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.

Tournament Dates for the 2021-2022 Middle School season:

Workshop – September 25
Scramble – October 30
Holiday Tournament – December 11
Winter Classic – February 5
Spring Tournament – March 26
OCDL Championship – May 14

MSPDP tournament (April 30-May 1) resolutions:

  • NATO does more HARM than GOOD.
  • The US should establish a program of de-extinction for the Christmas Island Rat.
  • Minors should not be tried as adults.
  • It should be illegal to make false claims about official US election results.

OCDL CHAMPIONSHIP tournament resolutions:

  • NATO does more HARM than GOOD
  • The US should establish a program of de-extinction for the Christmas Island Rat 
  • Minors should not be tried as adults (Final Public Round Topic) 
  • Impromptu topic

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.