Northern Lights District Qualifier

for the 2022 National Tournament

Debate Qualifier Information

2021 Northern Lights NSDA Debate Qualifier

December 7-8, 2021 - St. Francis HS

Greetings Debate Coaches,

On behalf of the Northern Lights District Committee, it is my pleasure to invite you and your team to the 2021 NSDA District Qualifier in Debate, held this year IN PERSON at St. Francis High School on Tuesday, December 7 and Wednesday, December 8. Please use the ‘register’ tab at http://northernlights.tabroom.com to complete your registration. 

Important tournament information is listed below. Please let me know if you have any questions. 

1. Registration: We are using Tabroom.com as our online host for the NL District Tournament Series. Registration is now open at http://northernlights.tabroom.com. Remember that all entries must be submitted no later than November 30 at 8pm. 

2. Chapter Dues/Membership Requirements: You will not be able to register on Tabroom.com unless your school has paid its annual chapter dues to the NSDA. Please take care of this promptly so that you have no difficulties in entering. In addition, all students must be on record as members of the NSDA seven days prior to the tournament. These two items are non-negotiable as they are dictated by the national office. Please let me know ASAP if you need help with this.

3. Judges: We ask that all teams please submit their entries as soon as possible so we can best plan for hired judges and space. Remember that all schools are required to furnish TWO judges for the tournament. We also strongly encourage schools to enter their Head Coach as a judge whenever possible in an effort to provide students the most experienced and highest quality judge pool possible. 

Also, please include any notes about your judges when registering them (i.e. "only PF" or "can judge both PF and LD" or if there are any school conflicts other than your team). You can update this information by clicking on the "Judges" tab on your main account screen. Select the judge you want to edit, then scroll down to the "notes" box.  

5. Tournament Format: The NSDA has determined that the ‘double-down’ method is no longer an approved option. Therefore, based on coaches feedback, PF and LD will run four guaranteed preliminary rounds followed by a single-elimination bracket featuring entries with winning records. In LD elimination rounds, a coin flip is used to determine sides unless the pairing has previously met. PF always flips for slides/position. Elimination round brackets will not be reseeded to avoid pairing entries from the same school. 

Policy will run a round-robin tournament, entries permitting. More information can be found starting on page 76 of the NSDA HS Unified Manual. 

Tentative Schedule

Tuesday, December 7:

Registration: 3:00-3:30pm

Round 1: 3:45pm

Round 2: 5:00pm

Dinner Break: 6:00-6:30pm

Round 3: 6:30pm

Round 4: 7:45pm

Elimination Round Announcement: 9:00pm or ASAP

Wednesday, December 8:

*Semifinals: 4:00pm

Finals/Third Place Round Announcement: 5:30pm

Finals/Third Place Round: 5:45pm

Awards: 7:00pm or sooner

*Note: If Quarterfinals are necessary (i.e. 5+ entries qualify for elimination rounds), the following schedule will be used:

Quarterfinals: 4:00pm

Semifinals: 5:30pm

Finals/Third Place: 7:00pm

Awards: 8:00pm or sooner

6. Fees: In addition to paying your NSDA annual membership fee, please mail a check made to Northern Lights to cover your entry fees. Each student is $12.00 ($24 per PF team). There is also a $100 school fee. Fees are frozen on Nov. 30 at 8pm. Please address letters to me:

Moorhead High School

Attn. Andrew Tichy

2300 4th Ave. S.

Moorhead, MN 56560

7. Qualifiers: Because we are now a Level 3 District, we will qualify three PF teams and three LD entries to Nationals, as long as there are at least 10 entries per event.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions. See you in December!

Thank you,

Andrew Tichy

Northern Lights District Chair