Judging Instructions

Judging Instructions

Thank you so much for supporting Speech and Debate and committing to judging at the 50th Annual La Costa Canyon Winter Classic. This document will give you some information about how judging our on-line tournament will work. 

PRIOR to the tournament:

• All participation will be on-line, and accessible through tabroom.com and tournaments.classrooms.cloud. Please make certain you can login with your Tabroom email and password. 

• Confirm with your coach your obligation for the tournament. If coaches have not indicated otherwise on tabroom.com, we will assume you are available for all rounds throughout the tournament. If you will only be available for specific days/times, please be sure your coach has relayed this information. 

• If absolutely necessary, we may collapse judge pools. Judges should be prepared to judge any event (except for Policy) during the tournament. 

• There are videos available to brief you on the events you may be judging. Some of the information is outdated, due to the switch to online tournaments this year, but these videos will still provide an overview of the judging process. 

• Judging Congress

• Judging Debate

• Judging IEs (Speech)

When judging, PLEASE do NOT judge based on your own beliefs or personal experience. You are judging and critiquing based on how well a student articulates their point, NOT the point they are making.

AT THE TOURNAMENT:

• Using the Google Chrome browser, please log into Tabroom.com, then go to https://tournaments.classrooms.cloud and log in using your tabroom log-in information. Keep both of these platforms open. You will then navigate through the “Tournaments” menu to find “La Costa Canyon Winter Classic”.

• Join the Judges’ room approximately 30 minutes before each round. Tournament staff will provide you with information regarding the tournament progression (when ballots will be posted, the next time to join the judges’ room, etc.).

• If you are assigned a ballot, it will appear in your tabroom.com account. IMMEDIATELY HIT “START ROUND” on your ballot, even though the round has not started. This will alert tournament staff that you are aware of your assignment. This will generate an electronic ballot in tabroom.com.

• Join the classroom indicated on your ballot when released by the judges’ room. Classrooms will be found by accessing tournaments.classrooms.cloud. 

• Please note the students on your ballot, and ensure the students or student videos in your classroom match the students listed on your ballot. (If they do not, you are likely in the wrong room.) No one else is allowed to observe the round. 

• Tournament staff will visit your room to confirm that your round is underway. Once you have reported to your room, do not leave. If you have issues, please address them with the tab staff member that checks your room. 

• If you are not assigned a ballot, please remain in the judges’ room! You will be dismissed once it is confirmed that all rooms are underway. 

DURING THE ROUND:

DEBATE

• Ask all competitors to keep their cameras on throughout the round. The students are already assigned sides, affirmative and negative, and must debate on the assigned side. 

• LD, Parli, and Public Forum rounds are “double-flighted”, meaning for each round, you will be watching two complete debates, one after the other. In Policy, there will be a single debate.

• Start the debate. Students will time themselves, you just listen and take notes. 

• During the debate, please do NOT comment, interrupt, or stop the debate. You are an observer. 

• If there are any concerns related to possible rule violations, do not try to decide the issue yourself. Let the round continue, make a note on your ballot, and speak to a tournament official after the round.

• For LD, Parli, and Public Forum, please mark the “Flight 1” winner asap and submit the tabroom ballot. Click “Start Round” on the Flight 2 ballot right away. For Policy, submit your decision for the one debate asap. Once the round is over, dismiss the competitors. Do NOT tell them who won/lost or discuss the round (with the exception of Policy). You can type any comments on your ballot. 

CONGRESS

• In Congress, a student will act as Presiding Officer (PO) and will run the round. One student will act as PO for the first half of the round, then will compete as a congressperson for the other half. Another student will compete as a congressperson for the first half of the round, then act as PO for the second half of the round. 

• For Congress, there will be two judges in each prelim round. The PO will start the round when everyone is present. You will listen and take notes. 

• On your ballot, there is an area to score each speech on a scale of 1-6 with 6 being the highest. These scores can be tied. There is also space for comments. These cannot be altered after your ballot is submitted. 

• At the end of the round, rank the students from 1 to however many students are in the round. For student rankings, “1” is the best. There are no ties allowed in rankings. 

IEs (SPEECH)

• The videos for each speaker will be pre-set in your room. Students are encouraged to attend the rounds, but it is not required. Do a roll call in the room to determine which speakers are present. (Some students may be double-entered and may join you during the round.)

• Please do your best to view the videos in the same order as the speakers are listed on your ballot, but view those of the students present in the room first. 

• Call each speaker code prior to viewing each video. Ask everyone in the room to turn off their microphones and cameras and watch the video independently. After watching the entire video, each person in the room should turn their camera back on. Start the next video when everyone has “returned” to the room (camera back on). 

• There are two events - Impromptu and Extemporaneous - that will take place synchronously, or “live”. You will receive details of these events in the judges’ room. 

• Once the round is over, dismiss the competitors. You will then rank the competitors from first place out to however many students were in the round. Do NOT tell the students any of your decisions, and do not provide verbal feedback. You can type any comments on your ballot after submitting your ranks and ratings. 

AFTER THE ROUND:

• Turn in your ballot, immediately. Take a quick break, and go back into the judges room for the next round. 

• You will be able to edit your feedback to debaters and speakers at any time until the end of the tournament (with the exception of Congress).

• All judges are expected to leave meaningful feedback on ballots. Even in a virtual tournament, blank ballots are not acceptable.

TECH ISSUES:

If you are having trouble logging in to tournaments.classrooms.cloud, or experience trouble with audio or video, look for this box on Classrooms. 

Judges or students have been known to take it upon themselves to move rounds off of the platform for one reason or another (tech problems, preference for another platform, etc.). This is unacceptable and cannot happen. In the event that this occurs, we will issue a double forfeit to both competitors in debate events, ranks of 9 in speech events, ranks of 9 in congress. In short, don't do this. 

Lastly, thank you so much for giving your time in order to help students have some semblance of normalcy in this world of virtual Speech & Debate!

Best,

La Costa Canyon Winter Classic Judge’s Room