☆ UPDATES, CLARIFICATIONS AND CHANGES ☆

NOVICES

01/24/2021 - Please make sure all novices are coded as such in Tabroom before the tournament starts. We traditionally provide an award for the top novice in each event for which there is no novice or junior varsity division but may do something different for several events this year: Break the top two novices in each of Prose, Poetry, and POI into a Novice Interpretation final and the top three novices in each of Original Oratory and Informative Speaking into a Novice Public Address final. This tournament offered those two events as regular events for middle school students and novices many years ago.

01/24/2021 - A Novice is anyone in middle school OR any student in their first year of high school competition.

JUDGE QUOTAS

01/10/2021 - Speech judges. We need enough speech judges to judge asynchronous preliminary rounds on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and synchronous speech rounds and asynchronous speech elimination rounds on Saturday. Schools have various options to fulfill their speech judging obligations. They may provide Wednesday/Thursday/Friday judges and Saturday judges separately OR they may provide judges who can judge all rounds OR they may provide some combination of the two. If a judge is available for Wednesday, Thursday, and/or Friday only or Saturday only, mark them accordingly when you register. A Wednesday, Thursday, Friday judge can judge their rounds on any of those days - just as long as they complete their assignments before midnight on Friday. If you have any questions or concerns about speech judging, email wvsdahelp@gmail.com. We will strive to be flexible. 

01/11/2021 - Debate judges. We need enough debate judges to judge preliminary rounds on Friday and elimination rounds on Saturday. (We'll provide judges/accept volunteers in the unlikely event we need to hold final rounds of debate on Sunday.) Schools may provide Friday and Saturday judges separately OR they may provide judges who can judge all rounds OR they may do some combination of the two. If a judge is available on Friday only or on Saturday only, mark them accordingly when you register.  If you have any questions or concerns about debate judging, email wvsdahelp@gmail.com. We will strive to be flexible.

01/05/2021 - Hired judges. Schools may hire judges at a rate of $10 per entry in speech events  $30 per entry in debate events. We also provide discounts for schools who have judge shortfalls but who have judges who can judge both speech and debate events.

NO PANTOMIME

01/04/2021 - We will not be offering Pantomime as our "extra event" this year but it will return for our 50th annual tournament next year. We, however, are offering SPAR (Extemp) Debate as an extra event. See SPAR Debate event pages for rules.

DUO

01/04/2021 - Duo performers may film in the same room as long as there are no state or local restrictions barring it at the time of filming.

PUBLIC FORUM DEBATE

01/10/2021 - The flip will be handled electronically. The winner of the flip should choose side or order and then the loser should pick the other. There is no time limit for the winner of the flip to make an initial choice. However, if this has not been completed before the judge opens their ballot, the judge MUST close out of and reopen their ballot so sides and orders are reflected correctly on the ballot before the round starts.

02/07/2021 - The schedule has changed so that preliminary rounds are Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday morning with elimination rounds on Saturday evening and Sunday. See link.

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE

02/07/2021 - The schedule has changed so that preliminary rounds are Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday afternoon with elimination rounds on Saturday evening and Sunday. See link.

SPAR DEBATE

01/10/2021 - The judge will oversee topic selection. As soon as the debaters arrive, the judge should post the three topics in the chat box. The judge should ask the negative debater to strike one topic and the affirmative debater to strike another one. The judge then should confirm both the topic and the debaters' sides with the debaters. After this is complete, the judge should start the 15 minute initial prep time.

01/10/2021 - Topics will be emailed to judges within a few minutes of schematic publication.

02/07/2021 - The schedule has changed so that preliminary rounds are Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday afternoon with elimination rounds on Saturday evening and Sunday. See link. 

BROADCASTING

01/10/2020 - Any competitors entered in Broadcasting and Impromptu Speaking should do Broadcasting first.

01/10/2020 - In Round 1, Broadcasting competitors should report directly to their NSDA Campus competition rooms. In Rounds 2 and 3 and for elimination rounds, competitors should initially report to the Broadcasting Draw room. In that room, the person running Broadcasting Draw will obtain email addresses from each competitor. At the appointed draw times, the person running Broadcasting Draw will email a script to relevant competitors. Prep time for a competitor will begin when the student confirms receipt of the script by email. At the end of prep, competitors should leave the competition room and head to their NSDA Campus competition rooms.

01/10/2020 - Emailed scripts will arrive in a single Microsoft Word document. The text will be in 18 or 20 point font, and the pages will be numbered. It is recommended that students not print the script, but rather cut (if appropriate) and read using their computers/monitors. 

EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING

01/10/2020 - Any competitors entered in Extemporaneous Speaking and Impromptu Speaking should do Extemporaneous Speaking first.

01/10/2020 - Approximately thirty (30) minutes before each round is scheduled to start (a bit earlier for Round 1), competitors should report to the Extemp Draw room. At the appointed draw times, the person running Extemp Draw will post three (3) topics in the chat box, and relevant speakers will pick one (1), etc. until all six (6) sets of speakers have selected topics for their rounds. At the end of thirty (30) minutes prep, competitors should leave the competition room and head to their NSDA Campus competition rooms.

01/10/2020 - Extemporaneous speaking judges will be emailed a copy of the questions competitors are choosing from a few minutes before they are scheduled to judge.

IMPROMPTU SPEAKING

01/10/2020 - Any competitors entered in Broadcasting or Extemporaneous Speaking AND Impromptu Speaking should do Broadcasting or Extemporaneous Speaking before doing Impromptu Speaking.

01/10/2020 - Competitors will report to their NSDA Campus competition rooms. In that room, the judge will post three topics for the first speaker in the chat box and ask the first speaker to pick one, and then start prep time, etc.

01/10/2020 - Impromptu judges will be emailed a copy of the topics competitors are choosing from approximately thirty minutes before they are scheduled to judge. Topics will be marked for Speaker 1, Speaker 2, etc., and the judge should copy and paste one set of topics in the chat box at a time, and not reuse any topics.

DEBATE ELIMINATION ROUNDS

01/04/2021 - This year debate breaks will include all competitors/teams with 4-0 and 3-1 records. This means we likely will have partial elimination rounds. There is also a possibility that we will need to hold an elimination round or rounds on Sunday. If so, there will be no Sunday judge obligation; we would fill the panels with volunteers and hired judges.

DEBATE JUDGE DISCLOSURE

01/04/2021 - In Varsity divisions of debate, we will disclose judge decisions, but not reasons for decisions, shortly after all judges have submitted them in a given round. In Junior Varsity and Novice divisions of debate, we will not disclose decisions.

01/04/2021 - At the end of preliminary rounds, judges may not disclose their decisions or reasons for decision to debaters, in large part because we run debate on a fairly tight schedule and want everyone to move on to their next rounds as soon as possible and in part because WV schools have a culture of non-disclosure. At the end of elimination rounds, the chair may disclose the panel decision as soon as all members of the panel have submitted them in Tabroom. Additionally, each judge may (but does not have to and should not be pressured to) disclose their respective reasons for decision as long as they spend no more than 2 minutes doing so.

VIDEO USE AUTHORIZATION FORM

01/04/2021 - A Video Use Authorization Form is available for download. We will not livestream any speech, performance or debate involving a student whose parent (or who, if the student is 18 years old or older) has not consented for us to do so. These forms do not have to be turned in by coaches with entries. Instead, we will verify with coaches that permission has been granted for specific students before livestreaming.