Have you ever felt mentally exhausted after three hours of cramming for a test, still needing to prepare for three more? Unable to keep your eyes open due to chronic dizziness? Do you need some unseriousness between your YouTube lecture binge-watching sessions?
The Speech and Debate team understands exactly how you feel. Between brain-racking, overly caffeinated rounds of debate, we use a variety of games to lock in and bond with the team. Here’s a list of our favorite ones that you can try with your friends.
- Card games
B.S., War and Poker are all great options that are easy to learn, especially if you don’t have access to your phone. All you need is a deck of cards and some friends who are just as bored as you. There is pretty much no limit to the number of players, and the games require just enough critical thinking to be comfortable. Card games are great for helping the Debate team warm up for our next grueling round.
When the Debate team is not competing in person, group video games over calls are great options. These often require less brainpower and are great when we’ve already spent hours staring at the screen.
In Putt Party, you can practice your golfing skills by competing with friends online and working through a variety of different fields. Gartic Phone, the digital version of pictionary, has you interpreting phrases and drawing them out for your friends to guess. Both are a great way to de-stress.
2048 is particularly great for when I don’t feel like interacting with the rest of my team. Is your social battery dead? I have reached many high scores at debate tournaments alone, sitting on the floor tapping on my phone.
The speech team vouches for the Papa’s food empire as the best game to play for kicks and giggles. There’s nothing better than serving game customers online instead of in-person! Plus, it’s fun to work a night shift at Papa’s games and earn no money for all your intensive labor.
- New York Times Games
The New York Times is a great source for evidence to cite in a debate round, but also provides great entertainment. You can read the news to catch up on current events, or try to get your next high score on the crossword, Wordle, Spelling Bee, or Connections.
Most people who aren’t in debate may never be in a position of attempting to survive 12-hour tournaments. In this case, you can use any of these games to help you lock in between other mentally exhausting activities (like locking in for second semester). Good luck and have fun!
