Tournament Guidelines

TOURNAMENT GUIDELINES

38th Annual Grapevine Classic Guide

General Guidelines

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

*Postings for all rounds will be blasted.

*An adult sponsor (authorized by the school) must be in attendance at all times.

*All written manuscripts for Oratory and Informative Speaking must be available upon request.

*All typed cuttings and physical copies of sources for all Interpretation events must be available upon request.

*Any team or competitor that is more than 15 minutes late to their round will forfeit that round with zero speaker points. Exceptions will be made for those who are late due to tournament errors.

*We will accelerate the schedule when possible – please remain available during the tournament to avoid forfeiture.

*All judges will complete training prior to judging their first round at the tournament. This will be linked to their Tabroom accounthttps://www.speechanddebate.org/learn/judge-accreditation/

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

*If you are not listed on an assigned round to judge, you will be on standby and should stay in hospitality until the round is cleared.

*All school judges- both IE and debate are obligated to judge one (1) round past their student’s elimination; please remain available.

*Facilities Fee - a $50 facilities fee will be charged per school. What does this cover? It covers online platform management and building maintenance.

*Concessions will be available for purchase.

Entry Limits, Event Sections, & Cross-Entry Sections

Students cross-enter at their own risk. Students who do not arrive in time to perform in their round risk disqualification or being ranked last in their round.

Entry Limits Per School: Quick Reference Chart

Extra Notes on Entry Limits and Cross-Entry:

* Entries for schools will be limited to 2 entries per CX, 4 entries per LD, and 4 entries in PFD.

* We will have a waiting list for schools who might want more than their limit, but that list will only be used if the entry total is below our maximum.

* Entries are limited in Congressional Debate to 8 from each school, with a waitlist available for more entries, and it will run on a schedule that Congressional Debate entries may enter.

* Individual Events are limited to a total of 4 events in sections A and B, with a limit of 2 in each section, and a total limit of 8 competitors entered in sections A and B for each school.

* Individual events will be Saturday only, with every IE entry guaranteed 3 preliminary rounds for each event before going into the required elimination rounds depending on the entry.

* Brackets will not be broken in any debate event. We also plan to have panels in the elimination rounds, if possible.

* We do reserve the right to collapse JV and Varsity in any event in order to retain reasonable numbers for the Varsity division. However, if this decision is made, entries originally submitted in JV will NOT be required to cover Varsity-level fees.

Extra Notes on Topics:

* Contact us if you need event rules for the TFA events, which can be found here.

Deadlines

* Friday, September 4 at 5:00 pm - Entry Deadline. You may continue to make changes on the site without penalty until the drop deadline. No new schools may enter after this time.

* Friday, September 4 at 5:00 pm - Judges Due & Fees Freeze.

* Friday, September 4 at 5:00 pm - Jonathan Brody Award Nominations Deadline

* Tuesday, September 8 at 5:00 pm – Drops and Name Changes Deadline. All name changes and drops are due at this point. Drops made after the deadline will accrue a $50 nuisance fee plus the loss of your entry fee.

* Friday, September 11 at 1:00 pm - Judge Prefs Deadline

Payment

Please pay as promptly as possible. We know this is early in the year, but payment is due upon registration or proof of check request or a purchase order. If you have concerns about paying on time, email Stefany Cambra at stefany.cambra@gmail.com and Lisa Mason at lisa.mason@gcisd.netfor assistance. No student will be allowed to participate unless proof of payment arrangements are provided. Checks should be made to “The Grapevine Classic”. If you have an outstanding balance from the previous year, your school will not be able to compete until this balance is paid.

Please send checks to the school address:

Grapevine High School Speech and Debate

Attn: Lisa Mason

3223 Mustang Dr.

Grapevine, TX

76051

Please send POs to lisa.mason@gcisd.net and stefany.cambra@gmail.com

Judges

* Anyone wishing to be hired by the Grapevine Classic should fill out the HIRED JUDGE form.

* Each school is required to provide at least 1 QUALIFIED judge per event entered. We would much rather have your judges than your money. Please make every effort to fulfill your judging obligations. Judge fees will be used to hire a high-quality judging pool to ensure the tournament is well-staffed and runs on time.

* Grapevine Classic will use ONLINE BALLOTS through TABROOM.COM.

* ALL JUDGES will need to get a Tabroom.com account no less than two weeks from the tournament start date. Tabroom accounts are required to post a paradigm and access the ballots when the tournament begins.

* Our tournament judges - both volunteer and hired - will be utilizing NSDA’s judge training prior to the tournament.

* Schools may not “buy out” their obligations.

* If you have a judge on Friday for debate, you must also have a judge on Saturday or you will pay for a judge on Saturday.

Judging Responsibilities

* 4 Rounds per entry in VCX/JCX.

* 4 Rounds per entry in VLD/JLD/VPF/JPF

* 1 judge per 6 Congress/IE/Duo entries or portion thereof

* 1 judge per 2 WSD teams or portion thereof

* If you cannot provide the judges you are responsible for based on your entries, please see the fee chart below:

Judging Fees:

Extra Notes on Judges:

*Every judge in the pool is obligated 1 round past your school's elimination in that event.

*ALL SCHOOL JUDGES MUST BE SUBMITTED BY FRIDAY, September 5, 2025, AT 5:00 PM or fees will be added to your invoice.

Pref Sheets

* We use MJP for CX and LD. We use a strike sheet for PFD.

* Our goal is to have rankings/rating sheets online by Wednesday morning to allow schools to review these lists and enter their choices online. Those will be done on the Tabroom.com website.

* Schools will have until 1 PM on Friday, September 11th to enter their preferences. Any school that opts to/neglects to fill out the information online (and by the deadline) will forfeit the privilege to do so.

* Debate coaches are strongly encouraged to embrace the responsibility of filling this information out themselves and not turning it over solely to students.

* If the tab room feels adjustments to the judge pool/assignments are in the best interest of the tournament to do so, we will exercise that option. So that no confusion about this statement exists, one example where the tab room might exercise its jurisdiction to change a panel's makeup is if all first-year judges make up an elimination round panel. Rest assured we will attempt to honor preferences.

* If a school's judge fails to meet the school's commitment, a fine of $100.00 will be assessed. Those not paying within 30 days will have a letter will be sent to their principal or head of school.

Sweepstakes

Grapevine HS has a long history of winning in both Debate and Speech events; thus, we have decided to award other schools that have strong programs in both.

There will be 1 Sweepstakes Award for Debate, 1 Sweepstakes Award for Individual Events, and a GRAND SWEEPSTAKES that will include schools that enter BOTH Debate and Individual Events.

SWEEPSTAKES FORMULA
May be updated prior to tournament start date due to sweepstakes adjustments.

All IE'S, Duo/Duo:

1st – 20

2nd – 15

3rd – 10

Finals – 5

Congressional Debate:

1st – 20

2nd – 15

3rd – 10

4th through 8th - 5

CX, LD, PFD, and WS Debate:

1st – 20

2nd – 15

3rd – 10

Quarters – 5