The 16th Annual California Middle School

Speech and Debate State Championship

Online

May 16-17, 2026

Greetings to all elementary and middle school speech and debate clubs and schools!

California Middle School Forensics is proud to announce the 16th annual California State Championship.  This tournament is meant to encourage a healthy competition at the state level and provide an opportunity to sharpen competitive speeches before the national tournament.

Schedule:

Middle School Schedule:

Saturday:

8:00 a.m. Round (Pro, HI, Per, Duo, Imp, SPAR)

9:30 a.m. Round (Pro, HI, Per, Duo, Imp, SPAR)

11:00 a.m. Round (PF, LD, Congress)

1:00 p.m. Round (Pro, HI, Per, Duo, Imp, SPAR)

2:30 p.m. Round (PF, LD, Congress)

4:00 p.m. Round (HI, Per, Duo) - Elims for SPAR, Imp 

6:00 p.m. Round (PF, LD, Congress) - Elims for SPAR

7:30 p.m. Round (PF, LD) - Elims for SPAR, Imp

Sunday:

8:00 a.m. Round (AP, DI, Dec, Poe, Sty, Info, Ext)

9:30 a.m. Round (AP, DI, Dec, Poe, Sty, Info, Ext)

11:00 a.m. Round (AP, DI, Dec, Poe, Sty, Info, Ext) 

12:15 p.m. Round (PF, LD) - Elims for Congress

1:45 p.m. Elims for (PF, LD, DI, Dec, Info, Ext)

3:30 p.m. Elim (PF, LD)

5:00 p.m. Elim (LD)

6:15 p.m. Elim (if needed) (LD)

8:30 p.m. Awards

Elementary School Schedule:

Saturday:

8:00 a.m. Round (Congress, SPAR)

9:30 a.m. Round (Congress, SPAR)

11:00 a.m. Round (Congress, SPAR)

1:00 p.m. Round (Plat, Imp, Dec, Info, Sty)

2:30 p.m. Round Elim (Congress SPAR)

4:00 p.m. (Plat, Imp, Dec, Info, Sty)

6:00 p.m. Round (Plat, Imp, Dec, Info, Sty)

7:30 p.m. Elim (Imp, Dec, Info, Sty, SPAR)

Sunday:

8:30 p.m. Awards

The schedule may need to be extended, depending on interest in events.  For example, in previous years, additional elimination rounds for Impromptu and SPAR have been needed to accommodate the number of entries.  We will try to notify teams of any schedule changes as soon as possible.

We recently added an elementary division to our state tournament.  Elementary is defined as 5th grade or younger.  

The tournament will be held on May 16-17, 2026!  Please feel free to pass this invitation along to anyone who might be interested in attending.

Topics:

- LD Topic: Resolved: The United States military ought to abide by the principle of non-intervention.

- PF Topic: NSDA April topic

- Extemp: US Elections, Economy, Asia & Eastern Europe, Africa

- Impromptu: All divisions will use concrete nouns, abstract nouns, and proverbs for prelim rounds and quotations for elimination rounds.

- Congress and Worlds: Topics will be released 2 weeks prior to the tournament (12:00 PM Pacific May 2nd, 2026).

Rules/Event Descriptions:

All events will follow CMSF rules.  For full list of event descriptions, tournament procedures, and round design, please go to SCJFL.org and click on the RULES & BY-LAWS.  Please note: some tournament procedures in the by-laws are unique to this state tournament only.  Such rules and procedures are marked as “CMSF,” but in the absence of such indications, all other SCJFL rules will apply.  If you have any questions about rules or procedures, please feel free to reach out through the e-mail below.

Postings: 

Postings will be sent to each student before the round begins.  Coaches should update their student rosters on ForensicsTournament.net to include the cell numbers or the e-mail addresses for each student.  Once the posting preference is selected, coaches can test that the cell/e-mail is getting through to the student(s).

Entries:

Entries are due on Tuesday, May 12th, 2026 at 8:00 p.m. Pacific.

