Information

Separate registration pages are set up for Parli/PF Quals (Feb 27-28) and Speech Quals (March 6-7)

This tournament is open only to SDIVSL member schools. All teams must be paid members of CHSSA (paid no later than Feb. 27, 2026) with all necessary SDIVSL and CHSSA forms completed prior to registering.

Tab Location: LIBRARY

Judges' Room: LIBRARY

Qualifying Spots / Entry Limitations:

Our league will qualify ten (10) Congress competitors, eight (8) Policy Debate teams, six (6) Lincoln-Douglas debaters, and one (1) Presiding Officer to the State Tournament.

Students who cannot attend the CHSSA State Tournament on April 17-19 at James Logan High School (Union City) are not eligible to compete at this tournament. Additionally, students who are not available to compete in all scheduled rounds of this tournament are not eligible to compete.

A school may have up to ten (10) entries in each of these events at the Qualifiers tournament. Additional entries will count against the ten (10) floating entries that each school is allotted for the three weekends. Floating entries can be entered, and will be waitlisted until the tournament director can review and approve.

Students may enter one (1) event for this weekend.

Be sure not to exceed any individual or school entry limits: No student may enter more than four (4) events total throughout the three tournaments.

Entry/Drop Deadlines: Entries for this tournament must be posted to Tabroom.com no later than 11:59pm. on Monday, March 9. Drops will be accepted with no fees assessed until 6:00 pm on Wednesday, March 11. All LD/Policy/Congress fees will be final at that time. Please email any drops prior to the tournament to Steve Fazio at Stephen.Fazio@sweetwaterschools.org or call/text them in to 619-252-3157 on the day of the tournament.

Fees: As per the SDIVSL Bylaws, all fees must be paid in full prior to competing in State Quals. For LD/Policy/Congress competitors, any past due fees, as well as LD/Policy/Congress Quals fees, are due prior to the first round of this tournament. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR KNOWING THE AMOUNTS DUE - if you have questions, contact Gregg Osborn, League Treasurer, at gosborn@helixcharter.net.

Judges: Please bring one judge for every 4 LD and Congress entries, or part thereof, and one judge for every 2 Policy entries. Judges are obligated through the entirety of the tournament, regardless of a team's progression. Please be sure to prepare your judges for this.

Tournament Details:

a. Rounds 1-4 - Preliminary rounds: All teams or individuals shall debate in four rounds. At the conclusion of round four, all teams or individuals with two or more losses shall be eliminated.

b. Elimination bracket: Following Round 4, all remaining teams or individuals will participate in elimination brackets. The number of elimination brackets and the names given to each round (e.g. Octafinals, Quarterfinals, Semifinals) shall be determined by the number of remaining teams or individuals. In each elimination bracket, elimination is automatic for losing teams or individuals, regardless of overall win-loss record. Elimination rounds will continue until the state qualifiers and alternates are determined for each debate event.

If at any time the qualifiers for the State Tournament can be determined, no further rounds will take place.

All Congress competitors are guaranteed three preliminary rounds. An equal number of competitors from each chamber will advance to semifinals, with the total number of semifinalists being as close to 30 as possible. This will depend on the total number of chambers in prelims. An equal number of competitors from each semifinals chamber will advance to finals, with the number of finalists being as close to 15 as possible.

Sign-Off Meeting: After the awards ceremony following LD/Policy/Congress Quals (Saturday, March 14), all coaches must meet to sign off any students who have qualified for the State Tournament. All coaches whose teams competed in State Quals need to attend this meeting, even if you don’t have a student that is qualified outright. Each year, students who haven’t qualified outright shift up into a qualifying position because of other students’ shifting out of the event, since a student may only enter one event at the State Tournament. If the coach is not at the meeting to confirm a student’s attendance at the State Tournament, the students may be bypassed and excluded from State qualification.

Note: If you sign a “No” on a student, that student MAY NOT later be added into that event if some problem arises with his or her participation in another event, such as Team Debate or Duo. If a student does not qualify outright in any event, you still may only sign yes in one event.

You must come to this meeting!