And so all that took off on a bad note must end on a bad, albeit high note.
After losing our opening round, we picked up some steam for a gallant run at the National Championship that was then staved off at the semi-finals. We got the 8th and 10th best speaker in the tournament that meant jack shit. In the end of the day, the final was so close yet, painfully so far. It was our institution's best achievement thus far and although I am happy with our new found bragging rights, I am not satisfied.
People will only remember the Numero Uno.
We lost to International Islamic University. Fuckin' terrorist wannabes screwed us over on the motion "This House Believes That The Media's Responsibility Lies With Its Shareholders" with a really funky case that defined the media as Al- Jazeera and the shareholders being the Qatari government having full ownership over the news network to counter Western media e.g. CNN, Time, NYT biased take over the war on terror.
Funky.
I just don't understand why the fuck some debate teams would twist and turn motions to tailor -suit their shameless pursuit of success. Why can't they just have open and honest debates? It was clearly a debate on media ethics v. capitalism. Why can't they just set the damn debate about Google in China? Bastards.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed that debate. I had to prepare my speech in 7 mins after tossing my earlier notes that was rendered irrelevant by their funky set up. It was a good debate. Actually it was a pretty fucked up debate, we lost Unanimous, 5-0. We got some blunt ass fucking by the adjudicators for not 'living up to the challenge' and 'not debating as well as we could have done, normally'.
What the fuck. I guess that semi final round reflected our team's infirmities. We do not have enough experience to be dynamic and it really stood out like a sore penis in later parts of the competition.
We can only get better then.
Andrea broke down after the quater finals. She was sore that she couldn't do better to respond to the opposition's case that was entirely different from what we had anticipated during prep time. The only time I cried was when I didn't break at Asian Championship despite having a good early run. I think emotions could be interpreted as a reflection of commitment towards excellence. I don't blame her for failing to respond. None of us could have done better that her and I thought she provided just the right platform for me to come in to rock everyone's balls off. I still hold that my Prime Minister could not have been anyone better and she made our Quater final round a winning one.
Things got worse in the Semis and it was just our luck and incompetency that we had failed to advance. We literally debated without an idea what the fuck the opposition was talking about. Andrea was blanked out. Massive. Being a communications student, she was jumping up and down when the motion was released and it was about media ethics. She got totally hit in the face when those fuckers twisted the motion. I hated myself when I could not help her out when she wanted me to go Opposition Leader at the eleventh hour because she didn't get what the fuck was goin' on in the debate. I am not an advocate of last minute speaker role change and I thought it'd be wiser if I stayed back for the damage control. She took up the challenge and went out to fight off those morons like a true champion.
Alas, our lack of dynamicism and inexperience was far too great a hurdle to be overcome within the time frame of a speech. By the time it was Rueben's time to speak, we had already lost the debate despite him being the only one who understood what was goin' on. I enjoyed our semi-finals nonetheless.
The best part about this Nationals is not the results. It is about the trust that I have in my team mates. Andrea and Rueben practically carried my ass thru out the preliminary rounds. I was not debating good at all. The words weren't comin' and I was choking on 'em when they arrive. My speeches were all in a big mess. At times that most mattered, Andrea took up the gauntlet and took the pressure off me to lead the team's case. Rueben was in full throttle with his rebuttals and the quality of my first and third speakers made my fucked up speech look acceptable. When we qualified for the break as the 3rd best team overall, Rueben came up and gave me the assurance that he knew that I was just saving my best for the knock out rounds that would matter most. Like how Zidane peaked for France when he was was most needed. That assurance from my team mates meant a world to me at a time when I doubted myself and thought that I was causing the team to fall. Nonetheless, true enough, I'd think my best rounds came in the knock outs.
Team work is all about helping and trusting each other. My team mates didn't blame me when I was talking shit out there and didn't contribute jack shit to our case construction. And I didn't think our loss was due to a fault that was individual. It has always been a team effort from the get go. I am proud and very honored to be debating with these kids.
Winning is just a subset of those little wonderful discoveries along the way that makes the ride a memorable one.
