2026 California Invitational
Hosted by Berkeley Debate
February 14-16, 2026

tournament@berkeleydebate.com

Greetings,

This is your formal invitation to the 2026 Cal Invitational Speech and Debate Tournament, to be held February 14-16, 2026.

We plan to hold a mix of speech and debate events in-person, as well as online-only divisions for some events.

Please note that our exact event mix, including which events will be online, is still TBD and subject to change. We hope to make final decisions in Fall of 2025.

We anticipate a similar schedule to last year, with two main time blocks (Speech + CX and LD/PF). Speech will be patterned in each Speech time block to allow for double entry.

Unfortunately, we will have significantly fewer rooms on campus in 2026 than prior years, due to the University decommissioning one of our main classroom buildings. As such, our entry caps are likely to be lower, and some divisions will likely need to be moved online.

Important Deadlines

December 1 - Priority entry deadline. Fully paid entries before this date are guaranteed up to the maximum per-school caps in each event (space permitting). After this date, entry is first come first served (no caps) based on the order in which payment is received. Independent entries are welcome to enter before this date, but will not be cleared from the waitlist until all school entries prior to this date have been cleared.

January 16 - Entry/drop deadline. All payment must be received by this date or your entries will be dropped. There are no refunds for drops after this date.

January 31 - Judge information deadline. All judging must be fully covered or you must have an approved hire request by this date, or you will need to drop entries.

Entry Procedures and Waitlist

ALL ENTRIES ON TABROOM WILL START OFF ON THE WAITLIST UNTIL WE RECEIVE YOUR PAYMENT. TEAMS WILL BE ENTERED INTO THE TOURNAMENT OR CLEARED FROM THE WAITLIST IN THE ORDER THAT THEY SUBMIT PAYMENT.

We do not accept paper checks. To enter the tournament you will need to pay online through Tabroom, using either a credit card or an e-check/ACH. See your Tabroom invoice on the “Fees” tab of your entry for additional payment details. Note that credit card transactions will automatically have a 4% handling fee added to your invoice. A W-9 is available on the right for those of you that require one for your accounting department.

Every year we have a waitlist for all events. We will also have entry caps in most events. You will not be guaranteed a spot until you submit payment and are cleared from the waitlist.

We have a priority entry deadline of December 1st. Fully paid entries before this date will be given priority up to the maximum per-school caps in each event, space permitting. No independent entries will be cleared from the waitlist prior to this date. After this date, entries are first come first served based on the order payment is submitted.

To increase your chance of being cleared from the waitlist we strongly recommend that you submit payment well before the January 16th entry deadline. Many programs submit payment in early Fall; the longer you wait, the lower your chances of getting off the waitlist.Do not make any non-refundable travel arrangements until your entries have been moved off the waitlist on Tabroom and into the tournament.

All entries, accompanied by fees, must be received by January 16th in order to be considered for entry into the tournament. It is also VERY possible that we will have to turn away entries due to space limitations.

The drop deadline is also January 16th. You will not be refunded for drops subsequent to this date.

For the online Parli division only, fee waivers may be granted upon request and to schools which are members of Urban Debate League (UDL) programs. For information, please email the tournament.

Events and Divisions (Tentative)

TOC CX
Open CX (Online)

JV CX (Online)

Novice CX (Online)

TOC LD
Open LD

JV LD (Online)

Novice LD (Online)

TOC PF

Open PF
JV PF (Online)

Novice PF (Online)
Middle School PF (Online)

HS Congressional Debate

MS Congressional Debate (Online)

Varsity World Schools Debate (Online)

Varsity Parliamentary Debate (Online)

Dramatic Interpretation (Pattern A)

Humorous Interpretation (Pattern A)

Impromptu Speaking (Pattern A)

Original Oratory (Pattern A)

Duo Interpretation (Pattern B)

Informative Speaking (Pattern B)

Program Oral Interpretation (Pattern B)

Extemporaneous Speaking (Pattern B, no double entry in Pattern B)

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

All divisions will receive trophies for all elimination round participants.

There will be 4 preliminary rounds of individual events, 5 preliminary rounds of JV/Novice/MS Debate divisions, and 6 preliminary rounds of TOC/Open Debate divisions. Specific event schedules will be released on Tabroom in advance of the tournament.

Students may double enter in-person in speech and debate, and may double enter in speech events. Double entries are limited to 2 events per pattern, as listed above, except Extemp, which cannot enter other Pattern B events. 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. Students may only participate in elimination rounds in one event due to scheduling - students clearing to elims in multiple events will have to choose which event to continue in.

TOC divisions are 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

Entry Limits

The following events currently have entry caps:

TOC CX (100 total entries, max 4 per school)
TOC LD (200 total entries, max 8 per school)
Open LD (80 total entries, max 4 per school)

TOC PF (200 total entries, max 8 per school)
Open PF (80 total entries, max 4 per school)

Varsity Congressional Debate (150 total entries, max 8 per school)

Per-school caps do not mean you are guaranteed that number of entries, they are the maximum number you can enter in each event prior to our priority deadline. Entries will still be cleared from the waitlist in the order payment is received. We will do our best to raise these caps if we're able to secure additional competition space, and may admit more than the per-school limit if there are unused slots after the priority entry deadline.

We do not currently anticipate entry caps in speech events, though this may change closer to the event.

Please do not email us to ask for exceptions to the caps or to ask about the waitlist. The best thing you can do to maximize your chances of entry is submit payment early and ensure you are fully paid before the priority deadline.

