NOFC HS

2022 NATIONAL ONLINE FORENSICS CHAMPIONSHIP
- HIGH SCHOOL -

2-5 June 2022

DEADLINE

27 May 2022

ELIGIBILITY

Open to 9th-12th graders

PLATFORM

Online through
forensicstournament.net and 8x8

Information

Dear Forensics Community,

Building upon the success of last year’s online championships, National Online Forensics is excited to announce the 2022 National Online Forensics Championships for College, High School, Middle School, and Elementary. This will be a synchronous (live) video conference national championship tournament.

National Online Forensics sees a tremendous value in an online national championship that can afford more competitors and programs the opportunity to compete and showcase their skills on a national level.

Key Points:

The tournament will use synchronous video conferencing on the 8x8 platform. Please see this Tournament Best Practices document for tips on how to effectively use the platform.
There will be a single championship division for all events.
The Opening Ceremony, most final rounds, and the Awards ceremony will be live-streamed on YouTube.

We hope you and your team can join us for a celebration of the hard work our forensics competitors have been doing all season.

Individual Events

Three prelims will be held; two final rounds will be held (Bronze/Gold format).
Competitors may enter a maximum of two events per pattern
All double-entered students are responsible for making it to their second round on time. Late students shall receive last in the round and are required to check-in to both rooms.
Prelim Ranking: Ranks/Decimal/Drop High Rank
Elim Ranking: Total Rank/Decimal in Elim/Ranks in Elim
Speaker Points will not be used.
Competitors will be recognized with Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards. The top 5% of competitors in each event will be recognized with a Gold award, the top 10% Silver, and top 20% with Bronze. For example, if an event has 50 entries there will be roughly 3 Gold awards, 2 Silver, and 5 Bronze depending on tiebreakers and breaks. All competitors in elimination rounds will receive recognition.
The top speaker in each event will be recognized as the National Champion.

Limited Prep Events:

Impromptu topics will be provided to each competitor in the Live Video Room (their competition room) chat box. Judges will need to copy/paste the topics (provided on the eBallots) in the chat window for the competitors.
Each competitor will receive a different set of impromptu topics.
Extemp questions will be provided for all speakers in a separate Extemp Prep Live Video Room. Competitors do not need to stay in the Extemp Prep Room after receiving the questions. The extemp proctor will copy/paste the questions into the chat window at the specified time.

Platform Events:

While competitors are allowed to still use electronic Visual Aids, they are encouraged to have them printed on 8.5x11 pages to show to the audience while presenting.
Screen sharing to show a PowerPoint or image is permitted. Competitors should be familiar with the 8x8 video sharing feature and do so at their own risk. Any technological issues may influence judge ranks.

Interp Events:

Books are encouraged but not required. Given the nature of the video conferencing system, holding books while performing can block many cameras. Competitors are encouraged to use them to hold true to traditional forensics tournaments but this adaptation is left to the competitors. Judges are instructed not to penalize competitors for not using books.
Competitors may, if they desire, stand up while performing to showcase blocking, but the technology works better sitting in front of the camera.

Debate

Standard pairing will be used with 2 random rounds followed by 2 High-Low rounds.
In Elims, brackets will be broken to facilitate debating.
Two final rounds will be held. Teams not advancing from the first elimination round will receive Bronze; teams advancing but not winning the final will receive Silver; teams winning the final will receive Gold.
Competitors may only enter one format of debate per pattern.
Speaker Point Scale will be 100-70
Prelim Ranking: Wins/Total Points/HL Points/Opp Wins/Z Score
Speakers Ranking: Total Points/HL Points/Ranks/Z Score
A 5 minute forfeit rule will be put in place for all debate rounds.

