Five Central debaters competed at University of Kentucky’s Tournament of Champions (TOC) from April 20-22. Two of the competitors advanced to semifinal rounds, one of which made it to the tournament’s finals.
TOC is a national debate tournament held yearly in Lexington by the University of Kentucky.
Three of Central’s debaters—juniors Anay Apte and C.J. Getting, plus sophomore Rohan Jain—were eliminated in the preliminary round, while junior Aryan Pradhan secured 11th place in his semifinal chamber, and junior Helen Liang got third in her semifinal, advancing to the final round. In finals, Liang earned an 11th place finish.
“You really have to compete with everyone else there, craft the best speeches and give the best argument you can,” Pradhan said.
Both Pradhan and Liang have improved upon their performances since last year’s TOC where they were eliminated in their preliminary and semifinal chambers, respectively.
“It’s always really stressful but it felt good; it felt like my effort was going into something,” Liang said. “I was able to end the year on a high note.”
TOC is the one of the last opportunities to compete on the national debate stage. A competitor needs to perform well at previous tournaments in order to earn the two “bids” required to compete at TOC.
“The best thing about [TOC] is that at the end of the day everyone there realizes that it’s just a competition, outside of the chamber everyone is really friendly and gives you tips on how to be better,” Pradhan said. “It’s definitely a different atmosphere but I really liked it.”
