Read Before Registering: General Tournament Information

Before registering for the state tournament please read:

1. The entirety of this page.
2. School Judge Obligations and Information
3. IMPORTANT: Registering Observers (new policy)
4. Schedule
5. Regestration Party!

When registering, please choose the "Credit towards 2027" option if you would like us to hold part of your bond to be used as your IQT Application fee. Assuming your bond is not pulled, you will receive a smaller refund when checking out of the tournament with the balance being applied towards your application fee. Failure to check this box will mean that we cannot hold a portion of your bond for those purposes, and you will need to pay for your IQT application separately.

Registration

Registration will take place at Main Event Frisco. Regiestration: 5-8 pm, but the party runs until 9 pm. See the Regestration Party page for more information. 

Late registration for schools with CX and WSD entries will be 8:15 am at UNT Frisco.

Late registration details for schools without CX and WSD entries coming soon.

If you have an emergency that will not allow you to make it to late registration, please notify Jenn Melin at president@texasforensicassociation.com.

IMPORTANT DEADLINES

• January 30– Schools may begin entering TFA State-qualified students on tabroom.com. Please register all qualifiers AND any students who may qualify before the end of the TFA competitive season. Please send your check as soon as possible. Refunds for any overpayments will be made following the conclusion of the state tournament. It is better to pay for students who don’t end up qualifying than it is to send your check with insufficient funds.

• February 17, at 5:00 PM CST – Deadline to check tabroom.com for accuracy of the IQT reports for all TFA State qualifying entries and submit any necessary corrections to the IQT Coordinator at iqt@texasforensicassociation.com. There is an IQT on the emergency weekend (February 20-21). This deadline applies to all IQT results except the results of that tournament.

• February 17—Deadline to apply for judge fee reduction.

• February 20, at 5:00 PM CST – All t-shirt orders must be finalized. Based on your order, Brian Alford will update your tabroom.com invoices. You will see your updated invoice on your tabroom.com fees sheet by March 1st. Please be aware that if you order late you will have a balance to be paid in full at registration.

• February 23 at 5:00 PM CST—Deadline for submitting IQT corrections, adjustments, and protests related to the tournament occurring on the emergency weekend (February 20-21). Submissions must be made to the IQT Coordinator at iqt@texasforensicassociation.com.

• February 24, at 11:55 PM CST – LAST DAY TO ENTER – All schools and entries must be entered on the tabroom.com website. Entry fees are also locked at this time - drops after 11:55 PM CST on this date will be charged the original entry fee. This deadline includes non-competing events like the registration party and observers. 

• February 26 – Total payment for tournament entries, fees, and shirts must be mailed to Brian Alford at:
  Texas Forensic Association
  Attn: Brian Alford
  253 Navarro Dr.
  College Station, TX 77845

• Fees can also be paid on CheddarUp at https://tfa-finance-portal.cheddarup.com

• March 3 at 11:55 CST- JUDGE DEADLINE- All schools must have their judges entered and accredited by this time. After this time, schools will be assessed fees for missing judges, judges with availability that is counter to their obligation as entered, unaccredited judges, and judges without sufficient judging history in the event they are pooled for. Please see the School Judge Obligation and Information page for more details.

• March 9, at 5:00 PM CST – LAST DAY TO DROP – All schools may DROP entries without an additional Drop Fee (schools will lose entry fee as of Wed, Feb. 26th). After March 9th at 5:00 PM CST, schools will be charged twice the entry fee for dropped entries.

• March 9, at 5:00 PM CST – All Original Oratory, Informative Speaking and main event oral interpretation authors, titles, and/or ISBNs must be submitted ONLINE on the tabroom.com website.

• March 9, at 5:00 PM CST – Judge paradigms due on tabroom.com.

• If full payment is not received at or prior to registration, schools that have not paid will not be able to compete at TFA State and dropped entries will be assessed a significant drop fee.

CROSS-ENTRY INFORMATION

Students in CX, LD, PF, and WSD may not cross-enter in any other events.

Students entered in Congress may cross-enter a single pattern a event. Please note that the Semifinals of Congress overlaps with the entirety of Pattern A Quarters, and the beginning of Pattern A Semis. While the tab staff will communicate with each other, it will ultimately be the obligation of the student to navigate this conflict should it arise. We will not hold either round past it's normal completion for cross-entered students.

Students may only enter one division of extemp.

The choice to compete in multiple events is a choice and that decision cannot impact the other students, judges, or tournament writ large in a negative way (for example: delay rounds over 15 minutes due to cross entries.) The responsibility to arrive on time to compete is solely on the student and rounds that delay the start of other rounds due to cross-entries will result in those who have opted to cross-enter, potentially missing an opportunity to compete in that round. Ranks or decisions should not be adjusted to accommodate students who are late/miss rounds (once ballots are submitted). All coaches and students with cross-entered students have an affirmative obligation to look at the published schedule to decide if it is logistically possible to compete in rounds where they have conflicting events during the same time block. If a student is in an elimination round of debate that would be delayed by competing in an individual event elimination round, those students would need to choose which event they would continue in so as not to disrupt the entire elimination round schedule.

PROTEST INFORMATION/PROCEDURES
All coaches have a responsibility to check pairings and/or give students MJP/strike information to ensure students are not being judged by individuals who have been struck. Concerns must be raised before the round in question begins. Protests associated with struck judges will not be heard after the round begins. If the need to file a protest arises, the coach of the protesting school must put the protest in writing on the official protest form that will be available online. Our Ombudsperson room will be located in the tab room throughout the tournament. Still, the official protest form must be filled out completely and submitted either online or in-person to the Ombudsperson to discuss the protest. Procedures for filing protests shall be followed as found in the TFA Constitution.

DISSEMINATION OF BALLOTS
The TFA State Tournament will be utilizing tabroom.com this year. All ballots will be made available for viewing online for COACHES OF RECORD ONLY after each round of tabulation has been completed. Please DO NOT come to the Tab room asking for ballots – they will be made available after each ballot is submitted and tabulated for that round.