BERKELEY

CALIFORNIA INVITATIONAL BERKELEY

18-20 February 2023

DEADLINE

11 Jan 2023
NO DROPS/REFUNDS AFTER THIS DATE

ELIGIBILITY

Open to middle and high school students

LOCATION

In-person at UC Berkeley

Information

2023 California Invitational
Hosted by Berkeley Debate
February 18-20, 2023

Greetings,
This is your formal invitation to the 2023 California Invitational Speech and Debate Tournament, to be held February 18-20, 2023.
We plan to hold our usual offering of both speech and debate events for this year's tournament in-person for all three days of competition. We believe the chances of a COVID-related cancellation are very low this year.
We are of course subject to any changes in relevant policies from the CDC, U.C. Berkeley, and state and local authorities.

Entry Procedures and Waitlist
Every year we have a waitlist for all events. You will not be guaranteed a spot automatically so the sooner you register the better. Do not make any non-refundable travel arrangements until your entries have been moved off the waitlist on Tabroom and into the tournament.
Any entries received after the deadline will be assessed a $25 late fee per entry. Any entries received after January 30 will be assessed a $50 late fee per entry. It is also VERY possible that we will have to turn away late entries due to space limitations.
The drop deadline is the same as the registration deadline. You will not be refunded for drops subsequent to this date.

Events & Double-Entry Policy

We reserve the right to cancel or combine divisions with insufficient entries, and will notify participants in advance of any COVID-related changes.
All divisions will receive trophies.
There will be 3 rounds of speech/individual events (IE). Specific event schedules will be released on Tabroom in advance of the tournament, but our overall schedule is likely to be similar to previous in-person years.
Students may double enter in-person in speech and debate, and may double enter in speech events. All double entry is at a student’s own risk. No accommodations will be made for a student missing a round due to double entry.
Varsity divisions are a Tournament of Champions qualifier in the following:
Double Octafinals in Silver PF
Octafinals in Gold PF
Octafinals in LD
Speech events according to size

Debate Topics
Lincoln-Douglas Debate will use the 2022-2023 January-February NSDA topic.
Public Forum Debate will use the February 2023 NSDA topic.

Judge Commitments
All judges are committed through the first elim on Monday (usually the Double Octafinals depending on event size), or one round beyond the elimination of your teams, whichever is later.
Even if your school doesn’t have any teams in elimination rounds, your judges are still committed through the first elimination round on Monday. Elim judging commitments also apply in all divisions of an event so if you have a JV team in your Varsity judges are still committed and vice versa.

Judge Fines
The penalty for a judge failing to report to an assigned round is $75 per round. This fine is assessed even when a replacement judge is found.

Decision Times
Decision times will be strictly enforced. Policy rounds must be decided two hours after the announced start time, and LD/PF rounds must be decided fifty five minutes after the announced start time.

COVID Safety Protocols
All attendees are solely responsible for following all guidelines from your institution. The California Invitational accepts no responsibility or liability for the health of tournament attendees. All participation in the tournament is at your own risk.
Vaccination against COVID-19 is strongly recommended for all tournament attendees. However, there is no tournament vaccination requirement.
We will utilize the best practices and any rules and regulations required by the University or recommended by the CDC. We will keep attendees updated with specific policies as we get closer to the event.

We look forward to hosting you!
Berkeley Debate

Entry Price

LD and parent is judging $225
LD + 1 Speech and parent is judging $325
LD + 2 Speech and parent is judging $425
LD and parent is OPTING OUT of $385
LD + 1 Speech and parent is OPTING OUT of $495
LD + 2 Speech and parent is OPTING OUT of $605

PF and parent is judging $160
PF + 1 Speech and parent is judging $260
PF + 2 Speech and parent is judging $360
PF and parent is OPTING OUT of $310
PF + 1 Speech and parent is OPTING OUT of $420
PF + 2 Speech and parent is OPTING OUT of $530

One Speech Event and parent is judging $150
Two Speech Events and parent is judging $250
One Speech Event and parent is OPTING OUT of $275
Two Speech Events and parent is OPTING OUT of $375

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 - PST

Our tentative schedule is as follows. Please note that the schedule remains subject to change based on room availability and event sizes.
We plan to run IE/speech prelims entirely on Sunday, to give schools only bringing speech students an option to reduce their number of hotel nights and travel cost, as well as reduce the total amount of time spent waiting between IE/speech rounds.

