ILLINOIS INTERCOLLEGIATE FORENSIC ASSOCIATION TOURNAMENT
General Tournament Information
www.iifa.us/iifa-state-tournament.html
ELIGIBILITY/ENTRY RESTRICTIONS
Any regularly enrolled undergraduate student who has not already competed in
four IIFA state tournaments and who has never judged at an IIFA state
tournament is eligible to enter as many as six events; however, the participant
may not enter more than two events in Groups A, B, and C (two Duos count as
two events) and one event in Group D.
STUDENTS ENTERED IN PARLI DEBATE MAY ONLY ENTER ONE EVENT IN GROUP A
Schools may enter up to four (4) participants or teams in each event.
GROUP A
Impromptu
Informative
Drama Interp
GROUP B
Prose
Communication
Analysis/Rhet Crit
STE/ADS
Poetry
GROUP C
Duo Interp
Oral Interp
GROUP D
Readers’ Theatre
Parli Debate
Oratory
Extemp
Policies and Guidelines affecting entering a single student in debate
(Hybrid and Maverick)
It is the preference of IIFA that all debate teams entered in the tournament be
made up of two students from the same school. However, recognizing that
situations do arise where a school could have a single student (or an odd number
of students) wishing to do debate and wanting to extend the educational benefit
of forensics to the greatest number of students, IIFA will allow entries of a single
student, under the following conditions and subject to the following rules and
guidelines:
1. A single student entry counts as one of the four allowed entries in parli, so
these provisions are only available to schools entering less than four full teams
into the tournament.
a) As schools are expected to create as many teams as possible from their own
debaters, teams may only enter one student as a designated solo entry, and that
entry will be subject to all of the following guidelines.
b) Coaches are expected to make every effort to field complete two-person
teams from within the members of their own squad.
c) If, after exhausting all possible options, a school still has an odd debater, that
student may still compete in the tournament, subject to the following:
1. If coaches cannot find a partner for a student from within their own
squad, they should then make every effort to form a hybrid team with
another school. Hybrid debate teams will be allowed, subject to the
following terms and conditions:
- A school can only be a part of one hybrid team.
- Sweepstakes points earned, if any, are split equally between the two
schools represented.
- Hybrid teams will only meet another team from the “home school” of
either of the hybrid members if necessary. (This would be done before
two full teams from the same school would meet).
- If either school making up a hybrid team is a 4-year school, the team
will be considered a 4-year entry in determining breaking and
sweepstakes points.
2. Hybrid teams created by coaches must be entered in the tournament
prior to the entry deadline.
3. If after exhausting all possible options, coaches cannot find a partner
either on their own squad or through the coach-created hybrid option, the
school may enter the one student as a solo entry, and must do so prior to
the entry deadline. The tournament director will form hybrid teams from
all single student entries, following this procedure:
- as many hybrid teams as possible will be created by random draw
from among the students entered as solo entries
- after all possible hybrid teams have been created the one remaining
student will be allow to compete as a maverick entry.
- the tournament director will notify the affected schools of the
results of the random pairing as soon as possible, but no specific
timeline is guaranteed.
- after a school is notified of the results of the draw, they may opt to
withdraw their student from the tournament, but may in no other
way affect the results of the draw.
- if student(s) are withdrawn, the tournament director will recreate
hybrid teams as necessary, in a manner deemed appropriate by the
Director, in consultation with the tournament staff.
- in no case will more than one maverick entry be allowed in the
tournament.
- for purposes of scheduling, a maverick entry will be considered an
entry of the one school
- hybrid teams created by the tournament staff will be subjected to
the rules and restrictions noted above for coach-created hybrid
teams (and those rules will apply across all hybrid teams, regardless
of how they were created).
d) Nothing in these procedures or guidelines will be deemed to allow the
creation of any maverick entries as a result of a debater being left without a
partner due to the partner withdrawing from the tournament for any reason.
Should a partner be forced to withdraw unexpectedly from any debate team at
any time, the IIFA Board will determine whether the remaining partner will be
repaired with someone else, allowed to compete as a maverick, or removed from
the tournament.
ENTRY SUBMISSION
Final entries must be received by 5:00 pm on Tuesday, March 3. Entries for all
events will be through SpeechWire.
CHANGES IN ENTRY
Schools may drop/substitute slots without penalty until 5:00 PM on Wednesday,
March 4. After that time, change and drop fees will apply. After 5 PM
Wednesday, you should contact Dan Smith by cell phone (309 657-9041). Do not
assume we have a change unless you get a confirmation from at least one of us.
TOURNAMENT FEES
The following fees will be charged for participation in the tournament:
a) The entry fee for all events except Oratory and Parliamentary Debate will be
$5.00 for each slot entered.
b) The entry fee for Oratory will be $7.00 for each slot entered.
c) The entry fee for Parliamentary Debate will be $25 for each team
entered. Each school that is part of a hybrid team will be charged $13.
c) A $25.00 IIFA membership fee will be charged to each school.
d) A drop fee of $5.00 per slot will be assessed after 5:00 p.m. on March 4.
e) Drops made at registration will cost $10.00 per slot.
f) A $50 nuisance fee will be assessed for judge drops after 5:00 p.m. on March 4.
g) A $100 nuisance fee will be assessed for judge drops at registration.
Make checks payable to IIFA. Checks made payable to anyone else may not be
accepted.
