Event Rules

Lincoln Douglas Debate will follow NSDA rules including 4 minutes of prep time. To be eligible to compete in Novice a student must be in their first year of high school forensic competition or if they have competed previous to this school year can have competed in no more than 2 tournaments in any event. The varsity division will debate the NSDA September-October topic Resolved: The United States ought to guarantee the right to housing. The novice divison will debate the NSDA Novice topic: Resolved: In the United States, national service ought to be mandatory.

Public Forum will follow NSDA rules including 3 minutes of prep time. To be eligible to compete in Novice a student must be in their first year of high school forensic competition or if they have competed previous to this school year can have competed in no more than 2 tournaments in any event. Both divisons will debate the NSDA September-October topic Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its military presence in the Arctic..

Congressional Debate will follow NSDA rules unless otherwise specified. All chambers will be designated as a Senate and with the use of direct questioning. The tournament will provide legislation with each session corresponding to a different topic area. The order of debate in each session will be dictated in the legislation packet. Before precedence is established the presiding-officer will recognize students based on a randomly generated list of speakers provided by the tournament.

Declamation will follow NCFL rules including the provision that no 11^thof 12^thgrade students may enter.

Dramatic Interpretation will follow NSDA rules.

Duo Interpretation will follow NSDA rules.

Extemporaneous Speaking will follow NSDA rules and be a mixed division of both US and International topic areas.

Humorous Interpretation will follow NSDA rules.

Impromptu Speaking will follow NSDA rules including topics selected from proverbs, abstract words, events, quotations, and famous people.

Informative Speaking will follow NSDA rules including the prohibition on electric equipment, animals, or additional people as visual aids.

Original Oratory will follow NSDA rules.

Oral Interpretation will follow NCFL rules and alternate rounds of Prose and Poetry. A coinf flip will be held before round 1 to determine the order.

Program of Oral Interpretation will follow NSDA rules.

All speech events will allow a 30 second grace period. Students whose times fall within the 30 second grace period may not be marked down due to going overtime. Any students who exceed the grace period may not be ranked first, but may be ranked as high as second based on the discretion of the judge.

Links to NSDA and NCFL rules:

https://www.speechanddebate.org/high-school-unified-manual/

https://www.ncfl.org/uploads/7/3/2/8/7328308/ncfl_bylaws_2022_after_fall_meeting2022_for_ncfl2023.pdf