Welcome to the 2025 Cactus Clash! 

DECISION-IN-ROOM tournament

This is a qualifying Stoa Tournament hosted by Mars Hill Speech & Debate Club. All participants must be members of Stoa.

Dates: October 23-25, 2025 (Thursday, Friday and Saturday)

Location:

Cornerstone Family Church
10215 N Saquaro Blvd, Fountain Hills, AZ 85268

Events:

Debate: LD, TP, and Parli
Limited Prep Speech: Apologetics, Extemporaneous, Impromptu, Mars Hill, and Slam Poetry
Extra: Novice Apologetics (For Stoa Competitors in their First Year
Juniors Tournament Events: Apologetics, Story Telling, Impromptu

Registration

Registration Opens: September 19, 2025 8:00 AM Mountain Standard Time (Note: This is 8:00 AM Arizona Time)
Closes: September 24, 2025 11:59 PM Mountain Standard Time 

Script Submission will open for a short window beginnig Wednesday, October 1st and ending Saturday, October 4th.  Please read the Script Submission Link within our tournament homepage for more information.

Stoa Membership is required in order to participate. You will need to register with Stoa on StoaHub before you can register for Cactus Clash. 

1. Parent creates a family profile on StoaHub
2. Parent adds students to the family profile
3. Request and be granted membership into an official Stoa club
4. Pay for the family Stoa annual registration

Speech Note: Competitors may select a maximum of 3 speech events.

Debate Note: All 3 debates will have 6 prelim rounds, semi finals, and finals. Power matching will begin with Round 2.  

Junior Note: Competitors may select a maximum of 2 speech events.

Fees:

Debate - $45 per competitor per debate type
Speech Events - $30 per competitor per speech type ; or sign up for 3 speech events for $25 each (save $5 per speech event)
Junior Speech Events - $15 per junior event 

Payment: Registration is not complete until your fees have been paid! We use Stripe to process payments. A small surcharge will be added to cover Stripe fees. If fees are not paid at the close of registration, unpaid events will be dropped.

No refunds will be given for drops after registration closes.

Meals: Lunch and dinner breaks must be kept to the time alloted by the tournament schedule only. We recommend you pre-purchase your meals or bring your own as there will not be time available to go out between rounds. Meals may be paid for during registration or added up until October 17, 2025 noon MST.

Refund and Drop Fees:
Drop Fees are standard practice at many tournaments. Drop Fees are utilized to discourage late drops to events. Late drops negatively impact the tournament in a number of ways. Please double-check your events prior to September 24th. If you decide to drop any events, please log into your StoaHub account and make those adjustments. In order to be eligible to compete, drop fees must be paid prior to the tournament.

• September 19 - September 24 ~ Refunds available.
• September 25 - October 7 ~ No Refunds.
• October 8 - October 22 ~ Drop Fee of $20 per event.
• October 23 (On Site) ~ "Ouch" Drop Fee of $25 per event.

In order to be eligible to compete in your other events, drop fees must be paid by Stripe prior to the tournament. There will be a $25 fee for any event that is dropped at on-site student check-in. In order to be eligible to compete in your other events, this fee must be paid at student check-in before the tournament begins.

Waitlists

During registration, some events might show that only a waitlist is available. If you desire that event, add yourself to the waitlist. We will let you know if space becomes available. Watch your email for notification of being cleared from a waitlist OR log back into your registration to check.

DECISION-IN-ROUND - What does this mean? 

Within fifteen minutes of the round ending, the competitors will come back in the room and hear from their judge what side they voted for and why. They will be able to ask the judge questions. Why is this important?  It provides an opportunity for the debaters to adjust their style and case between rounds.

Judge Orientation:

All judge orientation will be online for Cactus Clash.

Debate judges will receive advanced debate training with world renowned coach Miha Andric.

Speech judges will receive .........

Debate Note:

• Team Policy and Lincoln Douglas will have 6 rounds with Semi Finals and Finals.
• Parliamentary will have 6 rounds with Semi Finals and Finals.  Full internet and print resources allowed and outside assistance.  

Parent or Chaperone Judges

Each registered competitor needs to have at least one of their own parents judging for them every day of the tournament. Students will need to have their parent physically with them at check in.

Thank you for your assistance to keep our tournament running on time. Please plan on judging every other round. Check with the ballot push table 45-30 minutes before each round to see what the judging needs are for the upcoming round. The Ballot Push Team will be happy to see you! 

A special note to local families -- please consider having family/alumni/friends come and judge a round or two. We will have training available online a week before the tournament. An email with a link to the training will be sent to all registered judges.

Dress: All competitors are required to follow the Stoa Dress Code found Here. (Click "Dress Code" under the photo). Students not in compliance with the dress code may be disqualified from competition.

More Information: For questions, please email MarsHillTournaments@gmail.com