General Information & Topics

Tournament Information

All tournament tabulation and pairings will occur via tabroom.com and as such, all students, coaches, and judges will need to have an updated tabroom.com account. Information on how to create an account can be found on the TFA website (txfa.org).

We are committed to allowing all students who qualify for the elimination rounds to compete in those rounds. To accomplish this, it will be necessary to place entry limits on some events.

In this document you can find the following information:

General Rules

Events Offered

Independent Entries

Entry Guidelines and Waitlist Policy

Drop Deadlines

Fees

Judge Requirements

Topics and Congress Information

Sweepstakes

GENERAL RULES

We will break to Semifinals in all Individual Events unless entry levels warrant a break straight to finals. If entry numbers in an event are low, we will move to 2 prelim rounds and break directly to finals.

All ballots for Debate, IEs, and Duet Acting will be made available as soon as possible after the completion of each round. Problems or questions should be directed to the tabroom as soon as possible.

An adult supervisor for each school must be immediately available to perform necessary tournament duties if called upon. Failure to do so may result in the tournament making necessary decisions such as: removing a competitor, walk-over an entry, or adjudicating a protest. Frequent inability to make contact with a coach for tournament-related matters may result in that school’s students being removed from the tournament.

EVENTS OFFERED

Section A: Domestic Extemp, Foreign Extemp, Novice Extemp, Dramatic Interpretation, Original Oratory, Poetry, and Duet

Section B: Impromptu Speaking, Humorous Interpretation, Informative Speaking, Program Oral Interpretation, Prose, Duo, and Novice Oral Interp

Contestants may enter 1 extemporaneous speaking event per day of competition.

Debate Events - Policy Debate, Novice Policy, LD Debate, Novice LD, PF Debate, Novice PF, World Schools Debate, Congressional Debate, Novice Congress

Contestants entered in debate events may not cross-enter with any other live events at the tournament. Non-advancing LD/PF/CX/WSD entries may re-register after round 4 for Ridge (Ram) Section A IEs.

INDEPENDENT ENTRIES

The Spartan/Ram Swing Tournament is a TFA tournament, so we must abide by TFA rules. The TFA Constitution says on page 72 that "Texas students participating at TFA tournaments must be affiliated with and a representative of the schools they are attending." This means that if you are a Texas student, you must participate under your school's name and be affiliated with said team. This rule is non-negotiable, if we break this (or any) TFA rule, our tournament can be sanctioned in future years, regardless of what our personal opinions about the rule are.

1 – All competitors must have a school-approved adult representative present at all times during the tournament. As noted in the tournament best practices document, this means they must be either actively judging, in a judge pooling room or assisting the tournament.

2 – If a school employee is not attending with the student, a school official must email Hannah McCord or Cryste Beard permitting the responsible adult to act on behalf of and make all relevant decisions for the student/school.*

3 - All teams must register using their school name and their official school tabroom account so that TFA and NSDA points can be accurately attributed.

We require every team to be chaperoned by an individual who is either a school employee or has written authorization from the school to act and make decisions at the tournament on behalf of the school (this means, but is not limited to: carrying emergency medical information, to make decisions that can impact future attendance by the school - such as paying fines, etc. - anything a school employee would be expected to do). An acceptable alternative is an adult who has been background checked by the school and who has the approval of the school to assume full responsibility for the care of students of that school while at the tournament. Schools will be asked to list who that adult will be as a condition of final registration. It is the expectation of the tournament that all competitors must have the adult described above with them at registration; STUDENTS MAY NOT REGISTER THEMSELVES. If the responsible adult is not a school employee, a school official must email Cryste Beard or Hannah McCord to give the authorization to act on the school’s behalf from their school email address.

Any student found to be in violation of such policy will be removed from the pairings.

*If you are an out-of-state student, you are welcome to attend with your parent as a chaperone as long as they are present at the tournament and you abide by #1 and #3 above. A privately hired assistant coach may fulfill your judging obligations, but they ARE NOT a substitute for your parent/legal guardian unless a principal from your school emails me authorizing them to make medical decisions on your behalf (see above).

ENTRY GUIDELINES AND WAITLIST POLICY

This is a TFA state qualifier for member schools. All Texas Forensic Association rules will be followed. If you need a copy of TFA contest rules, please access their website at www.txfa.org .

The entry deadline is Wednesday, October 23, 2024, at 5 PM. After this date, the website will be closed and any adds/drops/changes will need to be approved by tournament directors via email before being moved off of the waitlist to ensure we have enough rooms and judging.

Registration link at the top of this page. Schools are allowed to enter the events according to the following guidelines:

No more than 4 CCX entries, with additional entries to be placed on a waiting list.

No more than 5 CLD/6NLD entries, with additional entries to be placed on a waiting list.

No more than 5 VPFD/6NPF entries, with additional entries to be placed on a waiting

list.

No more than 3 WSD entries, with additional entries to be placed on a waiting list.

No more than 6 VCD/6NCD entries, with additional entries to be placed on a waiting list.

No more than 6 entries per Individual event, with additional entries to be placed on a waiting list.

DROP DEADLINES

Entries will be accepted through Wednesday, October 25th, 2023.

ALL FEES WILL LOCK ON Wednesday, October 23, 2024 at 5 PM.

The deadline to enter a judge will be October 23, 2024 at 5 PM. After this point, you will be charged a judge fee.

This will be strictly enforced this year, after this date, all drops will forfeit entry fees. Given that we will have to wait until we receive school checks to pay judges, it is important that we have an accurate estimate of the judges needed.

