The 12th Annual California Middle School

Speech and Debate State Championship

May 20-22nd, 2022

(Invitation Version 3.0)

Greetings to all middle school speech and debate clubs and schools!

  You may access the invitation and entry system at 

https://forensicstournament.net/CaliforniaMiddleSchoolState/22

California Middle School Forensics is proud to announce the 12th annual California State Championship.  This tournament is meant to encourage a healthy competition at the state level and provide an opportunity to sharpen competitive speeches before the national tournament.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic has affected our entire community, we have decided to continue with the tournament on the scheduled date/times.  However, we have made a few changes.

1.  The tournament will be held entirely online.  Please see the Best Practices Guide for additional information regarding the preparation for Internet preparation.  The Best Practices Guide is available on the tournament registration page.  This guide will have suggestions and policies regarding specific events.

2.  All fees should be paid through the registration website.  Coaches can access this by clicking the “Tournament Fees” tab on the left side of the registration page.. 

3.  Throughout the entire tournament, we will have a live help room for anyone having trouble.  The URL will be https://8x8.vc/CMSFHelp

4.  All competitors will be required to have a parental guardian onscreen for the duration of the round or provide a waiver.  The waiver is available when registering students for the tournament.  Just click the “Register” tab on the left side of the registration page to begin the process.  Then look for the “Waiver” tab.  From there, you can send the waiver to your students.

5.  The schedule may need to be extended, depending on interest in events.  For example, in previous years, additional elimination rounds for Impromptu and SPAR have been needed to accommodate the number of entries.  We will try to notify teams of any schedule changes as soon as possible.

The tournament will be held on May 20-22nd, 2022!  Please feel free to pass this invitation along to anyone who might be interested in attending.

Tab Staff:

Jacquelyn Calderon (Morning Light Education Center)

Robert Cannon (Wilshire Academy)

Mike Kyle (Nova 42)

Asha Taylor (QD Learning)

Victor Rivas Umana (Golden State)

Rules/Event Descriptions:

All events will follow CMSF rules.  For full list of event descriptions, tournament procedures, and round design, please go to SCJFL.org and click on the RULES & BY-LAWS.  Please note: some tournament procedures in the by-laws are unique to this state tournament only.  Such rules and procedures are marked as “CMSF,” but in the absence of such indications, all other SCJFL rules will apply.  If you have any questions about rules or procedures, please feel free to reach out through the e-mail below.

Please note that we have included a Best Practices Guide on the tournament registration page.  The tournament will use this guide for all online tournaments and tab decisions.

Postings: 

Postings will be sent to each student before the round begins.  Coaches should update their student rosters on ForensicsTournament.net to include the cell numbers or the e-mail addresses for each student.  Once the posting preference is selected, coaches can test that the cell/e-mail is getting through to the student(s).

Entries:

Entries are due on Friday, May 13th, 2022 at 12:00 p.m. (noon) Pacific.

We must have all judge names entered by the tournament deadline.

  You may access the invitation and entry system at 

https://forensicstournament.net/CaliforniaMiddleSchoolState/22

Awards:

All competitors advancing to an elimination round shall be awarded for doing so.  The tournament shall award school sweepstakes awards for the top three overall schools.  Points shall be calculated in accordance to the CMSF rules and by-laws.

After the tournament, we will ship the trophies to each school.  Please be patient with us as we get awards to students, but we will make sure that each student who earns an awards receives it.

    The awards ceremony will be streamed onto YouTube for those who would like to watch.  We will send a link to all participants on Sunday, May 22nd, just before the awards ceremony begins.

Eligibility:

This event is run by the California Middle School Forensics(CMSF), which is a subsidiary of the Southern California Junior Forensics League (SCJFL).  All schools, clubs, after-schools, and home schools are permitted entry, provided they are in good standing with both leagues.  No league membership fee is required for this tournament.

Students from 5th grade - 8th grade are permitted to compete at this tournament.

Special Rules:

In keeping with the CMSF by-laws, we would like to call your attention to a few items that may be different from other tournaments.

- No publication requirements for interpretation events.  While students may not write pieces themselves unless the event requires it, but are allowed students to use literature from any source, published or non-published.

- SPAR times are the following: (2 prep) Pro 2; Con 2; Cross 4; Pro 2; Con 2.

