OATS TOURNAMENTS


Welcome again to another speech season! We are pleased to announce the Online Asynchronous Tournament Series (or the OATS as we like to call them) is back! As long as these tournaments continue to provide value to the community, we will continue to host them. Last year over 85 teams competed at the six regular season tournaments, and we look forward to seeing so many of our friends again this season.

As you may have noted last year, we shifted the OATS from being housed specifically with one university to being housed under a newly-founded nonprofit organization called Outspoken Culture. Because the OATS finances were housed within the same account as all other speech functions of the SMSU Forensics Team, the moneys were indistinguishable from the regular functioning of our team (at least in the eyes of the institution). The OATS funds jeopardized the long-term funding of the speech team, which meant we needed to facilitate a separate location to house the OATS funds. We believe in full transparency, and this is the best way to maintain that for our amazing community.

The OATS financial situation is looking strong this year, so we are happy to announce that we are able to decrease the tournament series fee to $200 for the 22-23 season. We will maintain a $10/uncovered slot fee, and we will continue the fee waivers for student-run teams or those experiencing financial hardship. Look for a financial report from the 2021-22 season coming soon on the Outspoken Culture website.

The dates for video submission for the OATS include:

Mon, Oct 3

Mon, Oct 24

Mon, Nov 14

Mon, Dec 5

Mon, Jan 23

Mon, Feb 27

We look forward to continuing to support student advocacy, accessibility, and health/wellness this 22-23 Season. Full information is available on the OATS Invite (available on Speechwire and the Outspoken Culture website). If you have questions feel free to contact Julie Walker by phone (call or text 706-844-2773) or email (julie.walker@smsu.edu).

Sincerely,

Julie Walker

Southwest Minnesota State University

Assistant Director of Forensics

Series Tournament Director


TL:DR Details

  • Tournaments will be fully asynchronous, including finals

  • Entries and video links are due to Speechwire on Monday @ 8 p.m. CST

  • Content warnings are encouraged to give adequate warning to judges/competitors

  • No late adds are allowed

  • Preliminary rounds will be judged from Tuesday through Thursday @ 4 p.m. CST; Final rounds will be judged from Thursday 6 p.m. through Friday @ 2 p.m. CST

  • Postings will go live on Thursdays at 6 p.m. CST (or ASAP depending on ballot completion)

  • All 11 categories will be offered per ASC/OATS guidelines

  • The $200 Series Fee pays for all “covered-slot” entries for all OATS tournaments

  • Uncovered slots will incur an additional $10 fee

  • Payments accepted by Venmo, PayPal, or by check