STEPHEN STEWART

Dearest High School Forensics Enthusiasts!

You are cordially invited to take part in the 10th Stephen Stewart Memorial Middle and High School Invitational at Milpitas High School. This event will take place Friday, September 25th, through Sunday, September 27th, 2026. We welcome all competitors in grades six and up. This speech and debate competition will be held in person at Milpitas High School in Milpitas, California. We are committed to providing you with a professional atmosphere and a spirited competitive experience.

Unfortunately, Varsity entries are limited; therefore, we will have to turn away entries once our room capacity is met. Varsity debates are initially capped at 60 (120 in Open PF) to ensure deserving teams break to Double-Octofinals (trips).

Food will be available on campus during the weekend so that your students, coaches, staff, family, and friends will not have to leave the tournament. Debate and speech competitors and judges will be provided on Saturday and Sunday (dinner on Friday for Varsity).

On behalf of the coaches, students, and parents of Milpitas High School Speech and Debate Team, you are encouraged to join us and we look forward to experiencing the Stephen Stewart together!

Decorum
This tournament is an educational activity that you, your students, and your judges participate in. We expect everyone to treat themselves and others with respect and dignity throughout the tournament. Additionally, the tournament has the following rules related to Decorum:

In debate rounds, there should be no communication between a competitor and judge between the end of the round and the RFD, except about prep time. Students will not ask questions about decisions until the judge has submitted their ballot. Judges will not ask questions about arguments or speeches, with the exception of asking to see evidence, until decisions are submitted and confirmed.
In Speech rounds, no request for verbal feedback should happen until the end of the tournament.
No audio or video recording of any person for any reason is allowed at this tournament. This includes recording for AI summary purposes during or after the round. California is a 2 party state, and parental permission must be obtained in private settings like a classroom.
We reserve the right to remove people we deem unsafe from the campus for the safety of the students and the liability of the host.
Further, several college and high school hosts in the last couple of years have had to cut entries or go permanently online because of misuse of facilities. Coaches, competitors, judges, and observers absolutely must treat classrooms with respect. This includes not entering any off-limit spaces, not moving any furniture within any classroom or competition space, not erasing any white board content, not unplugging any device that is currently plugged into an outlet, and cleaning up after yourselves and your team in every space you enter within the school. We would like to keep hosting and growing this tournament for years to come. We need in-person locations to host in-person tournaments, and your actions directly contribute to our ability to continue and grow this tournament.

Events / Divisions
In debate, we offer both Novice and Open LD, and Novice and Open Public Forum. We will use the Sept./Oct. LD topic and the Sept./Oct PF topic. Open debate events will make every attempt to break all winning records up to a full double-octofinal round. WE DO NOT USE THE NSDA NOVICE TOPICS!!!!

In speech we offer Open divisions in all CHSSA events including: Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Declamation, Programmed Oral Interpretation (POI), Duo Interpretation, Original Oratory, Original Advocacy, Informative(formerly Expository), Original Prose & Poetry (not to be confused with prose/poetry), Impromptu, Domestic Extemporaneous, and International Extemporaneous.

Speech shall have three (3) Preliminary Rounds and will advance to up to two (2) Elimination Rounds dependent on entry size per event:

Events with fewer than 7 entries shall not have a Final Round
Events with 8 - 24 entries shall advance directly to a Final Round
Events with 25 - 49 entries shall advance to a Semifinal Round and then a Final Round
Events with 50 - 59 entries shall advance to a Semifinal Round of at least three sections and then a Final Round
Events with 60 - 85 entries shall advance to a Quarterfinal Round of at least four sections, and then a Semifinal Round
Events with 86 - 119 entries shall advance to a Quarterfinal Round of at least five sections and then a Semifinal Round
Events with 120 or more entries shall advance to an Octofinal Round of at least eight sections and then a Quarterfinal Round
Breaks, breakpoints, and the above entry size break levels are subject to change given drops and shall be finalized prior to the day of the Tournament.
In addition, breaks shall attempt to maximize the number of NIETOC and UKTOC Bids earned per event.

Eligibility / Novices

Open: Open to all competitors.
Novice: Open to all competitors who are debating their first year in the type of event (Speech/ Debate) they are entered in. In Teamed events, BOTH team members must meet this qualification. Any competitor in 7th and 6th grade can compete as a novice. 8th graders in their second year or less can debate novice. Any student in their third academic year of forensics or higher must go varsity. Entries younger than 6th grade will not be allowed.

