We're looking forward to seeing you at the 20th Annual Broad Run Ron Richards Invitational. The invitation will be posted by December 6. As always, the tournament offers competition for high school and middle school students—

ï‚· Policy Debate: JV and Varsity will be offered if numbers allow; otherwise, we will collapse it into an open division (JV debaters must not have more than two years of high school experience).

ï‚· Lincoln–Douglas Debate: JV and Varsity will be offered if numbers allow; otherwise, we will collapse it into an open division. We will be using the January-February LD topic for this tournament (JV debaters must not have more than two years of high school experience).

ï‚· Student Congress: The tournament is providing the legislation (developed by Broad Run alumni) — it will be posted on Tabroom by January 1. Schools have the opportunity to submit candidate legislation to be considered for inclusion via Tabroom no later than December 16 — acceptance will be based on a variety of factors intended to provide a diverse and substantive range of topics for debate and voting; this is not required for participation and is intended only to provide competitors with legislation development experience.

ï‚· Public Forum: JV and Varsity divisions will be offered if numbers allow; otherwise, we will collapse it into an open division. The January PF topic will be debated at this tournament (JV debaters must not have more than two years of high school experience).

ï‚· Speech: Extemporaneous Speaking, Impromptu Speaking, Original Oratory, Prose, Poetry, DI, HI, Duo Performance, and Storytelling will be offered. This selection enables local schools to provide practice for upcoming VHSL tournaments while providing a wide range of events for any and all schools.

Debate events will follow WACFL rules. Speech events will follow VHSL rules.

Note that round pairings for Lincoln-Douglas, Policy, Public Forum and Speech will be emailed and texted to competitors and judges during the tournament, and ballots will be submitted online (and accessible to coaches and competitors online after the tournament). Therefore, all competitors and judges in those events must have Tabroom accounts linked to their team's rosters before the tournament begins. Laptops with WiFi access are recommended for judges (a keyboard facilitates RFD and comment entry and phones are likely to be used for timers).

Account set-up and ballot submission instructions are available on this website.

Judge Obligations

Policy: 1 per 2 entries or fractions thereof
Lincoln-Douglas: 1 per 4 entries or fractions thereof
Public Forum: 1 per 4 entries or fractions thereof
Congress: 1 per 5 entries or fractions thereof
Speech: 1 per 6 entries or fractions thereof

Internet access is allowed in-round for Policy, Public Forum, and Lincoln-Douglas competitors. Contestants may use competitor-provided electronic devices (including laptop computers, tablets, and/or cell phones) to access the Internet during debate rounds with the following conditions:

1. Computers or other electronic devices may not be used to receive information for competitive advantage from non-competitors (coaches, assistant coaches, other students) inside or outside of the room in which the competition occurs. Information that would be restricted would include but not be limited to coach/nonparticipating competitor generated arguments, advice on arguments to run, questions to ask during cross examination, and other information not generated by the participating competitors.

2. Internet access may be used to retrieve files, exchange evidence and/or arguments, research arguments, and partner to partner communication. These electronic device guidelines do not limit communication between debate partners during the debate round.

IMPORTANT: Registrations are only valid/accepted if they are done by the coach or authorized adult. If a registration is submitted by a student, the registration will be rejected on the day of the tournament and students will NOT be allowed to compete.

SAFETY REQUIREMENT NOTE: An authorized adult representative or coach MUST be with the students at the tournament site at ALL times - this includes until the time that ALL of their school's students have been picked up by parents/an authorized person. This is a SAFETY issue.

In the event it is determined that students have been left unattended at a competition site, the DSA and/or Principal will be notified.