The National Circuit

The structure of a tournament and each round is typically contingent on the size and skill of the competitor pool, but most follow the P-S-F structure or Prelims, Semis, Finals.

In any national tournament, there is a preliminary round where all the competitors face off. Each round can range from having (12-20 competitors). From there, it follows a tourney based style, where only a certain number of competitors can break (or move on) to the next round. Typically, this break is the top 6 of the round which moves onto semis, but it can range anywhere from 4-8. 

From there, the top competitors of their prelims round face off against each other in the semi round, and from there, again the top 4-6 competitors break to the final round.

The final round typically consists of the most skilled competitors at the tournament, and from there, the one that ranks the highest is declared the champion of that tournament. 

In larger tournaments like Harvard or NSDA, oftentimes due to the larger competitor pool, they have a quarters round before semis as another break, so instead, they follow a P-Q-S-F structure instead. 

The first type of tournament that competitors in Congress can participate in are invitationals.

Anyone is allowed to participate in an invitational tournament. It doesn’t matter your school or your prestige; as long as you’re a high school student that participates in a debate program, you’re allowed to sign up and compete; they’re called Invitationals for a reason!

Some popular invitationals include tournaments like Harvard, Yale, Cavalier, Princeton, Blue Key, Sunvite, Glenbrooks, etc.

The difficulty of a specific invitational tournament is purely dependent on both the number of entries and the brand name of a tournament; while Yale and Harvard sound like they are on par with each other, Harvard had almost double the number of competitors last year and was renounced by many as the hardest tournament of the year. 

When juggling difficulty, it is important to understand what the competitor pool of the invitational tournament looks like. Larger competitor pools with “famous” people (well-known for their exceptional debate skills) are typically harder to break at. Winning and even breaking at some of these invitationals holds a good amount of merit and are definitely rewarding to put on a resume or college application. These invitationals are typically the most well known, run by a specific university or organization that is meritable. 

The other unique thing about Invitationals is their role in qualifications to the Tournament of Champions or TOC. Oftentimes, depending on the tournament, if you break to a specific round, you may be awarded a TOC bid. We will cover this more expansively later, but keep this in mind as you continue reading the guide. 

While Invitationals are national tournaments, oftentimes, they’re relatively the smallest of the bunch, and many schools don’t participate. This is mainly because of cost; invitationals are typically in-person and require plane flights, hotel rooms, and other expenses that oftentimes make it hard to participate in schools and districts that are generally lower-income. 

However, there are some invitationals that many can participate in online, a notable one being Stanford that only have entry fees. In fact, Equality in Forensics itself has regular invitationals that any student can participate in, free of cost. 

The National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) runs the biggest debate tournament in the country, known as the National Speech and Debate Tournament.

This tournament is the largest by far; last year, it had over 500 individual entries in Congress! Because of that, the NSDA is widely considered to be the most prestigious championship in America. 

The location of the tournament changes every single year, from Phoenix, Arizona to Louisville, Kentucky, the tournament location is everything but staid.

The NSDA features two events in Congress: House and Senate. As a true mock of the actual Congress, this tournament is only the one that follows this structure. 

To qualify for the NSDA in House or Senate, you must place a certain rank at your district competition. The NSDA hosts many district qualifier tournaments all across the country, and the very best get qualified to the National Tournament. 

For House, the structure is dependent on the local organizers of the tournament, but typically, it is the top 6 competitors in the final district House round who qualify. For Senate, it is the top 2 competitors in the final district Senate round who qualify. 

Because Senate is a smaller event (2 competitors per district) than House, Senate follows a prelims, semis, finals structure while House follows a prelims, quarters, semis, finals structure.

The final round for NSDA is typically recorded and the most watched round in Congress; here you can observe the very best debaters in the country. 

Luckily, if you don’t make it at your district tournament, you can qualify at the NSDA Last Chance Qualifier, an online tournament for anyone who wasn’t able qualify at their districts. They feature their own round setup where the top 4 of their elim (semi) rounds get qualified to the National Tournament. 

The Tournament of Champions (TOC) is one of the most competitive and important national champions hosted in America; hosted by the University of Kentucky, the TOC is prestigious for its seriously tough skill level and its unique take on the event of Congress.

The TOC is always hosted at the University of Kentucky. Innovated by Dr. JW Patterson, one of the founding fathers in speech and debate as a high school event, TOC birthed the entire culture of invitationals and revolutionized the very idea of the National Circuit. 

TOC holds one division for Congress, following a Prelims, Semis, Finals break like most conventional tournaments.

The standards for qualifications to TOC are different from NCFL and NSDA in that they aren’t awarded by district competitions. To qualify for the TOC, you need at least 2 TOC Bids (in certain cases, 1 may work). 

A TOC Bid is sort of like a movie theater ticket, where the TOC is the ultimate movie theater. TOC Bids are offered by invitational tournaments, and to receive one, you must break to a certain round in the tournament (quarters, semis, or finals depending on the tournament) to show that you’re capable of competing at TOC. 

For example, let’s take a look at 3 different invitational tournaments and how they offer TOC Bids.

Nova Titan is what is considered a T16 bid, meaning the top 16 competitors receive a bid to the Tournament of Champions. The top 16 competitors is roughly equivalent to making it to the final round at Nova Titan, so finaling at Nova would get you a bid. Nova is rather local and doesn’t have a lot of competitors, so the standards to get a bid are harder since you have to final.

Yale is what is considered a T60 bid, meaning the top 60 competitors receive a bid to the Tournament of Champions. The top 60 competitors is roughly equivalent to making it to the semifinal round at Yale, so semiing at Yale would get you a bid. Yale is a significantly larger tournament than Nova, meaning that the standards to get a bid should be easier, hence why semifinalists get the bid. 

Harvard is what is considered a T120 bid, meaning the top 120 competitors receive a bid to the Tournament of Champions. The top 120 competitors is roughly equivalent to making it to the quarter final round at Harvard, so if you made quarters at Harvard, you get a bid. Harvard is one of the toughest tournaments of the year, with one of the largest competitor pools ever, which is why the top 120 are deserving of a bid.

Check TOC’s list of bids here: (link to TOC bid website) and what invitationals offer them.

Because TOC awards are based on a very specific skill level and a requirement of these two bigs, TOC is generally a harder tournament to qualify for than Nats and NCFL. 

A unique thing about TOC’s style is their heavy emphasis on well-made content. The culture of the tournament is evidence heavy, and judges reward dramatically more on great argumentation than performance. Because of this, TOC allows speeches to be 4 minutes instead of the conventional 3:10, mainly to allow students to delve more into content and round analysis.