WINTER CUP

Dear Coaches, Debaters, and Parents,

We are thrilled to invite you to the Winter Cup hosted on December 13-14, 2025.

Having now hosted 6 online tournaments with attendance from over 75 programs and 800 participants, we remain confident in our ability to provide a high-quality, fair, and timely competitive experience. We are equally committed to maintaining a tournament that is affordable and accessible to all. As in previous years, the tournament will be entirely online.

We will be offering 2 events: High School Public Forum and Middle School Public Forum, both on the NSDA November/December Topic. Participants at all levels will find their space in these divisions, growing in a competitive yet highly rewarding environment.

This year, our partner charity is Native American Heritage Association (NAHA). Since its founding in 1993, NAHA has focused on helping Native American families living in extreme poverty on reservations in South Dakota. They deploy a compassionate yet practical approach in distributing food, clothing, winter supplies, and emergency aid. Your registration deepens our collective impact, and we are pleased to work with such an inspiring organization.

Generally, we follow all competitive procedures and standard practices used by national circuit tournaments. We encourage you to read through the invitation packet below for more details. Should you have any questions, please reach out. Otherwise, we look forward to seeing you online in December and wish your team the best of luck in preparing for this season’s competition!

Eligibility

The tournament is online. All rounds will be hosted through NSDA Campus.
Middle School Public Forum: All entries must contain students that are in the 4th to 8th grade during the 2025-26 school year.
High School Public Forum: All entries must contain students that are in the 9th to 12th grade during the 2025-26 school year.
Mavericks: Maverick entries are accepted at the Winter Cup. Judges should not vote down a solo debater purely on the basis that they are debating by themself. Conversely, judges should not vote for a team specifically because they are debating by themself.

Entry Fee Donation System
At tournaments, participants explore real-world social issues, identify actionable ideas, and consider how public policies can have a measurable impact on the most vulnerable populations. To reinforce the idea that advocacy can translate into action focused on community betterment, we pledge 50% of our tournament revenue as direct financial support for various local and national charities. Thus, our donations are tied directly to student participation—each round contributes to a growing pool of giving.
This year, we are pleased to share that our partner charity is the Native American Heritage Association (NAHA). Since its founding in 1993, NAHA has focused on helping Native American families living in extreme poverty on reservations in South Dakota by distributing food, clothing, winter supplies, and emergency aid. Serving some of the most economically challenged areas in the United States, such as the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations, NAHA is committed to improving the quality of life for Native Americans while honoring and preserving their cultural heritage. You can learn more about their compassionate yet practical approach at naha-inc.org.

PF Rules & Conduct:

Speech Times: 4-4-3-4-4-3-3-3-3-2-2 (3 minutes of prep time)

Topic: NSDA November/December 2025

Coinflips: Flip for side and order through Tabroom. Elimination rounds are not sidelocked. If a team’s flip time expires, then any participant will be permitted to choose.

Forfeiture: Teams more than 10 minutes late to round will automatically forfeit. Teams experiencing what they believe to be a legitimate delay should make every attempt to communicate with Tabroom that they are going to be late. Otherwise, please email [email protected] to report forfeits. Judges may not enter forfeits or byes under their own account.

Tech Time: Each team will be allotted 10 minutes of tech time. As soon as a technical issue that impedes the round occurs, tech time will begin. If more than 10 minutes pass, it is a tech time failure resulting in forfeiture. In that case, the judge should email [email protected] to report it.

Evidence & Source Integrity: Participants must bring copies of all sources, including the full context of the citation. Upon request, participants must make these sources available to their opponent(s) and judge, whether during or after the round. Debate entries failing to do so may be disqualified at the tournament’s discretion. Evidence challenges will match standard NSDA rules. In the case of a round terminating evidence challenge, please email [email protected] to report it.

Walkovers: In the case that two teams from the same program are paired against one another in the bracket, the higher-seeded team will advance. The program may request for the teams to debate each other with a single judge by emailing [email protected]. However, it is not guaranteed that a judge will be available.

Illness: If a debater becomes sick during the tournament, a program representative should email [email protected]. The non-ill debater will be permitted to debate in future rounds by themselves, including into the elimination bracket. In this case, judges will be instructed to provide the same speaker score to both the ill and non-ill debater.

