2025 Countdown Challenge

• Setup:

  This status is used while the tournament is still being setup.

• Open:

  This status means tournament registration is open. Families can register for the tournament.

• Drops Only:

  This status means only registration drops are allowed. There are no new entries allowed but families can drop entries.

• Closed:

  This status means registration is currently closed for the tournament. There are no adds or drops allowed. Please contact the tournament director with any questions.

• Completed:

  This status means the tournament is completed.

THANK YOU for your interest in judging at our Speech and Debate Tournament!!! We rely on community support to help our tournament run smoothly!!!

You will use this web site (Stoa Hub) to pick the time that works best for you to judge.  

Please arrive 45 minutes prior to your selected speech and/or debate round in order to receive  orientation.

TIME COMMITMENT FOR JUDGES

Lincoln Douglas Debate: Approximately 2 – 2.5 hrs, which includes 45 min for training and 45 minutes for the actual debate with the remaining 30 min to an hour allotted to completing the ballot.

Team Policy Debate: Approximately 2.5 – 3 hrs, which includes 45 min for training and 1.25 hrs for the actual debate with the remaining 30 minutes to an hour allotted for completing the ballot.

Parliamentary Debate: Approximately 2 - 2.5 hrs, which includes 45 min for training and 40 minutes for the actual debate with the remaining 30 min to an hour alloted to completing the ballot.

Speech: Approximately 3 – 3.5 hrs, which includes 45 min for training and 2 hrs for the actual speech round with the remaining 30 minutes to an hour allotted for completing the ballot.

For scheduling purposes please allow an hour to complete the ballots. The students value your comments on the ballots and will learn from them. Some judges can give great feedback in a short amount of time, others need longer.

During Judge Training, you will be given a good overview of the events and the judging process at the tournament. There will be four types of judge training - Parliamentary (Parli) debate, Lincoln Douglas (LD) debate, Team Policy (TP) debate, and Speech.  Training for all events will take place throughout Friday and Saturday.

Once you have completed training for one type of debate, for example Lincoln Douglas (LD), you may judge additional rounds of the same type without the need of repeating the training. However, additional training will also be required for judging each of the other types of debate, Team Policy (TP) debate and Parliamentary debate. 

If you arrive early, please stop by the Judge Deliberation Room, where you will find a variety of good things to eat and drink. These goodies will also be available while you are completing your ballot.

You will receive an e-mail giving details about check-in, judge orientation, etc. approximately a week prior to the tournament.

If you would like to learn more about judging and the debate events prior to the tournament, some resources are included below.

DEBATE TRAINING SLIDES
Please feel free to read and become familiar with the LD, TP and Parli debate training slides content b

Parli Judge Training

 TP Orientation Slides 2024-2025

YOU ARE QUALIFIED TO JUDGE! The goal of our competitors is to be able to communicate their ideas clearly and respectfully to anyone. If you are a good listener who is over 18 and not actively competing in high school speech or debate, WE NEED YOU!

If you are on the fence about whether or not to give community judging a try, watch this short video.

TOURNAMENT LOCATION
The tournament will be held at the Community Church of Monroe at 224 E Old Highway 74, Monroe, NC 28112

Look for the neon green poster board signs for directions.

More instructions will be emailed out to registered judges about a week before the tournament.

For any questions you may call or text Keren Roose at 704-258-2894 or Laurie Liss at 704-621-2882, or email f5stoaclub@gmail.com.

Parent Judges are critically important for a well-run, on-time tournament.

Requirements:

1)       Each student will be required to have a parent judge available to judge for the entire tournament.

One person cannot serve as the parent judge for more than one student except:

+ A parent with multiple children competing
+ The parent of team policy debater can be the designated judge for his/her child's partner
+ If you need an exception to these requirements, then please email f5stoaclub@gmail.com.

2)       Each parent, or their designee, will be responsible for judging up to 4 Speech rounds (Friday) and 5 debate rounds (Saturday).

+  Tab will assume that you will be there all day to judge. If this is not the case, please email f5stoaclub@gmail.com. 

+ Please do not plan on leaving campus to pick up food. We may need you to judge.

+ Debate rounds will have only one judge with the exception of the Final rounds, which will hopefully have a minimum of 3 judges.

