Upcoming Deadlines and Important Details

Ready. Set. Go! This week’s update includes vital details to prepare you for a successful launch into the competitive season. The first online tournament begins in just five weeks!

Prepare

1. Review and update your account information if you haven’t done so already. 
2. We strongly encourage every family to register for one of the free online platform practice opportunities outlined in the November 20 Competition Update. A variety of available dates and times provides maximum flexibility for families to choose an opportunity that works best. Registration for these opportunities closes December 11 at 5:00pm CT.
3. We’re excited to share a newly-published resource! In the NCFCA Online Tournament Technology Guide, you will find important information and tips regarding equipment, internet connection, browsers, vocal & physical delivery, and event-specific details. 
4. Be sure to review the event rules, script rules, online protocols, and League Handbook policies and procedures available in the Resource Library.

Participate

Registration requests are open for all confirmed competitive opportunities. Additional dates will be added soon.

National Opens - upcoming deadlines

• National Open 1A “East Regions” registration request deadline: Monday, 12/7 at 5:00pm CT
• National Open 1B “West Regions” registration request deadline: Monday, 12/14 at 5:00pm CT
• Note that National Open competition spans four days

Regional Qualifiers

• View the tournament information on your dashboard for regional qualifier registration request deadlines. Due to the Christmas holiday, several regional online qualifier registration requests are closing Monday, 12/14 at 5:00pm CT. 

Parents 

Parents are an essential part of successful NCFCA competition, both onsite and online. We cannot offer competitive opportunities for our students without you!

For online competition:

• At least one parent or designated adult must be available throughout the entire tournament. 
• Parents will need to designate at least seven rounds they are committed to judge as part of the check-in process. (The judge registration button on the dashboard is for community judges.) 
  • It is possible that a parent will not be needed for all seven rounds, but we will need a commitment for the minimum number. 
  • Within a 2-hour debate time slot, do not sign up for both Lincoln-Douglas Value and Team Policy debate or two Lincoln-Douglas Value debate rounds.
  • Avoid signing up for back-to-back rounds when possible in order to have adequate time to complete your ballots.
• Parents of competitors are expected to be on call to judge at other times, if needed.

Patterns

For each tournament, speech events are divided into two groups called patterns. On the tournament schedule, any rounds labeled with “A” include the events designated as pattern A, and rounds labeled “B” include the events designated as pattern B. Competitors present speeches three times in preliminary rounds - once during each designated pattern. 

Typically, patterns vary from tournament to tournament depending on facility constraints and the number of competitors signed up for each type of speech. For online competition, many of the barriers to predetermining patterns do not exist. 

The following patterns will be designated for all online National Opens and Regional Qualifiers: 

• Pattern A: Apologetics, Digital Presentation, Duo, Humorous, and Informative
• Pattern B: Biblical Thematic, Extemp, Impromptu, Open, and Persuasive

Predetermining patterns means our system will not factor in the number of events any participant has per pattern. We strongly advise competitors to avoid registering for more than three events in a pattern. Competitors are not permitted to register for more than five speech events per tournament. 

We hope publishing the patterns now will enable families and judges to plan ahead!

As a reminder, competitors will be assigned speaking times within the rounds in 12-minute intervals. NCFCA software will account for multi-entered competitors to avoid conflicting times for each student.

Questions?

A helpful "Whom should I contact if I need assistance?" resource is available on page 25 of the League Handbook for the applicable contact information.