CX/POLICY DEBATE SCHEDULE

HARASSMENT AND DISCRIMINATION POLICY (CHSSA)

As a tournament, we will follow the harassment policy stated below ON TOP OF our own institutions harassment policy:

The California High School Speech Association is committed to providing its participants, judges, coaches, and members the opportunity to pursue excellence in their endeavors. This opportunity can exist only when each member of our community is assured an atmosphere of mutual respect. CHSSA is committed to maintaining an environment that is free from all forms of harassment and discrimination. Accordingly, all forms of harassment and discrimination are prohibited, whether committed by participants, judges, coaches, or observers. CHSSA is committed to the enforcement of this policy. Individuals who are found to have violated this policy will be subject to the full range of sanctions, up to and including removal from the tournament premises and prosecution by authorities. Any individual or group of individuals who believes they have been a victim of harassment and/or discrimination should report it to the Help Desk or appropriate authority immediately.

PARTICIPANT BEHAVIOR:

A waiver and guidelines form will be circulated for competitors, judges, and all other participants. We would ask that everyone you enter in our tournament read and agree to follow these procedures. We encourage your participants to respect these policies and we ask you to engage with respect, empathy, and fairness. Participants who do not respect this or refuse to agree will be disqualified from participation.

SAFETY GUIDELINES:

Two-party consent is required for the recording of a live debate round. Students and Judges are allowed to clarify at any point in the round that the recording/live streaming should stop. Any violation of this rule could result in disqualification.

Recording of IE rounds being judged is prohibited.

TOURNAMENT CONTACT:

Write this number down and put it in your wallet: 209-471-6470 (Dr. Farias’ cell). We would appreciate it if you called this number as soon as you find out about emergency last minute drops, especially if you have LD/Congress entries or you are an IE-only school. You should also call if an issue arises during the tournament. Before the tournament, you can feel free to reach out as well, however I may take a few days to respond. We look forward to hosting this event, seeing all of you IN PERSON, and we hope you like the new schedule.

ENTRY FEES AND GUIDELINES

ENTRY FEES

School Fee $75.00

Per Student Fee- $15 (helps pay for lunch for students each day of preliminary rounds)

Congress- $30 per students

CX/Parli/Public Forum Teams $90.00

Lincoln-Douglas $60.00

Individual Events Slots $15.00 each.

Triathlon $15.00 (on top of entry fee)

Uncovered teams $225.00 each team (on top of entry fee)

Uncovered Congress $75

Uncovered IEs $45.00 each slot (on top of entry fee)

Uncovered L/D $150.00 each entry (on top of entry fee)

Fee waivers are available on a case-by-case basis. We understand each team’s finances are different and hope each team understands our fees are an attempt to offer the best experience possible for students, parents/judges, and coaches.

FEE ASSESSMENT

For transparency, some changes to add hospitality and care for students, judges, and coaches meant that our fees increased. Those hospitality include a lounge with coffee and snacks in the morning, lunch for students on Friday & Saturday, hired judges to provide relief from over-assignment, and hopefully another catered lunch for parents and coaches on Saturday. We understand that sometimes fees can be cumbersome but we hope your students and parents appreciate the hospitality adds. If the fees are too cumbersome, please contact us and we can discuss how to make the tournament accessible for you and your team.

Although we do not charge for drops after the entry deadline, fees will be assessed as of Wednesday, October 28^th at Noon and any adds after that date will be based on current tournament structure. This means that we will take drops and adds, but as of Wednesday at Noon, drops will not decrease your fees in order to best prepare for hiring judges. Adds will increase your fees. This is done so that we can properly hire and allocate judging for the weekend.

Drops for illness (i.e. COVID) and requisite fees will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

ELIGIBILITY & DIVISIONS

As a high school invitational, student-competitors of high school programs shall be allowed to compete for their school/program with an appropriate chaperone. Students should compete for the school/program they attend. We will allow independent student entries as part of a school or program that is not already attending. However, independent student entries shall not be allowed if their school/program is already attending.

