Date: ___

Location: ___

Welcome to the FCDI___ Qualifier! This page contains important information that all teams, students, judges, parents, observers and other attendees should review before the tournament.

All competitors will compete in 4 rounds of a prearranged schedule, except Congressional Debate which will have 3 rounds. The full schedule can be found in the ‘Schedule’ tab above.

Head coaches must check-in beginning at 7:30 AM EST/EDT. Check in will close at 8 AM. Please plan to arrive no later than 7:30 AM– late check-ins will not be accepted. The tournament will begin with round 1 at 8 AM EST/EDT. 

DIVISIONS & EVENTS

The FCDI offers two divisions at every tournament: middle school and high school.

Middle school: Grades 5-8. If a student does not have a grade level (i.e. homeschooled), students turning 10 on or before September 1, 2026, will be considered middle school.

High school: Grades 9-12. If a student does not have a grade level, students turning 14 on or before September 1, 2026, will be considered high school.

 

Students enrolled in 5th grade or higher are eligible to compete at FCDI tournaments. Students enrolled in a grade below 5, or students without a designated grade level who will be under age 10 by September 1, 2026, are not eligible to compete.

 

The FCDI offers the following events at qualifier tournaments:

Debate: Public Forum Debate, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Ronald Reagan Presidential Debate and Congressional Debate.

Speech: Original Oratory, Informative Speaking, Oral Interpretation and Impromptu Speaking

We the People: A Citizen Showdown is offered at in-person regional qualifiers.

 

No double entry is permitted. Students registered for more than one event will be automatically withdrawn from both.

 

DIVISIONS & EVENTS FOR ONLINE A QUALIFIER

A novice division for students new to speech and debate will be offered at Online A. No qualifications to the State Championship will be given in the novice division. If there are not enough entries to hold a novice grouping of any particular event (see ‘Minimum Entries’), the novice division will be automatically combined with the high school division.

 

A novice division will not be offered for the remaining FCDI tournaments unless otherwise specified.

 

Only high school students who have never competed in a speech and debate tournament (FCDI or otherwise) before during the 2026-2027 school year are considered novices.

 

Online A will be a no-prep tournament. The events that will be offered are Extemporaneous Debate (EXD), Extemporaneous Speaking (EXT) and Impromptu Speaking (IMP) for all divisions.

RULES

All participants present at an FCDI tournament must read and follow the FCDI Handbook and the Code of Conduct contained within it. This includes students, coaches, judges, parents/guardians, observers and other attendees.

Coaches are responsible for knowing and communicating all rules, procedures, and expectations contained in the FCDI Handbook to their students, judges and any other attendees. Coaches should ensure that their students understand the tournament rules and the rules that apply to their events, and are prepared to follow them throughout the tournament.

The rules governing FCDI tournaments are contained in the FCDI handbook. FCDI does not utilize the rules of any other speech and debate league.

TOPICS

Debate: Resolutions for Public Forum Debate, Lincoln Douglas Debate and Ronald Reagan Presidential Debate are used on a bimonthly basis and will be posted on the FCDI website and SpeechWire.

Limited Prep: Topic areas for Extemporaneous Debate, Extemporaneous Speaking, and Impromptu Speaking will be posted on SpeechWire and the FCDI website no later than 10 days prior to the tournament.

Congressional Debate: Legislation for Congressional Debate will be posted on SpeechWire (in the ‘Files for Download’ tab) and the FCDI website no later than 10 days prior to the tournament.

[Insert topics/topic areas for each event here]

REGISTRATION

Registration Deadline: For regional and online qualifier tournaments, registration closes at 11:59 PM on the Friday one week before the tournament (10 days prior to the tournament date), unless otherwise specified. All registration steps are due by the tournament registration deadline. The registration deadline for this tournament is ___ at 11:59 PM.

Registration Steps: Teams must complete registration through both the FCDI website and SpeechWire. Registration on the FCDI website is valid for the duration of the school year, whereas coaches must register students and judges on SpeechWire for each tournament.

FCDI Website

Complete team, coach and student registration on the FCDI website. 

Step 1: Ensure your team is registered.

