Bellarmine Rhetoric Spring Debate Tournament

Hosted Online on Microsoft Teams - "Spring Rhetoric LD Debate Tournament" Team

Monday, May 10th, 2021 - Tuesday, May 18th, 2021

Tournament Directors/Tabroom Staff: Xavier Liu and Sherwin Lai

Executive Director: Mr. Cleary

Equity Officer: Xavier Liu

Tournament Helpdesk Number: +1 (408) 964-0688; Please TEXT before calling

Event Offered: Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Map for Rounds: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EJzl9sJ1tPUq3AwDPK8A5CYbZ4ZtgVcI/view?usp=sharing

Tournament website: http://bcpspringrhetoric.tabroom.com

Registration: Only Bellarmine College Prep students or those who are taking Rhetoric during the Spring Semester of their freshman year will be allowed to enter this Intrasquad tournament. All other schools will be dropped from the tournament without notice or warning.

Table of Contents:

1. Announcements and Notifications

2. Notes for Students

3. Judging Instructions

4. Students' Instructions for Tabroom Accounts

The tournament schedule can be accessed by clicking on the "Schedule" page on the sidebar to the right. The schedule is now posted.

1. Announcements and Notifications

Both students and judges: Please be attentive about emails and Slack notifications. Sign up for “Live Updates” using the tab above - this will alert you with text or email notifications about new pairings/postings.

Announcements will take place in the Novice Tournaments Team. Please pay attention to the General Channel for important updates, including pushing up or back rounds!

2. Notes for Students and Judges

- Be in tournament attire (think dress-up day) on the days you are competing.

- Pairings for all rounds will be posted on Tabroom. The tournament schedule will be listed on a separate custom page on the side bar. Please make sure that you know which room you will be speaking or debating in. 

- ALL competition will take place on the "Spring Rhetoric LD Debate Tournament" Team on Microsoft Teams. Each room is marked with a number and is a separate channel on the Team. Prior to the start of each round, please check your room number and head over to your room at the scheduled start of your round, head over to your room and wait for a Judge to start the call for "tech check."

- Pairings will be released 15 minutes before the start of any round taking place during 4th Period (11:45 - 12:50). Pairings will be released ASAP for the round taking place after school.

- Since we are hosting this Tournament in a hybrid setting, those who are "on-campus" will head to their physical room on campus AND also log into the marked room on Teams. Those who are "remote" will simply log into the teams room from home. So for example, if Xavier Liu (on-campus) is debating Sherwin Lai (remote) and Mr. Cleary (on campus) is judging in the Debate Conference Room, Xavier and Mr. Cleary would head over to the Debate Conference Room at 11:40 and log into the Breakout room titled "Debate Conference Room" on the Teams call. Sherwin would then join the call from home. The debate is then held as such. The only reason when a round will not be online is if everyone is in person. Otherwise, folks should still login to Teams once they get to their respective rooms.

- Please note that rounds after school may need to be rescheduled due to time conflicts for certain students. Please follow the instructions listed in the yellow tab on the right hand side of this page under: "Procedure for Debate Time Conflicts". Students should reach out to their opponent and judge(s) and fill out this form ASAP once pairings for the after school round are posted. The Tournament Directors will also reach out to the judge(s) judging the debate to remind them that the round needs to be rescheduled. Rounds must be held within 30 hours of the scheduled start time or the debater(s) which have a conflict will forfeit the round.

- 5 minutes prior to the start of each round there will be a mandatory "tech check." This is required for both judges and students. This is to ensure that all technological issues are straightened out prior to the start of the round. Students and judges should ensure that their cameras and microphones work. Both students and judges must be present in the room which you are speaking or debating in on Microsoft Teams. Judges, please "initiate the call" 5 minutes prior to the start of the round for the tech check.

- We will be enforcing a strict five-minute forfeit time after the scheduled start of the round. There is no time for dilly-dallying - students and judges need to show up at the scheduled start of the round. This is even more imperative for the Round afterschool as the Round MUST finish by 3 PM.

- During the round, both judges and students should have their cameras on and should be muted unless they are speaking. The only exception is if we go into "limited tech mode," where to stop lagging video and poor audio quality, only the judge and the speaker should have their videos on. 