Any drop after October 23, 2024 at 5 PM will be charged the entry fee and incur a $25 penalty to help mitigate the fact that judging had already been hired for those entries. This is a necessary evil because at this point we will have already hired judges to cover those entries; however, if your school has all the judging for the event covered (i.e. you have two policy teams and 1 judge, one team drops) email us and we can remove the extra drop penalty since we didn’t lose any money on judging in this particular instance.

FEES

Individual Events: $20

Congressional Debate: $25

NLD - $25

NCX - $30

NPF - $30

VLD - $40

VPF – $40

VCX - $50

WSD - $40

Admin/Hospitality - $75

JUDGING REQUIREMENTS

WSD – 2 rounds owed per entry. 1 judge can cover 6 rounds/ $25/missing round

PF – 2 rounds owed per entry. 1 judge can cover 6 rounds/ $25/missing round (3 entries/1 judge)

LD – 2 rounds owed per entry. 1 judge can cover 6 rounds/ $25/missing round (3 entries/1 Judge)

CX – 3 rounds owed per entry. 1 judge can cover 6 rounds/ $25/missing round (2 entries/1 Judge)

IEs - .5 rounds owed per entry. 1 judge can cover 6 rounds/ $15/missing round (12 entries/1 judge)

Congress - .25 rounds owed per entry. 1 judge can cover 4 rounds/$25/missing round (12 entries/1judge)

NLD/NPF - .5 rounds owed per entry. 1 judge can cover 6 rounds/$15/missing round (12 entries/1 judge)

NCX – 1 round owed per entry. 1 judge can cover 4 rounds/$15/missing round (4 entries/1judge)

If you put yourself in the pool, please expect to be judging all obligated rounds.

Judging Fees will be assessed on October 23, 2024, at 5 PM. Those schools missing judges will be charged at that time. The expectation is that at least one judge is available per school. All judges must have a tabroom.com account and a paradigm on tabroom.com. Missing Round fees will only be used to hire judges. While we understand that this may seem high, we would much rather have your judges than your money. We believe that during these trying times, we must also pay our judges fairly for their labor. We believe paying judges fairly only helps us to attract the best judges.

All school-provided judges must be available one round past the elimination of their most successful competitor in the event that they are covering. Additionally, all schools must have a judge in the pool each day that their students are competing. Also, be aware that we reserve the right to move a judge into a different pool to be able to fulfill the needs of the tournament.

Due to multiple school judges not picking up debate ballots in the past, we will be fining schools $25 per round for any judge who either doesn’t pick up a ballot or who is so late in picking up a ballot that we need to reassign it to another judge. After two no-shows, the judge will be dropped from the tournament and the school will be charged the full judge fee. Judges who are late to their round and require a replacement will count as a “no-show”.

If a school’s judge no-show results in the tournament being short of judges we will ask the school’s coach to either fill in or we will have to drop entries in order to have enough judging.

In a world of virtual debate and online ballots, it is important that your judges’ Tabroom information (email and phone number) is up to date and that they are frequently checking their phone/email to ensure they do not miss a ballot. Coaches must ensure this info is up to date and to check pairings and ensure that their judges are prepared to judge.

TOPICS AND CONGRESS INFORMATION

The topic for Varsity & Novice CX Debate is: Resolved: The United States federal government should significantly strengthen its protection of domestic intellectual property rights in copyrights, patents, and/or trademarks.

The topic for Varsity & Novice LD Debate will be the September/October 2024 topic.

Resolved: The United States ought to require that workers receive a living wage.

The topic for Varsity & Novice PF Debate will be the September/October 2023 topic.

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially expand its surveillance infrastructure along its southern border.

Prep time for CX is 8 minutes. Prep time for LD is 4 minutes. Prep time for PF is 3 minutes.

We will use the NSDA rules for PF.

Brackets will NOT be broken in debate.

CONGRESS NOTES: We will use the TFA 2024 Fall Legislation. Specific items are listed below. The items may be reordered as established by each chamber. Copies of the legislation can be found on the TFA website at txfa.org. Procedures for advancing and tie-breakers can be found in the TFA constitution.

Cy Lakes (Friday)

Prelims: SET DOCKET ~ 12, 14, 15, 11, 13

Finals: SET DOCKET ~ 17, 20, 16, 19, 18

Cy Ridge (Saturday)

Prelims: SET DOCKET ~ 18, 19, 16, 20, 17

Finals: SET DOCKET ~ 13, 11, 15, 14, 12

Students will run for P.O. in all sessions of Congress.

WSD Motions

Round 1: Impromptu

Round 2: This House regrets the narrative that democracy is the best form of governance.

Round 3: This House would implement a living wage.

Round 4: This House would implement a living wage. (Sides will flip from Round 3)

Semis: Impromptu

Finals: This House, as a state with an aging population, would prefer policies that increase immigration (e.g. more visas) over ones that encourage citizens to have more children (e.g. tax benefits).

Extemp Topic Areas

Cy Lakes (Friday) (Spartan)

FX

Prelims –

Semis –

Finals –

DX

Prelims –

Semis –

Finals –

NX

This will be a mix of the DX and FX topics from each round.

Cy Ridge (Saturday) (Ram)

FX

Prelims –

Semis –

Finals –

DX

Prelims –

Semis –

Finals –

NX

This will be a mix of the DX and FX topics from each round.

SWEEPSTAKES

Individual Events, Congressional Debate, Duet Acting, Duo Interpretation

1st = 15 points

2nd = 10 points

3rd = 5 points

All non-placing finalists receive three points.

Debate Sweepstakes points will be calculated based on prelim performance in debate events. Students will earn 5 points per prelim win and 1 point per prelim loss, only a school’s top 2 students per debate event will be counted.