COLUMBIA

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY INVITATIONAL 2024 ONLINE

26-28 January 2024

DEADLINE

20 January 2024
NO REFUNDS AFTER THE DEADLINE

ELIGIBILITY

Open to HS students ONLY

LOCATION

NSDA Campus

Information

Dear Forensics Coaches, Judges, and Participants:

On behalf of the Columbia Debate Society, it is a great honor and privilege to invite you to the 2024 Columbia Invitational, our 22nd annual competition. This competition will be held virtually from Friday, January 26th, 2024 to Sunday, January 28th, 2024.
This year's tournament will host the following competitions:

[Varsity, Novice] Lincoln-Douglas Debate
[Varsity, Novice] Public Forum Debate

With consideration towards the smoothness of running the tournament and accessibility, this year’s tournament will be hosted virtually. In the coming weeks, we will provide information about Zoom links and ways to access the virtual tournament.
Additionally, we are excited to announce that we can provide bids to the Tournament of Champions for participants that reach finals in Lincoln-Douglas and quarter-finals in Public Forum.

Event Rules

Lincoln-Douglas Debate
The Lincoln-Douglas resolution will be the January-February NSDA topic. Lincoln-Douglas will follow the 6-3-7-3-4-6-3 format, with 5 minutes of prep time. This is subject to change. Ties will be broken based on win-loss record, adjusted points, total points, double-adjusted points, judge variance, opponent average wins, and coin flip, in that order. The TOC bid is at the Varsity finals.

Public Forum Debate
The Public Forum resolution will be the January NSDA topic. Ties will be broken using the same criteria as the Lincoln-Douglas Debate. The TOC bid is at the Varsity Quarterfinals.

Tentatively, the varsity divisions in Lincoln-Douglas and the Public Forum competitions will break to double Octofinals. The novice division in Lincoln-Douglas will tentatively break to quarterfinals, while a break to Octofinals will be applied in Public Forum.

Judging Requirements and Policies

Obligations
Judges in LD and PF are tentatively obligated to judge through to Octofinals, then one round past the last full round in which their academy's students are active.

Paradigms
We expect all varsity judges to publish paradigms on tabroom.com; teams will only be able to strike judges if their own judges do have paradigms.

Tab & Ballots
We will publicly post the results of every round in LD and PF after each round is tabbed to serve as a confirmation. Though judges in debate events are not required to disclose their decisions, they are highly encouraged to do so and give feedback and critiques. Pairings will be posted online.

Awards
No physical awards will be sent at this time due to logistical reasons. However, certificates may be given later, featuring placement/speaker awards by the Columbia Debate Society.

General Information

Waitlist
To accommodate as many teams as possible as efficiently as possible. We will open registration for the tournament on tabroom.com on a waitlist-only basis. Waitlists will be cleared two weeks after registration opens.

Eligibility
Novice is defined as a student in their first season (2023 - 2024) of debate competition at any level.

Fines
Unreported team drops day of tournament: $100
Judge misses a preliminary round: $75/round
Judge misses an elimination round: $125/round

Online Tournament Logistics

Online Platform
We will be using the NSDA Campus software for this year’s tournament. Guidelines for how to use this software will be released before the tournament.

Equity
The Columbia Invitational is committed to prioritizing its participants' safety and equity concerns. As a result, we have put together an equity team for the tournament, members of which will be available for competitors and judges to contact throughout the weekend with any equity-related issues. The equity team has also put together an equity policy, which can be found on our Tabroom page. For your convenience, here is the respective document: Columbia Invitational Equity Policy.

Entry Price

Novice LD debate and parent is judging $115
Novice LD debate and parent is OPTING OUT OF judging $365

Varsity LD debate and parent is judging $125
Varsity LD debate and parent is OPTING OUT OF judging $375

Novice PF debate and parent is judging $90
Novice PF debate and parent is OPTING OUT OF judging $290

Varsity PF debate and parent is judging $100
Varsity PF debate and parent is OPTING OUT OF judging $300

Each person in a PF team would be responsible of providing their own judge, so one PF team would need to either provide two judges, both pay the judge fee, or one of each option.

Fines
Unreported team drops day of tournament: $100
Judge misses a preliminary round: $75/round
Judge misses an elimination round: $125/round

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.

Tentative Schedule

Please click the link below to view the schedule
Please note that all times are in EASTERN STANDARD TIME (EST)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z4BxB_UpGeT-aFrlV8HJxo7EmXbJJokENX_MuIm2q40/edit?usp=sharing

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

* Indicates required field

Student Name *

First

Last

Student Email (make sure you have a Tabroom account) *

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.

Parent Name *

First

Last

Parent Email *

Parent Phone Number *

EVENT SELECTION

Partner Name *

First

Last

Choose your event *

HS Novice PF (January topic) HS Varsity PF (January topic) HS Novice LD (Jan/Feb topic) HS Varsity LD (Jan/Feb topic)

JUDGE PROVISION
Another PF tournament has created these easy-to-use PF judging guidelines and powerpoint. Please take a look at both of them if this is your first time judging.
PF Judging Guidelines
PF Judging Slides

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 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

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: [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

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY INVITATIONAL 2024 ONLINE

26-28 January 2024

Information

​Entry Price

Tentative Schedule

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!