Great Salt Lake Invitational

2026 — Salt Lake City, UT/US

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NPDA pt. 1 (Topic Area Tournament)

Event Description:

Preparation Time/Rooms: Prep rooms will be provided and pre-assigned by the tournament. Teams will receive 20 minutes of preparation time after the centralized announcement of each topic.

Flex Time: The tournament will, per NPDA guidelines, feature two minutes of flex time after the PMC and LOC, as well as one minute of flex time after the MGC, and LOR. This time may be used for prep, CX, drinking water, etc.

Judge Strikes

An appropriate number of judge strikes will be available. Judge strikes need to be submitted by January 9^th at 6:00PM PST in order to be guaranteed for the first two rounds of competition. WE WILL USE ELECTRONIC BALLOTING!

Please note: ALL JUDGES must enter a judging philosophy and have an activated email address on tabroom.com by the entry deadline. Schools that fail to enter their judge’s philosophies will forfeit the right to complete preferences/strikes and/or be charged a fee. Please enter philosophies when you enter your judges to ensure that other schools have access to information so that they can make appropriate decisions concerning their preferences.

Tournament Format

Topic Areas: The fist half of the swing will feature a topic area tournament mirroring the spirit of the NPTE, while the second half will feature extemporaneous resolutions. Topics areas and possible resolutions are posted in Tabroom, available on the right hand side of the main page.

Rounds: The NPDA tournament will feature 5 preliminary rounds of debate with teams advancing to appropriate elimination out rounds based on entries.

Divisions: Entries permitting, the tournament will offer both a junior and open division.

Advancing to Elimination Rounds

At the end of the preliminary rounds, all teams with a 3-2 record or better will advance. Team seeding in elimination rounds will be first based on win/loss record, then adjusted speaker points, then total speaker points, then judge variance. Elimination rounds will be single-elimination.

*Brackets will be broken in elimination rounds*

Forfeiture Rule

Any team that is late to a round will have that time deducted from their team’s first speech (the PMC or LOC). When the full speech time has elapsed (7 or 8 minutes), the team in question will be forfeited. In the event both teams are late, both teams will have time deducted from their first speech. A universal timer will be made available at the time of topic announcement. Time deductions and forfeiture rules will be enforced by the judge assigned to the round.

Judge Disclosure & Feedback

Disclosure of decisions and other oral commentary may be conducted at the discretion of the judge, but please conduct such commentary after the ballot has been returned by email. We will be attempting to power-match every round without lagging, so a prompt return ensures that the tournament stays on time. A warm room of results will be provided.