This is the Tournament Portal for our 2024 Spring West Regional Tournament which will be held in Sofia on February 10-11th.
Registration
The Registration Period is closed!
Host Site
The tournament will take place in 51st High School Elisaveta Bagryana in Sofia.
Accommodations
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 of all judges for up to one night in a hotel and up to one chaperone.
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 traveling 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 ((It will be active when the registration period is open)). 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.
Press Releases
Our pre-tournament press releases can be found here in English and Bulgarian.
Tournament Schedule
Saturday, Feb 10, 2024
08:45 - Team Check-in
09:00 - Judge Q+A // Volunteer Training
09:20 - SL Meeting
09:50 - 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 - Semifinals: Varsity Oratory, Prose; Round 3: Duo, Novice Oratory
19:30 - Round 3: Debate (Prepared)
Sunday, Feb 11, 2024
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; Semifinal: 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
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).
Access our Judge Sign-Up form by clicking here!
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 with 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
Prepared Motions
THBT international adoption should be banned
THR the rise of Kpop culture
Info Slide: K-Pop, or Korean Pop, is a Korean music genre that draws on a wide range of popular music styles. Some of these styles include Hip Hop, Pop, R&B, Electronic Dance Music (EDM), etc. However, one of the key things that sets K-Pop apart from other music styles is the focus on choreography. Today, K-Pop is more popular than ever, with groups like BTS, Blackpink, EXO, and Red Velvet achieving massive global success.
Impromptu Hints
Art
Sports
Entertainment