SpeechWire Tournament Services - Forensics Tournament Software

Individual Events, Congressional Debate Tournament, and Speaking Eagle Triathlon

The Juan Diego Catholic High School Speech and Debate Team invites you to our annual individual events and congressional debate tournament. We will offer individual events recognized by the Utah High School Activities Association, National Forensic League, and National Catholic Forensic League.

As a new feature to this year’s competition, we will offer a triathlon award for students entered in at least three individual events.

The tournament will be a paneled, two-day event. Students are encouraged to enter both panels, and they may double-enter within panels. We will offer novice and open in every event.

QUICK LINKS

EVENTS AND RULES

The aim of Silver & Blue is to give students an opportunity to compete in individual events consistent with standards and norms common at the highest level of competition. For this reason, rules will be enforced that have historically been ignored at many Utah competitions, including Silver & Blue. Therefore, coaches should encourage their students to prepare and practice their events in a manner consistent with those standards. Coaches and students should consult the links provided in the descriptions below. Students who violate these rules may receive a rank of nine for the round in which the infraction occurred, or ranked last in their congressional debate chamber. If there are any questions, please email the tournament director.

Students who observe rule violations should report them to their coach, who should then report them to the tournament director.

In an effort to simplify judging and bring the expectation for interps in line with national standards, proprietary ballots will be used at this tournament. They can be downloaded here:

Computers are permitted, however any wireless communication is not permitted between the time extemp prep begins, and when the last extemper has started their speech. Phones will not be permitted at all. All extempers consent to allow the prep room manager to inspect their computers to see if any devices are connected during this time. Extempers will not be permitted to access their phones during prep, so they should plan to bring a timer.

Similarly, congressional debate students must disable all wireless functionality on their computers while their chamber is in session.

Interp events must follow standards outlined by the National Forensic League. These standards are available from the document titled 2013 National Tournament Operations Manual from the NFL. This can be downloaded here:

The theme for storytelling at Silver & Blue for the 2013 year is animals. That’s right. Tell stories about animals.

Spar will be judged as an individual event, with competitors being ranked. It will not be win/loss.

Rules for declamation are available from the National Catholic Forensic League. Unlike the NCFL, students of all grades may participate. These rules are available here:

- A Bill to Delist Wolves from the Endangered Species List

- A Resolution to Advance Railroad Infrastructure

- A Resolution to Decrease Space Debris to Rescue the Final Frontier

- A Resolution to Deny the Federal Government the Ability to Ban Books

- A Resolution to Introduce Term Limits to Federally Appointed Judges

- A Resolution to Nationally Legalize Physician-Assisted Suicide

- A Resolution to Prohibit Employers from Requesting Job Applicants to Give Access to Social Media Accounts

- A Resolution to Promote the Use of Thorium Driven Nuclear Reactors

- A Resolution to Require Inmates to Work for the Prison

- Funding for NASA Should be Increased to at Least 2% of the Federal Budget

- A Resolution to Require Monsanto to Label Genetically Modified Products

- A Resolution to Lessen the Divorce Rate & Provide for Marital Education

- A Resolution to Base Government Representative Salaries on Accomplishment

- A Resolution to Reinstate the Gold Standard

All other standards, rules, and expectations for congress will follow those set forth by the competition events guide available here:

Please give special attention to terms used and rules regarding precedence (sometimes called priority) and speech times.

SIGNUP SHEET

To help with signing up students for the tournament, this printable sheet is available for coaches:

NOVICE ELIGIBILITY

The students that may participate in the novice division are those that did not participate in a high school speech or debate event prior to the 2013-2014 academic year. Even if the student competed only one time, or only did a debate event prior to this season, they are still considered ineligible for novice competition.

COMMUNICATION AND POSTINGS

Information about the tournament will be posted via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JuanDiegoSilverAndBlue. This will include postings and final round results. A complete packet with preliminary results will be email to coaches at the conclusion of the tournament.

PANELS AND SCHEDULE

Panel A: Extemp Commentary, Expository, Impromptu, Duo Interp, Oratory, Poetry Interp, Storytelling

Panel B: Foreign Extemporaneous, National Extemporaneous, Spar, Humorous Interp, Dramatic Interp, Prose Interp, and Declamation

Congress will not be paneled and students participating in congress may not enter in any other event.

