UKTOC

The Tournament of Champions (or UKTOC) is an annual competition, hosted by the University of Kentucky, of the best competitors in Speech and Debate. To qualify, a competitor must earn “bids” by placing highly at certain tournaments (marked on the calendar with a dagger - †). Two bids are required for full qualification (see At-Large Qualification below). NOTE: Novice- or JV-division entries can not qualify. Bids are not transferrable between partners.

In speech, finalists at the previous year's UKTOC, or semifinalists and finalists at the previous year's NSDA national championship are automatically qualifed. For all debate events, quarterfinalists at the previous year's UKTOC are automatically qualified. In PF, the top 14 at the previous year's NSDA national championship also auto-qualify.

 

Tournaments Awarding UKTOC Bids:

Stephen Stewart Invitational @ Milpitas	Sep 29–30
Voices Invitational @ Presentation HS	Oct 6–7
Jon Schamber Invitational @ University of the Pacific [Stockton, CA]	Oct 26–28
MinneApple Debate Invitational @ Apple Valley HS [Apple Valley, MN]	Nov 2–4
(SCU) Dempsey Cronin Invitational	Nov 16–18
Glenbrooks Speech & Debate Invitational (Northbrook/Glenview, IL)	Nov 17–19
Silver and Black Invitational @ Alta HS (Sandy, UT)	Nov 30–Dec 2
College Prep LD Invitational (Oakland)	Dec 22–23
Hugh Downs Invitational @ Arizona State (Tempe, AZ)	Jan 4–6
MLK Invitational (Logan HS)	Jan 12–14
Harvard-Westlake Debate LD Invitational  (Los Angeles)	Jan 18-21
Stanford Invitational	Feb 9–11
Berkeley Invitational	Feb 16–18

 

BIDS EARNED

For PF, students must earn two gold bids to compete in the gold division (one gold qualifies for silver division). For all other events, you must have two bids to fully qualify. For speech, only NSDA events award bids (DI, HI, Duo, POI, INF, OO, EX, PRO, and POE only).

Student(s)	Event	Bid 1	Bid 2	Extra Bids
FULLY QUALIFIED (Speech / PF Gold)
Ishan Maunder & Rithvik Koppurapu	PF	Bronx	UOP	MinneApple, Alta, ASU, MLK, Stanford, Berkeley
Arunav Gupta & Dylan Zhang	PF	UOP	Berkeley	MLK (silver)
Samir Banerjee	HI	UOP	SCU	MLK, Stanford, Berkeley
Tavish Mohanti	HI	UOP	SCU	ASU, MLK
Rahul Iyer	DI	SCU	ASU	MLK, Stanford
Krish Kothari	EX	UOP	Stanford
Ayush Agarwal	POI	MLK	Berkeley
FULLY QUALIFIED (PF Silver)
Apurv Prabhakar & Maggie Zhao	PF	UOP (Gold)
Apurv Prabhakar & Lucas Huang	PF	Stanford	Berkeley (Gold)
Yash Dalmia & Tushar Dalmia	PF	SCU	ASU	MLK, Stanford, Berkeley
Serena Mao & Sabrina Cai	PF	UOP	ASU
PARTIALLY QUALIFIED
Aditi Chhangani	HI	SCU
Kriti Vajjhula & Ayush Agarwal	DUO	ASU
Samir Banerjee & Rahul Iyer	DUO	Berkeley
Aparajita Pathak & Swetha Naidu	DUO	Berkeley
Aparajita Pathak	POE	ASU
Rohini Singh	OI*	Stanford
Aalaya Wudaru	OI*	Stanford

Speech bids awarded based on number of competitors in event:    ≤24, top 3;  25–72, finalists;  72+, semifinalists   

 

AT-LARGE QUALIFICATION

Speech: Students with a single bid may apply to compete at UKTOC, but you are not guaranteed entry.

PF silver division: Students with only a single silver bid, or who have earned 600+ NSDA points and completed 24+ rounds of debate in the current year, may apply to compete in the silver division.

Note: Requires a $50 nonrefundable fee, and at-large entries are not guaranteed (depending on available space, those with single bids are usually have first priority). This fee is waived for speech entries.

 

 

  STATE CHAMPIONSHIP — WILDCARDS

To enter the State Championship, students must compete at a league qualifier tournament. The qualifiers for speech and debate are handled separately, but have similar requirements. Speech finalists and undefeated debaters at each league tournament (CFL) are awarded a “wildcard”, which guarantees you a spot to compete by making your entry not count against either entry cap. Extra wildcards may not be transferred to another competitor.

Speech: Every team in the league gets 22 entries to the state qualifier, with a maximum of five per event, not counting wildcards. Every competitor must have competed at a CFL tournament during the year (including novice). The top 7 (±1) in each event will qualify to compete at state.

