PBCFL Grand Finals

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General information

This information is from a tournament in a past season!

This is a High School tournament in Florida.

View manager contact information

Palm Beach Catholic Forensic League: The Barbara Dale Lauder McCall Grand Finals Tournament

DEADLINE TO REGISTER: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 3 p.m.

DROP FEES GO INTO EFFECT AT THAT TIME!

Dear Coaches,

You are invited to attend the Palm Beach Catholic Forensic League Grand Finals competition Saturday, February 20. Grand Finals is the National Qualifier for the PBCFL, and the top six finishers in each event from this tournament will qualify to compete at the Grand National Tournament of the National Catholic Forensic League (aka/"CatNats"), over Memorial Day Weekend (May 28-31).

COACHES: If you have any concerns or questions about the Grand Finals entry process (script legalities, formats, judge requirements, etc.), PLEASE contact PBCFL President Traci Lowe or Vice President of Individual Events Paul Gaba. This will allow you to be walked through the process smoothly in advance, and save you a ton of grief down the road! Students may compete if they meet these requirements: FULL-TEXT LEGISLATION IS DUE BY 3pm FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6.

TO BE ELIGIBLE, STUDENTS MUST HAVE COMPETED AT TWO PBCFL TOURNAMENTS DURING THE CURRENT SCHOOL YEAR. BOTH STUDENTS' TWO PRIOR TOURNAMENT COMPETITIONS MUST BE PBCFL TOURNAMENTS. PRINTED VERIFICATION (TOURNAMENT RESULTS) MUST BE AVAILABLE.

REQUIRED PAPERWORK

Since we have many rules to uphold for the national office, it is imperative that you follow all rules for required paperwork

• Coaches must have available original copies of manuscripts to the tournament in case of a challenge. Inability to provide an original manuscript could lead to disqualification of the entry.
• Coaches must have available original copies of all oratories. Inability to provide an original manuscript could lead to disqualification of the entry.
• One item of legislation MUST be submitted by ALL schools with Congressional Debate entries. Congress legislation must be submitted in appropriate format, and cannot have been used by the school prior in the competition year.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS:

• Events offered: Declamation, Dramatic Performance, Duo Interpretation, Extemporaneous Speaking, Oral Interpretation, Original Oratory, Lincoln Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, and Congressional Debate. ALL INTERP EVENTS (Declamation, Dramatic Performance, Duo Interpretation, Oral Interpretation, and Original Oratory) ARE PRE-RECORDED. VIDEOS MUST BE UPLOADED TO SPEECHWIRE BY THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 8pm.
• Events NOT offered (that have been during prior PBCFLs): Informative Speaking, Program of Oral Interpretation, World Schools Debate.
• No double entry allowed.
• Entry limits: maximum of six entries per event.
• You may only enter 2 students per congress chamber. (The PBCFL reserves the right to collapse houses and modify this rule when necessary.)
• Two-Tournament Requirement: All students who are entered in Grand Finals must have completed at least two previous PBCFL tournaments this school year. They may have competed in any event in those two previous tournaments. In order to meet the two-tournament requirement, the student must have completed the ENTIRE tournament (spoken ALL FOUR rounds), and have speaker points recorded in the results packet for the documented tournament. (Students disqualified from a tournament may not count that tournament toward this requirement.) Ethics Bowl, Youth Court, DECA competitions, Florida Oceanfront NSDA tournaments, reciprocal CFL Diocese tournaments, FFL Macaw, judging novice events, etc., do not count.
• ONLY SIX ENTRIES ALLOWED PER EVENT PER SCHOOL. THIS IS NON-NEGOTIABLE.

Any/all moneys owed from past tournaments (PBCFL fees and meal fees) must also be paid in full by the tournament date.

RULE REMINDERS:

• No student member shall use an original oration, a non-original oration, or a selection of poetry, prose, or drama during a given league season which has been used by such student in any tournament of a previous season(s).
• No school shall substitute a non-registered competitor in the place of a registered competitor on the day of competition. This includes “event-shifting.”
• For Public Forum Debate, students must be on separate cameras ("split-screen"). Debaters are advised to mute their microphones when not speaking to reduce echos.
• For Duo Interpretation, it is strongly suggested that duo competitors be on separate cameras and in separate locations. If that is not possible, then proper social distancing must be maintained, even if the performers are related.
• Some students may use air pods or headphones to block out noise in their homes, and they should not be penalized. 
• Please remind Congress judges that the PO gets 2 speech ranks (equivalent of 2 speeches = up to 12 points) and that the PO can be ranked.
• ORAL INTERPRETATION RECORDINGS: Video #1 is POETRY. Video #2 is PROSE.

JUDGE INFORMATION:

Quotas:

Individual events – One judge for every five entries or fraction thereof 

Debate events – One judge for every two entries or fraction thereof 

Congress – One judge for every six entries or fraction thereof

Obligation: Judges are obligated for the entire tournament. Judges will NOT be released early due to the VERY tight constraints. 

Community judges: Judges that no longer have an affiliation or connection to any student or school in the tournament, yet have previous judging experience, are considered community judges. They are in great need for final rounds on Saturday afternoon. Recruit extra ones, please. 

Experience of judges: All judges must have experience from at least two prior tournaments in any league (or one PBCFL judge training and one local tournament). This is not limited to the current year. Judges with no experience will NOT be used. Please do not put them in to judge. In addition, please ensure judges do not have difficulty with the English language. 

Deadline for entering judges: 3pm Tuesday, February 16. 

Previous students as judges: All previous students who wish to judge must be at least a sophomore in college or must have been out of high school for one full school year.

NOTE: coaches should be aware they are required to judge rounds as needed.

NOTE: coaches should be aware that the inability to provide the required number of qualified judges on competition days will result in students being dropped from competition.

NO CURRENT HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT JUDGES ALLOWED!

SCHEDULE:

Individual Events - five rounds.

Congressional Debate - two preliminary rounds, plus a finals session.

Debate Events - four preliminary rounds, plus semis and finals.

ENTRY FEES

$10 per student for all events.

Make tournament checks payable to: Palm Beach Catholic Forensic League.

DROP FEES

$10 – drops after 3pm Tuesday, February 16. FEES GO INTO EFFECT ONCE REGISTRATION CLOSES.

$50 - judge drop fee for any no-show judge on Saturday morning. In addition, you will be required to drop students until the team meets the judge quota. Yes, there’s a $25-per-student drop fee on that date as well.

$50 - missed judge rounds (hidden judges).

TOPIC AREAS:

EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING: To be selected from the following areas: (a) US Politics; (b) Middle East and Africa; (c) U.S. Economy; (d) Eurasia; (e) Domestic Social Issues and Justice; (f) The Americas.

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2021 LINCOLN DOUGLAS DEBATE: Resolved: States ought to ban lethal autonomous weapons.

FEBRUARY 2021 PUBLIC FORUM DEBATE: Resolved: On balance, the benefits of urbanization in West Africa outweigh the harms.

Manager contact information

Traci Lowe
Email address: traci.lowe@palmbeachschools.org
Phone number: 561-889-3649

Mailing address

c/o Daryl Hall
325 Orange Way
West Palm Beach, FL 33405