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The Golden State Academy
  • Home
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    • Meet Our Coaches
    • Why Speech and Debate
    • What is Speech and Debate? >
      • Speech Events
      • Debate Events
    • Why Golden State Academy
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    • Tournament results
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    2023 VIKINGS INVITATIONAL​

    3-4 February 2023

    DEADLINE
    28 Jan 2023
    NO REFUNDS AFTER THIS DATE

    ELIGIBILITY
    Open to middle and high school students
    ​Lincoln Douglas only
    LOCATION
    In-person at Irvington High School
    41800 Blacow Rd, Fremont, CA 94538, United States​

    Information

    Irvington High School’s Debate Team is proud to be hosting the annual Vikings Invitational in person. Vikings will be a two-day tournament from Friday February 3 to Saturday February 4th open to Novice and Open Parliamentary & LD debaters.

    Our tournament is auto-approved by the National Parliamentary Debate League and will be offering TOC points for the varsity parliamentary division only. We do not offer bids for LD.

    Entry Eligibility
    • Novice is defined as a student’s first year of competition, or not advancing to an elimination round in your first two years of competition, regardless of the debate format. All students who do not fit this definition should be placed in Open.
    • LD-Specific Notes: This is our first year incorporating LD divisions into the Vikings Invitational; we are excited to meet many new faces! For issues not explicitly indicated below, we’ll be following NSDA guidelines on LD rules and procedures.
    • There is an initial 5 team cap for each school in each division. Additional teams will be accepted from the waitlist if space permits.

    LD Round Structure
    Affirmative Constructive - 6 minutes
    Cross Examination - 3 minutes
    Negative Constructive/Rebuttal - 7 minutes
    Cross Examination - 3 minutes
    Affirmative Rebuttal - 4 minutes
    Negative Rebuttal - 6 minutes
    Affirmative Rebuttal - 3 minutes
    *Prep time for each debater - 4 minutes
    Changing speech times is not permitted except for if debaters opt to not use all their speech/cross-x time. This time cannot be transferred to other parts of the round.

    LD Topic
    Both Novice and Open divisions will be debating the January-February 2023 NSDA topic.

    LD Evidence Ethics
    Upon request, evidence read in rounds must be made available to the opponent.
    Debaters may contest evidence quality as part of arguments made in round due to bad author qualifications, inability of the opponent to provide evidence upon request, etc. Such issues can affect a judge's decision making, however they do NOT stop the round.
    If claims are made that a debater is fabricating evidence, this DOES stop the round as it would violate NSDA guidelines, if true. At that point, judges would determine the round's decision on the basis of the evidence challenge alone.

    Elimination Round Procedures
    Tiebreakers for breaks will be in the following order:
    1. Number of wins
    2. Opponent Seed
    3. Speaker Points
    4. Random
    We will break brackets based on school affiliation.
    The tournament reserves the right to adapt the amount or structure of elimination rounds if required by tournament logistics.

    ​Entry Price

    If you (parent) is judging, the entry fee for NOVICE LD is $100
    If you (parent) is judging, the entry fee for OPEN/VARSITY LD is $100
    ​

    If you (parent) is OPTING OUT OF JUDGING, the entry fee for NOVICE LD is $200
    If you (parent) is OPTING OUT OF JUDGING, the entry fee for OPEN/VARSITY LD is $240

    All students who drop after 11 February 2022 will not receive a refund.

    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 are in PACIFIC STANDARD TIME (PST).

    We plan to offer five preliminary rounds for each division. Open teams will break to Quarterfinals and Novice teams will break straight to finals. The tournament reserves the right to adapt the amount or structure of elimination rounds if required by tournament logistics.
    The forfeit time for each round will be five minutes after preparation time ends to minimize delays with the schedule.

    ​Friday (2/3)
    4:00 PM: Coach Check-In
    4:30 PM: Open LD Round 1
    6:00 PM: Open LD Round 2

    Saturday (2/4)
    8:00 AM: Coach Check-In
    9:00 AM: Novice LD Round 1 // Open LD Round 3
    10:30 AM: Novice LD Round 2 // Open LD Round 4
    12:00 PM - 12:45 PM: Break/Lunch
    1:00 PM: Novice LD Round 3 // Open LD Round 5
    2:30 PM: Novice LD Round 4 // Open LD Quarterfinals
    4:00 PM: Novice LD Round 5 // Open LD Semifinals
    5:30PM: Novice LD Finals // Open LD Finals

    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

    ​JUDGE PROVISION

    ​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? Click here to learn how to do it! Or watch our Youtube playlist here.
    ​There are also these training cards available that include a summary of each event's rules and comments.​

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