+ Speech rounds will have a minimum of two judges each, so we will need a lot of parent judges available.

3)       Please Communicate Changes to your attendance or your student's attendance or your student's events as soon as possible by emailing f5stoaclub@gmail.com. 

4)       Before judging, parents or their designee should attend Debate and Speech training (required at least once during the 2024-2025 competition season).

+Speech training will be offered on Friday and Saturday mornings 45 minutes prior to each Speech Round.

+Training for Parli, LD and TP debate will be held on Friday and Saturday mornings 45 minutes prior to each Speech Round.

+ The debate training is only required if you have not yet been trained in debate during the 2024-2025 competition season.

+ All training will be held in either the  Judge Training Room or the Judge Deliberation Room. Both rooms are in the Gym/Fellowship Hall Building.

• Parents, it is your responsibility to be trained as early in the day as possible for all types of debate (Parliamentary, Lincoln Douglas and Team Policy) regardless of your judging preferences. We will be giving separate debate training for Lincoln Douglas and Team Policy.

• If you are called on to judge and cannot fulfill the duty, due to lack of training or neglect, your student may be disqualified from the tournament.

• You will be given a good overview of the events and the judging process at the tournament during Judge Training.

• Click on the  links below to view the training materials that we will use for our Speech and Debate events. Please feel free to read them and become familiar with them.

• LD Debate Orientation Slides Oct - December 2024
• TP Orientation Slides 2024-2025

• Parli Judge Training
• All Speech Judge Orientation Documents and Slides 2024-2025

5)      Judging conflicts

• If you have a close personal relationship/friendship with, are related to, or have coached a competitor, we ask that you do not judge that individual.

• Parents, please include the names of the following in the Notes Section when registering to judge:

+ Your children's TP debate partners

+ Students that you may be traveling with

+ Students that you have listened to or helped at club.

+ Alumni judges, please be sure not to judge anyone you have coached or who was a competitor during the time you competed.

6)       Complete forms

• Parents should complete the Medical and Liability Waiver located on the left hand side of this tournament website and turn it in during check-in the morning of the tournament or email it to f5stoaclub@gmail.com by 8 PM on April 24th.

We are so thankful to the Community Church of Monroe for graciously allowing us to use their facilities for our tournament. Please treat their property with care as you would your own.  Thank you!

*Directions*

The Community Church of Monroe is located at 224 E Old Highway 74, Monroe, NC 28112. As you get close, look for the neon green poster board signs for directions/parking.  There will be drop-off parking to the left of the church; however, the primary parking for parents/students will be on the lower level to the right of the church.  We would like to try to reserve the upper lot for our Community Judges.

*Student / Parent Check-in*

Check-in will be from 7:00-7:20 AM in the Gym/Fellowship Hall. This building is the only facility other than the church building on site and is located to the left of the church building as you face the church.  Once you arrive, please pick up your name tag, turn in your Liability Form (if you haven’t already sent it), and proceed straight into the gym to find a seat/table.

Student announcements and devotions will be made at 7:20 AM in the gym on Friday and 7:10 AM on Saturday.

*Facility Layout*
There are 3 areas that we’ll be using in the facility: 1) The Gym/Fellowship Hall – This is where we will have morning announcements, hang out between rounds, and where we will have meals.  The rooms located in this facility will be used primarily for judge training, tab, and judge deliberation.  There are two rooms that will be used for Parli, LD and Speech rounds.  2) The Church Basement – This will be the main location for speech and debate rounds. This facility will be accessed by walking outdoors around the front of the church to the entrance at the lower-level parking lot. There will be signs showing the way.  3) The Main Church Building - The Foyer and the Sanctuary will be used for Parli rounds.  The Sanctuary will also be used for the TP and Parli Final rounds and the Awards Ceremony on Saturday.

*Expository and TP Case Storage*
You may store TP Cases and props for Expository speeches in the Church Basement room B2 (the nursery).   *Reminder to others:* If the props/boxes don’t belong to you, then please do not handle. Only TP and Expository students should enter the storage area.

*Other Facility Information*
Please remember that this is a borrowed facility, and a house of worship; therefore, please be respectful of the church facility and grounds.

