Speech and Debate picks up with two major tournaments

The muffled sound of dinner goers in BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse was slightly louder than usual as dozens of speech and debaters met for a team bonding event on the evening of Nov. 1.

Last year, these events, started by class of 2015 alumna Anjali Manghnani, catered mostly to the individual events speakers, though anyone could join. As this year’s season started, the head coaches and students decided to continue Manghnani’s tradition, but on a larger scale.

Sophomore Divya Rallabandi organized the most recent event.

Sophomore Maya Tirumurti felt that the event helped both speech and debaters team members feel unified regardless of their specialty.

While most of the students who attended were underclassmen, Tirumurti said that it was nice to meet with the new students and make friends with debaters from her grade who she had not met before.

At the event, students discussed the upcoming tournaments, such as the National Parliamentary Debate Invitational (NPDI) held at the University of California, Berkeley, which took place on Nov. 14-15.

Due to the high level of competition at this tournament, the team had to prepare rigorously.

Since Parliamentary debaters learn their topic 20 minutes before the round, participants like the team of seniors Alex Li and Aakash Thumaty have been reading up on current events extensively. They have also been practicing kritiks, which Li said “are philosophical arguments used in debates to address the fundamental philosophical issues with a team's position."

At the tournament, Li and Thumaty, held a 4-2 record in the preliminary rounds, which allowed them to break to the double octofinals elimination round. However, Li and Thumaty lost with a 3-0 vote from the judges.

“It was quite a disappointing end,” Thumaty said. “The judges concluded that our kritik was invalid when weighing the round upon our own proposed framework.”

The upcoming Santa Clara University Dempsey Cronin Invitational will take place from Nov. 21-23. This invitational welcomes debaters and speakers in both novice and varsity.

Speakers are already preparing for the tournament alongside the debaters. Some have found unique ways to practice speaking.

Rallabandi, and avid Original Oratory speaker is making full use of her resources when practicing.

“I practice my speech in front my parents to my coaches to my family friends who aren’t fluent in English, and I treat all of their feedback with equal and utmost respect because in the end, any one of them could judge at a tournament,” Rallabandi said.

Rallabandi and other OO speakers are hoping to place well at the tournament to gain a pass to the state competition next year.