  You may access the invitation and entry system at

https://forensicstournament.net/californiamiddleschoolstate/26

Awards:

All competitors advancing to an elimination round shall be awarded for doing so.  The tournament shall award school sweepstakes awards for the top three overall schools.  Points shall be calculated in accordance to the CMSF rules and by-laws.

Eligibility:

This event is run by the California Middle School Forensics(CMSF), which is a subsidiary of the Southern California Junior Forensics League (SCJFL).  All schools, clubs, after-schools, and home schools are permitted entry, provided they are in good standing with both leagues.  No league membership fee is required for this tournament.

Wellness:

We have designed the schedule for this tournament with great care.  While we have tried to provide students with the opportunity to compete in as many events as possible, this comes at a potential risk.  We ask that students carefully consider the schedule before deciding to enter multiple events.  The tournament will not delay rounds for students who did not attend a round on time.  Furthermore, students who insist on doing both speech and debate events may risk missing lunch breaks.  Competitors who are doing more than one event per pattern are encouraged to check in with their judges at the beginning of the round to ensure that the judge doesn't end the round before the competitor shows up to compete.  We will not re-run events for competitors who miss their round.

Judges:

All judge training shall be the responsibility of the school registering that judge.  Schools that register untrained or unprepared judges may be fined.

Middle School Events:

Debate Events (Competitors may only enter one)

- LD Debate

- Public Forum Debate

- Congress

- Worlds Debate

Saturday IE Events:

Prose (use of manuscript required, 7 min. maximum)

Humorous Interpretation (10 min. maximum)

Persuasive (visual aids are permitted, 10 min. maximum)

Duo Interpretation (10 min. maximum)

Speech to Entertain (visual aids are permitted, 10 min. maximum)

 SPAR

Impromptu (7 min. bank)

Sunday IE Events:

Assigned Platform (3 min. maximum)

Dramatic Interpretation (10 min. maximum)

Declamation (10 min. maximum)

Poetry (use of manuscript required, 7 min. maximum)

Storytelling (5 min. maximum)

Informative (visual aids are allowed, 10 min. maximum)

Program Oral Interp (use of manuscript required, 10 min. maximum)

(may enter only one from the following):

Extemporaneous Speaking (30 min. of prep / 7 min. maximum)

Elementary School Events:

Group A:

Declamation (5 min. maximum)

Poetry (use of manuscript required, 5 min. maximum)

Storytelling (5 min. maximum)

Informative (visual aids are allowed, 5 min. maximum)

Prose (use of manuscript required, 5 min. maximum)

Persuasive (visual aids are permitted, 5 min. maximum)

Duo Interpretation (6 min. maximum)

Impromptu (7 min. bank)

Group B:

 SPAR

 Congress

Fees will be assessed on Tuesday, May 12th, 2026 at 8:00 p.m. Pacific.  Any changes after this date will be subject to the following penalties. 

Late changes - $25

Competitor no-show - $35 (event fees will not be refunded after deadline).

Judge adds will no longer be permitted after registration close; all judges must have names and contact information in the school’s roster. 

Please pay all fees to an account below by Thursday, May 14th, 2026 at noon Pacific. Fees must be paid through the registration page by clicking on the ‘Tournament Fees’ tab on the left side of the page.  All fees will be frozen at the time of registration close.

$50 school fee

$20 per IE/Congress/Spar event-entry ($40 per Duo team)

$40 per one-person debate entry

$50 per two-person debate entry

$60 per World Schools entry

$40 judging fee per uncovered IE event-entry (One judge covers 5 IE event-entries)

$100 per uncovered debate event-entry (One judge covers 2 LD/WD/PFD event-entries)

$200 dropped judge fee (per day) after May 15th, 2026 at 12:01 a.m. Pacific.

$25 No-show judge fee (first offense); $50 No-show judge fee (second and subsequent offenses)

Judges who do not write sufficient feedback to the competitors will be fined $10 per round.  Unsatisfactory ballots will be determined by the tabulation staff.

The tournament reserves the right to deny schools who do not supply at least half of their required judges.  We will do our best to ensure that no schools are denied because of this reason.

Contact:

Tournament Director - Robert Cannon: Robert@Cannonballofdeath.com