(Latest update 11/2)

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.

11/9 MiniScar @ Scarsdale (AKA The ScarVite)

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 Even Littler Bronx Debate CFL at PS 95 in, you guessed it, the Bronx

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 and hanging on to whatever little hearing I have left.

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: American 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

12/7 NYCFL Emily Clemente Memorial @ Chapin

JV - X, OO, JV-OI, V-OI, Dec. Seniors can judge JV divisions.

12/13-15 Ridge

Menick Rating: All Ys, All the Time. This one fits like a comfy old glove. You should be there.

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)

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, PF, and Policy.

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. Unlike some folks, I expect to arrive by car rather than camel.

1/18 NYCFL - Sr. Raimonde Service Tournament (No Trophies) @ Regis/Loyola

All speech, congress.

1/25 Online Policy League Tournament (NSDA Campus)

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.

2/1 CFL @ TBD

All Speech, Congress, POI (Senior Judging) Double Entry.

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

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

PF, LD, CX (Nov and JV), Congress

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.

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.

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 for Hudson Valley folks (and maybe a few others)

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.

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.

March/April (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.

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.

9/13 Lexington JV RR @ NSDA Campus

Get your second-years started online (or on the road to perdition, if you prefer). PF, LD and CX.

Yale

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 @ Regis

JV-X, V-X, JV Prose, V-Prose, Duo (bindered -- the material, not the students), DP, OO, POI (the speaking event, not the Hawaiian side dish). Three rounds, no Finals, round 1 start time 10:30.

NYCFL "Hugh McEvoy" @ Xavier (30 W 16th St)

Dec, Congress JV X, V X, JV Prose, V-Prose, Duo (Memorized), DP, OO (Novice Finals in OI and EX)

NYCFL Bonus Debate Event ONLINE -- Open to non-member schools

JV and V LD and PF.

Menick Rating: Put on the schedule due to (relatively) popular demand, this is becoming a bit of a regular for the league. After all, rounds are rounds and States quals are States quals, and there you are. I would expect that the enormous team of debate tab staff (i.e., me and Frank) will physically join the speech debate staff at Xavier (?)--referred to by one insider as "the clown car of tabroom running like a fire drill at kindergarten recess"--if for no other reason than to keep Catholic Charlie company while he spends the drive down to Manhattan singing along to Genesis (the Bible book, not the rock group).

10/17-19 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.

10/22 NYCFL PF judge training online

Essentially, this is for newcomers. If you already know more than the instructor--a not unlikely possibility--you are free spend the evening searching for Bachelorette spoilers on the dark web, leaving us alone to our own dark webness.

10/25 NYCFL Event @ (AKA NYCFL Sr. Raimonde Service Tournament)

NOTE: NOVICE LD DEBATES THE NSDA NOV-DEC TOPIC. We started this in 2023, so don't get all what's-all-this-then on us now. It's a result of losing the civil disobedience topic (which NYCFL was instrumental in establishing in the first place). If you can't join 'em, beat 'em.

10/25 Online Policy League Tournament (NSDA Campus)

Tim Averill Invitational

Novice and Varsity iterations of PF, CX and LD.

NY CFL event @ Byram Hills

This is the old Monticello MHL Saturday, moved to Armonk with a change of its initials from MHL to CFL. Will the New Yorkers bus up in droves? Last year they drove up in buses, so one never knows, does one?

Brown University Invitational - Virtual on NSDA Campus

Novice and Varisty PF.

Going forward, the powers that brown will look at various possibilities for the 25-26 season. Personally, I hate to see a new tournament die on the vine...