CPS

COLLEGE PREP LD INVITATIONAL
TOC LD PARENTS MUST OPT OUT OF JUDGING

20-21 December 2025

DEADLINE

2 Dec 2025
NO REFUNDS AFTER THIS DATE

ELIGIBILITY

LD only

LOCATION

In-person at The College Preparatory School
6100 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94618, United States

Information

The College Preparatory School Debate Team is pleased to invite you to its twenty-fourth annual Lincoln Douglas debate invitational. We will offer five and six preliminary rounds of competition in two divisions, Novice and TOC. We are excited to welcome you back to our campus. The Novice and TOC divisions will be held in person on our campus in Oakland, California.

Tournament highlights include:

Early competition on the NFL January/February topic (in the TOC division), which will be used at the Barkley Forum, Stanford, and Cal tournaments. Novices will debate the November/December topic.
Experienced judging pool.
Meals provided free of charge to all judges, coaches, and competitors at the in person competition. Additional meals for observers may be purchased.
High quality awards for all elimination round participants, plus a repeat of our tasty speaker award cakes in the open division!
Small, self-contained campus, perfect for sending students with parent chaperones if the coach cannot attend.

Our purpose in hosting this tournament is to provide a competitive opportunity on the West Coast for Lincoln Douglas debaters.
We like hosting an all Lincoln Douglas tournament, a tournament at which Lincoln Douglas debate is treated with respect, rather than as an afterthought. We are a TOC bid tournament (level TBD at the spring TOC LD Committee Meeting).

DIVISIONS

The Novice division is limited to debaters in their first year of competition. First year competitors may participate in the Novice division regardless of how many previous tournaments they have competed in.
Debaters who debated during the 2024/25 school year must compete in the Varsity division unless they have competed in no more than 5 debate competitions over the length of their debate career (this includes ALL forms of debate, including Policy, LD, Parliamentary, and Public Forum). This 5 tournament limit for Novice eligibility does not include tournaments held in the 2025/26 school year.
The TOC division is open to all interested debaters. It is a Varsity level division and Quarter Final level TOC qualifier.

JUDGE REQUIREMENTS

COMMITMENT
All schools are required to provide judges through the first FULL elimination round or one round beyond the elimination of their competitors, whichever comes later.
IN PERSON
Please note that all judges are in a single pool in order to allow us to maximize preferences in the TOC division.
ELIGIBILITY
We care about our judging pool. Because of this, we request information on all of the judges you provide. Please indicate competitive and judging experience for all judges. Please also have each judge complete a judging philosophy in their tabroom.com account if the do not already have one. This information is important to teams as they complete their judge preferences in the TOC division. It is especially important to less resourced programs, as they often have less access to information about judges outside of their geographic area.
Entries in the TOC division will not have access to judge preferences if their judges do not have philosophies posted.

TOPICS
The TOC division will use the NSDA Jan/Feb LD topic.

Will be announced Dec 1

The Novice division will use the NSDA Nov/Dec topic.

Resolved: The United States ought to rewild substantial tracts of land.

Entry Price

Novice LD and parent is judging $170
Novice LD and parent is OPTING OUT OF judging $300

TOC LD and parent is judging $195
TOC LD and parent is OPTING OUT OF judging $330

Concessions: If you are bringing observers (parents/students who are not competing or judging), we can feed them for $15 per day. You can add this on the concessions tab.
Judge no-show fines: $50 in prelims; $75 in elims

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

Saturday, Dec. 20
7:45 AM Postings
8:30 AM - 10:30 AM Round 1
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM Round 2
12:30 - 1:30 PM Lunch Break
1:30 - 3:30 PM Round 3
4:30 - 6:30 PM Round 4

Sunday, Dec. 21
7:15 AM Postings
8:00 - 10:00 AM Round 5
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM TOC Round 6/Novice Elim 1
1:00 - 2:00 PM Lunch & Awards
2:00 - 3:00 PM TOC Elim 1/Novice Elim 2
3:45 - 4:45 PM TOC Elim 2/Novice Elim 3
5:30 - 6:30 PM TOC Elim 3
7:15 - 8:15 PM TOC Elim 4
Co-champs (if needed to avoid a 5th TOC elim)
Elim schedule will be expedited if we are able to move along more quickly.

Although the tentative schedule lists the start and end times, please keep in mind that there are various factors that may arise during a tournament that can cause rounds to be delayed. Therefore, if you are signing up for this tournament, please make sure you do not double book yourselves on these dates. Keep your schedule open and DO NOT leave the tournament without notifying the GSA chaperones first.

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
Suggested attire for the tournament can be found here.

* 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

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
The novice division has been canceled due to a lack of entries.

Choose your event *

Novice LD (Nov/Dec) TOC LD (Jan/Feb)

JUDGE PROVISION
Keep in mind that if you are judging and you miss a ballot, the tournament will fine you $50 for each prelim round or $75 for each elim round.

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) *

Has your judge added their judging paradigm on their Tabroom account? *

Yes Not judging

Judge phone *

Does your judge have a Tabroom account? *

Yes No but I will create one before submitting registration 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

COLLEGE PREP LD INVITATIONALTOC LD PARENTS MUST OPT OUT OF JUDGING