Technical Guidance Sheet

SDIVSL Technical Guidance Sheet (TGS)

Purpose: The purpose of this Technical Guidance Sheet (TGS) is to provide clear and fair guidance to competitors, judges, and tournament officials in the case of technical difficulties during tournament rounds. It does not supplant official SDIVSL or CHSSA bylaws. Final decisions regarding issues related to technical difficulties are the sole discretion of tournament officials.

General Guidance:

• Coaches and speakers are ultimately responsible for their own technical equipment and ability to be seen and heard by judges.

• All judges and speakers should ensure that they have functioning access to both Zoom and tabroom.com. Classrooms.cloud will be used to link the two and it recommends using Google Chrome.

• All speakers must have their video on at all times during a round unless instructed by the judge to turn off their video as part of a technical pause (see below).

• Judges are advised not to factor in speaker audio and video streaming quality into their judging decisions.

• If a judge drops out of the room or indicates that they are not able to hear sound at all, time stops in the round. Time will resume once the judge returns and is able to hear sound.

• If a speaker experiences technical difficulties and/or temporarily leaves the round, time does not stop except at the discretion of the judge. 

• Technical pause: Any speaker may ask for a technical pause by placing a “!” in the chat box. A technical pause may be used only for resolving technical issues. Technical pauses are granted at the judge’s sole discretion and they are advised to use technical pauses sparingly.

• Technical repeat: At the judge’s request, time may be added to the clock and the speaker may repeat a portion of a speech that was not communicated effectively due to technical difficulties. Speakers must recreate the original performance as accurately as possible. Cross-examination questions cannot be changed. Judges are advised to use technical repeats sparingly and for short durations of time. Speakers may not request technical repeats.

Event-Specific Guidance:

Policy Debate 

• Debate teams must not be in the same room or use the same device while debating. 
• During debate rounds, partners may not “fill in” during their partner’s designated speaking time if their partner is experiencing technical difficulties.
• Debate partners remain responsible for timing themselves and their partners.
• Oral prompting of a partner during their speech to indicate that it is impossible/extremely difficult for them to be heard is permitted.
• Prep time is limited to 8 minutes per team for Policy Debate even if one or both members of the team experience technical difficulties during prep.

Lincoln Douglas Debate 

• Prep time is limited to 4 minutes per debater for Lincoln Douglas Debate even if the debater experiences technical difficulties during prep.

Student Congress

• Debate should continue even if a competitor experiences technical difficulties. A competitor experiencing difficulties will simply rejoin the room and the debate as they are able.