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The Golden State Academy
  • Home
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    • Meet Our Coaches
    • Why Speech and Debate
    • What is Speech and Debate? >
      • Speech Events
      • Debate Events
    • Why Golden State Academy
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    • Tournament results
    • FAQ
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    • Elementary Fall 2025
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    BARGAIN BELT INVITATIONAL

    21-22 October 2023

    DEADLINE
    15 October 2023 if traveling on your own
    ELIGIBILITY
    Open to 6th-12th graders
    LOCATION
    In-person at Claremont High School, Southern California

    Information

    Please accept our cordial invitation to The 11th Annual Bargain Belt Invitational hosted by Claremont High School. We pledge to you a full service, low-cost, well-managed weekend of excellent In-Person competition. As a competitive high school team, our mission is to provide the unique educational opportunities inherent in forensic competition at an affordable cost to the forensics community. This tournament will be conducted In-Person unless the Los Angeles County Health Department recommends otherwise. Our two-day competition schedule allows for a relaxed atmosphere with most debate events on Saturday only and ALL speech events scheduled for Sunday only. We believe this schedule allows you to maximize your judges without overwhelming them. We look forward to hosting your team and providing a great weekend of competition on our beautiful Southern California campus.

    ​We are excited to once again include a free lunch on both Saturday and Sunday for all student competitors, all judges and all adult chaperones. This has been a unique staple of the Bargain Belt since its inception a decade ago and we are excited to continue the tradition of FREE LUNCH for Everyone! We continue to provide a large number of awards and competition divisions to increase your program’s chances of success.

    Events and Divisions
    ​In debate we offer Novice and Open divisions in Public Forum debate and Lincoln-Douglas debate. We will use the Sep./Oct. LD topic and the Sep./Oct. PF topic. Note, if a novice or varsity division does not reach at least 16 entries, we may collapse into a single open division. (We do not utilize the Novice LD topic.)

    In Speech we offer Novice & Open divisions in all CHSSA Speech events, to include: Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Original Oratory (OO), Original Advocacy (OA), Impromptu, Program Oral Interpretation (POI), Oratorical Interpretation (OI), OriginalProse/Poetry (OPP), Informative (Info) and Extemporaneous (combining domestic and international).

    Speech will have three preliminary rounds, then break to semi-finals (>30 entry) or finals (<30 entry). Note, if a novice or varsity division in speech does not reach at least 10 entries, we may collapse into a single open division. Finally, we are pleased to recognize the top Middle School competitor in every event with an award.
    ​   
    We are pleased to announce NIETOC bids at Bargain Belt! Tournament bids are based on entry numbers, and will be offered in DI, HI, Duo, OO, POI, Informative, and Extemp. For additional information on how NIETOC works, please visit their website at www.nietoc.com.
     
    We will provide information on the extemp prep room at a later date.
     
    Students may enter up to three events; consisting of one debate event and two speech events. Exceptions: A student entering Extemp, may only single enter in the speech events; but may still enter one debate event.
    ​
    Awards and Recognition
    Awards will be given to all Speech finalists and semi-finalists. All Congress finalists will receive awards. All Octa-finalists and higher in the debate events will receive awards. And, awards will be guaranteed for the top performing middle school student in each event. Keep in mind, debate divisions may be collapsed if the entry in one of the divisions is fewer than 16 entries.
     
    Judging Commitments
    All judges are committed to judge one round beyond when the last student from GSA is eliminated from competition. This means that all judges are committed for at least the first Elimination round. Also, if your school has 4 judges and one of your debaters advances to the Quarter-final round, ALL 4 judges are committed to judge the Semi-final round. Please make sure your judges are available for their full commitment both days. Missed rounds will incur fees as we have to replace those judges with hired judges or school judges beyond their commitment.
    All judges must have a tabroom account with both email and phone number, and they must be on site and available to judge. Judges must be responsive to tournament email communication or they will not be eligible to judge. A limited Judge training will be provided on both Saturday morning and Sunday morning, 20 minutes before the start of the first round.
     
    Competition Procedure
    Debate rounds one and two will be preset, debate rounds 3-5 will be power-matched. A school will not hit itself in prelims. However, we will not break brackets in elimination rounds. School vs. school in elimination rounds will require a coach’s walk-over decision. The tournament will advance the higher seeded debater if the coach does not indicate a walk-over decision. Speech preliminary rounds will be preset. A team’s speech entries advancing to semi-finals will be spread equally between panels. There will be a 10 minute forfeiture rule in place for all rounds of competition.

