2016 MinneApple Debate Tournament
Finalist Interviews
Raffi Piliero (Harrison RP), Round Robin Finalist
Question: What does it feel like to debate finals after a whole day of rounds? Is it exhausting or does the adrenaline/excitement kick in for finals?
Raffi Piliero: It’s a bit of both. It’s definitely tiring, in that you’ve had so many rounds back to back at that point. At the Minneapple, this was especially prevalent, given that it was all single flighted, so there was little to no downtime in between rounds. However, the fact that you’re in a big round does definitely lead to excitement – the exhaustion more sets in afterwards.
Q: Was there a particular round you debated at this tournament/RR in which you really enjoyed the argument interaction/clash in? If not, what was your favorite position that you read at this tournament?
RP: I actually enjoyed all of the RR rounds to some extent – one underrated aspects about RRs is how argumentatively diverse they can be, due to panels of judges that aren’t similar (given that there aren’t prefs, in most cases). I guess the round that stood out the most to me was RR finals, given the amount of moving pieces in this particular debate. The Aff was a whole res structural violence position, and I went for the Cap K, Court Clog, and Elections. I assumed that it was going to be more of a policy type debate, but then the 1AR was 2 new shells (dispo bad and durable fiat good), which threw the round into a totally different dimension. I thought this was a fun round, given the number of different angles and strategic maneuvers that took place.
Q: What do you think best prepared you for this tournament/RR?
RP: I tried to go into the tournament with as much generic prep as I possibly could – I knew it would be difficult to predict the specific plans people would be reading, but I knew that it would be important to have positions that would link to all Affs. Additionally, I recognized that it was a complex legal topic, so I tried to familiarize myself with it as much as possible. Finally, I tried to do as many practice rounds as I could before the tournament, to ensure that I had round experience on a new topic.
Round Robin
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Bracket
Speaker Awards
- Oliver Sussman (Cambridge Rindge and Latin OS)
- Raffi Piliero (Harrison RP)
- Shruthi Krishnan (Greenhill SK)
Finals
Cambridge Rindge and Latin OS def. Harrison RP (Smith, Murphy, Lumpee, Gorski, Students)
Champion
Oliver Sussman (Cambridge Rindge and Latin OS)
Main Tournament
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Bracket
Speaker Awards
- Raffi Piliero (Harrison RP)
- Xavier Roberts-Gaal (Walt Whitman XR)
- Danny Frank-Siegel (Evanston Township DF)
- Parker Whitfill (Phoenix Country Day PW)
- Lavanya Singh (Mission San Jose LS)
- Trent Gilbert (West Des Moines Valley TG)
- Shruthi Krishnan (Greenhill SK)
- Richard Cook (Strake Jesuit CP RC)
- Kyle Yuan (Collegiate KY)
- TJ Foley (West Des Moines Valley TF)
Partial Triple-Octafinals
Oakwood School – North Hollywood AW def. Walt Whitman DH (Eckert, Koh, Nubel)
Lake Highland Prep MK def. Lexington VV (Castillo, Chapman, Davis-Marks)
Harrison CS def. Lake Highland Prep RS (Holguin, Wang, Zhou)
Strake Jesuit CP MC def. Stuyvesant PY (Evnen, Lonam, Quiroz)
Strake Jesuit CP JH def. Harrison LC (Fife, Smith, Taylor)
Byram Hills JB (Bye)
Collegiate KY (Bye)
West Des Moines Valley TF (Bye)
West Des Moines Valley KK (Bye)
Harker SP (Bye)
Dougherty Valley CS (Bye)
