The Prospect Invitational yesterday (Saturday, October 29th, 2011) was my first debate tournament for a full year—I didn’t manage to get to any as a junior. As a result, it came to be somewhat of a surprise as my partner (Anjana Rao) and I finished the tournament with a 5-0 undefeated record.
More than just the debate, though, my speaking seems to have changed pretty significantly—I used to get relatively few speaker points, and rely on argumentation to win, but at Prospect I walked away with the second speaker award (following first by only 0.25 speaker points).
Since Prospect had hidden elimination rounds, the final round (that is, the Finals round) was rather interesting. The second speaker on the team we were supposed to debate (Milpitas GO) had decided to leave with his girlfriend, since we were unaware that it was actually the Finals round. As a result, another member of their team stepped in to fill the spot, and we began the debate. Just after my first speech, however, their coach ran in and forfeited them, giving us the win… with a seven-minute round.
