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Welcome to the 2026 Gate City Invitational Tournament!

This year, Gate City is co-hosted by Pocatello and Highland's Debate Teams. The tournament will be physically held at Pocatello High School on November 13th and 14th. We look forward to seeing you! Our tournament seeks to provide a low-cost ($6 per person in an entry), high-quality experience for coaches, competitors, and judges.

Speech On Friday, November 13th

This year, all IHSAA speech events will be offered except Panel Discussion and with an adaption to typical Radio. This includes ADS, CA, DI, Duo, Extemp, HI, Impromptu, Info, OO, POI, Retold, and Sales, along with the addition of Duo Podcasting in place of standard radio. All offered speech events will be an open division, with three rounds and finals. Double entry is allowed, but no competitor may enter two draw events. As per tradition and as a way to encourage novice to compete in open speech, the top novice competitor in every speech event will be recognized as the "Top Novice."

Friday November 13th Schedule

Speech Friday Schedule

Check in: 2:30pm-3:00pm

Opening Assembly (Cafeteria)-3:10pm

Judges Meeting (Library)-3:20pm

Speech Round 1: 4:00pm-5:30pm

Speech Round 2: 5:30-7:00pm (Draw at 5:15pm)

Speech Round 3: 7:00pm-8:30pm (Draw at 6:45pm)

Final Round: 8:30pm

Debate On Saturday, November 14th

This year, we will be offering Novice, Junior Varsity, and Varsity divisions in LD and PF. World Schools Debate will be offered in Novice and Varsity divisions. If there are fewer than 20 entries in any division, then we may collapse divisions. The Debate portion of the tournament is a round robin competition--there will be five prelims, with awards going to the top 8 in each event. We will be offering an open division in Congressional Debate. Congress will have three general sessions. The top 8 in each chamber will receive awards, as will the top novice in each chamber. JV is defined as a student in their second year of competition and has attended two tournaments. A student who has previously competed, but is picking up a new event, is not a novice. Novice is anybody that is in their first year of competition OR is in their second year of competition but has only ever attended one tournament (email clappta@sd25.us or christro@sd25.us for further inquiries regarding JV / novice competitor eligibility).

Saturday Schedule

PF/LD Debate Schedule (Saturday)

Check in: 8:15-8:30am

Debate Round 1: 8:45am-10:45am

Debate Round 2: 10:45am-12:45pm

Debate Round 3: 12:45pm-2:45pm

Debate Round 4: 2:45pm- 4:45

Debate Round 5: 4:45pm-6:45pm

Awards: Following the end of round 5 tabulation

World Schools Debate Schedule

Check in: 8:15-8:30am

Debate Round 1: 8:45- 10:00 (Prepared Worlds Topic #1: topic tbd.)

Debate Round 2: 10:10-11:30 (Prepared Worlds Topic #1: topic tbd)

Debate Round 3: 12:00 -2:15 (Impromptu Prep + Round)

Debate Round 4: 2:30- 4:45 (Impromptu Prep + Round)

Debate Round 5: 5:00pm-6:15pm (Prepared Worlds Topic #2: tbd.)

Awards: Following the end of round 5 tabulation

Congress Schedule

Check in: 8:15-8:30am

Congress Session 1: 8:45am-12:15pm (Includes session 1 P.O. elections + Setting Docket for all three sessions)

Congress Session 2: 12:45pm-3:55pm (Includes session 2 P.O. elections)

Congress Session 3: 4:25pm-6:35pm (Includes session 3 P.O. elections)

Awards: Following the end of session 3/round 5 tabulation

Sign up soon as events may be dropped/combined if they don't get enough entries. Space in speech is extremely limited!

Congress Docket
The docket will be released on October 12th. If your students would like to submit legislation, please email the bills, amendments, or resolutions to clappta@sd25.us by Monday, October 5th for consideration.

Judges

Obligations

Judges are essential for running our tournament. Schools MUST bring the required number of judges to this tournament, paying judge fines is not a replacement for fulfilling your judge obligations. Schools need to bring 1 judge for every 5 speech entries, 5 congress entries, 4 LD/PF entries, and 2 WSD entries, or portion thereof. One judge may not cover multiple debate obligations as they will run concurrently.

Schools that show up without enough judges to meet their obligations will be required to drop entries until they are covered. No Exceptions.

Judge Certification

ALL Judges are required to have completed the relevant Level 1 Judging Accreditation Courses offered by the NSDA:
(Friday Judges) Level 1: Intro to Judging Speech - https://www.speechanddebate.org/learn/courses/level-1-intro-to-judging-speech/

(Debate Judges) Level 1: Intro to Judging Debate - https://www.speechanddebate.org/learn/courses/intro-to-judging-debate/

(Congress Judges) Level 1: Intro to Judging Congress - https://www.speechanddebate.org/learn/courses/intro-to-judging-congress/

(Friday AND/OR Saturday Judges) Level 1: Intro to Impartial Judging - https://www.speechanddebate.org/learn/courses/level-1-intro-to-impartial-judging/

Online Ballots

All judging/ballots will be done online at this tournament. That means all judges that are entered by a school must:
1) Have access to an electronic device that can connect to the internet and use the tabroom website,
2) Have a tabroom account that is linked to their judge profile with a valid phone number listed, and
3) Be approved for online judging by the coach that is bringing them to the tournament.

Judges Lounge/Tabroom Food

The Judges Lounge and Tabroom will be provided with 3 meals, dinner on Friday, and then small grab-and-go breakfast and lunch on Saturday. Due to Saturday's early finish time for judges (7:15pm) we will not be providing dinner.

Host Notes

Location

Pocatello High School
325 N Arthur Ave, Pocatello, ID 83201

Maps

We will provide physical maps with team folders at the check-in table. An electronic version can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cS0HAVhHwZOecyHPMZNgxiz1zBDBpANr/view?usp=sharing

Concessions

Concessions will be offered, students and teams are encouraged to bring cash for various food, beverages, and snacks.