Tournament Information

Registration will take place on tabroom.com

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

●      Students can qualify to the tournament in the following ways. (THE CONGRESSIONAL DEBATE EVENT IS AN EXCEPTION TO THIS RULE)

a.     Must have had a winning record (e.g. 2-1 record in a 3 round preliminary tournament or 3-1 in a 4 round preliminary tournament) at two separate tournaments, hosted in the state of New York.

b.     Reached the elimination round at a tournament that offers elimination rounds

For events that require a partner (Parliamentary/PF/Policy), all members of particular partnerships must meet these qualification standards.

●      Students can also qualify to the tournament via the at-large process. Each registered school can register ONE at-large team in each event. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS DOES NOT MEAN TWO AT-LARGE ENTRIES IN EACH LEVEL OF EACH EVENT.

â—‹      For example: a school can register 1 at-large in either Novice or Open Parliamentary and PF but NOT both.

●      All students competing in the State Championship must be representing their ENROLLED MIDDLE SCHOOL in the state of New York. NO HYBRID TEAMS ARE ALLOWED AT THE STATE TOURNAMENT.

●      All teams/schools are required to attend both days of the tournament until the end of preliminary debates (or when teams are eliminated from the tournament). Teams/schools are NOT allowed to attend only 1 day of the tournament (e.g. Saturday but not Sunday or vice-versa). Failure to abide by this rule will prevent your school from participating in future NYCUDL Middle School State Championships.

DIVISIONS OFFERED AT THE STATE CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT

There will be TWO divisions offered at the State Championship Tournament for Parliamentary, and Public Forum, Novice and Open.

A “NOVICE” debater is defined as a first year middle school debater (in any league). A Novice teams must be comprised of ALL novice debaters.

A “OPEN” debate is typically a 2nd or 3rd year debater but under a coach discretion, a 1st year debater can be “bump up” to Varsity.

Coaches can bump a novice debaters to the varsity level but CANNOT bump down a varsity debater.

It is permitted for a student who competed in only 1 tournament in a previous season to compete as a Novice debater.

In Congressional Debate, we will offer ONE divisions: Open