A competitor in Novice division is a competitor in their first two years of competition combined at either the middle-school or high-school level. However, any student who reached elimination rounds at either the CHSSA middle-school or high-school tournaments must enter senior division. Any competitor may enter Open division. A competitor who is a Junior or Senior with competitive experience prior to the current academic year must enter Open division. A Novice division competitor competing with a Open division partner must be entered in Open division. A Parliamentary debater must enter in Open division if they would normally be required to enter the Open division of CX, Extemp, or Impromptu under these guidelines.

JUDGES

Each school must provide adequate judging for their entries or entries may be randomly dropped. One (1) judge shall cover the following number of entries:

• 5 Congress entries (If you have more than 5 entries, you must bring one qualified parliamentarian as part of your judge obligation).
• 2 CX entries
• 2 LD entries
• 2 Parli Debate entries
• 2 PuFo Debate entries
• 5 Speech entries

We will be relying on judges brought by the high schools during a majority of rounds and will do our best to use the judges you have sign-up. A debate judge may cover either LD or Congress AND Parli, Public Forum, or CX. A judge covering two debate teams should be available to judge at least four preliminary rounds of debate. A judge covering six IE entries should be available to judge at least two preliminary rounds of individual events. Schools must provide judges for one full round beyond the elimination of their contestants from competitions—please remind the people you enter as judges.

What does this mean to you? A judge covering two debate teams will be expected to be present for both days of team debate. A judge covering six individual events will be expected to be present for both Saturday and Sunday elimination rounds.

Thus, if your judges are there on Saturday, and your team does not advance, we will STILL expect them to be there on Sunday for the elimination rounds. Concomitantly, if your student does not advance to the semi-final or the final round in individual events, the judge is still committed for Sunday because that is one round past elimination. Should your judge not be available all three days, we will credit your commitment for what time they are there and charge you for the remainder of your commitment.

ENTRY PROCEDURE & GUIDELINES

The tournament will use Speechwire.com for all entries. Entries should be completed by 11:00 PM on Tuesday, October 27, 2026. Drops and name changes (but no adds) can be made until Thursday, October 29, 2026. ALL FEES (judging and entry) will accrue as of Wednesday, October 28, 2026 at 12:00 PM NOON. Competitors may enter in both Debate and Speech events (EXCEPT FOR POLICY/CX DEBATE) but are responsible for arriving to their rounds on time. Failure to do so could result in forfeiting a round. Competitors may only enter in a single debate event and may enter in NO MORE than three speech events. Competitors entered in Policy Debate may not enter in speech.

JUDGES- ENTRY AND EXPECTATIONS

1. Put full name and indicate what you intend for them to cover.
2. Provide email and phone number for each judge
3. A judge can cover LD Debate and EITHER CX or Parli/PoFo.
4. One judge also can cover up to six individual event or Duo slots per conflict pattern.
5. Also, indicate the events and days they can judge, and be sure to note any conflicts of interest or preferred divisions.

Example judge entries:

1) J. Doe, jdoe@gmail.com, 209-867-5309, Covering Parli and IE's, Available Saturday and Sunday, Prefers Open.

NOTE- The tournament will return to hiring judges for the weekend and may use qualified college students to judge speaking and/or debate events (qualifications pending). However, we would prefer schools cover their judging to minimize the amount of hiring and to keep fees low. We have tried to lower fees to accommodate schools and difficult moments for budget; however, the amount of uncovered fees has been increased to accommodate hired judging.

NOTE- We will be using digital ballots for ALL EVENTS so please make sure that your judges have a laptop, tablet, or cell phone they can use to access their ballot and record their results. We will have a few extra laptops for data entry but the tournament will move faster if we can quickly handle all judging responsibilities.

TOURNAMENT GUIDELINES AND RULES

EVENT GUIDELINES (OVERVALL)

We encourage all participants to familiarize themselves with the updated rules of the California High School Speech Association and the National Speech and Debate Association. Concerns and, when necessary, protests must be brought to the attention of the Tournament Director as soon as possible after an alleged infraction of a rule has taken place. As much as we can, we will follow CHSSA State Tournament event and tabbing rules for our tournament. However, the tournament invite will dictate the rules for the tournament. If it is NOT in the invite, the Tournament Director is the final arbiter for all alleged violations. We have attached the CHSSA Tournament Rules for Speech & Debate as links in multiple places for your edification.  

