Creating a tournament schedule

Here are some important things to consider when creating your tournament schedule:

• How close the tournament is
• What events are offered
• Number of entries (to determine how many state points/bids you could earn)
• Entry fees and if it’s a travel tournament, travel costs
• What does the tournament offer (TOC/NIETOC/ETOC bids, state points, etc.)

Check Tabroom and The Joy of Tournaments for available tournaments. The closer you get to the tournament, the more expensive entry fees will be! 
Always plan for more tournaments than you think to ensure that you qualify in your event. However, make sure to have a few weeks of no tournaments so you can work on your event!

How to grow your team

• Advertise! Use social media, school announcements, posters, talk to friends, etc. 

• Have an orientation. Speech is a very complex activity with so many events, but there’s something for everyone! Introduce the variety of opportunities to your school!

• Try to give debate/speech performances at your school so people become more aware of your club and see how fun it is!.
• Host a speech camp. You can get more recruits, have people better understand what speech is, and learn from each other!.

Above all, emphasize the FUN of speech. While competition, ranks, and awards are all a huge part of speech, the joy of speaking and the speech community is what makes this activity truly special. Nobody wants to be in a toxic environment or do things that don’t make them happy, so emphasizing fun and growth in speech is how people will stick around!

Resource page for practice drills

The cliche is right, practice does make perfect. Get your team to consistently go to practices, and use tournaments as motivation for them to keep getting better. Here is a resource page as to how to improve by yourself!

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NSDA (National Speech and Debate Association)

Student Eligibility

• You are officially registered as a NSDA member user with valid email address on the NSDA website
• All entry fees and NSDA member fees are paid for prior to the district tournament entry deadline.
• You must meet age/eligibility requirements for your states\’s activities association and cannot attend more than nine semesters of secondary school.
• ​Have a minimum of 25 merit points with at least 10 gained from tournaments, not service.

You may only enter in two main events, Congressional Debate, and Big Questions as a max number of events. However, you can only compete in one event at the NSDA tournament. You must submit a Single Entry Letter of Intent to indicate which events you prefer. There are multiple ways to qualify for the NSDA.

1) District Qualifier Tournament. 
​Meaning you only have one chance to qualify (dun dun duuun!) 
Your team may only take up to 4 entries per event. In Congress, you may take 2 entries in the Senate and 2 entries in the House.
The number of qualifiers your district takes to NSDA in each event depends on the number of entries. Regardless, at least two schools must be participating in the event:

• At least 4 entries is 1 qualifier
• At least 16 entries is 2 qualifiers
• At least 32 entries is 4 qualifiers
• At least 56 entries is 4 qualifier

2) Automatic Qualification
By placing Top 14 in any main event, Top 4 in Big Questions, or Top 8 in World Schools the previous year and you’re still enrolled in high school and in good standing, you’re automatically qualified for the respective event.

• An autoqualed student can still participate in a district tournament. They will need to submit a Single Entry Letter of Intent prior to the District tournament to indicate which event you prefer. ​

TOC (Tournament of Champions)

Student Eligibility

• Must be a full-time student seeking a high school diploma at the school they are representing. No independent or afterschool program entries allowed to participate.
• Must have the signed permission of the Principal or Headmistress/Headmaster’s to compete.
• Must be accompanied by a school-approved responsible adult.
• In team events, both bids must be earned by both team members.​

All debate and IE events (including Oral Interpretation) are offered. You may compete in up to three IE events or one debate event. There are several ways to qualify for TOC.

1) Earn Two Bids
You must earn two TOC bids for every event you want to enter in. Only certain tournaments offer TOC bids. Check this website to find out which tournaments: https://ci.uky.edu/UKDebate/list-bid-tournaments
​
This is how many entries it takes for the rank you need to earn a bid at a tournament:

• If 24 or fewer competitors enter, the top 3 receive bids. 
• If 25 to 72 people compete, the top 7 finalists receive bids
• If 73 to 125 or more are in an event, the top 14 semifinalists receive bids
• If 125 or more are in an event, the top 24 quarterfinalists receive bids.
• NOTE--a bid in prose OR poetry counts towards qualification to the TOC in Oral Interpretation.

