Attention all 2nd - 8th graders  Save the Date: OCTOBER 29th, 2022 ONLINE

You are invited to Thumper's Early Halloween Speech Invitational for middle school and elementary students. It is open to all schools and programs throughout the Universe. A great warm-up tournament for the season, offering SPAR, limited prep, and memorized speech events. A quick day of competition on October 29th, Thumpers promises to bring early Halloween joy to every competitor and coach! Sign Up deadline is Saturday 10/22 by 5pm.  Drop by Tuesday 10/25 by 5pm. 

This will be an Elementary School (SPAR and Impromptu only) AND Middle School Tournament.

The host of this tournament is Nova 42 Academy and its students. The tournament allows for all public, private, and home-schooled students to compete. This tournament is meant to encourage healthy competition at all levels.  We would like schools to be aware of the following:

1.  The tournament will be held entirely online.  Please see the Best Practices Guide on this tournament page for additional information regarding the preparation for Internet tournaments and important reminders for those who have experience with online tournaments. Additionally, this guide will have suggestions and policies regarding specific events. 

2.  Throughout the entire tournament, we will have a live help room for anyone having trouble.  The URL will be 8x8.vc/TEHhelp. If anyone from your team has problems, this virtual room will be the first place to go.

There will be a judge training session for those unfamiliar with judging speech events and navigating ballots online. It will be held at 7:30am in the help room at 8x8.vc/TEHhelp. Judges will report to and remain in, until excused, 8x8.vc/TEHstandby.

Events and Divisions include:

Informative - Elementary and Middle School (combined - Open Division)                             

Original Oratory - Middle School

Public Forum - Middle School              

SPAR - Elementary and Middle School 

Impromptu - Middle School

Patterns are as follows:

Pattern A: PF

Pattern B: OO, Informative

Pattern C: Imp, SPAR,

*Students may enter up to two different events in patterns B or C.

*Students cannot enter both patterns A and B.

Rules/Event Descriptions:

All events will follow the attached rules unless otherwise noted in this invitation.  For a full list of all the event descriptions, tournament procedures, and round design, please see the attached document.  

Eligibility:

This tournament is open to the entire Universe! Including all schools, clubs, after-schools, interstellar visitors, and homeschoolers.

Students from 2nd - 5th grade are permitted to compete in the elementary division.

Students from 6th - 8th grade are permitted to compete in the middle school division.

Postings: 

Postings will be sent to each student 10 to 15 minutes before each round begins. Coaches should update their student rosters on ForensicsTournament.net to include the cell numbers and/or the e-mail addresses for each student. Once the posting preference is selected, coaches can test that the cell/e-mail is getting through to the student(s). Students and judges do not need to create their own accounts on ForensicsTournament.net. Here is an article which explains how competitors and judges alike can update the school’s roster, it is heavily suggested for it to be done.

Judges:

Each school must supply at least one judge and may purchase the balance required. Each school is required to bring one judge for every 5 individual event competitor registered, and for every two LD competitor or PF team registered. $50.00 for each uncovered entry in debate and $25.00 for each uncovered individual event entry. Judges must be existing 10th grade or higher students or adults to judge middle school events and 7th grade or higher for elementary judging. For high school age judges, we require they have a minimum of 2 competitions worth of experience. We require each judge to have a reliable Internet connection and use a laptop or desktop computer to evaluate the round, as can be checked in the enclosed Best Practices guide. We encourage computers for the easiest accessibility on eBallots and the video screen simultaneously. We recommend that judges open the eBallot on one computer tab and the video on another.  Alternatively, judges can take notes on paper while viewing the round, and then transcribe the notes to the eBallot after the round has concluded.

While the tournament will attempt to accommodate those with Internet problems, it cannot do so at the expense of fairness or delay of the tournament. 

Special Rules:

In keeping with the rules and by-laws, we would like to call your attention to a few items that may be different from other tournaments.

- SPAR times are the following: (2 prep) Pro 2; Con 2; Cross 4; Pro 2; Con 2.

- Performative plagiarism, prevents the “copying the performance of other performers.”  Please review this section of the rules for all students entered in the Storytelling and Oratory events, as we will not be tolerating plagiarism of any kind.

Theme:

As this is Thumper and Marvel's Halloween Invitational, there would be nothing without the honoring of the infamous rabbits themselves in a fun Halloween way!

• Every student will be allowed to dress in their favorite Halloween costume - no covering your face or masks!

• After, each student will be given the option to send in their costume to Nova 42’s Instagram to which they will all be voted on! No pressure!

Fees:

$15 per student/per event / $30 per PF team    

Judge Requirements:

Each team must bring one judge for every 5 competitors per division and 2 judges per debate entry

Speech and Debate Schedule: (all times in PST)

7:30 AM Judge Training (Highly Recommended!!!) (8x8.vc/TEHhelp)

9:00 AM Round 1 Pattern A 

9:00 AM Round 1 Pattern B 

9:00 AM Round 1 Pattern C

10:30 AM Round 2 Pattern A 

10:30 AM Round 2 Pattern B

10:30 PM Round 2 Pattern C

12:00 PM Round 3 Pattern A

12:00 PM Round 3 Pattern B

12:00 PM Round 3 Pattern C

2:30 PM Awards or ASAP