IE Awards Ceremony will be held at 11 AM Pacific on Monday Morning at this zoom meeting.  Thank you! 

2022 California Invitational
Hosted by Berkeley Debate
February 19-21, 2022
tournament@berkeleydebate.com


Greetings,

This is your formal invitation to the 2022 California Invitational Speech and Debate Tournament, to be held February 19-21, 2022.

Due to very recent changes in University, City and State policy, Cal Debate Director Michael Klinger has made the very difficult decision to move the tournament online and cancel the in-person event for 2022. We tried our best to make an in-person event work, and we know that this decision may have negative impacts on some of our attendees, but unfortunately the decision is out of our hands. Up to this point, University guidance allowed for an in-person event, and the University did not recommend canceling despite the Omicron surge. On very short notice, the University changed course and implemented a new set of guidelines and requirements that directly affect our ability to host the event, and we are now being told to go online. We know that many of you were looking forward to coming in-person, and we share that disappointment. We will look forward to welcoming you all back to Berkeley in 2023.

We plan to hold our usual offering of both speech and debate events for this year's tournament Online for all three days of competition

For schools which entered the in-person event prior to cancellation, we will move all entries to the online events and refund the difference in cost. Please ensure your refund information in Tabroom is up to date.

Entry Procedures and Waitlist

ALL ENTRIES ON TABROOM WILL START OFF ON THE WAITLIST UNTIL WE RECEIVE YOUR PAYMENT, FOR BOTH IN-PERSON AND ONLINE DIVISIONS. TEAMS WILL BE ENTERED INTO THE TOURNAMENT OR CLEARED FROM THE WAITLIST IN THE ORDER THAT THEY SUBMIT PAYMENT.

To enter the tournament you will need to mail a check for the amount owed on Tabroom. See your Tabroom invoice on the “Money” tab of your entry for additional payment details.

Every year we have a waitlist for all events. You will not be guaranteed a spot until you submit payment. To increase your chance of being cleared from the waitlist we strongly recommend that you submit payment well before the February 1st entry deadline.

All entries, accompanied by fees, must be received by February 1st in order to avoid late fees. Any entries received after February 1st will be assessed a $50 late fee per entry.

The drop deadline is also February 1st. You will not be refunded for drops subsequent to this date.

Events and Divisions

All events will be offered online.

Policy Debate
Varsity CX
JV CX

Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Varsity LD
JV LD

Public Forum Debate
Varsity PF
JV PF
Middle School PF

World Schools Debate

  Varsity World Schools Debate

Congressional Debate
Varsity Congressional Debate
Middle School Congressional Debate

Speech
Dramatic Interpretation
Humorous Interpretation
Duo Interpretation
Extemporaneous Speaking
Impromptu Speaking
Informative Speaking
Original Oratory
Program Oral Interpretation

Our current plan is to host online events on NSDA Campus.

We reserve the right to cancel or combine divisions with insufficient entries, and will notify participants in advance of any changes.

All divisions will receive trophies.

New this year, we will also be offering Middle School Public Forum and Middle School Congress divisions, with schedules designed specifically for your younger students.

There will be 4 preliminary rounds in individual events. Individual events will be synchronous. Specific event schedules will be released in advance of the tournament - tentative schedules are available at the link on the right.

Students may triple enter in speech events. Students may not double enter in speech and debate. All double entry is at a student’s own risk. No accommodations will be made for a student missing a round due to double entry.
 

The online tournament is a Tournament of Champions qualifier in the following:
Double Octafinals in Silver PF
Octafinals in Gold PF
Octafinals in CX
Octafinals in LD
Top 6 in Congress
Speech events according to size

Topics

Policy Debate will use the 2021-2022 NSDA topic.

Lincoln-Douglas Debate will use the 2021-2022 January-February NSDA topic.

Public Forum Debate will use the February 2022 NSDA topic.

Judge Commitments

Judge commitments for each event are listed as part of your Tabroom entry. Note that judges may not double enter events.

All schools are responsible for providing judges to cover their obligations. Hired judging from the tournament may not be available. Schools who fail to cover their judging obligations will be dropped from the tournament.

All judges are committed through the first elim on Monday (usually the Double Octafinals depending on event size), or one round beyond the elimination of your teams, whichever is later. Even if your school doesn’t have any teams in elimination rounds, your judges are still committed through the first elimination round on Monday. Elim judging commitments also apply in all divisions of an event so if you have a JV team in your Varsity judges are still committed and vice versa.

If you have judges who can only come for certain days/rounds there is a way to indicate that on Tabroom. After you have entered the judge there will be a link for “Availability.” When you click on that link you will be able to turn off judges for particular round/days. It’s very important that you enter that information into the website to avoid missed judging fees.

Hired Judging

The tournament will have limited hired judging available. All judge hire requests should be submitted via Tabroom. Submitting a request DOES NOT guarantee approval. Hired judging fees are not refundable.

Demand for hired judging significantly exceeds supply. If the tournament is unable to accommodate your hire request, you are still responsible for providing judging or hiring judging on your own. Schools which fail to cover their judging obligations will be dropped from the tournament.

If you would like to be hired as a judge by the tournament (and are not already obligated for a full commitment with a school), contact us at tournament@berkeleydebate.com

Fines

All entry fees, late fees, and any other penalties/fines must be paid in full before a team will be allowed to advance to the elimination rounds (or the next elim).

Decision Times

Decision times will be strictly enforced. Policy rounds must be decided two hours after the announced start time, and LD/PF rounds must be decided fifty five minutes after the announced start time.

Covid Safety Protocols

Current policies can be viewed on the "COVID Guidelines" page on the sidebar.

Eligibility

All students must be entered in the tournament by an authorized adult (e.g. school coach, parent, or club representative).

Maverick teams are not permitted to enter prior to the tournament. If a team becomes maverick due to illness of a partner during the tournament, the ill debater may miss no more than 2 debates to be able to return and continue debating. Mavericks may win the debate. Mavericks will not be permitted to clear to elimination rounds.

Hybrid teams (entries from more than one school/club) are not allowed.


We look forward to hosting you this year!

Berkeley Debate