Entry Guidelines & Judging Information

Entry Guidelines:

• Unless otherwise stated, all events follow GFCA rules and descriptions.
• We define novice debaters as students in the first year of high school forensics competition. If a student has previously competed in any high school speech or debate event, s/he is not eligible for the novice divisions.
• Debate divisions will be collapsed if necessary to maximize competition.
• Speech competitors may double-enter in IEs. Debate competitors may not double-enter.

Judging and Chaperoning

Chaperones: All students must be accompanied to the tournament by a school-approved chaperone (coach or other adult). Chaperones must remain on campus all day. Students found to be without a chaperone create a serious liability issue and may be removed from the tournament.

Hired Judges: Please make every effort to fulfill your judging obligations. If you anticipate needing to hire judges, please make requests through the tabroom system as early as possible. 

Linked Accounts: We will use online balloting for all events, including IEs. Please make sure your judges have a linked tabroom account at the time of registration. Please do not link all of your judges to your own account - your judges will not be able to see their ballots, and delinking them/relinking them to their real accounts the day of the tournament creates delays.

Judges should also have a wifi-enabled device (laptop, tablet, smartphone). CHS has a reliable guest wi-fi network.

Student Judges: may be used, if absolutely necessary, to cover an obligation in a novice debate division only. Student judges must be juniors or seniors who have debated at least three years. If you have novice and varsity entries, be sure that you are also providing qualified adult juges to satisfy your varsity obligation. Student judges may not be used to cover any obligation in IEs. 

Please be sure to identify student judges as such by using the "judge notes" space during registration.