Step 2: Ensure your coach(es) are registered. Only coaches of record (those entered as either the head or assistant in coach registration on the FCDI website) may satisfy the coach attendance requirement. The coach attendance requirement states that a coach of record or an approved proxy coach must be in attendance at the tournament to supervise the team.

Step 3: Ensure your students are registered. All students must be registered on the FCDI website (entered into the student roster under step 3) by the tournament registration deadline (the same deadline to register for the tournament in SpeechWire– 10 days prior/the Friday the week before the tournament). This is where you will submit the code of conduct acknowledgement and media release for each student, and upload any prepared speech scripts. Only enter a student once per school year.

[Optional] Step 4: Direct your judges to the judge page (civicsanddebate.com/judges). This page contains an overview of judging at FCDI tournaments and a sign up form for the official and required judge training course.

Complete student and judge registration on Speechwire.com.

Register your students in their respective events and divisions.

Register your judges. You must enter enough judges to meet the judge obligation for your entries by the tournament registration deadline, but you may swap judges as needed until the tournament (as long as the judging obligation and judge training requirements are met). Ensure that judges have access to their SpeechWire accounts.

[Optional] Declare a proxy coach. It is required for all FCDI tournaments that a coach of record (one of the coaches listed on FCDI registration and approved to supervise the team) must attend. If the head or assistant coach of record cannot attend, the head coach may designate a proxy coach on a per tournament basis. Submit a request for a proxy coach by providing a letter from the principal stating that the proxy coach is approved to supervise the students at a particular tournament to FCDI@fldoe.org. Letters requesting a proxy coach must include the name of the tournament, location, date and name of the proxy coach in official school letterhead due by the tournament registration deadline. Independent teams must notify the FCDI of any proxy coach and must provide parent/guardian permission for each student.

In summary: All students must be registered in SpeechWire and on the FCDI student roster. Judges must be registered in SpeechWire and complete the required online judge course. Coaches and teams must be registered through FCDI, and a proxy coach must be declared if a coach of record cannot attend.

JUDGE OBLIGATION

Meeting the judge obligation is a requirement for participation. The judge obligation is the number of judges a team must bring to the tournament based on the number of students the team enters.

Starting in 2026-2027, teams may not pay a fee for failing to meet the judge obligation before a tournament—the team must enter additional judges and/or remove entries. Otherwise, the team will be ineligible to compete if the obligation is not met.

Without the proper number of judges, tournaments cannot run on time and competition becomes unfair. Enforcing the judge obligation helps ensure that everyone does their part to provide enough judges to adequately support the number of students competing.

Judge obligation guidelines:

Debate: 1 judge is required for every 2 debate entries, or portion thereof. This includes Congressional Debate.

Speech: 1 judge is required for every 5 speech entries, or portion thereof. This includes We the People.

Speech and debate judge obligations cannot be combined.

“Portion thereof” means that you must round up to the next whole judge if your number of entries does not divide evenly by the required ratio. For example, 3 debate entries requires 2 judges, and 6 speech entries requires 2 judges. Together, the team’s judge obligation is 4 judges.

Judges must be entered in SpeechWire by the registration deadline.

Make sure to notify your judges which pool they have been entered into. This will correspond to the events they are assigned to judge at the tournament.

Coaches should confirm that judges are available for the full duration of the tournament (including online tournaments), have completed the required official judge training course and are prepared to attend before the tournament.

It is the affirmative duty of the coach to ensure that all judges (except students) are approved as vetted volunteers through their district’s volunteer system and that all applicable district and school rules and requirements are followed.

Student Judges

Students in grades 11 and 12 with at least two years of experience actively competing at the high school level may judge middle school rounds at regional and online qualifiers.

Student judges may only cover (count towards) the judge obligation for middle school entries.

Like a competitor, student judges must be supervised by an adult while at the tournament. The FCDI is not responsible for the supervision of student judges.

Student judges must satisfy the same judge training requirements as regular judges.

Students may receive Bright Futures Hours for competing in and judging FCDI tournaments. See the Bright Futures Hours section of the FCDI Handbook for more information.

