Bay Area Middle School Championship
Bay Area Middle School Championship
Our April tournament is the Bay Area Middle School Championship hosted by Presentation High School, located at 2281 Plummer Ave, San Jose, CA 95125, on Saturday, April 12th and Sunday, April 13th.
If you have any questions that are not covered on this page, please don’t hesitate to email us directly at Info@strtgm.org.
All students attending this tournament must have the Stratagem Learning Waiver completed on their behalf. The Stratagem Learning Waiver can be found here. Parents only need to fill out the Stratagem Learning Waiver on their student’s behalf once per season. Failure to meet this requirement by 4/11/2025 will prevent your student from competing and leave you ineligible for a refund. There are absolutely no exceptions to this policy.
Answering “Yes” to the Will You Be A Judge option obligates you to provide one judge who satisfies the judging requirements in the Stratagem Learning Terms and Conditions for the entire duration of the tournament. This tournament requires a free Tabroom.com account. To keep judging commitments manageable for this tournament all judges are obligated for all rounds of their student’s event, including elimination rounds.
As a volunteer for our 501(c)3 non-profit organization you may be eligible for tax benefits or additional benefits through your employer. Please inquire with Info@strtgm.org if you require additional documentation.
Be sure to check out using the icon on the upper right-hand corner of the desktop version or the lower right-hand corner on the mobile version to complete payment.
Full details, including schedule, can be found below.
The Basics
This is our first year participating in this tournament and we expect it to be a challenging tournament for all participants. It is highly recommended that students who started in the Spring term consult their coach before signing up.
This tournament is open to all students in grades 5 though 8 and is only open to middle school entries.
A full schedule can be found below. Debate tournaments are an all day activity. Expect your student to be committed all day for each day they compete.
We will also provide at least one more update the week before the tournament via email.
Registration
To avoid accommodate as many entries as possible, competitors with pledged judges are registered with the tournament first. Competitors without judges are entered next on a first come, first serve basis. For partnered events, student registration is considered complete when both partners have registered and paid. REGISTRATION FOR ALL EVENTS WILL CLOSE AT NOON ON 4/4/2025.
Debate
Public Forum will have guaranteed preliminary rounds on Saturday, 4/12 & Sunday, 4/13. Public Forum will debate the NSDA April topic regarding Nuclear Energy. Debaters will need to have both an affirmative and a negative case prepared in advance.
Judging
We offer an automatic discount of $50 for volunteering with the tournament to judge, up to the number of needed judges.
Tournaments require that each team brings a number of parents to serve as judges. This tournament will require roughly one judge for every two entries. IF WE DO NOT MEET THIS REQUIREMENT THE TOURNAMENT WILL NOT LET US COMPETE.
Judges are obligated for all rounds scheduled on for the days they volunteer, as detailed below. THIS MEANS THAT JUDGES MAY BE OBLIGATED TO JUDGE AFTER THEIR STUDENT HAS BEEN ELIMINATED FROM COMPETITION. Judges may be used for events that differ from your student’s schedule or events. Obligations are as follows:
All volunteer judges are obligated for all rounds on Saturday and Sunday.
Tournaments take this volunteer commitment extremely seriously and will assess fines if you have volunteered to judge a round but do not show up. By agreeing to judge, you acknowledge that you are solely responsible for paying the tournament for any fines that you may incur for any reason.
Dress Code & Tournament Necessities
All tournaments have a business formal dress code, even online tournaments. Girls are expected to wear a blouse, skirt or slacks, a jacket and appropriate shoes. Boys are expected to wear a formal shirt, slacks, a jacket and tie, and appropriate shoes.
As this is an entirely online tournament, students must have access to a computer with internet access, a camera, and a microphone as well as accounts on appropriate tournament platforms. All debate files may be digital. Students are strictly forbidden from any type of outside communication (including with parents and siblings, but not including their debate partner) while competing and may be disqualified if they break this rule in any way.
Schedule