12:15 - 3:00 Semi finals for large events (over 28 competitors) and finals for small events (14 - 28 competitors) will run first. Elimination rounds will post ASAP to expedite the completion of the tournament.

3:00 Humorous Interp Showcase and Awards. If finals rounds have not been completely tabulated, humorous interps will be showcased until awards are ready to announce. Any humorous interp competitor may participate.

For events with fewer than 14 entries, there will be a final round, however it will be judged by one person, rather than a three judge panel.

DOUBLE ENTRY PROTOCOL

Students that are double entered within their panel should observe the following protocol:

Students can enter in more than two events within their panel, however they do so at their own risk and are not gauranteed their rounds will wait for them. We need to stay on schedule.

FEES

REGISTRATION

Registration will be done on Speechwire, though any coach who prefers to email their registration may do that also.

The deadline to enter contestants is Monday, November 18. At that time fees for uncovered judges will be assessed to your account. Though there will be no drop fees, any decrease in fees for drops after November 18th will not be reflected on your statement.

A list of entries and judges will be emailed to all coaches on Thursday, November 21st. Coaches must then reply to confirm that the entry is correct, or they should make necassary changes on Speechwire. An explaination of any unmet financial commitment will be included with this email.

TABULATION AND SCORING

Competitors will be ranked. The ratings system (S,E, G, F) will not be used.

The tabroom will be open to all coaches, and they will have access to all ballots as well as the computer records. For this reason, coaches are responsible to verfiy the accuracy of all tabbing of individual results and sweepstakes awards. No corrections will be made after the tournament is concluded.

Competitors will all be ranked, with no ties. This also means that there will be no ties for 5th place, as is often the norm at tournaments in Utah.

The tournament director will determine who advances to finals and semi-finals based on cumulative ranks from preliminary rounds.

Finals rounds will be judged by a panel of three judges, except where entry in the event is fewer than 14 total entries.

AWARDS

There will be an award for the students with the best cumulative score in preliminary rounds of three events. This will be awarded to the top ten in novice and open. The winner of this award shall be known as the best individual events competitor of all time. Congressional debate students are not eligible because of schedule constraints. To be eligible, students should anticipate that they would need to double enter in at least one panel. The tournament schedule makes this possible. A suggestion for this is to do an extemp style event in one panel and double enter for the second panel.

We will award a sweepstakes winner. Sweepstakes points are earned with each prelim rank of 1 earning 6 points, 2 earns 5 points, 3 earns 4 points, and so on. There will be a sweepstakes award for large schools (5a and 4a) AND small schools (3a, 2a, and 1a).

JUDGES

One judge is required for every five entries or portion thereof. This is based off of entry numbers, not student numbers. Please factor your entries for each panel, and base the number of judges you need off of the larger panel plus the number of students competing in congressional debate. Teams with inadequate numbers of judges will be assessed a fee of $80 for each missing judge. This will be assessed after the entry deadline.

We will also credit schools with judges that can help with the operation of the tournament by providing personnel in any of the following capacities: tabroom staff (no experience necassary), parlimentarian for congressional debate, director of the congressional debate tournament, and extemp prep room manager. If you have someone that can help in any of these capacaties, please let me know. In other words, if you can supply the tournament with someone that can help in any of the aforementioned capacities, you will be expected to bring two fewer judges than your entry requires.

If you are unable to meet your judge commitment, please inform the tournament director as soon as possible. There will be a limited number available for hire. Attendance of judges will be recorded after each round. Schools who fail to bring the expected number of judges will be assessed a fee of $30 for missing judges on Friday and $50 for missing judges on Saturday, which is the precise amount the tournament will need to pay judges that work to fill an unment commitment.

We will have a table at the tournament where judges can receive help and get their questions answered. New judges are particularly welcome and encouraged to take advantage of this service.

Schools bringing students in congressional debate must bring at least one judge that is able and willing to judge congress.

FOOD

Dinner will be provided for coaches and judges. Food will be available for purchase for students.

WIRELESS ACCESS

Wireless Internet is accessible to all of our guests. Log onto the network SCC-Guest with the password “skaggs13”. As a reminder to extemp and congress competitors – you may use your computers but wireless functionality must be disabled during prep and competition.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Our goal is to give students the best experience to do individual events. We offer a schedule with two separate panels, and we accomodate double entry within panels. The size of the tournament has increased every year, with past attendees being impressed by the quality and quantity of awards, the food, and the beautful campus.

