SEASON CHAMPS

4TH ANNUAL SEASON CHAMPIONSHIP

9-10 August 2025

DEADLINE

4 August 2025
NO REFUNDS AFTER THIS DATE

ELIGIBILITY

Open to middle and high school students

PLATFORM

Online through NSDA Campus

Information

On behalf of Equality in Forensics, we invite you to attend the 4th Annual Season Championship, scheduled for August 9th - 10th. The objective of Equality in Forensics is to provide free, online debate opportunities to make speech and debate more accessible to high school students across America. Read more about our mission here.

The Season Championship will offer these events:

Extemporaneous Speaking (EXT)
Public Forum Debate (PF)
Lincoln-Douglas Debate (LD)

We will operate on the National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA) standard procedure and rules. Rounds will be held in Zoom rooms.

We are excited to host this tournament to demonstrate the impact of online speech & debate, exercise our values of accessibility and equality, and display the power of student initiative. See you there!

Eligibility
All students currently enrolled in grades 6-12 are eligible to compete.

Rules
All events will follow NSDA rules unless otherwise specified.

Extemporaneous Speaking

There will be one (1) open division of Extemporaneous Speaking.
There will be mixed domestic and international topics.
After three (3) preliminary rounds, there will be a semifinal round (if necessary!) and final round.
Speakers will have thirty (30) minutes of prep time each.
There will be cross-ex in finals.

PF Debate

There will be one (1) open division of Public Forum Debate. After four (4) preliminary rounds, there will be octafinals if necessary, then single-flighted quarterfinals, semifinals and finals.
Teams will have three (3) minutes of prep time each. The topic for PF will be released on the Tabroom front page.

LD Debate

There will be one (1) open division of Lincoln-Douglas Debate. After four (4) preliminary rounds, there will be octafinals if necessary, then single-flighted quarterfinals, semifinals and finals.
Debaters will have four (4) minutes of prep time each. The topic for LD will be released on the Tabroom front page.

Judging
As a student-run, fully online tournament, we deeply appreciate our judges. By making this tournament possible, you enable our mission of making speech & debate more accessible across the country.
Students and FYOs may judge, but we will prioritize coaches, former debaters, and other qualified adults. If we do not have enough judges by time of competition, competitors may be asked to judge.

Virtual Protocol
The tournament will be hosted on Zoom. All rounds will be hosted on Zoom, and no rounds may be conducted outside of Zoom unless otherwise speciﬁed by tournament staff.

Participating in this tournament as either a judge or a competitor is a certiﬁcation that you and your guardians (if you are under the age of 18) have given respective consent for you to judge or compete.

This is a list of best practices to follow while competing. Please do your best to follow these standards.

Update Zoom to the latest version before the day of competition
Check your Tabroom email for round info or other updates regularly.
Mute your microphone if not speaking.
Keep cameras on whenever possible.
If you are an observer, keep your camera off and remain named 'Observer' in the Zoom room.

If you encounter any technical issues, please let tournament staff know as soon as possible. This can be done by emailing us ([email protected]) or contacting us on our Discord server.

Tournament updates will be pushed out through email, as well as Discord. If you are judging or competing it is highly recommended that you join our Discord server, not only to stay on top of updates, but also to join our lovely community!

We ask that judges please take note of technical issues and the challenges faced in the digital world. Please do not let technical issues sway your decision, and if you encounter any problems yourself, please reach out to tournament staff ASAP.

Accountability
Equality in Forensics highly values diversity, equity, inclusion, accountability, and tolerance.

Our tournament staff is subject to an honor code, as well as an accountability policy. If you observe any violation of this policy, or have other concerns about a tournament staff member's integrity, please reach out to us by email: [email protected]. All reports will be handled in a discrete manner in accordance with our accountability policy.

Our staff, competitors, and judges are held to a standard of tolerance. If you are reading potentially objectionable arguments, please run it by your judge and opponent first. Our priority is inclusion. If you have concerns about intolerance, harassment, discrimination, or other problems in- or out-of-round, please contact a tournament staff member or reach out to us by email: [email protected].

To prevent such incidents from occurring, we highly encourage all judges to read through the "Cultural Competence Training Handout" and watch the "Cultural Competence Training Video" on NSDA's official website.

Read more about our accountability policy.

Entry Price

PF and parent is judging $50
PF and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $170

LD and parent is judging $50
LD and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $170

Extemp and parent is judging $50
Extemp and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $120

We charge a nuisance fee for no-shows and day-of drops. This is not to raise money. This is to deter no-shows and day-of drops. In the past it has been disastrous for tournament scheduling when many competitors sign up for a low cost tournament and then not show up when the day of the tournament arrives just because there is minimal consequence.

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

Keep in mind that this tournament occurs in Eastern Standard Time.

TBD

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 (DO NOT USE PARENT'S EMAIL) *

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
Got any questions? Please email [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Make sure you understand that this online tournament is live and takes place in Eastern Time.

Partner Name (write N/A if none) *

First

Last

Choose your event *

PF LD Extemp

JUDGE PROVISION

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 No but I'll pay the additional $35 setup fee 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

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

4TH ANNUAL SEASON CHAMPIONSHIP

9-10 August 2025

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!