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(Latest update 8/17)
A marginally agnostic (albeit occasionally opinionated) snapshot of tournaments in the extended NYC/Hudson Valley region, and in some other extended regions too numerous to mention, unless otherwise noted.
Access a
Google Calendar of Northeastern (and some other) debate:
2024-25 Season
9/7 NYCFL Moderators Meeting @Iona, 9:00 a.m.
A host of local Catholic coaches assembles every year to decide this year's plan to convert the rest of the forensic community to the True Faith. So far, their efforts have been in vain, although they can lay claim to a couple of half-hearted exorcisms.
Menick Rating: It's like the pilgrimage to Camino de Santiago without the walking. Nowadays there seems to be an option for the faint of heart to attend virtually, but those of us made of sterner stuff will be there in person to eat Catholic Charlie's bagels.
9/14 Lexington JV RR @ NSDA Campus Get your second-years started online (or on the road to perdition, if you prefer). PF, LD and CX.
NYCFL @ ? JV - X, V-X, JV Prose, V-Prose, Duo (Bindered — the material, not the students), DP, OO
9/20-22 Yale
Debate, IEs, Parli, more Congress than you can shake a stick at. In other words, a vast smorgasbord of forensic delights, minus the herring. Then again, they do have a Shake Shack (also minus the herring).
Yale is for many the traditional seasonal opener. Last year some of it was in beautiful downtown New Haven, and some of it was on beautiful downtown NSDA Campus. The word this year is that it is all once again live and in-person.
Menick Rating: Elihu Who? Plunked down discordantly in the middle of New Haven, Yale is so quintessential a college campus that you can't imagine yourself not going there. Unfortunately for you, however, for their part Yale has abolutely no difficulty imagining yourself not going there, and the sooner yourself comes to this realization, the better. I mean, has yourself looked at yourself's Grade Point Average lately? But don't worry: The College of Hard Knocks is always looking for new matriculants.
NYCFL @ ? Dec, Congress
JV X, V X, JV Prose, V-Prose, Duo (Memorized), DP, OO (Novice Finals in OI and EX)
10/5 NYCFL Bonus Debate Event ONLINE — Open to non-member schools
Last year we filled up this empty weekend with JV and V LD and PF. This year we will attempt to do likewise.
Menick Rating: Put on the schedule due to popular demand (sorta), the question is, what've we got to lose? After all, rounds are rounds and States quals are States quals, and there you are.
10/18-20 The NYC Invitational @ The Big Bronx High School of Big Science, AKA Big Bronx High level Debate, Congress and Speech. Welcome to the National Circuit and the bloody hunt for TOC bids, or the hunt for bloody TOC bids, or however you want to put it. Mr. Softee usually shows up at some point over the weekend to make the whole bloody thing worthwhile.
10/23 NYCFL PF judge training online Details to come. Essentially, this is for newcomers. If you already know more than the instructor, you are free spend the evening searching for Bachelorette spoilers on the dark web, leaving us alone to our own dark webness.
10/26 NYCFL Event @ Bronx Science
Speech events: Dec, JV X, V X, JV Prose, V-Prose, Duo (Memorized), DP, OO, POICongressDebate: LD and PF (Nov, JV and Varsity divisions--probably a lot of first timers in those novice divisions).
NOTE: Novice LD debates the NSDA Nov-Dec topic.
Menick Rating: Forensicians, start your engines! You've got to start somewhere, and I recommend here. Or you can wait until you're really really really ready, some time next July, when everyone else has graduated and started packing to go off to their safety schools. Where's your sense of adventure, you prat?
10/26 Online Policy League Tournament (NSDA Campus)
Novice, JV and Open Divisions. (See the tournament on tabroom.com for more info.)
And if you're interested: here is a link to the novice packet.
10/25-26 Tim Averill Invitational
AKA The One Strip of Bacon Invitational, AKA The Home of the Albino Bagel.
Novice and Varsity iterations of PF, CX and LD. Menick Rating: Are we there yet? This used to be live in Manchester-By-The-Sea. But nowadays its virtual on NSDA-Campus-By-The-Computer. So it goes.
