LA REINA

LA REINA INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT

18 December 2021 - speech
19 December 2021 - debate

DEADLINE

14 Dec 2021

ELIGIBILITY

Open to elementary, middle, and high school students

PLATFORM

Online through NSDA Campus

Information

Dear Speech and Debate Community:

The La Reina Speech and Debate program is pleased to invite you and your program to participate in our 6th annual Invitational which this year will be taking place virtually on Saturday and Sunday, December 18th and 19th, 2021 on the NSDA Campus platform. We are moving weekends this year to accommodate the large number of tournaments on the 4th and 5th and to allow our students to study for their final exams which precludes our hosting on the weekend of the 11th and 12th.

We will be offering middle school, high school novice, and high school open/varsity divisions in all relevant CHSSA and SCJFL speech events on Saturday with three preliminary rounds plus finals and then on Sunday will offer 3 debate rounds in all formats plus 2 elimination rounds. Students are welcome and encouraged to double enter in speech events and to compete “up” in debate for the additional challenge. For the purposes of our tournament, we are defining “novices” as high school students who’ve attended 5 or fewer tournaments and we encourage experienced middle school competitors to compete in high school novice divisions. We also reserve the right to collapse divisions and merge events as entries warrant, but will do so to best preserve the spirit and character of each particular event.

We will be using the November/December topics in Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum. Both Lincoln- Douglas and Public Forum will be double-flighted. All events will be conducted live on the NSDA Campus platform except Duo Interpretation, which we will be offering asynchronously.

Lastly, due to the size of the La Reina program, we may limit the tournament size prior to the published registration deadline, so early registration is advised.

We are looking forward to hosting all of you and wish you a joyous holiday season!

Debate Topics:
Lincoln-Douglas Topic: November/December Topic (Right of Workers to Strike)
Public Forum Topic: November/December Topic (Cryptocurrency)

Divisions:
Middle School, High School Novice, and High School Open in all events. Experienced middle school students are encouraged to compete in the high school novice division. We define a “novice” as a high school student who has attended 5 or fewer tournaments.

Patterns:
Speech Pattern A: Extemp, Dramatic Interp, Original Oratory, Prose, Duo Interp, Original Prose and Poetry, Oratorical Interp
Speech Pattern B: Impromptu, Humorous Interp, Informative, Poetry, Program Oral Interp, Storytelling, Declamation
Debate: all events in one pattern. Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum will be double flighted.

Judges

Experienced high school varsity competitors in their senior year can also judge novice and middle school division students.
All judges are expected to have an electronic device (laptop/desktop computer, iPad/tablet, or at minimum a compatible smartphone) capable of accessing the NSDA Campus platform and we will charge nuisance fees if judge problems cause the tournament to run late. All debate judges are also expected to have a basic judging paradigm available on tabroom.com for students to review before rounds.

Electronic Device Failure Policy
We strongly, strongly encourage all students and judges to use a wired Internet connection and have a backup device and backup connection (like a hotspot) ready to go in the event of device failure or loss of an Internet connection. In the event of device failure or loss of connection, students and coaches should notify the tournament immediately and will have 10 minutes to restore their connection and return digitally to their round. If the student or judge is unable to return in time, we will make reasonable accommodations to attempt to allow the affected students to finish their round – speech students may have to give their speeches to their judge in a backup competition room or will be judged on the basis of their interrupted performance. Public Forum debaters may have to continue as “mavericks” without their partner and Lincoln-Douglas debaters may have to forfeit their round.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policy
We believe that the cross-cultural understanding that forensics develops in understanding how different people experience the world differently and understanding different sides of an argument is one of the most important life skills that the activity develops. Thus we are proud to support the ongoing efforts of the NSDA and other forensics organizations to promote understanding. We will be including relevant language on our tournament ballots and will address judge sensitivity during our judge training.

