COUGAR

THE COUGAR CLASSIC AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON

14-16 January 2022 for debate
15 January 2022 for speech

DEADLINE

12 January 2022
NO MORE REFUNDS

ELIGIBILITY

Open to middle and high school students

PLATFORM

Online through NSDA Campus

Information

On behalf of the Speech and Debate Program, the Honors College, and the University of Houston, we would like to invite you to the 8th Annual Cougar Classic Speech & Debate Tournament at the University of Houston, which will be held on January 14th through the 16th in an online format. The tournament is a TOC semifinal bid in Lincoln-Douglas and Policy debate, and a finals bid in Public Forum (Silver Bid in Semifinals), and will be a TFA qualifier in all TFA events. We are also a NIETOC qualifying tournament.

Summary Info:
—Three Day Debate Schedule – The tournament will run on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday schedule with debate prelims on Friday and Saturday, elims beginning on Saturday and working through Sunday. IEs will run one day, Saturday.
—Online Format - The tournament will run with a online format for all events.
—Novice Divisions – The tournament will have Novice divisions in LD, and PF.
.
We will again offer a full complement of Individual Events, Duo & Duet, and Congressional, Lincoln Douglas, Policy, and Public Forum debate. We are excited to host this tournament to showcase our team and our commitment to a thriving culture of debate both in Texas and across the country.

Judging Requirements

The tournament considers a judge who can confidently understand a round, render an oral decision for debaters, and answer questions about their decision to be qualified.
Novice and Varsity will use a collapsed judging pool, meaning all judges must be eligible to judge varsity debates.
Tabroom.com will be used for all entries, pairings, and balloting. All judges and debaters are required to have a tabroom.com account.
Judges in debate events are required to have a tabroom paradigm. Any judge without a paradigm will not account toward their school’s judging obligation.
Novice will receive the same weighting as Varsity in judge assignment, and will receive three judge panels in eliminations like varsity teams.
All judges are committed through the octo-final debate and one round after GSA team’s elimination. Speech judges with GSA students advancing to semi-finals in speech events are required to be available for all final rounds.

Drops: Drops after 8:00 am on the Thursday before the tournament (January 13th) will result in an additional $75 fee; no shows the day of the tournament will incur an additional $100 fee. Judges dropped after the Thursday before the tournament (January 11th) will incur the judge fees plus a $100 drop fee. Judges dropped on the day of the tournament will incur the judge fees plus a $200 drop fee. Judges who fail to pick up a ballot for an assigned round will incur a $50 fee for the first instance. A second instance will incur a $100 nuisance fee, plus judge drop fees, plus calculated judge fees.

Entries & Cross-Entry
Debate contestants (CX/LD/PF/Worlds) may not cross-enter into other events with the exception of Congress.

Individual Events patterns will be as follows:
Pattern A
FX, DX, Duet, Prose, Impromptu, Oratory, POI
Students may enter 3 events
Pattern B
Poetry, HI, DI, Informative, Duo
Students may enter 2 events

Contestants should make an effort to notify their judges when they are double-entered. Tardiness to rounds may result in disqualification unless excused by the tabroom or tournament director.

Rules

TFA rules will be followed in all TFA events (see: http://www.txfa.org)
The current NSDA topics will be used in all debate events.
If entries from the same school meet in elimination rounds, we will not break brackets.
Panels will be used in all elimination rounds, including novice rounds.

Awards
Awards will be given to all contestants in elimination rounds. Debate speaker awards will be given to the top ten speakers in each division. Three overall sweepstakes places will be awarded.

Debate Topics List
Lincoln-Douglas - Resolved: The appropriation of outer space by private entities is unjust.
Public Forum - Resolved: The United States federal government should legalize all illicit drugs.

Entry Price

14-16 January 2022 for debate
15 January 2022 for speech

LD and parent is judging $100
LD and parent is OPTING OUT OF $240

PF and parent is judging $115
PF and parent is OPTING OUT OF $255

15 January 2022

One Speech Event and parent is judging $65
Two Speech Events and parent is judging $80
Three Speech Events and parent is judging $95

One Speech Event and parent is OPTING OUT OF $135
Two Speech Events and parent is OPTING OUT OF $150
Three Speech Events and parent is OPTING OUT OF $165

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

ALL TIMES ARE IN HOUSTON TIME (CENTRAL STANDARD TIME)
Times in green have been converted into PST

IE Speech Schedule (All Times Central)
ALL IE EVENTS WILL TAKE PLACE ON SATURDAY

Saturday - Individual Events

9:30 AM | Round 1, Pattern A --- 7:30 AM PST
11:15 AM | Round 1, Pattern B --- 9:15 AM PST
12:45 PM | Round 2, A --- 10:45 AM PST
2:15 PM | Round 2, B --- 12:15 PM PST
3:45 PM | Semi-Finals, A --- 1:45 PM PST
5:15 PM | Semi-Finals, B --- 3:15 PM PST
6:30 PM | Finals, A --- 4:30 PM PST
7:30 PM | Finals, B --- 5:30 PM PST

Debate Schedule (All Times Central)

Friday - Debate (Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum)

3:00 PM | Round 1 + 2 Pairing Released --- 1:00 PM PST
3:45 PM | Round 1 (Preset) --- 1:45 PM PST
6:15 PM | Round 2 (Preset) --- 4:15 PM PST

Saturday
9:00 AM | Round 3 Pairing Released --- 7:00 AM PST
9:30 AM | Round 3 (High-Low within Brackets) --- 7:30 AM PST
11:45 AM | Lunch Break --- 9:45 AM PST
12:15 PM | Pairings for Round 4 Released --- 10:15 AM PST
12:45 PM | Round 4 (High-Low within Brackets) --- 10:45 AM PST
3:00 PM | Pairings for Round 5 Released --- 1:00 PM PST
3:30 PM | Round 5 (High-Low within Brackets) --- 1:30 PM PST
5:45 PM | Elim Pairings Released --- 3:45 PM PST
6:15 PM | First Varsity Elimination Round (LD and PF: Flighted, Varsity-CX Doubles if necessary) --- 4:15 PM PST

Sunday
(Subject to change based on final numbers; times will be accelerated where possible)
9:00 AM | Pairings Released --- 7:00 AM PST
10:00 AM | ALL: Second Elimination Round/First Novice Elimination (LD and PF: Flighted) --- 8:00 AM PST
1:00 PM | ALL: Third elimination round (LD and PF flighting cease here) --- 11:00 AM PST
*Rounds continuing as quickly as possible until the end of the day

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

* 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.

Parent Name *

First

Last

Parent Email *

Parent Phone Number *

EVENT SELECTION
Make sure you have checked the double-entry policies. We are not responsible for schedule conflicts.
Debate contestants (LD/PF) may not cross-enter into other events.
No cross-entry between speech and debate.
Contestants should make an effort to notify their judges when they are double-entered. Tardiness to rounds may result in disqualification unless excused by the tabroom or tournament director.

JUDGE PROVISION

Are you supplying a judge? *

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? 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

Polygon Academy (Cupertino): 1025 S. DeAnza Blvd, San Jose, CA-95129

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

Loving Tree Academy: 36601 Newark Blvd, #83, Newark, CA 94560