11/2 NY CFL event @ Byram Hills
Speech events: JVX,VX,OO, JV Prose, V Prose, Duo, Dec, DPCongressDebate: LD and PF, Nov, JV and Varsity divisions.
This is the old Monticello MHL Saturday, moved to Armonk with a change of its initials. Will the New Yorkers bus up in droves? Last year they drove up in buses, so one never knows, does one?
11/2-3 Brown University Invitational - Virtual on NSDA Campus Novice and Varisty PF.
Menick Rating: Not a bad start in 2023... We can build on the decent numbers from our first stab at it.
Novice and Open Divisions.
11/9 MiniScar @ Scarsdale
The latest version of the Good Old Scarswegian Tournament is now a one-day in-person event. Nov and JV LD and PF, plus JVOI, JVEX and Dec.
Menick Rating: Sigh... I'm quite fond of the new 1-dayer, but one does yearn for the Good Old Days.
11/9 Online Policy League Tournament (NSDA Campus)
11/16 Little Bronx Debate CFL
All your usual CFL debate divisions: Nov/JV/V LD/PF.
11/23 Little Lex (Or Wee Sma' Lex, as they say in Glasgow, although to my knowledge, no one in Glascow has ever said it) All debate events, with V, JV and Novice divisions.
Menick Rating: It's worth a little trip to little Lexington to debate a little at the Little Lex. Tired of debating the same old New Yorkers? Here's your chance to break out.
11/23-24 Villiger
The NYCFL's annual cloning in Pennsylvania, run by Pennsylvania Jeff and His Associates, including Catholic Charlie.
Menick Rating: "I once spent a year in Philadelphia, I think it was on a Sunday." -- W.C. Fields. Actually, I kind of like Philadelphia. Great museums. Great food. The fantastic flower show in the Spring. Last time I went to Villiger it was the 90s. Benjamin Franklin was still the tournament director, if I remember correctly. Everything was tabbed by hand, and we spent the entire bus ride home finding errors in the published results. Meanwhile, I caught the flu, got sick as a dog, and permanently lost 10 percent of the hearing in my right ear. I haven't been back since, but I know things are vastly improved under PJ&HA. It's just that these days I prefer the Wee Sma.
12/6-8 Princeton PF and LD, all speech events and Congress. Not to mention dueling carolers in the streets, a grilled cheese restaurant, a giant Christmas tree, and bathrooms in McCosh that are so cold that you'll pee ice, but then again, some of us already pee ice, so maybe that's non-unique.
Menick Rating: Princeton is a preppy little oasis in an otherwise seemingly endless desert of pure New Jersey. The drive along Route 1 is worth the whole trip: America road culture in all its repetitious glory. Oh, yeah, BTW, the tournament is really good.
12/6-7 NY Fall Faceoff @ Mamaroneck CX: Open Varsity and Packet Novice Menick Rating: It took Kaz 7 years to correctly pronounce Mamaroneck. What more do you need to know?
12/7 CFL @ ? JV - X, OO,
JV-OI, V-OI, Dec. Seniors can judge JV divisions. Menick Rating: This tournament was once Charlie Sloat's lame excuse for not joining the rest of us in Princeton, but last year he changed his tune. (Actually, if you've ever seen his basic car playlist, you know that "changing his tune" has never happened; how much Genesis can YOU listen to?)
12/13-15 Ridge N and V PF, LD and Policy. Parli. Late elims will be held virtually on Sunday. In 2023 the tabroom included Palmer and Page. People spent most of their time telling Menick not to break anything.
Menick Rating: All Ys, All the Time. This one fits like a comfy old glove.
12/21 The KFL Kristmas Klassik AKA The CFL Christmas Chlassich AKA The Venial SinVitational @ Regis LD and PF, Novice, Intermediate and Varsity (if we have the numbers), with all the returning (homecoming? homecame? housebroken?) Regis alums aiming to go wassailing after, if not during. They also have Congress at this event, which, needless to say, is where I spend all my time.
