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The Golden State Academy
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet Our Coaches
    • Why Speech and Debate
    • What is Speech and Debate? >
      • Speech Events
      • Debate Events
    • Why Golden State Academy
    • Tournament Results and Photos
    • 2016 Nationals Results
    • FAQ
  • Forms
  • Registration
    • Elementary Spring 2021
    • MS/HS Spring 2021
    • Tx Winter Camp 2020
    • Private Coaching >
      • Speech Private Coaching
      • Debate Private Coaching
    • GSA Tournaments
    • BASIS Tournaments
  • Store
  • Career Opportunities

    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

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

    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.
    BOTH partners must fill out form and pay in order to be registered!

    ​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.
    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
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
​510-890-6665

Email (preferred)

For more info email us at: info@tgsastaff.com

Locations

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

Radiant Kidz(Cupertino): 991 Saratoga Ave #140, San Jose, CA 95129 

Morning Light Education: 6690 Amador Plaza Rd, Suite 230, Dublin, CA

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

Loving Tree Academy: 36601 Newark Blvd, #83, Newark, CA 94560
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet Our Coaches
    • Why Speech and Debate
    • What is Speech and Debate? >
      • Speech Events
      • Debate Events
    • Why Golden State Academy
    • Tournament Results and Photos
    • 2016 Nationals Results
    • FAQ
  • Forms
  • Registration
    • Elementary Spring 2021
    • MS/HS Spring 2021
    • Tx Winter Camp 2020
    • Private Coaching >
      • Speech Private Coaching
      • Debate Private Coaching
    • GSA Tournaments
    • BASIS Tournaments
  • Store
  • Career Opportunities