How We Can Fix the Digital E-Championship

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns forced debate into then-uncharted online debate territories, the NSDA and other leading leagues in the speech and debate community have been reckoning with the balance of opportunity and accessibility. Specifically, the question that has driven many actions by mainstream debate leagues is whether or not continued large-scale online tournaments are beneficial to its participants.

That is the very question that the Digital E-Championship has been forced to consider as in its second year of existence, it has failed to draw in the participation and notoriety that it expected when it advertised itself as an additional championship-level debate stage. Specifically, the tournament saw lackluster participation in comparison to other major tournaments in its first year, having one or two dozen competitors at most in any category. While this may not seem bad for a local or mid-major tournament, given the fact that the E-Championship was branded as a stand-along opportunity to NSDA and NCFL championships, it has unfortunately fallen short in this regard. Further, in its second year of existence the participation in many of its events also fell short to the point where certain events were canceled or saw minimal entries. As frustrating as this can be, it begs the question of what, if anything, has gone wrong with this tournament?

A common answer for most tournaments in the same situation is that the judging commitments are lacking. However, this doesn’t appear to be the case as the tournament successfully furnishes judges for its categories and at that they also bring to the table many experienced judges who can provide students with valuable learning opportunities. Thus, this leaves onlookers to wonder what exactly is wrong and how we can fix a problem that may not have an obvious solution to be utilized.

It may be easy to assume that this is a pessimistic smear of the Digital E-Championship, but behind this critique there is a desire for equity and opportunity to be expanded. Sure, this team-led venture by the NSDA, TOC, NAUDL, NCFL, NIETOC, and NFHS has its purpose in the right place as it wants to extend more high-level opportunities to all students who may not be able to afford the travel costs of larger national tournaments. However, in order for those opportunities to be realized it is essential that the right measures and attitudes are put in place.

In the spirit of realizing this opportunity and bringing it into fruition, it is essential that the Digital E-Championship takes some steps to evolve in order to promote itself and grow as a venture. Primarily, there is a crucial need for this tournament to adjust its scheduled time as it falls directly in the middle of what many debaters consider to be the ‘postseason’ wherein many national-scale tournaments occur. For reference, this year the Digital E-Championship took place between May 3rd and May 5th. Consequently, this is one week before the largest speech tournament of the year in NIETOC which was held May 10th through May 12th. Similarly, the Digital E-Championship also occurred a few days before the NSDA Last Chance Qualifier, as well as following up the Tournament of Champions. Therefore, because this time of year is already jam-packed with so many large-scale tournaments, it becomes increasingly difficult for debaters to attend each one, and thus the E-Championship has become the one tournament many talented individuals leave off of their calendar.

This is consequential because it places students in a position where they must choose which large scale tournaments they want to attend as opposed to being given the opportunity to attend multiple of them. In many ways, there is adequate spacing between groups of large tournaments which allow national circuit participants as well as standouts from local circuits to get a variety of experiences. Furthermore, it is also worth noting that this difficult scheduling period harms small-region debaters and those who don’t have the resources or time to throw into prepping for large scale tournament after large scale tournament. For those who may be new to national circuit tournaments, it can be a daunting task to prepare for only one or two massive tournaments, meaning that placing this tournament in the middle of other major ones widens that stress to continually prepare for an overcrowded schedule.

The solution to this problem can be simplified into moving the E-Championship to a different part of the year. While pushing it further back into May could have implications for prepping for NSDA Nationals, there could be hope if the tournament is pushed into early April which would allow for some breathing room for participants. While this is by no means a one-size fits all solution for this tournament, it could serve as a springboard for further discussion into the crucial need to reschedule this tournament in order to provide more opportunity.

Another way in which the Digital E-Championship can evolve to increase access and opportunities for debaters is to open its arms to accept independent entries. As of now, the Digital E-Championship doesn’t allow independent entries, something that has the potential to gatekeep access to this tournament on several levels. On one hand, independent entries generally allow for more access for students who don’t necessarily have the privilege to have a team whether it be that they come from a school without a program or that they are homeschooled. On the other hand, there is potential that in some programs coaches may strictly guide the schedules of their students and may not present the opportunity for their competitors to compete at this tournament due to the other major tournaments that occur around this time period as previously mentioned.

Regardless of the reasoning behind the individual need for independent entries, it could be widely beneficial to allow students to control their own tournament destiny so-to-speak. While this solution is also not ironclad in terms of ‘fixing’ the E-Championship, it does serve as one way in which barriers to entry and opportunity can be torn down and replaced with bridges to further success.

At the end of the day it is worth noting that the Digital E-Championship has the right purpose, and I’d argue that it has already made some strides in providing students with an additional opportunity to compete in ‘post-season’ tournaments. Simply put, any additional tournament opportunity is a good opportunity. It is the duty of the speech and debate community to provide our leadership figures with advice and critiques on how they can improve the opportunities we are already given. A good tournament isn’t good enough if it can be better, and a better tournament isn’t good enough if it can be adapted to best reach droves of students. The goal now must be for the Digital E-Championships, and other tournaments, to adapt many of the pieces of feedback mentioned previously, and to continue to be adaptive as a community so that we can consistently expand the opportunities given to students in the name of continued and constant equity.