State District Two: State Qualifying Procedures
2024-2025 Season
Welcome to District Two. We look forward to an outstanding year culminating with success in March. Students can qualify to state through their performances at meets throughout the year, and any ties or additional berths will be determined at the District Two State Qualifying Tournament in late January/February (Newport HS).
In order to be eligible to compete at the State Tournament in an area (Debate/Speech/Congress), your school MUST have competed at least twice in one event in that area BY THE SECOND WEEKEND OF DECEMBER and must notify the District chair of their competition after that second tournament. Failure by a school to do so will result in that school being ineligible for the WSFA State Tournaments in March. Note: dues are due at the same time, Saturday December 14th.
State Qualifying Meets (IEs): All official, WSFA-Sanctioned meets are District 2 qualifiers at the first % award or first awarded break, provided that they meet the numerical minimums (participating in at least one round) below.
State Qualifying Meets (Debate): All official, state-sanctioned meets are District 2 qualifiers at the following levels, provided that they meet the numerical minimums (participating in at least one round):
16 or fewer -- 1st and 2nd place, or break to Finals
17 to 30 -- all teams that break to declared semis or finals
31 to 45 -- all teams that break to declared quarters
46+ -- first declared break
Note: To be a state qualifying meet, each must meet state minimums of 10 schools competing at the meet (8 if the meet is hosted by a District 2 member school) and 8 total open division entries in IE's, 6 total entries in CX, 12 total entries in LD, and 16 total entries in the case of PF, always in the event’s highest division. Students only qualify at the highest division offered (senior, open, or champ).
2024-2025 Season Note: Students are only allowed to enter one tournament per event per weekend. If a student is found to have entered two in-state tournaments on the same weekend, they may not attain any state bids for that weekend.
WEEKLY UPDATES: The District website www.emeraldcityspeech.org will be updated after each tournament. If you have a qualifier, you have three weeks after the last day of the tournament to notify the chair via email (mccormicka@bsd405.org). Late and last-minute qualification notifications are invalid. Please say the student’s name, and exactly how they qualified, including how many competed in that event. (Example: “Mary McGillicuddy has provisionally qualified for state in Oratory by finishing second at Federal Way out of 20 competitors.”) Qualifying emails should come from a program's coaching staff. All D2 tournaments and any tournament Amy is attending will already be taken care of!
District Two has a specific number of allotted slots in each event for state. There are three possibilities we could face at the end of our final regular season qualifying meet. One is that we have the perfect number qualified, for which we would be sincerely thankful. More likely, however, is that we will have qualified too many or too few for state. In these situations, the District Two State Qualifying Meet will likely be necessary.
IE State Qualifying Meet Procedures:
TOO MANY: If there are too many qualifiers, we will first automatically award bids to any students who have qualified at more than one meet in order of the total number of bids received. Among the remainder, the District 2 playoff meet (Newport) will be used to determine slots. Lowest rank (or ranks) get the qualifying spots. Ties in IEs will be broken by considering reciprocals, judges’ preference, and a playoff (in that order).
NOT ENOUGH: If there are not enough qualifiers, all students who have met state qualifying standards will automatically be admitted to state. The remaining slots will be awarded at the District 2 playoff meet (Newport). Lowest rank (or ranks) get the qualifying spots. Ties in IEs will be broken by considering reciprocals, judges’ preference, and a playoff (in that order).
Debate State Qualifying Meet Procedures:
TOO MANY: If there are too many qualifiers, we will first automatically award bids to any students who have qualified at more than one meet in order of the total number of bids received. Among the remainder, we will have a meet to pare down to the allotted number of state competitors (Newport), wherein slots will be filled on the final order of rank at that tournament. Ties will be broken as per the NSDA manual.
NOT ENOUGH: If there are not enough qualifiers, the District Qualifying tournament (Newport) will be used, wherein slots will be filled on the final order of rank at that tournament. Ties will be broken as per the NSDA manual.
IF AFTER NEWPORT THERE ARE STILL OPEN SLOTS IN AN EVENT, THEY WILL BE OPEN TO CLAIM BY:
Any student who has been a semifinalist or finalist at any meet in its highest division.
Any student who has competed in an event at three or more meets at the highest division.
IN THE EVENT CLAIMS EXCEED SLOTS, ROUNDS FOR PLAYOFF MAY BE REQUIRED, TO BE SCHEDULED BY DISTRICT CHAIR.
Please note the WIAA rule that no school can have more than two state entries in any one form of WIAA-sanctioned debate (CX, LD, and PF), and three entries in Student Congress.
STATE QUALIFYING, CONGRESS: All official State-sanctioned meets are District 2 qualifiers in Congress as follows:
To be a State qualifying meet, each tournament must meet State minimums of 10 schools competing at the meet (8 if the tournament is hosted by a District 2 member school) and 14 entries in Congress, always in the event’s highest division.
Preliminary chambers must have a minimum of 12 speaking competitors in order to be eligible for consideration.
A Super Congress must have a minimum of 12 speaking competitors. In addition to a minimum number of competitors, a Super Congress will only count if there were at least 2 preliminary chambers in the highest division. A blended Super Congress does not meet the requirements.
Points will be accrued over the course of the season as follows:
Tournaments with a Super Congress:
1st - 3rd → 10 pts
4th - 6th → 7 pts
7th - 12th → 5 pts
13th+ → 3 pts
Top PO guaranteed either 5 pts or the higher number if they ranked higher.
Tournaments without a Super Congress
1st - 3rd in prelim chamber → 7pts
4th - 5th in prelim chamber → 5pts
The top five competitors with the highest point total during the regular season have secured their state slots and are not required to attend the district run-off tournament. WIAA rules still apply, teams may only send three students per school to state in Congressional Debate. If a tie results in more than five students auto qualifying under these guidelines, the tie will be resolved at the runoff.
Students with at least 20 points are eligible to compete for the remaining slots at the designated District 2 runoff tournament at the end of the season.
Congress State Qualifying Meet Procedures:
TOO MANY: If the number of state slots are filled or surpassed by students who have passed the highest bid threshold, the district runoff tournament will be open only to them. Only ranking at the runoff will determine the awarding and order of the bids.
The District Runoff Tournament - Students who have earned the right to compete at the district runoff will enter the competition with clean slates. Only ranking at the runoff will determine who the remaining slots go to. Please only send students to the runoff who have the good faith intention of competing at state.
The District Runoff Tournament will be held (TBA). There will be no student P.O., judges will be unaffiliated, and every competitor will be guaranteed the same number of speeches. There will also be an associated fee to pay for clean neutral judges.
TIE: In the event of a tie (for the students who have secured their slots), the ranking will be set according to the following hierarchy:
First tiebreaker: Head-to-head record at tournaments during the regular season.
In the extremely rare event that this tiebreaker is not sufficient to resolve the tie, the coaches of the tied students will arrange a suitable contest to determine who advances.
NOT ENOUGH: All students under 20 points (3 through 19) are eligible for the district runoff, provided they meet the other qualification guidelines in the document. Students over 20 points quality for State, following all school entry rules and guidelines for Congress.
Thank you, and have a great season.