pointsraceheader-01Today, Extemp Central releases the names of tournaments that have been selected for the fourth tier of the 2009-2010 National Points Race. The criteria in selecting these three tournaments for this tier is that they had more participation or higher quality fields than tournaments in the fifth tier, but lacked the prestige and/or the extremely wide participation of tournaments in the third tier.

Tournament #1: The Yale University Invitational:

The second major national invitational tournament of the year, the Yale yale University Invitational has fallen into the fourth tier because of the growth of the tournament over the last several years. Last year, over twenty states were represented at the tournament and its extemp fields have showcased great depth. Its champions roll call is also impressive, with such names as Ariel Schneller, Josh Bone, Dan Rauch, and Matt Arons winning championships over the last ten years. Yale draws on its reputation for running a smooth tournament and the prestige of its college campus, which many extempers are attracted to, for the strength of its fields and is unique in its “source check” policy that takes place during elimination rounds.

Tournament #2: The George Mason University Patriot Games

Debated more than almost any other tournament by the points committee, gmu the George Mason University Patriot Games, which is the last national circuit tournament of the first semester, clocks in at the fourth tier for the 2009-2010 season. Due to its fantastic summer camp experience, George Mason can usually rely on great extempers making this tournament part of their schedule. The efficiency by which the tournament operates also gives teams a great experience that they want to come back to. However, when compared to the Glenbrooks during the first semester of competition, George Mason still falls short when it comes to geographic participation, especially from the West Coast which caused it to fall into their tier. Another debate has ensued about whether the George Mason Round Robin will count for the National Points Race since we do plan on counting the Montgomery Bell Extemp Round Robin. While the George Mason Round Robin field is impressive, all competitors who compete in the Round Robin must compete in the general tournament. Therefore, if we were to count both tournaments, we would be “double counting” those that participate. This would have the effect of making George Mason a third tier tournament as a result, which is not our intention and as we explained in the St. Mark’s summary yesterday, we are going to abandon double counting the International and U.S. extemp tournaments that occur there. Thus, this year’s National Points Race will only count the overall tournament at the Patriot Games, although its Round Robin winner will still be recognized in our national circuit champions page and on our website when the tournament concludes.

Tournament #3: The Barkley Forum

Although the Barkley Forum, hosted by Emory University in Georgia, is more emory renowned in some circles as a debate tournament, it still has solid individual events participation. The tournament is also unique in its use of wording for elimination rounds, referring to semi-finals as “tutorials” and finals as “exhibition rounds” due to competition rules that exist in Georgia. Aside from the Harvard Invitational in February, the Barkley Forum is arguably the only sizeable national circuit tournament left on the calendar in the second semester if the Tournament of Champions and nationals are excluded. The tournament has also seen three national champions win over the last decade: Dan Hemel (NFL IX, 2003), Courtney Otto (2004 CFL, 2005), and David Kumbroch (NFL IX, 2007). The only odd quirk of the tournament is that sometimes finals are judged more by debate coaches than speech coaches, so extempers do need to adjust their styles to accommodate this difference if they want to prevail since the tournament is not cumulative. This quirk also helps to explain how ranks in finals are not as consistent among competitors as earlier rounds, although the quality field that makes the final round also accounts for some of this difference.

Come back tomorrow to see the four tournaments that will make up the middle tier of the National Points Race!