SPRING BREAK

4TH ANNUAL SPRING BREAK SPECIAL

29-30 March 2025

DEADLINE

26 March 2025

NO REFUNDS AFTER THIS DATE
WITHDRAWALS INCUR AN ADDITIONAL CHARGE

ELIGIBILITY

Open to middle and high school students

PLATFORM

Online through Zoom

Information

On behalf of Equality in Forensics, we invite you to attend the 4th Annual Spring Break Special, scheduled for March 29th - 30th. The objective of Equality in Forensics is to provide free, online debate opportunities to make speech and debate more accessible to high school students across America. Read more about our mission here.

The Winter Championship will offer these events:

Extemporaneous Speaking (EXT)
Public Forum Debate (PF)
Lincoln-Douglas Debate (LD)

We will operate on the National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA) standard procedure and rules. Rounds will be held in Zoom rooms. Find the full tournament schedule below.

We are excited to host this tournament to demonstrate the impact of online speech & debate, exercise our values of accessibility and equality, and display the power of student initiative. See you there!

EXT TOPIC AREAS

R1: Southeastern Asia
R2: US Social Issues
R3: Europe
Semis: US National Security
Finals: Hypotheticals

The specific boundaries of geographic regions are often contested. To have a more uniform definition of which states are included in geographic topic areas, we will use the United Nations geoscheme as the boundaries for our topics. For example, states like Turkey or Cyprus will not be considered part of “Europe”, Papua New Guinea and Bangladesh will not be counted as “Southeastern Asia”, etc.
We will use a three minute cross examination period in finals.

LD TOPIC
Mar/Apr - Resolved: The development of Artificial General Intelligence is immoral.

PF TOPIC
March - Resolved: In the United States, the benefits of the use of generative artificial intelligence in education outweigh the harms.

FINES
We charge a $10 nuisance fee for no-shows and day-of drops.

VIRTUAL PROTOCOL
The tournament will be hosted on Zoom. All rounds will be hosted on Zoom, and no rounds may be conducted outside of Zoom unless otherwise speciﬁed by tournament staff.

Participating in this tournament as either a judge or a competitor is a certiﬁcation that you and your guardians (if you are under the age of 18) have given respective consent for you to judge or compete.

This is a list of best practices to follow while competing. Please do your best to follow these standards.

Update Zoom to the latest version before the day of competition
Check your Tabroom email for round info or other updates regularly.
Mute your microphone if not speaking.
Keep cameras on whenever possible.
If you are an observer, keep your camera off and remain named 'Observer' in the Zoom room.

If you encounter any technical issues, please let tournament staff know as soon as possible. This can be done by emailing us ([email protected]) or contacting us on our Discord server.

Tournament updates will be pushed out through email, as well as Discord. If you are judging or competing it is highly recommended that you join our Discord server, not only to stay on top of updates, but also to join our lovely community!

We ask that judges please take note of technical issues and the challenges faced in the digital world. Please do not let technical issues sway your decision, and if you encounter any problems yourself, please reach out to tournament staff ASAP.

ACCOUNTABILITY
Equality in Forensics highly values diversity, equity, inclusion, accountability, and tolerance.

Our tournament staff is subject to an honor code, as well as an accountability policy. If you observe any violation of this policy, or have other concerns about a tournament staff member's integrity, please reach out to us by email: [email protected]. All reports will be handled in a discrete manner in accordance with our accountability policy.

Our staff, competitors, and judges are held to a standard of tolerance. If you are reading potentially objectionable arguments, please run it by your judge and opponent ﬁrst. Our priority is inclusion. If you have concerns about intolerance, harassment, discrimination, or other problems in- or out-of-round, please contact a tournament staff member or reach out to us by email: [email protected].

To prevent such incidents from occurring, we highly encourage all judges to read through the "Cultural Competence Training Handout" and watch the "Cultural Competence Training Video" on NSDA's ofﬁcial website.

Read more about our accountability policy.

EVENTS
All events will follow NSDA rules unless otherwise speciﬁed.

Extemporaneous Speaking

There will be one (1) open division of Extemporaneous Speaking. There will be mixed domestic and international topics. After three (3) preliminary rounds, there will be a semiﬁnal round (if necessary!) and ﬁnal round.
Speakers will have thirty (30) minutes of prep time each.
There will be cross-ex in finals.

Public Forum Debate

There will be one (1) open division of Public Forum Debate. After four (4) preliminary rounds, there will be octaﬁnals if necessary, then single-ﬂighted quarterﬁnals, semiﬁnals and ﬁnals.
Teams will have three (3) minutes of prep time each.

Lincoln-Douglas Debate

There will be one (1) open division of Lincoln-Douglas Debate. After four (4) preliminary rounds, there will be octaﬁnals if necessary, then single-ﬂighted quarterﬁnals, semiﬁnals and ﬁnals.
Debaters will have four (4) minutes of prep time each.

ELIGIBILITY
All students currently enrolled in grades 6-12 are eligible to compete. All students currently enrolled in grades 6-12, as well as qualiﬁed adults, coaches, or former competitors, are eligible to judge.
Judge selection is subject to the discretion of tournament staff. We will select the most qualified judges, and do our best to avoid having students and FYOs judging.

JUDGING
As a student-run, fully online tournament, we deeply appreciate our judges. By making this tournament possible, you enable our mission of making speech & debate more accessible across the country.
Students and FYOs may judge, but we will prioritize coaches, former debaters, and other qualiﬁed adults. If we do not have enough judges by time of competition, competitors may be asked to judge.
We can certify judging as service hours. Time spent judging at the tournament is also qualiﬁed to be entered as NSDA service points.

Entry Price

PF and parent is judging $60
PF and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $180

LD and parent is judging $70
LD and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $200

Extemp and parent is judging $70
Extemp and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $160

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 are in EASTERN STANDARD TIME (EST).
Schedule may be subject to change. If we make any major chances, we will use the tournament email function to notify coaches.
Make sure you are looking at the correct event!

LD Schedule
PF Schedule
Extemp

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

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

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
Got any questions? Please email [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Make sure you understand that this online tournament is live and takes place in Eastern Time.

Partner Name (write N/A if none) *

First

Last

Choose your event *

LD (Mar/Apr) PF (March) Extemp

JUDGE PROVISION
Descriptions of each event can be found here.

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

Yes No, but I will pay the opt-out fee

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

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

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

4TH ANNUAL SPRING BREAK SPECIAL

29-30 March 2025

Information

​Entry Price

Schedule - EST

Drop Fee

Contact Info

Registration Form

We would love to have you visit soon at one of our open houses.Check our home page for the schedule!

School year Hours

Telephone

Email (preferred)

Locations

Entry Price

We would love to have you visit soon at one of our open houses.
Check our home page for the schedule!