- Performative plagiarism, as outlined on in the CMSF Rules & By-laws, prevents the “copying the performance of other performers.”  Please review this section of the rules for all students entered in interpretation events. 

- This tournament will not break brackets for debate outrounds.

Wellness:

We have designed the schedule for this tournament with great care.  While we have tried to provide students with the opportunity to compete in as many events as possible, this comes at a potential risk.  We ask that students carefully consider the schedule before deciding to enter multiple events.  The tournament will not delay rounds for students who did not attend a round on time.  Furthermore, students who insist on doing both speech and debate events may risk missing lunch breaks.

Judges:

One of our biggest concerns is that we do not run late.  We require each judge to have a reliable Internet connection and use a laptop or desktop computer to evaluate the round.  While tablets and mobile devices are possible, we do not encourage the usage for judges since they will be managing the eBallot and the video screen at the same time.  We recommend that judges open the eBallot on one tab and the video on another.  Judges should be able to toggle between the two easily.  Alternatively, judges can open a new window for the video and position it to the side of the eBallot so that they can view both at the same time.  Teams who register judges that are not well-equipped or properly trained may be fined delay of tournament fees.

Schedule:

Please check the registraiton page on ForensicsTournament.net for the most recent schedule.

Fees will be assessed on Friday May 13th, 2022 at 12:00 p.m. PST.  Any changes after this date will be subject to the following penalties. 

Students who drop from the tournament will be charged a $20 no show fee for each student if the coach notifies the tournament before the dropped round.  Students who drop without notifying the tournament will be charged a $30 no show fee. 

Judge adds will no longer be permitted after registration close; all judges must have names and contact information in the school’s roster.  Please enter all judges through the forensicstournament.net registration website mentioned previously.

Please pay all fees to an account below by Wednesday, May 18th, 2022 at noon Pacific. Fees must be paid through the registration page by clicking on the ‘Tournament Fees’ tab on the left side of the page.  All fees will be frozen at the time of registration close.

$50 school fee

$15 per IE/Congress/Spar event-entry ($30 per Duo team)

$40 per Lincoln Douglas/Public Forum/ event-entry

$40 judging fee per uncovered IE event-entry (One judge covers 5 IE event-entries)

$150 per uncovered debate event-entry (One judge covers 2 LD/PD/PFD event-entries)

$20 per change after Friday, May 13th, 2022 at 12:00 p.m. (noon) Pacific.

$50 No-show fee per competitor (event fees will not be refunded after deadline).

$200 dropped judge fee (per day) after May 17th, 2022 at 12:01 a.m. Pacific.

$20 No-show judge fee (first offense); $40 No-show judge fee (second offense); $50 No-show judge fee (each subsequent offense).*

Judges who do not write sufficient feedback to the competitors will be fined $20 per round.  Unsatisfactory ballots will be determined by the tabulation staff.

*Ballots will be sent to judges approximately 10 minutes before the beginning of each round.  Those who do not receive a ballot but are scheduled to judge that round will be sent a standby notice.  Standby judges should go to 8x8.vc/CMSFstandby and wait for their name to be called.  If a judge is put on standby but does not accept a ballot when their name is called in the judge standby room, that judge will be deemed as a no-show, and penalty fees will apply.

The tournament reserves the right to deny schools who do not supply at least half of their required judges.  We will do our best to ensure that no schools are denied because of this reason.

Coaches’ Meeting:

We will host a coaches’ meeting for all schools on Saturday, May 28th (virtual room to be announced).  This meeting will not occur during the tournament due to time constraints.  The purpose of the meeting is to ask for community guidance and direction.  We will also hold elections during this meeting.  In accordance with our by-laws, the meeting will be audio recorded and then distributed to members after the competition.  We encourage each school to send a representative to the meeting to give voice to your school’s concerns and thoughts. 

Contact:

Tournament Director - Robert Cannon: Robert@Cannonballofdeath.com

Individual Events Tabulation - Mike Kyle: mike@nova42.com

Debate Events Tabulation - Victor Rivas Umana: vrivasumana@tgsastaff.com

Throughout the entire tournament, we will have a live help room for anyone having trouble.  The URL will be https://8x8.vc/CMSFHelp