Tournament Policies & Procedures

Please know that this is a Middle School Tournament, which means we are limited to grades five through eight. Academy, Home School, Charter, and Independent entries are all welcomed to attend!

Deadlines

- Registration is already open on Tabroom!

- Registration (for entries and judges) will close on April 23rd, 2021 at 10:00PM.

- Schools with students on the waiting list will be notified as spots become available up until April 30th, 2021.

Entries

Entry Limitations:

-20 entries per school, per event

-No entry limits on an individual in asynchronous speech events. The only events that are mutually exclusive are the extemps! A student may not enter in both NX and IX.

-Students may not enter more than one debate event.

-Students may not compete in both Debate and Synchronous Speech.

-Students who are eliminated in their main event will be given the opportunity to compete in Big Questions or Storytelling as a supplemental event on Sunday. Students who did not enter a main event are also welcome to compete in Big Questions or Storytelling on Sunday!

Fees:

- School Fee: $20

- Policy, PF, & Duo: $30

- Congress, LD, and IEs: $20

- Rounds missed by a required judge will incur a penalty of $45 per missed round

- Fees are assessed as of the April 23rd registration deadline. Drops after that date must be paid for.

- Link to pay online and check instructions are now available on the "Payment Information" page. 

Judging Information

- Each school will be required to provide (1) judge for every (7) speech or Congress entries and (1) judge for every (2) debate entries.

- A judge can cover both asynchronous speech and debate OR asynchronous speech and live speech, but NOT both live speech and debate.

- All judges must check in with the judge lounge via Zoom at least 20 minutes prior to their first live round. The link to the judge lounge Zoom will be posted when the tournament draws nearer.

- High school speech students with at least one complete year of competition are welcome to judge; please place in the notes section of the Tabroom judge registration that they are a high school student.

- Any extra judges you can provide will be used and appreciated!

- Required judges missing a round will be penalized $45 per round.

- If you have difficulties coming up with enough judges to cover your entry, please contact the tournament director. 

Debate Topics

Over the course of the tournament, each team or individual in Policy Debate, Public Forum, and Lincoln Douglas may be assigned to uphold either side of the resolution in a given round.

- Policy (NSDA 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.

- LD: NSDA March/April Topic

- PF: NSDA April Topic

- The Congress docket will be available on Tabroom beginning April 9th, 2021.

Asynchronous Speech Submission

- Asynchronous speeches should be uploaded to Youtube as unlisted videos. Please make sure that your students mark their videos as unlisted, NOT as private!

- Asynchronous videos should be submitted to this form no later than Monday April 26th.

- Please have students submit their videos to this link.