Pre-Tournament (Rules & Procedures)

NSDA Campus Expectations and Guidelines (Virtual Tournaments)

The tournament will run online. We will use NSDA Campus for our competition. 

* All coaches, competitors, and judges will need to create a Tabroom.com (free) account to participate in the tournament.  

* Every judge and competitor will need a device with a microphone and camera, as well as a separate device (phone, tablet, etc) for communicating with partner/team in round (if applicable).

*Use of Google Chrome as your browser is highly recommended.

* Logging into Tabroom when competition begins will show upcoming rounds with a video icon, rather than a room number.

* Only the judge(s) and competitors may access their competition rooms (except for Tab/Tournament staff). This means no observers allowed (this includes coaches).

* The reason for all of this is security.

* Every team will have a virtual squad room available throughout the tournament. Coaches, judges, and students registered for that school for the tournament will have access.

* Test rooms are available on the NSDA website with a login- these rooms will at least show you what a competition room will look like.

Additional Tournament Expectations:

* An adult sponsor (authorized by the school) must be in attendance at all times either by judging at the tournament or waiting in the virtual designated judging pool.

* Any team or competitor that is more than 15 minutes late to their round (their fault not our fault) will forfeit that round with zero speaker points.

* All judges will complete training prior to judging their first round at the tournament.

* No show judges, like no show students- will be charged. 

* If you are not listed on a debate round – please stand by in the designated virtual judging pool. 

* All school judges are obligated to judge 1 round past their student’s elimination; please remain available. 

Entry Fees and Payment

The entry fees are sanctioned by the UHSAA: $4 per student, per day, and $15 per school, per day. 

CX Entry = $16.00

LD Entry = $8.00 

PF Entry = $16.00

School Fee = $30.00

This covers virtual rooms, trophies, and tournament judge hires.

We would prefer that teams mail their checks in advance. 

Please make all checks payable to Rowland Hall. Checks can be sent to:

Rowland Hall

Attn: Mike Shackelford

843 S. Lincoln St.

Salt Lake City, UT 84102

 

Topics & Formats

Policy (CX) will follow an 8-3-5 format with 6 minutes of preparation time per team. Teams will debate 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 areas: forensic science, policing, sentencing." Novice CX must use the UDCA Novice Policy Evidence Packet. 

Lincoln-Douglas (LD) will follow an 6-3-7-3-4-6-3 format with 4 minutes of preparation time per debater. Students will debate the Sept-Oct topic, "Resolved: In a democracy, voting ought to be compulsory." Novice LD will use the same topic (NOT the NSDA novice topic). 

Public Forum (PF) will follow an 4-3-3-2 format (3 min summaries) with 3 minutes of preparation time per team. Teams will debate the Sept-Oct topic, "Resolved: The United States federal government should enact the Medicare-For-All Act of 2019." Sides will be assigned; there will be no coin flip in PF prelims. 

Student Participation

Students must compete on behalf of a singular school institution. Teams representing a private entity (aka "independent entries") that is not a school (i.e. any for profit entity, league, consortium, etc.) and/or are comprised of students from different school institutions will not be permitted to compete.

Each student must be enrolled and in good standing with their respective school institution. Tournament registration must reflect the actual names of the students in accordance with their school enrollment. False names, symbols, etc. that are not congruent with school enrollment records will not be permitted as registered competitors. 

Our tournament and school administration considers this data to be important for ensuring the safety of all students. It is also necessary for us to supply information (when needed) to the National Speech and Debate Association or the Utah High Schools Activities Association.

School Chaperone

The tournament's preference is that a school employee "accompanies" their institution's students to the competition. This means the school employee must be available for any tournament related communication. The  adult sponsor (authorized by the school) must be in attendance at all times either by judging at the tournament or waiting in the virtual designated judging pool.

Recording

Please note that we are currently modifying our recording policies for virtual competition.