California State Congress?

[Fetus]

Um, does anyone know the 2-14 results of California's State Congressional Debate?

[ctrig]

Top 14 for Congress in the CA State Champs:

1st - Andrew Chang: Arcadia
2nd - Rylan Schaeffer: Mountain View
3rd - Sebastian DeLuca: Monte Vista
4th - Tanay Kothari: Bellarmine
5th - Brendan Bashin-Sullivan: Miramonte
6th - Jonathan Ma: Mark Keppel
7th - Emily Wells: Westview
8th - Alia Fite: Miramonte
9th - David Sun: Mark Keppel
10th - Sam Stone: Monte Vista
11th - Eric Brewster: Long Beach(?)
12th - Reza Saidi: Esperanza
13th - Stacey Wong: Granite Bay
14th - Sarah Jiang: Los Osos


Does anybody know anything about the round?

[Party Animal]

Top 14 for Congress in the CA State Champs:

1st - Andrew Chang: Arcadia
2nd - Rylan Schaeffer: Mountain View
3rd - Sebastian DeLuca: Monte Vista
4th - Tanay Kothari: Bellarmine
5th - Brendan Bashin-Sullivan: Miramonte
6th - Jonathan Ma: Mark Keppel
7th - Emily Wells: Westview
8th - Alia Fite: Miramonte
9th - David Sun: Mark Keppel
10th - Sam Stone: Monte Vista
11th - Eric Brewster: Long Beach(?)
12th - Reza Saidi: Esperanza
13th - Stacey Wong: Granite Bay
14th - Sarah Jiang: Los Osos


Does anybody know anything about the round?

The Monte Vista PO (Schure?) beat the Keppel PO (Lim-Effendy) by a SINGLE vote...

[ctrig]

Yep- 12 to 11 vote.

[tk447]

I was privileged enough to participate in this round and FAR exceed my own expectations.
My thoughts:


Bhandari wasn't in the final session. This was surprising, as he was in my semis chamber and I thought he decimated everyone else. One PO commented, "He took 1st, Chang took 2nd".
DeLuca probably deserved first, Chang second, and Schaeffer third or fourth. DeLuca's clash was superior, his delivery was the smoothest, and he seemed relatively well-educated on the concepts in-round.
Chang was a surprise. He was tied for the lead coming into the final round and took 3rd in finals themselves; however, the lead in the prelims and semis enabled him to upset Schaeffer and DeLuca.
Kothari's delivery was unlike anyone else's. He's a bit of an unorthodox Senator; he focuses more on passion, delivery, and other aspects of the debate (he used no notes, for example). His refutation was decent, but his lack of experience showed in that he didn't match up to Schaeffer or DeLuca.
Kevin Hsieu, Monte Vista's Presiding Officer, was called out twice for favoring his own speakers. The first time, he was called out by Rylan Schaeffer, after only two speakers (Schaeffer contended that both had been from his league, as well as three of the four cross-examiners). The members of the chamber, including myself, found this extremely uncalled-for. Near the end, Jonathan Ma called Hsieu out for questioning--DeLuca had seven questions while Brewster only had four. This likely accounted for the close margin of victory; although Hsieu won over many of the students (from his league, especially), Lim-Effendy, who didn't get into any of these controversies, must have won over a majority of the judges, who were also given a vote for the PO competition.
Jonathan Ma went out of his way to point out that this was his last tournament (during his speech). Since one judge ranked him 1st, this clearly benefited him and made up for his largely lackluster, aggressive refutation style.
Brendan Bashin-Sullivan, who took 5th (again, I think) got into some decent clash with other Senators, namely Kothari, DeLuca, and Schaeffer.
Two recesses were declared in the middle of the first half, because there were no affirmative speakers. Finally, a negative speaker switched sides, and an affirmative speaker gave two speeches in a row, compensating for this. Hsieu's handling of this situation may also have accounted for the close ballot.
This is Lim-Effendy's second consecutive year in which he has taken 2nd place in the PO competition.

[SageShadows]

Eric Brewster's from Long Beach Poly.
The PO competition was:
Joseph Lim-Effendy: 8 students, 3 judges
Kevin Hsieu: 6 students, 6 judges.

[prof]

what makes a good Congress-er good?
i.e. what does Chang have? DeLuca? Bhandari, since people are talking about him?

[Fetus]

Chang sucks. Bhandari definitely should have won Semis A (i was in A panel but didn't break). Bhandari's refutation is beyond excellent.

[ctrig]

I would imagine style has much to do with Congress, more than any other debate. I've never competed in Congress at a very competitive level, but I'd imagine that it would. If your judges are strong enough, refutation and delivery would be taken into account- just how you present yourself and defend your arguments in round. Style isn't necessarily more important, but it definitely helps your substance quite a bit.

Chang is definitely a strong competitor, but he did come out of nowhere. I'm sure the results could have been changed to fit other preferences, but that's how it was ranked. His delivery definitely stands out amongst the others, and his refutation is decent as well. I personally would have ranked him 1st or 2nd based on individual observation, but I didn't see the Final round when they were all together.

[born2question]

Top 14 for Congress in the CA State Champs:

1st - Andrew Chang: Arcadia
2nd - Rylan Schaeffer: Mountain View
3rd - Sebastian DeLuca: Monte Vista
4th - Tanay Kothari: Bellarmine
5th - Brendan Bashin-Sullivan: Miramonte
6th - Jonathan Ma: Mark Keppel
7th - Emily Wells: Westview
8th - Alia Fite: Miramonte
9th - David Sun: Mark Keppel
10th - Sam Stone: Monte Vista
11th - Eric Brewster: Long Beach(?)
12th - Reza Saidi: Esperanza
13th - Stacey Wong: Granite Bay
14th - Sarah Jiang: Los Osos


Does anybody know anything about the round?

Emily Wells is actually from Esperanza HS.