Menick Rating: 1 Our Father, 5 Hail Marys, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree: Since the olden days people have come from miles around, some even from a few feet around, for this one, with enough happy-homecoming Regis judges to stuff a goose, and, in the judges' lounge, enough goose to stuff a Regi. Best way I know to end up the first half of the season, but then again, it's the only way I know to end up the first half of the season, so I may not be that good a judge.
12/21 Online Policy League Tournament (NSDA Campus)
Novice, JV and Open Divisions.
1/10-11 Newark
PF, Policy and LD, Nov and Varsity
Beware of possible virtual final rounds on Sunday.
Menick Rating: Happy New Year! One of my old favorites. One of the first tournaments I ever tabbed, and a solid entry on the Northeast calendar. Why wouldn't you go? Best rice and beans at any tournament ever.
1/11 Chaminade All speech events.
Long Island faces off with NYC, and maybe Jersey a little bit. Archdioceses as archenemies, which is as Pope Alexander VI (Lucretia Borgia's father) intended it to be when he set this one up in 1501.
Menick Rating: The only tournament on the calendar where, when they give you chamins, you get to make chaminade.
1/18-20 Bigle X
Big, worthy event, with TOC bids up the proverbial wazoo. V and Nov LD and PF, plus various Policy divisions.
Saturday through Sunday for everyone except Policy, which goes to Monday--or Tuesday, or maybe Wednesday. One never knows, does one?
Menick Rating: A northeast classic. I was virtual for this in '24, for reasons I can't recall, so I'm hoping to make a big return splash in '25. Viva Lex Vegas!
1/18 NYCFL Sr. Raimonde Memorial @ Regis/Loyola (?) All speech, congress.
1/25 Online Policy League Tournament (NSDA Campus)
Novice, JV and Open Divisions.
1/24-26 Columbia ONLINE @NSDA Campus
We are no longer involved in this one, but presumably this will once again be their weekend. Good luck to them.
1/25 Ridge
Their other tournament, with speech and debate. Rumored to be run on SpeechWire: Oh, the humanity.
1/24-26 Emory
Never been, never gonna go.
1/25 CFL @ Fordham (?)
All Speech and Congress.
1/31-2/2 Pennsbury
Debate, Speech and Congress. It's near Trenton; you can practically walk there from NYC. A well-run tournament with good numbers and various TOC bids. You really should give it a try.
U Penn 2/7-9
All speech events, congress, plus numerous divisions of all debate events, in beautiful sorta downtown Philadelphia. Room allocations can be tight, meaning strict caps, so sign up early.
Menick Rating: 4 Cheesesteaks I love a tournament on a college campus with nice services nearby for food and whatnot. And they have the best hangout building I know of, although the old creperie is long gone. There is still a food court in the basement, however; how much of it is open during the weekend is variable, so don't count on it for the whole tournament. Fortunately the cookie/ice cream place is usually operating, and what more do you need?
2/8 The Legendary Re Ducks, AKA the Bronx Winter Local, in association with the oldest established permanent floating Bump tournament (in New York) @ Bronx Science
Menick rating: Better than you'd expect. Lots of people are away at Penn, but those who brave the forces of Bronx nature for this one have a good time and a good tournament. If you're not in Philadelphia, you should be here.
And I, for one, will be melding good old Bump into this weekend, at least in my own mind, as there's no place else on the calendar for it this year, and I just can't let it go. After all, if it wasn't for Hendrick Hudson's Malcolm A. Bump, along with Bronx's Richard Sodikow, founders of the Midhudson League, who knows what debate would be like in the region.
2/15-17 Harvard
All speech and debate.
If you choose to go there, shut up and don't complain about it. It's your own damned fault.
2/28-3/1 Lakeland (NSDA Campus)
Debate events for the late of season, with a semis bid in Policy and a finals bid in PF.
Novice and Varsity in all debate events, plus some MS stuff thrown in for seasoning. (There may also be grammar school, preschool and prenatal divisions of which I am blissfully unaware.)
