FORENSICS

FORENSICS UNIVERSITY FALL CLASSIC

2 March 2025 for speech link submission deadline
6-8 March 2025 for asynchronous speech judging

DEADLINE

2 Mar 2025 @11.59 pm PST
INCLUDING SPEECH LINKS

NO REFUNDS AFTER THIS DATE
JUDGE DROPS AFTER THIS DATE WILL INCUR A $200 FEE

ELIGIBILITY

Open to middle and high school students

PLATFORM

Asynchronous, online through NSDA Campus

Information

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The 4n6U team is pleased to invite you to a tournament to be held asynchronously. This invitational will be running a variety of both speech and debate events as an opportunity for teams to hone their pieces, or just try out something new. The pre-recorded speech links will be due on 2 March 2025.

Tournament Highlights:

Speech competition with divisions for elementary, middle, and high school students

NO LIMIT on the number of events a student can simultaneously compete in to encourage trying a new event or genre

Deep judging pool of alumni competitors
Award Certificates for both individual student accomplishments and team sweepstakes

ABOUT US
Forensics University was started almost a decade ago as a way to give back to the community through free resources and ideas to help coaches, students, and parents. This site is completely donation run, with no advertisements to shift the focus from education. Anyone interested in being a contributor, whether to simply volunteer, or for a resume addition, the website is 4n6U.org and the application form is right on the site. Any profit made from this tournament will go towards both expenses of running the website so that the content can stay free and accessible to all as well as team scholarships for those teams looking to begin their process, who have had their budgets shortened by administrations, or huge shifts in a school districts economic status. Scholarships applications are submitted through the website and email.

Divisions:
High School: 9-12th grade

Events: Declamation/Oratorical Interpretation, Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Extemporaneous Speaking, Humorous Interpretation, Impromptu Speaking, Informative Speaking/Expository, Original Oratory, Program Oral Interpretation/Thematic Interpretation

Middle School: 6-8th grade

Events: Declamation/Oratorical Interpretation, Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Expository, Extemporaneous Speaking, Humorous Interpretation, Impromptu Speaking, Original Oratory

Elementary School: 5th grade or below

Events: Declamation, Duo Interpretation, Impromptu, Informative, Persuasive

Events Descriptions:

Duo Interpretation (same for all divisions): students are permitted to perform from the same room or two seperate rooms, at student, coach, and school discretion.
High School Interp Declamation, Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Informative Speaking, Original Oratory, Poetry, Program Oral Interpretation, and Prose: a maximum of ten minutes with a thirty second grace. A contestant who does not fall within the time limit cannot be ranked first in the round.
High School Extemp: 30 minute prep time, 7 minute speaking time limit with a 30 second grace
Prepared Prompt Speaking (Impromptu): Speaking time limit of five minutes with a thirty second grace
MS/Elementary Declamation: Middle School and Elementary Time limits including introduction have no minimum but a maximum of ten minutes.
Limited Prep Events:
Students are expected to adhere to all time limits, just as if they were in person.
- Impromptu competitors do NOT need to record their prep time for this specific tournament.
- Extemp competitors do NOT need to record their prep time.

Students submit a Single Video which will be included in all their rounds including out rounds.

Judge Time Requirements:

Prelim Rounds will release late Wednesday, March 5, 2025, as soon as all videos are locked. Judges will be required to have their ballots submitted for those rounds by 10pm EST/7pm Pacific on Friday, March 7, 2025, giving them more than 36 hours to complete their prelim rounds. Judges can expect to get 2-3 prelim rounds to complete in that time. (If a judge limits their time, that could increase the number of prelim rounds they are assigned. For example, judges who are not available on Saturday can expect to judge more than 3 prelim rounds).
Semiﬁnal Rounds will release on Friday night, March 7, 2025 and will be due Saturday by 1pm EST/10am Pacific. Judges will NOT be assigned more than one semifinal round to complete within that window of time.
Final Rounds will release as soon as all ballots from semi finals are gathered, but no later than 2 pm EST/11am Pacific barring judge no shows or technical issues. They will be due Saturday evening at 5pm EST/2pm Pacific. Judges will NOT be assigned more than one round to complete in that time frame.
Awards will release as soon as all ballots are tabulated Saturday night.

LIMITED PREP PROMPTS & INSTRUCTIONS
You can access it in the google docs below once you are ready to record your video
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PRZL1jKVAOwXfPSI1ak71HHyT2xEwJApITPorqv71SY/edit?tab=t.0

Entry Price

One event and parent is judging $60
Two events and parent is judging $70
Three events and parent is judging $80

One event and parent is opting out of judging $140
Two events and parent is opting out of judging $150
Three events and parent is opting out of judging $160

Each person in a Duo team would be responsible of providing their own judge, so one Duo team would need to either provide two judges, both pay the judge fee, or one of each option.

Registration will not be complete until payment is received.
NOTE: We will charge set up fees if we have to create tabroom.com accounts for judges. It is recommended you do so on your own.

Schedule

Please note that all times are in EASTERN STANDARD TIME (EST).

