Lack of institutional support to guide the process of tournament registration can make attending tournaments very overwhelming. As small school debaters, we wrote this article to guide the process of finding judges, paying tournament fees, and covering transportation and housing. We also included various tips throughout on how to cut down exorbitant costs to ensure greater access to tournaments.

1. Fulfilling Judge Obligations

Finding Judges 

Ideally, judges should be found around a month to half a month before the tournament, or as soon as you know you’re attending the tournament. It’s best to check the specific tournament’s Tabroom page for information on when judge obligations are due. There are various ways to find judges to fulfill your obligation for tournaments. Small school and independent debaters most frequently use various Facebook debate groups, particularly the High School Lincoln Douglas (HSLD), High School Policy Debate, and National Debate Coaches Association groups. 

Once you join the group(s), you can broadcast a judging request by creating a post in the group(s). Below is a simple template for a judging post:

Hi! [School Name] is looking for a judge to cover [Judging obligation, usually a specific # of rounds] at [Tournament Name, (Tournament Dates)]. Please DM me if you’re available, thank you!

This is a very simple template that lets everyone in the group know you’re looking for a judge. Most times, it’s good to also specify where the tournament is and whether it’s online or in person. If the tournament is in person, you should also consider whether you’re willing to cover for the judge’s transportation and housing fees if they are not from the area. People will clarify in their post that they’re looking for someone who preferably has housing and transport covered. 

Some tournaments may allow “split obligations”. This means that a judge that is entered for another school may also judge for you, even if you are from a different school. For example, if a judge is in for 3 rounds for School A, they may also be in for 3 rounds at School B. To split a judge, you must email the tournament after working out logistics with the judge you want to hire so the tournament director can make this change on their end.

Verifying Judges

Once potential judges reach out to you, it’s important to verify them to ensure . Things to keep an eye out for:

• Does the judge have a paradigm? Most judges, including lay judges, who judge at circuit tournaments usually have paradigms describing their preferences and experience in the activity. 
• Does the judge have a judging record? Past judging experience can verify that your judge is a real person and has judged tournaments before. 
• Have they judged for anyone you know? Another way to verify is through your community: coaches, friends, and any other fellow competitors you may know.
  

Entering Judges

When you are ready to enter your judge into a tournament, you need to obtain either your judge’s Tabroom email or full name. You should give this information to a school coach if they are entering this information for you. If you plan on entering this information yourself, follow the steps below:

1. On Tabroom, click on your account and click on the institution you are competing under on the right panel.
2. If this judge has never judged for your institution before:

1. Click on “judges” and “Add a new judge” under “Judge Roster” on the right panel.
2. Once you have inputted your judge’s information, click save and return to the Tournaments page of your institution.

1. To enter your judge in a tournament, click the tournament name under “Existing Tournament Entries.” 
2. In most cases, tournaments will have a bright red “Judges” tab if you have not fulfilled your obligation. Click on the “Judges” tab and click on the category in which you are competing/entering a judge for on the right.
3. Select your judge from the “Add a Judge!” from the panel on the right.
4. Make sure you input the correct number of rounds your judge is obligated for. This information can be found on most tournament invite documents.
5. Click “save” and you should be done! 
   

2. Fees and Payment

Entry Fees

Tournaments can have up to three kinds of fees (barring drop fees, late registration fees, and judge fees): 

• Entry Fee – money that you pay to attend and register as a team (e.g., $70 for 1 VLD entry)
• School Fee – money that your school pays to attend the tournament. This does not scale depending on the number of people registered. If you are an independent, the school fee is your fee. Not all tournaments have this charge.
• Per Person Fee – money that you pay to cover the people you bring to the tournament. This includes yourself and often your judge and coach. This fee is used to cover food and hospitality costs. Not all tournaments have this charge.
  

If you need any financial assistance to cover any tournament costs, please feel free to apply to the W.in Entry Fee Fund! This initiative focuses on waiving fees (mainly entry, but also school and other registration fees) to ensure low-income debaters of any genders can attend tournaments. The form requires the application’s family’s tax form and the tournament cost invoice to match needs. The information provided is 100% confidential and only reviewed by W.in adult contacts, Lavanya Singh and Joanne Park. In the 2023-24 season alone, we have granted over $1,000 in aid!

Additionally, some tournaments, like Stanford, will offer discounts/entry fee waivers if you are from a Title I school. Title I is a policy that grants low-income schools (where 40%+ of the student population are low-income) with extra funding. You can look up your school here or search “[School Name]” “Title I”. (P.S. If you’re from a Title I school, there are a lot of free resources reserved for students outside of debate too!! – Sophia).

Judge Obligations and Tournament Hires

Judging requirements typically come in two forms. The first, and most common, is that one judge needs to be entered in as available to judge a certain number of rounds. For most tournaments, a single entry will be responsible for providing 2-3 rounds of judging. The second form is the number of judges per entry. Typically, one judge will cover 2-3 entries, and judges are always rounded up. This means that, even if you are the only entry from your school, you are still responsible for one full judge. In general, this policy is harsher on independents because it is possible that your judge will have to cover up to 6 prelim rounds, which makes this model far more expensive. Therefore, when calculating your expected tournament costs, it’s always best to assume that your judge will be “in” for all prelim rounds.

