General Information

General TFA State Information

The entire 2021 Texas Forensic Association's State Tournament will be online on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, March 10-13, 2021. This year the awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 14th at 12 noon.

For schools with no issues (no entry or judge changes; no payment issues), please check in to the tournament online by clicking the “Check-In On-Site” tab on Tabroom.com and confirming that your entry is correct. Once you check in online, you are registered.

For schools with any registration issues, registration will begin online through Classrooms.cloud on Tuesday, March 9^th from 6 pm – 10 pm CST. Late registration is on Wednesday, March 10^th from 10 am to noon CST.  If you have any issues (entry or judge changes; payment issues), please come to registration and take care of them during those times. Late registration will be difficult, as preparations for the tournament will be happening at that time, so please attend registration on Tuesday night.

Please notify Lillian Adeyemi at lillianadeyemi@katyisd.org if you have an emergency that will not allow you to make late registration.

ALL COACHES:  Please Fill Out This Form HERE

Though we don't like to think about emergencies happening during TFA State, previous experience has demonstrated that things do happen, and it is really important that we are able to reach an emergency contact for each adult member that is responsible for their squads. Thanks!

IMPORTANT DEADLINES

• Monday, February 1, 2021 – Schools may begin entering TFA State-qualified students on tabroom.com. Please register all qualifiers AND any students who may qualify before the end of the TFA competitive season. Please send your check as soon as possible. Treasurer, Noah Recker, will issue refunds for any overpayments immediately following the conclusion of the state tournament. It is better to pay for students who don’t end up qualifying than it is to send your check with insufficient funds.
• Monday, February 8, 2021 – All t-shirt orders must be finalized by 12 midnight CST.  Based on your order, Noah Recker will update your tabroom.com invoice on February 9^th. You will see your updated invoice on your tabroom.com fees sheet.  Please click  HERE  to order your shirts.
• Tuesday, February 23, 2021 at 5:00 PM CST – Last day to check TFA website for accuracy of the IQT reports for all TFA State qualifying entries and submit any necessary corrections to the IQT Coordinator (Nicole Cornish at ncornish@athensisd.net).
• Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 11:55 PM CST – LAST DAY – All schools and entries must be entered on the tabroom.com website.  Entry fees are also locked at this time - drops after 5:00 PM CST on this date will be charged the original entry fee. All original oratory, informative speaking, and main event oral interpretation manuscript(s) titles and/or ISBN numbers must be submitted ONLINE on the tabroom.com website by 5:00 PM CST, as well.
• Monday, March 1, 2021 at 5:00 PM CST – LAST DAY – All schools may DROP entries without an additional Drop Fee (schools will lose entry fee as of Tuesday, Feb. 23rd). After March 1^st at 5:00 PM CST, schools will be charged twice the entry fee for dropped entries.
• Monday, March 1, 2021 - ALL JUDGE PARADIGMS DUE on tabroom.com.
• Wednesday, March 3, 2021 – Total payment for tournament entries, fees, and shirts must be received by Noah Recker at 225 Bluebonnet Road, La Vernia, TX 78121.  Due to the tournament being online, Puchase Orders (or similar documentation) will NOT be accepted as proof of payment this year.  Schools also have the option of paying online through PayPal to txfamoney@gmail.com. If Noah Recker does not receive full payment by this date, all schools who have not paid will not be able to compete at TFA State 2021.

• Friday, March 5, 2021 @11:59 pm- ALL ASYNCHRONOUS EVENT VIDEOS must be uploaded to tabroom.com

CHECKS MUST BE MADE PAYABLE TO:

THE TEXAS FORENSIC ASSOCIATION 
Send to Noah Recker at 

225 Bluebonnet Road, La Vernia , TX 78121

IMPORTANT PAYMENT INFO

FULL PAYMENT for the tournament (NO P.O.s) MUST BE RECEIVED BY NOAH RECKER by Friday, March 3, 2021 or the school will be DROPPED from the tournament. Again, it is strongly recommended that schools enter students who may qualify for the State tournament, so that full payment may be requested and sent before the deadline to ensure that it will be received by the March 3^rd deadline.  Again, for the fees associated with any students who do not qualify by the final weekend of TFA competition, Noah Recker will issue that team a full refund for those non-qualified students after the conclusion of the State tournament.  If you have questions or concerns regarding your school’s entry, or payment, email BOTH Lillian Adeyemi (lillianadeyemi@katyisd.org) and Noah Recker (noah.recker@lvisd.org). If a school is unable to meet the deadlines for payment, entry, or any other deadline associated with the administration of the 2021 TFA State Online Tournament, that school and its competitors risk disqualification from the tournament.

ONLINE ACCESS INFORMATION

We will be using the TFA landing page on classrooms.cloud. Click HERE to access that page.

CROSS-ENTRY INFORMATION   

·         A student may enter a maximum of three IE events (DI, HI, POI, OO, INFO, USX, or IX) total, but a student may only enter in one division of extemp.

·         A student may enter both Duo and Duet.

·         Students who enter in Duo and/or Duet may also enter up to three IEs.

·         A student may enter only one debate event (LD, CX, PF, Congress, or WS).

·         Students in a debate events may enter up to 2 IEs.

