Chicago Debate Championship Eligibility Roster

Please review the 14th Annual Chicago Debate Championship Eligibility Roster at mid-season. To qualify for the Chicago Debate Championship, a debater must make it to the elimination rounds of any CDL or National Circuit Program tournament.

While debaters make it to elimination rounds as part of a two person team, each individual is deemed eligible independently. This means that if one debater makes it to the elimination rounds with multiple partners over the span of the season, then that one debater in addition to all of the partners that competed with that one debater are eligible for the Chicago Debate Championship. For example, if Jon made it to the elims of T2 with Mike and to the elims of T3 with Monica, then Jon, Mike, and Monica would all be considered eligible for the Chicago Debate Championship.

After T5, the Eligibility Roster will contain a given number of debaters for each school in each Division. If that number is odd, the school is allowed to “even up” by adding a debater in that Division to the Eligibility Roster.

There are no substitutions for any reason on the Eligibility Roster.

Each school will also get to add two persons, in addition to any “evening up” that they do, as their “At Large” debaters. Thus, every school will – and is required – to send at least one team to the 14th Annual Chicago Debate Championship. This includes charter schools in the city of Chicago (all of the charter schools on our School Roster [link to the Schools page here]). “Guest schools” – schools that are not in the city of Chicago, or that are not public schools – can compete in the prelims but not the elims of the 14th Annual Chicago Debate Championship – and their debaters can win speaker awards.

An important note on the Participation Standard. The Chicago Debate Championship is one of the regular, required tournaments in the Chicago Debate League calendar, it’s T6. Thus all schools are required to participate. Further, the regular, national urban debate Participation Standard is in effect – each school is required to send eight debaters or come as close as the school can, given the eligibility requirement. So, for example, if a school has five debaters on the Eligibility Roster, it can “even up” to six, and add its two “at large” debaters, thus this school has to send eight debaters to the Chicago Debate Championship to meet the Participation Standard. To use another example, if a school has two debaters on the Eligibility Roster, it can add two “at large” debaters, and thus it is required to send four debaters to the Chicago Debate Championship to meet the Participation Standard.

We congratulate all debaters currently qualified for the14th Annual Chicago Debate Championship, and we encourage you to work to earn additional qualifiers at T4 and T5.