2024 Spring East Regional Tournament

Saturday, February 24, 2024 10:00 AM 10:00
Sunday, February 25, 2024 3:00 PM 15:00

Google Calendar ICS

This is the Tournament Portal for our 2024 Spring East Regional Tournament which will be held in Burgas on February 24-25th.

Registration

The Registration Period is CLOSED!

Host Site

The tournament will take place in the School of Mathematics and Natural Sciences Acad. Nikola Obreshkov in Burgas.

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 are going to be released soon!

Tournament Schedule

Saturday, Feb 24, 2024

08:45 - Team Check-in

09:00 - Judge Q+A // Volunteer Training

09:20 - 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: Oratory, Duo; Semifinals: Prose

19:30 - Round 3: Debate (Prepared); Semifinal: Poetry

Sunday, Feb 25, 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

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)

12:00 - Lunch

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(active soon) and make sure their teams are up to date.