Awards will be ASAP after Finals at https://meet.google.com/gbm-dgxi-vro!

I.E. UPDATE: Only IMP, PER, and EXT will have final rounds and they will take place at 3:30.

SCHEDULE:

Warm seasons’ greetings from Southern Illinois!

We at John A. Logan College (JALC) are grateful for the warm embrace we have received by the Speech & Debate Community as the new kids on the block.

To show our sincerest appreciation, we are proud to host the 2025 New Years Warmup (Online Synchronous) Tournament, because our name is obscure, but our location is ever more!

 So, no planes, no trains, no hired feet on pedals - simply smash your keyboards and turn on your cameras to join us as we kick off the New Year and transition into Spring Semester 2025! ⋆ ·˚ ༘ *

For registration, please go to the Help Room!

 Hosting Platform

ForensicsTournament.net (with 8x8) will be utilized for registration, competition, and tabbing.  Guides can be found HERE.

The following invitation will give you all the necessary information you need to participate at a RAFL.Please feel free to contact us should you have any questions. Rules and procedures may be adjusted from tournament to tournament based on needs and feedback.

Eligibility
Students from four-year institutions in their first four semesters of competition may enter individual events and all Community College students may enter individual events.  *Exceptions may be considered by the tournament staff, but are not guaranteed.

All students with less than 8 semesters of collegiate competition may enter International Public Debate.

While these tournaments are hosted by PRP Region 4, these tournaments are open to all colleges and universities.

Tournament Dates - 

RAFL #1 - Friday & Saturday, January 10-11, 2025
IPDA on Friday / IEs on Saturday ONLINE

Groupings
Debate- IPDA
IE-A  --  Duo, Pers, Imp, DI, CA and POI
IE-B --  Ext, Pro, STE, Inf, Pot

ENTRY DEADLINE - TUESDAY, 5:00 PM

Drops/Changes from entry deadline thru 5 PM Wednesday – No Charge
Drops after 5:00 PM Wednesday-  $10.00 per slot
Drops after 5:00 PM on Thursday - $15.00 per slot
Day of Drops-  $30 per slot

Student-Run or underfunded teams may request discounted fees from the tournament staff.  Email patrick.idzik@jalc.edu.

Judges
For IPDA on Friday, each judge will cover 2 IPDA entries. Separately, for IEs on Saturday, each judge will cover 6 IE slots. Uncovered slots are an additional $15 per slot.

Students from the same school may be scheduled in the same schedule to make best use of all judges.

Entry Limits
Each school may enter 8 students in each event.

Team “Rooms”
Team zoom rooms will not be set up by the tournament. Individual coaches are encouraged to set up a “Team Zoom Room” for students to utilize for things such as team warm-ups, team meetings, and team socialization.

IE Rounds
All rounds of IE Competition will be scheduled with 5 students or less when possible.
Rounds will be ranked 1st-4th with ties allowed for 4th place.
There will not be speaker points for Individual Events.
Students may DE.  TE is allowed at a student’s own risk.  Rounds will not be held up.

Rules for IE Advancement into finals (semi-finals)
All students who attain a cumulative rank of 2, 3,4, or 5 for individual events will automatically advance to the medal rounds in that event. If this does not represent 20% of the field and at least 6 students in that event, all ranks of “6” will also break to the medal rounds. This process will continue until at least 20% of the field and at least 6 students advance to the medal rounds.  This may result in multiple sections of medal rounds in a single event (see “Awards” below)

Rules for IPDA Debate
Novice (first 4 semesters or Community College students) and Open (5-8 semesters) divisions will be created when possible. This may manifest itself in separate tournament divisions or medal round divisions. Novice students may be entered into the Open Division during registration upon coaches’ discretion.     

RAFL tournaments follow the spirit of Ph Rho Pi with breaking following the Phi Rho Pi break system with Bronze, Silver, and Gold. There will be a Bronze Round (Semi-Final Rounds), and a Gold Round (Final Rounds). We will break the top 30% of the debate field into the Bronze Round. 

Topic Strike: Topic strike will occur in-round with 5 topics (2 fact or value, 2 policy, 1 other). Negative strikes first. The judge will post topics in the chat.

