Tournament Events
Debate
Please check speechanddebate.org to find the current topics. In each event, we will offer two divisions — Open and Novice — in four debate events. Please move current JV competitors up into Open, not down into Novice.
- Lincoln-Douglas (LD): We will use the November/December topic for debate, following the standard National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA) time format (6-3-7-3-4-6-3 with four minutes of preparation time per competitor).
- Public Forum (PF): We will use the November topic area as published by the NSDA. We will use the 4-3-2 format with two minutes of preparation time per team.
- Congressional Debate (CD): We are planning on two Novice chambers and two Open chambers, numbers permitting. If participation is insufficient, we will collapse chambers within each division, or to a single chamber if necessary. Two 2-hour sessions will be held on Friday night with a one-hour dinner break between sessions. Participants advancing to Super Congress will be announced as soon as possible on Friday night. On Saturday there will be two 2-hour sessions of Super Congress, neither will conflict with Individual Events. We will use the fall WSFA legislation packet. Copies of the legislation will not be provided at the tournament; please bring enough for everyone on your team.
- World Schools (WSD): We will use the WSFA topics for prepared motions. Teams may have up to five students but no less than three.
Individual Events (IE)
We will offer two divisions — Open and Novice — in nine individual events:
- Extemporaneous
- Informative
- Impromptu
- Original Oratory
- Duo Interpretation
- Humorous Interpretation
- Dramatic Interpretation
- Program of Oral Interpretation
- Editorial Commentary
- SPAR
Only first-year and Middle School competitors are eligible for Novice division; everyone else must register in the Open division. All IEs conflict, so although students may enroll in more than one IE, competitors are responsible for making rounds on time. Students are permitted to enter up to three (3) IE events. If a student chooses to do so, please flag them for Tab so we can order them appropriately throughout the rounds. No event will be held over longer than the allocated time. In all events, we will use the WSFA rules for the event, particularly time limits.
Registration and Fees
Register schools, competitors, and judges online at Tabroom.com. The registration deadline is Wednesday, October 15, at 5:00 p.m., at which time fees will be calculated. Any adds or drops following the deadline should still be handled through Tabroom.com but will not reduce your entry fee.
BearCreek.Tabroom.com
Fee Schedule
Checks and purchase orders accepted and due upon the start of the tournament. Make checks payable to The Bear Creek School. Please provide school name, school phone, school address, billing contact name, and billing contact email address with all payments or purchase orders.
- Each LD entry $10.00
- Each PF entry $15.00/team, each winning team gets two awards.
- Each IE entry $10.00, a student entering two events counts as two entries.
- Each Duo entry $15.00/team, each winning team gets two awards.
- Each Student Congress $10.00, awards for top Presiding Officer and five top speakers in Super Congress.
Judging
It is your responsibility to secure enough judges to cover your registration. Please bring qualified judges appropriate to your events and numbers and communicate early if you will need to hire judges. For example, if you bring a policy team, please bring a policy judge. If you do not come with the appropriate number of judges, we may need to cut students from the competition beginning with your most senior competitor. Please provide judges appropriate to the divisions in which you have entered students. Students who typically compete in Open division may judge Novice division events in which they have experience, as long as they are not competing in that event as well.
- Individual Events: 1 judge covers 5 entries
- Public Forum: 1 judge covers 3 teams
- Lincoln-Douglas: 1 judge covers 3 entries
- Congress: 1 judge covers 5 entries
- World Schools: 1 judge covers 2 teams
Use of Technology and Classrooms
Coaches, please read this to your teams.
Wi-fi is available for all participants during the competition, and Bear Creek's facility is well equipped with electrical outlets. However, under no circumstances should students unplug cords already plugged into the wall. As is the rule of thumb, participants may not enter classrooms until a judge is present. Please respect the classrooms by cleaning up trash and by returning desks to their original positions after the last round (round 6).
Building and Classroom Map
Wi-Fi
SSID: TBCSGuest
Password: Classical
Supervision
At all times, a certified staff member from your school or district must be onsite to supervise your student participants, as per WIAA rules. Without a certified staff member from your school or school district, your students may not compete.
