Thank you for your interest in participating in the 2021 Harvard-Westlake Debates. 

This year our tournament will be entirely online, beginning Thursday, January 14 and concluding on Monday, January 18. We will be using NSDA campus. 

Overview of Events
debateLA Challenge (invitation only): Thursday January 14 & Friday January 15
TOC LD: Saturday January 16-Monday January 18 (TOC Qualifier at the Octafinals level)
Open LD: Saturday January 16-Sunday January 17
Novice LD: Saturday January 16-Sunday January 17
World Schools: Saturday January 16-Sunday January 18
MSPDP: Monday January 18

Note: ALL DIVISIONS WILL BE SINGLE-FLIGHTED

Please click on the right-side for specific information about each division.

Entry Limits

We will have entry limits in the divisions, but will maintain a waitlist for additional entries. Teams will be let off the waitlist based on a combination of: historical support of the tournament and the quality of judges provided to cover entries.

TOC LD/Open LD/Novice LD: 6
World Schools: 4
MSPDP: 7

Registration Process

(note: MSPDP schools should follow normal registration procedures like we do at all tournaments.)
We do not allow debaters to compete independently from their school. Debaters must represent their school. Further instructions below.

1. Register teams on Tabroom.com - all teams will be placed on a waiting list until we receive payment.

2. Send payment. Payments should be made to:

Harvard-Westlake School
c/o Mike Bietz - Debate
700 N Faring Road
Los Angeles, CA 90077

3. Debaters attending the tournament without a school employee coaching/available during the tournament must have a principal copy/paste the following language into a email sent from a school email address to coaches@hwdebate.org. We must receive this email by December 28 at 5:00pm.

Our school is the degree granting institution for every student attending the 2021 Harvard-Westlake Debates. Each student represents the school. Our school is responsible for every student, coach, and judge attending the 2021 Harvard-Westlake Debates under our school’s name and gives the students permission to compete and the judges permission to judge. Whenever a student is competing online, there will be at least one school-approved chaperone that can be reached. 

We agree that if at any time the tournament discovers a student or school does not meet the aforementioned criteria, the student(s) and/or school will be immediately disqualified from the tournament and forfeit any fees given to the tournament and to pay any incurred at the tournament.

4. Judges in TOC and Open LD will be vetted. No parents and no inexperienced judges are allowed to cover obligations in the TOC or Open Divisions. We will ask you to hire a judge if you do not provide a qualified judge.

5. Know deadlines. 

You can add new entries until 12/31 10pm PST.

Judge entries are due on 1/4 5pm PST.

Fees and obligations frozen on 1/4 5pm PST.

Drops & Name Changes Due: Monday 1/11 5:00pm (note: Fees are frozen on 1/4. You're required to pay for drops, but there is no additional "drop fee")

6. Awards

We are not ordering our usual large batch of trophies this year, but we do plan on sending awards to the finalists in all divisions and the top speaker in each division. We will also send digital certificates for other speaker awards that coaches may distribute to their students at the conclusion of the tournament. We do not profit from our tournament; your support allows us to make a sizable donation to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Debate League. Thank you!