Congress

Preliminary Round Sectioning: Competitors will ideally be assigned to panels/chambers of 10-20 competitors apiece. Each panel/chamber shall not exceed 24 competitors.
Competitors will remain in the same chambers for all prelim rounds.
If only one panel/chamber has been created during preliminary rounds, there will be no final round held.
If more than one panel/chamber has been created during preliminary rounds, then at least twenty percent (20%) of the event shall advance to elimination rounds (plus ties). A minimum of 15 competitors shall advance regardless of event size, so long as this number does not surpass fifty percent (50%) of the field.
Competitors will be recognized with Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards.
If one elimination round is held, the Elim Ranking system below will be used with roughly five percent (5%) of event entries receiving Gold, ten percent (10%) of event entries receiving Silver, and the remaining competitors in the elimination round receiving Bronze. For example, if there are 30 competitors in Congress and 15 advance to a single elimination round, there would be 2 Golds, 1 Silver, and 12 Bronze awards.
If two elimination rounds are held, all competitors not advancing from Elim 1 will receive a Bronze award. Elim 2 round competitors will then be ranked with roughly five percent (5%) of event entries receiving Gold and the remaining competitors in the Elim 2 round receiving Silver. For example, if there are 60 competitors in Congress and 30 advance to Elim 1 in two panels/chambers, competitors not advancing beyond Elim 1 would receive Bronze. If 15 competitors subsequently advance to Elim 2, there would be 3 Golds and 12 Silvers.
Prelim Ranking: Ranks/Decimal/DropHighRank/Parliamentarian Ballot
Elim Ranking: Total Rank/Number of Firsts/Elim Rank/Elim Decimal/Judge Pref/Parliamentarian

Fines

Judges: First Missed Ballot - $20 / Subsequent Missed Ballots - $50
Changes after the entry deadline: $20 per change
Judge drops within 48 hours of the tournament will be charged a $100 judge no-show fee.
Students who drop from the tournament after the entry deadline will be charged a $20 no show fee. Students who drop without notifying the tournament will be charged a $30 no-show fee.
Please notify Nadia and Victor of cancellations/drops as soon as possible to avoid these charges.

Additional Judge Information
The tournament reserves the right to assign ballots to judges which are scheduled:
Due to the complex nature of the schedule, judges may be asked to accept ballots in events they did not initially register. For example, if a judge is signed up to accept debate ballots, but the tournament needs more Impromptu judges, then that judge would be expected to take the Impromptu ballot. We will do our best to accommodate event requests, but may not be able to do so.

To ensure timely pickup of ballots, all judges on the standby list should wait in the Standby Judge Room (https://8x8.vc/NOFStandby) until dismissed. This will also ensure judges are not missing ballots pushed to them during the tournament.

Official Rules
For more information about National Online Forensics Tournaments, please consult our by-laws:

National Online Forensics (NOF) By-Laws

Entry Price

These fees assume that you (parent) will be judging at this tournament:

Debate only $80
Debate and one speech $95
Debate and two speech $110
Debate and three speech $125

SPAR/Congress only $65
SPAR and one speech $80
SPAR and two speech $95
SPAR and three speech $110

One speech event $65
Two speech events $80
Three speech events $95

If your child is doing one speech/congress/spar event and you are opting out of judging, you will pay an additional $70.
If your child is doing more than one speech/congress/spar events and you are opting out of judging, you will pay an additional $100.
If your child is doing debate and you are opting out of judging, you will pay an additional $120.
If your child is doing both speech and debate and you are opting out of judging, you will pay an additional $140.

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.

Changes or drops after the deadline will be charged a $20 nuisance fee for each change or drop.
Judges changes after the deadline will be charged a $50 judge nuisance fee. Judge drops after the deadline will be charged a $100 judge no-show fee.

Schedule

Pattern A: LD
Pattern B: Persuasive, Impromptu
Pattern C: Extemp, DI, Declamation, Informative, Program Oral Interp

(all times Pacific)

Thursday, June 2

3:30pm | Pattern A Round 1
5:30pm | Pattern A Round 2

Friday, June 3

3:30pm | Pattern A Round 3
5:30pm | Pattern A Round 4

Saturday, June 4

8:00am | Pattern B Round 1
9:30am | Pattern B Round 2
11:00am | Pattern B Round 3
12:30-1:00pm | Lunch
1:00pm | Pattern B Gold
2:30pm | Pattern A Bronze

4:30pm | Pattern A Gold

Sunday, June 5

8:00am | Pattern C Round 1
9:30am | Pattern C Round 2
11:00am | Pattern C Round 3
12:30-1:00pm | Lunch
1:00pm | Pattern C Gold
7:30pm | Awards

Drop Fee

All competitor changes or drops after the deadline will be charged a $20 nuisance fee for each change or drop. Judge changes after the deadline will be charged a $50 judge nuisance fee. Judge drops after the deadline will be charged a $100 judge no-show fee.

