Dear Coaches:

 

We’re Back!

 

After a three-year hiatus, Laurel School is pleased to re-join the Cleveland District OSDA calendar for the 2020-2021 season! We would be honored to welcome you to the 2021 Laurel Gator Games Tournament, to be held on-line on Saturday, January 23, 2021.

 

Where:         On-line via Speechwire, with rounds hosted on NSDA Campus (Debate and Extemp) and Zoom (Speech Round 4 and Congressional Debate.)

 

Divisions:     All OSDA Varsity events for high school competitors and all OSDA Middle School events for competitors in grades 6-8. We will not offer Big Questions Debate.

 

Rounds:       Three rounds of all Speech events will be held asynchronously and will be judged between 5 PM on Wednesday, January 20 and 7 PM on Friday, January 22. The fourth round of all Varsity Speech events will be synchronous on a staggered schedule and will include hidden power-pairing on Saturday. The fourth round of MS speech will be asynchronous. Three rounds of Policy Debate and four rounds of PF, LD, and Middle School Extemp Debate. Congressional Debate sessions in morning and afternoon for both divisions. All debate competition is synchronous.

 

Videos:        All Speech videos must be uploaded to Speechwire no later than 3:00 PM on Wednesday, January 20th.

 

Entries:         Bring whoever you wish. There are no entry limits as long as you can cover judge requirements.

 

Fees:             $5.00 per competitor. Checks payable to Cleveland District OSDA.

 

Judges:         One for two entries (or fraction) in each Debate; one for five entries (or fraction) in Speech; one for each Congressional Debate delegation.

 

Pools:            Speech judges will be designated for asynchronous (Wednesday – Friday), synchronous (Saturday), or both. MS PF and MS Extemp Debate will be a single pool. Debate judges who can judge more than one type of debate are appreciated. Experienced Debate judges may be called upon to judge a round of Extemporaneous Speaking.

 

Check-in:     Will be held via Zoom from 8:00 AM until 8:30 AM on Saturday.

 

Schedule:    Speech Rounds 1-3 asynchronous ending by 7 PM on Friday, January 22.

All Debate events (including Congressional Debate) Round 1 begin at 9:00 AM or sooner, and will continue on ASAP basis throughout the day.

9:30 AM Round 4 MS Declamation, MS Oratory and MS Interp all asynchronous.

10:00 AM Round 4 Declamation and Dramatic Interp

10:45 AM Round 4 DUO and Humorous Interp

11:30 AM Round 4 Informative and POI

1:00 PM Round 4 Original Oratory

 

Awards:       We don’t like tie-breakers because they are entirely beyond the control of the competitors. Therefore all Debaters with 4-0 records (3-0 in Policy) will be co-champions and will receive a championship pin. All Debaters with 3-1 records (2-1 in Policy) will be finalists and will receive a finalist pin.

 

In Speech, we will break cleanly to the hidden power final exclusively on ranks. Thus round 4 of some Speech events may include 7 or 8 competitors, and others may include only 5 competitors. The competitor(s) ranked first in the final round will receive a championship pin, and the other competitors in that section will receive finalist pins.

 

In Congressional Debate, the competitor(s) ranked first in each chamber will receive championship pins, and the remainder of the top six (or more in case of a tie) will receive finalist pins.

 

We will not give Sweepstakes awards, but we will announce the top placing teams at the end of the virtual award ceremony.

 

The virtual award ceremony will be screen-cast. A link will be provided on tournament day.

 

We may do something a little extra for the awards ceremony. More on that later.

 

Contact:       Rich Kawolics (rkawolics@laurelschool.org) or Stephanie Kahn (skahn@laurelschool.org)

 

Looking forward to seeing you on January 23!

(vr)