Tournaments

Introduction

There are a number of established debating tournaments in which schools can take part throughout the year.

Schools that are new to competitive debating should not be intimidated by the number of tournaments. Teachers should enter tournaments that they think best suit the needs of the school and the speakers.

The longer tournaments (such as ESU Schools Mace, Law Society of Scotland Tournament and the Dundee Courier tournament) tend to have a number of knockout rounds leading to a final. The knockout rounds take place on weekday evenings at host schools around the country. The early rounds are drawn geographically to minimise travelling time.

Finally, both long-preparation and short-preparation debates test debaters in different ways. Although the long-preparation tournaments tend to be the better known and bigger tournaments, a short-preparation tournament can be a fun and challenging alternative.