The Maine Forensic Association is pleased to invite you to the Maine Debate Scrimmage on October 31, 2020. 

Registration deadline: 5 p.m. October 30

Judge hire request deadline: Noon October 30

Judge entry deadline: 11 p.m. October 30

Fees and judge obligations frozen (nonrefundable): 8 a.m. October 31

Drop deadline: 8:30 a.m. October 31

Nuisance fees for drops applied: 8 a.m. October 31

Any questions, please contact Jason Curry, MFA President, by email: JCurry@msad51.org.

Registration

Minimum requirements for virtual competition

As this is a virtual tournament that will be hosted on Tabroom.com and NSDA Campus, there are three core requirements for participating in a virtual competition with the MFA:

1. All participants (coaches, students, and judges) each must have an account on Tabroom.com as posting and competition is all completed online. New students can register with Tabroom.com and ensure they are linked to their team’s roster.

2. Prior to tournament day, ensure each participant (students, judges, and coaches) have access to campus.speechanddebate.org on the network from which they will be participating. If necessary, work with respective network managers to whitelist the domain.

3. Registration must be completed through Tabroom.com by 5 p.m., Friday, October 30.

Entry Fees

Each participating school will owe $20 for this tournament.

Drops

Drops and changes will be accepted until tournament day at 8:30 a.m. Invoices will be prepared at that time. Late add requests are not encouraged and will be accepted only at the discretion of the tournament hosts. Drops after this time will be assessed an additional charge of $10 per entry.

Events

• LD: 3 levels, if numbers allow

• PF: 2 levels, if numbers allow

Event/division definitions

Novice level is for students competing in their first year of high school forensics (i.e. first year competitors). Note that Oratorical Declamation is limited to freshmen and sophomore students only.

Junior varsity level is primarily for second-year competitors, but also first year competitors who have enjoyed success.

Varsity level is for competitors with more than one year of experience who wish to try a higher level of competition.

Maverick in Public Forum Debate is a single-person team. A maverick WILL NOT be allowed at this tournament.

Debate Topics

LD resolution

Resolved: In a democracy, voting ought to be compulsory.

PF resolution

Resolved: The United States federal government should enact the Medicare-For-All Act of 2019.

Judge Requirements

All judges must have an account on Tabroom.com as all balloting is completed online. New judges can register with Tabroom.com and ensure they are linked to your judge roster. Missing a judge results in a $60 fine.

Varsity members of your team are allowed to judge novice competition. Student judges should have: 

• If a member of NSDA, a minimum of 250 NSDA points

• If not a member of the NSDA, be of at least Junior year standing and have competed in many tournaments, ideally with decent success

If you are registering varsity competitors as judges, they must be added to your judge roster and linked to access their ballots.

Help the meet run smoothly and fairly by supplying your required, trained judges, including unaffiliated, in accordance with MFA rules. Have all your judges finalized by 11 p.m. October 30.

Note judge conflicts or shadow needs in your judge registration on Tabroom.com. Email the tournament host for any complex judge situations. Remember a parent cannot judge the category in which their child is competing.

Fractional entries round up (i.e. three LD entries = 2 judges). Third, fifth, and seventh judge must be neutral/unaffiliated for Speech, LD, PF.

• LD: one judge for every 2 LD entries

• PF: one judge for every 2 teams

Judges are expected to be available for ALL rounds of competition. Fines will be assessed for judges departing early unless cleared through Tabulation.

Hiring Judges

If you are struggling to fulfil your judge burden, many coaches have success by announcing their need to the Maine list serv and negotiating an exchange, including pay rate. In this case, add a negotiated judge to your Tabroom roster using the judge’s email address so they are appropriately linked.

If you still can’t fulfill your judge buden, the tournament may have extra judges available for you to hire. If so, fees for purchasing judges will be $60 per judge. Submit requests to hire judges via Tabroom.com by Noon, Friday, October 30.

If you have extra judges, contact the Tournament Director so the judge can be added to the judge hire pool.

Recognition

As a scrimmage, hosts will not be tabulating results nor granting awards.

Schedule

7:30-8:30 a.m. Online check-in (see below)

• It is the coach’s responsibility to validate that all students are ready for online competition.

• Tabulation will close check-in promptly to then panel rounds.

• Note that delays or errors in affirming your check-in may delay the tournament.

8:35 Judges meeting in virtual breakouts

• Keep an eye out for an email blast with a link to your respective virtual briefing.

9:00 Rounds begin following briefings

Checking into tournament

To complete online check-in:

1. Confirm that each of your students, judges, and yourself are logged into the following (opening multiple tabs recommended):

1. maineforensic.org/onlinetournament. Passwords will be emailed to all participants the morning of the tournament.

2. Tabroom.com

3. Respective e-mail accounts associated with Tabroom.com. All Tabroom announcements are issued by email and/or text depending on user preference.

2. Once you have confirmed that everyone is present and prepared, follow these instructions to check into the tournament. Check-in closes promptly to accommodate paneling of rounds.