Welcome to the home page for the 2023 (NOF) Birch Invitational tournament hosted by National Online Forensics on Sep 16, 2023 for Various students.

Status: Tournament Completed

2023-2024 Regular Season

Tournaments Invitation

(Click here for full invite)

Dear Forensics Community,

We are excited to welcome you to our 2023-2024 Regular Season online tournaments. These monthly synchronous and asynchronous tournaments are a great way to prepare your competitors for Nationals & afford extra rounds to competitors on your team. A condensed three preliminary and one final round schedule ensures competitors get the practice they need without the hassle of waiting around all day for rounds. Save money with $0 travel costs. Run by experienced tournament directors, these tournaments are sure to be some of the best online tournaments your competitors attend all year.

The tournaments will offer competition at all levels, from kindergarten to college, in a wide range of events. We have the very best qualified tournament staff assembled to ensure a smooth day of fun competition. Our schedule will include three prelims and a final (using Bronze/Silver/Gold award system) with each competition level taking only half the day (see schedule below). Winners will receive Bronze/Silver/Gold medals.

Key Points:

Registration is due by 6pm Pacific the Tuesday before each tournament on ForensicsTournament.net
Each school is required to provide one judge for every 5 IE entries per pattern/2 debate teams. At the discretion of the Tournament Director, uncovered entries may be allowed but penalty fees will apply.
The tournament will use synchronous video conferencing on the 8x8 platform. Please see the Best Practices section of this invite for tips on how to effectively prepare for competing online.
A complete list of NOF rules can be found here.

We hope you and your team can join us throughout the season. If you have any questions please feel free to email us at info@nationalonlineforensics.org

Sincerely,

Robert Cannon & Danny Cantrell

National Online Forensics

Elementary School

(All elementary events are morning rounds)

8:00am

Round 1

9:30am

Round 2

10:45am

Round 3

12:15pm

Finals

7:30pm

Awards

Elementary Events:

Info, Persuasive, Assigned Platform, Declamation, Prose, Poetry, Duo, Storytelling, Impromptu, SPAR, PF, Congress*, Worlds*

High School

(All high school events are morning rounds)

8:00am

Round 1

9:30am

Round 2

10:45am

Round 3

12:15pm

Finals

7:30pm

Awards

High School Events:

Info, Persuasive, STE, Assigned Platform, Declamation, Original Interp, Poetry, Prose, POI, Storytelling, Duo, Drama, HI, Extemp, Impromptu, SPAR, LD, PF, Worlds*, NOF Parli, Policy*, Congress*

College

(All college events are afternoon rounds)

1:30pm

Round 1

3:00pm

Round 2

4:15pm

Round 3

5:45pm

Finals

7:30pm

Awards

College Events

Info, Persuasive, STE, CA, Assigned Platform, Drama, Poetry, Prose, POI, Duo, Extemp, Impromptu, NFA-LD, IPDA, NOF Parli, SPAR

Middle School

(All middle school events are afternoon rounds)

1:30pm

Round 1

3:00pm

Round 2

4:15pm

Round 3

5:45pm

Finals

7:30pm

Awards

Middle School Events:

Info, Persuasive, STE, Assigned Platform, Declamation, Poetry, Prose, POI, Duo, Storytelling, Drama, HI, Extemp, Impromptu, LD, PF, SPAR, NOF Parli, Worlds*, Congress*

Competitors may triple-enter in IE events, with the exception of Extemp (single-entry only for Extemp)
Competitors may only single-enter in Debate events, including Congress
In the event of small entry sizes, we may need to collapse events within their event category (so interp events collapse to an “interp” event).
Congress and Worlds will have three prelims only scheduled at 8:00am, 9:30am, and 11:00am for the morning sessions; afternoon will be scheduled at 1:30pm, 3:00pm, and 4:30pm. Placings will be based on preliminary scores.

Individual Events

Three prelims will be held; one final round will be held.
Competitors may enter a maximum of three IE events except competitors in Extemp who may only single enter.
1 Judge is required for every 5 entries
Prelim Ranking: Ranks/Decimal/Drop High Rank
Elim Ranking: Total Rank/# of 1st in Event/Rank in Elim/Decimal in Elim/Judge Pref in Elim
Speaker Points will not be used.
Competitors will be recognized with Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards. See NOF Bylaws for awards information.
See the NOF Bylaws for more information about NOF events.

Debate

The current NSDA topic will be used for LD and Public Forum.
Standard pairing will be used with 2 random rounds followed by 1 HL round. In Elims, brackets will be broken to facilitate debating.
One final round will be held. Teams winning the elimination round will be awarded a gold medal; teams losing the elimination round will be awarded a silver medal.
Competitors may only enter one format of debate and no individual events.
1 Judge is required for every 2 debate entries.
Speaker Point Scale will be 100-70.
Prelim Ranking: Wins/Total Points/HL Points/Z Score/Opp Wins.
Speakers Ranking: Total Points/HL Points/Ranks/Z Score.
An award for the top speakers in debate events shall be given. The top 15% of competitors shall be recognized.
A 5 minute forfeit rule will be put in place for all debate rounds.

See the NOF Bylaws for more information about NOF events.

Sweepstakes Points

Event Type

1-30 entries

31-60 entries

> 61 entries

Individual Events

(Including SPAR and Duo)

Gold = 10 points

Silver = 7.5 Points

Bronze = 5 points

Gold = 12.5 points

Silver = 10 Points

Bronze = 7.5 points

Gold = 15 points

Silver = 12.5 Points

Bronze = 10 points

Honors = 5 points

Single Entry IE

(ie, Extemp at High School) (justification: competitors are limited to the single event while other competitors may double enter, and thus earn more points).

Gold = 15 points

Silver = 11 points

Bronze = 7 points

Gold = 17.5 points

Silver = 12.5 points

Bronze = 10 points

Gold = 20 points

Silver = 15 points

Bronze = 12.5 points

Honors = 7.5 points

Debate

Gold = 10 points

Silver = 7.5 points

Bronze = 5 points

Gold = 12.5 points

Silver = 10 Points

Bronze = 7.5 points

Gold = 15 points

Silver = 12.5 Points

Bronze = 10 points

Congress

Gold = 10 points

Silver = 7.5 points

Bronze = 5 points

Presiding Officer = 6 points

Gold = 12.5 points

Silver = 10 Points

Bronze = 7.5 points

Presiding Officer = 8.5 points

Gold = 15 points

Silver = 12.5 Points

Bronze = 10 points

Honors = 7.5 points

Presiding Officer = 11 points

Fees

School Fee: $30
Individual Event Entries: $25/entry
DUO Event Entries: $40/entry
Congress Entries: $30/entry
One person Debate (LD, IPDA, NFA-LD) Entries: $50/entry
Two person Debate (NOF Parli, PF) Entries: $60/entry
Three+ person Debate (World Schools) Entries: $75/entry
Judges: First Missed Ballot - $25 / Subsequent Missed Ballots - $50
Uncovered IE/Congress Slot (with Tournament Director Approval): $30/slot
Uncovered Debate Team (with Tournament Director Approval): $125/team
Changes after entry deadline - $25 per change (subject to tournament director approval)
Judge drops within 24 hours of the tournament will be charged a $150 judge no-show fee.
Judges who submit incomplete eBallots (with little to no substantive feedback) may be charged a judge no-show fee for failing to complete their judge assignment which includes both ranking the speakers along with giving sufficient comments.
Delay of tournament fees may be assessed from $20-$100 based on the severity of the delay.