State Qualifiers

Organizer: Carlos Santos Location: North Central High School

Address: 1600 N Howard Contact Number: (509) 720-8235

Spokane, WA 99205

Date: February 22nd, 2025

You are cordially invited to the 2025 District 7/8 State Qualifying Tournament to be held at North Central High School. This is an Open Level only tournament to qualify the last spots to the State Speech and Debate Tournaments at UPS. The amount of qualifiers is reflected below:

We may have fewer pre-qualifiers and more tournament qualifiers due to competitors not having earned pre-qualifying points, or due to unbreakable ties. Beyond our allocation totals, there is no limit to how many qualifiers a school may have in speech events. In Student Congress a school may qualify up to three competitors. In debate events a school may qualify up to two competitors/teams in each event.

If competitors have prequalified in one or two events, they may still attend the Last Chance tournament and enter in up to two speech events, but will be required to specify which two events they wish to go to state in should they qualify for more than two events. Students already qualified in a debate event may attempt to qualify in another debate event, but must attend state in the new event if they qualify, and the previous debate slot will be re-allocated to the tournament, not the school. This is to prevent schools from trying to use a single student to lock in multiple debate slots for the school. Competitors may be registered at: http://lastchance78.tabroom.com/. Registration is due by Feb. 19 at 10pm, with judge entries due by 5pm on Feb. 20. Schools with insufficient judges at the deadline will be charged a fee of $50 per for each judge under the required number (excluding events that are collapsed). If we are sufficiently under-judging requirements, students from schools under the limit may be dropped. After that time decisions will be made regarding which events will actually hold competition, as low enough entries could mean we don’t need to hold an event. Although head coaches may ultimately be asked to judge, we would prefer you not register yourself as a judge in case last minute decisions need to be made about qualifications. Please make sure that all competitors with scripts (Duo, DI, HI, IR) have their scripts available. Coaches must present the WSFA Script Check form during the tournament to be signed and copied by the district manager. Competitors without the script check form will not be allowed to compete at the State Tournament.

Washington State’s Supervision Requirement

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) requires, and we must enforce, the presence at all times of a certificated staff member from the same school or school district, supervising your participants. Failure to comply with this requirement will result in school forfeiture and dismissal from the tournament.

Debate: The first two rounds of debate will be randomly matched. Rounds 3 and all subsequent rounds will be power-matched.

Lincoln Douglas Debate

One judge per two entries is required. This will be strictly enforced. If you have three competitors, you need two judges. We will be following all other WIAA and WSFA rules. We will be using the March/April topic .

Public Forum Debate

One judge per two entries is required. This will be strictly enforced. If you have three teams you need two judges. Three person teams are allowed, but only two competitors at a time are allowed. Maverick debates are not allowed. We will be following all other WIAA and WSFA rules. We will be using the March resolution

Policy Debate

We will not be holding policy debate at this tournament, as all the schools with policy teams have come to a mutual agreement regarding qualifiers based on the pre-qualifying system.

Congressional Debate

One judge per five competitors is required. This will be strictly enforced. If you have six competitors you need two judges. We would greatly appreciate having as many unaffiliated judges as possible.

• Legislation:

• The official legislation adopted by the State will be the legislation used for the tournament.
• Please have your students in Congress bring their own copies of the legislation. NO COPIES WILL BE PROVIDED.
• Absent a filed coach’s protest, we will use the system for selecting the docket which is commonly used in area tournaments. Each school represented in each house will draw numbers to determine the order for a legislation draft. They will then take turns picking bills to be debated. This will determine the docket for the session. [Note: Although this method has not been specifically sanctioned by rule, it is so commonly used that many students will expect it and it is a fast and fair method of docket setting. If any specific coach wishes to file a protest to this system, s/he must email any such protest to the state congress chair at dsmithy@cvsd.org by the close of tournament registration.]
• Separate Legislation for Super Congress is included in the WSFA packet and will ONLY be used for Super Congress, unless no super congress is scheduled.
• Scoring:

