This debate tournament was at the same league as the 12/5 tournament. I was very excited for this tournament because I wanted to see if I had improved since the last time I attended. This time, our team actually placed 10th in the varsity division! And we won one more round than the last time, from 2:2 to 3:1. Even though there is still room for improvement, I am still very proud of how much I improved!

I attended a debate tournament on 12/12, the second tournament of the year. The thing that made this tournament different from the last one, was that all of the rounds were ‘impromtus’, where the topics would be announced during the tournament instead of weeks before. This meant that we would have to prepare during the tournament itself. This was also at our old league, the one that we already attended before last year. Unlike the 12/5 tournament, this one only had 3 tournaments.

1. Pineapples do not belong on pizza
2. The voting age should be lowered to 16
3. The NYC is a better place to live than the DMV

My debate team joined a new league this year, in order to attend more tournaments even during the pandemic. Our first tournament this year would be the tournament on December 5th, in the new league, New York Debate League (NYDL, also being my first tournament as a 8th grader. The topics for this tournament were

1. There should be no required subjects in high school.
2. Museums and galleries should display art anonymously
3. The two-party system is bad for American democracy

There were four rounds for the debate, so we debated one of the topics: ‘There should be no required subjects in high school’ 2 times, once on pro and another on con.

My team lost the first round, but I tried to keep positive, after all, there were 3 more rounds. However, after losing the very next round, I began to lose hope. But I knew that I couldn’t just feel bad, instead I just needed to work hard for the next two remaining rounds. After that, we actually won the next two rounds, and ended the tournament 2-2