MS TOC

MIDDLE SCHOOL TOC AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY

8-10 May 2021

DEADLINE

21 April 2021
NO REFUNDS ALLOWED

ELIGIBILITY

Open to 6th-8th graders
No student may be older than 15

PLATFORM

Online through NSDA Campus

Information

Eligibility for the MS TOC Tournament
Students in grades 6-8 are eligible to participate in the tournament. No student may be older than age 15 (based on the US birthday system) when the tournament begins.

Topics and Formats

Debate Topics:

Lincoln-Douglas debaters shall debate the January-February 2021 National Speech & Debate Association LD topic.
Public Forum debaters will debate the April topic for PFD to be announced at the beginning of March.

Debate Formats:

The Lincoln-Douglas Debate format is 6-3-7-3-4-6-3 with five minutes of preparation time for each debater.
Public Forum will use the National Speech & Debate Association format for speech and preparation times. Public Forum will use the National Speech & Debate Association rules for the coin toss. This includes recent 2019 changes to speech times, Grand Crossfire format, and evidence paraphrasing. For more details see pages 25 and 30-31 in the HS Unified Manual 2020-2021 (https://www.speechanddebate.org/wp-content/uploads/HS-Unified-Manual_2020-2021.pdf).

Speech Events:

Speech Events will follow NSDA rules except for OI, which will follow NCFL rules (http://www.ncfl.org/NCFLnew/PDFs/NCFLBylaws(2019update).pdf – see section C.1.d). POI will follow high school NSDA rules.

The patterns will be:
Flight A: Extemp Speaking, Declamation, Informative
Flight B: Drama, Humor, Original Oratory, Impromptu

Students can enter up to two events per pattern.

Judging Obligations

High school students with experience in the particular event may judge.
All judges are obligated through the first full elimination round in Public Forum, LD, and Policy and the finals in Congressional Debate, and also one round past the school’s elimination in elimination rounds. So, for example, if your school’s last LD student is eliminated in quarterfinals, your LD judges must be available to judge the LD semifinal round.
We are always very short on judging towards the end of the tournament, so we greatly appreciate any volunteers willing to stick around for the late elimination rounds.
The tournament will assess a $300 dollar penalty for judges who miss a round.

Judge Philosophies
For Lincoln-Douglas, all judges must submit a judging philosophy to Tabroom.com. No LD entry will be considered complete until all affiliated judges have submitted a judge philosophy. For examples, please peruse the judge paradigm section on the Tabroom.com website.

Judge Preclusions
Please indicate on the tournament entry website all preclusions for all judges. Judges should preclude themselves from any debater who they have previously coached, had a close, personal relationship with, or for any other reason the judge believes they cannot be objective towards them if assigned. This includes any judge who has done any paid or volunteer coaching, even if conducted digitally or otherwise-remotely. Any college debater or coach should preclude herself or himself from any debater whom they have seriously recruited to attend their school. Judges should preclude themselves from judging their alma matter.

Disclosure of decisions and oral critique policy
The Tournament of Champions serves as both a competitive and educational forum for the nation’s best debaters, coaches, and judges. As such, the Tournament encourages judge-debater interaction by making decision disclosures and giving oral critiques in all four debate divisions. Please submit your ballot on Tabroom before giving any post-round feedback.

Education and Openness Policy
While the TOC is a competitive event, we strongly believe that it is an educational endeavor. Any sources read as evidence in round should be available to other competitors should they make a request for the citation after the evidence has been read.

Permissions, verification, and conduct policy
All debaters and guests that participate in the MSTOC at the invitation of the University of Kentucky and must abide by all rules established by this invitation, the TOC Tournament Procedures document, and any rules set by the University of Kentucky for online events.

By submitting entry application information to the Tournament, both coaches and debaters certify that their applications are complete and reflect fully correct information. Submission of an entry grants permission for the information contained in the entry/application form to be distributed to TOC Tournament Officials, TOC tab room officials, and the University of Kentucky Debate staff. Permission is also granted for Tournament Officials (as just listed) to verify any information included on the application.

Entry Price

One speech event and parent is judging $110
Two speech events and parent is judging $170
Three speech events and parent is judging $230
Four speech events and parent is judging $290
LD and parent is judging $150
PF and parent is judging $115

If you are opting out of judging, you will pay an additional $110.

Each person in a PF team would be responsible of providing their own judge, so one PF 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 - EST

Please note that all times will be in Eastern Time Zone (EST).
TBA. Make sure you are available for the whole tournament date.

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: vrivasumana@tgsastaff.com
Nadia Budiman
Contact email: nbudiman@tgsastaff.com
Or info@tgsastaff.com

Registration Form

Before you proceed with the registration below, make sure ALL STUDENTS AND JUDGES fill out the short form below.
Failure to do so will result in the tournament dropping you without a refund.

https://form.jotform.com/203494097533157

STUDENT INFORMATION

* 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 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

Double entry policy:

Students can only enter in speech OR debate.
If competing in speech, students may enter in up to two events per pattern.

Got any questions? Please email nbudiman@tgsastaff.com, info@tgsastaff.com, vrivasumana@tgsastaff.com

I CAN ONLY ENTER IN EITHER SPEECH OR DEBATE. IF DOING SPEECH, I CAN ENTER IN UP TO TWO EVENTS PER PATTERN. *

YES, I UNDERSTAND THE DOUBLE-ENTRY RESTRICTIONS

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 (opting out)

Judge Philosophies
For Lincoln-Douglas, all judges must submit a judging philosophy to Tabroom.com. No LD entry will be considered complete until all affiliated judges have submitted a judge philosophy.

Disclosure of decisions and oral critique policy
The Tournament of Champions encourages judge-debater interaction by making decision disclosures and giving oral critiques in all four debate divisions. Please submit your ballot on Tabroom before giving any post-round feedback.

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 takes less than a minute.

First time judging? Click here to learn how to do it! Or watch our Youtube playlist here.

For LD, this tournament requires 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".

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

MIDDLE SCHOOL TOC AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY ​