SpeechWire Tournament Services - Forensics Tournament Software

December is fast approaching, and with it comes the excitement of the holidays. It also means the 2021 WKU Senior Hilltopper Classic is coming, with a few changes. This year we will be hosting a virtual asynchronous tournament, held December 6-11, 2021. We will offer:

• All Kentucky High School Speech League senior IE events (Event descriptions and rules found below)

Please read this entire invitation thoroughly. There are some changes from last year. However, if you have any questions, please contact Ben Robin by email at benjamin.robin@wku.edu. We sincerely hope if you attended last year that you will return, and if you did not, please consider adding us to your schedule. See you “on The Hill” in December for the Hilltopper Classic!!!

Students should record a video of their event, then upload it to their own private (or parent/team) youtube channel. Once uploaded, students should adjust the video setting to “unlisted.” This will make the video un-searchable, but still viewable to anyone with the link (url.)

The camera must remain stationary during the performance, but competitors may place themselves within the frame (and move in/out) as they see fit.

If using a YouTube link for recorded video, it should be unlisted. If using a Google Drive, OneDrive, etc. link, make sure the file sharing setting allows anyone to view. NOTE: WKU is requiring Youtube links for our tournament.

Due to copyright issues, all recordings must be deleted upon completion of the tournament.”

DUO: recordings of duo events may be split screen OR both performers can be in the same room. We will allow the performers to make the best decisions for themselves.

When registering for the tournament, Enter all events in Speechwire. After, go to the “video links” tab, then copy and paste each student’s URL. Please double check that the link works!

These links will also be provided to other competitors in the round. Due to privacy concerns, only judges and students participating in a specific round will have access to video links for that round. Do not share these links out of respect for the performers.

Recording of a student’s performance is strictly forbidden. Student violators of this policy will be disqualified. Coach/judge violators risk their team’s disqualification from the tournament with no refund.

Important: Your students will only be able to watch other competitors videos IF they have an active speechwire account. You must sign them up on your “roster” on speechwire.com. After you do this, they will receive an email with instructions to complete their account set up.

Preliminary rounds will be judged on Wednesday and Thursday. Finals/Semis will be judged on Friday and Saturday.

A recorded awards ceremony video will be released on Saturday afternoon. Time: TBD

Competitor videos only need to be set on “unlisted” for the duration of the tournament. After the tournament is over, competitors can adjust their video setting to “private” ensuring the link will no longer provide access to the video.

All LP (Extemp, Imp, Improv DUO) prompts will be released 3 days before registration is due. (We will publish the prompts at the bottom of THIS DOCUMENT at noon (CST) on Friday, Dec. 3rd Videos must be submitted by 5:00 (CST) on Monday, December 6th.)

Extemp prompts will consist of questions. Impromptu Prompts will be quotations. Improv Duo prompts will be scenes.

Students can choose any prompt from the provided options. From the moment of selection, students will have their normal amount of prep time and then must immediately perform and record their performance. (Prep time does not need to be filmed for any event.)

We are using the honor system here. We are confident that our community will maintain the highest ethical standards in these difficult circumstances. We are providing an extensive prep period so there is plenty of time to deal with any technical challenges that may arise. The video url must be provided (by way of registration) by 5:00PM on Monday Dec 6th 2021.

The 1 provided video will be judged in preliminary rounds 1, 2 and 3, and then again in Finals if the student(s) break.

Once we have all entries/videos registered, we will create the tournament on Tuesday night. All judges should expect their eballots to be available (via live.speechwire.com) by Tuesday night at 7:00 (or ASAP). Judges are expected to watch their rounds, then provide feedback and rankings. We would like for e-ballots to be returned to us as soon as possible. However, judges will have until Thursday at noon to complete judging their assigned preliminary rounds.

Thursday afternoon, Final/Semifinal round ballots will become available. While we would prefer e-ballots returned as soon as possible, Semifinal ballots must be returned by 3:00PM on Friday. This is to ensure a quick turnover for those finals. All Final round ballots must be returned by Saturday at noon.

IMPORTANT: All judges must have active speechwire accounts. When submitting a judge for the tournament you MUST provide their email address. They will soon after receive an email with instructions for completing their account set up. Some judges may already have an active account. Double check with them. Once this is set up, judges should be able to receive email notifications when they have eballots waiting for them.

If you do not bring enough judges, there is a fee for each uncovered entry. In other words, please attempt to fulfill your commitment.

We will be offering all of the Kentucky High School Speech League senior Speech events, including Informative Speaking, Programmed Oral Interpretation (no PF, congress, L-D Debate nor Policy Debate). Due to the asynchronous nature of the tournament, students may enter as many events as they like. You may enter as many contestants as you wish in each category. Descriptions of these events and rules regarding them can be found here:

The event rules for KHSSL are available at the following link: KHSSL Handbook Note that the league tends to update the document each August.

Note: While judges MAY award students with a rank of 1 with 100 speaker points, this is NOT REQUIRED at this tournament. For example, judges may award a 1/95 if they wish.

