Dear Colleagues,

The International Speech and Debate Initiative (ISDI) is delighted to invite you to our JW Patterson Tournament of Champions Qualifying series, co-sponsored by the TOC and the Harvard Debate Council.

The ISDI TOC Qualifying Tournaments are a series of online tournaments to be held throughout the year with an emphasis on global participation. This tournament, the 1st in the series, will be administered by the Harvard Debate Council. The 2nd tournament will be administered by the University of Kentucky and Saigon South International School, and the 3rd tournament in the series will be administered by the Harvard Debate Council.

TOC qualification describes the process students complete to reach the JW Patterson Tournament of Champions, hosted by the University of Kentucky. Qualification for the Tournament of Champions is reserved for the best public speakers and debaters around the globe. We hope to provide a series of competitions offered at times that will allow students around the globe (American students included) to compete against each other. All tournaments will take place on Friday and Saturday evenings in the Americas and on Saturday and Sunday mornings in Asia.

We look forward to hosting you at this and other ISDI events.

Learn more at idsi.world

Sincerely,

Tripp Rebrovick – Harvard Debate Council

Dave Arnett – University of Kentucky

Tournament Details

· The tournament runs October 23 – October 25, 2026.

o For American time zones, it’s Oct 23 – Oct 24 in the evenings.

o For Asian time zones, it’s Oct 24 – Oct 25 in the mornings.

· The tournament will be conducted online using NSDA Campus (Jitsi).

· We will use tabroom.com as the official tournament management and registration.

· We will offer three divisions of public forum debate – silver varsity, novice, and middle school. The novice division is intended for high school students in their first year of competition. The middle school division is intended for students in the sixth through eighth grade. The public forum topic will be September/October PF Topic (Britain & EU_

· We will offer two divisions of World Schools Debate – juniors and varsity.

· We will offer two speech events – Original Oratory & Dramatic Interpretation.

· All divisions will have four preliminary rounds with single flights. Speech events will break to a final round. WSD will clear to semifinals. PF will clear to quarterfinals. The quarterfinals through finals will be single-flighted.

· All divisions will use National Speech & Debate Association time format and rules.

· Ordinarily, students must attend the same school to compete as a team. However, we will accept entries from clubs or other debate organizations provided that the schools represented do not otherwise have a debate team.

Schedule

ISDI Draft Schedule - October

Entry Fees

Public Forum - $100.00 per team

World Schools Debate - $125.00 per team

Oratory - $50.00 per entry

Dramatic Interpretation - $50.00 per entry

Payment Information

For any payment-related questions, please contact our staff at hdcit@harvarddebate.org. Step-by-step instructions to check your balance on Tabroom are available here.

Electronic payment can be made through tabroom. After your entry is complete, you will be able to click a pay electronically button from the money tab.

Event Information

All events are governed by the rules in the tournament procedures documents posted on Tabroom. Coaches, judges, and competitors should familiarize themselves with these documents prior to the start of the tournament. Please note that any sources read or cited as evidence in competition must be available upon request.

Public Forum Debate

September/October 2025 NSDA Topic | 4-4-3-4-4-3-3-3-3-2-2 Speech Times | 3 Minutes of Preparation per Team

World Schools Debate

Mix of Impromptu and Prepared Topics | 8-8-8-8-8-8-4-4 Speech Times |No In-Round Preparation

Jr World Schools Debate

Mix of Impromptu and Prepared Topics | 4-4-4-4-4-4-2-2 Speech Times |No In-Round Preparation

Speech Events

Maximum Total of 2 Speech Events per Competitor

Bid Allocation

This tournament serves as a semifinals bid in Silver PF in the Open Division and a Finals Bid in WSD in the Open Division. The bid for Speech events is determined by the number of entries. Details on that can be found in the UK Speech Events Qualification Requirements.

Tournament Schedule

The Tournament Schedule can be found here. The tournament runs Friday/Saturday night for American students and Saturday/Sunday morning for Asia students.

All participants must adhere to check in time to ensure the rounds start on time!

General Tournament Rules

Unaffiliated/Independent Entries

Without objection from school officials, unaffiliated entries are welcome in all tournaments. Unaffiliated entries, however, are only allowed from schools that are not attending the tournament. Students from schools that are attending are ineligible for unaffiliated status. Unaffiliated entries must create an account and must provide contact information. The preferred name for creating an account is to use the school name followed by the word "unaffiliated." You may also use the student's last name followed by the word "independent." Ordinarily, students must attend the same school to compete as a team. However, we will accept entries from clubs or other debate organizations provided that the schools represented do not otherwise have a debate team or object. TOC qualification in the event of a bid is determined by TOC rules.

Judge Requirements

All judges provided by schools must be qualified, which at a minimum means a high school diploma.

In the event of observers, observers should in no way interfere with or disrupt the normal operation of rounds. Failure to abide by this may result in penalties, including fines and/or removal from the tournament. Communication or conduct which engenders ill-will and disrespect for forensics ultimately reduces the utility of forensics for all who participate in it and should, therefore, be avoided.

Judges may not simultaneously judge at any other tournaments. If we discover that you are doing so, we will remove you from the judge pool and notify the other tournament and fined by tournament officials.

Any complaints about judge qualifications must be addressed to the tournament director prior to or immediately after the competition involved. All tournament directors have been authorized to impose penalties against schools whose judges do not appear for the rounds to which they have been assigned.

Online Technology Policies: Recording, Observers, Platforms

Recording: For the privacy and protection of students and other participants, any recording of speeches is prohibited, with the exception that students are permitted to record their own speeches.

Observers: Unaffiliated observers are not permitted. Only registered students, coaches, and parents of registered students may observe.

Alternative Platforms: For the safety of all participants, no one (judge, coach, student) may switch their rounds to an alternative video platform outside of Jitsi. If anyone suggests moving to an alternative platform, please alert tournament personnel immediately. Judges who move to a separate platform will be fined as if they did not judge their rounds and removed from the tournament.

Judge Video: The tournament believes that competitors deserve to be able to see their judges as much as possible. Accordingly, to the maximum extent possible, the cameras of competitors and judges should be on while a student is speaking and during RFDs. Brief pauses are understandable. To the extent needed, cameras can be off to enhance streaming quality.

Entry Procedures

You must enter via this website, isdioctober.tabroom.com. The web site will begin accepting your entries shortly. You are responsible for entering your school and student information, and also for getting the spelling and event information correct. If you are entering as an independent or unaffiliated entry, you must create an account and provide appropriate contact information. Students are not allowed to be contacts as there must be a designated parent, coach, or school/club official. After you have entered the information, you should verify your entry and print out or download a copy of your invoice.

The deadline for entries isWednesday, October 21, 2025 at 12:00pm ET.

Paying Fees and Completing Registration

All registration will be conducted electronically. This means that you must confirm your entries and judges and pay your fees.All tournament fees are locked by Wednesday, October 21, 2025.

Tabroom will have a button that you can access through your school account to confirm your information is correct. It will be activated between 7am ET and 7PM ET on Friday October 23, 2025. Even if you have no changes to your entry, you must click the button in order for your entries to be scheduled into the tournament.

*STUDENTS FROM SCHOOLS THAT DO NOT COMPLETE REGISTRATION WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO COMPETE.*