Important Info/Links

Join the Volunteer/Hired Judge List

Short-Form Invite

Dear Colleagues,

The Mountain View/Los Altos Speech and Debate team cordially invites you to the MVLA Shutdown Showdown which will take place May 23–24 on the Zoom platform. 

There will be four preliminary rounds of novice and open Lincoln-Douglas (Jan/Feb topic), Parliamentary, and Public Forum (Feb topic) debate, starting on Saturday, with elimination rounds scheduled on Sunday as warranted by division size (4–0s and 3–1s will advance). There will be three preliminary novice and open speech rounds in all CHSSA events except DUO and one final round, all scheduled on Sunday.

Edited 4/15: By popular request, we are adding a policy division that will follow the debate pattern.

The tournament will utilize tabroom.com for entry, pairings, and results. We will run “rooms” in Zoom calls run by our coaching staff and team leaders. All Zoom calls will be listed on the tournament’s tabroom.com front page, with information on how to translate room names into specific calls. We will have a warm room available for students and judges on a platform that will be announced closer to the tournament date. We will also have a help line and an attended email available at tournament@mvlasdb.org.

Awards will exist, but they will not be trophies as you know them. Stay tuned!

Middle and high school students are welcome, but students should be registered under the school they attend, or an appropriately named independent (see long-form invite). An adult chaperone must be listed and remain on one of the Zoom calls or in the warm room should issues arise. We encourage all debaters to be respectful of their peers and judges, in order to maintain a safe and welcoming debate environment. 

Best,