by Logan Scisco
Over the last few years, Extemp Central has done a breakdown of the topic areas for the Catholic Forensic League Grand National Tournament. Since there is usually some overlap of topics, this year’s brief will be much more condense and I will attempt to summarize the topic areas in five to seven sentences or less. This is meant to shed some insight into what challenges extempers might face at the CFL tournament this weekend. Extempers should click on the Ex Files tab above and look at the 2008 and 2009 analysis to get an idea of what issues extempers face at CFL and to also better understand how the tournament works. Extempers should also consult Mirza Germovic’s breakdown of the tournament, which was posted late last week.
Extempers should note that there are nine topic areas, but there are only eight rounds at the tournament. The topic areas are drawn randomly before each round. This means that one of the topic areas listed below WILL NOT be used. Also, the tournament seems to be pushing a more domestic centered approach to the event this year. As a final quick piece of advice, the worst topic areas always seems to find its way into semi-finals or finals, so be prepared to face them there.