2) Automatic Qualification
You’re automatically qualified for TOC if:

• You were a semifinalist or finalist at NSDA
• You were a NCFL Grand National semifinalist or finalist
• You were a TOC finalist the previous year

3) Bid applications
​You will send in the top five ranks you’ve earned at any tournament and TOC will select the top applicants.  Complete and email  the bid application to TOC.

• For more info: https://ci.uky.edu/UKDebate/toc-2021-dates

NIETOC

Student Eligibility

• Must be a full-time student seeking a high school diploma at the school they are representing. No independent or afterschool program entries allowed to participate.
• Must have the signed permission of the Principal or Headmistress/Headmaster’s to compete.
• Must be accompanied by a school-approved responsible adult.
• In team events, both bids must be earned by both team members.

All IE events (including Oral Interpretation) are offered. You may compete in up to three IE events. There are several ways to qualify for NIETOC.

1) Earn Two Bids
You must earn two NIETOC bids for every event you want to enter in. Only certain tournaments offer NIETOC bids. Check this website to find out which tournaments: http://nietoc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/NIETOC-BID-SCHOOL-LIST-2020-21-BY-DATE.pdf
This is how many entries it takes for the rank you need to earn a bid at a tournament:

• 0-19 contestants = FIRST PLACE BID
• 20-34 contestants = FIRST, SECOND & THIRD PLACE BIDS
• 35-50 contestants = FINAL ROUND BIDS
• 51-70 contestants = SEMIFINAL ROUND BIDS
• 71-99 contestants = QUARTERFINAL ROUND BIDS
• 100 + contestants = OCTAFINAL ROUND BIDS
• Post Season Bids
  • One bid is earned by being an Octafinalist or Quarterfinalist at previous year’s NIETOC.
  • One bid is earned by being a Finalist at the previous year’s state tournament.
  • One bid is earned by being a Finalist at the current year’s state tournament. A bid can also be extended to semifinalists at the current year’s state tournament if there are more than 50 contestants in that event.

2) Automatic Qualification
​You are automatically qualified for NIETOC if:

• You placed top three at current year’s state tournament (if held prior to the entry deadline)
• ​You were a semifinalist or finalist at the previous year's NIETOC, NSDA, or NCFL tournaments in the same main event you are registering in

3) At Large Qualifier
You will send in the top five ranks you’ve earned at any tournament and NIETOC will select the top applicants. In order to apply at large, you must register for NIETOC via SpeechWire and upload the proper documentation on Dropbox.

• For more info: http://nietoc.co

ETOC

Only extemporaneous speaking is offered at ETOC. There are four ways to qualify:

• Anyone who advanced to quarters, semis, or finals in extemp at that year’s TOC extemp is automatically qualified
• If you final at your state’s qualifying state tournament extemp, you are automatically qualified (defined as any state tournament prior to the TOC Extemp entry deadline any state tournament that occurred after April 7, 2019.)
• Earn two bids at qualifying ETOC bid tournaments. Check this website to see what tournaments they are and whround you must achieve to earn a bid: https://sites.northwestern.edu/tocextemp/qualifications/
• Bid applications: complete and email to ETOC
  • For more info: https://sites.northwestern.edu/tocextemp/

State Tournaments

State tournaments vary from state to state, so check out this website (scroll to the bottom) to find which associations are in your state: https://www.speechanddebate.org/partnerships/

• Some states have multiple state associations, so pay attention to what events they offer, what you must do to qualify, etc.

Middle School NSDA Tournament

*There is no qualification process; this is an open tournament (whew that was easy!)

Eligibility

• Must have been in the sixth, seventh, or eighth grade during the school year
• Students involved with non-school clubs must be registered with the school they are enrolled in if that school enters the tournament.
• Must be a paid NSDA member student

Entry Limits

• Debate entries (LD, PF, Policy, Congress, World Schools) may not enter any main event speech events.
• In speech events (except Extemp), students can enter two events per pattern (A or B).
• Each school is limited to six entries per event.

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