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.

Competitor Guide
Judge Guide
Tournament Best Practices

* Indicates required field

Student Name *

First

Last

Student Email *

Student Phone Number *

If I had not done so in the past, I need to verify my email with forensicstournament.net and agree to the competitor waiver. A notification for these will be sent to the competitor email within 24 hours of signup. *

YES I UNDERSTAND AND WILL DO

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

You may enter up to two events consisting of 1 Pattern A and 1 Pattern B event or 2 Pattern B events
But most importantly, please make sure that the student has indeed been working on the events you selected for him/her. Please consult your coach if you are unsure.

*If you are doing more than one pattern B/C speech event (double-entered): Please notify the judge of your second event that you are double-entered before going to the room for your first event. So, let's say you are double-entered in, say, Declamation and Informative. If you are listed as second speaker in Declamation and fifth speaker in Informative, then you should perform in Declamation first. However, please go to your Informative room first to let the judge know that you are at the tournament, and then go perform in your Declamation round. This will prevent the judge from marking you as a no-show and closing up the room before you've had a chance to perform. Please note that if you miss a round because you were double-entered, the tournament will not be able to re-run the round, so this is the best way to ensure you aren't accidentally considered a no-show. If you have any questions, you can come to the help room on Saturday morning.

JUDGE PROVISION

Judges are obligated to be on standby for each round. If you do not get a ballot, please go to the help room and wait there in case you get called to cover for a no-show judge. This tournament is very strict in using fines for enforcing punctuality and judge presence, so make sure to follow all their rules to avoid getting charged.
Judges who do not accept their assigned ballot will be charged a $20 no-show fee for the first offense. The second offense will be $40. Each subsequent no-show from the judge will warrant a $50 charge. Judges can avoid this fee by coming to the judge standby room for their ballot assignment; sometimes e-mails delay delivery for any number of reasons that are outside the control of the tournament staff. By coming to the standby room, judges can be messaged their ballot directly so that they aren’t marked as having missed the round.
Judge changes after the deadline will be charged a $50 judge nuisance fee. Judge drops after this date will be charged a $100 judge no-show fee.
Judges who do not write sufficient feedback to the competitors will be fined $20 per round. Unsatisfactory ballots will be determined by the tabulation staff.

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

Judge Name *

Judge email *

Judge phone *

First time judging? Click here to learn how to do it!
Or watch our Youtube playlist here.
Next, we found this judging guideline from the platform that we will be using.
Also, if you are using eBallots for the first time, check out how they work on this link here.
There are also these training cards available that include a summary of each event's rules and comments.

*Judges changes after the deadline will be charged a $50 judge nuisance fee. Judge drops after this date will be charged a $100 judge no-show fee.

TOURNAMENT UPDATE REGARDING JUDGE BALLOTS:

We will need to begin implementing the fine for blank/nearly blank/insufficient ballots.
Oral Critiques: No ballot may be returned without a written reason for decision. Oral commentary is not considered a substitute for the written ballot.
Judges who are unfamiliar with events may be removed from the tournament at the discretion of the tournament staff, and fines may be applied.
A good concept in writing a ballot is the compliment sandwich (write a compliment, add some constructive feedback, and end with another compliment). It is frustrating for students to receive a speech ballot that says, “Great job!” with a 5th place ranking and with no actual useful feedback.

Please confirm that, *

I HAVE READ THE BALLOT UPDATE TO THE RIGHT AND UNDERSTAND THAT I NEED TO WRITE A THOROUGH WRITTEN BALLOT WITH USEFUL AND CONSCTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK OR I WILL BE FINED. IF TIME IS RESTRICTED, I WILL MAKE SURE TO SUBMIT A RFD FIRST, THEN RETURN AND FIX MY FEEDBACK ONCE THE OTHER ROUNDS ARE OVER. Not judging

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 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

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

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

2022 NATIONAL ONLINE FORENSICS CHAMPIONSHIP- HIGH SCHOOL -