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WHEN: January 17, 2026

WHERE: Cosby High School

14300 Fox Club Parkway,

Midlothian, VA 23112

EVENTS: RFSDL Rules will be followed for all events.

1. Lincoln-Douglas: Open, 4 rounds.

TOPIC: Resolved: The possession of nuclear weapons is immoral.

2. Public Forum: Open. 4 rounds.

TOPIC: Resolved: The People’s Republic of China should substantially reduce its international extraction of natural resources.

3. Student Congress: STUDENT CONGRESS: Open division. Each student should submit legislation, using the appropriate RFSDL Template, and teams should coordinate to divide bills up among the following 3 categories (Domestic, International, Economic). 2 preliminary and 1 super session, 1 hour 30 minutes each.

Email congress legislation to deanopape@gmail.com by January 2nd at 5pm. Super Session legislation will be provided by Tabroom, so students should focus writing legislation for prelim round topics only. Finally, the preliminary round legislation packet will be set by Tabroom from the submitted legislation, but not all submitted legislation will be included! The emphasis for what legislation ultimately makes the prelim docket will rest on the quality of the legislation, as determined by an impartial third party.

Congress topics: To be posted on tabroom one month prior to competition (DEC 17)

4. Policy Debate*: Open. 4 rounds.

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

*Policy rounds will only run if there are 4+ entries from 2+ schools. If registration at preliminary tournaments does not exceed four entries, then all students will automatically qualify for the NCFL Grand National tournament and rounds will not be held.

5. Speech Categories: The following speech categories will be offered (4 rounds each): Declamation (JV), Extemp*, Oral Interpretation, Original Oratory, DI*, HI*, Duo.

If a qualifying team or duo loses one partner, a substitute competitor may attend in their place. Please contact Sanchez@richmondforum.org to make the arrangements.

Students who received bids in two events may compete in both, but may only qualify for one event. Students need to complete this intent form notating which event they wish to compete in in the event they placed in the top 6 for both events. Students competing in Extemp may not double enter.

*Extemp Topics: To be posted on tabroom one month prior to competition (DEC 17)

*DI/HI will run as separate events of 9 competitors. The top three in each will qualify for NCFL grand nationals. Please note that the events are combined at the national tournament.

JUDGES:

Each school is responsible for providing their own judges with the following quotas:

1 judge for:

…every 2 Lincoln-Douglas Debate entries or fraction thereof,

…every 2 Public Forum Debate entries or fraction thereof,

…every 2 Policy Debate entries or fraction thereof,

…every 5 Student Congress entries or fraction thereof, and

…every 5 Individual Events entries or fraction thereof*

*Student Congress and IE event judges may be combined. Please inform your judges.

COSTS:

There is no cost to this qualifier due to the concurrent open tournament in the same location.

DROPS:

Drops (for any reason) are permitted up to 48 hours before the tournament with no penalty. Drops within 48 hours require schools to honor the entry fees (if any) AND still require the original judging quota. If the original judging quota is not met upon registration, students may not be able to compete. The League reserves the right to charge a $75 dropped judge fee.

Drops occurring prior to the 48 hour deadline will vacate their spot for alternates. Please contact Sanchez@RichmondForum.org with any drops.

SCHEDULE: can be found on the tabroom homepage.

CONCESSIONS and LUNCH:

Lunches for competitors, coaches, and judges are included.

AWARDS:

Awards will be given to the top 3 finishers in each category. The top 6 in each event qualifies for the Grand National Tournament. Sweepstakes and runner up sweepstakes trophies will be given to the schools with the most points in each division (speech and debate). Points will be combined from the NCFL and open division.

REGISTRATION:

Registration is closed and based on NCFL bids. Students will auto populate in the tabroom at the completion of each preliminary tournament.

Direct any tabroom questions to Sanchez@richmondforum.org