2010-2011 Extemp Central National Points Race: First & Second Tier Tournaments

This year’s first and second tier each have one tournament.  These are the most prestigious tournaments of the year and are the tournaments that extempers aspire to win the most.

Extempers who finish in the octo-final and quarter-final rounds in the first tier tournament will be awarded points in the National Points Race.

Second Tier

Tournament:  The Mongtomery Bell Extemp Round Robin

Since 1999, Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, Tennessee has palyed host to the most prestigious extemp tournament in the country.  Each year, 16 of the nation’s best extempers are invited based on their finishes at the previous year’s nationals and the season’s national circuit events.  If all of the past winners of MBA were put into one tournament, you would arguably have the most competitive extemp tournament of all-time.  The tournament offers a friendly, yet competitive environment over ten rounds, all of which use the traditional tree minute cross-examination format and are adjudicated by three judges.  Last year, Extemp Central awarded points to the top six finishers and this year will be no different.  In fact, last year’s change to award points for the top six instead of the top five (because only five extempers make the tournament’s Exhibition Round) enabled Jacob Baker to win the National Points Race.  Last year, Dillon Huff of Southlake Carroll High School in Texas won the tournament, edging out Jane Kessner of Walt Whitman High School in Maryland.  Kessner won the tournament’s Exhibition Round, which was adjudicated by all of the extempers who did not make the Exhibition Round.  This year, Extemp Central will provide live coverage from the Round Robin once again.  We are also working with tournament director Adam Johnson and are exploring the possibility of doing a “selection show” podcast where the 16 invitees to the Round Robin will be announced.  Look for an “MBA Bracketology” section on the website after the Yale Invitational.

First Tier

Tournament:  NFL Nationals

There is no bigger stage that an extemper can speak on in their high school career if they make the final round at NFL Nationals.  With the live streaming of the final rounds, extempers spoke in front of the hundreds of people who attended the IX and USX finals and hundreds of others who watched online.  The tournament’s thirteen rounds of competition offers a unique endurance test that no other tournament can match.  The introduction of cross-examination into semi-final rounds over the last two years has been a welcome addition to the tournament.  The graduated points system will remain for the tournament’s semi-finalists and for the first time extempers who make octo-finals and quarter-finals will receive points.  Last year’s National Points Race was decided at NFL Nationals and Extemp Central hopes that the same thing will happen this year.

So to quickly recap the tiers and the tournaments within them:

First Tier:  NFL Nationals
Second Tier:  Montgomery Bell Extemp Round Robin
Third Tier:  The Glenbrooks, George Mason, Harvard, and CFL Nationals
Fourth Tier:  Yale, Barkley Forum, and the Extemp TOC
Fifth Tier:  Wake Forest, St. Marks, and the California Invitational (Berkeley)

It should be an exciting season and Extemp Central looks forward to bringing you monthly coverage of its National Points Race.  Check back next week to see how points will be allocated in this year’s National Points Race.

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