2026 Harvard College Debating Union Season Opener

On behalf of the Harvard College Debating Union, we are so excited to invite you to the 2nd annual Harvard College Debating Union Season Opener September 5th-6th. Although we believe very strongly in the power of in-person debate, we also understand that for many students, flying to Cambridge can be inaccessible. In this vein, we have decided to make the tournament entirely online.

The tournament will run over both tabroom and zoom, with more information about zoom links published closer to the tournament.

This year, we will be offering 5 events: Varsity Public Forum, JV Public Forum, Novice Public Forum, Varsity Lincoln Douglas, JV Lincoln Douglas, and Open Parliamentary. Moreover, the winners of Open Parliamentary and Varsity PF will also receive a$1,000 cash prize and the winners of Varsity LD will receive a $500 cash prize.

Public Forum Debate – 2026 Sep/Oct Topic

Resolved: The United States federal government should enact a moratorium on hyperscale data center construction.

Novice/JV/Varsity Status

A novice must be in their first year of competitive high school debate and a JV must be in their first or second year of competitive debate.

Your first year of competitive debate is defined by not attending a single high school debate tournament in the prior year.

PF and LD will have separate divisions for novice/JV participants, while Parliamentary will have a separate elimination bracket for novice teams.

Pairings will be released approximately 15 minutes prior to start time.

All participants should report to the online rooms within 5 minutes after pairings are released.

All participants must return to and remain in the online rooms 10 minutes before the start time.