Maverick Policy
In the PF TOC Division, Mavericks will not be allowed to enter. If circumstances prevent one partner from debating, they will receive a forfeit. This team may forfeit up to two rounds, but may still clear IF both competitors can debate in elimination rounds. In Novice, One Maverick per program is allowed to compete.

Judges / Judging Obligations

All VARSITY and SPEECH judges must be ADULTS who have at minimum graduated High School qualified to judge the division which they are covering.
Novice LD, Open and Novice Public Forum may be used in other events.
Open PF judges MUST have a paradigm, and experience.
Completing the NSDA Judge Accreditation is encouraged, but not mandatory. https://www.speechanddebate.org/learn/judge-accreditation/
Speech judges will be used in all speech events.
Elim Commitment: All speech judges are committed for all speech rounds.
In regards to Varsity Debate elimination rounds, all judges are obligated to judge the first FULL elimination round AND one round beyond their last school's best competitive finish. Whichever requirement is later will apply. For example, if your school has a competitor in the octafinals, then your school's judges are all obligated through the quarterfinals. This rule is necessary to ensure the best panels for elimination debates. Please make appropriate logistical arrangements that honor these requirements.

Judge Prefs and Strikes

Judge Philosophy Guidelines: All Varsity judges should have a judge philosophy posted on their Tabroom.com account.
All varsity judges must be entered and have judge philosophies posted at this point for a school to have the privilege of judge preferences/strikes for ALL of their varsity competitors. Failure to have a tabroom paradigms for all your judges results in preferences / strikes being ignored.
Varsity PF Teams will be allowed up to a maximum of 5 strikes.
Paradigms that offer more speaker points for food or arcane knowledge/references of old tv and movies will not be tolerated. Paradigms that recruit, or require children to email 3rd parties will not be tolerated. Coaches please police your judges' paradigms.

Penalty for Missing Rounds
Please note there is a $50 per round penalty for any judges that miss their rounds. Please advise your judging staff that the team will be charged if they do not attend their debate rounds. We prefer not to charge any teams for missing debate rounds and this nuisance fee is only assessed to discourage judges from missing debates to ensure a high quality experience for all competitors. Please ensure your judges who do not currently have a ballot report to the Judges Lounge 15 minutes before the posted round start. They will be dismissed when we start all rounds. If your judge is called for in the Judges’ Lounge while pushing ballots, you may be fined if they do not answer.

Entry Caps
Due to the number of elimination rounds in the schedule, we are capable of accommodating a large, but not unlimited number of competitors. Initially, Schools will be restricted to 6 entries in each division of debate and 6 entries in each IE event to allow for maximum diversity of schools at the Stephen Stewart Invitational. We will waitlist additional entries and allow them in as room availability allows. Novice entries from one school will be restricted to max 10% of the field in each novice event. Initial cap will be 60 in each Varsity event (120 in PF) to ensure most winning records break to Doubles. If the waitlist grows too large, we will try our best to accommodate one more elim round that will be double flighted.
Registration in each division will close when we reach our room capacity, so register early.

Code of Conduct
All students are expected to abide by Milpitas High School’s code of conduct, to respect MHS officials and tournament staff, and generally to behave responsibly.

Double Entry
Novice Students: May enter up to three events; consisting of one debate event and two speech events. Exceptions:

A Novice student entering Extemp, may only single enter in the speech events; but may still enter one debate event.

Varsity Students: May enter one debate event and up to 2 speech events. Exceptions:

Please keep in mind that Round 1 of Speech is concurrent with Elimination rounds of Varsity competition. Double-entered varsity competitors will be placed in Flight B of their Sunday Elim, and placed early in their speech round for round 1 IF rounds are double flighted. Double entered students should compete in their speech event, and then proceed to their debate round.
The coach of a competitor who qualifies to advance in a varsity Debate may be required to choose the event in which the competitor will continue if they are double-entered in speech as well. We will do our best to accommodate these students so long as we can remain on schedule.
Entering in both extemps will not be feasible given our time constraints.

