The Basics

Stoa uses the open and public National Christian Homeschool Speech and Debate Rankings (Speechranks) website to determine invitations to the National Invitational Tournament of Champions (NITOC) hosted by Stoa. Stoa tournaments must meet certain minimum criteria for rounds competed as specified on the Speechranks website. Results posted for Stoa tournaments through April 30 will be used for invitational purposes.

​

Invitational Model

National Invitation Model: Two Green Checks

Two Green Check next to your name in a NITOC event means you will receive an invitation to NITOC in that event. Green checks are given only to those students achieving these levels at Stoa tournaments that have met our Stoa minimum tournament standards.

​

Green Checks are defined as:

​

New: All speech and debate events are now at 35% for green checkmarks, except Impromptu, which stays at 25%. Read more here.

​

NOTE:  For Duo Interpretation, Team Policy, and Parliamentary Debate, only teams may be invited to NITOC. In other words, a student may not receive an invitation with one partner and then compete at NITOC with a different partner. If a student receives an invitation with two different partners in the same event, he/she must choose with which partner to compete.

​​

If you have qualified with the above model, and you can confirm that according to SpeechRanks.com, you do not need to wait for a formal invitation to NITOC in order to register to compete here. 

​

Debate at NITOC

• Round One will be randomly paired.

• Rounds Two through Six will employ standard Stoa Hi/Lo (within W/L brackets) Power Matching.

• There is no state protection.

• Club protection will be employed in Rounds One through Four.

​

Speech Seeding at NITOC

• Speech events at NITOC will be seeded based on the rankings on the Speechranks website. Seeding is based on a student’s three best performances during the speech and debate season. This provides a motivation toward continued excellence throughout the year, as that excellence is rewarded at NITOC. Preliminary Rounds of speech will be “power protect” rounds.​

  • In Speech Events, all preliminary rounds will spread the top-ranked students, one per classroom, equal to the number of classrooms per event. This has advantages for both the top-ranked students and those that are not highly ranked, as the competition is spread more evenly among the rooms.

    • For the top students, this means they will not have to compete against the other top students in prelims. This should increase their chances of advancing to outrounds.

    • For the lesser-ranked students, this means they will not have to endure a prelim round with all the top-ranked students in their room. This should also increase their chances of advancing to outrounds.

​