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The Golden State Academy
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    COLLEGE PREP LD INVITATIONAL

    21-22 December 2024

    DEADLINE
    11 Dec 2024
    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-third 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 2023/24 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 includes tournaments held in the 2024/25 school year. In other words, if the debater competed in 4 tournaments last year and will have competed in 2 this year before our tournament, they must compete in the TOC (in person).
    • The TOC division is open to all interested debaters. It is a Varsity level division and Quarter Final level TOC qualifier.


    ​JUDGE REQUIREMENTS

    ​COMMITMENT
    In Novice division, 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 the TOC division, all schools are required to provide judges through OCTOS or one round beyond the elimination of their competitors, whichever comes later.
    IN PERSON
    Please note that all in person judges are in a single pool in order to allow us to maximize preferences in the TOC division. 
    Judges covering in person entries must be available to judge in person.
    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:
    • Resolved: The United States ought to become party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and/or the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

    The Novice division will use the NSDA Nov/Dec topic, Resolved: The United States ought to adopt a wealth tax. - CANCELED


    ​
    CONCESSIONS
    We will provide morning snacks and lunch for all competitors, judges, and coaches each day. If you are bringing additional observers who are not participating in one of these capacities (parents, non-competing students), we will be happy to feed them for an additional fee. You may sign up for additional observer meals on Saturday and Sunday on the Concessions tab.

    ​Entry Price

    Novice LD and parent is judging $145 - CANCELED
    Novice LD and parent is OPTING OUT OF judging $270 - CANCELED

    TOC LD and parent is judging $165
    TOC LD and parent is OPTING OUT OF judging $290

    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. 21
    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. 22
    7:15 AM Postings
    8:00 - 10:00 AM Round 5
    11:00 AM - 1:00 PM Round 6
    1:00 - 2:00 PM Lunch & Awards
    2:00 - 3:00 PM Double Octofinals
    3:45 ­­­­­- 4:45 PM Octofinals
    5:30 - 6:30 PM Quarterfinals
    7:15 - 8:15 PM Semifinals
    Final - Co-champs
    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.
    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.

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

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

    ​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.​

    ​This tournament requires 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
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​​
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet Our Coaches
    • Why Speech and Debate
    • What is Speech and Debate? >
      • Speech Events
      • Debate Events
    • Why Golden State Academy
    • Tournament Photos
    • Tournament results
    • FAQ
  • Forms
  • Registration
    • MS/HS Fall 2025
    • Private Coaching >
      • Speech Private Coaching
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    • Elementary Summer 2025
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