Invitation

Live Invitation Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hRSiX2k2DSPG8UC0BXaoRT5RQigIdEycZA9CAl0M20Q/edit?usp=sharing

The Debate Union at UCLA is pleased to invite you to the 2025 UCLA Invitational, which will be held online via Tabroom NSDA Campus from Saturday, November 15, to Sunday, November 16.

This competition is held by the Debate Union at UCLA, a campus organization operated by and for UCLA students and faculty. The tournament is not hosted by or affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, itself.

Our tournament is proud to offer bids to the University of Kentucky, Tournament of Champions for speech events offered at their tournament. The number of bids awarded per event is based on the number of students in the event, with a bid awarded to the champion for events with 8 students, the top 3 for events with 16 students, the top 6 for events with 30 students, and the top 12 for events with 60 students.

Contact Information

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact any of our tournament staff:

Will Ryan (Captain) : wkryan2005@gmail.com

Richard Colgrove (Captain) : rcolgrove45@gmail.com

Rachel Nam (Tournament Director) : rachel.nam04@gmail.com

Alba Borrego Pablos (Equity Officer) : borregoalba8@gmail.com

In any email communications, please CC/Bcc debateunion@g.ucla.edu

Logistics

Throughout the tournament, please refer to the live docs for updated information. The schedule, which may change on the day of the tournament if there are unforeseen delays, can be found here. The Parliamentary Debate topics will be posted on this live doc on the day of the tournament, and topic areas will be posted on this document approximately two weeks before the tournament. All events will be using the NSDA topics for November-December 2025, when the tournament will take place.

We will offer Novice and Open divisions in some events. If an event does not have a sufficient number of entries, the Novice and Open divisions may be combined, or the event may be canceled altogether. Individual rounds, including elimination rounds, may be cut from certain events if the number of entries is low, or if time does not permit.

Important Dates

• Registration Opens: 6/30/2025, 7:00 AM PST

• Registration Closes: 11/10/2025, 11:55 PM PST

• Judges Due: 11/11/2025, 11:55 PM PST

• Payment Received/Drop Deadline: 11/12/2025, 11:55 PM PST

• Tournament Dates: 11/15/2025-11/16/2025

Schedule

UCLA Invitational 2025 Schedule

In addition to rounds, we will host information sessions with current Debate Union at UCLA travel team members for any interested participants to learn about UCLA, the collegiate British Parliamentary debate format and advice for adjusting to collegiate debate.

Events

• Debate:

• Novice Public Forum

• Open Public Forum

• Novice Lincoln-Douglas

• Open Lincoln-Douglas

• Parliamentary

• Speech:

• Original Oratory

• Informative

• Dramatic Interpretation

• Impromptu

• Extemp

Depending on the number of entries, some events may have their Open and Novice divisions combined, or be canceled before the day of the tournament.

Novice Status

Competitors are eligible to compete in novice divisions if they are in their first school year of speech or debate, or if they are not yet in secondary school.

• Middle school experience does count for students entering their first year of high school, so a student who competed as a middle schooler in the prior school year will not be eligible for novice status in their first year of high school.

• A student who competes in a tournament in the current school year (i.e. in September) will retain novice status if they have not competed in the school year prior.

• For our purposes, a school year lasts from the first day of August through the last day of July.

• A secondary school student who competes in a tournament on July 31st, 2025 or prior will not be eligible for novice status.

• A secondary school student who competes in 10,000 tournaments between August 1st, 2025 and November 15th, 2025, but who has not competed in any tournaments July 31st, 2025 or prior will be eligible for novice status.

• Prior school-year competition includes middle school competitions, as well as competitions in other debate or speech events.

• An experienced policy debater with no speech experience for example, would be a novice in any speech event, but would need to enter the open category in any debate event, including debate events they had never done before.

• We define secondary school as the last four years of schooling a student receives prior to them reaching minimum school leaving age and graduating from secondary school, as defined in the laws of their country.

• Any students who are not in their last four school years of non-collegiate (collegiate including trade schools, apprenticeships, universities and community colleges among other institutions) education are considered “middle-schoolers” for the purposes of this tournament.

• All middle-schoolers are eligible for novice status regardless of their level of competitive experience.

• A middle-schooler who by some great effort has managed to accumulate 12 years of competitive experience and 100,000 first-place tournament wins will still be eligible for novice status at this tournament.

Double Entry Policy

Double entry in two speech events, or a speech event and a debate event, is permitted. However, it is the competitor’s responsibility to manage their rounds should they double enter.

Speech events are split into two patterns, A and B. Speakers should take note of which pattern they are in, as it will determine when their rounds are. The breakdown of which events belong to which category is as below:

A events: Extemp, OO, Info

B events: Impromptu, DI

Judges will be informed that if they have a double-entered participant, the participant should go first if possible. Double entered participants may enter a speech round later than the start time due to another event. However, it is not permitted for a double entered participant to enter a debate round late due to another event, as this will cause tournament-wide delays.

