Debate at Davis is proud to partner with the Capitol Valley Forensic League (CVFL) to host two days of competition at the Aggie Invitational speech and debate tournament. The tournament will be held at UC Davis in Davis, California.

Tournament email: ucd.invitational@gmail.com -- any emails sent here will go to all tournament staff.

What's the WiFi network? The ucd-guest network is public and open, but requires creation of an account and password, which takes a few minutes.

Tournament Live Doc (used for real-time updates during the tournament)

THIS IS A SWING TOURNAMENT*! That means you can choose to do either one or both days of competition.

A "swing" is a tournament format where each day is a new beginning. At this tournament, debate is run on Saturday, and speech is run on Sunday. Your program (and students) can choose to do one or both days.

How is this tournament different from a typical CVFL tournament?

• The judging requirement is higher (1 judge per 2 debate entries; 1 judge per 5 speech entries). If you're having trouble finding judges, consider emailing us about hiring a UC Davis debater to judge! Your hiring helps support a UC Davis debater participate in their college debate competitions.

• It's at a college campus, so all students will need to submit a signed waiver (available through Tabroom registration).

• Debate events will be single-flighted, so that we can offer elimination rounds on Saturday.

• There will be elimination rounds in Varsity debate events (Novice will have the typical 4 rounds)

• The speech competition will be single-panel, with 3 prelim rounds (all published at 8AM) and a final so that we can end at a reasonable hour Sunday. Double-entry is allowed.

• International and US Extemp are combined into one division.

• Non-CVFL schools are eligible to attend.

• As mentioned, it's two days, where you can do one or both days.

• CHSSA rules will be used, where relevant.

Congress?

Congress will be offered on Sunday, alongside speech. Congress may not double enter in speech events.

Policy Debate?

See the "Policy Debate Logistics" page for details.

Novice divisions?

In speech, Impromptu and Original Oratory will have dedicated novice divisions. All other speech events will be Open and will recognize a top novice competitor.

Novice divisions in debate will NOT have elimination rounds; they will have the standard 4 CVFL rounds.

Speech double entry?

Entries may double-enter in speech, however, there is only one panel of speech -- that is to say that all speech events will run concurrently. So no triple entry in speech.

Speech events offered?

Sunday will offer CHSSA standard events, except that...

• Extemporaneous will combine NX and IX
• Congress will be included Sunday [yes, it's still debate]. Congress will not permit double-entry. Congress will only offer 2 preliminary rounds plus a finals.

Sweepstakes?

We'll tabulate a sweepstakes team award for each day based on prelim round results. The overall winner will earn custody of the CVFL Sweepstakes Broom.

Entry Fees?

• $20 per student per non-policy debate entry (eg. LD = $20, Parli = $40, Extemp = $20, Duo = $40)
• CVFL member schools are eligible for a 50% discount if they register early and bring sufficient judging.
• Schools in their first year of participation are eligible for reduced fees; email us for details.
• Policy Debate fees are outlined in the Policy Debate Logistics page.

Judging?

Debate rounds will be single-flighted. That means the judge burdens will be higher!

We need 1 judge per 2 debate entries, rounded up.

Having trouble finding judges? We've got UC Davis students that would be delighted to be hired to judge. Some tournaments say "we'd rather have your judges than your money" -- not us! We'd love to get Debate at Davis judges hired to help provide high quality feedback. The judge hire rate is $125/day.

Speech will require 1 judge per 5 speech entries. We'll use this to keep rooms small -- ideally no larger than 5 entries per room for non-Impromptu events and no larger than 6 entries per room for Impromptu. Again, hires are available.

Parking? Maps? Etc?

An interactive map of the tournament buildings is located here. A printable map is located on the sidebar.

The main area for the tournament will be the Teaching and Learning Center, though we'll be using buildings throughout campus.

Parking on campus is free on weekends. We recommend either parking in the Pavilion Parking Structure (corner of Hutchison and Dairy) or in Lot 27 (behind Hoagland Hall). Both are about 5 minute walks to the TLC.

Special Rooms

All the "special" rooms for the tournament are in the Teaching and Learning Complex (TLC). These are:

• Judge Lounge - TLC 1010
• Student Lounge/Awards - TLC 1020
• Parli/Extemp Prep - TLC 2010

Topics

September/October 2025 Topics:

PF: Resolved: The United Kingdom should rejoin the European Union.

LD: Resolved: In the United States criminal justice system, plea bargaining is just.

Policy: Resolved: The United States federal government should significantly increase its exploration and/or development of the Arctic.

Schedule

See the Schedule sidebar menu.

For the Policy debate schedule, see "Policy Debate Logistics" in the website sidebar.