HARVARD INTERNATIONAL SPEECH AND DEBATE INITIATIVE 1

24-25 October 2025

DEADLINE

17 Oct 2025
​NO REFUNDS ALLOWED AFTER THIS DATE
​

ELIGIBILITY

Open to middle and high school students

PLATFORM

Online through NSDA Campus

​Information

Dear Colleagues,

The International Speech and Debate Initiative (ISDI) is delighted to invite you to our JW Patterson Tournament of Champions Qualifying series, co-sponsored by the TOC and the Harvard Debate Council.

The ISDI TOC Qualifying Tournaments are a series of online tournaments to be held throughout the year with an emphasis on global participation. This tournament, the 1st in the series, will be administered by the Harvard Debate Council. The 2nd tournament will be administered by the University of Kentucky and Saigon South International School, and the 3rd tournament in the series will be administered by the Harvard Debate Council.

TOC qualification describes the process students complete to reach the JW Patterson Tournament of Champions, hosted by the University of Kentucky. Qualification for the Tournament of Champions is reserved for the best public speakers and debaters around the globe. We hope to provide a series of competitions offered at times that will allow students around the globe (American students included) to compete against each other. All tournaments will take place on Friday and Saturday evenings in the Americas and on Saturday and Sunday mornings in Asia.

We look forward to hosting you at this and other ISDI events.


Tournament Details

• The tournament runs October 23 – October 25, 2025.
  
  • ​For American time zones, it’s Oct 23 – Oct 24 in the evenings.
    

• The tournament will be conducted online using NSDA Campus (Jitsi).
• We will offer three divisions of public forum debate – silver varsity (with bids), novice (no bids), and middle school.
  
  • The novice division is intended for high school students in their first year of competition.
    
  • The middle school division is intended for students in the sixth through eighth grade.
• The public forum topic will be September/October PF Topic (Britain & EU)
• We will offer two speech events – Original Oratory & Dramatic Interpretation.
• All divisions will have four preliminary rounds with single flights. Speech events will break to a final round. PF will clear to quarterfinals. The quarterfinals through finals will be single-flighted.
• All divisions will use National Speech & Debate Association time format and rules.

Event Information
All events are governed by the rules in the tournament procedures documents posted above. Coaches, judges, and competitors should familiarize themselves with these documents prior to the start of the tournament. Please note that any sources read or cited as evidence in competition must be available upon request.

• Public Forum Debate
  September/October 2025 NSDA Topic | 4-4-3-4-4-3-3-3-3-2-2 Speech Times | 3 Minutes of Preparation per Team
• Speech Events
  ​Maximum Total of 2 Speech Events per Competitor

​

Bid Allocation
This tournament serves as a semifinals bid in Silver PF in the Open Division and a Finals Bid in WSD in the Open Division. The bid for Speech events is determined by the number of entries. Details on that can be found in the UK Speech Events Qualification Requirements. For participants from academies, TOC qualification in the event of a bid is determined by TOC rules.


Judge Requirements

• All judges provided by schools must be qualified, which at a minimum means a high school diploma.
• In the event of observers, observers should in no way interfere with or disrupt the normal operation of rounds. Failure to abide by this may result in penalties, including fines and/or removal from the tournament. Communication or conduct which engenders ill-will and disrespect for forensics ultimately reduces the utility of forensics for all who participate in it and should, therefore, be avoided.
• Judges may not simultaneously judge at any other tournaments. If we discover that you are doing so, we will remove you from the judge pool and notify the other tournament and fined by tournament officials.
• Any complaints about judge qualifications must be addressed to the tournament director prior to or immediately after the competition involved. All tournament directors have been authorized to impose penalties against schools whose judges do not appear for the rounds to which they have been assigned.

Online Technology Policies: Recording, Observers, Platforms

• Recording: For the privacy and protection of students and other participants, any recording of speeches is prohibited, with the exception that students are permitted to record their own speeches.
• Observers: Unaffiliated observers are not permitted. Only registered students, coaches, and parents of registered students may observe.
• Alternative Platforms: For the safety of all participants, no one (judge, coach, student) may switch their rounds to an alternative video platform outside of Jitsi. If anyone suggests moving to an alternative platform, please alert tournament personnel immediately. Judges who move to a separate platform will be fined as if they did not judge their rounds and removed from the tournament.
• Judge Video: The tournament believes that competitors deserve to be able to see their judges as much as possible. Accordingly, to the maximum extent possible, the cameras of competitors and judges should be on while a student is speaking and during RFDs. Brief pauses are understandable. To the extent needed, cameras can be off to enhance streaming quality.

---

​​Entry Fees

​One PF event and parent is judging $100
One PF event and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $225

One speech event and parent is judging $100
One speech event and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $180

Two speech events and parent is judging $150
Two speech events and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $230

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.

---

​Schedule

​Please note that all times will be in Eastern Time Zone (EST). Pay close attention to the time zones.
​The tournament runs Friday/Saturday night for American students. All participants must adhere to check in time to ensure the rounds start on time!

Click here to view the schedule for PF debate

Click here to view the schedule for speech events

---

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

Before you proceed with the registration below, make sure  ALL STUDENTS AND PARENTS  must fill out the form below. Failure to do so will result in the tournament dropping you without a refund. Students need to upload the filled out form below, while judges need to sign the form through their own Tabroom accounts. Instructions below.

HONOR CODE FORM FOR STUDENTS
​Click to download TOC Digital Speech & Debate Series Honor Code Form

---