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About the Tournament of Champions
The Tournament of Champions, held at the end of April, is a national championship that puts an emphasis on consistency as opposed to a single-tournament qualifying process.
The Tournament of Champions began in 1971 as an activity for “debate.” That is, it was a championship event for the event that is now known as policy debate. (There was no Lincoln-Douglas Debate or Public Forum Debate then.)
While Lincoln-Douglas Debate was created in the 1979-1980 season, the TOC did not introduce the event until the 1986 tournament. (”A lot of coaches,” notes TOC founder and director J.W. Patterson, “felt it would never be the same again once we added LD.”) Recently, the TOC has added a round robin Public Forum debate and absorbed a Student Congress TOC that had previously been hosted in Florida.
Northwestern University hosts the the Tournament of Champions in Extemporaneous Speaking (”TOC Extemp”) each May.
A full list of past champions, runners-up, and top speakers in Lincoln-Douglas, policy, and Public Forum debate will be available shortly.