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Hello one and all,

Welcome to the 2026 TFA/NIETOC O'Connor Brandeis Red Carpet Classic! Friday, January 31 (first two rounds of VCX, VPF, VLD, WSD) will be hosted online via NSDA Campus and Saturday, February 1 (remaining debate rounds and TWO FULL SPEECH tournaments) will be hosted in-person at Brandeis High School in San Antonio, TX. Come for the wonderful hospitality, quality competition and fun we have planned for you! We hope you and your teams are ready to take the red carpet in style!

We will offer novice divisions of extemp, LD, PF and Policy Debate. For the purpose of this tournament, a Novice is considered someone in their first year of high school competition. We WILL NOT break brackets in debate. Under new TFA rules, judges will be instructed at this tournament to not decide rounds on the basis of whether or not cases are disclosed by competitors or not. Disclosure of cases (either on a wiki or prior to round) is at the discretion of individual competitors and coaches. Due to new NIETOC rules, both sides swing tournaments cannot have NIETOC bids - therefore, only the PANTHER side of IEs will have NIETOC bids at this tournament.

Your school must have a school employee to be available for all tournament times/rounds to judge and provide support for the tournament when needed.

Juniors or seniors with at least 250 NSDA points can be used to fulfill novice judging commitments. Ninth and tenth graders cannot be used to fulfill novice judging commitments under any circumstances.

We will use online balloting through Tabroom.com throughout the tournament. This means all judges will need Tabroom.com accounts.

Students from O'Connor High School and Brandeis High School will be permitted to enter and compete for TFA points.

Those interested in being a hired judge should fill out the following form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf72hmfssiF92P5QU_sclt4FDVYn-NutjnBIF8sd4Su0_sFYQ/viewform?usp=dialog

Sincerely,
Aly Mithani
Director of Speech and Debate
Sandra Day O'Connor High School
aly.mithani@nisd.net

Leslie Crady
Director of Speech and Debate
Louis D. Brandeis High School
leslie.crady@nisd.net