3RD ANNUAL TOC DIGITAL SPEECH AND DEBATE SERIES 2
21-23 February 2025
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DEADLINE
11 Feb 2025
NO REFUNDS ALLOWED AFTER THIS DATE |
ELIGIBILITY
Open to middle and high school students
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PLATFORM
Online through NSDA Campus
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Information
SDear Coaches and Competitors,
We are thrilled to invite you to the TOC Digital Speech and Debate Series #2 Tournament, hosted by the University of Kentucky, on February 21-23, 2025. This tournament promises a challenging yet rewarding competition for all levels of debaters and speakers. Our events will include Policy, Public Forum, Lincoln Douglass, Congressional Debate, World Schools Debate, and Individual Events/Speech. We will offer Open/Varsity and Rising Star divisions in Policy, Public Forum, and Lincoln Douglas. We look forward to a weekend filled with dynamic arguments and impressive performances.
Our goal is to provide an inclusive, educational environment where students can showcase their talents, develop critical thinking skills, and engage with others from various schools, regions, and even internationally. We will have experienced judges, a smooth schedule, and plenty of opportunities for feedback to help each participant improve their skills.
Please find below the details regarding registration, tournament format, and fees. Our tournament Best Practices and Procedures document as well as the tournament schedule are also listed below.
We look forward to seeing you online in February and wish your team the best of luck throughout the season!
Important Updates
The TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series is a newer initiative from the University of Kentucky aimed at providing equitable access to competition across the world at an affordable price. Please see below for important updates and changes to this year’s event.
Topics & Formats
All events are governed by the rules in the tournament procedures documents posted on Tabroom. Coaches, judges, and competitors should familiarize themselves with these documents prior to the start of the tournament. Please note that any sources read or cited as evidence in competition must be available upon request.
Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Public Forum Debate
Speech Events
Extemp Topic Areas DSDS #2
Division Eligibility
Open: All students in grades 6–12 are eligible to compete.
Rising Star: Students grades 6–10 are eligible to compete. All competitors entered in this division should have fewer than 2 full years of experience.
Judge Obligations
Competitors at the 2024-2025 TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series deserve the highest quality of judging throughout the tournament. Consequently, judges must be available to fulfill their commitment when they are obligated.
For the Rising Star division, very experienced competitors in Grades 11–12 are eligible to serve as judges. If so, they should be marked as such on Tabroom, and “Student Judge” should be put in the judge notes for the tournament.
Preliminary Rounds
Elimination Rounds
Judge Conflicts
Judge Eligibility
Participant Conduct
All participants, observers, and other guests attend the 2024–2025 TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series at the invitation of the University of Kentucky, and must abide by all applicable rules in the tournament invitation and procedures, as well as those set by the University of Kentucky.
Participants—including coaches, competitors, and judges—certify that all entries, forms, and other materials submitted for the TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series are accurate and complete. Submission of any TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series-related materials grants permission to distribute and verify the information contained therein among TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series administrators, tournament staff, and/or UK Debate staff.
Honor Code
All competitors must submit and upload a signed PDF of the TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series Honor Code in advance. Only the .pdf file format is accepted.
Judges must also complete this step, but through their own Tabroom accounts. Step-by-step instructions are available here for judges.
Every individual must also review and abide by the tournament invitation and procedures documents posted on Tabroom, along with the honor code and relevant policies of your own school or program.
The TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series Honor Code conveys the significance and importance of competitive integrity to all members of our community, in the interest of maintaining the highest standards of conduct. Participants must act with dignity and respect, and refrain from undermining the integrity of speech and debate as an institution. Participants should neither seek, nor encourage others to seek unfair assistance or advantage in competition. All participants, including observers, are expected to act in good faith and preserve the competitive integrity of the TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series.
Pledge
As a participant in the TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series, I pledge not to lie, cheat, steal or otherwise undermine the fairness of the tournament. I understand that competitive integrity and fairness is important to all tournament participants, and I promise to uphold the highest standards of honesty and integrity in competition.
Tournament Procedures & Best Practices
TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series #2 Procedures and Best Practices Link
We are thrilled to invite you to the TOC Digital Speech and Debate Series #2 Tournament, hosted by the University of Kentucky, on February 21-23, 2025. This tournament promises a challenging yet rewarding competition for all levels of debaters and speakers. Our events will include Policy, Public Forum, Lincoln Douglass, Congressional Debate, World Schools Debate, and Individual Events/Speech. We will offer Open/Varsity and Rising Star divisions in Policy, Public Forum, and Lincoln Douglas. We look forward to a weekend filled with dynamic arguments and impressive performances.
