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Policy Debater Ishan Sharma ‘24 stands and gives his second negative constructive speech as Ayush Tripathi ‘24 writes his first negative rebuttal at the Tournament of Champions Octofinals round. The Tournament of Champions is the largest and most prestigious tournament that hosts all Speech and Debate events, with only 92 qualifying teams per event from all around the world. “We had won and at that moment it felt very good,” Sharma said. “All the angst and all the things we were looking forward to for four years finally came true in the last round of the TOC.”
Courtesy of Pranav Balakrishnan'
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Seniors Ishan Sharma and Ayush Tripathi hold the golden Tournament of Champions trophy after defeating Montgomery Bell Academy students and winning finals on a 2-1 decision. Sharma and Tripathi competed at the University of Kentucky for three days with a total of 11 rounds and only one loss. “It means everything to win the TOC and it’s a testament to the sacrifices and the time we have put in for the past four years,” Tripathi said.
Courtesy of Mr. Dominic Henderson'
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Staring intensely at his computer, Ethan Andrew ‘26 writes arguments as Sahil Jain ‘24 gives his second negative rebuttal during the Octofinals round. This was the last speech that the negative team would give during the round, and the final speech that the team would give in the Tournament of Champions. “Looking back, there were a lot of changes I would make,” Andrew said. “But Octofinals is still a great achievement.”
Courtesy of Pranav Balakrishnan'
More than 1,400 competitors from around the world flocked to the University of Kentucky to compete in the annual Tournament of Champions (TOC) from April 20 to 22. Seniors Ayush Tripathi and Ishan Sharma won gold at the TOC, becoming the first in Westwood history to win this prestigious tournament.
“It’s the biggest tournament of the year for basically all competitive [debate and speech] events in high school: Policy, Lincoln-Douglas, Extemp, and Public Forum,” Speech and Debate President Tripathi said. “There are hundreds of teams from across the country and it’s a whole process to [even] qualify.”
With the help of Tripathi and Sharma, Westwood became one of the first public schools in more than a decade to win the Tournament of Champions in Policy debate. The National Coaches Poll for Policy Debate, a prestigious ranking system that is decided by the best debate coaches all around the nation ranked Sharma and Tripathi the fourth best team in the world.
“What we did well was we knew exactly what we were going to do right when the pairing was announced, while our opponents were a little more flabbergasted when they saw our strategy,” Sharma said. “We successfully executed those strategies [and] were just better on our [arguments] than they were on their [arguments] and that’s why we won.”
Since TOC is the last tournament of the season for most debaters and the final tournament for many seniors, Policy debate went all out on the preparation. Sharma’s team took the time to research their competitors, planning and practicing which debate strategies would work best against various opponents.
“We made a scouting list of every team that we thought was a threat at the TOC and we’re like ‘if we are in the elimination rounds, and we’re affirmative against them, we are going to say this specific strategy against them, and if we are negative we are going to say this strategy,’” Sharma said. “And then we researched, we cut evidence for all these strategies and we spent two, three months [on] those things.”
In addition to Sharma and Tripathi winning the championship, Ethan Andrew ‘26 and Sahil Jain ‘24 broke eliminations, and on the way to the second elimination round (Octofinals), they defeated New Trier High School’s Magnus Lee and Avi Shah, a team ranked 11 on the National Coaches Poll for Policy Debate. By reaching the Octofinals, where Westwood’s team was eliminated the year prior, Andrew and Jain showed great improvement in the team’s skills.
“It was really fun to do the debate [because] it’s high stakes and there’s a chance you get far, but [there] was also a lot of congregation of a lot of really good debaters,” Andrew said. “It was really cool to see all [the] famous debaters at TOC.”
A formative memory for many seniors, this accomplishment marks the pinnacle of their high school debate careers, and will inspire underclassmen to strive for the same level of success. Tripathi plans on staying connected to the debate community by judging and coaching future debaters.
“When I think about debate 10, 15 years down the line, this is the moment I am going to think about,” Tripathi said. “It means everything to win the TOC and it’s a testament to the sacrifices and the time we have put in for the past four years. I definitely want to stay close to the activity in terms of judging high school debates and coaching.”
As for Sharma, it is clear for him that he wants to continue his passion for debate whether it is coaching, judging, or becoming a consultant.
“I’m currently in the process of writing a few articles which I’m going to release, and I’m going to jumpstart some discussions about some theory questions in the debate community,” Sharma said. “After that I do have plans for being a [Residential Assistant] (RA) at a debate summer camp, and I also have plans to coach a team, most likely Westwood, [and help] our current juniors hopefully win the TOC again next year.”
Sophomore and junior Speech and Debate members will compete one last time this school year at the National Speech and Debate Championship in Des Moines, Iowa from Sunday, June 16 to Friday, June 21.
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Rounav • May 20, 2024 at 10:01 am
It was really interesting to read about an extracurricular that Westwood students invest so much time into. It was really cool to see how a team from Westwood was able to win TOC this year against all odds.