From April 2-3, members of the speech and debate team sat in crowded rooms at the Santa Clara University Philalethic Invitational surrounded by students from different schools; some held bags of food from Ike’s Sandwiches, while others mindlessly scrolled through their Facebook feeds. They waited and watched, scanning the room nervously for a tournament official to come holding a stack of papers that indicated which teams would break to the elimination rounds of the tournament.
When word of the results came, they were disappointed: Of the 15 entries the team sent to the tournament, only one team had advanced past the preliminary rounds.
Sophomore Varun Meduri, who competed with his partner sophomore Gaurav Mohan in varsity Parliamentary Debate, remembers his elation when he saw his team’s name listed on one of the sheets, indicating that they would advance into the elimination rounds of the tournament.
“I felt really excited because we weren’t expecting to break,” Meduri said. “But I immediately tried to calm myself before going into the elimination round.”
The pair later learned that they had won four out of their five preliminary rounds, ranking 14th out of the 70 teams total. But in their first elimination round, they lost to a team from Bentley High School, a top-ranked Parliamentary Debate team in the nation.
Mohan and Meduri debated against the resolution: “The U.S. Federal Government should significantly increase restrictions on its domestic surveillance activities.” Naturally, they were dissatisfied with the loss but attributed it to issues with an inexperienced judging pool.
Mohan had initially hoped the judges in the elimination rounds would be former varsity debaters. Based on the judges’ comments such as a “very clear statement,” Mohan said he could tell his judges were parents with limited experience in judging debate.
Sophomore Austin Wang, a debater who watched the round, also said he remembers hearing the other team comment on Mohan and Meduri’s strong performance after the round was over. The ballots from the judges later showed that the opposition had won largely because of how they had defined “domestic” in the resolution during the round, even though Mohan and Meduri believe they had stronger arguments.
“I don’t understand why speech and debate tournaments [often] put inexperienced parents as judges,” Mohan said. “Former or current debaters can actually give proper feedback that helps us.”
When the tournament official entered the room and posted the results for the next round, Mohan remembered feeling disappointed that he and Meduri did not advance.
“I expected to break to the next round,” Mohan said. “I felt cheated.”
Afterwards, Mohan and Meduri stayed and attended the awards ceremony with sophomore Divya Rallabandi, who placed first in Varsity Oratorical Interpretation and fifth in Varsity Original Oratory. In spite of the issues with less experienced judges, Mohan said he enjoyed the tournament overall.
“It’s a great educational experience as well as a great way to hang out with friends,” Mohan said.
Neither Mohan nor Meduri will be competing at the 2016 California State Speech and Debate tournament from April 15-18 or the upcoming 2016 National Tournament in Salt Lake City, Utah from June 12-17.
Rallabandi and sophomore Varun Viswanath qualified to the state tournament in Oratorical Interpretation, and freshman Arian Raje and sophomore Kyle Wang will be going to nationals in June, competing in Extemporaneous Speaking.