Students who double enter are responsible for getting to their rounds on time. Please note that double entry IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Speech Rules
NSDA rules will be followed as closely as possible for all NSDA events; CHSSA guidelines will be used for the remaining speech events, subject to review by the tournament committee. One notable exception – final placement in speech will be determined by total cumulative score for the whole tournament.

Topics for Extemp and Imp

Extemp Topic Areas will be posted prior to the Tournament.

Debate Rules
Starting with Round 3, all prelim rounds will be power-matched. The 16 individuals/teams with the best win-loss record in the Open Division will advance to the Octofinal elimination round. Brackets will not be broken in eliminations. If entries warrant, a double-octofinal will be held to break the maximum number of winning records. In divisions approaching 100, a partial triple will be held if 10 or more entries would be left behind in a double.

Tournament Committee: The tournament committee will consist of the tournament director and two directors from other events. The committee will adjudicate any disputes and interpret all rules. Decisions made by the tournament committee are final.

Technology: All teams may use technology, but MUST NOT communicate with coaches or team members outside the round. Parli may not use anything other than timers/airplane mode cellphone timers in round, and cases must be written on paper, not be read off of laptops or other digital devices. Parli teams may use the internet or consult with teammates during prep time, but no judges, parents, or other non-student adults should help students. Appointed staff may clarify basic rules. Recording your opponents using AI is a violation of the previously mentioned rule against recording minors without their parents consent.

Lincoln Douglas

The Lincoln Douglas debate topic will be the Sep/Oct NSDA topic for BOTH Varsity and Novice divisions. We DO NOT use the NSDA novice topic.
Lincoln-Douglas will include varsity and novice divisions, with NSDA rules and time limits. While LD does not explicitly follow CHSSA rules, history and the judging pool does lean toward the lay.
There will be five preliminary rounds in varsity LD with an appropriate number of break rounds determined by the entry size. Novice LD will have five rounds, and will award winning records.
Varsity Judging: We encourage you to bring experienced LD judges to judge in the varsity division. "Experienced" is defined as at least a high school graduate who has competitive or coaching experience with LD debate or has significant LD judging experience. Inability to provide experienced judges may limit a team's entry and/or require a team to hire judges to fulfill their obligation. All varsity judges are required to post their judge philosophies on tabroom.com by the preferences deadline. We would like every school that wants to participate to do so; however, we require the best possible judging to ensure students have a positive competitive experience.
Novice Judging: Adults as well as HS Seniors who are 3rd or 4th year varsity debaters are eligible to judge in the novice divisions. Coaches/Directors are responsible for ensuring that any varsity debaters are knowledgeable and responsible enough to fairly assess a novice debate round. These judges should be noted on tabroom judge notes. Under no circumstances should a student judge be judging Varsity.

Public Forum

Will use the Sep/Oct topic. We do NOT use the NSDA novice topic.
All PF will flip for side and speaker order in both Prelims and Elims.
NSDA time limits will be utilized. 3 minute summaries, 3 minutes of prep.
Evidence challenges should be adjudicated by the judge in round, before the ballot is decided. Tab will only hear reports that involve the blatant refusal to provide evidence when asked, evidence fabrication or distortion, and/or the use of evidence created by AI.
- Coaches should fill out the protest form after the round is concluded outlining what occurred.
Protests will only result in double losses, or in the most extreme cases, tournament disqualifications. But the decisions of the judge/judges will not be reversed.
The protests will be decided by three members of the tab staff, and all decisions will be final.
Only HS debaters in their first year of competition, eighth graders in their 1st or 2nd year, and any 6th or 7th grader, may enter the novice division.

Awards
Individual Awards: Individual awards will be presented to all debaters advancing to the Double-Octofinals in debate events. All finalists in speech events will be presented awards. Novice will receive Trophies for 5-0, and medals for 4-1 records, and certificates for 3-2.
Speaker Awards: We will also award speaker awards for debaters. Top 5 speakers in each debate event will receive awards from the tab room. (Top 10 in Open PF)
Results: Results for each varsity debate round will be posted each round starting after Round 3. Please do not request to see results at the tab room unless you question the posted results. Novice debate and speech results will be published after awards.

STEPHEN STEWART MEMORIAL INVITATIONAL

25-27 September 2026 for Varsity Debate
26 September 2026 for Novice Debate
27 September 2026 for Speech

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