Tournament Invitation

FIND ALL DAY-OF INFORMATION ON THIS LIVE DOC


On behalf of the Yale Debate Association, we are excited to announce the Yale Debate Association Summer Parliamentary Tournament, a brand-new season opening tournament, which will be held from August 29th, 2026 to August 30th, 2026. This tournament is running independently of our summer camp, and is open to all competitors – it is not necessary that they’ve attended our summer camp (though we encourage everyone to sign up for that too!)

We are excited to announce that this tournament will count for points towards both the NYPDL Championships and the NPDL-TOC.

In the interest of accessibility and convenience, the tournament will be held fully via Zoom and Tabroom (for which all debaters and judges must make an account). The tournament’s timing (10 am ET to 7:30 pm ET/7 am PT to 4:30 pm PT) should make it accessible to students across North America. The tournament will offer two events: Open Parliamentary and Novice Parliamentary. All high schoolers and middle schoolers are welcome to register for this tournament. Please see more information about the tournament’s schedule and logistics below.

Please reach out to our tournament directors, Adrian (adrian.turkedjiev@yale.edu) or Mirabel (mirabel.raphael@yale.edu) with any questions. We hope to see you this August!

Schedule (in Eastern Time):

All schedule items are mandatory. Debaters and Judges must be checked in before rounds start, else they will be dropped (and schools will be charged for absent judges).

Saturday, August 29th

9:00 - 10:00: Debater + Judge Check-In

10:00 - 10:25: Judge Training + Equity Briefing

10:00 - 10:25: Debater Equity Briefing

10:25 - 10:30: General assembly

10:30 - 12:15: Round 1

12:15 - 2:00: Round 2

2:00 - 2:45: Lunch

2:45 - 4:30: Round 3

4:30 - 6:15: Round 4

6:15 - 8:00: Round 5

8:15 - 8:30: Award Ceremony

Sunday, August 30th

10:00 - 10:30: Check-In and GA

10:30 - 12:15: Varsity Octofinals / Novice Semifinals

12:15 - 12:45: Lunch

12:45 - 2:30: Varsity Quarterfinals / Novice Finals

2:30 - 4:15: Varsity Semifinals

4:15 - 6:00: Varsity Finals

Registration

Registration will occur through Tabroom. Registration, including judge registration, opens Monday March 30th and closes Friday, August 21st [now extended to the evening of Sunday, August 23rd]. We will be levying a $50 fee for late judge registration.In the case of extenuating circumstances, please reach out to request an extension of the registration deadlines.

Paying Registration Fees
[UPDATE: TABROOM HAD LISTED REG ENTRY AS $100. This has now been fixed.]

The registration fee for each entry (i.e., each two-person team) is $80. Payment information is available here: 2026 YDA Summer Tournament Payment Instructions. Teams must submit their registration fees before the start of the tournament to be eligible to compete. If this fee would pose an unreasonable barrier that would prevent you from competing in the tournament, please reach out to Adrian (adrian.turkedjiev@yale.edu) or Mirabel (mirabel.raphael@yale.edu) and we will work with you to find a solution that fits your needs.

All proceeds will go toward helping the YDA cover fees associated with competing in national and international tournaments, as well as supporting our annual events, which include the Osterweis Tournament—a free tournament for Connecticut high school students—and the Yale Intervarsity, North America's largest & most prestigious international university debate tournament.

Hybrid Teams

We will allow hybrid teams at this tournament. If you wish to register as a hybrid team, please include both debaters’ school names when you register on Tabroom. Hybrid teams should indicate when registering which debater’s institution will be responsible for the judge requirement for their entry.

Independent Entries

High schoolers and middle schoolers who wish to compete, but are not affiliated with a school’s debate team, may enter as an independent entry. These entries are still subject to the judge requirement, as described below.

Judge Requirements

Each institution is subject to a n/2 judge requirement, rounded up. See the table below for a guide to how many judges your institution is required to bring, based on the number of teams you are sending.

Institutions may fulfill a judge requirement through the judging efforts of multiple people – for example, Judge A is present for prelim rounds 1-3 and Judge B is present for prelim rounds 4 and 5. In order to count as having fulfilled one judging obligation (meaning, having brought one judge), an institution must have one judge present in each preliminary round, and must have judges present for at least one round after the institution’s last team has been eliminated from the tournament. Experienced judges are preferred but not required, and judge training will be provided for all judges. Judges must be an incoming high school sophomore or older (judges who are still in high school will judge in the novice division). If you are unable to meet the judge requirement, we will charge a fee of $20 per each round for which you are missing one judge, and reserve the right to break up one or more of your entries into two judges if necessary.

Rules

We will follow the American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA) format and rules (see the “Parli Style Guide Section” here for details) –the same rules as our Fall Invitational tournament. Each round’s motion will be released 15 minutes before the round start time.

Novice/Varsity Status

For the purposes of this tournament, novices are students who have not competed in any high school tournaments prior to July 1, 2026.

Elimination Rounds

1. We will determine exact breaks at the close of registration, but expect an octos varsity and semis novice break.

2. Teams may iron-person one round in case of an emergency and still be eligible to break. Teams that iron-person two or more rounds will not be eligible to break. Iron-person teams are not eligible to break.

3. Seeding of teams will first be based on the number of rounds won, and then on total speaker points -1HL, followed by your median score (-2HL), followed by your total speaker points.

4. We reserve the right to change the break or tiebreakers if necessary.