Brooklyn-Queens Regional Qualifying Tournament

March 15th, 2025 at Archbishop Molloy

Hi coach,

You are invited to attend the Brooklyn-Queens Regional Qualifying Tournament. This invitation is open to your team if your school is located in Kings or Queens County and you plan to participate in the 2025 New York State Forensic League Championship Tournament (herein referred to as States, happening April 5th-6th, 2025). Participation in States requires completion of a Google form [link forthcoming from State Coordinator], and the submission of the Principal Acknowledgement Form to NYSFL State Coordinator Joe Vaughan (joespeechtabroom@gmail.com). Any questions about this can be directed to WK (wkay@berkeleycarroll.org) or Joe.

Student Eligibility & Qualification Numbers

Students who have already qualified for States should not attend this tournament. If they wish to try to qualify in a different event, they will lose their previous qualification. It doesn’t matter if a student has already earned one half-qual for States or not. The number of full-quals distributed at the RQT is based on the number of students competing in the event (in alignment with the half-qual chart), but no more than 8 are permitted to qualify in any one event. In the events DUO and POI, the qualifications are relaxed. Any student in POI or any DUO team that has competed in that event at least once this season may participate in States.

Tabroom Registration

The tournament’s tabroom.com page, where all entries must register, can be found here, or by searching “Brooklyn Queens Regional Qualifying Tournament.” Registration opens Monday February 17th at 8am and closes Wednesday March 12th at 8pm. Please be sure to register the appropriate number of judges by the deadline, as entries uncovered by judging run the risk of being removed from the tournament.

Tournament Schedule

In years past, this has been an afternoon tournament due to the SAT being offered concurrently. This is not the case this year, but we wanted to maintain a more relaxed morning schedule. So, please note the amended schedule: in-person registration will run from 10am to 11am, with a scheduled Round 1 start at 11:15am, after a brief judge meeting. We plan to be out the door by 3:30pm.

Events

Declamation, Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, JV and Varsity Extemp Speaking, Original Oratory, Program Oral Interpretation, JV and Varsity Oral Interpretation, Student Congress, Novice, Intermediate and Varsity Public Forum, and Novice, Intermediate and Varsity Lincoln-Douglas Debate.

Rounds of Competition

The RQT will offer 3 preliminary rounds in all speech and debate events and 2 sessions of Student Congress. There are no final rounds. Awards will immediately follow the conclusion of round 3 and the second Congress session.

Congress Legislation

Congress legislation should be submitted via email to WK (wkay@berkeleycarroll.org) by Friday, February 21st at 5pm. Note that there is no SuperSession, so schools may only submit up to 2 pieces of legislation (please note in your email submission which will be Primary and Secondary).

Debate & Extemp Topics

We will use the March topics for LD and PF debate. The March PF topic is “Resolved: In the United States, the benefits of the use of generative artificial intelligence in education outweigh the harms.” The March LD topic is “Resolved: The development of Artificial General Intelligence is immoral.” In extemp, the topic areas will be as follows: Round 1 is US Legal Issues; Round 2 is International Institutions & Alliances; and Round 3 is Society, Culture, & Entertainment

Wild Card Entries for States

In addition to qualification via half-quals/the RQT, every school is permitted to register 1 wildcard entry in speech and 1 wildcard entry in debate (which includes Congress, PF and LD) for States that have not qualified via half-quals or the RQT. When registering your wild cards, please enter “WILD CARD” in the fields for both “Qualifier 1” and “Qualifier 2.”

Signoff & Contact Info

We look forward to your school’s participation in the Brooklyn-Queens RQT!

Best,
WK (they/she)

Brooklyn-Queens Regional Director, NYSFL

wkay@berkeleycarroll.org