*Please keep all food and drinks (other than water) in the gym/fellowship hall!*

*Please be mindful to clean up after yourself and throw away your trash!*

*Awards Ceremony*

The Awards Ceremony will be held in the Sanctuary at the end of the tournament on Saturday evening.  More directions will be given closer to time.  Ballots will be distributed following awards.

*Lunch and Dinner* 

Pre-ordered food will be served in the gym via the pass-through window at the kitchen.  Please do not enter the kitchen.

*Facility Re-set (Friday Night)*

On Friday night, after completing their last round, the last 2 teams in each room are responsible for resetting that room for the next morning’s debate rounds (this shouldn’t take more than a few minutes). If needed, please encourage judges to head back to the judge deliberation room to complete their ballots so that you can complete rearranging the room. 

Please set the room up according to the diagram for DEBATE, which will be taped to the wall near the door. Also please be diligent to pick up paper clips, pens/pencils, and paper/trash off the floors.

*Facility Clean-Up (Saturday Night)*

After completing their last round, debaters should be diligent in picking up paper clips, pens/pencils, and paper/trash off the tables and floors of the competition rooms.  After eating dinner, please make sure to clean up your area.  It would also be helpful if you could assist with breaking down tables and moving chairs and tables to the “judge deliberation room” side of the gym.  Thank you for your help with this!

Special Notes about Waitlists:
If an event is full, please go ahead and sign-up on the waitlist. Most times we are able to accommodate people on the waitlist.
- Students that can provide multiple judges will be given priority.
- Competitors or teams that have both partners registered/waitlisted the earliest will be given secondary priority.

Registration is considered complete when:
The competitor or both competitors (Team Policy/Parli and certain Speech events) are registered.
Parent judge registration is completed. 
Payment is received by PayPal.

Late Fee
+ If there is a waitlist, you will be dropped from your event if you have not completed payment or if do not have a "parent" judge registered by the end of registration on April 3rd.
+ If there is not a waitlist and you wish to compete but did not pay or have a "parent" judge registered by the end of registration on April 3rd, a late fee of $15 will be added to your balance and you must complete the registration steps ASAP. Failure to do so will result in being dropped from the events.

Payment Information:

All tournament and meal fees can be made through Paypal to:

F5speechdebate@gmail.com (Carrie Hilson)

Include the following message with your payment:

Countdown25 (Your StoaHub Account Name)

Please select "Friends and Family" when making your payment to avoid additional fees.

Late Fees and Dropped Events

Late Fee
+ If there is a waitlist for an event, and you have not completed payment or don’t have a "parent" judge registered by the end of registration on April 3rd, you will be dropped from your event.
+ If there is not a waitlist and you wish to compete but did not pay or have a "parent" judge registered by the end of registration on April 3rd, a late fee of $15 will be added to your balance and you must complete your registration ASAP. Failure to do so will result in being dropped from the event.

Refund/Dropped Event Policy
Cancellations prior to the close of tournament registration on April 3rd will garner a full refund minus any PayPal fees. There will be NO REFUNDS after registration closes.

April 10: Any dropped events after registration closes will cost $15.

April 18: A dropped event will cost $25.

April 25: A dropped event at the door will cost $35
Please contact us for extenuating circumstances.

Drops create a domino effect of extra work for our volunteer staff because they affect room allocation, judging needs, and awards orders. Thank you for understanding!

We will utilize Stoa Joy of Tournaments for the tabulation software and will follow the Stoa Transparent Tabulation policies.

Speech

Speech will have 3 rounds within a single pattern.

We will seek to have 2 judges in each speech event.

Debate

Lincoln Douglas will have 6 preliminary rounds of debate and a final round. Lincoln Douglas will be flighted but a separate judge will be assigned to each debate within the flight.

Team Policy will have six preliminary rounds of debate and a final round.

Parli will have six preliminary rounds of debate and a final round.

We will begin power matching all debate at round 4.

There will not be any club protect or sibling protect for this tournament.

Joy of Tournaments software will be used to randomly pair rounds while the tab assistant from a different club watches via screen share on Zoom. If for some reason, Joy of Tournaments cannot complete the random pairings, the tab assistant from a different club will participate in making the random pairings.

When making the random pairings, the school variation and squad variation will be set to ignore. It has been our experience that this results in more randomness especially when there is a large contingency from one club.

