Providing quality debate opportunities to students across Orange County and beyond, the Orange County Debate League offers 5 middle school tournaments (open to students in grades 5 through 8) each year.  Schools must pay annual dues to participate, but paying dues allow the school to participate in all 5 tournaments.

Information regarding our middle school tournaments can be found below.  Should you have questions regarding the tournaments, please contact us questions: info@ocdl.org.

Feel free to share tournament information with others.

Dates for the 2022-2023 SEASON:

OCDL Workshop – September 17

Tournament Dates for Middle Schools:

Scramble Tournament – October 22
Holiday Tournament – December 10
Winter Classic – February 4
David Anderson Tournament – March 18
OCDL Championship – May 13

OCDL holiday tournament resolutions:

  • Companies have a responsibility to eliminate gender inequity.
  • Teachers should be paid more.
  • Impromptu.

Guidelines and OCDL Rules of Judging:

Each tournament will be 4 rounds and follow a modified parliamentary format.  Download the OCDL middle school debate guide here to learn about modified parliamentary debate.

Judging Requirement:

The OCDL asks all teams to provide one judge per two teams attending the tournament, with a minimum requirement of 1 judge.  Judges provided by each school must be certified.  Lay judges will be NOT be allowed.  Formal training and certification is offered at each tournament and workshop.