GPS Debating Round 2 vs Riverview Report
J. G. Nicholas
LAST FRIDAY, RIVERVIEW HOSTED SHORE on topics of ‘Ethical Issues’ and the boys were victorious in four debates in a tough night away from home.
Eager to record their first win of the season, the 7A’s and other Year 7 teams affirmed the topic ‘That zoos should be banned.’ Whilst they made improvements from last week, the boys struggled to effectively weigh their arguments and took a loss in a competitive debate. The B’s went down in similar fashion, ultimately failing to prove that the harm to animals was enough to outweigh the scientific benefits provided by zoos. Similarly, whilst Archie Watson’s strong intro captivated the 7C’s audience, the rookie team has work to do in structuring their rebuttal and substantive and also went down in a close contest. The sole W in the Year 7’s win column, the D’s, spoke incredibly well for their first outing of the season and look set to take home the prestigious GPS 7D’s premiership.
Following on from their domination of St Joseph’s in all debates the previous weeks, the Year 8’s were flabbergasted to be affirming the confusingly worded topic ‘That the house supports parasocial relationships between high schoolers and celebrities.’ The A’s debate was marred by confusion from both sides, Lucas Zhou’s substantive however was particularly powerful and ultimately catalysed another win for the 8A’s. The B’s on the other hand, despite an outstanding characterisation of parasocial relationships from Owen Chambers at first, it wasn’t reciprocated down the bench and the B’s went down to a more consistent View side. The C’s also took a loss despite well-structured speeches down the bench and a powerful third speaker speech.
All smiles from the 8B’s at the table
The challenging night for the lads from North Sydney continued for the 9As and Bs who both went down affirming the same topic ‘That the house supports parasocial relationships between high schoolers and celebrities.’ Tom Gray was a standout in an admirable loss for the A’s, whilst the B’s couldn’t overcome the advantage afforded to the negative by the difficulty of affirmative’s burden in such a convoluted debate.
Looking to regain some dignity for the Blue and White, our Year 10’s were handed yet another convoluted topic, negating ‘That we should support separating the art of people who are accused of doing objectively problematic or immoral acts from their art.’ Angus Leslie and Daniel Liu spoke well for the As. The 10B’s on the other hand, handed their counterparts a crushing loss with all speakers, Taj Gupta, Oli Roxburgh and Connor Fung demonstrating their prowess.
All Opens teams negated a Black Mirror reminiscent motion, ‘This house, as David, would eject Cliff from the space shuttle’, with the info slide: ‘Your name is David, and you live on a space shuttle. To cope with the extended nature (no end date given) of your mission, you utilize advanced technology that enables your consciousness to be transmitted back to Earth, where you experience life through a lifelike android avatar. Your avatar is a perfect replica of your human body. Your avatar becomes faulty and breaks, meaning you cannot return to the real world. You are stuck in space, with no one to talk to but your space partner, Cliff. Cliff’s avatar works perfectly. You know that Cliff is a morally corrupt person, bad father and terrible husband. The only way for you to return to earth is to eject Cliff’s physical body into space in a capsule and use his avatar. Cliff would then be floating in space in a capsule. You would then be transported to Cliff’s house, life and family. Cliff’s family would not know initially that the person in the Avatar was you (David) and not Cliff.’
The 4ths defend the bridge at View
Looking to immediately set the tone at the top of the 4ths premiership table, Charlie Ashton, Aaron Rucinski, Will Johnstone and Max McAlpine in a dominant performance, punctuated by Charlie’s excellent rebuttal and Aaron’s classy repositioning of the debate. Although Patrick Zhang from the 3rds did well to clarify another convoluted debate at 3rd negative, ultimately it was too late, and the boys went home with a loss. In their first attempt at an actor motion, the 2nds put in a valiant effort but were punished for their emphasis on morality rather than tangible benefits to said actor. Ramon Zhang offered some much-needed resistance at 3rd negative, but it was too late to reverse an inevitable loss for the 2nds.
Contending with one of the most difficult and perhaps longest GPS topics ever proposed, the 1sts walked away from an incredibly tight debate with yet another victory and more confidence in taking home the coveted Louat Shield. Not helped by the seemingly student-designed labyrinthine building they were tasked with navigating, the A’s spent almost half of prep deciphering the topic. The experience of Michael Kwak and assuredness of Lachlan Hunt were great assets to the boys who walked onto the podium eager to hear their opposition’s case. Lachie and Michael effectively mitigated View’s substantive, but the debate was ultimately won at 3rd negative by Captain Jimmy Nicholas, who effectively contextualised View’s analysis by highlighting that life on Earth for David would be within the hollow shell of his victim’s avatar.
The A’s indifferent post-victory
Grammar at home this week will inevitably challenge the men of Shore in what is shaping up to be a consequential round for all teams and their premiership hopes.