GPS Debating Report Round 1 vs Joeys
M. D. Kwak
LAST FRIDAY, Shore was home against Joeys, debating Science and Society in the first round of the GPS Debating competition. Shore cleaned up as expected, notching up 11 wins out of 12 in a dominant fashion to start the season off strongly.
Starting off with the SDC Zoom competition. The 7Ds, 7Es, 8Cs, 8Ds, 8Es, 9Cs and 9Ds all debated the topic, ‘That we prefer year-round schools to traditional schools’ and continued to develop their sophisticated argumentation and rebuttal skills. This was also the topic for the fiercely-contested 10B vs 10C and 3rds vs 4ths internal debates.
In the GPS competition, the Year 7s negated the topic ‘That social media companies should be banned from personalising content’, winning in the 7Bs and narrowly losing in the 7Cs. Shoutout to 7Bs debater Nick for his strong rebuttal! In other news, over the holidays, three members of the Year 7 ISDA team competed in the Asia Pacific Junior Debate Championships, Ryan Kwok, Aaron Zheng and Nicolas Wu. The team finished as octo-finalists in the 13-and-Under Main category, with all members sharing the 6th Best Speaker of Australia, Oceania prize! Nicolas was also the 9th best speaker in the 11-and-Under category! It’s amazing to see boys debating in out-of-school competitions – it’s a great way to have fun and improve your debating skills.
The Year 8s walked away with a clean tripartite victory across all teams, negating the difficult motion ‘That we support the commercialisation of space exploration’ in the As and Bs and ‘That we prefer year-round schools to traditional schools’ in the 8Cs. Congrats to the 8Bs team who laid out a very nuanced and well-argued case; it was a clear win for Shore on all three clashes, and Will Watson at second negative was the standout speaker of the debate. The 8Cs presented a cohesive case down the bench, outlining and explaining the benefits of traditional schooling in creating a better learning experience for students and better family dynamics. Shoutout to Owen for being debater of the week in presenting convincing refutations and strong arguments at first.
The 9As successfully affirmed the topic ‘That we should have a quota of women in STEM university courses.’ In a close debate, the Shore team was able to prove the positive effects of a quota which outweighed any potential harms from the opposition. Congrats to Oliver Dorney for his methodical summarisation of the debate at the end, sealing the debate for the team.
The 10As also crushed their Joeys opponents in a convincing victory, affirming some boring debate about patents…? Regardless, the boys diffed their opponents with their world building and case writing in a debate that showcased their hunger for that coveted Rank 1 spot in the GPS ladder. Special shout out to Yukai ,who was superb as third speaker.
Following their tragic Octo-finals knock-outs in ISDA, the Seconds and Firsts returned to GPS with an insatiable hunger for victory. To train for what will be a gruelling and attritional GPS campaign, the Year 11s took the holidays to sharpen their verbal prowess and intellectual potentialities by staying on their Brawl Stars grind 😈 while the Year 12s locked themselves in their rooms for ‘Trials preparation’ (i.e. reels doomscrolling punctuated by sporadic pangs of existential dread and malaise 😇🤗).
Both teams faced a well-equipped Joeys affirming the topic ‘That prisoners should be able to opt into experimental drug trials in exchange for shorter sentences.’
It should be noted that the following comment from Ms Wolsley is the first glowingly positive one I’ve seen her write in my time at Shore. Usually, she reverts to an exasperated “no one should have won that debate” or her classic grimace + hands holding her head in distress combo. The Seconds must have truly pulled out a banging performance for their opening debate – no doubt due to Ramon’s extensive experience… I mean, knowledge about experimental drug trials and Eric’s diabolically criminal tendencies.
“The Seconds gave their best ever performance affirming the topic about shortening prisoner’s sentences. Their model was coherent and effective in ensuring that there was enough incentive for those who had committed minor crimes to participate in trials while also ensuring the safety of the general population by proving that the outcome would be better medical care.
Sigmas after cleaning up Joeys 😤🗿
Special credit to Eric ‘E-Giant’ Qiao who delivered some excellent rebuttal and analysis.”
Tragically, the Firsts went down in a reasonably close debate against a strong Joeys side. Although the case started off strong with a well-mechanised point about the improvements to drug quality and access, as well as principled pushback on prisoners, the case fundamentally lacked a solid comparative that could be pushed down the bench. Shoutout to Dan Liu for an excellently delivered first speech on a tricky topic! For next week, the Firsts will look to establish a clear characterisation of the comparative and brush up on their rebuttal and prioritisation skills.
L: Jubilant Seconds – R: downtrodden Firsts (having been told to look miserable in the photo by Ms Wolsley) Next week, Shore will be home against Riverview debating on the topic of sports. For any boys wanting to listen in some intense sports debates (e.g. Who is the all-time sporting goat??), I encourage you to get out there on a Friday evening and support the debating lads in the CS rooms.