Stanford National Forensic Institute

35th Annual Stanford Invitational | February 6-8, 2021

 

 

The Stanford Debate Society is pleased to invite you to the 35th annual Stanford National Invitational, which will take place fully online on the Classrooms.Cloud platform. Students from around the world have been joining us for this national level competition since 1987, and we hope that you'll help us build on this tradition and join us this year!

 

Please visit stanford.tabroom.com for registration!

 

2021 DATES: February 6-8, 2021

 

FUTURE DATES: future dates subject to change; additional details will be released in the fall prior to each year's tournament)

• 2022: February 12-14, 2022
• 2023: February 11-13, 2023
• 2024: February 10-12, 2024
• 2025: February 8-10, 2025

 

Every competitor attending the Stanford Invitational must have their parent/guardian sign an "Individual Waiver" in order to attend the Stanford Invitational.  Squad coordinators bringing students to the Stanford Invitational must ensure that each student has completed this required document, which must be uploaded via Tabroom.com in advance of the tournament.  By registering to attend the tournament, coaches agree that they are responsible for overseeing completion of this requirement and understand that they will be asked to certify completion as a component of the final "e-registration" process.  More information can be found on the "Individual Waiver" page of the tournament invitation.

 

Stanford Debate does not provide any chaperones or supervision for competitors attending the tournament: all entries, including Non-School entries, must have a responsible adult chaperone accompanying them at all times during the tournament, no exceptions!

 

All payments for the Stanford Invitational must be made via the ASSU ePay system: more information and instructions are contained on your Tabroom.com invoice and on our Making Payment & Fees page of the invitation, but we are not accepting any paper checks mailed to the Stanford Debate address.

 

Tournament Dates & Timeline: Satuday, February 6th, 2021 through Monday, February 8th, 2021

• Registration Opens: November 25th, 2020 expected, will be announced via email
• Priority Entry Deadline: Tuesday, January 5th, 2021 (provisionally)
  • We will continue to accept entries beyond this date, however we plan to accept all teams on the waiting list as remaining space allows (such as entries from schools in excess of the initial entry cap in each event) after this deadline so that schools may make appropriate arrangements with sufficient lead time, so remaining space after this date may be extremely limited.  Please plan to register teams prior to this deadline in order to avoid disappointment!
• Drop Deadline / Fees Frozen: Friday, January 8th, 2021
  • Drops after this point are charged 100% of the entry fee.
  • TBA entries that are accepted to the field are subject to the same/full drop fees as any other team with named participants.
  • Past years have proven that the only way to keep the tournament accessible to all entrants, even those who can't confirm attendance and make arrangements and commitments to attend until later in the process, is the assessment of drop fees.
  • Revisions to the drop deadline schedule in recent years have proven necessary due to significant increases in registration and high numbers of "TBA" name entries that ultimately fall through and prevent others from attending.
• TBA Name Specification Deadline: Friday, January 15th, 2021
  • Any TBAs that remain in the field after this date will be dropped from the tournament.
  • As TBA entries are "confirmed" entries that block other squads from entering the field(s) just the same as non-TBA entries, TBAs accrue drop fees after the drop deadline and will remain on fee sheets.  This is true both for drops initiated by the squad coordinator or by the tournament once the TBA deadline passes.
• Fees Received Deadline: Friday, January 22nd, 2021
  • By this date we must have received all fees for all entries which we have accepted up through Tuesday, January 12th, 2021.
  • We reserve the right to assess an additional fee equal to the school fee owed by your squad in the event that you don't remit payment on time (as described above).
  • For entries that clear the waitlists closer into the tournament such that payment by January 22nd is not feasible, your payment must be received no later than Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021.
• Judge Entry Deadline: Friday, January 22th, 2021 (provisionally)
  • By this date, we MUST know if you plan to cover each entry's judging requirement via paying the judge fee or by providing a qualified judge.  If providing a judge, we need the name and contact info for each judge, and for judges in Varsity LD, Varsity PF & Varsity Policy a complete entry paradigm must also be listed on tabroom.  Visit the Judge Information page for more information.
  • For any judge information that is missing, we will assess a nuisance fine of $500 per uncovered entry as a reminder to enter your judging.  The fine is automatically removed once you have entered a given judge, but if you make it to the data freeze / registration immediately before the tournament with this fine on your account we will not remove it.  This has proved necessary due to the significant number of programs that have taken no action to enter any of their judges into tabroom.
  • We can't guarantee our ability to fulfill any requests to hire judges.  Any hire requests made after the judge deadline that we are able to fulfill will be at a rate equal to 125% of the initial judge hire fee. Again, this has proved necessary in order to incent programs to get their requests submitted in a timely fashion.
• (Mandatory) "E-Registration" pre-tournament check-in via Tabroom.com: Friday, February 5th, 2021 - time window TBA
  • In order to be eligible to check in electronically, a school’s fees (in their entirety) must have been received by the tournament.
  • Coaches must complete this process on Friday 2/7 (details to be posted closer to the tournament).
  • Squads that do not properly check in will be dropped from the tournament.  We must know that you are attending, have verified the ability of the entire delegation (competitors, judges, coaches) to access Tabroom.com & Classrooms.Cloud, and we will not accept any uncertainty as to pairings in the morning since that risks delays and undermines the competitive integrity of the competition.
  • There WILL NOT be phone registration offered, nor any sort of Saturday morning registration.
• Competition: Saturday, February 6th, 2021 to Monday, February 8th, 2021
  • Exact 2021 tournament schedule decisions are not finalized, but the general schedule will follow the below pattern:
    • IEs: Saturday and Sunday
    • Congress: Saturday and Sunday
    • Debate events: Saturday to Monday