Important Schedule Notes

Click the link below to see the schedule.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MhUDLqnpkOAtZF4ofdtToLihfrM3gHJm1Q3-UV03jsg/edit?gid=1328722375#gid=1328722375
No rounds will be double flighted.
Pairings will be released 30 minutes before the start. Flips will be released approximately 7 minutes after pairings. Each team will have roughly five minutes to make their choice.
The schedule is tentative and will be updated based on entries once registration is frozen. We will expedite the schedule where possible.
We will break all 4-1s and 5-0s. Depending on the pool size, some 3-2s may clear.
Ties will be broken based on record, adjusted points, total points, double-adjusted points, judge variance, opponent wins, and flip of a coin, in that order.

Judging

Qualifications:
Our philosophy is that every judge you provide should be highly qualified. Highly qualified means your judge is fluent in English and a trained individual who will actively listen to each debater’s arguments and carefully decide the round. The judge should not leave their computer or become unresponsive mid-round.

In order to judge High School Public Forum, the judge must have obtained, at minimum, a high school diploma or GED. There are no exceptions to this rule.

In order to judge Middle School Public Forum, the judge must have obtained, at minimum, a middle school diploma. High school-aged judges should preferably have competitive experience or success in debate.

If a judge has been deemed unqualified, they will be promptly removed from the pool and the affiliation of the judge fined $400. Unfortunately, even in the event in which a judge is deemed unqualified, the tournament cannot change the prior decisions made by that judge.

Obligations:
Judges must be available for all preliminary rounds, the first elimination round, and one round past the round in which their program’s last team loses. For example, if no teams from a program clear, then that program’s judges are obligated through to the quarterfinals. If any GSA team makes it to semifinals, all judges are required to judge up to finals regardless of whether their child got eliminated much earlier on/the previous day. If a judge is not available for their full obligation, their program will be assessed a fine per uncovered/missed round.

All adult coaches, chaperones, and judges must be readily responsive throughout the tournament. This includes when there are no rounds actively occurring. If they cannot be reached in a reasonable attempt, the Winter Cup reserves the right to make decisions on their behalf.

Expectations:
Judges are expected to show up to their rounds at the start time. They are expected to submit their ballot within 75 minutes. If the judge fails to be timely, their program will be fined $400.

Even if the judge does not receive a ballot for a particular round, they must remain on standby. You may be used as a “substitute” if another judge does not show up to their round. Failure to appear for stand assignments is viewed akin to failing to attend a regularly assigned round and will be assessed the same fees.

Conflicts:
A judge conflict occurs when a debater has a personal or professional relationship with the judge prior to the round, making it difficult for the judge to decide the round impartially. All judge conflicts must be disclosed. Non-disclosure of judge conflicts is an ethical concern and creates competitive imbalances.

In the event that a judge and/or participant reports a conflict after the pairing is distributed, the affiliation of that entry will be assessed a $400 fine. In the event that a conflict is willingly ignored and taken advantage of, the affiliation of that entry will be assessed a $1000 fine and risk all future tournament prospects.

Training:
If you are a new judge, please watch “How to Enter a Tabroom Ballot” (~6 minutes). While the layout of Tabroom has changed slightly since the publication of this video, we still find it helpful. Additionally, there are many YouTube videos of actual debate rounds. We encourage you to watch them and practice judging said round.

Best Judging Practices:

Speaker Points: The tournament uses a 30-point speaker scale with tenths of a point and ties between debaters both permitted.
Paradigms: We encourage judges to write a paradigm about their judging philosophy or experience on Tabroom. This helps participants adapt their arguments and makes the round as accessible to you as possible.
Disclosure: Judges do not need to disclose their decision for preliminary rounds, but it is strongly encouraged. On the other hand, the last-submitting judge must disclose the winner of an elimination round before dismissing all participants.
Oral Critique: Each judge should then provide a brief oral “RFD” (reason for decision).

NSDA Campus

Platform: Participants are expected to be familiar with NSDA Campus and its features before the tournament begins. They can test out an NSDA Campus room on their Tabroom account or consult their program. Improper use or inability to use NSDA Campus during rounds will count as tech time.

Recording: For the privacy and protection of all, any recording of speeches is strictly prohibited. The sole exception is that a participant may record their own speech via voice memo, but should promptly end the recording afterwards.