EVENT RELATED SPECIFICS

US Extemp topic areas:

Round 1- Health Care and Education

Round 2- Politics in the Biden Era

Round 3- Science, Technology, and the Environment

Quarters- Judicial Issues

Semis- Economic Matters

Finals- Foreign Policy and National Defense

Foreign Extemp topic areas:

Round 1- Europe

Round 2- Middle East and Africa

Round 3- Asia

Quarters- The Americas

Semis- Economic Matters

Finals- International Relations and Global Concerns

Impromptu topics:

Round 1- Famous Figures of the 2020s

Round 2- Proverbs

Quarters- Very Important Persons

Semis- Current Concerns

Finals- Quotations

Congress

Prelim #1 Legislation

Prelims #2 Legislation

Semi-Finals Legislation

Finals Legislation

Note from Congress Committee:

There were

2 pieces on docket from Region 1

4 from Region 2

11 from Region 3

12 from Region 4

1 from Region 5

For clarification, at TFA State in Congressional Debate:

1. The Congress Docket for each round of debate is locked. No other items may be debated. Legislation must be debated in the order listed.
2. No item may be tabled until it has been debated, per definition in #3. 
3. Debate on an item means that at least one of the following has occurred: one cycle (authorship/sponsorship and a con speech) or three speeches on the same side.  At this point, an item may be tabled, or previous question may be moved. 
4. Competitors will not receive any other legislation beyond what is posted.               

Public Forum will use the 2021 March topic - Resolved: On balance, the benefits of creating the United States Space Force outweigh the harms.

Lincoln-Douglas Debate will use the 2021 March/April NSDA topic - Resolved: The United States ought to guarantee universal child care.

Policy Debate will use the 2020-2021 topic - Resolved: The United States federal government should enact substantial criminal justice reform in the United States in one or more of the following: forensic science, policing, sentencing.

World Schools Prepared Motions

Rounds 1 and 2 - Prepared – Teams will debate both sides

This House, as the United States, supports raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Round 6 - Prepared

In a democracy, this House prefers a parliamentary system to a presidential system.

Quarters - Prepared

This House would amend the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to include the crime of ‘ecocide.’

Definition - Ecocide is criminalized human activity that violates the principles of environmental justice, as by substantially damaging or destroying ecosystems or by harming the health and well-being of a species.

Finals - Prepared

This House would repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act

Rounds 3, 4, 5, Partial Octos, and Semis - Impromptu rounds.

Original Oratory and Interpretation Documentation

It is not necessary to upload any documentation this year, but if there is a protest, schools are expected to produce the flat copy of the speech/piece in question to the Ombudsperson in a timely manner. 

Oratory/Informative – In the event of a protest, original oratories and informative speeches must have a works cited (MLA Format) page. Each student is allowed to have no more than 150 quoted words in their original oratory/informative speech, and all quoted words must be UNDERLINED or HIGHLIGHTED on the flat copy of the original oratory/info.

Interpretation - Students may use 100 words as transitional words/phrases. These words/phrases must be written legibly (in ink) on the flat copy of the script.  Every word from the text that is used in the performance must be UNDERLINED or HIGHLIGHTED on the flat copy of the script. In case of a protest, the flat copy submitted must include every stipulation from above, along with a page number on each page used and a copy of the bibliographic page.  It MUST also be an actual copy of a script - schools MAY NOT type their own copy.

Please use the cover sheets below for your flat copies that you will keep on file in case of a protest. 

OO/INFO COVER SHEET

INTERP COVER SHEET

CONSOLATION EVENTS INFORMATION

Schools with interested students should PRE REGISTER for the consolation events. If you opt to not use a consolation spot you can drop that spot before 10PM Friday. 

Registration for consolation events (Poetry Interpretation or Impromptu) needs to be completed by 10:00 PM CST on Friday, March 12th. Competitors in main events who advance to outrounds/elimination rounds may not be re-registered for consolation events. Only students who do not advance to any outrounds/elimination rounds in main events may enter consolation events. Each school is allowed a maximum of 5 entries in each consolation event. Material used in consolation events must meet the same publication guidelines for main interp events. 

PROTEST INFORMATION/PROCEDURES

• All coaches have a responsibility to check pairings and/or give students MJP/strike information to ensure students are not being judged by individuals that have been struck. Concerns must be raised before the round in question begins. Protests associated with struck judges will not be heard after the round in question has begun.
• If the need to file a protest arises, the coach of the protesting school must put the protest in writing on the official protest form that will be available online. Our Ombudsperson will have an online room throughout the tournament, but the official protest form must be filled out completely before a school enters the Ombusperson’s room. Procedures for filing protests shall be followed as found in the TFA Constitution.

SWEEPSTAKES INFORMATION
With regard to tabulation of sweepstakes points, a competitor will only receive sweepstakes points for the highest level that the student is able to reach in a particular event (points do not accumulate throughout the tournament in one event). Also, in individual events ranks of 6 and 7 will be changed to 5.

DISSEMINATION OF BALLOTS 

The Online TFA State Tournament will be utilizing tabroom.com this year.  All ballots will be made available for viewing online for COACHES OF RECORD ONLY after each round of tabulation has been completed.  Please DO NOT come to the any of the online rooms asking for ballots – they will be made available after each ballot is submitted and tabulated for that round.