The 2021 SCJFL Middle School 

Southern California Championship Tournament

May 8-9, 2021

(Invitation Version 1.0)

 

SCJFL is proud to announce The 2021 SCJFL Middle School Southern California Championship Tournament.  This tournament is meant to encourage a healthy competition and provide an opportunity to sharpen competitive speeches before the national tournament.  

The tournament will be held on Saturday, May 8th - Sunday, May 9th, 2021. 

The tournament will be held entirely online.  Please see the Best Practices Guide for additional information regarding the preparation for Internet preparation.  The Best Practices Guide is available on the tournament registration page.  This guide will have suggestions and policies regarding specific events.

 

Eligibility:

 

All competitors who advanced into an open division final round or received a placement award (speaker awards for debate are not eligible) at an SCJFL middle school tournament are eligible.  The tournament will accept as many wishlist requests until the slots for an event are full.

 

Available slots:

Each event will have a specific number of slots offered for the tournament.  If a competitor has qualified (received an award by either advancing to an elimination round or by placing in the top half of an event that did not have a final round), then the competitor is guaranteed a slot, even if the offered amount of slots has been met.

For example, if a student received a 5th place trophy in Poetry at the Q3 speech tournament, then he qualifies to compete in SoCal Champs, regardless of how many other people would like to attend.  The tournament will offer six slots for Poetry (see below).  So, the student would be allowed to compete in Poetry, even if more than six other qualified students also signed up.  The tournament will admit all competitors who qualify.

However, since Champs only offers six slots, if only four qualified students sign up for the event, then the tournament would accept two more students who are non-qualified.  These students would need to sign up on a ‘wishlist.’  The tournament staff will select wishlist students based on how well they placed in the event at a previous tournament.  When signing up a student on the wishlist, it is important to note which tournament the student score best.  Only one tournament will be considered per wishlist event, so please double-check to ensure that you are selecting the best tournament for the student.

 

Event slots offered:

Impromptu, SPAR, Storytelling, Informative, Duo, Public Forum, LD, Policy, Big Questions = 12 slots offered for each event.

 

Declamation, Extemp, Prose, Poetry, OO/Persuasive, Speech to Entertain, Humorous Interp, Dramatic Interp = 6 slots offered for each event.  

 

Congress = 15 slots offered.

 

Entries:

 

Qualification: Upon registration, coaches should indicate which tournament qualified the competitor.  This is available under the REGISTER -> COMPETITOR REQUESTS tab on the tournament registration page (next to the COMPETITOR WAIVER tab).  Coaches should write the event(s) and the  respective qualifying tournament in the space next to the student’s name (e.g. Michelle Smith - Extemp - Q4; Storytelling - Q2).  Students who are entered without qualifications will be dropped and not granted entry from the wishlist

Wilshlist: Students who did not qualify, but who wish to be waitlisted for an event can sign up on the following Google Form.  The tournament staff will admit the highest ranked waitlisted students until all of the slots are filled for that event.

 

Link to sign up students for the wishlist (each student will require a new submission to the form): 

https://forms.gle/AFYmTnCGKfXvwJii8

 

 

NOTE: Students who are entered as qualified students but have not qualified will be dropped from the tournament and not considered on the waitlist.  Please double-check the results of previous tournaments to ensure that your students are entered correctly.

Middle School Events:

Pattern A:

(may not enter in pattern D)(may enter only one from the following):

- Lincoln-Douglas Debate:  (Resolved: The United States ought to guarantee universal child care.)

- Public Forum Debate: (Resolved: The benefits of the International Monetary Fund outweigh the harms.)

- Big Questions: Resolved: Mathematics was discovered, not invented.

 

Pattern B:

(may enter no more than two from the following):

Prose (manuscript required, 7 min. maximum)

Humorous Interpretation (10 min. maximum)

O.O./Persuasive (10 min. maximum)

Duo Interpretation (10 min. maximum)

Speech to Entertain (no VAs, 5 min. maximum)

SPAR

Impromptu (7 min. bank)

Round 1 - Concrete nouns

Round 2 - Abstract nouns

Round 3 - Proverbs 

Final Round - Quotations

 

Pattern C:

(may enter no more than two from the following):

Dramatic Interpretation (10 min. maximum)

Declamation (10 min. maximum)

Poetry (manuscript required, 7 min. maximum)

Storytelling (5 min. maximum)

Informative (10 min. maximum)

 

(may enter only one from the following):

Extemporaneous Speaking

Round 1 - Global Economy

Round 2 - Technology Breakthroughs

Round 3 - Foreign News

Final Round - Domestic News

 

Pattern D (may not enter in pattern A):

Congressional Debate 

Elementary School Events:

Pattern F:

(may enter only one from the following):

Congress

SPAR

 

Pattern G:
(may enter no more than two from the following):

O.O./Persuasive (5 min. maximum)

Duo Interpretation (6 min. maximum)

Declamation (5 min. maximum)

Poetry (manuscript required, 5 min. maximum)

Storytelling (5 min. maximum)

Informative (5 min. maximum)

Impromptu (7 min. bank)

Round 1 - Concrete nouns

Round 2 - Abstract nouns

Round 3 - Proverbs 

Final Round - Quotations

Tentative schedule (***may change depending on entry numbers***):

Middle School Schedule*:

 