Our goal is to provide an inclusive, educational environment where students can showcase their talents, develop critical thinking skills, and engage with others from various schools, regions, and even internationally. We will have experienced judges, a smooth schedule, and plenty of opportunities for feedback to help each participant improve their skills.
Please find below the details regarding registration, tournament format, and fees. Our tournament Best Practices and Procedures document as well as the tournament schedule are also listed below.
We look forward to seeing you online in February and wish your team the best of luck throughout the season!
Important Updates
The TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series is a newer initiative from the University of Kentucky aimed at providing equitable access to competition across the world at an affordable price. Please see below for important updates and changes to this year’s event.
- Competition will occur online via the NSDA Campus Infrastructure
- Bids to the 2025 Tournament of Champions are offered as follows:
- Lincoln-Douglas Debate: Quarterfinals (Top 8)
- Public Forum Debate: Quarterfinals (Top 8)
- Speech Events: TBD Based on Entries
Topics & Formats
All events are governed by the rules in the tournament procedures documents posted on Tabroom. Coaches, judges, and competitors should familiarize themselves with these documents prior to the start of the tournament. Please note that any sources read or cited as evidence in competition must be available upon request.
Lincoln-Douglas Debate
- January–February 2025 NSDA Topic | 6-3-7-3-4-6-3 Speech Times | 4 Minutes of Preparation per Debater
Public Forum Debate
- February 2025 NSDA Topic | 4-4-3-4-4-3-3-3-3-2-2 Speech Times | 3 Minutes of Preparation per Team
Speech Events
- Maximum Total of 3 Speech Events per Competitor | Only 2 Speech Events in Any Single Pattern
- Speech Patterns
- Pattern A: Extemporaneous (mix of Domestic and International), Humorous Interpretation, Informative Speaking, Poetry, Program Oral Interpretation
- Pattern B: Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Impromptu, Original Oratory, Prose
Extemp Topic Areas DSDS #2
- Round 1: The Economy
- Round 2: South America
- Round 3: The Environment
- Semi: Asia
- Final: US Foreign Policy
Division Eligibility
Open: All students in grades 6–12 are eligible to compete.
Rising Star: Students grades 6–10 are eligible to compete. All competitors entered in this division should have fewer than 2 full years of experience.
Judge Obligations
Competitors at the 2024-2025 TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series deserve the highest quality of judging throughout the tournament. Consequently, judges must be available to fulfill their commitment when they are obligated.
For the Rising Star division, very experienced competitors in Grades 11–12 are eligible to serve as judges. If so, they should be marked as such on Tabroom, and “Student Judge” should be put in the judge notes for the tournament.
Preliminary Rounds
- LD, PF: The number that appears on your Tabroom account, in association with your judging obligation (i.e. number of rounds owed), represents preliminary rounds only—this number does not count toward your judging commitment in elimination rounds.
- Speech: All judges are obligated through the final round on Sunday, February 23.
- Judges who are obligated but fail to appear on time for an assigned preliminary round will be assessed a $100 fine per round.
Elimination Rounds
- LD, PF: All judges are obligated through the first elimination round on Sunday (which is Elim 2 on the schedule), then one round beyond the elimination of your program’s last entry. For example, if GSA's last entry is eliminated in Quarterfinals, GSA judges are obligated through Semifinals. Even if none of your entries advance, your judges are still obligated through the first elimination round scheduled on Sunday, February 23 (which is Elim 2 on the schedule).
- Speech: All judges are obligated through the final round on Sunday, February 23 (which is Elim 2 on the schedule).
- Judges who are obligated but fail to appear on time for an assigned elimination round will be assessed a $150 fine per round, and the associated program will face potential sanctions at future UK Debate events.
Judge Conflicts
- Non-disclosure of judge conflicts, or preclusions, is an ethical concern. Non-disclosure creates competitive imbalances and is taken very seriously by the TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series.
