2-day Tournaments, Staff Additions, and Event Rules

In the spring we announced that in support of our mission and strategic plan, exciting changes were coming, including

• Adding Regional Outreach Coordinators to work with Regional Directors.
• Adding a 2-day tournament option to most regional schedules for a total of 4 in-region qualifying opportunities. 
• Adjusting some speech event time limits so that students can practice being concise and one pattern can be slightly shorter. 
• Increasing leadership opportunities for staff and volunteers throughout the league.

At Nationals, the Qualification Committee hosted a Q & A to continue the conversation about tournament changes for the upcoming season. Here are some highlights:

• In addition to our current tournament options, the new 2-day tournament allows more people to participate—requires less time away from home and gives more facilities hosting opportunities.
• In order to make a reasonable schedule for these tournaments, After Dinner Speaking, Open, and Persuasive will be 7-minute speeches in 2026-27. These speeches, along with Impromptu and Extemporaneous, will form the shorter Pattern B at every tournament for the season. The speaking slot in Pattern B will be 10 minutes for each competitor.
• Apologetics, Biblical Thematic, Digital Presentation, Duo, and Informative will form the longer Pattern A. The speaking slot for Pattern A will still be 15 minutes.

• At 2-day tournaments, there will be 3 preliminary rounds of speech Pattern A, 3 preliminary rounds of speech Pattern B, four preliminary rounds of debate, and finals for speech and debate. 
  • This means students may advance in speech or debate, be recognized at the Awards ceremony, receive an invitation to the Regional Championship, and earn at-large points, but not continue competing at that tournament. This is similar to the change we made in debate Octafinals two years ago.

New Staff 

In order to support our growing league, the Competition team has added 4 new staff members.

• Joanna Hemp, Assistant Director of Competition—Participate Experience
• Jennifer Martin, Assistant Director of Competition—Tournament Flow
• Deb Oliver, Assistant Director of Competiton—Qualification & Platform Operations
• Tara Trull, Competition Assistant

Speech and Debate Rules 

Finally, we are happy to announce the event rules have been updated for 2026-27, including the addition of After Dinner Speaking and Biblical Thematic. You can see a summary of all the rule changes here. Please review as you begin preparation for the upcoming season! 

Challenging and Equipping Ambassadors for Christ

We are so thankful for those who prayerfully and thoughtfully walked through the process of proposing and finalizing these changes. While remaining anchored in our foundational beliefs and core values, the changes will enable the league to engage with more host facilities and community judges, to serve more affiliate families, and challenge and equip more ambassadors for Christ through compelling and accessible programming.