    Disputes and Equity
    It is our goal to host a fair, transparent and equitable tournament. The Bargain Belt Invitational will utilize an Independent Dispute and Equity Committee with authority to adjudicate all competition and equity issues that are brought to the attention of the Tournament Director.

    ​Entry Price

    The fees below assume that you will be traveling on your own (parents will take their child to Southern California and book their own accommodations).

    One speech and parent is judging $60
    Two speech and parent is judging $70

    LD and parent is judging $70
    LD & 1 speech event and parent is judging $80
    LD & 2 speech events and parent is judging $90

    PF and parent is judging $65
    PF & 1 speech event and parent is judging $75
    PF & 2 speech events and parent is judging $85

    If you are opting out of judging, you will pay an additional $120 for those competing in debate. You will pay an additional $70 for those competing in speech only.
    ​
    Each person in a PF/Policy/Duo team would be responsible of providing their own judge, so one PF/Policy/Duo team would need to either provide two judges, both pay the judge fee, or one of each option.

    Registration will not be complete until payment is received.
    NOTE: We will charge set up fees if we have to create tabroom.com accounts for judges. It is recommended you do so on your own.

    Schedule

    Click here to view the full schedule.
    Make sure to pay attention to the time zones.

    ​​Although the tentative schedule lists the start and end times, please keep in mind that there are various factors that may arise during a tournament that can cause rounds to be delayed. Therefore, if you are signing up for this tournament, please make sure you do not double book yourselves on these dates. Keep your schedule open and DO NOT leave the tournament without notifying the GSA chaperones first.

    Drop Fee

    Drop fees will be the same amounts as the entry fee PLUS any fees the tournament charges us for late drops. Drop requests should be made to Victor and Nadia.

    Please do not drop out last minute to avoid being charged these fees.

    Contact Info

    Victor Rivas Umana
    Contact email:  [email protected]

    Nadia Budiman 
    Contact email: [email protected]

    Or [email protected]

    Registration Form


    STUDENT INFORMATION
    If this is your first time competing, make sure to first create a Tabroom account here: https://www.tabroom.com/user/login/new_user.mhtml
    It's super simple and quick (<1 minute), but follow the guidelines here in case anything is confusing: ​https://docs.tabroom.com/Sign_Up

    PARENT CONTACT INFORMATION
    Your email address will be the one included when we send the logistics email.

    EVENT SELECTION
    Students are able to enter in up to 2 speech events and one debate event, but if you're competing in Extemp you cannot enter in another speech event (you can only double enter in a debate event).
    Got any questions? Please email [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
    BOTH partners must fill out form and pay in order to be registered!

    ​JUDGE PROVISION

    ​Click here to complete the highly recommended Cultural Competency judge training course

    Signing up a judge without having a Tabroom account will result in us charging you for the set up fee.
    ​You can do this easily on your own by going to tabroom.com. It literally takes less than a minute.


    First time judging?
    This is a great collection of short videos that one of the leagues have put together to learn each event: click here.
    ​There are also these training cards available that include a summary of each event's rules and comments.​
    ​Click here to find other training and official certification resources. Or watch our Youtube playlist here.
    ​

    ​Tournaments encourage judges to have a paradigm on their Tabroom account, which can be a few sentences on your preferences of debating styles, etc. See here for example. It doesn't need to be this long, but make sure to add something before you sign up. For example: "I am a parent, please speak clearly and slowly and avoid technical jargon".​

    ​
    More tournament resources can be found here.

    TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Submit/take to payment

We would love to have you visit soon at one of our open houses.
Check our home page for the schedule!


School year Hours

M-F: 3:45 pm - 8:30 pm 
Sun: 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Telephone

510-270-8480
510-470-0531

Email (preferred)

For more info email us at: [email protected]

Locations

Fremont: 200 Brown Rd #201, Fremont, CA 94539

Cupertino: 20432 Silverado Avenue Suite 211, Cupertino, CA 95014

Aborn Institute: 2804 Riedel Road, San Jose, CA 95135 

​​​​Dublin: Loving Tree Academy, 6693 Owens Dr, Pleasanton, CA 94588​​
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet Our Coaches
    • Why Speech and Debate
    • What is Speech and Debate? >
      • Speech Events
      • Debate Events
    • Why Golden State Academy
    • Tournament Photos
    • Tournament results
    • FAQ
  • Forms
  • Registration
    • Elementary Fall 2025
    • MS/HS Fall 2025
    • Private Coaching >
      • Speech Private Coaching
      • Debate Private Coaching
    • Elementary Summer 2025
    • MS/HS Summer 2025
    • GSA Tournaments
  • Store
  • Blog
  • Career Opportunities
  • Newsletter