Your team is cordially invited to the Blazing Sun Tournament to be held at Overland High School on January 31st.   This tournament is co-hosted by Overland and Kent Denver and it promises to be HOT!

We are doing all registration through www.speechwire.com.  Please set up an account and enter your team.  You do not have to have student names to enter.  You can put in place holders to secure slots in any given event.

YOU WILL REGISTER USING WWW.SPEECHWIRE.COM.  IT IS VERY EASY TO USE!!!   
   -YOU DO NOT NEED TO ENTER NAMES, YOU HAVE PLACE HOLDERS FOR ENTRIES LIKE YOU DO ON SPEECHMEETS.
   -We are using this site because I am going to be tabulating and doing the draw for speech and debate on it for the whole tournament.
   -We are looking into using this site for state quals and state in future years so I wanted to give people a chance to use it.

TOP REASONS YOU SHOULD ATTEND
 
•    Double Entering!
•    Speaker Awards for LD and CX Debate!
•    Team Awards to Top 3 Schools!
 
•    Hardware for the top 6 in All Events!
•    Break Rounds for ALL Undefeated Debaters!
•    Power Matched Debate Rounds Begin After Round 1!

NEW ENTRY FEE AND JUDGE FEE POLICY: (PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY)  

NEW ENTRY FEE AND JUDGE FEE POLICY: (PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY)  

In an effort to guarantee a well run, on time tournament, we are attempting a new system of entry fees and judge fees.   This is how they do it in several states, and I wanted to see if this would help our judging situation and our budgets. I have lowered our entry fees to $10 a student per entry (LD is $10 and CX $20), but if you do not have judges registered ahead of time and committed for the WHOLE DAY if possible, you will be charged a FEE OF $30 PER UNCOVERED JUDGE.  This will allow you to have a pretty inexpensive tournament entry fee if you bring enough judges to cover your entries for the day. If you don't want to bring any judges, you will pay a premium for the tournament to hire judges.  THE TOURNAMENT WILL PAY ALL JUDGES CASH!!!   For a judge to qualify towards your entry, they must commit to the whole day-- arriving for one of the first waves and staying until finals are running.  We are looking for judges to hire that will be committed for the whole day.  We will be paying $9 a round with a $10 bonus if the judge judges at least 4 rounds and stays through Qtrs, Sems and Finals in debate and Finals in Speech events.  If a judge stays all day and we can't use them for finals, we will still pay the bonus for their time and patience. By you providing the judges, you are lowering your entry fees and ensuring the tournament runs on time.
   -You may split the Judge commitment for the day between two people.  You must note the times they are available when you online register them and that they  are splitting the day.  
   -You may have a debate judge cover your CX entries and LD entries.
   -You many have a PF judge cover both PF and Speech entries.
   -A PF judge cannot cover LD nor can an LD judge cover PF.  This is due to the schedules for those events overlapping.

This will be set up on Speechwire next week.  The categories "PF and Events Judge" and "LD and CX Judge" will be set up on Speechwire next week.  

No team will have to bring more than 5 judges total.  Coaches will be used as a last resort if we don't have enough judges.

If you have questions please direct them to Terry Rubin @ 303-770-7660 x234 or trubin@kentdenver.org

EVENTS
Events will be offered in two waves.  Students in PF and events may enter two events in the opposite wave, with the following restrictions:  Students in PF may not double enter in NX or FX.  Extempers may not double enter in both extemp events nor in PF.  Extempers who choose to double enter may not get their full prep time. Students entered in LD, CX, and Congress may not double enter.  Teams are limited to five competitors/teams per event with the exception of Congress where teams may have unlimited entries.


WAVE                EVENT
SUN DEVIL    Public Forum Debate
                       Foreign Extemp
                      National Extemp
                      Duo Interp
                      Oratory

BLAZER            Humorous Interp
                          Dramatic Interp
                          Poetry
                          Impromptu
                           Improvisational Pairs

Debate:  CX, JV CX, and LD (They will run on a separate schedule so these individuals cannot double enter.)

CX Topic: 2014-2015 NFL Topic

LD Topic: Jan/Feb NSDA Topic -- Resolved: Just governments ought to require that employers pay a living wage.

Public Forum Topic:  February NSDA Topic -- Resolved: On balance, economic globalization benefits worldwide poverty reduction.

Congress:  Legislation should be sent to Adrienne Razavi @ arazavi@cherrycreekschools.org by Tuesday, January 21st @ arazavi@cherrycreekschools.org

AWARDS
•    Trophies will be awarded to the top 6 competitors in each event and PF.  All debaters who are undefeated after the three preliminary rounds will receive awards.  
•    Speaker Awards will be given to the top 3 debaters in CX and LD.  
•    Team trophies will be awarded to the top 3 teams.