 

Debate events: no cross entry with other events; all competition takes place synchronously

• LD: all rounds planned to be single flighted, but we reserve the right to flight early elimination rounds if required
  • ​TOC: 6 prelim rounds, all 4-2s clear with a cap of 64 total elim teams
  • Open: 6 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'debate' page for guidance)
  • JV: 6 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'debate' page for guidance)
  • MS: 6 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'debate' page for guidance)
  • Novice: 6 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'debate' page for guidance)
• Policy:
  • TOC: 6 prelim rounds, all 4-2s clear with a cap of 32 total elim teams
  • Open: 6 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'debate' page for guidance)
  • JV: 6 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'debate' page for guidance)
  • MS: 6 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'debate' page for guidance)
  • Novice: 6 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'debate' page for guidance)
• Public Forum: all rounds planned to be single flighted, but we reserve the right to flight early elimination rounds if required
  • ​TOC: 6 prelim rounds, all 4-2s clear with a cap of 64 total elim teams
  • Open: 6 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'debate' page for guidance)
  • JV: 6 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'debate' page for guidance)
  • MS: 6 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'debate' page for guidance)
  • Novice: 6 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'debate' page for guidance)
• Parliamentary: all rounds planned to be single flighted, but we reserve the right to flight early elimination rounds if required
  • ​Open: 6 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'debate' page for guidance)
  • JV: 6 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'debate' page for guidance)
  • MS: 6 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'debate' page for guidance)
  • Novice: 6 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'debate' page for guidance)
• Worlds Schools:
  • Varsity: 6 prelim rounds, all 4-2s clear with a cap of 32 total elim teams
  • Novice: 6 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'debate' page for guidance)
• Congress:
  • Varsity: 4 prelim rounds with a break to semifinals if 90+ entrants, else finals
  • MS: 4 prelim rounds with a break to semifinals if 90+ entrants, else finals
  • Novice: 4 prelim rounds with a break to semifinals if 90+ entrants, else finals

 

Speech events: no cross entry with other events (but up to triple entry in speech events is possible); all competition takes place synchronously with the exception of Duo which will be asynchronous

• Events: all divisions/levels follow the same patterning & competitors may triple enter
  • Pattern A: National extemp, oratory, dramatic, spar, expos/informative, and declamation
  • Pattern B: International extemp, duo, humorous, impromptu, oral interp, and program oral interp
• Varsity: 4 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'speech' page for guidance)
  • open to all students
• JV: 4 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'speech' page for guidance)
  • competitors must not have competed in any high school speech events prior to August 2019
• Novice: 4 prelim rounds with a generous elimination round break (see the 'speech' page for guidance)
  • open to students who did not compete in any high school speech events prior to August 2020

 

Eligibility: entries into a given event & level are subject to the following eligibility requirements

• LD, Policy, Public Forum & Parliamentary: no cross-entry with other events; TOC bids are awarded only in the 'TOC' divison(s)
  • ​TOC: competitors must be in grades 8-12
  • Open: competitors must be in grades 8-12
  • JV: competitors must be in grades 7-12 and must not have competed in any debate events prior to August 2019
  • MS: competitors must be in grades 6-8
  • Novice: competitors must be in grades 6-12 and must not have competed in any debate events prior to August 2020
  • *The tournament reserves the right to combine/collapse divisions in any event due to low enrollment or for logistical reasons in order to provide a better competition experience for competitors