Menick Rating: There's worse places you could be this weekend. Essentially, the last chance to get a NY States debate half qual, not to mention good old-fashioned debate experience. Given that it's virtual and they don't charge an arm and a leg, why not?
2/28-3/1 Districts/Regionals @ Pelham (and maybe some online?)
Get a full qual for Regionals in one swell foop. Or qualify for NSDA Finals, if you're aiming in that direction. The bind moggles.
Regarding Regionals: If you get a qual here, you go to States. Only one Regionals qual and you're in. But if you already had a half qual in that event, by debating at Regionals and not qualifying, you lose it.
You cannot attempt to get a qual at Regionals in a second event if you are already qual'd in one event. You forfeit that qual if you so let your greed run away with you.
(NFL Districts also runs, or at least crawls, here simultaneously.)
Menick Rating: I dunno. Once upon a time I was the world's worst district chair. Now I'm just a dim memory, even to me.
3/8 (or thereabouts) Last Chance NYSFL Speech @ Somewhere
I don't follow this closely, but if you do, you know exactly where it is and what it is about. The definition of "last chance" according to the NYSFL: Regionals is the last chance. Except for the Iona Last Chance, which is actually the "Last Last Chance." The day after the Last Last Chance is the Mickey Cullen at Regis, which is the "Really Last Last Chance This Time We Really Mean it Last Chance." Except for Mini-Stuy concurrent with CFL Grands, if it exists, which is, I gather, pretty much, the "Drop Dead Super Serious There's No Turning Back Now Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here Last Chance." (Unless they decide to have another tournament the following week, tentatively named the NYCFL Overkill. I wouldn't put it past them.)
3/15 CFL Grands @ Stuyvesant
Qualify for CatNats in all the NCFL events, 3 entries allowed in each. Single-entry only in Speech. Lots of judges needed: 1-1 in PF and LD, 1-3 in speech.
Menick Rating: You'll feel holy just thinking about it. I know I do. This is the final NYCFL tournament, our culminating event transforming our competitors into colleagues vying for tin at CatNats. We skim the cream from the cream, so to speak.
4/5-6 NYSFL Finals @ The Bronx High School of Science
Or, as we New Yorkers like to call it, States. All sorts of speech and debate at all sorts of levels. And a tip of the hat to Bronx Science for opening their doors for yet another forensics rowdydow.
Menick Rating: 4 Dinosaurs Yes, it's old-fashioned debating to random judges, but if you can't adapt here, I'm sorry, but you're really not developing a whole important skill set that forensics is supposed to encourage. Bone up on your judge adaptation skills, my friend.
4/12-15 NDCA Finals
4/26-28 TOC AKA Schadenfreude Weekend for those of us who do not attend. You have to qualify for this one at tournaments throughout the year that are designated as having TOC
quals. Congress, LD, PF, Policy. There is also some speech, but I don't pay much attention to that. There's even middle school events a couple of weeks later, but that idea is so bizarre to me--"Let's send all our sixth graders to Kentucky" sounds vaguely Swiftian--that I'll leave you to sort that out on your own. There are also now also-ran divisions, or at least one also-ran division for PF. It's nice to know that not qualifying for TOC no longer prevents you from qualifying for TOC...
Menick Rating: It's a lost cause. I give up. You're going to go, or not, regardless of anything I say here. It's your money; you're free to squander it as you wish. Given the history of the schools at this event, you've probably got plenty to squander.
Memorial Day Weekend -- CatNats in Chicago
Back in that toddlin' town for the second year in a row, offering all your favorite speech
and debate activities. NCFL Finals (heaven—literally—forbid you refer to it as CatNats within earshot) takes place every year over the Memorial Day holiday. You have to qualify for this at our local NYCFL Grands.
Menick Rating: Well, it's CatNats—er, I mean NCFL Finals. You know what you're getting into. Can you say judge adaptation? For three judges? That's the name of the game, young padawan.
6/15-10 NSDA Finals, Des Moines
I've got nothing against it. I think the word we're looking for here is disinterested.
2025-6 Season
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