First debate!

[huntersblade]

Well, i am at my first debate tournament and got out of my first round. It was interesting. We lost, for sure, but that is to be expected. It was my first round, my teammate had never run Leader of Opposition before, and the team we were against were varsity. BUT! I did not freeze up and totally fail. Another round soon. :O

Comments

[czgoldedition]

So, I watched one of the videos on the website you linked (a round involving a case to close "Harvey Milk school" due to the government team's assertion that it presented dangerous potential for a self-initiated segregation that winds up snowballing) and it looked really awesome! So then I wound up reading some information about it and... wow, yeah, parliamentary definitely seems like an enjoyable, rational form of debate overall. Definitely way more realistic and reasonable that policy was, lol. (In a general wiki article about various forms of debate, policy was actually compared to parliamentary: "In comparison to parliamentary debate, policy debate relies more on researched evidence and tends to have a larger sphere of what is considered legitimate argument, including counterplans, critical theory, and debate about the theoretical standards of the activity itself. While rhetoric is important and reflected in the "speaker points" given to each debater, each round is usually decided based on who has "won" the argument according to the evidence and logic presented. Additionally, in certain segments of the activity, debaters may "spread" (speak very rapidly), in order to present as much evidence and information as possible and counter the other side" - AKA, policy is INSANE and obscure and parliamentary is more realistic and rational, ahaha. (Not that I didn't enjoy the insanity at times.) Looks like the form of debate you're participating in definitely does not have to deal with speed debaters; people seemed to take their time talking and enunciated quite clearly in the video I watched. Which is fantastic. Holy crap... I don't know, I have a desire to try it. Although since it relies less on being able to produce direct evidence and more on personal knowledge I'm not sure if I'd be all that fantastic at it. Maybe with a lot of research/time put in learning things.

Anyway, glad you're enjoying yourself! Good luck! You'll have to tell me all about it in more detail next time we talk! :D