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Brooklyn-Queens Regional Qualifying Tournament for NYSFL State Tournament

Hi coach,

You are invited to attend the Brooklyn-Queens Regional Qualifying Tournament. A host school will be announced by January 2027. This invitation is open to your team if your school is located in Kings or Queens County and you plan to participate in the 2027 New York State Forensic League Championship Tournament (herein referred to as States, happening April 10th-11th, 2027 at the Bronx High School of Science). Participation in States requires completion of a Google form [link forthcoming from StateCoordinator], 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. Ifthey 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: Registration opens Monday February 1st at 8am and closes Wednesday March 3rd 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: Due to the SAT in the morning, we will run this tournament in the afternoon. Please arrive between 1:15 and 1:45. We will begin rounds as close to 2pm as possible and plan to be out the door by 6pm, with your cooperation and assistance.

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.

Debate & Extemp Topics: We will use the March topics for LD and PF debate as delineated by the NSDA. Congress Legislation shall be posted by February 15th. 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 has 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.”

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