NOF Tournament Procedure Changes
We want to announce some changes that will help us run online speech and debate tournaments even better. When we started National Online Forensics in 2020, online tournaments were new for everyone. But, as they say, challenges bring innovation.
We've learned a lot over the years and found better ways to do things. Now, we're facing a big challenge: getting everyone used to new ways of doing things. We know many of you are used to how we've been running tournaments, so changing it might be a bit tricky. Still, it's time for us to improve.
Here are three important changes we'd like your help with:
Checking in Judges before Round 1 Before every tournament, we'll have a quick meeting for judges. This will help us avoid problems in the first round. If a judge can't make it, they need to tell us beforehand, or they won't be able to judge the first round. For monthly tournaments, we'll have a morning check-in for some judges and an afternoon check-in for others. Afternoon judges don't need to attend the morning check-in.
New Name for the Judges' Meeting Room We've been using a confusing name for where judges wait – 8x8.vc/NOFstandby. To clear things up, we're changing it to 8x8.vc/NOFJudges. Please update any links or materials you have with this new name.
Using Squad Room for Information We're making things easier by using Squad Room on ForensicsTournament.net. This is where you can see room assignments, ballots, announcements, and break lists. Before the tournament starts, you'll get an email or text with a link. This link will be your key to the tournament. If you lose it, your coach can send it again. Coaches can also copy the link and email it to you. This will make things simpler and reduce the number of emails you get. While Squad Room will be the default, email- and text-only postings can be selected by a coach in the competitor roster.
Please talk to your team about these changes. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us. Our goal is to make tournaments smoother, so everyone has a great experience. And if you have more ideas to help us, we'd love to hear them.