The debate team sent five pairings to the National Parliamentary Debate League Tournament of Champions (NPDL-TOC) in San Diego last weekend, culminating the debate season. Teams qualified by placing well in previous tournaments, and only 66 of the nation’s top teams were invited.
The M-A Debate team participates in a format of debate known as parliamentary debate. Pairs of two have 20 minutes to prepare arguments for or against a resolution. Resolutions ranged from “It is in the best interest of Iran to pursue nuclear weapons” to “A society that guarantees employment is preferable to a society that guarantees income.” Parliamentary is extemporaneous, unlike formats that allow debaters to prepare arguments ahead of time.
The tournament began with seven preliminary rounds, with two judges per round. Teams that perform well in these rounds moved on to a 16-team single-elimination bracket to compete for the championship.
The Bears had their best showing yet, going undefeated in the elimination rounds. Senior Gustav Singel and junior Thomas Greenleaf co-championed the tournament alongside senior Shawnak Shivakumar* and junior Vesta Kassayan*. Both pairings made it to the finals and shared the win. M-A is the only school to ever co-champion the TOC, also having done it in 2021.
The team prepared for months leading up to the tournament. “I did a lot of practice rounds with the other advanced debaters on the team,” Singel said.
The Bears came into the tournament open-minded and with high spirits. “I think both [Neel and I] were going into it with [the mindset], ‘This is one of the final tournaments of our senior year, let’s just make the most of it and have as much fun as possible,’” senior Daniel Matloub said.
The Bears excelled, with four of five teams advancing to the Octofinals—the first stage of elimination rounds—where only 16 teams get to compete. Shivakumar and Kassayan were the top seeded team with a 12-2 preliminary record.
Freshmen Koji Edmunds* and James Greenleaf drew against Shivakumar and Kassayan in the Octofinals and conceded, so the higher-seeded M-A team could advance to the quarterfinals. There, Shivakumar and Kassayan beat a team from Nueva High School in San Mateo on a unanimous decision, arguing in favor of the topic, “The US federal government should give military aid to the Sudanese military to combat The Rapid Support Forces,” and advancing to the semifinals.
Matloub and senior Neel Gangam also had a phenomenal run, defeating teams from Nueva and King High School in Stamford, Connecticut to reach the semifinals. They too drew to go up against the higher-seeded Shivakumar and Kassayan and conceded, allowing Shivakumar and Kassayan to advance to the finals.
On the other side of the bracket, Singel and T. Greenleaf won two consecutive rounds, advancing to the semifinals.
Once there, they opposed the resolution: “The US federal government should normalize diplomatic relations with the Taliban government of Afghanistan.” The M-A pair argued that normalization would legitimize a regime with an active criminal record while empowering it to restrict humanitarian aid channels that currently bypass Taliban control. After a contentious debate, Singel and T. Greenleaf won the round on a 5-2 decision, capturing the votes of a majority of the seven judges.
After the many M-A wins and draws, the duos of Singel and T. Greenleaf and Shivakumar and Kassayan were paired against each other in the final round. Being from the same school, they elected to share the win in a practice known as a “closeout,” officially becoming co-champions.
Despite the tournament consisting of competitive matches from the country’s best debaters, the environment was encouraging and friendly. “It’s a very welcoming, open, social community for debate,” Matloub said.
No one was expecting the overwhelming victory. “I wanted to get far, but I didn’t expect to win,” T. Greenleaf said.
“The future of M-A debate is looking bright, and anyone who’s interested should join,” Matloub added.
*Shawnak Shivakumar, Vesta Kassayan, and Koji Edmunds are journalists for the M-A Chronicle.
