2018 Harvard National Forensics Debate Tournament

We won big at the Harvard debate tournament!

Vancouver Debate Academy has an amazing group of debaters this year, and they truly did us proud in February at the 44th Annual Harvard National High School Invitational Forensics Tournament. Our students flew to Harvard for the debate tournament and worked hard every day (and still had time for some fun, too!)

Students Charles Liu & Tom Chen were one of the top teams at the entire Junior Varsity Public Forum tournament; they were the number 1 team in the preliminary rounds! Of the 295 total teams Charles and Tom were the top breaking team! (This means that they had 6 out of 6 wins, and among the 6-0 teams, they had highest “speaking points”).They won all of their preliminary rounds (6 wins, zero losses), but then were knocked out of the first out-round (Triple Octofinals).

Charles and Tom won the distinction of being the uncontested top Canadian team at the tournament. Individually, Charles won an award as the 4th Top Speaker overall (he was the best Canadian speaker!), and Tom won for 12th Top Speaker. This is especially impressive considering the total number of speakers: 588!

Alan Shen & Victor Tong also performed very well, making into through the elimination rounds before losing the first outround. They finished as Triple Octa-finalists. A strong achievement!

Elizabeth Zhou & Stephanie Chan successfully made it into the international break, placing in the top 16 International Teams. They were also knocked out in the first out-round, ending as International Public Forum Octo-Finalists.

All students worked hard and they should be proud of their accomplishments. Overall, a very strong showing and Vancouver Debate Academy students have proven they are a force to be reckoned with!