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CFL Congress State Qualifying Tournament

Saturday, March 7th 2026

Hosted by Archbishop Mitty High School

5000 Mitty Way, San Jose, CA 95129

Events Offered: Congress and Presiding Officer

Pre-Tournament Questions
coast.forensic.league@gmail.com

Tournament Help Desk
coastforensicleague2@gmail.com

Double Qualifiers and Alternates Form:

If you competed in ANY Debate and/or Speech event on the weekend of Feb 27th-March 1st and intend to compete in Congressional Debate or as a Presiding Officer, you MUST fill out the Single Entry Letter of Intent form by March 6th at 11:55 PM. The Single Entry Letter of Intent will be posted here: [CFL Single Entry Letter of Intent 2026 Link]

Not filling out the form risks being disallowed to enter this Tournament or disqualification from the Tournament.

Docket: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MwHGyPigBhTstzBBtl99YnHs51Imm1OnxpW4pukGOm0/edit?usp=sharing

TABROOM: Sobrato Student Center Conference Room

Student Area: Aymar Cafeteria

Judge Area: Sobrato Student Center

Schedule:

AM Judge Arrival/Registration/Check In: 7:30AM-7:45AM

PO Meeting in Tabroom: 7:40AM

Round 1: 8:00AM-10:15AM

Round 2: 10:40AM-12:55PM

Lunch: 1PM-2PM

PM Judge Arrival: 1:20PM
Finals PO Meeting in Tabroom: 2-2:05PM

Final round supersession: 2:10PM-5:15PM

Awards: ASAP after final ballot submission

Entry Limits:

Please pay attention to the special entry limit governing State Qualifying Tournaments:

There will be TWO separate events offered: Congressional Debate and Presiding Officer. Cross entry between these two events will NOT be permitted. Those entered as a Presiding Officer shall only preside over the Chamber for the duration of the round. They will not be allowed to speak. Those entered as a Congressional Debaters will NOT be allowed to preside over the Chamber.

Each school is allowed to bring up to 7 free entries. Wildcard entries do not count towards this 7 entry limit. However, no school may bring more than 14 total entries, including wildcards, in total. No more than one of these competitors may be entered as a Presiding Officer. Wildcards may be entered as a Presiding Officer and will not count towards the 7 entry limit.

A wildcard is defined as a competitor who placed in the Top 2 (1st or 2nd) in any Senate Chamber or a competitor who placed as the Top Speaker (1st) in any House Chamber at a CFL League Congress Tournament this Season. Wildcards are NOT transferrable between individuals.

Example 1 of Entry Limit in action: School "Z" has earned 3 wildcards. They get to bring a maximum of 10 entries (7 free entries + 3 wildcards =10) to the Tournament, of which one entry may be a Presiding Officer.

Example 2 of Entry Limit in action: School "Y" has earned 10 wildcards. They get to bring a maximum of 14 entries (4 free entries + 10 wildcards = 14) to the Tournament, of which one entry may be a Presiding Officer. School "Y" cannot bring more than 14 total entries.

Registration:

Registration and all entries are due on March 5th at 11:55 PM on Tabroom. All competitors will be placed on a waitlist and will be removed from the waitlist after judges have been entered to fulfill your school's obligation. Drops and adds after this time will be assessed a late fee.

When registering, To help me identify your wildcards, please follow the following instructions:

1. If you are entering a student who had earned a wildcard at a CFL League Congress Tournament, please input the Tournament the student earned the wildcard from, whether it was the House or the Senate, and what place they earned in the "Qualifiers 1" blanks. (ex: Congress 2 - House, 1st)
2. If you are entering one of your 7 free entries, leave the "Qualifiers/Bids" box BLANK and EMPTY. Instead, check off the "At-Large (non-qualified) applicant" box.

As a courtesy to all competitors, only those who can attend the California High School Speech and Debate State Championship at James Logan High School on April 17th to April 19th may compete at this Tournament. If your student is planning to not compete at State or has no interest in qualifying, please do not register them as to not "block" other students from qualifying.

Judging:

Please provide 1 judge for every 4 entries or part thereof. The judge ratio has increased due to the fact that we will need for more judges per chamber. Please note which child the judge is affiliated with in the Judge notes. Please enter your school affiliated judges no later than March 5th at 11:55 PM. We will not be offering hired judging at this Tournament, so please ensure that you have school affiliated judges for this Tournament. All judges must have a linked Tabroom account.

Congress Rules and Procedures:

CHSSA Rules will govern all events. Please consult Sections 5-12 of Article XIII: The State Tournament - Congress Rules in the CHSSA Rules and Regulations. For matters of parliamentary procedure not covered by CHSSA Rules, please consult the CFL Procedures Guide, NSDA congressional debate rules, or Robert's Rules of Order, provided that they do not conflict with the CHSSA ruleset.

Awards and Qualifiers:
The California High School Speech Association (CHSSA) has allocated 12 qualifiers in Congressional Debate, and 1 qualifier in the Presiding Officer Competition.

Congressional Debate Qualifiers shall be determined by final round Super Session ranks only, with additional tiebreakers to be used in the event of ties.

Ranking during the preliminary rounds of the Presiding Officer competition shall be done by panel judges, and the ranking of the presiding officers during the final round Super Session shall be determined by a vote of the judges and all Congressional Debate entries in the final round Super Session.

[More information TBA]