MSCA Year-End Virtual Tournament

Registration	General information	Schematics	Files for download	Tournament schedule	Final results

General information

This information is from a tournament in a past season!

This is a High School tournament in Minnesota.

View manager contact information

Registration Information

Registration for the MSCA Year-End Virtual Tournament is free to all schools that have at least one coach-member of the Minnesota Speech Coaches Association.  Schools without a coach member may either have a coach join the MSCA for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year ($20), or may pay a $40 school fee that covers all student entries.  NOTE: this event is only open to students from schools in the state of Minnesota.

Schools may register up to four entries in every MSHSL event.  Each student is limited to entry in one event; no double-entry is permitted.

Each school will be required to provide one judge for every six entries or fraction thereof.  Hired judges are not available.  The tournament will utilize online balloting for tabulation; make sure to enter accurate judge email addresses into the system so that they may be accessed.

NOTE: EACH JUDGE MUST HAVE A NOTE IN THEIR REGISTRATION THAT INDICATES WHETHER OR NOT THEY ARE AVAILABLE FOR LIVE ROUNDS ON SATURDAY, MAY 30 AND SATURDAY, JUNE 6.  While non-draw events can be judged at different times of the day, we want to make sure to schedule judges who are available for our syncronous events.  Please, make sure every one of your judges has a note in the comment box provided that establishes whether they are available for both of those days, one of those days (and which one), or neither.

You can find a full tournament schedule under the "Files for Download" page in Speechwire.

Any questions regarding registration, logistics, or file submission can be sent to zachary.prax@district196.org.  During live competition, all issues regarding tournament logistics should be sent to virtualmeettech@gmail.com; the executive committee and others working on tournament support will be monitoring it during the registration period and constantly during all live tournament events.

Virtual Tournament Competition Format

Students in draw events and discussion will compete in a live-tournament: preliminary rounds and the first break round in each draw event will be held on Saturday, May 30, and final rounds will be held on Saturday, May 6.  Additional nformation regarding platform will be sent to coaches within one week of the tournament start date.

Students in non-draw events will submit one video performance that will be used in all levels of competition; once a student submits a performance, there will be no re-submissions allowed.  Performances will be judged asynchronously by judges throughout the competition time period; non-draw students will not physically attend rounds.

Virtual event rules/guidelines and instructions for submissinon can both be found under the "Files for Download" page.

Topics

Discussion tasks can come from any part of the 2019-2020 outline (A Culture of Violence)
Extemporaneous Reading draws can come from all cuttings identified on the MSHSL website.
Storytelling will draw from all stories identified on the MSHSL website.

There will be topic areas for extemporaneous speaking; those will be identified in the near future.

Pairing Protocol - Preliminary Rounds

Each entry is guaranteed three randomly created preliminary rounds.  While there will be school protection, there will be no seeding or geographical considerations in pairing preliminary rounds.  Prelims will have a maximum of seven competitors.

Advancement to elimination rounds will be based on the following tiebreakers:

1) Total Preliminary Round Ranks (adjusted to the smallest section size in the category)
2) Head to Head (if possible)
3) Total Opponent Ranks
4) Reciprocals

Pairing Protocol - Elimination Rounds

Elimination Rounds will be based on size of the preliminary round pool:

If an event has 0-24 entries, the event will break to a final round of six competitors.
If an event has 25-48 entries, the event will break to a semifinal round of 12 competitors (two sections of six entries)
If an event has 49+ entries, the event will break to a quarterfinal round of 24 competitors (four sections of six entries)

If an event has enough entries to merit the break to a semifinal or quarterfinal round, entries will be snaked based on preliminary seed order into the number of sections in the round.  Entries from the same school will not be separated in elimination rounds if they are snaked into the same section.

Quarterfinals and semifinals sections will each be judged by a total of three judges.  The top three entries from each section will advance into the next elimination round; advancement will be based on the following tiebreakers:

1) Total ranks from the current elimination round
2) Judge Preference in the current elimination round
3) Reciprocal Fractions in the current elimination round (if a three-way tie cannot be broken by judge preference)
4) Preliminary Round Opponent Ranks (if a three-way tie cannot be broken by judge preference or reciprocals)
5) Preliminary Round Reciprocal (if a three-way tie cannot be broken by judge preference, reciprocals, or preliminary round opponent ranks)

The final round of each event will be judged by a total of five judges.  The final ranking of contestants will be based on the following tiebreakers:

1) Total ranks from the current elimination round
2) Judge Preference in the current elimination round
3) Reciprocal Fractions in the current elimination round (if a three-way tie cannot be broken by judge preference)
4) Preliminary Round Opponent Ranks (if a three-way tie cannot be broken by judge preference or reciprocals)
5) Preliminary Round Reciprocal (if a three-way tie cannot be broken by judge preference, reciprocals, or preliminary round opponent ranks)

Manager contact information

Zach Prax
Email address: zachary.prax@district196.org
Phone number: 9522010201

Mailing address

None provided