There's something about a debate tournament that makes me excited, makes my adrenaline rush, and call me a nerd, gets me ready to argue. On Saturday I did my first tournament in PF. PF is Public Forum. It is a debate with a partner on a topic that most people can understand. For example, last months was "Resolved: Direct Popular Vote should replace electoral vote in presidential elections." for me this was a very intriguing topic. Any way. Carissa and I are partners for this. However, she has competed before, last year in a different debate. In this debate we are both novices, but because she is JV we had to compete in Open.
Our first round went quite well we thought. Before our opponents came in the room we heard one say "Oh no, I'm a novice" or something along those lines. Carissa and I looked at each other and I'm sure the same thought I had was racing through her head: "We are too, we'll see how this goes." We sat down and began. The debate went well. Carissa and I were thinking along the same lines, in sync it was very cool. Then our opponents brought up slavery: not sure why, it doesn't have anything to do with the resolution. Anyway, going out of that debate we felt we did fairly well, we were even 60% sure that we won.
We waited about 1 1/2 hours for postings to go up again. Finally they did. And we were off again. This time we were in the room first again. Our opponents showed up, 2 guys again. This time it was a more interesting round, and again Carissa and I were thinking in sync. It was a good round. they had questions for us, we had questions for them and our point got across. again, we were 60 % sure we won. Quite honestly it was a good round.
We waited another 1 hour for postings to go up. This time we were on 'B' flight which meant we were the second people to go in. we were delayed because there were so many judge mix ups. Our fellow PF team from Davis came over and we talked, and talked, not about PF either. we talked about the craziest topics and in 45 minutes we became friends. That's all you need, a common ground and some 'different' people like us to be friends. Finally, I repeat, Finally, A flight ended and we were able to go in. We had a judge who didn't really know what do. So our opponents and us were obliged to take over. So we did. One of our opponents spoke at lightening speed when reading their case and the other one had a voice that bugged both Carissa and me. But we had the most invigorating argument so far that day. And coming out of it we were 51% sure that we won that argument too.
In the middle of our third round we had some people try to walk in. So we knew that postings were up for the 4th round. We were slightly worried that we were on A flight. So we were practically running downstairs to check postings. Of course we were A flight. So we ran upstairs again. we rushed to the room and there were our opponents and the judge, waiting. so much for being early. We sat down and we began.
From the first paragraph of their case I sat in my seat stunned. I could hardly flow their case. it was in depth and hard to understand. then we did our case and then their first speaker practically grilled me in crossfire. then it was their second speakers turn and then Carissa's. In Carissa's crossfire they asked us our 'methodology' on our poll. Oh my goodness I DON'T CARE! was my thought. So that whole round I felt like my head was under water and I didn't know how to get it above water. that and they analyzed what we had to do and what they had to do to win. that was uncalled for.
By the end we knew we were being power matched because our rounds just kept getting harder and harder. After our last round we talked to everyone on our team. It was so much fun to be around such nerdy, funny people.
So the results. Ms. A told us going into the award ceremonies that Carissa and I had won all of our rounds going into our 4th round. we weren't in the top six. the thing was. we only lost our 4th debate by 1 point, and those people ended up being the first place people. A little disappointing, yes, but for our first time debating in PF; it was pretty good. So what do I have to say about debating and debaters: fun people, fun times, interesting debates, and an all around good time.
No comments:
Post a Comment