Tournament Info

Entry Patterns:

A: HI, POE, DUO, OO, USX, IX

B: DI, PRO, DA, INFO, IMP, POI

Students only entering IEs may enter up to two events in pattern A (but only one division of extemp) and two events in pattern B. Students cross-enter at their own risk.

All Debaters (LD, PF, CX, WS, Congress) may enter 1 event in Pattern A (HI, POE, DUO, OO, USX, FX).

Topics:

CX/LD/PF will use the January NSDA topics.

Congress Legislation: from the TFA Spring Docket

Prelims (to be debated in this order): 19, 9, 12, 1

Semis (to be debated in this order): 8, 17, 5, 6

Finals (to be debated in this order): 18, 4, 2, 20

Worlds

Round 1: This House prefers investment in public transportation infrastructure over investment in automobile infrastructure.

Round 2: This House supports a salary cap for professional sports teams.

Round 3: Impromptu

Semifinals: This House would implement a compulsory national service system.

Finals: Impromptu

Judges:

Our plan is to single flight LD/PF prelims. We can only do that if A) your judges are timely and show up when they are supposed to and B) we do not allow oral critiques in preliminary rounds. Write it on the ballot and keep the tournament moving.

We have consolidated judging requirements into just 3 categories, as we feel that judging skills are cross-curricular, if you will. This also makes it easier to accommodate when one school has a lot of entries in events and thereby requires a lot of judges, but those judges can't be used (what happens to Plano East at most tournaments). Speech & Congress is one judge category, WS/PF is one category, and LD/CX is one category.

1 Congress/IE judge for every 8 combined congress/speech entries.

1 WS/PF judge for every 2 combined world schools/public forum entries.

1 CX/LD judge for every 2 combined policy/lincoln-douglas entries.

We will have a mandatory judge training for all judges at 7:30am. We will cover how to use tabroom, judge etiquette, brief to-do/not-to-do list, and provide physical copies of event rules and judging guidelines. All of this is in the hopes of avoiding common mistakes that DFW tournaments have experienced in the Fall. We will post these resources HERE when fully compiled. (link coming soon)

Miscellaneous Notes:

Debate brackets will not be broken.

Debates will break to the TFA points - we are anticipating quarters in PF/LD and semis in WS/CX/Congress. Schedule adjustments will be announced via email if needed.

Plano East may use the Home Game Initiative in World Schools only. Plano East students will not compete to earn state points in any other event.

All qualifying events follow TFA rules. PRO/POE will follow TFA rules, but selections that fit either of the UIL categories will also be allowed. IMP will follow NSDA rules (7 minutes combined prep and speak).

Speech events with fewer than 24 entries: 3 prelims, then finals

Speech events with 24 or more entries: 2 prelims, semis, finals

INDEPENDENT ENTRIES ARE NOT PERMITTED. All competitors must be registered with their schools and accompanied by a school district employee.