The National Points Race is Live! + Methodology

For the 2020-2021 season, the Extemper’s Bible will be launching a Nationals Points Race in order to determine the country’s most consistent competitor across a series of nationally-recognized events. Following the model of the Extemp Central National Points Race, we will be using different tiers to determine the comparative difficulty of tournaments across the nation. You can find the tiering system that the Extemper’s Bible will be using below.

This is the first time that the Extemper’s Bible is attempting to conduct a National Points Race. We would like to hear your thoughts on our list of tournaments recognized, our tournament tiering, and our points distribution! While we will not make any changes for the 2020-21 season after it begins in early October, we are open to your feedback – please email us at james@extempers.org and/or steve@extempers.org

TIER 1 EVENTS: NSDA Nationals, Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin, Extemp Tournament of Champions
These are the most well-known tournaments for high-level Extemp competition – the NSDA National Tournament in terms of pure recognition, and the MBA Round Robin and the Extemp ToC in terms of judge pool and depth of competition.

Placement	Points Earned
1st	1500
2nd	1250
3rd	1150
4th	1000
5th	900
6th	800
Semifinalist	550
Quarterfinalist	400
Octofinalist*	200

There will be no distinction made between IX and USX at NSDA Nationals in terms of points received. The final round winners in both categories will receive an additional 250 points as a bonus.
As the Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin has a different format from traditional tournaments and is widely recognized as the most prestigious event on the national circuit, the point distribution for MBA competitors is different. Nonetheless, it is still considered a Tier 1 event.

Placement	Points Earned
1st	1600
2nd	1400
3rd	1300
4th	1200
5th	1100
6th	1000
Participant	700

TIER 2 EVENTS: NCFL Nationals, University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions, Harvard National Forensics Tournament
While not as prestigious as the Tier 1 tournaments, these events consistently attract top-level talent from across the nation.

Placement	Points Earned
1st	1200
2nd	1000
3rd	900
4th	800
5th	700
6th	600
Semifinalist	450
Quarterfinalist	250
Octofinalist*	100

TIER 3 EVENTS: Yale Invitational, The Glenbrooks, GMU Patriot Games (2021+), Cal Invitational
While not true “national” tournaments, these events attract extempers across several states and often serve as the premier tournament in their region of the country.

Placement	Points Earned
1st	900
2nd	750
3rd	675
4th	600
5th	525
6th	450
Semifinalist	250
Quarterfinalist	100

TIER 4 EVENTS: New York City Invitational, Barkley Forum, The Sunvitational, Florida Blue Key Tournament, University of Texas Longhorn Classic, GMU Patriot Games (2020),
These tournaments can be thought of as smaller versions of Tier 3 tournaments, with strong outrounds and competition pools. They may attract regional talent with some out-of-state competitors.

Placement	Points Earned
1st	600
2nd	500
3rd	450
4th	400
5th	350
6th	300
Semifinalist	125

TIER 5 EVENTS: James Logan MLK Invitational, Marshall Speech Spectacular, Stanford Invitational, Villiger Tournament, Princeton Classic, UK Season Opener, Duke Invitational
Competitors must final at these tournaments in order to receive points in the National Points Race, as they are often much smaller tournaments for local schools.

Placement	Points Earned
1st	400
2nd	300
3rd	250
4th	200
5th	150
6th	100

For tournaments where entrants can compete in both USX and IX, competitors will be given points for their single best placement in either category; for example, if someone finishes 3rd in USX and semifinals in IX, they will be given third-place points. (This will lead to many more competitors gaining points, but will not allow any individual competitor to move ahead in the rankings massively from one tournament.)

Lastly, the Extemper’s Bible only recognizes five round robins – the MBA Extemp Round Robin, the GMU Patriot Games Round Robin, the Florida Blue Key Round Robin, the Capital City Round Robin, and the Durham Academy Cavalier Challenge. Excepting the MBA Round Robin, whose point distribution has already been listed, only the top three finishers at Blue Key, GMU, Capital City, and the Cavalier Challenge will receive points for their Round Robin performance. Their point distributions can be found below. 

Placement	Points Earned
1st	250
2nd	175
3rd	100