We will host semifinals in events with exceptionally large entries, unless there is a clean break for finals. Given that there are 3 prelim rounds, if we are able to break straight to a final, we will. If a semi does occur, the top twelve in each event will advance. These shall be chosen with the lowest cumulative score and tie breakers will follow the procedure described in the KHSSL Handbook.

Awards will be presented to the top six in each I.E. category. Sweepstakes Awards will be presented to the top five schools in I.E.

a) Schools accumulate sweepstakes points based upon the success of their entries. Each entry having a composite rank of 3, 4, or 5 is worth five points while a composite rank of 6, 7, or 8 is worth three points and a composite rank of 9, 10, or 11 is worth one point. Finalists receive points as follows: ten points for first place, seven points for second place, five points for third place, three points for fourth place, two points for fifth place and one point for sixth place.

b) Break ties in Sweepstakes placement in the following order, by the greatest number of Finalists, then Semi-finalists, then Ranks of one in the preliminary rounds.

7:00PM - All Preliminary Rounds will become available for Judges at live.speechwire.com. We would like you to complete them as quickly as possible, but you will have until Thursday, Dec 9th at noon to complete your rounds and submit them.

This tournament is again a qualifying tournament for the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions this year. For additional information on the NIETOC and their qualification process, you can visit their website at www.nietoc.com.

Submit all entries at speechwire.com We must receive your entry by 5:00 PM Central Time on Monday, December 6th, 2021. Entries after that deadline will NOT be accepted, and if you manually drop a student after erroneously adding them, it is counted as a drop. That is our penalty for what is effectively late registration. All entries must be made online, via speechwire.com. Given the asynchronous nature of the tournament there should be no drops.

WKU FORENSICS TEAM AUDITIONS

Once again, the WKU forensics team will be holding open team auditions prior to the Sr. Hilltopper Classic.

If you would like to audition for the team, send the following materials to ganer.newman@wku.edu by 5:00PM (CST) December 6th, 2021

-Academic transcript (Doesn’t need to be official)

-List of notable forensics accomplishments

-Link to video of ONE performance of your choosing

Ganer Newman

1906 College Heights Blvd. #51084

Bowling Green, KY 42101-1084

For more information please contact Ganer Newman at ganer.newman@wku.edu, or call 270-745-6340. We look forward to “seeing” you on The Hill in December!

2. Make sure you code yourself against any student from another school you should not be judging. This MUST be done when inputting judges in speechwire.

3. Never switch judging assignments with anyone. This can cause problems when replacing judges in later rounds and for finals.

I.E. entries are $10.00 per entry ($20.00 for each Duo and Improv Duo team) and $10.00 for each entry not covered by a judge. (one judge covers six I.E. entries). Please make this check payable to WKU Forensics. A $25.00 per I.E. entry drop fee will be charged for all drops after the 5:00PM CST Dec 6th deadline. A $50.00 drop fee will be charged if you drop a judge after the 5:00PM CST Dec 6th deadline. We recognize that getting money from administrations can be tough right now. All entry fees, judging fees, and drop fees can be paid after the completion of the tournament.

Speechwire provides a fee estimate available to you upon completing your entry. However, teams will be sent an official final fee sheet on Wednesday. At this time, we are only able to accept checks. Please make checks payable to:

For any questions concerning billing please contact Debra Gensheimer via email at: debra.gensheimer@wku.edu

As always, the tournament is open to all people from 9th grade through 12th, from any state or commonwealth. We use Kentucky events (most of which are virtually identical to NSDA events) and you can find the rules for those events in the link for KHSSL Handbook. KHSSL Handbook

Also, in keeping with recent tradition, we will have WKU Forensic Team members judging heavily, in events that they have personally advanced into a national final round themselves.

1) While entering: Please remember to edit and update judge details yourself, namely school or entry restrictions.

2) Deleting a name on your entry does NOT DROP the entry. It simply erases the name. You DROP by selecting the drop-down called "drop."

Your very silence shows you agree.

Euripides

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, however, if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

Maya Angelou

One of the hardest tasks of leadership is understanding that you are not what you are, but what you're perceived to be by others.

Edward L. Flom

You cannot reason with people who don't recognize the humanity in all of us.

Roxane Gay

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

Alan Kay

What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?

Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862)

Extemp Questions: Choose 1

How can the Biden Administration prepare the US for the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19?

What should the federal government do to address the rising cost of housing throughout the US?

Will the Democrats' spending plans yield significant progress toward reducing the United States' greenhouse gas emissions?

Can the Biden Administration reinstitute a constructive nuclear agreement with Iran?

Will the joint military effort by Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo defeat the ADF?

Is the EU mismanaging its response to the Poland-Belarus border crisis?

Improv Duo Prompts: Choose 1

While shopping, one person observes their friend stealing.

Two people are stuck in an elevator, and one has to use the bathroom.

Two old friends randomly run into each other in an embarrassing place.

College roommates spend a holiday dinner together with one of the roommates' eccentric family.

After a breakup, an ex-couple devises a series of trials to win ownership of their shared pet.

During a public performance of their best friend, one person realizes their friend is absolutely awful.

Benjamin Robin
Email address: benjamin.robin@wku.edu
Phone number: 270-745-6340