- For safety and legal purposes, judges may not record the round. Judges and students, please act appropriately during the round. If you cannot do it in person, please don't do it over video during the round. 

- To access comments, ballots, and results, you will need to use your Tabroom.com account. If you do not have a Tabroom account or do not know how to link your account to a competitor, please look under "Students' Instructions for Tabroom Accounts" below.

3. Judging Instructions

If this is your first time judging, please be sure to link your Tabroom account to a judge. Click on "Link your person to a judge" and search for yourself. There will be a page that pops up that lists all judges registered on Tabroom with your name. Please look for your name and "judges for: Bellarmine College Prep" and click to link yourself to that judge!

- It’s super important that you attend the round on the day that you are assigned to judge.

- When you log in to your Tabroom account, you should be taken to a page where you will see the round that you need to judge along with the words "START ROUND" in a green box.

- Before the round: Judges, you MUST PRESS “START ROUND” once you receive your ballot. Doing this alerts Tab that you have officially “picked up” your ballot and that the round has officially started. You may do this during "tech check."

- We will be using FULL speech times for LD. You ballot will have these times listed. You should not have an issue fitting a round in a class period. However, the round afterschool starting at 2:15 PM will be a little tight. Please be sure to keep things moving so that students don't drag the round behind. Please do not let the students dilly-dally.

- Points will be on a 50 point scale. 

- You must submit your decision and points, no later than 15 minutes after the round ends. This is especially the case after the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th prelim round so that we can pair the next round. Please do not delay the tournament by waiting to submit your rankings and comments at the same time. You can edit RFD/comments later even after you've submitted your rankings. Do not disclose your decision to the debaters in any prelim round. In elimination rounds, the panel may disclose and give RFDs once all ballots on the panel have been submitted. At no point should you disclose without the entire panel having submitted their ballots, even if two judges voted for the same side.

- We strongly recommend that you type your comments on a Google Doc and then copy and paste them into the Tabroom page or vice versa to back your comments up. Tabroom has been known to "randomly delete" comments from the Tournament. RIP Sherwin in 2019, RIP Kush 2020. 

- Your RFD and feedback on Tabroom will be available to the debaters at the conclusion of the tournament. However, you MAY give them oral feedback that does NOT reveal the decision after the round ends. Please keep this short - no more than 5-10 minutes after each round as we are on a tight schedule.

- No show/forfeit procedure: If you are judging a debate with (an) absent debater(s), please DO NOT SUBMIT the ballot. Slack Xavier (and Mr. Cleary).

4. Students' Instructions for Tabroom Accounts

You will need to use your Tabroom account to access judge RFDs and comments. If you already have a Tabroom account and have already linked your account to yourself, awesome! There's no need for you to read the rest of this. 

STEP 1: HOW TO CREATE A TABROOM ACCOUNT

1. On the main page of Tabroom.com, find the "Sign Up" button on the upper right corner of your screen. Click on that. (Ignore the first question which asks you whether you're an NSDA Coach or PKD Member. You are a student and are neither.) Keep scrolling down, which leads you to a page where you type in your email, first name, last name, phone number, password, etc... While you are only required to input information regarding your email, first and last name, and password, we also highly recommend that you provide your cellphone number and service provider because you can get live text updates of postings and tournament updates!

2. After you input all your information, click "Create login." This will lead you to a blank page that serves as your Tabroom account. If you see the words "Judging," "Competing," and "Your Account" on the right hand side of the web page, you are in the right place!

STEP 2: LINK YOUR ACCOUNT WITH A COMPETITOR

1. After you log in, click on your email in the top right corner. On the right hand side, scroll down to "Your Account" and click on "Link your person to a student."

2. That will bring you to a page that prompts you to search for yourself. Type your first and last name in the empty boxes and click "Search."

3. Please pick the correct person and link yourself to that student. Look for your name and "competes for: Bellarmine College Prep" and click to link yourself to that person!

4. Tab may also ask you to confirm that you want to link. Please make sure all information is correct and confirm the link. Please DO NOT link your account to anyone OTHER THAN YOURSELF.