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The Golden State Academy
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    UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN HS DEBATE TOURNAMENT

    9-10 November 2024

    DEADLINE
    4 Nov 2024
    NO REFUNDS AFTER THIS DATE
    ELIGIBILITY
    Open to MS/HS students
    ​PF debate only
    PLATFORM
    Online through NSDA Campus

    Information

    2024 University of Michigan H.S. Debate Tournament Invitation
    Friday, November 8th- Sunday, November 10th, 2024
    • Tournament of Champions (TOC) Finals Bid Tournament- Varsity Public Forum Division

    On behalf of the University of Michigan and Michigan Debate Program, we are pleased to invite you to participate in the 28th annual University of Michigan High School Debate Tournament. 

    The tournament will provide online/remote competition in the varsity and novice divisions of public forum (PF) via Zoom. The tournament has been certified as a tournament of champions qualifier for public forum varsity division at the FINALS level.

    Public Forum Divisions Tournament Format
    • Competitors will debate the forthcoming November/December Topic.
    • The elimination round break point will be appropriately determined by the number of teams entered, but a maximum amount of 32 teams would reach the elimination rounds if we break to Double Octafinals.
    • Each team entered has a 3 round prelim judging obligation and a single judge can cover the commitment of two teams. All judges are obligated for the first elimination round. Judges are further obligated to judge one round after the elimination of their last team. Schools whose judges do not meet their obligations are subject to a penalty fee of $75/missed round.
    • Judges must have a tabroom.com account and are required to enter their ballots online.

    Novice Eligibility 
    We cannot verify the experience of each individual entrant in our tournament, so it is incumbent upon individual coaches to ensure their students are entered in the right division. Entrants found to be in violation of eligibility rules may be removed from the tournament at the Tournament Directors' discretion.

    Please note that in order to compete in any division labeled, "novice," a student or students must be the first year of high school debate. If a team has previously won the Novice Division of a Tournament of Champions qualifying tournament, they must enter the Varsity division.

    2024 Dates and Deadlines
    Wednesday, November 6th - Judge Preferences for applicable divisions will open on tabroom.com

    Recommendations for Online Divisions
    • We strongly encourage debaters to operate from direct Ethernet connections, as opposed to WiFi.
    • We strongly encourage every debater to wear a headset with a microphone or to use similar technological equipment.
    • Debaters are required to have their web cameras on during the time that they are speaking. Judges are required to have their camera on at any point when students are speaking and while giving RFD/comments. If there is a technological issue that prevents this from happening, limited exceptions are permitted; otherwise, this is the expectation of the tournament. 
    • The use of Zoom backgrounds are permitted, but must be age and content appropriate.

    Help desk: [email protected] is the email address for technological assistance/questions that arise during the tournament.

    ​Entry Price

    One debate event and parent is judging $80
    One debate event and parent is OPTING OUT OF judging $200

    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 pay attention to the time zones. These are all in EST.

    2024 Online/Remote Public Forum Divisions Schedule
    ​
    All times below in ET – The full 2024 schedule in U.S. time zones can be found at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZKq4-lGEyK-hy-uUNtdsR6ucJ1bIqLAS8ruW5voaOC8/edit?usp=sharing

    *SUBJECT TO CHANGE BASED ON ENTRIES*

    Saturday, November 9th: (EST)
    10:00 am – Pairings Release for Rounds 1 and 2
    10:20 am – Round 1 (Room check-in at 10:10 am)
    11:50 am – Round 2 (Room check-in at 11:40 am)
    12:45 pm – 1:30 pm – Break
    1:30 pm – Round 3 Pairing
    1:50 pm – Round 3 (Room check-in at 1:40 pm)
    3:10 pm – Round 4 Pairing
    3:30 pm – Round 4 (Room check-in at 3:20 pm)
    4:55 pm – Round 5 Pairing
    5:15 pm – Round 5 (Room check-in at 5:05 pm)
    6:30 pm – Round 6 Pairing
    6:50 pm – Round 6 (Room check-in at 6:40 pm)
    8:00 p.m.- Release list of teams clearing, judge list, and standby judges for Sunday morning

    Sunday, November 10th: (EST)
    10:00 am – First Elim Pairing
    10:20 am – First Elim (Room check-in at 10:10 am)
    11:50 am – Second Elim Pairing
    12:10 pm – Second Elim (Room check-in at 12:00 pm)
    1:30 pm – Third Elim Pairing
    1:50 pm – Third Elim (Room check-in at 1:40 pm)
    3:00 pm – Fourth Elim Pairing
    3:20 pm – Fourth Elim (Room check-in at 3:10 pm)
    4:30 pm – Fifth Elim Pairing (*if needed)
    4:50 pm – Fifth Elim (Room check-in at 4:40 pm *if needed)

    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
    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
    Divisions may get combined if entries are too small.​
    BOTH partners must fill out form and pay in order to be registered!

    ​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

    ​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
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
    • Elementary Fall 2025
    • MS/HS Fall 2025
    • Private Coaching >
      • Speech Private Coaching
      • Debate Private Coaching
    • Elementary Summer 2025
    • MS/HS Summer 2025
    • GSA Tournaments
  • Store
  • Blog
  • Career Opportunities
  • Newsletter