Important Tournament Information

Important Tournament Information Please take the time to read through this page

Debate Information

• Bulldog Debate will happen fully online utilizing NSDA Campus on August 20th & 21st. Please see the 'schedule' tab for detailed information regarding times and days.
• We will being swinging debate (PF, LD, Policy, WSD, Congress) with one side happening online and the other happening in person.
• All in-person debate events will have prelims on Friday night followed by elims on Saturday.
• We will not break brackets in any debate events- online or in person!
• All debate rounds will have a single judge, except for Semis & Finals of TFA qualifying debate events.
• All divisions of PF, Policy, LD will have 3 preliminary rounds and then advance to elimination rounds. For PF & LD we will break all 2-1s or better to a partial octo round, however, there may not be points awarded at this round.
• In all events round 3 will be power matched using the “high-low” method
• The break to elimination rounds is contingent on the number of entries. We will break to the highest level of guaranteed TFA points. For example, if points are only awarded to those advancing to quarterfinals, we will only break to quarterfinals.
• Students may only enter into one debate event (LD, PF, CX, WSD). They may cross enter into Saturday IEs at their own risk.

Debate Topics

Topics can be found under the Tabroom page labeled “Debate Topics”

We will use the current NSDA Topics (and TFA Congress Docket/Worlds Topics)

Entry Fees

IE’s- $20

Congress- $25

Policy, LD, PF- $30

WSD- $40

Each missed/no-show round assigned to your school for judging will result in a $25 "no-show fee." You are responsible for any judges that you privately hire. If they are in Tabroom, we assume they are fair game to schedule!

Invoices not paid in full by October 31, 2025 are subject to a $50 a week late fee.

Prepaid Meal Tickets & Pre-Order Pizzas

In Tabroom, you have the option to add pre-paid meal tickets for $8 each that can be used at our concession stands. We will offer several great $8 meals on Friday for dinner and Saturday for lunch. They can also be used as $8 credit at the concession stand.

You can also pre-order large Papa John's Pizzas for $11.00 each! Skip the delivery fee and the headache of having to meet them!

If you need these on a separate invoice or need to pay for them separately, just let me know.

Judge Requirements

As the old saying goes, we want your judges rather than your money!

Please see our page on School Judges for more details!

Cross-Entering

Students may cross enter in IEs at their own risk.

We have not set up any limits in Tabroom so you may cross enter as you see fit. However, we will not adjust the schedule, hold up the schedule, or offer refunds for missed rounds due to cross-entry.

Students may not cross enter in virtual debate side.

Students who are entering into debate or congress may not cross-enter on Friday, but may do so on Saturday.

Forfeit Policy Individual Events (Including Duo & Duet)

Our judges will be instructed to remain in the competition room for 10 minutes per competitor in that section- with a minimum of 60 minutes- from the start of the round. Once that time has lapsed, the judge can submit their ballot and the student will be a forfeit in that event.

Debate Events

Our judges will be instructed to remain in the competition room for 15 minutes from the start of that round. If a competitor has not arrived after 15 minutes, the judge can submit their ballot and the student/team will be marked as a forfeit for that round.

Additional Tournament Information

ALL Section A and Section B IE rounds will be single judges except for finals for TFA IE qualifying events.

All debate rounds will be single judges except for semis and finals of TFA qualifying events.

ALL competing students must be accompanied by an employee of the school or school district attending. The supervising adult must be available throughout the tournament until all students from that academic institution are eliminated and/or finished competing. Unaccompanied students will be dropped from the tournament with no refund.

Maverick entries will not be accepted.

No independent entries from schools within Texas will be accepted. All entries must be affiliated with and a representative of their school, defined as an organization, institution, or group that grants a diploma, or its equivalent, as recognized by the Texas State Board of Education and/or Texas Education Agency.

We will accept independent entries on a case-by-case basis for high school students outside of Texas. All independent entries must pay their entry fees (including the $200 judge fee and $75 school fee) in full before 1pm CST on August 19, 2025.

Middle school/junior highs are welcome to attend, but may not earn TFA points.

The judging pool will consist of community/volunteer judges, coaches of competing schools, and contracted judges. Foster varsity students may be utilized as judges in novice events.

For this tournament, a novice is defined as a competitor in their first competitive year in forensics or a middle school/junior high competitor.

Sweepstakes

Note: We believe in sharing the wealth and ensuring that as many people as possible are able to be celebrated. That being said you may only win the Speech or Debate sweepstakes from ONE side of the tournament.

Students may win individual awards on both sides.

Foster & Summer Creek are not eligible for any sweepstakes or top individualawards.

We will award the following Sweepstakes awards:

• Top Speaker in all debate events (Bulldog side)
• Top Speaker in all debate events (Falcon Side)
• Top Interper (Bulldog)
• Top Interper (Falcon)
• Top Speaker (Bulldog)
• Top Speaker (Falcon)
• Speech Sweepstakes (Falcon)
• Speech Sweepstakes (Bulldog)
• Debate Sweepstakes (Falcon)
• Debate Sweepstakes (Bulldog)
• Overall Sweepstakes

Sweepstakes Schedule