Saturday
9:30am LD/PF Round 1
1:00pm LD/PF Round 2
4:30pm LD/PF Round 3
8:00pm LD/PF Round 4

Sunday
9:45am IE/Speech Round 1
11:00am LD/PF Round 5
1:00pm IE/Speech Round 2
4:15pm LD/PF Round 6
6:15pm IE/Speech Round 3
7:45pm Debate Events Triples
8:15pm IE/Speech Octas

Monday
8:00am All events Remaining Elims

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: vrivasumana@tgsastaff.com
Nadia Budiman
Contact email: nbudiman@tgsastaff.com
Or info@tgsastaff.com

Registration Form

STUDENT INFORMATION
Suggested attire for the tournament can be found here.
More tournament resources can be found here.

* Indicates required field

Student Name *

First

Last

Student Email (DO NOT USE PARENT'S EMAIL) *

Student Phone Number *

Does the student have a Tabroom account? *

Yes and it is linked with GSA's account(s) Yes but it is not linked and we need you to add to your roster No but I will create one before submitting registration No but I will pay the additional $35 setup fee

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.
Parents are responsible for bringing their child to UC Berkeley on their own.

Parent Name *

First

Last

Parent Email *

Parent Phone Number *

EVENT SELECTION
Double entry is allowed but at your own risk.

Partner Name (write N/A if none) *

First

Last

JUDGE PROVISION
Debate judges are required to be available the whole 3 days from Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Speech judges are required to be available on Sunday and possibly Monday. What event you'll be judging depends on what your child is signed up for.
DO NOT SIGN UP TO JUDGE IF YOU CANNOT MAKE THE SCHEDULE COMMITMENT

Will you (parent) be judging at this tournament? *

Judge Name *

Judge email (Must be linked to a tabroom account. Register first at tabroom.com before completing this sign up) *

Judge phone *

Does your judge have a Tabroom account? *

Yes No but I will create one before submitting registration No but I'll pay the additional $35 setup fee Not judging

Does your judge understand that he/she is responsible for the entire tournament schedule and that missing a round incurs fines from the tournament? *

Yes, understood Not judging but understood as well

Click here to complete the mandatory 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? Click here to learn how to do it! Or watch our Youtube playlist here.
There are also these training cards available that include a summary of each event's rules and comments.

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

I will keep a copy of this form for reference. *

YES

We are signing up with the understanding that my child will work to be ready by the tournament date. If we choose to drop out because my child is not ready that will be considered when making assessments for future classes. *

YES

I understand that if I fail to drop the tournament before the deadline that I will still be responsible for the fees of both my son or daughter, along with that of his or her partner and the fines. *

YES

I understand that if payment is not received we won't be registered and our spot will be given up to someone else. *

YES

I confirm that I have completed all necessary paperwork for this tournament. *

YES

I understand that The Golden State Academy has no control over tournament entries other than the initial sign up. I understand that my child's priority will be based on either the last time I signed up OR the date paid, whichever is latest. *

YES

I understand that my child must check in and check out periodically at the tournament with the coach and that if I do not my child will be barred from participating in following tournaments. This is to ensure coaches can see where students are at competitively and to give any initial feedback for improvement. *

YES

I understand that I can check my entry status through tabroom.com. *

YES

I am a consenting adult. I understand that by submitting this form I agree to all that has been covered. *

YES

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: info@tgsastaff.com

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

CALIFORNIA INVITATIONAL BERKELEY

18-20 February 2023

Information

​Entry Price

Schedule - PST

Drop Fee

Contact Info

Registration Form

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

School year Hours

Telephone

Email (preferred)

Locations

Entry Price

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