EVENT GUIDELINES

CONGRESSIONAL DOCKET

• An entire docket with legislation shall be released Oct. 2 on Speechwire, four weeks before the start of the tournament.  
• Students MAY NOT double enter in CONGRESS and any team debate event
• Presiding officers for each round shall be assigned by the tournament. If you would like to serve as a P.O. please email Steve about your willingness.

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE- We will use the Sept./Oct. topic for LD in ALL DIVISIONS.

• Resolved: Outer space colonization is a moral imperative.
• Students MAY NOT double enter LD and any team debate event. Lincoln Douglas Debate Time 6-3-7-3-4-6-3 with 5 minutes preparation time per debater.

POLICY DEBATE

• TOPIC: Resolved: The United States federal government should establish national health insurance in the United States.
• Students MAY NOT double enter ANY team debate event. We will use the following time limits for Cross-Examination Debate:  8-3-8-3-8-3-8-3-5-5-5-5 with 8 minutes prep time per team.

PUBLIC FORUM DEBATE

• Resolved: The United States federal government should enact a moratorium on hyperscale data center construction.
• Students MAY NOT double enter ANY team debate event. Public Forum Debate Times 4-4-3-4-4-3-3-3-3-2-2 with 3 minutes of preparation time for each team during the debate to be used as a team sees fit.

PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE

PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE TOPIC AREAS

Resolutions may be fact, value, or policy. NO METAPHOR RESOLUTIONS WILL BE USED. The topic areas for prelims are below. Keep in mind that a specific proposition will be announced for each round at the tournament.

Round 1: Nationalization of US weapons manufacturing

Round 2: United States agriculture policy

Round 3: Tariffs as economic/trade tool

Round 4: United States-China relations

Round 5: Technology use in high school

Parliamentary Debate topics will be announced centrally and the topic will be posted online in multiple areas along with the topic announce time and debate start time. Teams will have 20 minutes from topic announce for preparation and 10 minutes until forfeit. We understand that this means teams may use the time as extra preparation time but judges will be instructed to be firm about the 10 minute forfeit rule. It is incumbent upon students to be in the room debating BEFORE 30:01 and if they use 29 minutes of prep and are unable to arrive on time, then that is the problem of the team debating. Teams will be allowed to prep together or with their coaches but shall refrain with communicating with any person besides their partner DURING the round.

The times are 7-8-8-8-4-5. The speeches alternate between government (affirmative) and opposition (negative) on the motion.

Debate Advance Rules

Tie Breakers and Speaker Awards: In ALL debate, we will use the following procedures for tie-breaks: 1) Opponent Record, 2) Adjusted speaker points (dropped High-Low), 3) Total Points, 4) Judge Variance.

In team debate events, the top ten speakers in each division will receive speaker awards. Speaker awards will be determined by: 1. Adjusted speaker points (Drop High-Low), 2. total points; 3. Adjusted speaker points (Drop Low); 4. Adjusted speaker points (Drop High); 5. judge variance (Z-score).

Number of Entries: The entry cap per division will be raised to 65 teams per event. Entries that exceed the cap will be placed on a waiting list and we will begin admitting entries passed the cap up until the Wednesday before the tournament begins. Furthermore, schools should be entering judge coverage as entries are submitted. TBA judge slots will be deleted throughout the entry process and judges failing to show will result in schools being assessed extra fees or dropped from competition.

Disclosure - Please help us keep on schedule. Following the return of the ballot, critics may disclose as much information as they see fit. Delays attributed to coach/judges may, at the tournament director’s discretion, result in penalties to that school’s teams including removal from the tournament.

