NORTHWESTERN DB

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY INVITATIONAL

3-4 October 2026

DEADLINE

26 September 2026
NO REFUNDS AFTER THIS DATE

ELIGIBILITY

Open to 6th - 12th graders
PF only

PLATFORM

Online through NSDA Campus

Information

Welcome all to the Public Forum Invitational at Northwestern University! We are so excited to kickstart this tradition and introduce Northwestern to the high school debating community.

Live Doc
The Live Document will be updated with important information and announcements about the tournament.

Judges

Requirements
Judges must be 18 years of age or older. They must hold a high school diploma or equivalent.

Judge Obligations
If all teams are eliminated from the tournament, your judges are obligated to judge one round after your last team is eliminated. For example, if your furthest advancing team is out by the end of prelims, your judges must be available to judge the first elimination round. - Even if you own child has gotten eliminated, you are obligated to stay and judge according to this rule.

A “qualified judge” is one who has been trained either in the activity or by the team that has registered them, has the ability to follow the flow of debate within a round, is able to speak and understand English, and can adequately assign wins/losses and speaker points based on the contents of the round. We strongly suggest that judges read through the “Culturally Competent Training Handout” and receive their “Intro to Judging Debate” judge accreditation on the official NSDA website.

Fines
If a judge fails to show up for their assigned round, they will be fined $100 per round.
If a judge drops after the registration deadline, they will be charged a $150 fine.

Procedures

Disclosure
Judges should not disclose their decisions after the round. They are encouraged to provide general feedback to the debaters after ballot submission. Please write a detailed reason for your decision on your Tabroom ballot so the students may view it later. Judges can edit feedback until the end of the tournament.

Strikes
Debaters will not be able to submit judge strikes in VPF, JVPF, or MSPF. If debaters receive a judge assignment that presents a conflict of interest or an undue advantage to either team, they ought to contact Tab before the round has begun. We will not be retroactively ruling decisions null and void except in the case of extenuating circumstances.

Rules
This tournament will follow the Public Forum Rules outlined in the National Speech and Debate Association 2024-2025 High School Unified Manual. The tournament will observe the NSDA September-October topic.
Consult Tabroom before taking any action to demote a team’s standing or challenge a violation.

Evidence
NSDA Campus File sharing, email chains, or links in the chat are acceptable ways to share evidence. Any evidence read in a round must be available to the opponent upon request. Time used sharing the evidence shall not be factored into prep time. Time spent reading the opponent’s evidence must be on the clock, either as prep time or while another speech/crossfire is underway.
Judges may only request to view evidence after the round has concluded. Judges are instructed to treat all evidence presented in round as truthful unless unique reasons to suspect dishonesty or conduct violations present themselves. Competitors may not instruct or request that judges review specific pieces of evidence. If competitors suspect evidence of conduct violations or abuse, they ought to report such incidents to tournament staff.

Structure
Public Forum Debate Time Limits

First Speaker - Team A --- 4 Minutes
First Speaker - Team B --- 4 Minutes
Crossfire --- 3 Minutes
Second Speaker - Team A --- 4 Minutes
Second Speaker - Team B --- 4 Minutes
Crossfire --- 3 Minutes
Summary - First Speaker - Team A --- 3 Minutes
Summary - First Speaker - Team B --- 3 Minutes
Grand Crossfire --- 3 Minutes
Final Focus - Second Speaker - Team A --- 2 Minutes
Final Focus - Second Speaker - Team B --- 2 Minutes
Prep Time --- 3 Minutes per Team

Speaker Points
Speaker points are based on the holistic presentation of a speaker.
Low-point wins (the winning team has fewer points than the losing team) are acceptable.
Here is a standard:

29-30: Incredible speech, near perfect.
28-29: Fairly eloquent and insightful.
27-28: Good fluidity, but a bit rough.
26-27: Frequent stalling or stumbles.
Below 26: Offensive or extremely rude

Coin Flips
Coin flips will be conducted through the Tabroom mechanism before the round starts. Debaters are not permitted to perform coin flips in the round room.

Mavericks
No mavericks will be allowed to register. If your partner drops, you may continue to compete as a maverick. However, you will not be eligible for elimination rounds.

Format
After Round 2, all rounds will be power-matched by record. Out-rounds will use a seeded bracket format. All rounds will be single-flighted.
To encourage equal opportunity for advancement, the tournament will allow teams from the same school who hit each other in elimination rounds to debate. If the coach or participants wish to take the higher seed, we will respect that as well.

Equity and Inclusion
The Northwestern University Invitational staff is committed to ensuring a healthy and equitable debating environment. Our designated equity officer, Natalie Roots, is available for the duration of the tournament to help facilitate relevant conversations and respond to instances of conflict. They are the primary resource for students, judges, and teams to express concerns directly to tournament staff.

We strongly suggest that judges read through the NSDA’s Culturally Competent Judging handout and complete their Multicultural Competence course/judge accreditation.

Ethics
High school debate aims to improve students' basic education and provide a platform for developing essential life skills. To achieve these objectives, coaches must encourage a culture of strong, positive ethical behavior. To support coaches in this effort, certain actions should be avoided as they can constitute clear ethical violations or create the appearance of such violations.
These actions include: communication between debaters and non-debaters during a round, communication between judges during a round, accessing shared documents during a round (such as sending cases to a team email instead of a personal one), live-streaming a round to outsiders, recording rounds without permission, intimidating debaters or judges, and using fabricated or misrepresented evidence. Although this list is not exhaustive, it serves as a guideline to help preserve the integrity and benefits of competitive debate for everyone involved.

Entry Price

PF and parent is judging $85
PF and parent is OPTING OUT OF judging $220

If a judge fails to show up for their assigned round, they will be fined $100 per round.
If a judge drops after the registration deadline, they will be charged a $150 fine.

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 ALL TIMES ARE IN CENTRAL STANDARD TIME. The green times have been converted into PST.

Saturday, October 3rd
Judge Training: 9:15am   --- 7:15 AM PST
Blast: 9:50am --- 7:50 AM PST
Round 1: 10:00am   --- 8:00 AM PST
Round 2: 12:00am   --- 10:00 AM PST
Round 3: 2:00 pm --- 12:00 PM PST
Round 4: 4:00 pm --- 2:00 PM PST
Round 5: 6:00 pm --- 4:00 PM PST
Round 6: 8:00pm   --- 6:00 PM PST

Sunday, October 4th
Blast: 9:50am   --- 7:50 AM PST
Octos: 10:00 am   --- 8:00 AM PST
Quarters: 11:30 am   --- 9:30 AM PST
Semis: 1:00 pm --- 11:00 PM PST
Finals: 2:30 pm --- 11:30 AM PST
Award Video Posted: ~4pm --- 2:00 PM PST

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
Divisions may get combined if entries are too small.

PF Partner Name *

First

Last

Please choose your correct division *

MS PF HS JV PF HS Varsity PF

JUDGE PROVISION

Judging slides from the tournament click here
We strongly suggest that judges read through the “Culturally Competent Training Handout” and receive their “Intro to Judging Debate” judge accreditation on the official NSDA website.

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

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

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY INVITATIONAL

3-4 October 2026

Information

​Entry Price

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!