HARVARD COLLEGE OPENER

HARVARD COLLEGE DEBATING UNION SEASON OPENER

30-31 August 2025

DEADLINE

18 August 2025
NO REFUNDS AFTER THE DEADLINE

ELIGIBILITY

Open to MS/HS students

LOCATION

Online through Zoom

Information

Dear Coaches, Debaters, and Parents

On behalf of the Harvard College Debating Union, we are so excited to invite you to the Harvard College Debating Union Season Opener August 30th-31st. Although we believe very strongly in the power of in-person debate, we also understand that for many students, flying to Cambridge can be inaccessible. In this vein, we have decided to make the tournament entirely online. The tournament will run over both tabroom and zoom, with more information about zoom links published closer to the tournament.

This year, we will be offering 6 events: Varsity Public Forum, JV Public Forum, Novice Public Forum, Varsity Lincoln Douglas, JV Lincoln Douglas, and Open Parliamentary. We are excited to announce that the finalists in Varsity PF and Varsity LD will get an auto-bid to the Harvard Round Robin hosted in February, and the Parli division will count towards the NYPDL Championship and possibly NPDL-TOC. Moreover, the winners of Open Parliamentary and Varsity PF will also receive a $1,000 cash prize and the winners of Varsity LD will receive a $500 cash prize.

This tournament means a lot to us, and we are committed to providing a fair, timely, and competitive tournament.

See you virtually in August!

Novice/JV/Varsity Status
We encourage coaches to estimate skill level and place debaters in the division that best serves their education. With that being said, a novice must be in their first year of competitive high school debate and a JV must be in their first or second year of competitive debate. Your first year of competitive debate is defined by not attending a single high school debate tournament in the prior year.

Breaking Teams

In all divisions, we will be doing a clean break of all teams that win four out of their 5 preliminary rounds.
Iron-person teams are not eligible to break in any event
Teams may iron-person one round in the case of an emergency and still be eligible to break. In the case that a team on 4+ wins has iron-personed more than 2 rounds, the break will be one team smaller. We will not be pulling up any 3-2 teams into elimination rounds.
Seeding of teams will first be based on the number of rounds won, and then on total speaker points -1HL, followed by your median score (-2HL), followed by your total speaker points.
We reserve the right to change the break or tiebreakers and will communicate in the case that we do.

Judge Obligations

Judge(s) must be present for all preliminary rounds and one round after their last team has been eliminated from the break.
So if your child got eliminated in Round 5 but another GSA student makes it to Elim 2, you are obligated to judge until Elim 3.
While experienced judges are preferred, judge training is required. Judges are responsible for their own training. Please find the resources below the judge information section.
Judges are still required to judge on DAY TWO even if their children do not make it past DAY ONE! Please do not sign up to judge if you cannot commit to the two-day schedule.
Judge changes after the deadline will incur a $100 fine on top of the regular fees.
All judges must be 18 years of age or older and be a proficient English speaker.

Rules
All divisions in Public Forum and Lincoln Douglass will Both will use the September-October National Speech and Debate Association topic and time limits.

Equity
The tournament strives to foster an environment promoting inclusivity, respect, and equity. The tournament will abide by Harvard College’s policies and procedures for sexual, gender-based, and racial harassment and discrimination. For any concerns about equity throughout the tournament, we will have an anonymous google form and an equity officer on standby. Maria Xu, the Vice President of Equity for the Harvard College Debating Union will be acting as the Director of Equity for this tournament.

Adult Supervision
Every student must be virtually accompanied at the tournament by someone who is over the age of 18. This adult should be authorized by the student’s school and/or parent to care for that student in the event of a medical or other emergency. The contact information for this adult must be provided to tournament staff before the tournament in order for students to compete.

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Entry Price

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

JV PF debate and parent is judging $120
JV PF debate and parent is OPTING OUT OF judging $260

Varsity PF debate and parent is judging $125
Varsity PF debate and parent is OPTING OUT OF judging $265

JV LD debate and parent is judging $170
JV LD debate and parent is OPTING OUT OF judging $340

Varsity LD debate and parent is judging $180
Varsity LD debate and parent is OPTING OUT OF judging $350

Each person in a PF team would be responsible of providing their own judge, so one PF 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.

Tentative Schedule

Please note that all times are in EASTERN STANDARD TIME (EST).
Green listed times have been converted into PST.

Saturday 8/30
10:00 - 10:25: Equity Briefing --- 7:00 AM PST
10:25 - 10:30: General assembly (required) --- 7:25 AM PST
10:30 - 12:15: Round 1 --- 7:30 AM PST
12:15 - 2:00: Round 2 --- 9:15 AM PST
2:00 - 2:45: Lunch --- 11:00 AM PST
2:45 - 4:30: Round 3 --- 11:45 AM PST
4:30 - 6:15: Round 4 --- 1:30 PM PST
6:15 - 8:00: Round 5 --- 3:15 PM PST
8:15 - 8:30: Award Ceremony/Break Announcement --- 5:15 PM PST

Sunday 8/31
10AM - 10:30: Check-In and GA --- 7:00 AM PST
10:30 - 12:15: Elim 1 --- 7:30 AM PST
12:15 - 2:00: Elim 2 --- 9:15 AM PST
2:00 - 2:45: Lunch --- 11:00 AM PST
2:45 - 4:30: Elim 3 --- 11:45 AM PST
4:30 - 6:15: Elim 4 --- 1:30 PM PST
6:15 - 8:00: Elim 5 --- 3:15 PM PST

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

* 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

PF Partner Name *

First

Last

JUDGE PROVISION
Another PF tournament has created these easy-to-use PF judging guidelines and powerpoint. Please take a look at both of them if this is your first time judging.
PF Judging Guidelines
PF Judging Slides

ATTENTION: Judges are still required to judge on DAY TWO even if their children do not make it past DAY ONE! Please do not sign up to judge if you cannot commit to the two-day schedule.

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) *

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

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

HARVARD COLLEGE DEBATING UNION SEASON OPENER

30-31 August 2025

Information

​Entry Price

Tentative 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!