Rocky Mountain-North District Qualifier

for the 2026 National Tournament

Interpretation Rounds update

All interp/platform events will have 4 preliminary rounds with 1 judge, dropping their worst round for eliminations.

• Reasoning behind the decision:

• paying 2 judges per round has become unsustainable for the district with the introduction of semi rounds in events over 20 students.

• When pairing off 3 rounds, there are often conflicts with students getting going head to head in 2, if not all 3 rounds. Through experimenting, the addition of a 4th round has been found to solve a large portion of the students' head to head conflicts.

• In line with the NSDA manual, all elimination rounds will have 3 judges

• Tiebreakers are set by the NSDA, and the district committee does not have the ability to change them

• Semis will be snaked according to NSDA policy

• Then Seeds of competitors

• Sections are then adjusted by swapping entries with the same rank total to avoid entries from the same school competing in the same section, where possible.

• Events @ 21 entries will be eligible for a semi finals, all other events will head straight to a finals

• We are hoping to get 30 students in each event. NSDA has noted that it wants to see students compete in all preliminary rounds. Please note that fillers will be asked to go to each round of competition. The more they can authentically compete the betterment for the district.