Kenyalang Debate Open .

I actually had more to say, but I drew a blank just as the page loaded.

How was the tournament? I had two junior newbies with me. And hey, we broke and made it to the quarters. I was happy with the level of adjudication in some debates, thought I was royally pissed off by the result in one of the prelims, when I just could not accept the loss being given to us, even though we were government, opp had failed to engage us, etc etc... It's not that I had a personal issue with the adjudicator in question (she was considered one of the best after all), it's just that I could not coincide the fact that she might have had a bad round too, with me having a very average one, resulting in a decision that I just could not accept with the justification given.

I ended up somewhere in the top 20 for speakers based on scores, and I even managed to get through to the Public Speaking final, but only got third, which again ticked me off. However, the less I say about it the better. I knew I could have done better, and that's that.

I am extremely proud of my two juniors. They fought hard and fought well, with one of them breaking the 8 minute barrier, in only her 6th ever debate! She will forever be known as Miss 8 Minutes, and it is a label she can wear with pride. Heck, even I've never gone to 8 minutes, and I'm supposedly the senior one with tonnes more to say :)

A debate tournament would not be a tournament without the socialising. And it was actually pretty alright, as we had not really expected much due to it being a local tournament. With the West Malaysia teams there, it turned out pretty okay. Props go out to the SMART (Seremban Matriculation Association for Reformed Transvestites, although one of them is actually from UiTM Shah Alam), who won the whole damn thing and who provided a lot of comedic gold, as well as UiTM Sarawak for organising it, specifically the convener Paul Racha! Shoutouts goto UiTM Sabah 2, as well as UiTM Kedah, and a special mention for the UPM teams, who were always good company. I don't really know who else to thank, as the list is long, but suffice to say, thanks to all of you for a wonderful time :)

As to how the debates themselves unfolded, I have to face the very real possibility that I just do not belong as first speaker. There were times when I tried to pre-empt government cases as Opp Leader, and ended up getting jumped, or having the points I had formulated with my teammates rendered irrelevant. I felt bad as I badly let down my two juniors in our three losses throughout the tournament, although one was due to an adjudicating disagreement that I have subsequently gotten over, and one loss was due to... the other team having better English than us? (I'm sorry SMART, but you supposedly won with ONE substansive, and we had three which you couldn't take down! *raspberry*)

So am I not 1st Speaker material? I just think I need more practise with it, and more experience to boot. However, should it be proven that I am unable to properly formulate cases and think quickly on the fly to re-align our stances, then perhaps I just need to move back to 2nd speaker, or maybe 3rd. It was particularly galling for me though, that we could have, and should have, gotten to the semifinals. I'm determined more than ever to debate better, and the past few tournaments has just proven to me that I at the very least, still have some more potential to maximise.

So the debate season for this semester is over. But hey, bi-weekly training sessions are still there to be looked forward to :) And I still have the training sessions with Lodge to oversee. So it's not like I'm going to abandon debate entirely till British Parliamentary season starts in August. After this it's all exams and assignments, and the dull grind that is real life. More thoughts on that later, when I am not so depressed thinking about it.