2016 Ridge Debates
Finalist Interviews
Lauren Cole (Harrison LC)
Question: Was there a particular round you debated at this tournament in which you really enjoyed the argument interaction/clash in?
Lauren Cole: There were a lot of rounds at the tournament that I enjoyed because a lot of debaters were running K’s. In all but one of my rounds at ridge there was at least one kritical layer. One of my favorite rounds was against a K aff involving arguments for why narratives must be in rounds. Although I don’t necessarily believe that it’s a fair burden that the neg must have a counter narrative I do believe that it is interesting to look at real situations where real people were affected by aspects of the topic. It allows the topic to become personalized and restores a humanizing perspective to debate that has largely been lost because of procedurals or extinction impacts.
Q: What was your favorite Neg position?
LC: There are a lot of interesting and strategic neg positions on this topic but my favorite one was the Cincinnati counterplan which involved and enacting community solutions to policing. It was a great position because it had impacts back to improving the community relations between citizens and officers so it solved for police brutality which the majority of affs were based on. It was also strategic because it had a statistical analysis showing that it worked in Cincinnati and no affs that I had come across had any empirical solvency. It was only textually competitive but it was short so I read an NC, DA, or a bunch of case turns so affs rarely had access to perms.
Q: How do you like this topic compared to others you’ve debated and why?
LC: Qualified immunity was a great topic because it involved key issues that are currently polarizing the country. The topic necessitated that debaters engage in methods to resolve issues of police brutality, institutional practices that condone brutality, and the effect of law enforcement to specific communities. When to the topic first came out I was fearful of meaningless debates about with the word “limit” means due to the wording of the topic. Thankfully this wasn’t an issue in any of my rounds and this topic really was a win for critical engagement. The clash was also some of the best I’ve ever seen due to the legal intricacies of QI. All in all, debaters surprisingly engaged with each other’s arguments so this topic was one of my favorites.
Main Tournament
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Bracket
Speaker Awards
- Pacy Yan (Stuyvesant PY)
- Aida Bathily (Success Academy AB)
- Andrew Hong (Montville AH)
- Sekou Cisse (Success Academy SC)
- Lauren Cole (Harrison LC)
- Venuri Desilva (Lexington VD)
- David Asafu-Adjaye (Newark Science DA)
- Osmane Sanogo (Newark Science OS)
- Chris Pan (Princeton CP)
- Matt Gofman (Hendrick Hudson MG)
Double-Octafinals
Stuyvesant PY (Bye)
Stuyvesant KL def. Princeton NE (Quadir, Staunton, Wyche)
Lexington KLo def. Montville AH (Astacio, Thompson, Wyche)
Lexington LE def. Bridgewater Raritan RK (Fakorede, Monclut, Teehan)
Success Academy AB def. Scarsdale SB (Holguin, Luddy, Meleta)
Millburn AW def. Princeton DC (Qadir, Staunton, Wilson)
Harrison LC def. Montville AL (Fakorede, Gofman, Norman)
Princeton DL def. Stuyvesant AS (Antigua, Astacio, Brickfield)
Success Academy SC def. Princeton DS (Hansen, Min, Monclut)
Newark Science DA def. Montville AS (Antigua, Baxter, Khan)
Lexington AK def. Princeton CP (Kukreja, Quiroz, Wang)
Newark Science OA def. Lexington NV (Huang, Luddy, Meleta)
Bronx HS of Science AS def. Lexington VD (Lutfy, Quiroz, Wilson)
Lexington OR walks over Lexington MP (Bye)
Newark Science OS def. Scarsdale SH (Dinius, Huang, Min)
Hendrick Hudson MG def. Lexingon KL (Kukreja, Teehan, Torchio)
Octafinals
Stuyvesant KL def. Hendrick Hudson MG (Astacio, Fakorede, Hansen)
Newark Science DA def. Lexington KLo (Darnov, Khan, Teehan)
Newark Science OA def. Lexington LE (Luddy, Staunton, Wyche)
Harrison LC def. Success Academy AB (Kairu, Min, Wang)
Millburn AW def. Stuyvesant PY (Gofman, Montague, Thompson)
Newark Science OS def. Princeton DL (Bekal, Brickfield, Torchio)
Success Academy SC def. Lexington AK (Huang, Monclut, Qadir)
Bronx HS of Science AS def. Lexington OR (Kukreja, Quiroz, Wilson)
Quarterfinals
Stuyvesant KL def. Success Academy SC (Fakorede, Hansen, Yu)
Newark Science DA walks over Newark Science OS (Bye)
Newark Science OA def. Millburn AW (Khan, Norman, Teehan)
Harrison LC def. Bronx HS of Science AS (Darnov, Wang, Wyche)
Semifinals
Harrison LC def. Newark Science OA (Teehan, Khan, Hansen)
Newark Science DA def. Stuyvesant KL (Wyche, Staunton, Darnov)
Finals
Lauren Cole (Harrison LC) v. David Asafu-Adjaye (Newark Science DA) – Will be held at Newark
Scouting Report
Bid Level: Finals
Entries: 63 (As of 12/8)
Debaters With Bids (As of 12/8):
Hendrick Hudson MG (2)
Stuyvesant AS (1)
Success Academy SC (4)
