97th School Bratya Miladinovi
ul. "Kapitan Ivan Zlatev", 1359 zh.k. Lyulin 5, Sofia
This is the Tournament Portal for our 2023 Spring West Tournament which will be held in Sofia on February 11-12th
Registration
Team registration is closed.
Host Site
The tournament will take place in 97th School Bratya Miladinovi, Sofia.
Accommodation
BEST reserves up to two nights of accommodation for all participants. BEST commits to negotiating accommodation costs at or under 35 BGN per student per night. Participants have to pay for their own accommodation costs while BEST covers the costs for 1 night for all judges and up to one chaperone. BEST covers 1 night to all Coaches in case they are also Judges or Chaperones.
Hotels
Judges and Team Coaches will receive emails with their hotel allocation for the weekend. Please refrain from communicating with the hotels directly and contact BEST instead if you have questions or concerns.
Travel
All teams are required to bring a chaperone who will be legally responsible for their team’s safety when travelling to and competing at the venue. Chaperones are required to be aged 18 or over and to be fluent in Bulgarian.
Teams are encouraged to apply for a travel scholarship. Coaches can fill out the scholarship application form by clicking here. Teams allocated scholarships will be reimbursed after arriving at the tournament venue. Please read our scholarship terms and conditions for further information BEFORE applying for a scholarship.
Scholarship applications open on the 9th of January and close on 22th of January.
Judging
We welcome all high school graduates or above with C1 or higher English to judge at our tournaments. If you are new to BEST and our tournaments, visit our Judging Basics page!
Coaches, you must register if you are judging, too, and don’t forget to include your judges when you fill out your team roster spreadsheet (see below).
Judge Sign-Up form on this link.
We will reimburse all judges for their transport if they use trains or buses, but we strongly encourage taking the most affordable option when possible (usually trains). Please purchase your ticket back from the tournament location as well, as we cannot reimburse you without being presented tickets. We will provide food at the tournament site, and we will also cover one night of hotel accommodations for regional tournaments. In exceptional circumstances when a judge can’t make it to the tournament site before 11:00 AM on Saturday, we will cover two nights of hotel accommodation.
Coaching
BEST Coaches should download our Coaches’ Checklist and make sure their teams are up to date.
Debate Motions
Attention debaters! This tournament, we are piloting a new structure that we hope will lessen teams’ research burdens and encourage stronger, more competitive debating. Therefore, please note that the finals debate motion will be impromptu with teams having 1 hour of preparation time.
Prepared:
This House regrets the rise of the metaverse.
This House would require high-carbon-emitting countries to compensate poorer, vulnerable countries most harmed by climate change.
Impromptu Hints:
Art and Culture
Sociology
Relations
Schedule
Please note that the Poetry category has been merged. Awards will be given to the top 3 novice performers in the merged category based on preliminary round results.
Saturday, Feb 11, 2023
08:45 - Team Check-in
09:00 Volunteer Training
09:15 - Judge Q+A // SL Meeting
10:00 - Opening Ceremony
11:00 - Round 1 Flight A: Oratory, Prose, and Duo
12:30 - Round 1 Flight B: Poetry and Debate (Prepared)
14:00 - Lunch
14:45 - Round 2 Flight A: Oratory, Prose, and Duo
15:30 - Reimbursement for Team Scholarships and Travel Chaperones (1 hour)
16:00 - Round 2 Flight B: Poetry and Impromptu Debate Motion Released (45 min. of prep)
16:45 - Round 2 Debate start time
18:15 - Round 3 Novice Duo, Novice Oratory,
Semifinals: Varsity Duo, Varsity Oratory, Novice Prose, Varsity Prose
19:30 - Round 3: Debate (Prepared)
Quarterfinals: Poetry
Sunday, Feb 12, 2023
08:15 - Check-in for Debaters
08:45 - Round 4: Impromptu Debate Motion Released (45 min. of prep)
09:00 - Judge report time
09:30 - Round 4: Debate start time
Semifinals: Poetry
10:00 - Reimbursement for Judges (1 hour)
10:30 - Finals Flight A: Oratory, Prose, and Duo
11:30 - Finals Flight B: Poetry and Debate Motion Released (Impromptu w/ 1 hour of prep)
12:30 - Finals Debate start time
14:00 - Closing Ceremony
15:30 - Departures
Press Release
You could find the official pre-tournament press release here.