General Tournament Information

All tournament tabulation and pairings will occur via tabroom.com, and as such, all students, coaches, and judges will need to have an updated tabroom.com account. Information on how to create an account can be found on the TFA website (txfa.org).

We are committed to allowing all students who qualify for the elimination rounds to compete in those rounds. To accomplish this, entry limits will be placed on some events.

In this document, you can find the following information:

Events Offered

Independent Entries

General Information

EVENTS OFFERED

Lakes Debate Events - (Online)

Policy Debate, LD Debate, Novice LD, PF Debate, Novice PF, World Schools Debate, Congressional Debate, Novice Congress

Lakes and Ridge Individual Events

Section A: Domestic Extemp, Foreign Extemp, Novice Extemp, Dramatic Interpretation, Original Oratory, Poetry, and Duet

Section B: Impromptu Speaking, Humorous Interpretation, Informative Speaking, Program Oral Interpretation, Prose, Duo, and Novice Oral Interp

Contestants may enter 1 extemporaneous speaking event.

Ridge Debate Events -

Policy Debate, LD Debate, Novice LD, PF Debate, Novice PF, World Schools Debate, Congressional Debate, Novice Congress

Contestants entered in debate events may not cross-enter with any other live events at the tournament. Non-advancing LD/PF/CX/WSD entries may re-register after round 4 for Ridge (Ram) Section A IEs.

INDEPENDENT ENTRIES

The Spartan/Ram Swing Tournament is a TFA tournament, and as such, we must abide by TFA rules. The TFA Constitution says on page 72 that "Texas students participating at TFA tournaments must be affiliated with and a representative of the schools they are attending." This means that if you are a Texas student, you must participate under your school's name and be affiliated with said team. This rule is non-negotiable; if we break this (or any) TFA rule, our tournament can be sanctioned in future years, regardless of our personal opinions about the rule.

1 – All competitors must have a school-approved adult representative present at all times during the tournament. As noted in the tournament best practices document, this means they must be either actively judging, in a judge pooling room, or assisting the tournament.

2 – If a school employee is not attending with the student, a school official must email Cryste Beard or Gloria Scott, permitting the responsible adult to act on behalf of and make all relevant decisions for the student/school.*

3 - All teams must register using their school name and their official school tabroom account so that TFA and NSDA points can be accurately attributed.

We require every team to be chaperoned by an individual who is either a school employee or has written authorization from the school to act and make decisions at the tournament on behalf of the school (this means, but is not limited to: carrying emergency medical information, to make decisions that can impact future attendance by the school - such as paying fines, etc. - anything a school employee would be expected to do). An acceptable alternative is an adult who has been background checked by the school and who has the approval of the school to assume full responsibility for the care of students of that school while at the tournament. Schools will be asked to list who that adult will be as a condition of final registration. It is the expectation of the tournament that all competitors must have the adult described above with them at registration; STUDENTS MAY NOT REGISTER THEMSELVES. If the responsible adult is not a school employee, a school official must email Cryste Beard or Gloria Scott to give the authorization to act on the school’s behalf from their school email address.

Any student found to be in violation of such policy will be removed from the pairings.

We will accept independent entries on a case-by-case basis for high school students outside of Texas. All independent entries must pay their entry fees (including the $200 judge fee and $75 school fee) in full via check to the address on the website before 1 pm CST on October 21, 2025.

GENERAL RULES

We will break to Semifinals in all Individual Events unless entry levels warrant a break straight to Finals. If entry numbers in an event are low, we will move to 2 prelim rounds and break directly to finals.

All ballots for Debate, IEs, and Duet Acting will be made available as soon as possible after the completion of each round. Problems or questions should be directed to the tabroom as soon as possible.

An adult supervisor for each school must be immediately available to perform necessary tournament duties if called upon. Failure to do so may result in the tournament making necessary decisions such as removing a competitor, walk-over an entry, or adjudicating a protest. Frequent inability to make contact with a coach for tournament-related matters may result in that school’s students being removed from the tournament.