Finalist Interviews

Zoe Ewing (Scarsdale ZE), Finalist

Question: Was there a particular round you debated at this tournament in which you really enjoyed the argument interaction/clash in?
Zoe Ewing: I had a ton of really interesting rounds! My semis round had a lot of interesting in depth substantive clash. My opponent had ink on practically every one of my arguments and made me remember the importance of argument quality over quantity. I also enjoyed my octas round because I was expecting to debate against some very LARPy plan aff but opened up the speech doc and saw a logic table.

Q: How do you like this topic compared to others you’ve debated and why?
ZE: This was my only tournament on the topic, but I really liked it. I tend to really like the legal topics because they’re smaller and lend themselves to either good framework comparison or interesting K positions. I did like nuclear power slightly better, but that could be me just becoming more attached to my SeptOct aff–probably because I just read that aff in more rounds.

Q: What tournament are you most looking forward to next?
ZE: Blake is coming up in only two weeks–I love Blake because it’s really well run and is the first tournament of the topic so can sometimes help set trends for what the topic shapes up to be. It can also quickly show which affs aren’t viable in a setting where no one has a ton of prep, so reading a vulnerable aff isn’t as risky.

Q: Are there any positions/issues in debate that you’re passionate about that you’d like to speak about?
ZE: I think it’s really important to not take absolute stances against any form or style of debate or characterize debaters who read certain types of arguments in a negative light. My favorite thing about debate is the huge variety it lends itself to, and encouraging debaters to read positions they enjoy reading is more important than cajoling everyone to conform to the same model.

Main Tournament

Round 1

Pairings | Results

Round 2

Pairings | Results

Round 3

Pairings | Results

Round 4

Pairings | Results

Round 5

Pairings | Results

Round 6

Pairings | Results

Bracket

Speaker Awards

1. Zoe Posner (Bronx HS Of Science ZP)
2. Raffi Piliero (Harrison RP)
3. Zoe Ewing (Scarsdale ZE)
4. Ariel Azbel (Lake Highland Prep AA)
5. Xavier Roberts-Gaal (Walt Whitman XR)
6. Zack Gelles (Scarsdale ZG)
7. Michael Landau (Scarsdale ML)
8. Chris Sun (Millburn CS)
9. Lauren Singer (Scarsdale LS)
10. Lauren Cole (Harrison LC)

Run-Off Round

Ridge JH def. Lexington PZ (Blatt, Lutfy, Reyes)
Millburn CS def. Lexington SA (Bhave, Gosain, Ulene)
Lake Highland Prep JW def. Lexington VR (Erlander, Hu, Li)
Princeton NE def. Montville RU (Baxter, Matthew, Zhou)
Stuyvesant AS def. Montville AH (Darnov, Kuo, Robbins)
Hunter ML def. Syosset LF (Curtis, Gizzarelli, Lee)
Lexington NN def. Timber Creek DW (Davis-Marks, Pai, Zymeri)
Harrison CS walks over Harrison EL (Bye)
Chaminade JM def. Hunter MN (Hertzig, Monagle, Zhou)
Harrison LC def. Chaminade TF (Garg, Rao, Tkachuk)
Syosset JW def. Bronx HS of Science JJ (Lu, Quiroz, Traber)
Ridge VT def. Harrison BS (Coyne, Eikelberner, Wang)
Scarsdale NI def. Stuyvesant PY (Horowitz, Nebel, Sigalow)
Byram Hills RP def. Millburn AJ (Korn, Staunton, Tang)
Scarsdale ZG def. Bridgewater Raritan JB (Hinston, Hordines, Thomas)

Double-Octafinals

Syosset AM def. Harrison LC (Darnov, Gizzarelli, Wang)
Ridge VK def. Lake Highland Prep JW (Coyne, Davis-Marks, Korn)
Walt Whitman XR def. Hunter ML (Horowitz, Monagle, Pai)
Harrison RP def. Byram Hills RP (Korn, Li, Wang)
Lexington NG def. Princeton NE (Blatt, Hu, Ulene)
Stuyvesant AS def. Newtown AH (Davis-Marks, Gosain, Staunton)
Bronx HS Of Science ZP def. Ridge VT (Antigua, Gizzarelli, Quiroz)
Scarsdale ZG def. Randolph AP (Bhave, Nebel, Sigalow)
Scarsdale LS def. Ridge JH (Lu, Reyes, Zhou)
Scarsdale ML walked over Scarsdale NI (Bye)
Harrison MZ def. Lexington NN (Blatt, Monagle, Nebel)
Thomas Jefferson VT def. Cape Fear MA (Hinston, Tang, Zhou)
Syosset JW def. Bronx HS Of Science GM (Kuo, Quiroz, Traber)
Scarsdale ZE def. Harrison CS (Lu, Pai, Reyes)
Chaminade JM def. Lake Highland Prep AA (Hertzig, Tesch, Tkachuk)
Millburn CS def. Byram Hills LP (Bhave, Gosain, Staunton)

Octafinals

Harrison RP def. Thomas Jefferson VT (Nebel, Coyne, Blatt)
Scarsdale ZE def. Lexington NG (Li, Erlanger, Bhave)
Chaminade JM def. Scarsdale ZG (Rao, Persuad, Horowitz)
Syosset JW def. Scarsdale ML (Traber, Lu, Hinston)
Scarsdale LS def. Ridge VK (Zhou, Sigalow, Korn)
Harrison MZ def. Stuyvesant AS (Staunton, Hu, Eikelberner)
Walt Whitman XR def. Millburn CS (Ulene, Pai, Gosain)
Syosset AM def. Bronx HS Of Science ZP (Antigua, Wang, Quiroz)

Quarterfinals

Syosset AM def. Walt Whitman XR (Nebel, Reyes, Zhou)
Scarsdale ZE walked over Scarsdale LS (Bye)
Harrison RP walked over Harrison MZ (Bye)
Chaminade JM def. Syosset JW (Baxter, Hinston, Kuzmenko)

Semifinals

Harrison RP def. Syosset AM (Wang, Reyes, Nebel)
Scarsdale ZE def. Chaminade JM (Horowitz, Hertzig, Garg)

Finals

Harrison RP def. Scarsdale ZE (Lu, Bhave, Reyes)

Champion

Raffi Piliero (Harrison RP)

Scouting Report

Bid Level: Semifinals
Entries: 141 (As of 11/30)
Last Year’s Finals: Scarsdale ZE and Scarsdale ZG close out.

Debaters with Bids (As of 11/30):
Harrison RP (6)
Harrison MZ (1)
Lake Highland Prep AA (5)
Lake Highland JW (1)
Millburn CS (2)
Scarsdale ZE (3)
Scarsdale LS (1)
Scarsdale ZG (1)
Stuyvesant AS (1)
Syosset JW (2)
Syosset AM (1)
Bronx Science ZP (1)
Walt Whitman XR (2)