• Each speech will be awarded up to 6 points by the judge in the round. The parliamentarian will score the PO. After each session, judges will rank the top eight speakers, including the PO. The cumulative total of these ranks in preliminary rounds will determine the students who will advance to Super Congress.
• The parliamentarian’s one-time ranking of the chamber at the end of preliminary rounds will be used to break any ties that result both in determining who breaks to Super Congress and in final awards. The parliamentarian’s ranking will count as one judge at the end of all preliminary and super sessions.
• If the number of entries results in more than one chamber of Congress for a division of competition, Session III will be a Super Congress. After Session II, the top 7 to 10 members of each chamber (based on total judge rankings from session I and II) will advance to the two-segment Final Session. The legislation identified by the State as Super Congress Legislation will be the only legislation discussed during this round. Awards will be based on the cumulative rankings of judges during the final round. Parliamentarian ranking will be used to break ties. The top three competitors will receive Judge’s Choice Awards. There will also be a top PO award as determined by the Parliamentarian.
• If there is only one chamber of Congress for a division of competition, Session III will be a regular session, and final scores for 1st place , 2nd, and 3rd, will be determined by the accumulation of judges’ rankings for all three preliminary rounds. In the event that no super congress session is to be held, supers legislation may be used in the preliminary rounds. There will be no Student Choice Award.
• We will follow all other WIAA and WSFA rules.

Individual Events

One judge per five competitors is required. This will be strictly enforced. If you have six competitors you need two judges.

Overtime: No penalty should apply if the student falls within the 30-second grace period. Speaking beyond the 30 second grace period simply means that the student cannot receive first in the round.

Finals: The 4A division will not hold finals unless necessary, as we have a minimum of 7 spots to state to determine from this tournament, so a finals would be unnecessary. Finals will not be held if an event only has one panel throughout prelims, or there is a very clear break at the state qualifying mark after prelims.

Important Policies

· Only student desks may be moved to accommodate debate or speech rounds. Please do not move any other items, including removing plugs from outlets. Failure to follow this rule may result in disqualification, depending on the items moved.

· No competitors are allowed in a room before a judge has entered the room. This will result in disqualification.

· No one may sit at a teacher’s desk, or to use materials from the classroom, including pens and paper.

· Please remember not to enter any head coaches into the judging pool. You may still be asked to judge, but we would like to keep you out of rounds in case any qualifications decisions or rules decisions need to be made.

National Speech & Debate Association Harassment and Discrimination Policy

The National Speech& Debate Association is committed to providing its participants, judges, coaches, and staff the opportunity to pursue excellencein their endeavors. This opportunity can exist only when each member of our community is assured an atmosphere of mutual respect. The NSDA prohibits all forms of harassment and discrimination. Accordingly, all forms of harassment and discrimination, whether written or oral, based on race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, citizenship, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by any applicable federal, state, or local law are prohibited, whether committed by participants, judges, coaches, or observers. Individuals who are found to have violated this policy will be subject to the full range of sanctions, up to and including removal from the tournament premises.

Please bring competent judges, and review the Important Policies with them. Encourage judges to make professional decisions regarding their behavior and language. They play a bigger role with our kids than they may sometimes realize.

Judges must have graduated from high school in 2020 or earlier. Some exceptions may be made for judges that did not attend a local high school and have demonstrated themselves to be capable judges throughout the season.

Judges are welcome to indicate all events they would like to judge, but you must bring judges to cover the division and event entries on your registration. (For example, if you bring policy teams, be sure you have judges competent in judging varsity policy.)

Teams must provide judging coverage for at least one round after the team is eliminated from competition. This means all debate judges are required to stay in attendance at least through quarterfinals, and IE judges through finals.

Registration Fees

Checks can be made payable to North Central High School.

Tournament Schedule

Saturday, February 22

Debate R1: 8:30-9:30

Debate R2: 9:35-10:30

Congress R1 8:30-10:30

IE R1: 10:35-11:45

Debate R3/Congress R2 First Half: 12:00-1:00

IE R2: 1:05-2:05

Debate R4/Congress R2 Second Half: 2:15-3:15

IE R3: 3:20-4:20

Debate R5/Congress Su First Half: 4:30-5:30

IE R4: 5:45-6:45

Debate R6/Congress Su Second Half: 6:50-7:50

*Finals/Super Congress will not be held if an event only has one panel/chamber throughout prelims, or there is a very clear break at the state qualifying mark after prelims.