JUDGING REQUIREMENTS
Schools must provide one judge for every six (6) slots entered in all events other
than debate. Judges may be hired for $8.00 per slot not covered by a judge. No
undergraduate judges ‑‑ degreed judges only! (except with permission of the
tournament staff).
All schools that enter debate teams are required to provide enough debatequalified judges to cover their slots (1 judge minimum for 2 teams or less, 2
judges minimum for more than 2 teams). Schools that wish to enter debaters
but do not provide the required number of judges for debate will not be allowed
to compete in Parli debate. Schools that drop previously submitted judges may
also be required by the tournament staff to drop some or all of their debate
entries (unless a substitute judge is provided by the school in question). Judges
listed as "debate judges" can also be listed as "full-time individual event judges"
relative to the covering of non-debate I.E. slots if they are available and willing to
judge during all Flight A, Flight B, and Flight C rounds, in addition to judging Parli
debate rounds (debate judges who are only available for some rounds in Flight A,
B and/or C may be listed as a “half-judge”).
ALL DEBATE JUDGES MUST REMAIN TO JUDGE AT LEAST ONE ROUND PAST THE
ELIMINATION OF THEIR LAST TEAM. ALL I.T. JUDGES MUST BE AVAILABLE TO
JUDGE THE FINAL ROUND.
Everything possible will be done to balance judging assignments. However,
depending upon the nature of the tournament entry, judging may become a
result of tournament need.
If possible, Oratory will have two judges each round. If this is possible, the low
rank and rate will be dropped.
Unless other arrangements are made at the time of entry, ALL judges are
required to stay at least until the start of the last final round. Any judge may be
scheduled to judge one or both final rounds. No ballot packets will be released
prior to the end of the tournament.
Preliminary rounds will be open competition, randomly paired. Competitors
from the same school may be scheduled to meet each other in preliminary
and/or elimination rounds (if scheduled) if the tournament staff determines that
such intra-school competition is required in order to facilitate optimal efficiency
and fairness in the scheduling of the tournament (for example, in order to avoid
the scheduling of an undue number of "byes"). Brackets will not be broken in
debate.
In all events except Interpreters’ Theatre, the six participants (2 in debate) with
the best record will advance to the "open division" final round, and the six (2 in
debate) two year college participants with the best rankings that have not
advanced into open division finals will advance to the two-year college division
finals. Standard tiebreakers will be used.
In all events except Interpreters’ Theatre and Parliamentary Debate, if a
semi‑final round is necessary (60 or more total preliminary entries in those
events) the semi‑final will be held prior to separating into open and two-year
college divisions. If there is an insufficient number of two-year college semi‑final
breaks to make up a two-year college division final panel, the next highest
preliminary rankings will be advanced.
If 12 or more teams enter Parliamentary Debate, an open semi-final round will
be held for the four participants with the best record in preliminary rounds. The
winners of those semi-finals rounds will advance to the open final. The two
teams from 2-year schools with the best record in the preliminary round who did
not advance to the open semi-final will compete in the 2-year final. A team from
a 2-year school who competes in the open semi-final round is not eligible for
the 2-year final.
In Interpreters’ Theatre there will be one final round, open to all entries
competing in the event. The three Readers’ Theatres with the best ranks will
advance to the final round.
In final rounds, ties on ranks will be broken based on speaker/rating points. If
ties still exist, they will be broken on judges’ preference. If ties still exist, they
will be broken on preliminary round results.
Sweepstakes for both divisions will be based on appropriate elimination rounds
only. Sweepstakes points earned in the two-year college division will not count
in the open division. However, sweepstakes points earned in the open division
by a two-year college participant will count in the two-year college division. The
following point allocation will be used:
For all events, except RT and Parli Debate:
Two Year Division
Open Division
1st place
2nd place
3rd place
4th place
5th place
6th place
6
5
4
3
2
1
12
11
10
9
8
7
For Parli Debate:
Two Year Division
1st place
2nd place
Open Semi-Finals
6
5
Open Division
12
11
10
For RT:
1st place:
2nd place:
3rd place:
6
5
4
Awards will be presented to all participants in final rounds (or semi finals), the
top 6 two year debate speakers, the top 6 four year debate speakers, the top 5
two year individuals, the top 5 four year individuals, and to the 5 four year and
two year colleges accumulating the largest number of sweepstakes points. It is
possible for a two year college to place in both divisions; however, a university or
"4‑year college" can only place in the open division.
To be eligible for individual sweepstakes, a contestant must be entered in a
minimum of four events to qualify. Each student’s “best four” events will be
counted toward this award. The winners will be determined by the largest
number of sweepstakes points earned for their team in final rounds only.
Only the open division final round of Oratory will determine the two
representatives to the Interstate Oratorical Contest.
The tournament committee will set up tab room procedures and determine
tie‑breaking priorities. This year the tournament committee will consist of the
following:
Jim Dittus, Jeff Przybylo, Kari Schimmel
Dan Smith, Judy Santacaterina, Richard Paine
Pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Amendments Act of 2008
(ADAAA), Titles I and II of the ADA of 1990, and Sections 503 & 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Illinois Intercollegiate Forensic Association and
the IIFA State Tournament will not discriminate against any competitor, judge, or
student because of a physical or mental impairment. Every effort will be made to
assure reasonable accommodation.
In order to do so, IIFA requests that you report any impairment that may impact
the participation of any of your competitors or judges in the tournament when
you make your entry, so that accommodations may be planned/provided in
advance.