General Tournament Information

General TFA State Information

Registration will take place in the Jordan High School Library on Wednesday, March 5th from 6 pm-8 pm. On Wednesday, please park in front of and enter at the main entrance to Jordan High School.

Late registration will be at the Element Houston Katy hotel at 23653 Grande Centre Dr, Katy, TX 77494 from 10:30am-12:30pm on Thursday.

If you have an emergency that will not allow you to make it to late registration, please notify Nathaniel Council at nathaniel.council@pampaisd.net.

On Thursday and Friday, DO NOT ARRIVE AT JORDAN HS UNTIL AFTER 3:00pm.

IMPORTANT DEADLINES

• Friday, February 01, – Schools may begin entering TFA State-qualified students on tabroom.com. Please register all qualifiers AND any students who may qualify before the end of the TFA competitive season. Please send your check as soon as possible. Refunds for any overpayments will be made following the conclusion of the state tournament. It is better to pay for students who don’t end up qualifying than it is to send your check with insufficient funds.

• February 17, at 5:00 PM CST – All t-shirt orders must be finalized. Based on your order, Brian Alford will update your tabroom.com invoices. You will see your updated invoice on your tabroom.com fees sheet by March 1st. Please be aware that if you order late you will have a balance to be paid in full at registration.

• February 18, at 5:00 PM CST – Last day to check tabroom.com for accuracy of the IQT reports for all TFA State qualifying entries and submit any necessary corrections to the IQT Coordinator (Nicole Cornish at ncornish@athensisd.net).

• February 24, at 11:55 PM CST – LAST DAY – All schools and entries must be entered on the tabroom.com website. Entry fees are also locked at this time - drops after 11:55 PM CST on this date will be charged the original entry fee.

• February 26 – Total payment for tournament entries, fees, and shirts must be mailed to Brian Alford at:
  Texas Forensic Association
  Attn: Brian Alford
  253 Navarro Dr.
  College Station, TX 77845

• Fees can also be paid on CheddarUp at https://tfa-finance-portal.cheddarup.com
  
  
• March 3, at 5:00 PM CST – LAST DAY – All schools may DROP entries without an additional Drop Fee (schools will lose entry fee as of Wed, Feb. 26th). After March 3rd at 5:00 PM CST, schools will be charged twice the entry fee for dropped entries.
• March 3, at 5:00 PM CST – All Original Oratory, Informative Speaking and main event oral interpretation authors, titles, and/or ISBNs must be submitted ONLINE on the tabroom.com website.

• March 3, at 5:00 PM CST – Judge paradigms due on tabroom.com.

• If full payment is not received at or prior to registration, schools that have not paid will not be able to compete at TFA State and dropped entries will be assessed a significant drop fee.

CROSS-ENTRY INFORMATION

The choice to compete in multiple events is a choice and that decision cannot impact the other students, judges, or tournament writ large in a negative way (for example: delay rounds over 15 minutes due to cross entries.) The responsibility to arrive on time to compete is solely on the student and rounds that delay the start of other rounds due to cross-entries will result in those who have opted to cross-enter, potentially missing an opportunity to compete in that round. Ranks or decisions should not be adjusted to accommodate students who are late/miss rounds (once ballots are submitted). All coaches and students with cross-entered students have an affirmative obligation to look at the published schedule to decide if it is logistically possible to compete in rounds where they have conflicting events during the same time block. If a student is in an elimination round of debate that would be delayed by competing in an individual event elimination round, those students would need to choose which event they would continue in so as not to disrupt the entire elimination round schedule.

· A student may enter only one debate event (LD, CX, PF, Congress, or WSD). A student may enter only one division of Extemp.

PROTEST INFORMATION/PROCEDURES
All coaches have a responsibility to check pairings and/or give students MJP/strike information to ensure students are not being judged by individuals who have been struck. Concerns must be raised before the round in question begins. Protests associated with struck judges will not be heard after the round begins. If the need to file a protest arises, the coach of the protesting school must put the protest in writing on the official protest form that will be available online. Our Ombudsperson room will be located in the library throughout the tournament. Still, the official protest form must be filled out completely and submitted either online or in-person to the Ombudsperson to discuss the protest. Procedures for filing protests shall be followed as found in the TFA Constitution.

DISSEMINATION OF BALLOTS
The TFA State Tournament will be utilizing tabroom.com this year. All ballots will be made available for viewing online for COACHES OF RECORD ONLY after each round of tabulation has been completed. Please DO NOT come to the Tab room asking for ballots – they will be made available after each ballot is submitted and tabulated for that round.