Dear Friends,
On behalf of the NSU University School, we cordially invite you to attend the Sunvite Tournament to be held virtually through NSDA Campus (Level 2 w/ observers) on January 7-9. We promise to continue our tradition of top-notch competition, exceptional judging, and amazing trophies! A new addition this year will be a student-led virtual conference on diversity and equity in Speech & Debate. More details coming soon!
Deadlines/Entries: All entries are due by Jan. 1 at 5pm, but we are expecting registration to fill-up much sooner so register ASAP! Fees will be frozen on January 4 at 12pm. If you drop any entries after that time you will forfeit the entry fee. you drop any entries after January 6 at 12pm, you will be charged the entry fee plus an additional $25. If you drop an entry the day of (January 7) or do not report a drop you will be charged an additional $75 plus the entry fee. A school may enter 5 entries in PF and LD, 10 entries in Congress and all IEs, and unlimited entries in Policy. If you have more students you would like to enter, please do so and they will be moved off of the waitlist depending on space.
Fees:
$80 Novice, JV and Varsity PF Entries
$40 Policy Entries
$50 Congressional Debate Entry
$50 for Novice Lincoln Douglas Entry
$80 for Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate Entry
$40 per individual event entry ($80 for DUO)
We will waive entry fees for UDL Schools.
Judging Requirement:
1 judge for every 2 Policy/PF/LD entries or fraction thereof (NLD will be a separate pool from VLD, N/JV PF will be separate from VPF)
1 judge for every 5 IE entries or fraction thereof
1 judge for every 8 Congress Entries or fraction thereof
We strongly recommend you provide your own qualified judges for each event. We are able to hire a very limited number of judges. LD/PF/Policy judges will be required to have paradigms published online. Those paradigms will be audited prior to registration, and if blank or deemed inappropriate the school will be charged an uncovered judge fee. For every uncovered judge you will be charged $40/round. Any rounds missed by judges from your school, will result in an additional $50 fee per round. It is not our goal to make a profit off of missed rounds; however, having present/competent judges is vital to running a successful tournament.
Prefs/Strikes: Prefs will be available in LD. Strikes will be available for Public Forum. We will make every effort to strike AT LEAST 12% of the PF pool, and ordinal prefs in LD.
Entourage Rule:While this is a virtual environment, we will still attempt to regulate this. We think this makes our judging pools diverse and of higher quality. All coaches watching rounds, communicating with the tournament etc. must be in for at least 3 rounds. The determination of eligible/qualified is left up to the tournament staff. The penalty for violations of this rule may range from loss of MPJ/Strikes, forfeiture of your entries, or additional fines.
Resolutions/Topic Areas: We will be using the January topic in PF and LD. Congress legislation, Impromptu, and Extemp topic areas will be posted no later than December 15th.
Schedule: TBD
Debate:We will run SIX rounds in PF/LD, 6-7 rounds in Policy. The first two rounds will be pre-set randomly and will take place Friday afternoon. Rounds three through six (or 7) will be power matched (high-low within brackets). Both LD and PF will break to partial or full Triple-Octafinals, depending on the number of entries. The order of tie-breakers is 1) wins, 2)opposition wins, 3) drop high-low speaker points, 4) ZScore 5) total speaker points. Public Forum will use the tabroom coinflip to flip before rounds. PF will not be side locked in elimination rounds if they previously hit.
Speech:We are dropping the lowest prelim rank and we will use clean breaks--not cumulative ranks--in each elimination round. We will break to quarterfinals in any speech event with more than 70 entries, if there are more than 100 we will have a octofinals round. There will be NO section with more than 6 speakers. Speech competitors can double-enter within each pattern, so an ambitious competitor can compete in four different speech events. Breaks will be determined by total ranks in prelims, followed by recips. Whenever possible we will break the number of competitors on total ranks, using recips only when absolutely necessary.
Speech Patterns
A: DI, DUO, OO, MX
B: HI. POI, IMP, INFO
Congress:Congress will have 3 preliminary rounds, semis and finals. Each preliminary round will have 2 judges, semis will have 3 judges and finals will have 5 judges. PO’s will be recognized at awards. Congress Chambers will be posted January 5th (assuming no late drops). Congress legislation is due by Friday, December 10th at 5:00pm. Please submit legislation via tabroom by the appropriate deadlines posted. Our goal is to have legislation posted no later than December 15th. Assuming on time legislation submissions. There will be no school based legislation in semis or finals.
Registration will be conducted online only, and we encourage you to browse the tabs to find any additional information regarding our tournament. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We look forward to “seeing” you in sunny South Florida in January!
Warmly,