Preliminary Rounds – Power-matching for all preliminary rounds will be high-low in win-loss brackets. The computer will randomly match Rounds 1 and 2. Rounds 1-2 will be pre-set on a geographic formula. Seven geographical areas will be used: Yosemite League, Kern League, Redwood League, Golden Gate League, Coast League, Capitol League, and all other areas. Every effort will be made not to match teams or debaters against schools from their own geographic area during Rounds 1-2. Byes will be drawn on a random basis. Rounds 3 through 5 will be power-matched (high-low within win-loss brackets) based upon the results of all previous rounds.

Elimination Rounds - In elimination rounds, brackets WILL be broken (if possible). Partial elimination rounds will be held, as necessary. If there are enough entries to warrant it (33+), the top 16 debate teams and the top 16 Lincoln Douglas debaters will advance to Octofinals. Ties for the sixteenth team or LD debater will be broken using the formula above. In the case of unbreakable ties, a coin will be flipped. Debaters will flip for sides unless they have met in earlier rounds.

INDIVIDUAL EVENTS AND TRIATHLON RULES

DIVISION RULES

Eligibility Rules - Open Division is available to all eligible students, regardless of experience. Students are novices in individual events when they:

1. are in their first year (defined as two semesters) of high school individual event competition and

2. have not placed third or higher in the same or a similar event two or more times in any division.

Collapsing Divisions – Every effort will be made to protect novice competitors. However, if there are seven (7) or fewer entries in an event, it may be collapsed into the next highest division. If this occurs, top novices will be recognized at the Awards Ceremony.

ELIMINATION ROUNDS

Criteria for Elimination Round - Any event with less than 7 contestants will not have a final round. For events with 7 to 29 competitors competing in all preliminary rounds, a final round will be held. In events where more than 30 students compete in all preliminary rounds, semifinals will be offered.

Advancement to Elimination Rounds – No more than half of the field will be advanced to finals. Students will be rank ordered first by lowest cumulative rankings, then by the highest reciprocal score (a.k.a. decimal conversion) and finally by the highest cumulative ratings.

Placement/Advancement in Elimination Rounds - Students will be rank ordered first by lowest cumulative rankings in the elimination round, then by judge’s preference, followed by the highest reciprocal score (a.k.a. decimal conversion) and finally by the highest cumulative ratings.

Number of Entries

Individual Events:

Each school will be allowed a maximum of 60 initial individual event entries. In addition, each school may enter up to six teams in Duo Interpretation. Podcasting entries do not count toward the maximum number of entries. As judging and space provides, entries may be admitted.

Debate Events:

We can comfortably guarantee space for a total 80 debaters/teams across both divisions in all events. So, that means that once we hit a total, the rest will be placed on a wait list. Schools will be notified no later than Wednesday before the tournament.

Triathlon. Each school may enter five students in senior division Triathlon and five students in junior division Triathlon. Each student must enter at least three events. The top three students in each division of Triathlon will be honored. Awards are determined on the basis of elimination results only. Podcasting can count as one event.

Podcasting: Contestants should prepare a 5-8 minute podcast involving current events, domestic affairs, international affairs, business news, sports, or entertainment news. All or one of these areas may be included in the podcast. Contestants will be judged on content, creativity, delivery, and production quality. Production quality means that the broadcast should be free from distracting noises. All contestants will be entered in one division. The top three contestants will receive trophies. Schools may enter up to five contestants in this event. The recordings may be submitted as a video or digital recording and should submitted via link or usb to the Tournament Director upon registration. Links can be sent to sfarias@pacific.edu. If using Google, please send to fariasstevenk@gmail.com

Sweepstakes: Contestants not competing in an elimination round will not receive sweepstakes points. Triathlon results do not accrue sweepstakes points. Points will be awarded as follows:

Points for First; Points for Second; Points for Third/Semifinals of Debate; Finalist;

Semi-Finalist; Quarter-Finals; Octo-Finals

CX PuFo Parli 20 15 10 -- -- 5 3

LD 15 10 7 -- -- 4 2

IEs/Duo/Pod 10 7 5 3 1 -- --

Congress 12 10 8 5