SpeechWire Tournament Services - Forensics Tournament Software

Dear Colleagues:

It gives us great pleasure to invite you to join us online for the 2021 digital edition of the annual Hill Country Swing. Both of this year’s contests will be held (conveniently) on the digital platforms of Speechwire and Zoom, on September 18-19, 2021. Both tournaments will offer the eleven AFA-NIET individual events, and qualify students for AFA and NFA national tournaments. It is possible that students from Texas State University and/or UT Austin may compete on hosting days, depending on entry sizes and the needs of the tournament, though the host school will not be eligible for team sweepstakes awards on Saturday or Sunday.

Awards will be mailed to finalists in all events, as well as individual and school sweepstakes. An overall swing sweepstakes award will be awarded to the top institution attending both tournaments.

We hope that you have had an enjoyable summer, and we also hope you will kick off the season with Hill Country in what promises to be a year filled with innovation and continued excellence as we wait patiently for our return to face to face interaction in the world of collegiate speech.

Sincerely,

Randy Cox

Professor of Instruction/Director of Individual Events

Department of Communication Studies

University of Texas at Austin

Austin, TX 78712-1089

(512) 471-1957 - Office

mrcox@austin.utexas.edu

Wayne Kraemer

Director of Forensics

Department of Communication Studies

Texas State University

San Marcos, Texas 78666

(512) 245-2331 - Office

wk02@txstate.edu

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION

ENTRIES

Please submit entries for both halves of the tournament via Speechwire by 5:00pm on Monday, September 13, 2021 (even if you only plan to attend one half of the swing). Fees will be calculated at 5:00pm on Tuesday September 14. Any entry changes should be made before that time. Adds or drops after that time are subject to regular fees as assessed on the 14th plus a $10.00 per change nuisance fee. There is no limit on the number of students a school may enter per event. Students may enter no more than three events per pattern at each half. Students entered in multiple events are responsible for shifting between events within the prescribed time allotments, and judges will not wait past the scheduled times for students who are delayed due to cross-entry. This is especially important in a digital medium!

JUDGES

We ask that schools work as hard as they can to provide exceptional judges to cover their entries. One judge can cover a total of 8 slots across the IE patterns. A very limited number of hired judges will be available for uncovered individual event slots.

FEES

Entry fees for Individual Events (including duo) are $10.00 per slot per tournament. Each judge, as previously mentioned, covers 8 individual event slots per tournament. Hired judges are $15.00 per uncovered individual event slot. Judges dropped after Wednesday September 15th at 5:00 PM will incur a $50.00 nuisance fee plus all fees for uncovered slots.

TOURNAMENT RULES

No prepared event may have been used in competition prior to this academic year.

AFA-NIET event descriptions will govern over the following categories: Prose, Poetry, Informative, Persuasive, Dramatic, Duo, After-Dinner, Communication Analysis, Extemporaneous, Impromptu, and POI.

JUDGES WHO FAIL TO PICK UP THEIR BALLOTS WILL RENDER ALL CONTESTANTS FROM THEIR SCHOOL INELIGIBLE FOR ELIMINATION ROUNDS.

Sweepstakes points for Individual Events will be awarded as follows: first - 10 points; second - 7 points; third - 5 points; finals not placing - 2 points; semi-finals not advancing - one point.

Rules specific to the Digital Environment:

1. Competitors are restricted to the use of a single camera and single microphone during a performance.

2. Physical audiences may not be present during a performance (virtual audiences through the videoconferencing platform are welcome). This should not be construed as to require that students who reside in the same physical spaces or who must perform simultaneously within the same facility-- e.g. a classroom or residential dwelling-- may not be in the same room.

3. We promote editing practices that allow for simulation of a face-to-face environment (such as the use of visual aids and content warnings) while discouraging editing practices that would not be possible in a face-to-face environment (such as motion, video transitions, or audio manipulation). However, we encourage experimentation with the digital medium while we are still forced to use it (and a little bit of levity is always welcome!)

Extemp Draw: Will be conducted in a specific Zoom room. Students will be directed to another Zoom room at the appropriate time to be placed in the correct breakout room.

Zoom: Students must have a registered/validated individual Zoom account to access the tournaments. Blind guest access will not be available. Each event will have a designated Zoom room, from which students will be placed in the breakout room that corresponds with their section. Students should avoid animated backgrounds or distracting/inappropriate profile images. Students must list their correct name in their Zoom profiles and will not be placed in rounds otherwise.

Speechwire: When completing your student roster, you should also be sure to add student emails and generate student accounts for Speechwire. Distributed schedules will be sent to students individually through their Speechwire designated emails. Judges also should have Speechwire accounts, which can be created when judges are entered. Be sure to have access to correct judge emails, also, so that judges may access their ballots.

Judging Practices: Judges will be operating from two programs simultaneously, the digital ballot on Speechwire and the Zoom meeting where performances will take place. It is highly recommended that a suitable computer with stable internet access be used, since multitasking will make the use of most tablets and phones unusable by themselves. However, we endorse the use of dual technology-- e.g. a laptop to access the Speechwire digital ballot and another device to access the Zoom performances. It is important that judges save their work regularly in Speechwire, as many internet connections will "time out" after shorter periods of time between data transfers. Save your work!

Round Structure: All events will feature two prelim rounds breaking to finals. Due to the potential for Zoom fatigue and the need to allow for multiple time zones, there will not be time in the schedule for semi-final rounds. However, we will advance a maximum of 50% (rounded up where applicable) of the entry field for events with fewer than 12 entries, or SIX/SEVEN finalists maximum otherwise, depending on the cumulative ranks and cleanest breaks based on the most relevant mathematical measure (cumulative ranks first, followed by rank reciprocals, followed by subjective points as a third tie-breaker).

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

(SOME SCHEDULE CHANGES MAY BE MADE PRIOR TO THE TOURNAMENT)

ALL TIMES LISTED ARE CENTRAL STANDARD TIME!

Texas State-San Marcos Individual Events Portion, Saturday, September 18, 2021

Pattern A: Extemp, Persuasion, ADS, CA, DI, Poetry

Pattern B: Prose, Informative, Impromptu, POI, DUO

8:00 AM Extemp Draw

8:30 AM Round I Pattern A

10:00 AM Round I Pattern B

12:00 Noon Extemp Draw

12:30 PM Round II Pattern A

2:00 PM Round II Pattern B

3:15 PM Extemp Draw

3:45 PM Finals Set 1

5:15 PM Finals Set 2

6:45 PM Finals Set 3

8:30 PM or ASAP Awards Assembly

(Note: If our judging situation allows, we will consolidate and remove the 3rd finals set)

UT-Austin Individual Events Portion, Sunday, September 19, 2021