Welcome to the 8th Annual Harvard College World Schools Invitational

The dates for the invitational are: March 24-26th, 2023. The tournament will be held in-person on Harvard’s campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We hope to see you there! Our registration process will open on December 26, 2022 and will close on March 4, 2023.

NOTE: Prepped motions have been released and can be found on the “Prepared Motions” page on the right hand panel or on Facebook.

Our tournament offers:

• High-Quality Judging:

• The majority of our judge pool is composed of former WSDC Champions, WSDC National team members, out-round WSDC judges, highly successful British Parliamentary collegiate debaters, and other members of the Harvard College Debating Union who come from highly successful domestic and international backgrounds.

• High-Quality Competition:

• We frequently have multiple national teams attend our tournament as they prepare for the upcoming World Schools Debating Championship in the summer.

Competition Rules and Procedures

The Harvard College World Schools Invitational will be in the World Schools Debating Championships style. All rules and formats on tournament procedure will follow the WSDC handbook.

In following the spirit of WSDC, all teams will be of 3-5 students. All speakers in a team must be 19 years of age or younger in March 2023. Teams are not limited to being of a single school. Novice eligibility shall be defined as competing at three tournaments (including the HCWSI 2023) or less.

General eligibility:

• All speakers in a team must be 19 years of age or younger in March 2023

• All speakers must neither be enrolled in a university or equivalent post-secondary learning institution nor be attending university varsity debating training in March 2023

• An eligibility check will be done on each team interested in competing for a berth at HCWSI in the month prior to the event

Registration

NOTE: Do not register through Tabroom! The tournament will run on Tabbycat, so we will not be taking registration information from Tabroom. In order to register:

• Coaches, please fill out the Coach Registration Form. This should be filled out by the 18+ adult who will be physically accompanying the students and will serve as the main point of contact for the institution's teams.

• Please also fill out the Team Registration Form. This should be filled out separately for each team you would like to register.

• Institutional judges, please fill out this Institutional Judge Registration Form.

Contact

Please feel free to email the tournament director, Jenna Hong, at harvardwst@gmail.com for any questions.

The President of the Harvard College Debating Union, Rasmee Ky, may be reached at rky@college.harvard.edu. For international attendees, we are happy to provide letters for visa purposes - please reach out to the aforementioned individuals for assistance.

Fees

Members of teams that register before February 4th shall be required to pay an entry fee of $140 per student. For example, a team of three is required to pay a $420 entry fee. After February 4th, the registration fee will be increased to $155 per member. In order for your spot to be confirmed at the tournament, we expect a deposit to be paid in full by March 20th, 2023. Each school’s deposit will be 25% of the overall fees they are expected to pay.

Payment options

• Option 1 (preferred): Venmo

• Option 2: PayPal

• Option 3: Checks

Invoices including Venmo/Paypal handles and details on who to mail a check to will be emailed to coaches upon registration.

Judging Requirement

One judge is required for every two teams per school (rounded down, so schools with 5 teams require 2 judges). A missing judge fee is applied at a rate of $100 per day for teams that fail to meet their judging obligation. For example, a judge missing for each day of the tournament will be expected to pay $300.

Feb 3 update: To clarify, the judging requirement is a minimum of 1, and n/2 rounded down otherwise. Institutional judges should be registered by March 4, the general registration deadline, so that we can start sending out invoices and avoid adding missing judge fees to teams that plan on bringing a judge.

Schedule

Locations will be finalized at the end of February, but General Assembly will likely be Emerson Hall (25 Quincy St, Cambridge, MA 02138)

Food

Dinner will be provided on Saturday, March 25th to all attendees. Harvard Square provides ready access to lots of options for food, and we have adjusted the schedule to allow participants a reasonable amount of time to get meals.

Accommodations

While you may choose any accommodation, as in previous in-person years, the Harvard College Debating Union will be reaching out to some local hotels to get discounted prices for participants. The tournament page on Tabroom and Facebook will be updated once hotel blocks have been secured.