Event Rules

Speech Event Rules

Prepared Speech

  • Competitor must present an original speech.

  • Public address topics/scripts can be used by the same competitor for a full season, running from July 1st to June 30th the subsequent year.

  • Maximum time limit of 10 minutes per competitor.

Prepared Acting

  • Competitor may present an interpretation of another author’s work, and/or perform their own original literature.

  • Interpretation topics/scripts can be used by the same competitor for a full season, running from July 1st to June 30th the subsequent year.

  • Maximum time limit of 10 minutes per competitor.

  • “Black Books” are considered a prop and are thus allowed but not required in any event.

Spontaneous Speech

  • Competitor must present a spontaneous performance based on the prompts provided.

  • Competitors should choose 1 prompt from the 4 provided by the tournament.

  • Competitors may time themselves, or request time signals from the judge, or both.

  • Maximum time limit of 7 minutes per competitor. Competitors decide how to allocate that time between preparation and speaking.

  • 4 prompts will be provided by the tournament, presented in the following forms:

    • Concrete Noun

    • Abstract Noun

    • Quotation

    • Statistic or Fun Fact

Debate Event Rules

Spontaneous Debate

  • 8 debaters per round in prelims, debaters are ranked against all other debaters in the round.

  • Competitors must present a spontaneous performance based on the topic provided.

  • Competitors are assigned affirmative or negation positions in respect to the topic provided

  • Competitors receive three resolutions at the start of each debate.

  • Competitors are paired for debate following the assigned speaker order. Speaker 1 debates as Affirmative against Speaker 2 on the Negation. The next debate pairing is Speaker 3 on the Affirmative against Speaker 4 on the Negation. The final debate pairing is Speaker 5 on the Affirmative against Speaker 5 on the Negation.

  • If there are an odd number of entries one competitor per preliminary round receives a “bye.” Byes are later replaced with an average of the competitor’s scores in their other 3 preliminary rounds.

  • Use of the internet is permitted at any time.

  • PSDA Debate speaking times are as follow:

    • Preparation: 2 minutes

    • Affirmative: 2 minutes

    • Negation: 2 minutes

    • Shared Cross-examination time: 2 minutes

    • Affirmative: 2 minute

    • Negation: 2 minutes

Division Rules

Professional Division

  • Ages 18 and up are eligible for professional division.

Development Division

  • Ages 18 and up are eligible for professional division.

  • Individuals that have advanced to elimination rounds in the professional division are ineligible to enter in the development division for that same event. They may still enter any other event in the development division.

Tournament Rules

  • Competitors may enter in up to 3 speech and/or SPAR events.

  • Competitors may only enter in 1 debate event.

  • No school or team affiliation is required to compete.

  • Props and costumes are permitted in any event.

  • Use of the internet is permitted in any event at any time.

  • Events with 8 or more competitors will advance 4 competitors to an elimination round.

  • Events with 16 or more entries will advance 8 competitors to 2 elimination rounds.

  • Events with 32 or more entries will advance 16 competitors to 3 elimination rounds.

Judge Rules

  • Judges must be qualified to judge all four PSDA events.

  • No person who is currently coaching a PSDA competitor can work as a judge or tournament staff.

  • All judge ballots are subject to review following each tournament. Feedback and judge pool changes will be made based on these reviews.

  • PSDA competitors may serve as judges within the same season, but then are no longer allowed to compete in the remainder of that season.