Cameras: To improve the quality of the round itself, all individuals (participants, judges, etc.) should turn their videos on. If a participant must remain off-camera due to internet issues or to enhance streaming quality, they should notify others.

Platforms: For safety purposes, no rounds may switch to an alternate video platform other than NSDA Campus. If there is a technical issue with the software, please contact Winter Cup. The tournament will provide specific, tournament-monitored Zoom rooms for such rounds.

Use of Technology: Use of laptop computers, tablet computers, smart phones, and other electronic devices is permitted during debate rounds. The use of computers can be for flowing and research purposes, including retrieval of evidence stored on hard drives or resources via the internet. Participants, however, should not use electronic devices to initiate or respond to contact with outside parties, including coaches, during a debate session.

Internet & Wi-Fi Connection: Our friends over at the University of Kentucky have some suggestions to improve internet connection and ensure a smooth online round.

Reboot the Router: If you’ve experienced connectivity issues, you may want to reboot your router before your next video meeting, which flushes its stale connections.
Adjust Your Position: To maximize signal quality, you must do one of two things: move the router or move yourself. The closer you are to your router, the better your signal quality. Just like any other radio device, Wi-Fi routers have a particular range.
Update Your Router: Routers don’t just magically come with perfect firmware straight out of the assembly line. Chances are your manufacturer is going to notice some bugs that impede your ability to communicate effectively. Wi-Fi suffers the most from this because its standards are always being revised and a vast number of features exist that are not present in Ethernet. Look through your device manufacturer’s website and ensure that you have the latest firmware for your router.
Enable WME/WMM: If you bought a router that advertises itself as being optimized for video and VoIP, you’ll likely find an option somewhere within its configuration interface that allows you to enable Wireless Multimedia Extensions (WME) or Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM). These are two terms used to describe an interoperability feature within some routers that puts a higher priority on media transmissions than on other data. It means that your router will put aside transmission of other packet data in favor of your video and audio transmissions. For more information, refer to your router’s manual.

Code of Conduct
The Winter Cup is committed to maintaining a healthy work environment where no participant or judge is discriminated against on the basis of their race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, ethnic origin, age, physical disability, sexual orientation, ancestry, place of birth, geography, or other aspect(s) of identity. Communication or conduct which engenders ill-will and disrespect for others ultimately reduces the utility of the tournament for all who participate in it and should, therefore, be avoided.

All participants should:

Act towards others in a way that embodies dignity, respect, and moral values, refraining from undermining the integrity of speech and debate as an institution.
Act in good faith and preserve the competitive integrity of the Winter Cup.
- Participants are prohibited from seeking assistance during competition rounds, whether that assistance is acquired in-person or electronically.
- Once a round starts, participants should only communicate with their partners, opponents, and/or judges.
Follow instructions of tournament officials to the best of their abilities.

All participants should not:

Seek, nor encourage others to seek any unfair advantage.
Harass or bully others, including creating safety and security risks for other participants.

During the course of the tournament and its rounds, all participants may not engage in:

Purchase, transfer, use, or sale of alcohol containers, drug-related paraphernalia, including but not limited to anabolic steroids, marijuana, synthetic cannabis, or other mood altering substances (ie. K2, Spice, herbal incense, or herbal smoking blends), cocaine, narcotics, LSD, amphetamines, or other illegal, unprescribed drugs
Misuse of prescription medicines, over-the-counter drugs, aerosol products, or substances used as hallucinogenic, including the transfer or sale of such materials
Hate speech or actions
Theft, including taking items without payment
Repeated instances of failing to respect others’ boundaries

All participants, coaches, judges, and individuals at the tournament or participating in its associated activities are expected to know and abide by this policy. Participants should further adhere to the policies and procedures of their own programs as well as local, state, and federal laws. Participants found to have violated the prohibitions will be removed from the tournament.

Coaches are the primary actors responsible for ensuring that their program’s individuals are compliant. Should any instance of discrimination or harassment arise, a responsible adult should fill out this form. Winter Cup will respond in the quickest manner. Serious allegations will be directed to the Tournament Community Wellbeing and Belonging Taskforce.

ELOQUENCE WINTER CUP

13-14 December 2025

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

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ELOQUENCE WINTER CUP​