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The Golden State Academy
  • Home
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    • Meet Our Coaches
    • Why Speech and Debate
    • What is Speech and Debate? >
      • Speech Events
      • Debate Events
    • Why Golden State Academy
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    • Tournament results
    • FAQ
  • Forms
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    REINDEER RHETORIC TOURNAMENT

    17 December 2024 for speech link submission deadline
    20-21 December 2024 for asynchronous speech judging

    DEADLINE
    17 Dec 2024 @11.59 pm PST
    INCLUDING ​SPEECH LINKS
    ​
    NO REFUNDS AFTER THIS DATE
    JUDGE DROPS AFTER THIS DATE WILL INCUR A FINE
    ELIGIBILITY
    Open to middle and high school students
    PLATFORM
    Asynchronous, online through NSDA Campus

    Information

    The Reindeer Rhetoric Tournament, will be held Saturday, December 21, 2024.This tournament will be a Asynchronous/Online tournament.

    The tournament offers middle school, high school novice, and high school varsity divisions for most events.
    ​
    To celebrate the upcoming Christmas holiday the following special events will be available:
    -Christmas Themed Impromptu/Prepared Prompt (limited prep event, topic released on 12/17/24 afternoon)
    Here is the IMP prompt:
     "Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are those we can't see." -The Polar Express

    ​SCHEDULE
    ​Video links must be sent to Nadia by December 17, 2024 at 11:59 pm PST.
    Links will be released to judges within 48 Hours and ballots are due by December 21, 2024 at 5 pm PST.
    A tournament awards slideshow will be posted on Sunday, December 22, 2024 and medals will be mailed to each respective school.

    EVENTS and DIVISIONS: We offer middle school, novice, and varsity divisions. If numbers allow, we will keep divisions separate. We reserve the right to combine divisions or events into the same competition room as needed. If we combine divisions this is for judging and scheduling purposes only. Awards will still be given to each event and division.
    "Varsity" is Year 2 of high school speech & debate.

    ​Students may enter up to 4 events.

    EVENTS INCLUDE:
    • Declamation
    • Dramatic Performance (HI/DI)
    • Duo Interpretation
    • Original Oratory/Informative Speaking
    • Program Oral Interpretation (Non-CFL event)
    • Prepared Prompt- this will serve as our limited prep-event. The topic will be released on December 17th afternoon.
      ​Here is the IMP prompt:
       "Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are those we can't see." -The Polar Express

    JUDGES:
    Judges should be prepared to view two to three rounds of video submissions.
    Judge training videos and additional judging resources can be found at https://www.speechanddebate.org/learn/judge-accreditation/
    It is the affirmative duty of the judges to ensure that they are properly trained and aware of their assignments.

    VIDEOTAPING GUIDELINES:
    docs.google.com/document/d/1COp4g8A70vp6kjX4mw0Nf1E962645d53m4tTEcwim3I/edit?usp=sharing

    ​Entry Price

    One event and parent is judging $30
    Two events and parent is judging $40
    Three events and parent is judging $50

    One event and parent is opting out of judging $100
    Two events and parent is opting out of judging $110
    Three events and parent is opting out of judging $120

    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

    ​Video links must be sent to Nadia by December 17, 2024 at 11:59 pm PST.
    Links will be released to judges within 48 Hours and ballots are due by December 21, 2024 at 5 pm PST.
    A tournament awards slideshow will be posted on Sunday, December 22, 2024 and medals will be mailed to each respective school.

    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

    LIMITED PREP PROMPTS & INSTRUCTIONS
    Here is the IMP prompt:
     "Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are those we can't see." -The Polar Express

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

    EVENT SELECTION
    • ​​Make sure to list the unlisted Youtube links here or send to Nadia by 17 December 2024 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 Drama once. You can select other events along such as Humor, but you cannot choose Drama twice.

    ​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.

    ​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?
    This is a great collection of short videos that one of the leagues have put together to learn each event: click here.
    ​There are also these training cards available that include a summary of each event's rules and comments.​
    ​Click here to find other training and official certification resources. Or watch our Youtube playlist here.
    ​

    ​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
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​​
  • Home
  • Locations
  • About
    • Meet Our Coaches
    • Why Speech and Debate
    • What is Speech and Debate? >
      • Speech Events
      • Debate Events
    • Why Golden State Academy
    • Tournament Photos
    • Tournament results
    • FAQ
  • Forms
  • Registration
    • Elementary Spring 2026
    • MS/HS Spring 2026
    • MS/HS Fall 2025
    • Private Coaching >
      • Speech Private Coaching
      • Debate Private Coaching
    • GSA Tournaments
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