This is the Tournament Portal for our 2024 Fall East Tournament which will be held in Burgas on November 30th - December 1st.
Registration
Registration is now closed.
Host Site
The tournament will take place in Vocational School for computer programming and Innovation in Burgas.
Accommodations
BEST reserves up to two nights of accommodation for all participants. BEST commits to negotiating accommodation costs at or under 40 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. 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
Bulgarian pre-tournament press release.
English pre-tournament press repease.
Tournament Schedule
NOTE: Duo, Oratory, Poetry, Prose have been merged :)
Saturday, Nov 30, 2024
08:45 - Team Check-in
09:00 - Speech Judge Q+A // SL Meeting
10:00 - Opening Ceremony
11:00 - Round 1 Flight A: Oratory, Prose, and Duo
11:00 - Debate Judge Q+A
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 - Quarterfinals: Oratory, Prose
Semifinals: Duo
19:30 - Round 3: Debate (Prepared)
Quarterfinals: Poetry
Sunday, Dec 1, 2024
08:30 - Judge report time
08:45 - Semifinals: Oratory, Prose
09:00 - Check-in for Debaters
09:15 - Round 4: Impromptu Debate Motion Released (45 min. of prep)
10:00 - Round 4: Debate start time
Semifinal: Poetry
10:00 - Reimbursement for Judges (1 hour)
11:00 - Finals Flight A: Oratory, Prose, and Duo
12:00 - Finals Flight B: Poetry and Debate (Prepared)
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).
Our Judge sign up form could be accessed via 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 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 community service is a better form of punishment for non-violent offenses than prison time.
THS congestion pricing in major cities/metropolitan areas to subsidize transit systems.
THS creating an unified military army of the EU
Impromptu hints
Social
Social media