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 2023-2024 SEASON:

OCDL Workshop – September 23

Tournament Dates for Middle Schools:

Scramble Tournament – November 4
Holiday Tournament – December 16
Winter Classic – February 3
David Anderson Tournament – March 16
OCDL hosted National Parliamentary Championship – May 18 and 19

Scramble tournament resolutions:

  • TBA
  • TBA

Guidelines and OCDL Rules of Judging:

Each regular tournament will be 4 rounds and follow a modified parliamentary format (The scramble is 3 rounds and the championship is 5 rounds). 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.