NOF Cherry Asynchronous Tournament

Invitation

NOF February Sync Tournament Link

Dear Forensics Community,

 We are excited to welcome you to the National Online Forensics Asynchronous Season online tournaments! These monthly asynchronous competitions are a fantastic way to prepare your students for Nationals and provide additional rounds for team members throughout the year.

Tournaments are offered across all grade levels — from kindergarten to college — in a wide variety of events. Our highly qualified tournament staff is committed to delivering a smooth, engaging day of competition. The schedule takes only half a day to complete (see schedule here), and winners receive Bronze, Silver, or Gold recognition.

Schedule (Pacific Time)*

Monday 8:00 PM PST - Registration Closes; No new schools may enter the tournament.

Tuesday - Coaches will be notified of collapsed events and missing competitor videos, and can edit entries (add, drop, change video link).

Wednesday 9:00 AM PST - Deadline for coaches to add/drop competitors and enter missing video links. All competitors without posted video links will be subject to being dropped from the tournament at this point in time.

Wednesday 12:00 PM PST - Preliminary ballots will be sent to judges as soon as possible following final add/drops. 

Friday 12:00 PM PST - Preliminary ballot rankings and preliminary feedback due back to the Tournament Director. Ballots unreturned at this time will be subject to penalty, and resent to available judges. 

Friday 8:00 PM PST - Final rounds paired, breaks posted, final ballots sent to judges as soon as possible following preliminary ballot review. Additional preliminary ballot feedback requests sent to judges.

Sunday 8:00 PM PST - Final ballot ranks and feedback due back to the Tournament Director.

Monday 6:00 PM PST - Deadline for additional ballot feedback; Award ceremony video posted once all ranks are finalized.

*Please note that due to the asynchronous nature of this tournament format, the schedule may require adjustment at the discretion of the Tournament Director. All changes will be announced on the Tournament Home Page (here) and via tournament notice blast.

Key Information

> 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.

> Judging Requirements: One judge per 5 IE entries per pattern / 2 debate teams. Uncovered entries may be allowed at the discretion of the Tournament Director with applicable fees.

> Technology: Asynchronous tournaments use video submission prior to the event, then circulate submissions to judges for evaluation and ranking. See the Best Practices section of this invitation for guidance on preparing to compete online.

> Rules: The complete set of NOF rules is available here.

We hope you and your team will join us throughout the year. For questions, please email us at alexandra@nationalonlineforensics.org.

Sincerely,
Alexandra Smith, Robert Cannon, & Danny Cantrell
National Online Forensics

www.nationalonlineforensics.org/

instagram.com/nofchamps/ 

Events offered:

Entry Policies

> Competitors may triple-enter in IE events (except Extemp, which is limited to double-entry).

> In small-entry scenarios (fewer than 5 entries), events may be combined within their category (e.g., “Interp” events).

Individual Events

> Three prelims will be held; one final round will be held, unless the number of entries exceeds 30 per event, in which case, a second elimination round will be added.

> Competitors may enter a maximum of three IE events except competitors in Extemp who may only double-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, Bronze, and Honors awards.

> See the NOF Bylaws for more information about NOF events and awards.

Debate

> The current NOF topic will be used for Lincoln Douglas (LD) and Public Forum (PF)

> The current NSDA topic will be used for Policy.

> All preliminary rounds will be randomly paired. In Elims, brackets will be broken to facilitate debating. 

> One final round will be held, unless the number of entries exceeds 30 per event, in which case, a second elimination round will be added. The schedule may be adjusted to accommodate this change

> Competitors may only enter one format of debate and no individual events.

> Competitors will be recognized with Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Honors awards.

> See the NOF Bylaws for more information about NOF events and awards.

Awards

> School sweepstakes: Top schools will be recognized at each division (college, high school, middle, and elementary school).

> Competitors winning Gold, Silver, or Bronze will receive physical awards that will be shipped to coaches following the tournament.

> Coaches will be asked to verify their shipping address at registration. Please contact the tournament director ASAP if you would like your awards shipped to a different address than on file.  Additional shipping costs may be assessed if an incorrect address is supplied.

Judging

> Any schools seeking to buy out of their judging requirements must have approval by the Tournament Director. Please contact the tournament early to request uncovered entries.  

NOTE: The tournament reserves the right to assign ballots to judges when they are scheduled:

Due to the complex nature of the schedule, judges may be asked to accept ballots in events they did not initially register for. For example, if a judge is signed up to accept debate ballots, but the tournament needs more Impromptu judges, then that judge would be expected to take the Impromptu ballot.  We will do our best to accommodate event requests, but we may not be able to do so.

Fees

> School Fee: $50

> Individual Event Entries: $25/entry

> Judges: First Missed Ballot - $25 / Subsequent Missed Ballots - $50

> Uncovered IE/Congress Slot (with Tournament Director Approval): $35/slot

> 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.