• Worlds Schools: no cross-entry with other events

  • ​Varsity: competitors must be in grades 8-12
  • Novice: competitors must be in grades 6-12 and must not have competed in Worlds Schools prior to August 2020
  • *The tournament reserves the right to combine/collapse divisions in any event due to low enrollment or for logistical reasons in order to provide a better competition experience for competitors

• Congress: no cross-entry with other events

  • ​Varsity: competitors must be in grades 8-12 
  • MS: competitors must be in grades 6-8
  • Novice: competitors must be in grades 6-12

• Speech Events (IEs): competitors may triple enter in IEs, but no cross-entry with other events

  • ​Varsity: competitors must be in grades 8-12
  • JV: competitors must be in grades 7-12 and must not have competed in any speech events prior to August 2019
  • Novice: competitors must be in grades 6-12 and must not have competed in any speech events prior to August 2020
  • *The tournament reserves the right to combine/collapse divisions in any event due to low enrollment or for logistical reasons in order to provide a better competition experience for competitors

 

TOC Bids in 2021 include: note that in any event with a division named 'TOC' bids are awarded only in the TOC division (for example, bids are awarded in 'Public Forum - TOC' and bids are not awardewd in 'Public Forum - Open')

• Octafinals in Gold Public Forum, Double Octafinals in Silver Public Forum
• Quarterfinals in Varsity LD
• Semifinals in Varsity Policy
• Top 16 finishers in Congressional Debate
• IE events, level dependent on final entry numbers (see TOC IE bid tournaments page)
• *Note that all TOC bids are awarded per the rules and guidelines created by the relevant TOC commitee, and "bid levels" are subject to TOC confirmation (they do list this information on the TOC website).

 

Required Friday E-Registration Check-in: Mandatory tournament re-confirmation will take place electronically via Tabroom.com on the afternoon/evening of Friday, February 5th (details to be announced closer to the tournament).

• In order to be eligible to check in electronically, a school’s fees (in their entirety) must have been received by the tournament.
• No changes to TOC LD or TOC Policy judges will be accepted at registration whether in person or over the phone as strike and ranking sheets will have already been issued and processed.
• No registration by phone will be offered; every squad must check in via e-registration or their entries will be dropped from the field and not paired into round 1!
• No registration of any sort will be offered on Saturday morning; every squad must check in via Friday's e-registration or their entries will be dropped from the field and not paired into round 1!

 

Champion Awards:

• Champions receive an excellent award: Your squad will be excited to know that in addition to their trophy the following students will each receive a special award. The past few years this has been a Kindle Fire, Apple AirPods, and other exciting prizes! For the 2021 tournament we will have another great award for the:

  • Champion in TOC Policy

  • Champion in TOC LD

  • Champions in TOC Parli debate

  • Champions in TOC Public Forum debate

  • Champions in each Varsity IE event

  • Champion in Varsity Student Congress

  • Note: Champion is defined as the 1st place winner only & awards are for competitors only

• Partial scholarships to the 2021 SNFI Speech & Debate Camp: In addition to their trophy and award, students meeting the criteria outlined below will receive a partial scholarship to attend the 2021 Stanford National Forensic Institute.  Scholarships are not combinable for multiple event winners, or transferrable to other students or events.

  • Speech events (all IEs):

    • ​Varsity: Champions in each varsity speech event will receive a 50% scholarship to attend the 2021 Stanford National Forensic Institute in Individual Events.

    • JV: Champions in each JV speech event will receive a 25% scholarship to attend the 2021 Stanford National Forensic Institute in Individual Events.

  • Debate events (Policy, LD, PF, Parliamentary, Worlds Schools, Congress):

    • ​Varsity: specific details TBA
    • JV: specific details TBA

 

Questions: Questions about the 2021 Stanford Invitational should be directed to tournament director Rich Boltizar or our other staff by e-mailing invitational@stanforddebate.com. You may also try calling the Stanford Debate office at (650) 723-9086, however email is the most efficient way to reach our staff, and likely will receive a much quicker response.

 

We view this tournament as an opportunity to provide a service to the speech and debate community, and hope that is apparent to past attendees. We welcome feedback about how we can continue to improve the Stanford Invitational. So that we may accommodate all of your students who wish to compete, please take care of your tournament registration and all other arrangements as soon as posible. This will ensure a pleasant and trouble-free tournament for everyone, and allow us to host you in the way you deserve!

Best regards,

 

Rich Boltizar

Director of Debate, Stanford University

Executive Tournament Director, Stanford Invitational