This is the Tournament Portal for our 2026 National Tournament, which will be held in Sofia on April 17th-19th.
Registration
Registration has closed.
Logistics
Tournament Dates: 17-19 April, 2026
Registration Opens: March 17, 2026
Registration Closes: March 31, 2026
Fee payment: March 17-31, 2026
Host Site
The tournament will take place at the University of National and World Economy in Sofia.
Accommodations
From this year, BEST Foundation will only arrange accommodation if requested. For detailed instructions, refer to the registration email.
BEST reserves up to two nights of accommodation for all participants. BEST commits to negotiating accommodation costs at or under 30 EUR (58.67 BGN) per student per night. This does not apply for single rooms. Participants have to pay for their own accommodation costs while BEST covers the costs of all judges for up to one night in a hotel and up to one chaperone.
All payments must be made in EUR.
Hotels
Judges and Team Coaches will receive emails with their hotel allocation for the weekend. Please refrain from communicating with the hotels directly and contact BEST instead if you have questions or concerns.
Travel
All teams are required to bring a chaperone who will be legally responsible for their team’s safety when traveling to and competing at the venue. Chaperones are required to be aged 18 or over, fluent in Bulgarian, and not high school students.
Teams are encouraged to apply for a travel scholarship. Coaches can fill out the scholarship application form by clicking here. Teams allocated scholarships will be reimbursed after arriving at the tournament venue. Please read our scholarship terms and conditions for further information BEFORE applying for a scholarship.
Please, keep in mind the distance between the tournament site and the different stations:
Distance from the central train station/bus station to the university
Public transport from the central train station/bus station to the university
Public transport from the university to the central train station/bus station (Sunday)
If needed you can use taxi as the Sofia taxi’s prices are max 7-9 EUR, only if you travel to more distant destination:
Taxi Numbers:
OK Supertrans:
Telephone number - 029732121
Yellow! Taxi:
Telephone number - 0291119
App (Android)
App (IOS)
Book online
OK Taxi:
App (Android)
App (IOS)
TaxiMe:
App (Android)
App (IOS)
Green Taxi:
Telephone number - 02810810
For any information or concerns regarding transport in Sofia, contact info@bestfoundation.bg
Judging
We welcome all high school students (only if they are 18 years old or above), graduates or above with C1 or higher English to judge at our tournaments. If you are new to BEST and our tournaments, visit our Judging Basics page!
Coaches, you must register if you are judging, too, and don’t forget to include your judges when you fill out your team roster spreadsheet (see below).
Our Judge sign up form can be accessed by following this link.
We will reimburse all judges for their transport if they use trains or buses, but we strongly encourage taking the most affordable option when possible (usually trains). Please purchase your ticket back from the tournament location as well, as we cannot reimburse you without being presented with tickets. We will provide food at the tournament site, and we will also cover one night of hotel accommodations for regional tournaments.
Coaching
BEST Coaches should download our Coaches’ Checklist and make sure their teams are up to date.
Tournament Schedule
Friday, April 17th
17:00 - 18:00 - Team Check In
17:00 - 17:30 - Speech Judge Q+A // SL Meeting
18:00 - 18:30 - Debate Judge Q+A
18:30 - 19:30 - Opening Ceremony
Saturday, April 18th
08:30 - Round 1 Flight A: Oratory, Prose, and Duo
09:45 - Round 1 Flight B: Debate (Prepared) and Poetry
11:00 - Round 2 Flight A: Oratory, Prose, and Duo
12:15 - Round 2 Flight B: Poetry and Impromptu Debate Motion Released (45 min. of prep)
13:00 - Round 2 Debate start time
13:15 - Lunch
14:00 - Reimbursement for Team Scholarships and Travel Chaperones (1 hour)
14:15 - Quarterfinals: Varsity Oratory and Varsity Prose
Semifinals: Varsity Duo, Novice Oratory, Novice Prose
Round 3: Novice Duo
15:30 - Quarterfinals: Varsity Poetry
Round 3: Debate (Prepared) and Novice Poetry
16:45 - Semifinals: Varsity Oratory and Varsity Prose
17:00 - Reimbursement for Judges (1 hour)
17:45 - Round 4: Impromptu Debate Motion Released (45 min. of prep)
18:30 - Round 4: Debate start time
Semifinals: Varsity Poetry
Sunday, April 19th
08:15 - Finals Impromptu Debate Motion Released (45 min. of prep)
09:00 - Finals Flight B: Poetry, Debate
10:15 - Finals Flight A: Prose, Oratory, Duo
12:00 - Closing Ceremony
13:00 - Departures
Debate Motions
Final rounds will be impromptu
VARSITY
Prepared motions:
This house supports BRICS countries creating alternatives to the current international economic institutions (i.e. the IMF, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization)
This house regrets the rise of historic preservation legislation.
Impromptu hints:
Politics, Bulgaria
Philosophy
Entertainment
NOVICE
Prepared motions:
This house as Bulgaria would embrace cathedral thinking.
Info slide:
Cathedral thinking is a long-term mindset focused on launching initiatives, such as massive infrastructure, environmental, or social projects, that will take generations to complete, well beyond the lifetime of the original planners
This house would ban microtransactions in video games.
Info slide:
A microtransaction is a business model where users can purchase virtual items for small amounts of money. Microtransactions often appear in free-to-play games, meaning there is no cost to download the game, just a cost to buy the online virtual products (e.g. skins, new characters, in-game currency).
Impromptu hints:
Politics, society
Philosophy
Trend, youth