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Table of contents Meet The Editors

6 Chess in Austin: The History and the Community

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Chess Super stars

Pillars of the Austin Convention Centers ◊

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Convention Connections

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“Thus, The Plan...”

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Classes of Dungeons & Dragons

D&D During COVID-19 20

Academic Debate and Policy Debate 32

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Wordsearch MANY SIDES OF GAMES

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Editors MAILE L O W

Maile Low thoroughly enjoys the game of Debate. Whether it’s talking about it or doing debate herself, she loves everything surrounding the game. Outside of debate, Maile enjoys watching and talking about movies and TV, whether it’s classics from the Criterion collection or modern hits. After she graduates, she wants to be a professional researcher, so she can lecture others and speak on things he loves.

Lucas Rodriguez is a very normal person. Too normal… He likes to play video games and go to gaming conventions, and has no idea what he’s going to do after he graduates. He’s the type of person who puts all the soda flavors into one cup.

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Orion Camp enjoys playing Dungeons and Dragons every week, and has written his feature article all about it. He enjoys spending hours upon hours into playing video games and being anti-social. He’s currently trying to think of something to do after high school.

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LUCAS

ORION C A M P

CATY T R O D R I G U E Z

Caty Tarrant loves chess. She’s a selfdescribed “big chess gal,” and wants to write about the impacts of chess in Austin and cover some famous chess people. Outside of chess, she likes to play games, watch and create movies, write screenplays, and stories and do video editing on the side. When she graduates, Caty’s juggling whether or not to be a film director, screenplay writer, or video editor.

A R R A N T

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CHESS in AUSTIN The History and the Community

By Caty Tarrant

The game of Chess is incredibly old, with the earliest examples of the game being in the seventh century, which gave it plenty of time to form a passionate community.

Austin, Texas, is a bustling city with a long running, although not extravagant, history in the Chess scene.

Whether you wish to play the game casually or competitively, there’s a place for you to go and enjoy yourself.

While the modern community is active and only growing, the history of the Chess scene dates far back, with communities like the ACE chess club dating back to the 1980s. This history and modern landscape shapes the community into what it is today, and gives our city its own identity in the chess world.

The ACE chess club, founded in

1980, was the first major chess club in Austin. Founded by nine people, this club lasted about ten years, before online chess officially took it over. The ACE Chess club saw strong activity from its players, such as Joe Binder, who was generally the most active member of the club when it was first setting its roots.

Binder is a 72-year-old chess player living in Austin, Texas, who has done many things for the community, such as founding the ACE chess club, getting chess recognized as a scholastic extracurricular, and going to local events. Originally moving here from Mississippi, Binder has spent a lot of his time teaching young aspiring chess players.

“There are a lot of things in life I value a lot more than money.”

“My coaching experience started with the old club, the ACE club,” Binder said. “One of the members wanted to know who could teach them. Since I’m an educator by profession, and our scholastic director at the time, they suggested that I coach, so I coached him as a middle schooler.

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Binder worked hard to get his new student prepared for the upcoming USCF seventh grade tournament. After a long time practicing, he got some wonderful news. His student won the co-championship title.

our heart races.

Your brow is drenched with sweat.

You hold the pawn in your hand, ready to push it to the next rank. WIll you blunder? Will you make a brilliant move that will turn the tide of the board?

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Joe Binder playing a game of Chess at the ACE Chess Club. Photo by Colin Potts.

“I was real happy to get a call from him and his dad to tell me MANY SIDES OF GAMES

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about it,” Binder said. “That was a big surprise to me. That was my first student. Seeing the learning take place in a student’s eyes and seeing the progress is worth more than money to me. There are things in life that I value a lot more than money. Of course, money helps.”

plentiful. As the scholastic director of the ACE chess club, he has strong authority on finding them.

Joe Binder, right of the board, being featured on the cover of Texas Knights, a magazine focusing on the chess community in the state of Texas. Photo courtesy of Texas Knights.

“It patterns real life thinking skills, and if it’s structured correctly with the goal setting, and journal writing, and keeping track of your progress, you can apply that Binder also put in a lot of effort to anything in life,” Binder to get major strives completed said. “You need something on a larger scale in the chess to excite the kids, and scene. Binder worked tirelessly they learn it by osmosis to get Chess recognized as almost, it’s remarkable. an official UIL activity, and It’s something that should although his efforts weren’t fully have been required in the realized, Binder successfully educational system, and it’s got Chess recognized as an still not too late.” official extracurricular activity.

