The NSDA Last-Chance Qualifier, presented by The Julia Burke Foundation, will be held online. The tournament is only open to NSDA members; there is no entry fee for students to participate. The NSDA Last-Chance Qualifier is an opportunity for students who did not qualify through their district tournament to have a chance to attend the 2025 National Tournament in Des Moines. 

Find more information on the NSDA Last Chance Qualifier webpage

 The Last Chance Qualifier Tournament is held to determine who will compete at the NSDA National Tournament. The number of entries in each event will determine how many students will qualify to attend the National Competition held in June. 

1- In order to compete, students must have a minimum of 25 merit points, at least 10 of which must be from competition. 

2 - No student may qualify in more than one event.

3 - MUST attend the National Qualifier Meeting on March 25 prior to entering.

4 - All Students are responsible for providing a judge (the same or 3 seperate) for each day of the tournament. Each day's judge burden CANNOT be split between 2 judges, they must judge the whole day.

4- All students who enter the Last Chance Qualifier Tournament MUST plan to attend Nationals. Any competitor who withdraws after committing to attend Nationals will forfeit entry in the following year's National Qualifier and potentially any further entry during their HS career, per the LCHS coaches' rules.

5 - All qualifying students from La Cueva High School will prepare the event they qualified in AND a supplemental event to be entered if they do not break into elimination rounds. Please refer to our Supplementals Page for more information regarding events available.

6- All students who participate in the Last Chance Qualifier in events we do not already have a qualifier in, MUST provide a judge for Nationals in that event: 

7 - Please refer to the 2026 LCHS National Tournament Fee Schedule for all those who qualify.

JUDGE BURDEN

Please note: if more than one student enters an event the judge burden can be shared by the students, according to the burden rules listed below.

• Debate: 1 judge is owed per 2 entries or fraction thereof. Each debate event has a separate judging pool.

• Speech: 1 judge is owed per 6 entries or fraction thereof.

• Congress: 1 judge is owed per 5 entries or fraction thereof.

• Time Commitment: If a school owes a judge, they must provide a judge for each day of competition that that event runs. For example, a school-provided debate judge must be provided for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday rounds. If needed, contact the national office to split an obligation between different judges. A different judge may be provided for each day, but one day of judging cannot be split between multiple judges.

Links

Student Sign up - Coming Soon!

Judge Sign up  - Coming Soon!

NSDA LCQ Site - More information here

Tabroom Page 

Required LCQ training for all judges - MUST BE COMPLETED BY APRIL 17!

Eligibility

• • Schools must have had at least one entry compete at their district tournament in any event, including Big Questions.

• • Students do not need to have attended the district tournament to enter the tournament, but their school does need to have attended districts.

• • Students may not be registered for the NSDA Last-Chance Qualifier if they are a qualifier in any event at their district tournament. 

• • Students who qualify at their district tournament may vacate their qualification slot and then register for the Last-Chance Qualifier, but they will not have their district event as a backup if they do not qualify at the Last-Chance Qualifier.

• • Students may register for the Last-Chance Qualifier if they have earned a spot on their district’s World Schools team as long as they are willing to vacate their WS spot in case of qualification.

• • Schools and students must be paid NSDA members to participate.

• • Students must be districts-eligible, meaning they have 25+ NSDA points and have an email address on the NSDA website.

• • Middle schools may not enter the Last-Chance Qualifier; only students in grades 9-12 may be registered.

Rules

• Students must be registered under the school name at which they are currently enrolled. 

• Students must be under supervision of a supervising adult who is the student’s parent, coach, or school administrator, approved by the school principal. 

• Coaches must acquire a signed Entry Release Form for each competitor prior to the first round of competition and retain those forms through the National Tournament. 

• If entries plan to compete from the same physical room, the school administration must be made aware and approve team protocols for maintaining compliance with school safety requirements. 

• Any entries found to be ineligible per these standards may result in disqualification.

Schedule: Coming Soon

Please check this spreadsheet out to find the schedule for each event 

2024

Big Question Debate 

Riya