Tentative Schedule

We plan to use a similar schedule to last year, with some minor modifications. The below is tentative and subject to change as we finalize our room availability. During the tournament, the schedule remains subject to change as necessary.

Speech events are split into two patterns (see above), which will take place back-to-back in each speech round timeslot. Pattern B events will start approximately 1 hour after the listed start time. Extemp draw is 30 minutes before the start time of each Pattern B.

Saturday 7:45a Speech Round 1 / CX Round 1 / Congress Round 1
Saturday 10:00a PF/LD Round 1
Saturday 12:30p Speech Round 2 / CX Round 2 / Congress Round 2
Saturday 3:00p PF/LD Round 2
Saturday 5:30p Speech Round 3 / CX Round 3 / Congress Round 3
Saturday 8:00p PF/LD Round 3

Sunday 7:45a Speech Round 4 / CX Round 4 / Congress Round 4
Sunday 10:00a PF/LD Round 4
Sunday 12:30p Speech Elim 1 / CX Round 5 / Congress Round 5
Sunday 3:00p PF/LD Round 5
Sunday 5:30p Speech Elim 2 / CX Round 6 / Congress Round 6
Sunday 8:00p PF/LD Round 6

Monday 8:00a Debate Elim 1
Monday 9:00a Speech Elim 3
Monday 10:30a Speech Elim 4 / Debate elims continue
Monday 1:00p Debate elims continue / Congress Finals
Monday 3:30p Debate elims continue
Monday 6:00p Debate elims continue
Monday 8:30p Debate elims continue

Topics
Policy Debate will use the 2025-2026 NSDA topic.

Lincoln-Douglas Debate will use the 2025-2026 January-February NSDA topic.

Public Forum Debate will use the February 2026 NSDA topic.

Rules

Events generally follow CHSSA rules (chssa.org). Debate events follow TOC/NSDA rules for things like side flips and internet usage rules. In the event CHSSA does not cover an event or scenario, we defer to NSDA rules (speechanddebate.org). Some events may have specific rules modifications; these may be communicated by the respective tabroom staff, or printed directly on the ballots provided to judges.

We expect attendees to abide by the NSDA's Harassment and Discrimination Policy:

https://www.speechanddebate.org/harassment-discrimination-policy/

We have a designated Equity Officer, you can contact the tournament to be put in touch with them.

Judge Commitments

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

All judges are committed through the first elim on Monday (usually the Double or Triple 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 debaters in the elimination rounds, you must provide at least one judge per entry that is available to judge in the elimination rounds. Failure to provide adequate judging to cover your entries in elimination rounds will result in dropping your entries.

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.

Note that you are responsible for covering your judging obligations in all time slots - marking a judge as unavailable means you will need to provide another judge that can cover the obligation during that time slot.

All judges must be 18 years or older, and not currently enrolled in high school.

All judges must have a valid phone number entered in Tabroom.

Hired Judging

The tournament will have limited hired judging available. All judge hire requests should be submitted via Tabroom. Hired judging fees are not refundable.

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), please fill out the form here:

https://berkeleydebate.com/hire

Fines

The penalty for a judge failing to report to an assigned round is $100 per round. This fine is assessed even when a replacement judge is found.

All entry 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

All attendees are solely responsible for following all guidelines from your institution. The Cal Invitational accepts no responsibility or liability for the health of tournament attendees. All participation in the tournament is at your own risk.

Vaccination against COVID-19 is strongly recommended for all tournament attendees. However, there is no tournament vaccination requirement.

We will utilize the best practices and any rules and regulations required by the University or recommended by the CDC. We will keep attendees updated with specific policies as we get closer to the event.

Eligibility

All students must be entered in the tournament by an adult (18+) who is legally responsible for all entries attending the tournament as part of that Tabroom entry. If entered representing a school or club, that adult must be authorized to act on behalf of the school/club (e.g. a school coach, school administrator, or club administrator).

Independent entry is allowed, however, all independent entries must have the word "Independent" in the name of their Tabroom school on their tournament registration. Independent entries may not represent themselves as affiliated with a school. If the school a student attends has a speech and debate program, they must enter as part of that program. Independent entry is only allowed when entering with a school is impossible.

The designated adult contact in Tabroom for the school's entry (or independent entry) must also be an adult authorized to act on behalf of, and legally responsible for, the entire entry. The designated adult contact for the entry must be reachable by phone and remain within a 5 minute walk of campus at all times during competition.

Hybrid teams (entries from more than one school/club) are not allowed. If attending affiliated with a school, it must be the school at which the student attends classes and plans to graduate.

Students may not enter themselves. A parent/guardian not officially affiliated with a school may not act as the authorized adult for students other than their own children.

Failure to abide by these policies is grounds for immediate removal from the tournament. Refunds will not be provided.

Both the TOC and Open divisions of debate events are open entry for 9th-12th grades.

JV divisions are open entry, but are primarily intended for students who have not yet competed in Varsity.

Novice divisions are intended for students in their first full year of competition. Middle School participation or e.g. minimal competition in a different event does not necessarily preclude a student from being entered in Novice.

We leave it to the coach's discretion which division is most appropriate for their students; please try to calibrate your students experience level with the appropriate division based on the above guidelines.

Middle School PF and Middle School Congress are for students in grades 6th-8th. Students in 6th-8th grade MUST be entered in the appropriate middle school division, and are not eligible to compete in HS divisions.

Maverick Entries

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.

Hotel Information

Hotel block information is posted on the link on the sidebar, and will be updated as more hotels are added.

We look forward to hosting you!

Nathan Fleming

Director, Berkeley Debate