Invite

Welcome to the Cedar Ridge TFA Qualifying Tournament!

Saturday, October 17, 2026
Cedar Ridge High School
In Person

Cedar Ridge High School is excited to welcome you to our TFA (Texas Forensic Association) State Qualifying Tournament!

It is our goal to provide students, coaches, and judges with a pleasant, competitive, and efficient tournament experience. This year's tournament will be hosted in person at Cedar Ridge High School.

We look forward to welcoming you on October 17!

Tournament Policies

• Our tournament is a TFA State Qualifying Tournament and will follow current TFA rules.

• An adult affiliated with each participating school must be present and available at all times throughout the tournament.

• Judges in TFA qualifying events must have graduated from high school. Current high school students may judge Novice events only with explicit prior approval from the Tournament Director and may not fulfill a school's judging obligation in TFA qualifying events.

• We will use online balloting through Tabroom.com throughout the tournament. All judges must have active Tabroom accounts and access to an internet-capable device.

• A novice is defined as a student in their first year of speech and debate competition. Novice status applies to the competitor, not the event. For example, a student who competed in PF as a freshman may not compete in Novice Policy or Novice LD as a sophomore.

• Novice CX: All Novice CX teams are required to use the NDCA Novice Packet. Evidence and arguments outside of the packet are not permitted.

Scheduling & Cross-Entries

We will offer three preliminary rounds in debate events.

Students entered in Varsity LD, Novice LD, Varsity PF, Novice PF, and World Schools Debate may cross-enter in Extemporaneous Speaking.

Debaters who choose to cross-enter in another Individual Event do so at their own risk. The tournament will not delay debate rounds or Individual Event rounds to accommodate cross-entries.

CX/Policy Debate competitors may NOT cross-enter in any other event.

Cross-entry between speech sections is permitted. Competitors who cross-enter are responsible for reporting promptly to both events.

Debate Elimination Procedures

We will NOT break brackets in debate elimination rounds.

• Panels for TFA qualifying debate events will begin in Semifinals.

• We will attempt to panel debate Quarterfinals if the available judging pool permits, but Quarterfinal panels are not guaranteed.

• Except for Novice events, we will not host debate elimination rounds that do not award TFA qualification points.

• If entry numbers are too low to justify Quarterfinals, we will advance directly to Semifinals. This means we may break directly to Semifinals in CX, LD, and PF with 10–15 entries.

• World Schools Debate may advance directly to Finals when there are only 6–9 entries.

• Novice debate events will advance directly to Semifinals.

• We will collapse Novice and Varsity divisions only when doing so is necessary to award TFA qualification points. We will not collapse divisions simply to provide better qualification points.

Individual Event Advancement

Individual Events with 16 or fewer entries will advance directly to Finals following Round 2.

When this occurs, Round 2 will take the place of Semifinals on the tournament schedule.

Final rounds of TFA Individual Events, Duo Interpretation, and Duet Acting will use judge panels.

Congressional Debate

Students will be permitted to run for Presiding Officer (PO) in Congressional Debate.

Additional Congress procedures and the tournament docket will be posted on Tabroom.

TFA Qualification

TFA qualification points will be awarded according to the current TFA qualification schedule and only when the tournament and individual event meet TFA requirements for awarding qualification points.

Schools and coaches are responsible for ensuring their students meet all applicable TFA eligibility requirements.

Topics

Congressional Debate

Docket: TBA

World Schools Debate

Round 1: This House would prioritize expanding access to affordable housing over increasing wages.
Round 2: This House would prioritize expanding access to affordable housing over increasing wages.
Round 3: Impromptu
Semifinals (if necessary): This House regrets the use of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the primary metric of a nation's success.
Finals: Impromptu

Public Forum

2026 NSDA September/October Topic

Resolved: The United States federal government should enact a moratorium on hyperscale data center construction.

Lincoln-Douglas

2026 NSDA September/October Topic

Resolved: Outer space colonization is a moral imperative.

CX / Policy Debate

Resolved: The United States federal government should establish national health insurance in the United States.

Novice Extemporaneous Speaking

Topic Area: TBA

Additional Information

Registration deadlines, entry fees, judging requirements, tournament schedule, Sweepstakes and Awards procedures, Congress procedures, and other tournament-specific information will be posted on the appropriate pages of this Tabroom site.

Tournament management reserves the right to make reasonable scheduling adjustments based on final entry numbers while remaining consistent with applicable TFA rules.

Interested judges should reach out to Julian Erdmann. Julian.T.Erdmann@gmail.com

We look forward to hosting you at Cedar Ridge High School on Saturday, October 17, 2026!

TFA/TSCA Membership Reminder

Coaches, please make sure your TFA/TSCA membership is paid prior to participating in TFA activities. A current membership is required to:

• Host a TFA tournament

• Serve as a voting member at the annual TFA/TSCA Convention

Furthermore, failure to pay your TFA/TSCA membership in a timely manner will result in a fine being assessed to your school.

For IQT hosts:

Deadline to become a TFA/TSCA member without a fine - October 31

Membership paid between November 1 and November 30 - $100 fine

Membership paid between December 1 and December 31 - $200 fine

IQT hosts that pay their TFA/TSCA membership after December 31 will be sanctioned from hosting an IQT the following year.

For non-IQT hosts:

Deadline to become a TFA/TSCA member without a fine - January 31

Membership paid between February 1 and February 15 - $100 fine

Membership paid between February 16 and TFA State Registration - $200 fine

Failure to become a TFA/TSCA member by TFA State Registration will result in the school’s entry for TFA State being dropped.

Ideally, your membership will be completed when you register for the Convention. However, if you are not attending the Convention, please visit the “Join TSCA or Renew membership” button when navigating to the etsca.com website.

IMPORTANT: When completing your membership, you must select “TFA” under Interest Group in order for the membership to be generated on your invoice.

Please take a moment to verify that your membership is completed before hosting, earning points, or participating as a voting member.

Membership Link:https://etsca.com/join/login.asp