SPEECH VIDEO SUBMISSION DEADLINE - 2 March 2025 @11.59 pm PST
Please send the link to Nadia or list it here on the registration form

SPEECH JUDGING SCHEDULE - 6-8 March 2025

Preliminary Rounds for all events - Thursday, Mar 6 and Friday, Mar 7, 2025

Preliminary Ballots Due - Friday, Mar 7, 2025, 8pm EST
Postings for Semi-Final and Final Rounds - Night of Friday, Mar 7, 2025
Semi-Final rounds (for events with 12 or more competitors) - Evening of Friday, Mar 7 and Morning of Saturday, Mar 8, 2025

Finals for all events - Saturday, Mar 8, 2025
Awards Announced - Evening of Mar 8, 2025

Drop Fee

Drop fees will be the same amounts as the entry fee PLUS any fees the tournament charges us for late drops. Drop requests should be made to Victor and Nadia.

Please do not drop out last minute to avoid being charged these fees.

Contact Info

Victor Rivas Umana
Contact email: [email protected]
Nadia Budiman
Contact email: [email protected]
Or [email protected]

Registration Form

STUDENT INFORMATION
Suggested attire for the tournament can be found here.
More tournament resources can be found here.

* Indicates required field

Student Name *

First

Last

Student Email (DO NOT USE PARENT'S EMAIL) *

Student Phone Number *

Does the student have a Tabroom account? *

Yes and it is linked with GSA's account(s) Yes but it is not linked and we need you to add to your roster No but I will create one before submitting registration

If this is your first time competing, make sure to first create a Tabroom account here: https://www.tabroom.com/user/login/new_user.mhtml
It's super simple and quick (<1 minute), but follow the guidelines here in case anything is confusing: https://docs.tabroom.com/Sign_Up

PARENT CONTACT INFORMATION
Your email address will be the one included when we send the logistics email.

Parent Name *

First

Last

Parent Email *

Parent Phone Number *

EVENT SELECTION

Students are able to enter in as many speech events as possible.
Make sure to list the unlisted Youtube links here or send to Nadia by 2 March 2025 and please label the title to include the event that you are doing.
!!! Please make sure you are submitting a video that is unique to this tournament. Do not use videos that have been used for other tournaments !!!
Lastly, keep in mind that you can only enter in an event once. For example, you can only choose IMP once. You can select other events along such as OI, but you cannot choose IMP twice.

Division? *

HS (grades 9-12) MS (grades 6-8) Elementary (grades 5 and below)

JUDGE PROVISION
Please make sure you are available for the asynchronous speech judging schedule and that you won't submit your judging duties late. Details above.
Descriptions of each event can be found here.

Will you (parent) be judging at this tournament? *

Judge Name *

Judge email (Must be linked to a tabroom account. Register first at tabroom.com before completing this sign up) *

Judge phone *

Does your judge have a Tabroom account? *

Yes No but I will create one before submitting registration Not judging

Does your judge understand that he/she is responsible for the entire tournament schedule and that missing a round incurs fines from the tournament? *

Yes, understood Not judging but understood as well

Click here to complete the mandatory Cultural Competency judge training course

Signing up a judge without having a Tabroom account will result in us charging you for the set up fee.
You can do this easily on your own by going to tabroom.com. It literally takes less than a minute.

First time judging? Click here to learn how to do it! Or watch our Youtube playlist here.
There are also these training cards available that include a summary of each event's rules and comments.

Tournaments encourage judges to have a paradigm on their Tabroom account, which can be a few sentences on your preferences of debating styles, etc. See here for example. It doesn't need to be this long, but make sure to add something before you sign up. For example: "I am a parent, please speak clearly and slowly and avoid technical jargon".

More tournament resources can be found here.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

I will keep a copy of this form for reference. *

YES

We are signing up with the understanding that my child will work to be ready by the tournament date. If we choose to drop out because my child is not ready that will be considered when making assessments for future classes. *

YES

I understand that if I fail to drop the tournament before the deadline that I will still be responsible for the fees of both my son or daughter, along with that of his or her partner and the fines. *

YES

I understand that if payment is not received we won't be registered and our spot will be given up to someone else. *

YES

I confirm that I have completed all necessary paperwork for this tournament. *

YES

I understand that The Golden State Academy has no control over tournament entries other than the initial sign up. I understand that my child's priority will be based on either the last time I signed up OR the date paid, whichever is latest. *

YES

I understand that my child must check in and check out periodically at the tournament with the coach and that if I do not my child will be barred from participating in following tournaments. This is to ensure coaches can see where students are at competitively and to give any initial feedback for improvement. *

YES

I understand that I can check my entry status through tabroom.com. *

YES

I am a consenting adult. I understand that by submitting this form I agree to all that has been covered. *

YES

Submit/take to payment

We would love to have you visit soon at one of our open houses.
Check our home page for the schedule!

School year Hours

M-F: 3:45 pm - 8:30 pm
Sun: 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Telephone

510-270-8480
510-470-0531

Email (preferred)

For more info email us at: [email protected]

Locations

Fremont: 200 Brown Rd #201, Fremont, CA 94539

Cupertino: 20432 Silverado Avenue Suite 211, Cupertino, CA 95014

Aborn Institute: 2804 Riedel Road, San Jose, CA 95135

Dublin: Loving Tree Academy, 6693 Owens Dr, Pleasanton, CA 94588