Event Rules and Behavioral Expectations

Tournament Information and Rules of Conduct

1. All competing students must be supervised by an employee of the school or school district they are representing or a certified adult supervisor traveling with the permission of the head coach.  The supervising coach or adult must also be available throughout the tournament until all of their students are eliminated or have competing in their final rounds.  Maverick student entries will not be accepted.

2. All students, coaches, judges, and guests are asked to abide by a few conduct rules:

A. Students, coaches, and judges should all abide by the Code of Conduct of the Texas Forensic Association found here.  This includes respecting the rights of everyone to have a competition free from harrassment, bullying, and other offensive and inappropriate behaviors.  Persons found in violation of the Code of Conduct in letter or in spirit will be expelled from the tournament, notification will be made to TFA and the offending school's administration, and will not be welcomed back to a tournament hosted by Clear Falls High School again.

B. Our tournament will follow the guidelines established by our governing bodies (TFA, NSDA) in regards to evidence usage, in-round communication, and other event-specific rules.  Please ensure your students are fully aware of what is within and outside of the rules for each event they are competing in.  These can be found on the TFA and NSDA websites respectively.

3. Sweeptstakes points will be awarded to entries based on the following formula:

Varsity IE's, Duo/Duet, and Congress: 1st (30), 2nd (25), 3rd (20), 4th (15), 5th (10), 6th (5), 7th (2), and 8th (1).  7th and 8th only if necessary.

Varsity TFA Debate events: 1st (30), 2nd (25), Semifinalist (20), Quarterfinalist (10), Octofinalist (5). Octofinalist only if necessary.

Novice Extemp and Congress: 1st (15), 2nd (12.5), 3rd (10), 4th (7.5), 5th (5), 6th (2.5).  7th and 8th only if necessary (1).

Novice Debate events: 1st (15), 2nd (12.5), Semifinalist (10), Quarterfinalist (5), Octofinalist (2.5). Octofinalist only if necessary.

4. Students competing in synchronous events are expected to arrive 10-15 minutes before Extemp Draw and at the start of each debate round's check-in/tech check time.  Failure to do so may result in the student being dropped from the tournament at the discretion of the tournament director.

5. For the purposes of our tournament, a novice is defined as a student in their first year of competition in a secondary school (high school).

6. For finals of individual events and semifinals and finals of debate events, we will make every possible effort to panel judges (as long as we have enough judges).  TFA qualifying events will have paneled final rounds.

7. The Champion Team will be recognized on our Castle Traveling Trophy.  This traveling trophy has become a tradition for our Knight Invitational.  If practical (due to Covid-19), the winning team gets to keep the traveling trophy for a year and upon returning it, will receive a permanent trophy for their trophy case, while we add an enscribed name plate to the trophy to recognize that team and their Head Coach(es).  

8.  Clear Falls students may be entered in select events to ensure that events meet TFA participation requirements to award TFA State points, as well as in non-TFA events.  These students will not be eligible to receive team points nor individual sweepstakes points.

9. Students may cross enter in as many asynchronous events as their coach/team wishes to enter them.  Students in Extemporaneous Speaking events (DX, IX, and NX) may cross enter in only 1 Debate event.  Debate competitors may not cross enter in another debate event.  Students who advance to semifinals or finals in multiple events are responsible for attending to their rounds as quickly as possible.  If a judge has given a student what is deemed to be sufficient (by the tournament staff) time to virtually arrive and that student has not made a good faith effort to arrive to that round, they will be given last place in the round or forfeit the round in debate.  The tournament cannot be held up by students watching other performances or losing track of time.