Topics and Procedures

All events will follow the rules outlined in the NSDA Unified Manual.

All events are open to the public and all observers are permitted to flow the round. Observers can be ejected from rounds if their conduct interrupts the debate, violates NSDA rules, or constititutes bullying or harrassment.

PF

- All rounds will be flip for sides using the tabroom coinflip feature. Elimination rounds will never be side locked.

- PF will debate the November/December 2025 topic.

- Seeds will be determined by 1) Win-Loss record, 2) Points - best/worst, 3) points - 2 best/2 worst, 4) Points, 5) Average opponent seed, 6) Coinflip

LD

- Sides in preliminary rounds will be assigned.

- Elimination rounds will be flip for sides using the tabroom coinflip feature, unless debaters have met in preliminary rounds; in such cases, entries will be assigned the opposite side.

- LD will debate the November/December 2025 topic.

- Seeds will be determined by 1) Win-Loss record, 2) Points - best/worst, 3) points - 2 best/2 worst, 4) Points, 5) Average opponent seed, 6) Coinflip

Policy

- Sides in preliminary rounds will be assigned.

- Elimination rounds will be flip for sides using the tabroom coinflip feature, unless debaters have met in preliminary rounds; in such cases, entries will be assigned the opposite side.

- Policy will debate the 2025-26 NFHS topic:Resolved: The United States federal government should significantly increase its exploration and/or development of the Arctic.

- Seeds will be determined by 1) Win-Loss record, 2) Points - best/worst, 3) points - 2 best/2 worst, 4) Points, 5) Average opponent seed, 6) Coinflip

Congress

- All chambers will set their own docket order.

- Recency will be randomly generated by the tabroom and shared with the parliamentarian.

- The docket will be selected from August and October UDCA legislation, with a preference for bills authored by schools attending the tournament.

- Seeds will be determined by truncated 1) Ranks, 2) Judge pref), 3) Reciprocals, 4) Ranks - highest and lowest, and 5) Chair Ranks

- Should a final round be held, final placements will be determined by truncated 1) Ranks in finals,2) Judge pref in finals,3) Reciprocals in finals, 4) All ranks, and5) Chair Ranks in finals.

Speech

- Seeds will be determined by 1) Prelim rankings truncated to the smallest section, 2) Reciprocals truncated to the smallest section, and 3) points from preliminary rounds.

- We will aim to advance the top 6 entries in all events. Events with less than 8 entries will not have a final round.

- Final placements in platform (OO, INFO) and Interp (DI, HI, DUO, POI) will be determined by 1) final round rankings and 2) final round reciprocals. Final placements in limited prep events (IX, NX, IMP, SPAR) will be determined by 1) cumulative rankings and 2) cumulative reciprocals.

Impromptu

Topic Areas:

- Proper nouns

- Emotions as nouns

- Famous quotes

National Extemporaneous Speaking

Topic Areas:

- Economy

- Elections and Government

- Judiciary

Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking

Topic Areas:

- Economy

- Geopolitics

- War and conflict

Extemporaneous Debate

- We are excited to offer this rare format -- it is a supplemental event at NSDA Nationals in which students are given 30 minutes to prepare for a short debate. Think SPAR, but more rigorous. More information can be found here (navigate to 'Debate' and select the 'Choose your event' menu).

- Sides in all rounds will be assigned.

- Seeds will be determined by 1) Win-Loss record, 2) Points - best/worst, 3) points - 2 best/2 worst, 4) Points, 5) Average opponent seed, 6) Coinflip

- Note that generative AI cannot be quoted in these debates per NSDA rules, and the tournament reserves the right to examine the search history of any student accused of doing so.

-Extemporaneous Debate topic areas (sorted alphabetically): American Healthcare,American Judiciary,International Trade, andNuclear Proliferation