The ACE Chess club was dissolved in the early 1990s, “Seeing the learning was later revitalized as the take place in a student’s but Austin Chess Club in 2006, bringing a new life to chess eyes and seeing the play in Austin.

progress is worth more than money to me.”

“It’s just a foreign idea to most conservative thinking people, just couldn’t see the logic in it. They couldn’t see the reasoning behind it,” Binder said. “It wasn’t an expensive thing to do. It didn’t produce a money making element such as traditional sports like football, therefore, it wasn’t really considered seriously. People just could not reasonably see their way forward to recognize the value of chess, which is really a sad statement.”

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Alexander Chua is one of the highest rated players in the state of Texas, and has been one of Austin’s most active chess players over the years.

Chua has gone to many of the modern Austin Chess Club’s tournaments.

“I like to go and support my local chess clubs,” Chua said. “I haven’t done a lot with COVID, it has really impacted my ability to do that, but in general, I like to make appearances - especially when the events work in my schedule. A lot of times, a good player showing up encourages other people to show up, which can have a snowball effect. It creates a healthy atmosphere

Austin’s local Zilker Park that meets on Saturdays.

Many people, from rookies to masters, visit this club every single week.

“A lot of people you talk to will say Austin has a weak chess community”, Carter said.

“This comes from the fact that there’s not a lot of good rated tournaments, good official USCF tournaments. High level chess people think pretty poorly of the Austin chess team. Whenever I hear this, I’m a little offended because I run a chess tournament.”

when you can do that. I like to do my part when I can.”

Chua, being one of the highest rated players in all of Texas, holds the game of chess very close to him.

Chua is motivated by the “flow state where you can’t think about anything else,” he said. “It’s just your move, this turn, right now. So I find it fun to apply yourself. It’s always different. There’s no luck, right?

You can only blame yourself.”

Although players like Chua have places to go, that doesn’t leave casual players of the game in the dust. All players, new or old, can come together and play casual chess in many small communities around town.

Nathaniel Carter runs a community chess club at

The Zilker chess meets frequently get 30-40 people coming every week ready to play. Carter wishes for nothing but growth. He wants to see more and more flocking to the community, and wants nothing but for it to blossom - and it’s been succeeding.

beginning of its lifespan.

Many small chess groups have sprouted up around town, and many new friends and communities are constantly being made on meetup websites, like meetup.com, where you can find a plethora of new meeting places.

Binder is currently 1900 ELO and Chua is a 2300 ELO International Master.

Carter’s chess meetup meets every Saturday at 2 p.m., and can be found on meetup.com, as well as on their facebook group.

“I would say [our community is] still very young. There’s a lot of people that just don’t know that there’s chess in Austin, and we do our best to fix that. A lot of people just don’t know that there’s tournaments happening on the weekends. It’s still young. It’s not weak, but it has a lot of room to grow.”

The Austin chess community has nowhere to go but up, and has, over time, been making great efforts to do so. With many chess booms originating from popular media, such as the television series The Queen’s Gambit, to an online streaming craze, our community is certainly at the

Nathaniel Carter playing a game of Chess during the Zilker Park Chess meetup.

Photo by Caty Tarrant.

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CHESS SUPERST

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the leaders of the chess world

BY CATY TARRANT

MAGNUS CARLSEN

Magnus Carlsen is a Grandmaster who has held the world champion title since 2013.

Widely regarded as the best chess player alive, Magnus Carlsen slays his compitetion with his genius strategic thinking, and became a grandmaster at the very young age of 13.

HIKARU NAKAMURA

Hikaru Nakamura is a Grandmaster chess streamer, holding the title for most followed chess streamer on the online media platform, Twitch. Hikaru is known for his high-speed, high-intensity gameplay, being the highest rated Blitz player in the world on the largest chess website, chess.com.

ANNA RUDOLF

Anna Rudolf is an International Master and Woman Grandmaster. Rudolf holds a large following on Twitch, with over 250 thousand followers. Although she hasn’t played any tournament games since 2018, she stays active on her Twitch channel.