Saturday: May 8th, 2021 

9:00 a.m. Round 1 Pattern B (Pro, HI, OO, Duo, STE, Imp, SPAR)

10:30 a.m. Round 2 Pattern B (Pro, HI, OO, Duo, STE, Imp, SPAR)

12:00 p.m. Round 1 Pattern A (PF, BQ, LD) / Pattern D (Cong)

11:30 p.m. IE Lunch break

1:00 p.m. Debate/Congress lunch break

1:30 p.m. Round 3 Pattern B (Pro, HI, OO, Duo, STE, Imp, SPAR)

3:00 p.m. Round 2 Pattern A (PF, BQ, LD) / Pattern D (Cong)

4:30 p.m. Finals Pattern B

6:00 p.m. Round 3 Pattern A (PF, BQ, LD) / Pattern D (Cong)

 

Sunday: May 9th, 2021

8:00 a.m. Round 4 Pattern A (PF, BQ, LD)

9:30 a.m. Round 1 Pattern C (DI, Dec, Poe, Sty, Info, Ext)

10:45 a.m. Round 5 Pattern A (PF, BQ, LD)

12:15 p.m. Round 2 Pattern C (DI, Dec, Poe, Sty, Info, Ext) 

12:15 p.m. Debate lunch break

1:30 p.m. Semifinals Pattern A (PF, BQ, LD) / Finals Pattern D (Cong)

1:30 p.m IE Lunch break

3:00 p.m. Round 3 Pattern C (DI, Dec, Poe, Sty, Info, Ext)

4:30 p.m. Finals Pattern A (PF, BQ, LD) / Finals Pattern C  / 

7:00 p.m. Awards

______________________________________________________________________

 

Elementary School Schedule*:

Saturday: May 8th, 2021 

8:30 a.m. Round 1 Pattern F (Congress/SPAR)

10:00 a.m. Round 2 Pattern F (Congress/SPAR)

12:00 p.m. Round 1 Pattern G (Sty, Per, Info, Poe, Duo, Imp, Dec)

11:30 p.m. Congress/SPAR Lunch break

1:00 p.m. IE lunch break

1:30 p.m. Round 3 Pattern F (Congress/SPAR)

3:00 p.m. Round 2 Pattern G (Sty, Per, Info, Poe, Duo, Imp, Dec)

4:30 p.m. Finals Pattern F (Congress/SPAR) / Round 3 Pattern G (Sty, Per, Info, Poe, Duo, Imp, Dec)

6:00 p.m. Finals Pattern G (Sty, Per, Info, Poe, Duo, Imp, Dec)

 

 

Judges:

We have tried to schedule the tournament such that middle school students (7th grade and older) can judge the elementary events, if they wish.  Middle school students who wish to both compete and judge should be careful not to register as a judge for a time in which they have a competition round.  Schools which register such students will be subject to a judge no-show fee and potentially a delay of tournament fee.  These students should also be careful not to exhaust themselves by not taking a break between rounds.

 

Ballots will be issued to judges a few minutes before the start time of the round.  All judges will be given 10 minutes to accept their ballots.  The exact release time of the ballots can be viewed on the STAUS tab of the tournament registration page.  

Judges who are scheduled for the round, but do not receive ballots should go to the judge standby room: 8x8.vc/SCJFLstandby

Teams whose judges who do not accept their ballots will be charged a no-show fee.  The fees will incrementally increase throughout the tournament:

1st missed ballot - $20

2nd missed ballot - $40

Each subsequently missed ballot - $50

Judges whose names are called in the standby room but who do not respond will be considered a no-show.

 

When judges receive a ballot, we ask that they please stay in the competition room to finish filling out the ballot.  That way, if the tournament staff need to contact the judge, they can easily go into the competition room to discuss any potential problems.  

Judges are encouraged to submit the decisions (ranks) of the round and then add any additional feedback for the students after the decision has been recorded. This helps the tournament stay on time; we frequently are waiting on one single ballot before we can calculate the next round, so submitting a decision quickly moves the tournament along.

 

Deadlines:

Entry deadline for qualified students is Friday, April 30th at 12:00 p.m. noon Pacific.  The tournament staff will then assess the number of qualified entries and determine the number of additional wishlist requests that can be accepted.  

The tournament staff will add wishlist students to the tournament and then notify the coaches to check the updated registration summary to verify that the entries look correct.

 

Fees:

Fees will be assessed on Tuesday May 4th at 12:00 p.m. PST.  Any changes after this date will be subject to the following penalties. 

 

$50 school fee

$15 per IE/Congress/Spar slot ($30 per Duo team)

$40 per Lincoln Douglas/Public Forum/Big Questions slot

$30 judging fee per uncovered IE slot (One judge covers 5 IE slots)

$125 per uncovered debate slot (One judge covers 2 LD/PD/PFD slots)

$20 per change after Tuesday May 4th, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. PST. 

$50 No-show fee per competitor.

$200 dropped judge fee after May 7th at 12:01 a.m. PST.

$100 Delay of tournament fee

 

Tournament Staff:

Tournament director: Robert Cannon

Help room: Joannah Cannon & Alex Lee

Ombudsman: Mike Kyle

 

 

Throughout the entire tournament, we will have a live help room for anyone having trouble.  The URL will is 8x8.vc/SCJFLHelp