NCPDL is excited to announce the First Annual Northern California Parliamentary Debate Championship!

Section 1: Dates (all times are PST)

The tournament will be held May 1st and 2nd. 

Entries will open April 1st, and will close April 26th at 5pm. 

Drops must be made by April 30th at 5pm. Drops after the deadline will incur a $25 nuisance fine.

Judge entries or hire requests are due by April 28th at 5pm.

Section 2: Entries

The entry fee is $60 per team.

Each NPDL member school located in Northern California may enter 4 students, selected by the head coach.

In addition, a school may enter up to 4 wildcard students. Wildcard students must have auto-qualified to the 2021 NPDL Tournament of Champions. 

The students entered by the school must attend that school.

Hybrid entries are allowed, and each student will count against the total number of entries for their school.

All students must be registered under their school or designated as “[SCHOOL NAME] Independent”.

Section 3: Judging

Every preliminary round will be judged by 1 judge.

Each elimination round will be judged by at least 3 judges.

Teams must provide 1 judge per team.

Each team will be allowed to strike 3 judges: 
- Strikes will be entered on a per-team, rather than per-school basis.
- You will not be able to enter strikes unless your school has fulfilled it’s judging obligation (counting both your judges and hire requests).

Tournament-hired judges will be available at the rate of $125 per day.

If the cost of hired judges is prohibitive for your school. You can request a fee waiver by emailing NorCalPDL@gmail.com by April 21st at 5pm.

The missed ballot fine will be: $50 each for prelim rounds, $100 each for elim rounds.

A qualified judge
- must be a high school graduate AND
- must be debate coach or have competed in the varsity division of high school or college debate OR 
- must have previously judged the varsity division of at least two high school debate tournaments

Section 4: Staff

Mariel Cruz will serve as the tab director.

Those interested in serving as NCC staff may self-nominate by emailing NorCalPDL@gmail.com 

All positions must be approved by the majority of the Council. 

The tournament staff will consist of but may not be limited to:
- Equity Officer
- Chief of Topics
- Tab Staff
- Protest Committee Chair
The NCC Director may add additional positions and members with Council approval.

Section 5: Competition Rules

Teams must arrive at their rooms by 25 minutes after the topic is announced, or they will forfeit the round.

Teams will have 5 minutes of “tech time” to resolve major technical difficulties. If issues persist after tech time is elapsed, the teams will forfeit the round.

Mavericking is allowed for up to 2 preliminary rounds. Mavericking is not allowed in elimination rounds.

Tiebreakers will be: [Win/Loss record] > [Opponent seed] > [Speaker points - 1H/L] > [Speaker points - 2H/L] > [Total speaker points] > [The cruel hand of fate]

NPDL Online Round Rules will be used. Partner prep only.

Section 6: Schedule

See sidebar. 

Section 7: Topic Area

The topic area for at least one round will be Ecosystem Management.