ERIC ROSEN

Eric Rosen is an international master with a YouTube channel garnering over 500 thousand subscribers. Known for his use of the ‘Stafford Gambit’, Eric Rosen has gained a massive online following through his calm attitude and relaxed, casual play.

VISHY ANAND

Viswanathan “Vishy” Anand is a Grandmaster and previous 5-time world chess champion, losing his title to Magnus Carlsen. Anand is one of the most influencial people in the chess world, being a major community figure since 1995.

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LEVY ROZMAN

Levy Rozman is an International Master who runs the largest chess channel on YouTube, “GothamChess”. He makes his following teaching aspiring chess players tips and tricks to improve.

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CONVENTION

many groups won’t [accept],” Tester said.

money, which there is very little of.

CONNECTIONS

“We have a lot of those hotels in the area, and we need more space to be able to host these groups,” Travers said.

“There’s still various circles to jump through, but we are hopeful that in the future, we may have a bigger and better Convention Center here in Austin.”

A brief look inside Austin’s convention and event department

By Lucas Rodriguez

You’re attending one of the biggest conventions in Austin.

As you enter the massive building, you hear thousands of people walking around and looking at the swarms of quality booths and events. No matter how long you spend enjoying the convention, you get to experience something extraordinary.

The Austin Convention Center has been hosting popular events like SXSW to persuade tourists and travelers to come and see what Austin’s all about. There are two parts of this facility: the self-titled memorial to Neal Kocurek that itself is a building and the department that works to host all of the events.

Another part of this organization are the hotels surrounding the main building, built by the city of Austin to make tax. The city’s marketing 14 MANY SIDES OF GAMES

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“We partner with Visit Austin, who is a destination marketing organization for the city, and attend what we call sales missions to meet and greet with clients and spread the word about Austin,” Travers said.

Inside the Austin Convention Center’s solar atrium. Photo courtesy of Alan Levine via Flickr.

team, Visit Austin, is in charge of marketing the city to other states and countries.

Tina Travers, a sales manager for the organization, has been working since 2014 under one of the branch’s sister properties, the Palmer Events Center.

In their journey, there have been several times where the sales team had to decline many potential customers because of other events occupying the calendar at the same time. Mark Tester, who, since the early aughts, has worked with various cities to attract tourists to come visit their own, describes the process of rejection.

“There was a lot of times when people would say, ‘Yeah, we’re really interested’ and we would say ‘I’m sorry, we don’t have your dates, or your rates,’ or ‘We can accommodate you, but not in your preferred time,’ and

Travers thinks the building will expand soon, as she has been working with the city council to approve the request.

Example of one of Austin’s many hotels and inns. This hotel in particular is the Fairmont Inn, most notable for it’s large size. Photo taken by Lucas Rodriguez.

However, the Austin Convention Center’s occupancy limits a good chunk of potential visitors. . “The Austin Convention Center has 2.2 hundred and fifty thousand square feet of exhibit space,” Tester said.

“Orange County Convention Center, where I work currently, is significantly larger [than] the Austin Convention Center. In two buildings [it] has 2.1 million square feet [combined].”

Due to the convention center’s lack of available space, the building has tried to expand using the city’s

“The Convention Center is funded by bed tax, and that’s the occupancy tax on the guest rooms,” Harris said. “I think there’s still some hurdles for us to overcome, and there’s some bond definitions in there that we have to get worked out.”

External causes like natural disasters have also paused events, such as Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Amy Harris, who joined the department as the main director of sales at the Austin Convention Center in 2012 and had previous experience at a long line of hotels similar to Tester, mentions how one company used their building space to shelter Houston residents.

“Many of the flights were coming in via Houston, and many of the attendees were

“There’s still various circles to jump through, but we are hopeful that in the future, we may have a bigger and better Convention Center here in Austin.”

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coming from the southeast Texas region,” Harris said.

“The group that we had in the building decided it wouldn’t be appropriate to have a big convention when Houston was just devastated.”

things to set up.”