Debaters should strike on time. Should one debater not appear at the scheduled time, a five minute grace period will be started. At the end of the five minutes, the topic list will be given to the debater in attendance who will choose the topic to be debate and the round will begin 30 minutes from the time of the topic selection. The absent debater will only have the prep time available that remains. If a debater fails to appear after the prep time has elapsed they will automatically forfeit the round. 

Debaters will NOT be allowed to consult any other person during prep time. 

During prep, debaters should remain in the room but may choose to turn off their microphones and cameras. 

As per IPDA rules, debaters can consult paper and/or electronic research material during preparation, which may be quoted or paraphrased from notes during the round.

Event Rules
Phi Rho Pi national rules will govern sweepstakes, and event rules (www.phirhopi.org). Some exceptions to Phi Rho Pi rules are as follows. Students are limited to single camera setup and duo partners may perform in the same room. 

Tournament Awards
Awards will be presented to all competitors who advance to a medal round. The order of finish will be determined by the cumulative ranks on all ballots (prelims plus final rounds). Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards will be divided among all competitors advancing to a medal round.

Medals will be snail-mailed to each head coach.

Your friends and hosts,

Pat, Jon, & Anthony

(and with special help from Paul Cummins at SIC and JALC Alumni Alberta Grinston & Kellen Colson!!!!!!)

P.S., if you are a student run team please reach out to Pat, Jon, or Anthony for information on waived tournament fees. :)

Best Practices

The shift to online competition necessitates a change in norms. Here are suggested Best Practices to help as we establish new norms together:

FLEXIBILITY- This is a new adventure for all of us. Both judges and competitors are encouraged to be flexible, reasonable, and open-minded.

AUDIENCE CAMERA- Individual observers in each round are encouraged to turn on their camera so their feedback to the speaker can be seen. However, this is not a requirement.

EQUIPMENT CHECK- Before the tournament, have each of your team members test their equipment. Check the WiFi connection. Make sure computers are charged and ready to go. Test the audio and video connections. Closeout other tabs and applications on computers to assure the best connection available. Check your webcam or laptop camera.

ENVIRONMENT- Check the environment. Do you have enough room to move? Will you have a quiet, uninterrupted space? Do you have everything you need (flow pad, pens, IMP card, script book, VAs)? Do you have good lighting?

TOURNAMENT ATTIRE-  Dress for success. Virtual tournaments are no different from face-to-face tournaments. Business on top, jammies on the bottom is not a great idea.

FRAMING- This is new to the virtual environment. You want to make the choice whether you want to be framed on screen in full body and lose some facial expressions or be shot from the waist up and lose some movement and gestures. See “Flexibility” above.

Extemp -  For extemp, there will be a prep/draw room.  Students will be required to prep with their cameras on.  The coach running prep will post questions for speaker number one in the chat. Seven minutes later speaker number two will be posted. And so on…

IMP -  Go to your Competition room.  Prompts will be posted in the chat. Strike will also happen in the competition room.

AUDIO- Please set your mic to mute when not speaking so it does not pick up your speaker and create an echo.

SIGNING IN- You may sign in to your Competition Rooms just like at a face-to-face tournament in the room’s Chat. Please pre-sign in if you are DE or TE! 

DROPOUTS & GLITCHES- There may be connectivity challenges where folks with weaker signals may vanish momentarily. This is a challenge in any online environment and should not be counted against the participant. What do we do? The simple answer is to stop until the problem is fixed by the participant and resume once resolved. Judges should stop time if connectivity challenges arise. Give a reasonable moment for the participant to reconnect and resume.  Contact the Help Room.

ETHICS- Any competitive event presents opportunities for those determined to cheat. Remember even in traditional tournaments competitors can text, chat and share documents with coaches or others who should not be assisting during a round. Certainly, online tournaments present a temptation. It is our expectation that participants make honorable and ethical choices. If you would not do it in a face-to-face tournament, do not do it in a virtual environment. 

SCREEN RECORDING- Screen recording is not permitted.

SECURITY- This tournament only collects information needed for virtual communication (names, cell, email, and school information). Information will not be shared with outside parties beyond the reporting of results. Upholding copyright laws, no competition events will be publicly broadcast.

AUDIENCE- The presence of live audience members while performing is neither encouraged nor discouraged.

AFFILIATION- Students may not enter unaffiliated.

Additional best practices may be added to this list. Coaches are encouraged to email potential additions/revisions to

patrick.idzik@jalc.edu