- Please indicate all conflicts, for all judges, on Tabroom. Judges should preclude themselves from judging any competitors whom they have previously coached, whether online or in person, paid or unpaid; with whom they have had a close, friendly, and/or personal relationship; and/or toward whom they feel that they cannot be objective for any reason. Judges affiliated with any college or other institution should preclude themselves from judging competitors whom they have seriously recruited, and judges should preclude themselves from judging entries from programs they attended or coached within the last 5 seasons. For additional guidance on what constitutes a judge conflict in a given event, please refer to the TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series procedures documents available below.
- In the case that a judge and/or competitor reports a conflict after a pairing is distributed, resulting in a change to the pairing—the associated program will be assessed a $500 fine and risks losing judge preferences/strikes for the remainder of the tournament.
Judge Eligibility
- All judges must submit the 2024-2025 TOC Digital Speech & Debate Honor Code and Media Release via Tabroom in advance (instructions here)
- Debate judges must post a paradigm on Tabroom before judge preferences/strikes open.
- Judges must have functioning technology to judge online tournaments: cameras on during rounds, ability to use Tabroom.com and NSDA Campus infrastructure, etc.
- High-school students in grades 11–12 with extensive debate experience are eligible to serve as judges in the Rising Star divisions.
- Tournament staff have the right to dismiss any ineligible and/or unqualified judge, unless the judge is the program director or coach of record officially employed by that school
- Any violation of the tournament judge policies will result in a $500 fine to your program, loss of judge preferences/strikes, and potential sanctions at future UK Debate events
Participant Conduct
All participants, observers, and other guests attend the 2024–2025 TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series at the invitation of the University of Kentucky, and must abide by all applicable rules in the tournament invitation and procedures, as well as those set by the University of Kentucky.
Participants—including coaches, competitors, and judges—certify that all entries, forms, and other materials submitted for the TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series are accurate and complete. Submission of any TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series-related materials grants permission to distribute and verify the information contained therein among TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series administrators, tournament staff, and/or UK Debate staff.
Honor Code
All competitors must submit and upload a signed PDF of the TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series Honor Code in advance. Only the .pdf file format is accepted.
Judges must also complete this step, but through their own Tabroom accounts. Step-by-step instructions are available here for judges.
Every individual must also review and abide by the tournament invitation and procedures documents posted on Tabroom, along with the honor code and relevant policies of your own school or program.
The TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series Honor Code conveys the significance and importance of competitive integrity to all members of our community, in the interest of maintaining the highest standards of conduct. Participants must act with dignity and respect, and refrain from undermining the integrity of speech and debate as an institution. Participants should neither seek, nor encourage others to seek unfair assistance or advantage in competition. All participants, including observers, are expected to act in good faith and preserve the competitive integrity of the TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series.
Pledge
As a participant in the TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series, I pledge not to lie, cheat, steal or otherwise undermine the fairness of the tournament. I understand that competitive integrity and fairness is important to all tournament participants, and I promise to uphold the highest standards of honesty and integrity in competition.
Tournament Procedures & Best Practices
TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series #2 Procedures and Best Practices Link
Entry Fees
One PF event and parent is judging $75
One PF event and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $225
One LD event and parent is judging $75
One LD event and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $325
One speech event and parent is judging $75
One speech event and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $175
Two speech events and parent is judging $100
Two speech events and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $225
Three speech events and parent is judging $125
Three speech events and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $275
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.
One PF event and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $225
One LD event and parent is judging $75
One LD event and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $325
One speech event and parent is judging $75
One speech event and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $175
Two speech events and parent is judging $100
Two speech events and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $225
Three speech events and parent is judging $125
Three speech events and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $275
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)
Click here to view the schedule for LD debate
Click here to view the schedule for PF debate
Click here to view the schedule for speech events
Click here to view the schedule for LD debate
Click here to view the schedule for PF debate
Click here to view the schedule for speech events
Drop FeeDrop 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 InfoVictor Rivas Umana
Contact email: [email protected] Nadia Budiman Contact email: [email protected] Or [email protected] |
Registration Form
Before you proceed with the registration below, make sure ALL STUDENTS must fill out the form below. Failure to do so will result in the tournament dropping you without a refund. Students need to upload the filled out form below, while judges need to sign the form through their own Tabroom accounts. Instructions below.
HONOR CODE FORM FOR STUDENTS
Click to download TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series Honor Code Form
HONOR CODE FORM FOR STUDENTS
Click to download TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series Honor Code Form