That aside, Tester takes pride in working alongside SXSW. “We were very proud of our partnership with the crazy series of events that is South

by Southwest in Austin,” Tester said. “The biggest thing that we had was the convention for convention planners, called the Professional Convention Management Association. We had forty-five hundred people there, normally that event would generate two thousand [people]. We had forty-five hundred people that wanted to come to that party and enjoy the cool incredible atmosphere [that] we, as Austin, were showing, being the live music capital of the world.”

During the hurricane, Houston’s population evacuated to Austin’s hotels and centers for safety, canceling events going on for the city.

“It’s a symbiotic relationship with the hotels and the convention center; we need the hotels to have guest rooms available in order for us to fill the space at the center,” Harris said. “The major economic impact comes from groups that bring guests in from out of town because they spend money in the hotels, eat at our restaurants, and shop in our stores.”

Picture of Austin residence riding on paddle boards. Photo taken by Tomek Baginski via Unsplash.

“It’s a symbiotic relationship with the hotels and the convention center”

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Companies who want to set up events also are attracted to Austin’s weirdness. But there are multiple hurdles that have to be sorted out first.

“There’s a lot of key players involved,” Travers said. “You have the general service contractor that comes in and helps mark the floors, and brings in the material for the exhibit booths to set up.

There’s a lot of trucks moving into the service yard during that move in, then the exhibitors come in and they bring their

groups that we work with for, you know, general sessions, or if they want to get a concert experience, anything like that to experience often.”

The department still wants to get the expansion to the main building approved by the city, despite the challenges they are going through. There are even more hotels being built around said building to boot.

Travers is working on getting her exhibition management certificate to improve her skills, Tester has moved to work with the Orange County Convention Center, and Harris continues to work at the Austin Convention Center.

Currently, the Austin Convention Center is working with the newly opened Moody Center, a large music venue built to host concerts, with sports being a sideline. It is named after the foundation of William Lewis Moody Jr. “It’s going to be the new premier venue for the University of Texas, but also to possibly book off site events as well in between the UT events,” Travers said. ”We’re hoping the convention center that that’ll just be another great venue that we can partner with, with some of these large

Picture of the Make Stuff booth in SXSW 2008. Photo by Alan Levine, courtesy of Flickr.

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lovingly created with as much effort as the crossword puzzle

The pillars of the austin convention center

2008 The Long center for the Performing Arts is built, right around the Palmer Events Center.

Here is a few small tidbits of history from some of the buildings that Austin has used to set up events in the past. You may recognize a few places if you’ve been around this city for long enough.

Most photos are used from the Austin Convention Center with permission.

Photo taken by Scott Melcer courtesy of Visit Austin.

2002

1940

Palmer Events Center is built, Main Convention Center is renovated. One year from now the Frank Erwin Center will be renovated.

City of Austin purchases large airplane hangar.

Photo taken by Thomas McConnell courtesy of Visit Austin.

1998 Plans to demolish the coliseum and replace it with a performing arts center are made.

One year from now, the Main Convention Center will start renovations.

Photo taken by Neal Douglass courtesy of The Portal to Texas History

1949 Austin converts hangar into coliseum and baseball field.

Photo uploaded by LoneStarMike courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

1977 Frank Erwin Center is built, meant to be a larger gymnasium for the Texas Longhorns basketball teams.

Photo taken by Thomas McConnell courtesy of Visit Austin.

1983 Plans to construct the Austin Convention Center was created, along with building a larger amount of hotels nearby Lady Bird Lake.

1992 Main Convention Center building opens.

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Dungeons, Dragons, and a global pandemic

How role playing games transitioned from in-person to online By orion Camp

s you sit around the table, you see five other players.

The table is covered with books, pencils & paper, dice of different colors and shapes, and colorful figurines, depicting your chharacters and the monsters you encounter. You remember playing with your friends like this, but that’s all gone now. Now that lockdown is now in full effect, you and your party are forced to play online. This is the situation Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) players around the world found themselves in once the pandemic began, and they had to try to play a social game without being in the same room.

For the inexperienced, D&D is a tabletop roleplaying game where players take on the roles of adventurers completing a quest. D&D was originally invented in 1974, and has expanded much since then, having five different editions. While traditionally D&D is played in person, more recently, and due to the pandemic, it has expanded into the online world, becoming online roleplaying. Online roleplaying using websites is a method of playing D&D from the safety of your home. These websites also include a variety of helpful tools for the players, such as dice rollers or virtual maps and figurines.

