WESTWOOD

WESTWOOD BOWL

28-29 August 2026

DEADLINE

18 Aug 2026
NO REFUNDS AFTER THIS DATE

ELIGIBILITY

Open to MS/HS students

PLATFORM

Online through NSDA Campus

Information

Dear Colleagues,

You are cordially invited to the Westwood Bowl Speech and Debate Tournament to be held August 28-29, 2026. We are offering all TFA individual events with three preliminary rounds and four preliminary rounds of debate and novice divisions of LD, PF. This tournament is fully virtual!

Topics and Dockets

Extemp
IX: (1) Global Trade (2) North Africa (3) Middle East
USX: (1) 2026 Congressional Races (2) Trump Legislative Agenda (3) Technology
NX: US Politics / Social Issues
Lincoln Douglas Debate
Resolved: Sept-Oct Topic
Public Forum Debate
Resolved: Sept-Oct Topic

Speech Tiebreaks
Preliminary Round Tiebreakers (Speech)
When determining who advances from prelims to elimination rounds, the order is:

Lowest Total Ranks: The sum of judges' ranks from preliminary rounds (truncated to the smallest section size if necessary).
Reciprocals (Rank Reciprocals): If ranks are tied, the sum of the reciprocals of the ranks is calculated. A lower rank (1st) gives a higher reciprocal value (1.0) than a 2nd place (0.5), favoring contestants with more 1st place finishes.
Judge Preference: If tied entries met in prelims, the ballot from that round is used.

Finals Tiebreakers (Speech)
If ties occur in the final round to determine tournament champions, the system shifts to:

Rolling Cumes: Sum of ranks from prelims + finals, removing the one worst preliminary round.
Final Round Ranks: The ranks within the final round.
Final Judge Preference: Preference based on the final round panel.
Final Reciprocals & Points: Reciprocals and points from the final round.

Key Notes for TFA Speech:

Rank-Based: Unlike debate, speech relies almost exclusively on ranks to break ties
Overtime Penalty: In all speech events when student who exceed the allotted time limit (plus 30-second grace) this forbids a judge from ranking a student 1st in that round.
Forfeits: Students must start performing within 60–75 minutes of the round's scheduled start time, or they may be ranked last (or a no-show) by judges.

Judge Obligations

School with disproportionate amount of entries in one area may have their judges moved to other categories.
Schools with judges who miss assignment and cannot be reach will be fined $40 per rounds of all of events if they are not in room five minutes before the event start time.
After two missed rounds they will be removed from the tournament and the full judge fee charge plus the fines will be assessed.
Missing judges fees will be calculated at $100 for speech judges and $200 for debate judges for any missing or partial missing commitment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will Westwood student compete in the tournament?
We may choose to enter students in novice division to diversify the pool or for practice rounds in novice extemp. These students will not be eligible for advancing. The exception to the above is in Speech where Westwood student will compete for qualification. This is subject to change based on tournament numbers.

Will the tournament break brackets?
We will not break brackets in any of the debate events.

Can I cross enter in events?
- Participation may compete in Section A Speech and Debate. Participant may compete in Section B Speech and C. Participant may not compete in A and B
-Participants may compete in up to three Individual Events in A/B and Debate, given the above stipulation.
-Competitors may only compete in one division of Extemporaneous Speaking.
-Competitors may only compete in one of the following: Lincoln-Douglas debate, Public Forum

What is a Novice?
A novice is a person in their first year of high school competition.

Will you collapse novice events?
We will always try to maintain novice divisions and when a collapse seems justified we will verify with coaches prior to any collapse. If a collapse is made it will be made due to two factors: there are less than 5 schools enter in the event; there are less than 10 contestants. Even if these are met, there must be a TFA point justification in varsity. We will not collapse simply due to small numbers. If there is no TFA point justification we will maintain novice division regardless of the numbers. This may cause students to debate their own school or debate the same opponents in prelims. The goal will be about getting them rounds with quality judges.

Entry Price

LD and parent is judging $85
LD + 1 Speech event and parent is judging $100
LD + 2 Speech events and parent is judging $115
LD and parent is OPTING OUT OF judging $230
LD + 1 Speech event and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $280
LD + 2 Speech events and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $310

PF and parent is judging $70
PF + 1 Speech event and parent is judging $85
PF + 2 Speech event and parent is judging $100
PF and parent is OPTING OUT OF judging $200
PF + 1 Speech event and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $250
PF + 2 Speech event and parent is OPTING OUT of judging $280

One speech and parent is judging $65
Two speech and parent is judging $80
One speech and parent is OPTING OUT OF judging $170
Two speech and parent is OPTING OUT OF judging $200

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 - CDT

Speech Schedule

FRIDAY
4:00 PM Draw --- 2:00 PM PST
4:30 PM Section A Rd 1 - Extemp, OO, HI, Duo --- 2:30 PM PST
7:30 PM Section B Rd 1 - DI, Duet, POI, INFO --- 5:30 PM PST

SATURDAY
8:30 AM Section B Rd 2 - DI, Duet, POI, INFO --- 6:30 AM PST
10:30 AM Section B Rd 3 - DI, Duet, POI, INFO --- 8:30 AM PST
12:00 PM Extemp Draw --- 10:00 AM PST
12:30 PM Section A Rd 2 - Extemp, OO, HI, Duo --- 10:30 AM PST
2:00 PM Section B Semis - DI, Duet, POI, INFO --- 12:00 PM PST
3:30 PM Extemp Draw --- 1:30 PM PST
4:00 PM Section A Rd 3 - Extemp, OO, HI --- 2:00 PM PST
5:00 PM Extemp Draw --- 3:00 PM PST
6:00 PM Section A Semi - Extemp, OO, HI, Duo --- 4:00 PM PST
Section B Finals - DI, Duet, POI, INFO --- 4:00 PM PST
7:30 PM Extemp Draw --- 5:30 PM PST
8:00 PM Section A Finals - Extemp, OO, HI, Duo --- 6:00 PM PST

Debate Schedule

FRIDAY
5:30 PM Rd 1 - LD, PF --- 3:30 PM PST
7:30 PM Rd 2- LD, PF --- 5:30 PM PST

SATURDAY
8:30 AM Rd 3 - LD, PF --- 6:30 AM PST
10:30 AM Rd 4 - LD, PF --- 8:30 AM PST
2:00 PM Elim 1 - LD, PF --- 12:00 PM PST
4:00 PM Elim 2 - LD, PF --- 2:00 PM PST
6:00 PM Elim 3 - LD, PF --- 4:00 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 (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

Participation may compete in Section A Speech and Debate. Participant may compete in Section B Speech and Debate. Participant may not compete in A and B
Section A: Extemp, OO, HI, DUO
Section B: DI, POI, Info

Partner Name (write N/A if none) *

First

Last

JUDGE INFORMATION
Descriptions of each event can be found here.

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

WESTWOOD​ BOWL

28-29 August 2026

Information

​Entry Price

Schedule - CDT

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

WESTWOOD BOWL

Entry Price

We would love to have you visit soon at one of our open houses.
Check our home page for the schedule!