Accessibility Policy
In keeping with our above DEI policy, we encourage coaches to contact us directly regarding any accommodations that the tournament needs to make to create an inclusive environment for all students.

General Rules:
School registration in part or whole may be rejected due to space considerations so please register early! Every year several schools cannot attend or have their entries restricted. The tournament will consist of three preliminary rounds of speech plus finals and three debate rounds plus two elimination rounds. All divisions will receive awards. We reserve the right to combine divisions if the entry warrants.

Sweepstakes:
We will offer two sets of sweepstakes awards – 1st through 3rd in speech and 1st through 3rd in debate.

Events Rules:
We will generally follow CHSSA rules for high school events and SCJFL rules for middle school events, with exceptions considered on a case-by-case basis at the sole discretion of the tournament director. All speeches are expected to be the original work of the student and may not have been used in competition prior to August 2021. Extemp will be combined national and international, with rounds themed around questions of domestic, international, and economic issues. Impromptu topics will relate to the holiday season. Events with small entries will be folded into similar events. We will also use the “sudden death” format to tabulate the placement of students in final rounds rather than “total cume.”

Debate Rules:
We again will generally follow CHSSA rules for high school competition and SCJFL rules for middle school competition, with exceptions considered on a case-by-case basis at the sole discretion of the tournament director. Each program may have one hybrid team with another program but double entries will not be allowed in debate due to the tournament schedule. We also will not break brackets to avoid teams from the same program hitting each other. Computers are allowed in all debate events.

Entry Price

The following fees assume that you (parent) will be judging at this tournament.

One Speech Event $60
Two Speech Events $70

LD only $90
LD + 1 Speech $100
LD + 2 Speech $110

PF only $70
PF + 1 Speech $80
PF + 2 Speech $90

If you enter in SPEECH ONLY and parent is OPTING OUT OF JUDGING, you will pay an additional $90
If you enter in DEBATE ONLY and parent is OPTING OUT OF JUDGING, you will pay an additional $100
If you enter in SPEECH AND DEBATE and parent is OPTING OUT OF JUDGING, you will pay an additional $150

Each person in a PF/Duo team would be responsible of providing their own judge, so one PF/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 PACIFIC STANDARD TIME (PST).

Saturday, December 18: Speech
8:30am              Round 1A
10:00am            Round 1B
11:30am Round 2A
1:00pm              Round 2B
2:30pm Round 3A
4:00pm Round 3B
5:45pm Pattern A Finals
7:15pm              Pattern B Finals
Pattern A Events: Extemp, Dramatic Interp, Original Oratory, Prose, Duo Interp, Original Prose/Poetry, Oratorical Interp
Pattern B Events: Impromptu, Humorous Interp, Informative, Poetry, Program Oral Interp, Storytelling, Declamation

Sunday, December 19: Debate
8:30am Round 1
10:45am            Round 2
1:00pm              Round 3
3:15pm Round 4 / Elim #1
5:30pm Round 5 / Elim #2

Drop Fee

Drop fees will be the same amounts as the entry fee PLUS any fees the tournament charges us for late drops ($10 nuisance fee). 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: vrivasumana@tgsastaff.com
Nadia Budiman
Contact email: nbudiman@tgsastaff.com
Or info@tgsastaff.com

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 (make sure you have a Tabroom account and do not list the 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 No but I will pay the additional $35 setup fee

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
If you are looking to do more than 2 speech events, please contact Nadia at nbudiman@tgsastaff.com as soon as possible. Thank you.
Fifth graders are welcome to compete in the middle school division.

JUDGE PROVISION

Are you supplying a judge? *

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 No but I'll pay the additional $35 setup fee Not judging

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: info@tgsastaff.com

Locations

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

Polygon Academy (Cupertino): 1025 S. DeAnza Blvd, San Jose, CA-95129

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

Loving Tree Academy: 36601 Newark Blvd, #83, Newark, CA 94560

LA REINA INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT ​

18 December 2021 - speech19 December 2021 - debate