An interview with the attendees of the British Parliamentary Provincials Tournament
By: Kevin Chen
On October 29th and October 30th, 2022, the British Parliamentary Provincial Debate Tournament took place online. 52 teams from schools in Ontario went to the tournament, competing in five rounds of debate.
British Parliamentary is a debate format in which there are four teams, with two debaters on each team. Each debate features a topic, also known as a motion. Two teams on the government side support the motion while two teams on the opposition side oppose it. Teams that are on the same side do not work together; all four teams compete for first place. The opening teams speak first, and the closing teams speak after the opening teams.
Debaters from The Woodlands School did exceptionally well at the tournament. Joy Luo and Amy Liu placed as the 28th team. Sophie Zhang and Suri Sun placed as the 8th team. Crystal Zhang and Kevin Chen were the top team and won the tournament. Congratulations!
The Woodstock interviewed Woodlands debaters about the tournament.
Tournament champion Crystal Zhang talked about her experience. “I'd never debated at BP Provs or debated with Kevin before this tournament. It was fun adapting to each other's prep style on the fly. We didn't expect to make finals, nevermind win the tournament, so I'm quite proud of us as a team!”
Joy Luo was excited about the unique experience. “My experience was very interesting. I felt like there were a variety of motion topics that I could learn about. My highlights were doing the tournament with friends and being able to share their accomplishments and victories with them.”
Sophie Zhang added, “I know quite literally half the debaters in the tournament, so seeing them again was fun.”
Reflecting on the debate topics, Sophie Zhang said, “I think most of the motions were opening heavy. They really only had stock arguments that were valid. They extended preparation time, which gives opening a major advantage since closing teams need to adjust their case to fit openings while opening gets more time to just develop their baseline.”
Stock arguments are basic arguments that are easy to think of and use. There were only a few approaches to some of the topics, which gave an advantage to those who spoke first. Additionally, the opening teams, who were the first to argue, had an advantage as they were given extra time, while the closing teams only had the standard amount.
Suri Sun agreed. “For the most part the motions were pretty shallow, and you couple that with the 25-minute prep time they gave us and if you were on closing you just had a huge disadvantage.”
British Parliamentary Provincials was an eventful tournament that provided an exciting experience for many Woodlands debaters. Once again, congratulations to all of the Woodlands debaters who competed and did their very best.
To read about the specific topics that were debated at the tournament, check out another article by the Woodstock: British Parliamentary Motions Study
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