After losing our opening round, we picked up some steam for a gallant run at the National Championship that was then staved off at the semi-finals. We got the 8th and 10th best speaker in the tournament that meant jack shit. In the end of the day, the final was so close yet, painfully so far. It was our institution's best achievement thus far and although I am happy with our new found bragging rights, I am not satisfied.
People will only remember the Numero Uno.
We lost to International Islamic University. Fuckin' terrorist wannabes screwed us over on the motion "This House Believes That The Media's Responsibility Lies With Its Shareholders" with a really funky case that defined the media as Al- Jazeera and the shareholders being the Qatari government having full ownership over the news network to counter Western media e.g. CNN, Time, NYT biased take over the war on terror.
Funky.
I just don't understand why the fuck some debate teams would twist and turn motions to tailor -suit their shameless pursuit of success. Why can't they just have open and honest debates? It was clearly a debate on media ethics v. capitalism. Why can't they just set the damn debate about Google in China? Bastards.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed that debate. I had to prepare my speech in 7 mins after tossing my earlier notes that was rendered irrelevant by their funky set up. It was a good debate. Actually it was a pretty fucked up debate, we lost Unanimous, 5-0. We got some blunt ass fucking by the adjudicators for not 'living up to the challenge' and 'not debating as well as we could have done, normally'.
What the fuck. I guess that semi final round reflected our team's infirmities. We do not have enough experience to be dynamic and it really stood out like a sore penis in later parts of the competition.
We can only get better then.
Andrea broke down after the quater finals. She was sore that she couldn't do better to respond to the opposition's case that was entirely different from what we had anticipated during prep time. The only time I cried was when I didn't break at Asian Championship despite having a good early run. I think emotions could be interpreted as a reflection of commitment towards excellence. I don't blame her for failing to respond. None of us could have done better that her and I thought she provided just the right platform for me to come in to rock everyone's balls off. I still hold that my Prime Minister could not have been anyone better and she made our Quater final round a winning one.
Things got worse in the Semis and it was just our luck and incompetency that we had failed to advance. We literally debated without an idea what the fuck the opposition was talking about. Andrea was blanked out. Massive. Being a communications student, she was jumping up and down when the motion was released and it was about media ethics. She got totally hit in the face when those fuckers twisted the motion. I hated myself when I could not help her out when she wanted me to go Opposition Leader at the eleventh hour because she didn't get what the fuck was goin' on in the debate. I am not an advocate of last minute speaker role change and I thought it'd be wiser if I stayed back for the damage control. She took up the challenge and went out to fight off those morons like a true champion.
Alas, our lack of dynamicism and inexperience was far too great a hurdle to be overcome within the time frame of a speech. By the time it was Rueben's time to speak, we had already lost the debate despite him being the only one who understood what was goin' on. I enjoyed our semi-finals nonetheless.
The best part about this Nationals is not the results. It is about the trust that I have in my team mates. Andrea and Rueben practically carried my ass thru out the preliminary rounds. I was not debating good at all. The words weren't comin' and I was choking on 'em when they arrive. My speeches were all in a big mess. At times that most mattered, Andrea took up the gauntlet and took the pressure off me to lead the team's case. Rueben was in full throttle with his rebuttals and the quality of my first and third speakers made my fucked up speech look acceptable. When we qualified for the break as the 3rd best team overall, Rueben came up and gave me the assurance that he knew that I was just saving my best for the knock out rounds that would matter most. Like how Zidane peaked for France when he was was most needed. That assurance from my team mates meant a world to me at a time when I doubted myself and thought that I was causing the team to fall. Nonetheless, true enough, I'd think my best rounds came in the knock outs.
Team work is all about helping and trusting each other. My team mates didn't blame me when I was talking shit out there and didn't contribute jack shit to our case construction. And I didn't think our loss was due to a fault that was individual. It has always been a team effort from the get go. I am proud and very honored to be debating with these kids.
Winning is just a subset of those little wonderful discoveries along the way that makes the ride a memorable one.
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