SCHEDULE
Registration will take place from 7:00am-7:30am.  Extemp Draw, CX, and LD will begin at 7:45 am.  Other Sun Devil wave events will begin promptly at 8:00am.  Blazer Wave events will begin at 9:30 am. All events will have three guaranteed rounds of competition.  Awards are scheduled for 7:30pm.  PLEASE CALL IN DROPS BEFORE REGISTRATION BEGINS (Tournament Phone = 303-549-8352)

 
BREAKING & FINALS IN EVENTS
At the conclusion of the third preliminary round, the top 6 students in each event will advance to a final round.  To determine the students who break to finals we will first evaluate cumulative ranks.  Any ties will be broken first by speaker ratings and then by speaker points.  

Awards will be determined by the final round judges’ scores only.  Thus, awards are not based upon a competitor’s cumulative scores from preliminary and final rounds.


BREAKING & FINALS IN DEBATE

At the conclusion of the third preliminary round, all undefeated teams will advance to a 4th runoff round (in the case of an odd-number of undefeated teams, the top ranked team with 1 loss will be drawn into this runoff round—see the tie-breaking scheme below).  After this 4th runoff round, the top 2 teams will advance to a final round.  The bracket will only be broken to avoid pairing teams from the same school against each other.
 
Tie-breaks will be determined by 1) W-L record, 2) Strength of Opposition, 3) Speaker Ranks (CX/PF),
4) Speaker Points.    

SPEAKER AWARDS IN DEBATE

The top 3 speakers in CX and LD debate will be determined from cumulative scores in points from the first three preliminary rounds.  Scores from break rounds will not be included in the determination of speaker awards.  Breaking ties is a complicated process, but it takes into consideration speaker ranks (CX only) and whether the points were earned in a win or a loss.

CONGRESS

Any bills and resolutions should be sent as word documents to Adrienne Razavi by Tuesday, January 22ND.  Dockets will be available on www.speechwire.com by Thursday, January 23rd. Simply click on the “View Legislation” link.

FEES
There will be a $10 fee for each competitor OR $20 for team events based on pre-registration numbers.  Pre-registration is due by Friday, January 23rd at 5pm.  We will close when all sections are full, so enter as soon as possible.  

In an effort to increase the quality and size of the judging pool, this year all entering schools will be required to provide pre-entered judges in the following allotments or pay associated judging fees:
    1 events judge per 10 events entries (or portion thereof)
    1 LD judge per 5 LD entries (or portion thereof)
    1 CX judge per 3 CX team entries (or portion thereof)
    1 PF judge per 5 PF team entries (or portion thereof)

NOTE: You CAN have a judge cover both Events and PF entries.  
      A judge cannot cover LD and Events or CX and Events.
      A judge cannot cover PF and LD/ CX

You many have two people split the judging commitment.  They can split the day, but they will not count as two judges toward your allotment.  

NOTE: A full commitment is from the start of the first waves through the start of Finals.  Judges must be available throughout the entire tournament time.   

A judge CAN cover both CX and LD but not CX and PF or LD and PF due to those events running on different schedules and needing the debate judging pool to be available throughout the day at all times.

Schools who do not have judges covering their judging requirement as outlined above will be charged $30 for each uncovered judge slot, NOT each uncovered contestant entry.  Judging fees will be calculated on Friday, January 23rd, so all judges should be entered by 5pm on that date to avoid the assessment of fees.


Make checks payable to KENT DENVER SCHOOL FORENSICS, ATTN: KURT MACDONALD, 4000 E. Quincy Avenue, Englewood, CO 80113.

JUDGING
Please see the new judge obligation requirements outlined in the “FEES” section above!

 
DETERMINATION OF TEAM AWARDS
•    All Events and Debate:
o    1st Place = 6pts; 2nd place = 5pts; 3rd Place = 4pts; 4th Place = 3pts; 5th Place = 2pts; 6th Place = 1pt
•    Congress
o    Outstanding Speaker = 6pts; Superior Speaker = 5 pts; Nomination = 1pt
•    Speaker Awards
o    Top speaker in CX and LD = 1 pt

PRE-REGISTRATION:
    Pre-registration will take place at www.speechwire.com   Last year we closed before the deadline, so please
enter early.  Fees will be assessed based on the entries as of Friday, January 23rd.  Please make sure that you enter student names online.  Students in Events are allowed to double enter within waves or between waves.  Students entered in Public Forum may only double enter in the Blazer Wave.  CX, LD, and Congress competitors are not allowed to double enter.

Call Terry Rubin at 303.549.8352 or email trubin@kentdenver.org with questions.  We look forward to seeing you on January 31st.
 

Top Re