The high school speech and debate world has been rocked by the cancellation of national tournaments due to COVID-19. As promised, we’re responding by offering online tournaments to wrap up the season. We’re excited to announce details today.

What to Expect

Tournaments will take place over Skype using audio-only. They’ll unfold over 3-4 days, with 6 preliminary rounds followed by single elimination outrounds on the final day.

All three tournaments will offer Lincoln-Douglas Value and Team Policy debate. (We won’t be offering parliamentary or individual events at these tournaments.)

Ace Peak Tournaments

Our first few tournaments will use brand new value and policy resolutions, both of which will be announced tomorrow on the blog. There will be 6 preliminary rounds and full outrounds going all the way to finals for both TP and LD.

Ace Peak x Ziggy

We’ve teamed up with Ziggy Online Debate to provide Stoa and NCFCA students with a rigorous online national tournament series. This series consists of a 4-day online qualifying tournament and a 4-day online national championship tournament.

There will be 6 preliminary rounds and full outrounds going all the way to finals for both TP and LD. Both tournaments will use the current league topics to help students give this season a proper sendoff.

Ace Peak Debut Challenge (for all debaters)

April 30-May 2

This tournament uses new resolutions that will be announced on the blog tomorrow, giving you four weeks to prepare.

The Online Qualifier (for Stoa Debaters)

May 6-9

This tournament uses resolutions from the current Stoa season. It is hosted in collaboration with Ziggy Online Debate.

The Online Qualifier (for NCFCA Debaters)

May 13-16

This tournament uses the resolutions from the current NCFCA season. It is hosted in collaboration with Ziggy Online Debate.

Not League Specific

These tournaments are not league-sanctioned or league-affiliated. That means two things for you.

First, these tournaments use their own rule sets, which were written from the ground up for online tournaments. The rules are on our Tournament Resources page; you’ll want to look them over since they vary in some ways from what you’re used to. The main things, like the timing of speeches, are the same.  

Second, any student can compete in any tournament. We encourage Stoa competitors to join the NCFCA-themed qualifier, and vice versa. While we won’t be hosting an NSDA-themed tournament (yet), NSDA students are invited to compete as well. 

Nothing can possibly replace a week of in-person competition with the greatest competitors in the country. We won’t even try. But we embrace the opportunity to continue competing in speech & debate during these historic times.

Resolutions for the Debut Challenge will be released on the blog tomorrow (4/1) at 10am CST.