National Open

A National Open is a type of tournament offered by the NCFCA. Any NCFCA competitor can compete, regardless of their region (although in practice, a significant portion of competitors at most national opens come from the region in which it is held.) Competitors who win the top few placings in each event qualify directly to the NCFCA National Championship.

Structure
The structure of a National Open is similar to that of the National Championship. Speech does not break to Quarterfinals at a National Open, but breaks directly to Semifinals. Debate is run exactly the same at an Open as the National Championship: only teams with a 4-2 record or better break to outrounds. Frequently, this means having a partial outround, with the teams with the best record waiting to debate the winners of the partial outround. After this, outrounds proceed as usual.

Locations
The NCFCA hosts two or three National Opens per year, on average. They frequently occur on college campuses, although one church in Houston, Texas has been used several times. This is mainly a facilities issue: more space is better, as the number of competitors can be much higher than a normal tournament.

The number of competitors varies greatly; for example, the 2013 Alabama National Open had over 400 competitors, while the 2013 Massachusetts National Open two months later had far fewer.

National Opens are always administered by the NCFCA national staff, rather than regional officials. With a few exceptions, however, they run the same schedule as a regular tournament.

Winners
The top two or (rarely) three competitors in each event earn an invitation the the NCFCA National Championship. Earning a slot through a National Open can be much harder than qualifying through the Regional Invitational, for two reasons:
 * 1) There are fewer slots available - regional championships generally qualify five or more competitors in each event, instead of just two or three.
 * 2) There may be more competitors, in which case the statistical probability of winning a top slot is lower.

In practice, competitors who do well at a National Open but do not place in the top two often do well enough at their Regional Invitational to earn a slot, or earn a slot through the at-large system.