been able to put this event together for 2021.

EVENTS

The biggest change will be that Speech will be asynchronous this time! We will be requesting all Speech entries to be recorded and submitted the week before the tournament. Speech Judges will have rounds allocated to them the Monday-Thursday, March 8-12, the week of the tournament, and they will have 24 hours to submit their ballot before the next round is assigned. Please see the “Events” page for more information about the asynchronous round. During the second day of the tournament, however, we will host a live Speech Finals, which will be streamed live on YouTube for spectators. This will be our first speech elimination round ever!

The second biggest change for us this time around is hosting a novice Congress division! We are excited to see the turnout for this event, and we encourage students to register. Legislation up for debate will be released two weeks before the tournament.

We are allowing for double entry between Debate and Speech events. If a student wants to enter Congress, LD, or PF, they may also enter speech. If students would like to double-enter in Speech events, we will have a protocol for students to enter a maximum of 2 Speech events. Students double-entered will need to speak first, and then they must transfer to their other room to finish out the round.

Coaches may double-enter judges to cover their obligations in Speech & Debate. The debate judge pool will be combined at this tournament, so we will not guarantee that judges will stick to a single format throughout the event. Please encourage your judges to read the judging materials located in the sidebar prior to the event to help prepare themselves for the tournament (TBA - we're working on this document; check back in a week).

Debate

As said above, we will be hosting our first Novice Congress event at this tournament! We will also continue to have Public Forum and Lincoln-Douglas formats. This is a novice tournament, so middle-school competitors only, please.

Speech

We are hosting Original Oratory and Duo Interpretation (subject to change) again this tournament, along with Expository, Interpretation (Dramatic & Oratorical), Humorous Interpretation. Any category with fewer than 10 entries will not participate in the live finals; they will be ranked and receive their results via tabroom. The regular 10-minute maximum times will be in place for these events. Impromptu will have its regular 7-minute time limit. 

LOGISTICS

This tournament will be all digital through NSDA Campus. Speech will be asynchronous this year with live final. Rounds will be announced via e-mail and SMS, and ballots will be tabulated digitally. Competitors, coaches, and judges, please test your technology the week of the tournament, and have a back-up plan in the event of a power or internet outage.

All schedule times are subject to change. In order to respect everyone’s time, if we can move the event forward earlier (without trimming the length of the lunch break), we will attempt to do so. This requires, however, that judges be responsive and available if the round times move up.

We will fine missing judges. Competitors can accrue 1 forfeit loss. If they do not show up for a round after accruing one forfeit, we will drop them from the tournament in order to proceed in a timely fashion.

Our hope is to be able to provide a small pool of judges for hire, subject to availability (and first-come, first-serve), but please do not rely on our ability to provide judges. Judges hired from us will come with an additional fee (please see invoice information).