FEES

Although team registration is free for all teams and tournament registration is free for all in-state teams, the FCDI imposes the fees below:

Entry withdrawal: $25 per entry dropped (withdrawn or no-show) after the registration deadline. This fee applies to all tournaments unless otherwise specified.

Untrained or missing judge: $100 per round missed (per judge).

Untrained judge: A judge that does not attend the required judge training brief scheduled for the tournament (held the morning of the tournament before round 1 in the judge lounge) and/or a judge that does not complete the self-paced, virtual judge training course (see Judging Requirements below).

Missing judge: A judge that does not show up to or is more than 10 minutes late to an assigned round at a tournament.

Out of State entries: $25/entry.

The judge obligation is firm. Beginning in 2026–2027, teams may not pay a fee to satisfy an unmet judge obligation before a tournament.

To be eligible to participate in FCDI tournaments or apply for team financial assistance, all fees must be paid in full.

Submitting payment for fees

Please make checks payable to and mail to:

 

The Florida Education Foundation

Attn: Florida Civics and Debate Initiative

325 West Gaines Street Suite 1524

Tallahassee, FL 32399-0400

MINIMUM ENTRIES

Each competition grouping (an event and division, i.e. middle school Public Forum Debate) must have at least four entries by the tournament registration deadline to be offered at the tournament.

Groupings of Congressional Debate must have at least eight entries to be offered. 

The middle and high school divisions cannot be combined, except in Congressional Debate. Tournament staff will notify coaches of any combined divisions in Congressional Debate.

If there are not enough entries in a grouping to offer it at a tournament, coaches will be notified as soon as possible before the tournament, and the students will have the option to switch events.

JUDGE INFORMATION

Thank you for judging! Judges are an essential part of every FCDI tournament. Please review the following information carefully before the tournament.

Before a tournament, all judges must:

Training: Complete the official 2026–2027 Speech and Debate Judge Training Course offered by the Florida Debate Initiative (FDI). You may sign up to be enrolled at civicsanddebate.com/judges. The course is asynchronous, self-paced and takes most learners approximately 90 minutes to complete. Judges should complete the course at least 72 hours before the tournament.

Resources & Rules: Review the resources and information available to judges on the judges’ page (civicsanddebate.com/judges), particularly the Judge Guides, which will be available in print at the tournament. Review the tournament rules in the FCDI Handbook.

SpeechWire: Access your SpeechWire judge account. Make sure the email associated with your SpeechWire account is correct and can receive mail (i.e. ensure your inbox is not full). This is the email address that you will receive notifications to if you have been assigned a round to judge. You should silence all other non-essential notifications on the day of the tournament.

Device: Prepare to bring a charged electronic device (preferably a computer) and charger to the tournament.

Availability: Be prepared to remain available for the duration of the tournament, including the mandatory pre-tournament judge briefing in the judge lounge before round 1. Communicate your availability with the coach of the team you are judging for, and notify your coach and tournament staff in the event of an emergency or a change in availability during the tournament.

Schematics: As a back up to email notifications, if you are ever unsure if you have been assigned to judge a round, you can find this information in SpeechWire. Know how to view round assignments through the ‘Schematics’ tab of a specific tournament (Calendar/registration → click on the tournament you are attending → Schematics → click on the events until you see yourself assigned to judge one, or not; control F is useful here).

Subscribe: Judges should automatically receive round notifications through the email address associated with their SpeechWire account. The ‘Subscribe’ feature may be used to receive text notifications or notifications through additional email addresses if desired.

Subscribe to Tournament Updates

Judges may use the ‘Subscribe’ feature on SpeechWire to receive text or email notifications when a round has been assigned to them.

To subscribe:

Visit speechwire.com 

Click the calendar/registration tab

Open the tournament page by clicking on the hyperlink for your tournament.

At the top of the page, select ‘Subscribe’.

Select your name from the drop down and enter your contact information (phone number and/or email address).

Keep notifications enabled throughout the tournament.

Judges should monitor Speechwire.live.com throughout the tournament for ballots assigned to them, in addition to their email notifications. Ballots are accessible from Speechwire.live.com, not Speechwire.com. It is recommended to keep both open on your device during the tournament and refresh regularly.