Before you hire anyone, check with tournaments if they have tournament hires! Tournament hires are judges provided by the tournament and usually come at a cost. While hires can be very expensive (with some being $300+/tournament), hiring from the tournament can sometimes be cheaper than hiring someone yourself. For example, say a tournament hire costs $120 to cover the entire tournament. If your prelim obligation is 3 rounds and you expect to make it past the first elim rounds, paying someone a rate of $30/round would cost $150: (3 prelims + 2 obligated elimination rounds) x $30. In this case, it would make more sense to hire from the tournament since it would save you costs, especially if you anticipate making it into later elimination rounds. Additionally, at a tournament where you owe a number of judges per entry (as opposed to a number of rounds), tournament hires will almost always be cheaper than paying $30 for the 6 (expected) prelims judged. 

Also, don’t forget the entourage rule—some tournaments, like the TOC, require that anyone who provides you with on-site coaching must be entered in the pool as a judge.

Paying Per Round vs Paying Per Day

Judging typically operates two ways: paying by round or paying by day. 

Paying per round (which usually encompasses two flights) is done via either paying “per round judged” or “per obligated round.” These may sound like they mean the same thing, but they can have vastly different implications.

• “Per round judged” – if they judge a round, you pay them.
• “Per obligated round” – if they are obligated to judge a round, you pay them, even if they don’t actually end up judging. Paying for the rounds obligated is more common in in-person tournaments because judges must be physically present at the tournament on the chance that they are put in the pool, trading off with their time.

Typically, judges are paid between $25-40/round in LD. Always check with your judges to make sure that you’re on the same page as to whether the phrase “$X/round” means per round judged or per obligated round!

Paying by day means that you pay your judge a flat rate for the day, regardless of how many rounds they judge. This can be advantageous to you if you expect them to judge many rounds, but it can also be disadvantageous if you don’t expect them to judge the full day. For example, if you make it to an elim day (e.g., a Monday) and then get eliminated immediately, you don’t want to be responsible for paying a full day fee just for one round judged. Additionally, for partial days (e.g., tournaments where Friday is only rounds 1 and 2), you may want to negotiate a lower price.

Lastly, don’t be afraid to negotiate with your judge to find prices that work for you, but remember that judges are people too—judging takes a lot of time, effort, and energy, and it’s important not to underpay either.

Additional Costs

Judges will sometimes need transport and housing covered, especially if the tournament is in a less populated area (e.g. Iowa or Minnesota). Sometimes, a local judge that charges a higher per round fee may be cheaper than a judge who needs flights and housing covered (which can be upwards of $300+ depending on where they are located).

4. Chaperones

Most in-person tournaments require that you have an adult (18+) chaperone who can be responsible for you throughout the tournament. This is a hard line, and if you don’t have an adult present on campus for the duration of the tournament, you can get disqualified. The adult being present on campus is important because tournament directors may want to confirm that they are present and if they are not easily reachable (i.e. on the tournament campus and contactable), they will not wait longer and will likely disqualify you.

If you’re an independent, it’s always best to have proof that your adult contact has been A) approved by your school and B) approved by your parents/guardians. It is best to have a signed letter or some kind of documentation that your principal and club advisor (if applicable) have recognized that you are representing the school by competing and are under the responsibility of your adult contact. To play it safe, you can also have documentation saying your parents have agreed too.

How strict chaperone requirements are depends on the tournament. Some tournaments, like the NDCA, require that a school employee serve as the adult contact. If you don’t have a school employee willing to take you, there’s not much you can do to attend.

5. Travel and Transportation

Flying

Try to fly in groups since it’s safer. Here are some ways to save money:

• Use Skiplagged to find the cheapest flights.
• Book your flights 1-2 months before you take off, but booking earlier doesn’t mean you always book cheaper, since flights often start out expensive. Therefore, you should regularly check flight prices (every 2-3 days) to find the best deal.
• Flight prices are variable and can change every week. If you see something really expensive now, wait a couple of days and see if the price lowers instead of buying tickets immediately.
• Know the airports around you and check the prices of flights from all of them. For example, as someone from the Bay Area, I have SFO, OAK, and SJC. SFO → LAX can be more expensive than OAK → LAX, but SFO → AUS can be cheaper than OAK → AUS.
• Take red-eye flights! Red-eyes can be helpful when you want to land the day before the tournament starts but you don’t want to pay for an extra night of housing. This way, your right to housing ends up being a plane seat (plus, it’s significantly cheaper). However, if you know you need a lot of sleep before tournaments, take the flight that will let you be well-rested, even if slightly more expensive.
• If you have housing covered, arriving a day before or leaving a day after a tournament starts/ends can get you cheaper tickets, especially if it’s a rush weekend. It’s up to you as to whether missing a day of school is worth the money you save (since this amount can range from $10 to $100). (As someone who dislikes school and likes money, I did this somewhat often).
• Fly budget airlines (Spirit is a good one). Avoid shady-looking airlines—they’re shady looking for a reason. A lot of budget airlines experience delays, so leave some overhead time in between your arrival time and the tournament start time.
• Don't book round trips! Booking one-way flights from different airlines can help you save when some one-way flights are cheaper than others.
  

Housing

Below are several options if you are looking to find housing at travel tournaments. Be sure to finalize your plans ahead of time to save money:

• Stay with any friends or family you know that live in the area. Make sure you prioritize your safety and are comfortable staying with the people you are staying with. 
• Share an AirBnB with your parents (if they are your chaperones) or fellow competitors you know.
• Many tournament reserve hotel blocks for competitors. You can check the tournament’s Tabroom information page to see whether they have reserved areas of housing close to the tournament campus. Most hotel blocks are of good quality and have somewhat affordable prices. Be sure to book early!