Debate: Every team may enter a combination of 9 LD or PF entries, not counting wildcards. All competitors must have competed at varsity level at a CFL tournament during the year (coaches may waive this requirement for a maximum of one team per event). All debaters with a 10-0 record auto-qualify to the state championship, with the remaining qualifiers (~8/event) determined by elimination.

 

STATE QUALIFIERS

Student(s)	Event	Placing
FULLY QUALIFIED
Tavish Mohanti	HI	3rd
Rohini Singh	OI	3rd
Aparajita Pathak & Swetha Naidu	Duo	4th
Kriti Vajjhula & Ayush Agarwal	DUO	2nd
ALTERNATE QUALIFIERS
Samir Banerjee	HI	12th (1st alt)
Adidi Chhangi	HI	14th (3rd alt)
Rahul Iyer	DI	11th (1st alt)
Shamika Gavaskar	OPP	12th (2nd alt)
Krish Kothari	IX	13th (6th alt)
OTHER FINALISTS (Already qualified)
Aysuh Agarwal	POI	3rd
Tavish Mohanti	OPP	12th (4th alt)

 

WILDCARDS EARNED

Student(s)	Event	CFL#
Rahul Iyer	DI	3
Shamika Gavaskar	DI	2
Samir Banerjee	HI	2
Krish Kothari	IX	2
Aalaya Wudaru	OI	3
Rohini Singh	OI	2, 3
Tavish Mohanti	OPP	2, 3
Aparajita Pathak & Swetha Naidu	DUO	3
Kriti Vajjhula & Ayush Agarwal	DUO	3

 

 

  NIETOC (Speech Only)

NIETOC is an annual competition of the best performers Interp and Oratory (DUO, HI, DI, POI, OO, INFO and DUET entries only). All entrants must qualify either by earning two bids in their event from specific tournaments (marked on the calendar with an asterisk - *). Bids are not transferrable between partners. NOTE: Novice- or JV-division entries can not qualify.

Semifinalists and finalists at the previous year's NIETOC or national championship, or the top three at the current year's state championship auto-qualify to NIETOC.

 

Tournaments Awarding NIETOC Bids:

Stephen Stewart Invitational @ Milpitas	Sep 29–30
(SCU) Dempsey Cronin Invitational	Nov 16–18
Glenbrooks Speech & Debate Invitational	Nov 17–19
Hugh Downs Invitational @ Arizona State (Tempe, AZ)	Jan 4–6
MLK Invitational (Logan HS)	Jan 12–14

Octafinalists and quarterfinalists at the previous year's NIETOC, as well as the top three at the previous or current year's state championship will also receive a bid.

 

BIDS EARNED

Student(s)	Event	Bid 1	Bid 2	Extra Bids
FULLY QUALIFIED
Aparajita Pathak & Swetha Naidu	DUO	Auto-Qualified (NIETOC '18)
Kriti Vajjhula & Ayush Agarwal	DUO	Auto-Qualified (NIETOC '18)		ASU, MLK
Samir Banerjee	HI	SCU	MLK
Tavish Mohanti	HI	NIETOC '18	ASU	MLK
Rahul Iyer	DI	ASU	MLK
PARTIALLY QUALIFIED
Aditi Chhangani	HI	SCU
Apurva Aluru & Ayush Agarwal	DUET	NIETOC '18
Aparajita Pathak	POI	ASU

Bids awarded based on number of competitors in event:    <20, winner;  20-34, top 3;   35-50, finalists;   51-70, semis;   71-99; quarters;  100+,  octas

 

 

POTENTIAL AT-LARGE QUALIFIERS

If you have placed at any 3 tournaments during the year such that the sum of your final ranks is 10 or less, you can qualify under the at-large system. (DUO, HI, DI, POI, OO, INFO and DUET entries only.) All three scores must be from the same event. Novice- or JV-division entries can not qualify.

Note: Requires a $25 nonrefundable fee, and at-large entries are not guaranteed (depending on available space, those with single bids are usually have first priority).

Student(s)	Event	Score 1	Score 2	Score 3
FULLY QUALIFIED AT-LARGE
PARTIALLY AT-LARGE QUALIFIERS
Aditi Chhangani	HI	3  [SCU]	3 [SQUALLS]
Ishaana Kodnani & Shraesht Chitkara	DUO	5  [UOP]
Samir Banerjee & Rahul Iyer	DUO	5  [Berkeley]
Aprajita Pathak	POI	1  [ASU]
Ayush Agarwal	POI	5  [Berkeley]

 

Teams are also allowed to enter two unqualified Duet entries, provided at least one of the competitors is fully qualified in another event.

 

 

  NSDA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

To enter the National Championship, students must compete at a league qualifier tournament. Entries for the national qualifier are very limited — each team may enter a maximum of four entries per event, with the total number of team  entries around 25-30, shared between speech and debate. Entrants will be selected by the coach and officers, based on performance and contributions to the team, subject to script submission deadlines.