Judge Pools

FCDI divides judges into two pools:

Speech judges: judge speech events, including We the People.

Debate judges: judge debate events, including Congressional Debate.

If necessary, tournament staff may assign judges to a different event type to ensure that the tournament can operate effectively. Judges should know which pool they have been entered into prior to the tournament so that they may prepare to judge the corresponding events.

BALLOTS

Judges will submit ballots through speechwire.live.com to record results for each round they are assigned to. Judges' scores, rankings and decisions determine tournament results and are final. Judges must submit scores, ranks and decisions within 5 minutes of the conclusion of a round. Comments and Reasons for Decision may be submitted after the conclusion of the tournament until 11:59 PM local time on the day of the tournament.

OBSERVERS AND PARENTS

Welcome to an FCDI tournament! Whether you’re a parent, teacher or simply a curious individual, we appreciate your interest in witnessing the intellectual rigor and eloquence displayed by young debaters and speakers. Non-participant observers should adhere to the guidelines below:

Registration: Coaches should note any observers to tournament staff at registration. This helps tournament staff ensure event security.

Code of Conduct: Non-participant observers are expected to adhere to the code of conduct and promote respect, professionalism and courtesy. This includes refraining from disruptive behavior, such as talking loudly or using electronic devices during rounds.

Photos, Videos & Electronic Devices: Observers may NOT take photos or videos in competition rooms at any time, even of your own student(s). Any observer found in violation of this policy will be removed from the tournament.

Observers should not use electronic devices while in a competition room.

Spaces: Speech and debate tournaments include a variety of designated spaces, each serving a specific purpose. Non-participant observers may enter competition spaces and the student lounge. The judge lounge is for judges only.

Etiquette: While observing rounds, it’s important for non-participants to maintain a respectful distance from competitors and judges. Avoid distracting judges and competitors and giving unsolicited feedback. Observers should mind their facial expressions and non-verbal communication during rounds.

Non-interference: Non-participant observers should refrain from interfering with the tournament proceedings in any way. This includes refraining from entering or existing competition spaces while a speech or debate is ongoing.

Confidentiality: Respect the confidentiality of the tournament proceedings. Avoid discussing specific rounds or disclosing information about competitors’ performances.

Tournament Rules and Procedures: While familiarity with speech and debate is not required, non-participant observers may benefit from a basic understanding of the rules and procedures. This can provide a sense of what to expect and enhance appreciation of the performances.

If you have a question or concern about something happening during the tournament, please speak with tournament staff directly.

ONLINE TOURNAMENTS

Online tournaments are hosted through Zoom and should be treated just like in-person tournaments. Online tournaments are not informal and all participants must attend for the full duration.

If a student or judge is registered for an online tournament, that means they must have a thorough understanding of how to participate in an online tournament, have full access to the technology necessary (functional camera, microphone, and WiFi) and they must attend for the full duration of the tournament. The withdraw/drop fee will be strictly enforced. Teams with more than three no-show or withdraw/drop students and/or judges may forfeit the ability to participate in online tournaments.

Before the tournament, students, judges, and coaches must:

Review the rules and procedures specific to online tournaments in the FCDI Handbook. This includes guidelines for preparing to participate in an online tournament. All participants must read the rules and follow the guidelines for preparing for an online tournament.

Test your camera, microphone, internet connection and background/space.

Download and test the latest version of Zoom.

Identify and prepare a quiet, professional, distraction-free space to participate from.

Keep SpeechWire and the tournament schematics page open during the tournament. The schematics and round notifications will tell participants which Zoom breakout room to enter for their round assignment.

Silence notifications from unrelated apps and services.

Close other applications using your camera or microphone.

Disable filters and virtual backgrounds.

TOURNAMENT CONTACTS

Contact the FCDI

Kendall Lindsay, FCDI Program Manager | kendall.lindsay@fldoe.org | 850-245-0504

Contact the FDI

David Fechtel | FDI Tournament Coordinator | dfechtel@floridadebate.org | 813-295-4079

Abraham López | President, Florida Debate Initiative | info@floridadebate.org | 321-800-9481

 

(vr24)