REGENT

REGENT LEGACY SPRING INVITATIONAL

19-20 April 2025

DEADLINE

14 April 2025
NO REFUNDS AFTER THIS DATE

ELIGIBILITY

Open to middle school and high school students

PLATFORM

Online through NSDA Campus

Information

Dear Speech and Debate Community:

On Saturday we will be offering 6 preliminary rounds of Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum with debate elimination rounds taking place on Sunday. On Sunday, we will offer all middle school, high school novice, and high school open/varsity divisions in CHSSA and SCJFL speech events with three preliminary rounds plus finals. Students are encouraged to double enter in speech events and to compete “up” for the additional challenge.

For the purposes of our tournament, we define novices as high school students who’ve attended 5 or fewer tournaments and we encourage experienced middle school competitors to compete in high school divisions with coach permission. 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. Students who compete on speech events on Sunday and are in debate elimination rounds do so at their own risk.

We will be using the March/April topic in Lincoln- Douglas and April topic Public Forum. Both Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum will be double-flighted. All events will be conducted live on the NSDA Campus platform.

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

Divisions Eligibility:

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

Patterns:

Speech Pattern A: Extemp, Spar, Dramatic Interp, Original Oratory, Middle School Persuasive, Middle School Prose, Duo Interp, Original Prose & Poetry
Speech Pattern B: Impromptu, Humorous Interp, Middle School Speech to Entertain, Informative, Elementary Platform Speaking, Middle School Poetry, Program Oral Interp, Middle School Storytelling, Declamation, Original Advocacy
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. See below for instructions.

Electronic Device Failure Policy
We 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.

Generative Artificial Intelligence Policy
We are following the guidelines of the NSDA on generative artificial intelligence, as found in the NSDA’s most recent 2024-2025 High School Unified Manual:

“In events in which speeches must be the original created work of a competitor (OO, INF, IX, USX, SW, EXC, IMP, EXP) students are prohibited from quoting or paraphrasing text directly from generative AI sources. Generative AI should not be cited as a source. The exception is that a student delivering a speech about the topic of AI may quote AI to illustrate their points about AI, in accordance with existing quoted word limits. While generative AI may be used to guide students to articles, ideas, and sources, the original source of any quoted or paraphrased evidence must be available if requested.
In debate events, generative AI should not be cited as a source; while generative AI may be used to guide students to articles, ideas, and sources, the original source of any quoted or paraphrased evidence must be available if requested.
In Interpretation events, students are prohibited from performing material created by generative AI sources. Generative AI should not be used as a source of material; while generative AI may be used to guide students to articles, ideas, and material, the original source of any material that is performed must be available if requested.”

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:
The tournament will consist of six preliminary rounds of debate plus four elimination rounds and three preliminary rounds of speech plus finals. All divisions will receive awards and we reserve the right to combine divisions if the entry warrants. We will also make every effort to accelerate the tournament on Sunday so that East Coast teams will be able to get to bed at a reasonable hour on a school night.

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

Speech 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 2024. 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 and elementary 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. “Maverick” debaters in Policy, Public Forum, and Parliamentary Debate will only be allowed under extreme circumstances. We also will not break brackets to avoid teams from the same program hitting each other. Computers are allowed in all debate events except Parliamentary Debate, in which case computers may be used in prep but not during actual rounds.

Help Line for Use on Tournament Day Only:
Tournament Zoom - judge training, Parli topic announce, Extemp prep, student lounge, tab, ombuds room, backup competition rooms, awards ceremony, etc.
Email helpline: [email protected]

Rules Handbooks
CHSSA (High School) Event Rules and Regulations
SCJFL (Elementary/Middle School) Event Rules and Regulations

Entry Price

One speech event and parent is judging $65
One speech event and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $130

Two speech events and parent is judging $80
Two speech events and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $170

One PF event and parent is judging $70
One PF event and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $170

One PF event + 1 speech event and parent is judging $85
One PF event + 1 speech event and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $215

One PF event + 2 speech events and parent is judging $100
One PF event + 2 speech events and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $260

One LD event and parent is judging $90
One LD event and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $210

One LD event + 1 speech event and parent is judging $105
One LD event + 1 speech event and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $255

One LD event + 2 speech events and parent is judging $120
One LD event + 2 speech events and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $300

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

All times Pacific.

Saturday, April 19: Debate Prelims
8:00 am - Debate Round 1
10:15am - Debate Round 2
12:30pm - Debate Round 3
2:45pm - Debate Round 4
5:00pm - Debate Round 5
7:15pm - Debate Round 6

Sunday, April 20: Debate Elims and All Speech
We will attempt to run finals earlier and accelerate events on Sunday to finish at a reasonable hour for East Coast teams.
Pattern A Events: Extemp, Spar, Dramatic Interp, Original Oratory, Middle School Persuasive, Middle School Prose, Duo Interp, Original Prose & Poetry
Pattern B Events: Impromptu, Humorous Interp, Middle School Speech to Entertain, Informative, Elementary Platform Speaking, Middle School Poetry, Program Oral Interp, Middle School Storytelling, Declamation, Original Advocacy

8:00am - Speech Round 1A
8:30am - Debate Runoff
9:30am - Speech Round 1B
11:00am - Debate Elim #1
11:00am - Speech Round 2A
12:30pm - Speech Round 2B
1:30pm - Debate Elim #2
2:00pm - Speech Round 3A
3:30pm - Speech Round 3B
4:00pm - Debate Elim #3
5:00pm - Speech Pattern A Finals
6:30pm - Speech Pattern B Finals
Awards follow ASAP on Zoom

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: [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 (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

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

What division are you competing in for all of your events? (please email Nadia if you are signing up for mixed divisions) *

MS HS Novice HS Open

JUDGE PROVISION

Training videos from the tournament organizer:
Lincoln-Douglas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNMfwP0ZjW4
Public Forum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtWiOpvPTzQ

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