Welcome to the home page for the 2019 Principios, 6th Annual 3rd-12th Grade Fall Invitational Urban Forensics Fundraiser tournament hosted by Pacoima Charter School, 11016 Norris Avenue, 91331 on Nov 3, 2019 for Various students.

Status: Tournament Completed

** Update 11/4/19 - What an amazing tournament! We started Awards only four minutes late. How often do you see that at a speech contest? Huge thanks to our Tab-Master Jeff Niemic and his assistants Erica Zhu and Lauren Velasquez-Galvez! Thank you also to the volunteer staff organized by Top Education's Stella Gu and to the top notch service and security staff on campus headed by Pacoima Charter's Agustin Mena! Round by round results and speaker points (organized by school) are available in the Results Tab! For a look at the Rankings Sheets (organized by top ranking students for each event), click here: 2019 Principios VI Final Rankings




Introduction: Welcome to the sixth annual Principios 3rd-12th Grade Invitational! Principios in Spanish means both beginnings and moral principles. Since lack of money, transportation and coaching are often cited as the principal factors which prevent urban students from competing in speech & debate, this tournament provides a free, neighborhood fundraiser for urban students in impacted zones of the San Fernando Valley. In addition, we allow parents and adults to film in rounds to cut against the disadvantage of urban students/schools not having access to videos of each event. Please do not register students who are not ok with being filmed. However, the filming cannot be uploaded. They are only to be used for educational purposes. The tournament reserve the exclusive right to upload images and videos, though we will not identify students without their permission. Please check back to this page, as we will be adding to it continuously. For your convenience and clarity, we will be adding dates and posting times to paragraphs which have been updated.


Patterns: we will use three patterns of events with Congress & various prepared, original speech events in Pattern A, SpAr & Impromptu in Pattern B and various acting events in Pattern C. We will also hold all three rounds of Pattern A in a row, followed by all rounds of Pattern B, and topped off by all rounds of Pattern C, so that students can stay for only a third of the schedule if need be. We will hold no Final Rounds to facilitate this. Students will be allowed to double enter in each of the three patterns.



Divisions: When possible, we will offer three different divisions of each event, such as Elementary (3rd-5th Grade), Middle (6th-8th Grade) and High (9th-12th Grade). Students cannot move down in division but they are allowed to move up to compete in an older division. Students in a two person event who come from two different divisions should enter in the Division corresponding to the older of the pair (e.g. an elementary girl and a middle school boy could do a duo together but must enter in middle school division Duo). When there are not at least three entries in a division category, the tournament reserves the right to eliminate the category and refund any entry fees paid or to fold the division "upward" into the next highest division of the category, but allowing the one or two in the lower category to opt out and receive a refund.


Events (subject to revision & changing of pattern): Pattern A: Congress. Original Oratory, Expository (no Visual Aids), Original Comic Commentary. Pattern B: SpAr, Impromptu, Original Prose for 1 or 2 speakers, Presentacion en Español (original or published) de 1 or 2  Pattern C: Prose Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Storytelling and Declamation. 


Judging: One judge is required to cover every four categories/events registered. High school students may only be used to judge middle and elementary students at the discretion of the tournament. Please mark judges if they are high schoolers and explain why they are trusted to be effective judges. $15 penalty for every uncovered category/event.  Judge training, ballot pick up and submission and tab room will be in the auditorium, as well as awards.
 Until awards, the auditorium is only to be occcupied by judges and tabroom or school staff. Please warn non-judging parents and students to NOT seek to congregate in the auditorium.


Fees are $15 for every entry, including Duo and Original Prose for 1 or 2 Speakers. No team or school fees, but not having a judge cover for your entries effectively doubles your entry price from $15 per category/event to $30 each.
Deadlines: The drop date and last date to add will be October 25th, 11:59PM. Our schedule is listed below and our pattern schedule (intended to allow even students with limited ability to stay all day to compete in a third of the events within  a four hour span and leave if need be) also. We will allow double entry within a pattern but not triple entry. Nevertheless, it will be possible for a student to sextuple enter if he/she double enters in all three patterns. Payment is required in by October 25th via Zelle to Ricardo Velasquez at rv4@me.com. Arrange with the tournament early if that poses a problem.


Congress Topics:
Round 1:  ETS Landscape scores should become mandatory in admissions at all public universities to offset the artificial SAT score boost provided by test prep companies to applicants of greater financial means.
Round 2: Public prisons across the country should expand upon the California inmate firefighter program and offer a) minimum wage, b) one day off of remaining sentence for every day fighting fires, c) compensation to family upon death or incapacitation while fighting a fire and d) upon prisoner's release from jail, facilitate and fast track the former prisoner's admission to a Firefighter training program.
Round 3Like all other federal employees, Presidents should not be exempt from immediate prosecution if they are charged with having committed a federal crime.


Schedule - Sunday, November 3rd, 2019 [tentative! if we can move times up, we will, don't leave campus!]
07:30 - 07:45   Judge Orientation

07:45 - 07:55   Round 1 Judging Assignments

08:00 - 09:00   Round 1 - Pattern A (Congress, Expository, Orig Oratory, Orig Comic Comment)

09:05 – 10:05  Round 2 - Pattern A

10:10 - 11:10   Round 3 - Pattern A

11:15 - 11:25    Round 2 Judging Assignments

11:30 - 12:30   Round 1 - Pattern B (Impromptu, SpAr 1-1-3-1-1, Orig Prose, Presentación en Español)

12:35 – 01:35  Round 2 - Pattern B

01:40 - 02:40   Round 3 - Pattern B

02:45 - 02:55   Round 3 Judging Assignments

03:00 - 04:00   Round 1 - Pattern C  (Storytelling, Duo Interpretation, Declamation/OI, Prose Interp)

04:05 - 05:05   Round 2 - Pattern C

05:10 - 06:10   Round 3 - Pattern C

06:15 - 06:45    Tabulation & Verification of Scores

06:50 - 08:00   Awards in Auditorium (elementary first, middle school second, etc...)


Descriptions & Rules for each event and judging instructions will be posted soon, as well as pictures and helpful links and videos.
Food: There will be one or two food trucks on campus on the contest day.  Please emphasize to everyone that no food is allowed in the rooms and that NO ONE should be in the contest room without a judge present. Competitors should NOT be in the auditorium and will be asked to leave unless powerful exceptions require them to be there. Please tell parents to not congregate in the auditorium unless they are judging, let alone allow their children to play there or take the food purchased for judges.

Food Trucks: There will be two food trucks of outstanding quality, one of them there from 7:30AM to sell breakfast items.  Please emphasize to everyone that no food is allowed in the rooms and that NO ONE should be in the room without a judge present.