TOURNAMENT UPDATE! PLEASE READ ALL INFO (also available on Speechwire).

Hello all – After much discussion and debate, the NIETOC governance committee has made the following decisions regarding limiting the size of entries to the 2025 tournament:

1-Triple entries will no longer be allowed. We made the change to allow triple entries for the 2023 tournament when we were returning to live competition following Covid and participation had not returned to full capacity. Thus, we have decided to rescind that ruling and will return to allowing each student the opportunity to be in a maximum of two main events.

This was, as indicated by 70% of those taking the survey, the most preferred option of attending coaches.

Please update your entry accordingly and please do so by Thursday, April 10 so that we may begin the process of filling those spots with other qualified individuals.

2-At this time, we will continue allowing Bonus entries in both POI and Duet. We assume that some of those dropped triple entries will fall into this category. We will begin approving those as soon as possible.

3-As has always been the case, we will take only as many of the at-large entries as we can hold. We will follow the process we have always used for accepting those entries, which is as follows:

*Entries with a cumulative rank of 3 plus one NIETOC bid will be considered Tier 1 for acceptance.
*Entries with a cumulative rank of 3 without one bid will be considered Tier 2.
*Entries with a cumulative rank of 4 with one bid will be considered Tier 3.

We will continue down the list – in ascending rank order – until we are out of space. Additionally, only entries which have fulfilled all aspects of registration (selection/topic info, works cited, tournament data/tab sheets, down payment of $25) will be considered. Coaches of incomplete entries will be notified later today with one last request to rectify those issues.

Two key additions/exceptions for 2025 – [1] Any at-large entries that are not accepted AND not competing in another main event will have the opportunity to register for Supplemental Events (max of two) instead. [2] Any money paid for those unapproved entries can be either (A) applied to the cost of supplemental event registration or (B) refunded. A google form collecting that data will be sent to those for whom this situation will apply.

ADDITIONAL KEY INFORMATION:

-Additional Late Main Event Entries will not be considered unless drops make additional space available.

-Incomplete Automatic and Bid Level Entries should be updated by Thursday, April 10 or they will be in jeopardy of not being accepted due to space limitations. I will send a link to those on that list shortly. Be sure that your Bonus and Supplemental entries are also complete.

-Because of these changes, we are pushing back the deadline for payment and legal documentation to April 20th. If payment is not completed digitally via your invoice before then, please email a copy of your PO, which will serve as a placeholder until the check arrives.

We are doing our best to update invoices on SpeechWire and you will begin to see the Payment, Piece Information and Legal Documentation icons on your account home page switch to Approved soon. For those of you new to our tournament, there is no NIETOC office staff processing all of these items — it is a small group full-time teachers and head coaches who are working on these things in their ‘spare’. Please know that we are working as quickly as possible.

Thanks, Matt Heimes, Tournament Manager