Independent Entries

We welcome all independent entries to this tournament! As long as you have an adult (guardian, teacher, principal, etc.) allowing you to compete, you should be able to compete as an independent entry.

Independent entries are those who

1. Belong to a speech and debate program not overseen by an adult supervisor

Or:

1. Are entering as representatives of a school/speech and debate program, but are not being entered by their coach/adult supervisor.

In the case of 1), participants must have their parents/adult guardians submit a form stating that their student has their full permission to participate in this tournament. In the case of 2), students must have their coach (or the teacher overseeing their speech and debate program) or their principal, submit a form stating that the students have their permission to enter this tournament as representatives of their school.

The form for adult approval of independent entries can be found here. Any and all adults who submits a form on behalf of a competitor must be listed as an “adult contact” with the same contact information as in the adult approval form when the student registers on tabroom. An adult contact is mandatory for all registrations.

Payment Information

Please use the Tournament Money system to send all payments.

Fees/Fines

• School Fee: $0 (No School/Academy/Independent Entry Fee!)

• Entry fees

• LD: $40

• PF $55

• Parli: $40

• Policy: $40

• Speech: $20

• Drop fees after the deadline: $40 per entry

• Judge fees: $80 per uncovered judge per round (i.e. if you are required to bring 3 debate judges to the tournament, but only 2 are available for Round 1, you will be charged $80 for that round)

• Additionally, a failure of a judge to disclose a necessary conflict will result in a fine of $100 to the affiliated institution.

For students who are entered under a UDL program or demonstrate similar financial need, the entry fee will be reduced to $5 per entry. However, every entry will be subject to any fees related to uncovered judges or late drops. If this applies to you, please contact tournament staff.

Judge Information

Every institution must provide one judge for every 2 debate entries, or for every 4 speech entries. Failure to procure the necessary number of judges will result in a fine of $100 per uncovered judge. If any institution has an additional number of qualified judges available, they can fill out the application to be a hired judge here.

Although forensics experience is not required, judges should be proficient in English and meet some minimum qualifications. A qualified judge understands the activity and is either experienced sitting in the back of the room with a ballot or flow pad, has been carefully trained by the team they are accompanying, or will attend one of our online judge trainings. A qualified judge knows how to assign ranks or wins/losses, speaker points, and knows how to fill out a ballot. High school seniors 18 years or older will be accepted provided that they have competitive and/or judging experience.

Our tournament is committed both to equal access to debate as an activity and to high quality adjudication and feedback. We outline standards for judge accreditation below, and will also be offering online judge training on Wednesday before the tournament. A recording of the meeting will be available for judges that are not available to attend the training on Wednesday. This training session will introduce judges to the events they will be adjudicating, instruct them on judging standards, note-taking and ballot completion, and cover the common pitfalls that new judges often face. Notes from the training will be available on tabroom as a reference for judges during the tournament.

To encourage accurate calls and quality feedback, judges new to judging will be required to achieve Level 2, NSDA Judge Accreditation in the events our tournament offers by completing the NSDA judge trainings. Judges should set aside two hours, spread out over the course of the weeks running up to the tournament to complete these trainings. Judges who fail to achieve judge accreditation or receive alternate training before the tournament begins will be dropped from the draw, and their school will be fined as if they had entered no judge at all.

Judges are required to judge one round past the round in which all of their school’s competitors have been eliminated. If your school’s last competitor was eliminated in octofinals, you are still required to judge quarterfinals. Judges who leave the tournament before the last round they are required to judge will result in a fine for their school.

In order to maintain a fair and equitable competition, judges must disclose any and all conflicts on Tabroom prior to the tournament. Conflicts include:

• Competitors from the same institution as them (including any past institutions, such as an alma mater)

• Competitors whom the judge knows personally

• Competitors whom the judge is currently coaching, or has coached in the past

• Competitors whom the judge will not be able to consider impartially for any reason (i.e. due to past judging experience, personal experience, etc.)

If it is discovered after rounds begin that a judge purposefully did not disclose a necessary conflict, a fine of $300 will be charged to the institution which the judge is affiliated with.

Judges are encouraged to post a paradigm on Tabroom, if they have not done so already.

Equity Policies

Matters such as unprofessional conduct or disputes over results should be reported to the tournament’s Equity Officer (see contact information above), and will be considered by the Equity Officer, the Captains, and the Tournament Director.

To anonymously report an equity violation, please use this form: https://forms.gle/38jfRaiEwacV4JXm9

Code of Conduct

All debaters should conduct themselves in a respectful and professional manner, keeping in mind that they are representing their teams and schools. Any disrespectful or harmful behavior towards other competitors or judges will not be tolerated and will be grounds for disqualification from the tournament. Dishonest behavior, such as internet usage during a debate round (not including the 20 minutes of open prep for Parliamentary Debate before the round), will also be grounds for disqualification.

Our full equity policy can be found here:

2025 UCLA Invitational Equity Policy

Email Permissions

By signing up for this tournament, you consent to receive occasional emails from the Debate Union at UCLA about this tournament and upcoming tournaments, opportunities and resources for debaters to improve.