COUGAR

THE COUGAR CLASSIC AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON

15-17 January 2021

DEADLINE

14 January 2021
NO REFUNDS AFTER 10 JAN

ASYNCH SPEECH DUE 12 JAN

ELIGIBILITY

Open to middle and high school students

PLATFORM

Online through NSDA Campus

Information

7th Annual, January 15th-17th, 2021

On behalf of the Speech and Debate Program, the Honors College, and the University of Houston, we would like to invite you to the 7th Annual Cougar Classic Speech & Debate Tournament at the University of Houston, which will be held on January 15th through the 17th 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.

NEW FOR 2021:
—Three Day Schedule – To account for the effect that COVID has on competition, we will be switching to a less demanding three day schedule.
—Online Debate - The tournament will be completely online.
—Novice Divisions – The tournament will have Novice divisions in Policy, 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
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.

Mutual judge preference will be used in CX & LD. Preferences will open on January 7th and will be due at 10 pm on January 13th. Novice will receive the same weighting as Varsity in judge assignment. All judges are committed through the octo-final debate and one round after his/her team’s elimination. Schools with students advancing to semi-finals in speech events are required to be available for all final rounds.

Drops: All drops after January 10th, 2021 will result in the loss of entry fees. Drops after Wednesday 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 Tuesday before the tournament (January 12th) 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.

Double-Entry Policy
Debate contestants (LD/PF) may not cross-enter into other events.
Given the Asynchronous nature of Speech we will allow cross-entry between all speech events.

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 if possible.

Awards
Physical awards will be mailed to teams. The logistics and threshold for winning a physical award is still being worked out. Three overall sweepstakes places will be awarded.

Entry Price

LD and parent is judging $90
LD and NOT providing a judge $200

PF/Congress and parent is judging $75
PF/Congress and NOT providing a judge $185

Policy and parent is judging $80
Policy and NOT providing a judge $190

One Speech Event and parent is judging $62
Two Speech Events and parent is judging $74
Three Speech Events and parent is judging $86

One Speech Event and NOT providing a judge $172
Two Speech Events and NOT providing a judge $184
Three Speech Events and NOT providing a judge $196

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)

Please click here to view the schedule

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

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 if there are any. We are not responsible for schedule conflicts.
Debate contestants (LD/PF) may not cross-enter into other events.
Given the Asynchronous nature of some speech we will allow cross-entry between all speech events.

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 from Thursday to Sunday (to judge the pre-recorded videos on Thursday and Friday and then live semis/finals on the weekend if requested by the tournament). What event you'll be judging depends on what your child is signed up for.

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

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 takes two minutes.

First time judging? Click here to learn how to do it! Or watch our Youtube playlist here.

For this tournament, judges are required to add a pref/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). Make sure to do this by January 12th or you will be fined by the tournament organizers.

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

THE COUGAR CLASSIC AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON

15-17 January 2021

Information

​Entry Price

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!