From Sept. 21-23, students from the debate and forensics teams attended the Yale Annual Invitational Tournament. The tournament attracted over 1,000 competitors from all over the nation, expanding by roughly 200 entries over last year.

Junior Nathan Dass and sophomores Siddarth Anand and Ruhee Shah competed in junior varsity Lincoln-Douglas debate, and junior Vashali Jain participated in the varsity division. Junior Adam Friedman was the only student to participate in a forensics competition, humorous interpretation.

The resolution for the Lincoln-Douglas competition concerned the right of aliens accused of terrorism to share the same due process protections as citizens.

“It was easy to prepare for,” Shah said, “but there were a lot of unexpected arguments because of different interpretations of the topic.”

Though the debaters did not participate in practice rounds with each other, they did have time on the morning of the tournament to collaborate and add finishing touches to their cases and arguments. For some, these last minute preparations paid off.

Anand broke to double octa-finals, placing in the top 32. Anand attributed his success to a debate camp he attended over the summer, the Victory Briefs Institute at UCLA.

“Debate camp really changed the way I see and approach debating and gave me a new appreciation for the activity,” he said.

While the camp did help him become a better debater, Anand recognized that the confidence he came back with might have worked against him.

“I didn’t put too much work into my cases or prepping. I did manage to break, but the people I faced and saw after that were just insanely good,” he said. “I could tell they had spent a lot of time preparing, and I realized that’s what I needed to do.”