What are BEST tournaments?
At our tournaments, high school students compete in five public speech and debate categories in English – Poetry, Prose, Duo, Oratory, and World Schools Debate. You can read more about the events and their rules here. Tournaments are spread over the course of a weekend, usually hosted by a high school, though previous tournaments have been held at various universities across Bulgaria.
What are rounds?
The timeslots during which students are competing are called rounds. In order to be able to fit a tournament over a weekend, we need to hold rounds for some categories at the same time. For example, if there is an Oratory and Duo round from 13:00 to 14:00 on Saturday, that means that there are Oratory students competing in some of the rooms and Duo students competing in other rooms at the same time. You can see the tournament schedule as soon as we release it by visiting the current tournament portal. Bear in mind that you will likely not be required to judge at every round – that time you can use to meet other judges or rest. If you have strong ties to a high school or a specific team, you will be excluded from certain rounds to avoid conflict of interest. Some judges end up having more or less rounds to judge simply due to conflict of interest or experience. We try our best to create a balanced schedule for everyone.
What are performances?
Rounds last approximately one hour. During a round, you will either see six individual students (competing in one of Oratory, Prose or Poetry), six teams of two students (competing in Duo), or two teams of three students (competing in Debate) in the room you are assigned to. In the first two cases, the students will stand up, face you and the audience, and deliver their performance, complying with the appropriate rules for their category. There is a predetermined order to their performances. In Debate, the two teams will take seats at the front of the room facing each other and conduct a one-hour debate, each team defending a predetermined side of a topic announced in advance.
Role of the Judge?
Having judges who are fluent in English and come from diverse backgrounds is important for providing our students with fair and constructive feedback. Due to the size of BEST Tournaments, we need a large number of judges for the various rounds. The judge’s role is to watch all the performances in their assigned room for the round, take notes, and then rank the students/teams from first to last, or to give the win to one of the debate teams. Judges are also required to provide constructive feedback to all students. All ranking, notetaking and feedback is written down on the judging ballot for the round, which we provide. Judging ballots are given to students at the end of the tournament so they can see their feedback, address the weak points in their performances, and improve for the following tournament.
What support does BEST provide judges?
Training
BEST Foundation conducts judge training before each tournament, guiding judges on the basics of evaluating performances and the necessary logistical details related to our tournaments. This year training materials are pre-recorded and shared with judges about 10 days before each tournament.
Lectures
Throughout the year we also invite judges to various workshops or partner events.
Reimbursements
We reimburse you for travel expenses and hotel costs during face-to-face events. We will handle your hotel reservations, as well.
Certificates
BEST provides participation certificates after each tournament. This can be requested during sign-up.
Eligibility
You should be at least C1 (advanced, fluent, or native speaker) in English, as well as be a high school graduate or above.
Note: BEST considers its students performances works of art. As qualified English speakers, we consider all judges qualified to judge all events after initial training.
Sign Up
To be added to our judge mailing list and get notified whenever we open judge registration for a tournament you can fill the form below.