Brooklyn-Queens Regional Qualifying Tournament

March 9th, 2024 at Poly Prep Country Day School

Hi coach,

If your school is located in Kings or Queens County and you plan to participate in the 2024 New York State Forensic League Championship Tournament (herein referred to as States, happening April 12-14, 2024), you are invited to attend the Brooklyn-Queens Regional Qualifying Tournament. Participation in States requires completion of a Google form [link forthcoming from State Coordinator], and the submission of the Principal Acknowledgement Form to NYSFL State Coordinator Joe Vaughan (jovan75@gmail.com). Any questions about this can be directed to WK (wkay@berkeleycarroll.org) or Joe.

Student Eligibility & Qualification Numbers: Students who have already qualified for States should not attend this tournament. If they wish to try to qualify in a different event, they will lose their previous qualification. It doesn’t matter if a student has already earned one half-qual for States or not. The number of full-quals distributed at the RQT is based on the number of students competing in the event (in alignment with the half-qual chart), but no more than 8 are permitted to qualify in any one event. In the events DUO and POI, the qualifications are relaxed. Any student in POI or any DUO team that has competed in that event at least once this season may participate in the State Championships.

Tabroom Registration & Tournament Start Time: Because Saturday, March 9th, is an SAT day, we will begin this tournament in the early afternoon: registration will run from 12:45pm to 1:15 PM, and Round 1 will begin at approximately 1:30 PM. We plan to be flexible with these times, and we’ll ask you to let us know how many students from your school will be traveling from the SAT to Poly Prep. If it turns out that NO competing students are taking the SAT, we will shift this to a morning tournament. Please contact WK (917-533-9590 or wkay@berkeleycarroll.org) when you know which students, if any are taking the SAT. Tournament fees will be assessed according to the BQCFL’s Sliding Scale.

Events: Declamation, Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, JV and Varsity Extemp Speaking, Original Oratory, Program Oral Interpretation, JV and Varsity Oral Interpretation, Student Congress, Novice, Intermediate and Varsity Public Forum, and Novice, Intermediate and Varsity Lincoln-Douglas Debate.

Rounds of Competition: The RQT will offer 3 preliminary rounds in all speech and debate events and 2 sessions of Student Congress. There are no final rounds. Awards will immediately follow the conclusion of round 3 and the second Congress session.

Congress Legislation: Congress legislation should be submitted via email to WK (wkay@berkeleycarroll.org) by Friday, February 23rd at 5pm. Note that there is no SuperSession, so schools may only submit up to 2 pieces of legislation (please note in your email submission which will be Primary and Secondary).

Debate Topics: We will use the March topics for LD and PF debate. Extemp topic areas will be announced by March 1st

Wild Card Entries for States: In addition to qualification via half-quals/the RQT, every school is permitted to register 1 wildcard entry in speech and 1 wildcard entry in debate (which includes Congress, PF and LD) for States that has not qualified via half-quals or the RQT. When registering your wild cards, please enter “WILD CARD” in the fields for both “Qualifier 1” and “Qualifier 2.”

We look forward to your school’s participation in the Brooklyn-Queens RQT!

Best,
WK Kay, BQ Regional Director for the NYSFL