No. The aim of this tournament is to provide the very best of IEs, in much the same way Alta’s Silver & Black tournament offers a highly competitive debate experience. Teams interested in doing debate this weekend should consider the Carbon Combat (also hosted on Speechwire). If anyone else is hosting a debate tournament nearby, please let me know.

1. I don’t have access to Windows based machines necessary for TRIEPC and Joy, and gaining that access is hardly worth it when more competitive options exist.

2. Speechwire includes many features that the more common Joy/TRIEPC method does not – better sweeps tabulation, web-based tab, creating separate finals for novices, and so on.

3. My experience attending Richfield’s tournament last year was very positive. They used this software and, while it wasn’t a perfect experience, it was far better than what I’ve seen with Joy/TRIEPC. This is especially true for individual events.

The tabroom will be open to coaches, and all are encouraged to participate in entering ballots and evaluating the functionality of this service.

Ratings are both arbitrary and unnecessary. (Can someone tell me the difference between “superior” and “excellent”? Also, are these applied consistently across judges? Probably not.) There will be a final in each event, thus making ratings unimportant for tie-breaking purposes. There are more effective tiebreakers for the final round, which will be judge preference, then using cumulative scores from prelims.

Students and coaches want to know how well they performed. This data is more meaningful than just having a 5 and therefore gives students and coaches added perspective as they seek to improve. Concerns that students cannot handle being ranked low or in last place are unfounded. Yes, defeat is difficult, but it is an inherent quality of competition. This practice is widely accepted in other comptetitive circuits and in other competitive high school activities. Also, it simplifies judging.

Expository is not a common event in Utah, though perhaps it should be. It is a supplementary event at the NFL, so I figure why not. Don’t be afraid to try it out. It will probably be new to almost everyone. Sometimes I see oratory speeches that would be better categorized as expository anyway, so consider this an opportunity for competitors to deliver awesome speeches explaining things.

Actually, the design of the tournament is for students to enter in panel A and panel B events, so ideally they will have competed in three rounds that night. Of course, they can single enter, but this would mean they have plenty of down time when they could be competing.

Be brave and enter in less popular events. Spar and impromptu are always big and I'll admit those are fun events, but it can be tough when competing against 50 other kids. By comparison, novice duo had only four entries last year! Encourage students to enter in something they aren't familiar with and learn about it online.

Our new tab software will award points for every single prelimary rank, so having a large entry will certainly help. Also, keep in mind that we an award for large schools and small schools. Smaller schools that might not normally think of themselves as being competitive will have a better opportunity at this tournament.

Email me your entry and I'll do it for you. I understand the fragmentation of services can be frustrating. We want your life to be easier, not harder. Ultimately, Speechwire will tab faster and with fewer errors, all while giving you a great results packet when it's all over, so you can anticipate a better overall experience.

Absolutely. New coaches will enjoy the opportunity to participate in an open tabroom while sharing experiences with colleagues from other schools. Coaches are encouraged to check on the progress of their competitors, which will be made possible with 26 computers in the tabroom - all of which will be connected to the tournament. In the room adjacent to the tabroom, ballots will be organized and made available for immediate review for any head coaches that are interested. The tournament director and assistant director will be available at all times to address any inquiries or concerns that you have while at the tournament.

Why is there an emphasis on using rules from the NFL and the NCFL at this tournament

This is part of an effort to increase the quality of competition and provide a more valuable experience for the students. It also gives clear expectations and is therefore more fair to the students. For example, students who prepare an interp event in accordance with the NFL's rules do so under considerably more difficult conditions than someone preparing an interp with little regard for how it is cited and adapted. Judges are rarely aware of this when they rank the competitors. Rules enforecement keeps the playing field level.

This also keeps the preparations in line for what is expected at the national tournaments and their qualifiers, thereby giving students an opportunity to prepare for high stakes competition where they can represent their school and community on a bigger stage.

Finally, know that all rules will be applied reasonably at the direction of the tournament director.

Home - Order SpeechWire - Tournament results - Your account - Tournament manager

(vr)

Juan Diego Silver & Blue

QUICK LINKS

SIGNUP SHEET