No student/team will have more than two byes. Byes will be randomly assigned.

Green checks in debate will be awarded to the top 38% of teams regardless if a team has a winning record. Teams are ranked within their win-loss bracket according to speaker points, rank points, and strength of schedule. To learn more about Stoa debate tiebreakers (what Stoa terms the mechanism for ranking teams that have the same win-loss record), see the Stoa Tab Manual beginning on page 44.

We will recognize all debaters with a 4-2 record or better at awards regardless if they receive a check mark as we believe that this accomplishment should be recognized.

Ballots

All ballots for each student will be placed in a large brown envelope labeled with the student's name and will be ready for pick up after the awards ceremony.

Apologetic Categories:

• Category 4: God and Man
• Category 5: Christian Worldview Application
• Category 6: Christianity Compared

Photo and Video/Audio Recording Policy

Recording devices (visual or audio) should not be used to tape debate or speech rounds during the tournament unless all debaters/speakers filmed give their consent.

LOCAL HOTELS

There are several hotels within 6 miles of the tournament site. We recommend making a reservation that has free cancellation.

Quality Inn & Suites

2351 W. Roosevelt Blvd. Monroe, NC 28110

704-283-9600

5.8 miles to the tournament

Best Western Inn & Suites - Monroe

2316 Hanover Drive, Monroe, NC 28110 

704-283-4746

5.9 miles to the tournament

Fairfield Inn & Suites - Charlotte Monroe

1825 Williams Rd. Monroe, NC 28110

980-290-2190

5.9 miles to the tournament

Holiday Inn Express & Suites Monroe

2505 West Roosevelt Boulevard Monroe, NC 28110

704-774-1779

6.1 miles to the tournament

Hampton Inn Charlotte Monroe

2368 Roland Dr. Monroe, NC 28110

704-220-2200

6.4 miles from the tournament

*Note on Quality Inn & Suites. This hotel is by far the cheapest on the list, but it does not have the best reviews, so we suggest looking into reviews before booking. It is in the same area as the other hotels, which is a good one.

DRESS CODE

This dress code was designed to promote professionalism and modesty in behavior and dress.

Competition

During the competition, students must dress in professional business attire.

Gentlemen: Suits or slacks and a sports coat, with a shirt and tie, and dress shoes.

Ladies: Skirt or pantsuits; slacks, skirts or dresses with jackets, and professional dress shoes. Hemlines are to be at least to the knee. Nylons are not required.

Awards Ceremony

Students must attend the awards ceremony in full competition attire.

Violations

If the competitor’s attire at any time during the tournament is deemed a violation of the dress code, the competitor will be asked to come into compliance with the dress code. A student will not be allowed to participate in the competition or awards without compliance.

Script Submission Review

All competitors with prepared speeches must complete the script Submission process.

Submission Deadline:

Script Submission Deadline – April 5th

Script Submission Revision Deadline – April 12th

If your script needs corrections, your script must be corrected no later than this date. If not, the competitor will be dropped for that speech event and charged a $15 drop fee

How To Submit Scripts Electronically

1.   

WHAT:
Each script submission should include the following pages:
-Signed script submission form for each speech event
-Typed copy of the speech script
-Works cited page (for Persuasive, and Expository)
-Highlighted photocopy of the original source text, including added words (for Duo Interp, Humorous Interp, Slam Poetry, and Open Interp)

HOW:
1. READ THE RULES for your speech event here
2. READ & OBTAIN SCRIPT SUBMISSION FORMS here
3. PREPARE your SCRIPT SUBMISSION FORM with your parent or coach. Include initials and signatures. Be sure "Countdown Challenge" is listed as the tournament.
4. COMBINE each speech into a single file in PDF or JPEG only. Scan into a single file. Please name files like this: Event-First Name Last Name (i.e. Persuasive-John Smith). Combine each speech into a single PDF file. See File Joiner resources below. If this step is an extra burden, it is OK to just send the needed files separately but in one email with each part of the submission having a file name in the format Last Name, First Name - Event Name - Name of part of Packet. For example, Smith, Joe - Duo Interp - Script Submission Form or Smith, Joe - Duo Interp - Typed Speech or Smith, Joe - Duo Interp - Original Text
5. Are you ready? Email it to:

f5speechscripts@gmail.com