Lone Star District Qualifier

for the 2021 National Tournament

Invitation

The Lone Star District Committee is excited to host the 2021 NSDA Qualifying tournament this year.  There is a lot of information to make you aware of this year.

1. Registration - Tabroom - the registration site should be available at the end of February.  We are using Tabroom for registration/invoicing/tabulation.

2. Asynch/Synch - IE prelims (except for Extemp) will be asynch. Finals will be synchronous.  Congress/Extemp/Debate will be synchronous. Platform will be NSDA Campus. 

3. Dates

IE prelims - asynch - April 5-7, asynch semis on April 9 if needed, synch finals on April 10

Congress - prelims on April 9 afternoon, finals on April 10 morning

BQ - April 10 - after Congress finals - afternoon

LD/PF/Policy - April 23-24

Extemp - April 24

4. Fees - same as in previous years:

District fee - $85

Platform fee - $50 (this replaces our normal hospitality fee)

IEs - $35

Debate - $70

Congress - $25

5. Judges - as we are online, we can hire the best in the country.  Please send names/email addresses/events judged to Cindi Timmons/CC Robert Shepard ASAP.  

6. Qualifying numbers - NEW THIS YEAR!

We are Level 3 again - this year that means that if we have 4 entries in an IE/Debate event we qualify 2 entries and if we have 10 or more in an event, we qualify FOUR ENTRIES to Nats!

Congress is done differently as you know. We send TWO from the Senate.  Last year we had FOUR qualify in the House - that is the goal again, but it is entry-dependent.

BQ gets 1 as usual. 

NEW THIS YEAR: Every member school that participates in the district tournament series will have the opportunity to enter up to two non-qualifying students in supplemental events at the online 2021 National Tournament. These students must have attended the district tournament but not earned qualification in any event. This applies to every school that participated in the district tournament, regardless of whether they qualified other students to the National Tournament, and it only applies to the 2021 National Tournament.

Nats main events will be synchronous. Supplemental events will be asynchronous. Students may enter as many Supplemental events as they wish. There are two new Supplemental events. 

7. We are using Pilot rules in all events.  

Check this link for pilot rules: https://www.speechanddebate.org/wp-content/uploads/District-Tournament-Pilot-Manual-2020-2021.pdf

Congress Pilot Rules have been fully adopted and are now in the Unified Manual. Check this link here: https://www.speechanddebate.org/high-school-unified-manual

Generally, dependent on number of entries, speech contestants have three prelim rounds then go to semis/finals based on numbers. We will use two judges in prelims and three in elims.

Dependent on number of entries, debate participants will have four preliminary rounds and then break to single elimination elims.  Panels of three will be used in elim rounds. 

8. Congress-specific information: 

Congress will be virtual and held on April 9-10.  The Prelims will be the evening of April 9 and Prelims/Finals on April 10.

Legislation needs to be submitted to Jane Boyd – janegboyd79@gmail.com

Legislation is due MARCH 12 with the plan to return Legislation to schools by March 22.

Chapters are encouraged to submit at least two bills or resolutions. All legislation MUST be in the correct form (word) using the NSDA TEMPLATES: Legislation NOT in the correct format will be returned (if time) if not – it won’t be considered.

https://www.speechanddebate.org/legislation-templates/

Congress district rules can be found 

https://www.speechanddebate.org/wp-content/uploads/High-School-Unified-Manual-2020-2021.pdf

If you have any questions, please contact Jane Boyd at janegboyd79@gmail.com or 214-641-9549

9. District Awards - due March 30