MS Qualification

Middle school debaters must qualify to the State tournament and there are strict entry limits.

The Middle School State Tournament offers Policy (CX), Lincoln-Douglas (LD), Extemporaneous Speaking (EX), and Original Oratory (OO). 

There are three ways to qualify: through your program's district tournament, by placing at an regular season invitational tournament, or through the school’s automatic entry exemption.

1. District Tournaments: School districts (primary public school programs) choose how to run their own tournaments and ultimately select who qualifies to state. However, the overall number of qualifiers is set by the state. Traditionally, districts are allowed to qualify ~15% of their total entries (larger districts will qualify more students). District coordinators are responsible for monitoring entries.

2. Invitational Tournaments: Schools (primarily independent programs) may attend regular tournaments during the season. All entries that place (earned an award) at these tournaments are considered qualified to State. Traditionally, invitational tournaments do not award more than ~15% of their entries.

3. Automatic School Entry Exemption: If a school fails to qualify through the district or invitational process, they are still quality one entry per event. This automatic entry does not grant additional entries for schools who already qualified students and is intended to support the growth of new and emerging programs.

The total number of entries allowed at the State tournament is limited to the rooms we have available at the host site. It's possible that some districts/programs don't use their allotted space, in which case we will do our best to accommodate additional waitlisted/standby entries.

The intent for entry limits, besides what can fit in the host school, is that it is the top percentage of a program, and/or those who have demonstrated excellence through wins. The rule of thumb is that 15-20% of a program qualifies for state.