JANUARY 30 - FEBRUARY 1, 2025

ALIEF ELSIK MOB SQUAD presents the 2025 BLUE SWING

A TFA IQT event and TWO NIETOC-bid tournaments in one weekend at one location!

Dear Colleagues,

You are cordially invited to attend the HYBRID Alief Elsik BLUE SWING on January 30 - February 1, 2025. We will run a full debate tournament online Thursday & Friday, January 30 & 31 then on Saturday, February 1 we will be in person on our campus to host the speech swings and the second half of the debate swing.

All DEBATE EVENTS will be virtual on NSDA Campus on Thursday and Friday. Please note that all online debate events begin on Thursday, January 30. For the ONLINE portion of the tournament all schools ARE REQUIRED TO PROVIDE THEIR ENTIRE ONLINE JUDGING OBLIGATION. We are NOT hiring judges for the online portion of the tournament therefore you will NOT be charged judge fees for the online debate tournament hence you must cover your entire obligation. If you do not enter enough judges to cover your entries, we will drop you from the tournament.

All INDIVIDUAL EVENTS & the SECOND HALF OF THE DEBATE SWING will be in person on the Elsik Main Campus on Saturday, February 1. During the in-person, all schools are required to provide some judging including the coach of record on duty that day. This means that unless you have covered your entire entry for the day with your other school judges, we reserve the right to put all coaches in the judge pool in events where we need coverage. If your school has 10 Congress entries and there are only four chambers, then your school judges/coaches will be assigned to judge rounds in other events during the congress pattern. This will be true for all events in which you are NOT able to meet your obligation because you have more entries than will allow us to place you in rounds.

In addition to our status as a double TFA qualifying weekend, the BLUE SWING tournament will be a qualifier for the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions (NIETOC) on both sides of this year's swing tournament. We will be offering all TFA events as well as impromptu, prose and poetry. We will also offer a novice division in extemp, PF, and LD if entry numbers warrant. A novice for our tournament will be defined as a student in their first year of competition in the current academic school year.

All divisions in debate will consist of 4 preliminary rounds leading to an elimination bracket. We reserve the right to adjust the schedule and number of rounds based on entry size. WE WILL NOT BREAK BRACKETS IN DEBATE. We will follow TFA rules in all events. Coaches unfamiliar with TFA events and rules can access information on the TFA website at www.txfa.org. All entries must be submitted via the Tabroom.com website.

Please note that Elsik students may choose to enter this tournament and they will be eligible for the break and TFA points. See y’all in January. GO BLUE!

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Sincerely,

Heath & the Mob Squad