Millard North GB (Bye)
Collegiate DM (Bye)
Barrington TC (Bye)
Syosset AM (Bye)
West Des Moines Valley SC (Bye)
West Des Moines Valley TG (Bye)
West Des Moines Valley EM (Bye)
Scarsdale NI (Bye)
Harrison RP (Bye)
West Des Moines Valley CT (Bye)
Phoenix Country Day PW (Bye)
Scarsdale GZ (Bye)
Walt Whitman XR (Bye)
Greenhill SK (Bye)
Lake Highland Prep AA (Bye)
Cambridge Rindge and Latin OS (Bye)
Harvard-Westlake JD (Bye)
Lake Highland Prep MC (Bye)
Harvard-Westlake WP (Bye)
Scarsdale ZG (Bye)
Mission San Jose LS (Bye)
Double-Octafinals
West Des Moines Valley CT walked over West Des Moines Valley KK (Bye)
Lake Highland Prep MC def. Syosset AM (Fife, Fee, Eckert)
Dougherty Valley CS def. West Des Moines Valley SC (Theis, Panchanadam, McNeil)
Cambridge Rindge and Latin OS def. Strake Jesuit CP JH (You, Powell, Hock)
Harrison RP def. Strake Jesuit CP MC (Lumpee, Koh, Holgui)
Mission San Jose LS def. Lake Highland Prep MK (Taylor, Eastlund, Chapman)
Harvard-Westlake JD def. Scarsdale GZ (Nave, Doneen, Castillo)
Lake Highland Prep AA def. Barrington TC (Quiroz, Nubel, Gorski)
Collegiate DM def. Scarsdale NI (Sigalow, Mattson, Kumar)
West Des Moines Valley EM def. Byram Hills JB (Murphy, Legried, Evnen)
Scarsdale ZG def. Walt Whitman XR (Zhou, Smith, Shore)
Millard North GB def. Phoenix Country Day PW (Wang, Riano, Kollar)
Greenhill SK def. Harrison CS (Thomas-McGinnis, Brundage, Bentley)
West Des Moines Valley TG def. Oakwood School – North Hollywood AW (Smith, Lonam, Ahlstrom)
Collegiate KY def. Harker SP (Kuang, Kaczmarek, Davis-Marks)
West Des Moines Valley TF def. Harvard-Westlake WP (Niemann, Hertzig, Burdt)
Octafinals
Lake Highland Prep AA def. Collegiate KY (Wang, Taylor, Davis-Mark)
West Des Moines Valley TG def. Collegiate DM (Singh, Sigalow, Burdt)
Mission San Jose LS def. West Des Moines Valley CT (McNeil, Koh, Hock)
Harrison RP def. West Des Moines Valley EM (Smith, Gorski, Evnen)
Cambridge Rindge and Latin OS def. Scarsdale ZG (Shore, Holguin, Castillo)
West Des Moines Valley TF def. Harvard-Westlake JD (Lonam, Hertzig, Brundage)
Syosset AM def. Dougherty Valley CS (Quiroz, Nave, Murphy)
Greenhill SK def. Millard North GB (Zhou, You, Fife)
Quarterfinals
Mission San Jose LS def. West Des Moines Valley TG (Lonam, Gorski, Fife)
Cambridge Rindge and Latin OS def. West Des Moines Valley TF (You, Hertzig, Evnen)
Greenhill SK def. Syosset AM (Taylor, Powell, Murphy)
Lake Highland Prep AA def. Harrison RP (Zhou, Wang, Smith)
Semifinals
Greenhill SK def. Mission San Jose LS (Powell, Murphy, Davis-Marks)
Cambridge Rindge and Latin OS def. Lake Highland Prep AA (Zhou, You, Taylor)
Finals
Cambridge Rindge and Latin OS def. Greenhill SK (Zhou, You, Taylor)
Champion
Oliver Sussman (Cambridge Rindge and Latin OS)
Scouting Report
Bid Level: Octafinals
Entries (As of 10/31): 117
Last Year’s Finals: Greenhill BE def. West Des Moines Valley TG (Tartakovsky, Miller-Melin, Hoffa)
Debaters with Bids (As of 10/31):
Cambridge Rindge and Latin OS (2)
Collegiate KY (1)
Dulles AW (1)
Greenhill SK (3)
Harrison MZ (1)
Harrison RP (3)
Harvard-Westlake JD (1)
Harvard-Westlake SP (1)
Lake Highland Prep AA (3)
Lake Highland Prep MK (2)
Lake Highland SG (1)
Millard North GB (1)
Mission San Jose LS (1)
Phoenix Country Day PW (2)
Scarsdale GZ (2)
Scarsdale LS (1)
Strake Jesuit CP MC (1)
Strake Jesuit CP RC (3)
Harker EM (2)
Harker SP (2)
Walt Whitman XR (2)
West Des Moines Valley CT (1)
West Des Moines Valley EM (1)
West Des Moines Valley TF (1)
West Des Moines Valley TG (2)
