WordWell

Over the weekend, I went to Silliman University, Dumaguete City for the first Visayas Universities Debate Championship. With me were Arnold and Carmi, the two of them masscom students. Together we compose Team A of USJ-R

It’s bad having made a mark in the first Visayas Regional Debate Championship last year. That time, Jaylord, Arnold and I were the USJ-R Team A and we were awarded the top-performing team in the preliminary rounds. Jaylord was TOp 1 Best Debater, Arnold and I tied at Top 2.

Uhm, this year, there is no way but up. That’s what’s bad with debate; when you landed the top team last year, there is no way to be the second next time.

It was a last-minute decision to join the tournament (VUDC) because of financial constraints that constraint the delegation to the last minute. (Im repeating what I just wrote).

We lost one round in the preliminary. To Silliman B. That’s what’s good with debate: you win some, you lose some. What’s important is that the losing must be well-deserved, and not just a fruit of haphazard adjudication.

At the end of the preliminary rounds, I did not stay for the whole breaknight party (this is the time when the Chief Adjudicator, who was Lisandro Claudio  of Ateneo Debate Society, would announce who will advance to the semifnal round). I was in the room when people informed me that our team was the first team to be called; meaning, we earned the highest total score in our rounds. That assured me of the top three or top five best speaker/debater awards for the whole team.

That night, I had a bad nosebleed. It was an omen. The next day, we won the championship. I was awarded top 1, Arnold at Top 2, and Carmi at Top 3.

Guess who we were up against in the final round? Silliman Team B no less.

~ by emelito-torres on February 7, 2007.