D&D players are able to access the websites whenever they want, and wherever there is a computer and internet connection.

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Mike Shea, creator of The Sly Flourish D&D Blog and longtime Dungeons & Dragons player, spoke on how companies are starting to invest more into online roleplaying.

“I think the tools are only going to get better,” Shea said.

“Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) is putting a lot of money and a lot of energy into it. They’ve been hiring a bunch of people, they’ve been doing surveys of a new online tool. So they seem to certainly think that it’s moving more online.”

Some of these advantages are, as Shea said, being able to play with anyone in the world regardless of where they are. As long as you have a computer and an internet connection, you can play D&D with your friends. Obviously, online play is COVID-safe, as you are playing with plenty of social distance, being that all the players are in completely different places.

The tools that websites offer for playing online are not to be taken lightly, either. Sites can also give you all the information the books have, accessible by just a search.

Normally you would have to go searching through a 200page book for how much health a certain monster has, but online, you can just search up its name and its stats will appear, and even better, you can drag and drop the monster onto the virtual map as well.

A 20-sided dice. Image by Pixabay

In fact, on April 13, 2022, WOTC finalized the purchase of D&D Beyond for 143.6 million dollars. D&D Beyond is one of the most popular services for online roleplaying, and enables players to easily search through the many rule books and create characters without much of a hassle.

“I have a feeling that online play will stick around because of the advantages of being able to play with anyone and anywhere in the world,” Shea noted.

David Wheeler is the owner of Dragon’s Lair, a franchise of game stores with an emphasis on D&D, and a player of the game himself. Wheeler said that he appreciates the features of online sites.

“I do like that you can look up different monsters and drop them in; I like being able to set up a map,” Wheeler said. “Also, in some ways, it was easier because several of the players lived, you know, 20 or 30 miles away from where I live. Instead of driving down, they were able to just hop online.”

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“Having the connection of people right at hand is much more fulfilling for me than having them distantly in the computer where you can’t really connect with them,” Wheeler noted. “I think that part of the problem that a lot of people had during the pandemic… is that they cannot connect with other people.”

With all of the pros of playing online, you might be wondering if players even prefer the in person experience over the convenience of the online platform. Conveniently, Shea had conducted a poll on his blog, The Sly Flourish, asking people if they prefer to play in person or online and which one they are currently doing.

“I did a poll recently, asking people whether they preferred to play online, and whether they were playing wonline currently,” Shea reported.

“Ninety pecent said they prefer to play in person, and 10% online.

A dragon cultist. Photo provided by D&D Beyond.

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When I asked how many are playing online, 70% were playing online and 30% in person.”

Shea also mentioned that his wife prefers to play online.

“She’s gotten used to playing online and now she signs up monthly,” Shea said. “ I think every month, she signs up for a weekend of games. So she’s playing more D&D than she did, and is able to do all those online.”

D&D has exploded over the last 2 years, and while many might return to in person play as the pandemic comes to a close, a significant number of people will continue to play online. Online roleplaying is here to stay due to its many advantages, bringing players safely together across vast distances, when people needed connection most.

“I have a feeling that online play will stick around because of the advantages of being able to play with anyone and anywhere in the world.”

The cover of the official D&D Dungeon Master’s guide (top) and Player’s handbook (below).. Image by D&D Beyond.

6 of the 7 dice used to play D&D. Courtesy of PinClipart.

While there are many advantages to playing online, there are some disadvantages as well.

There can be challenges with simply connecting to a certain site and learning how to use it, or simply just bad internet connection. Wheeler mentioned that he missed the human connection of in-person play.

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the classes of d&d

What Class Will You Choose?

THE ROGUE

The rogue is the sneaky one, the thief. Rogues are generally fast on their feet with a wicked dagger, and excel at hiding & picking locks.

Much like fighters, rogues are very diverse and allow for very high damage.

By orion CAMP

THE FIGHTER

The fighter is the standard warrior class.

Master of many weapons, the fighter is a generic and broad class. Every fighter has a different background and personality, and the subclass choices allow for further diversification, even allowing some fighters to do some magic.

THE WIZARD

Wizards have studied magic their entire lives, letting them cast powerful spells, from fireballs to stopping time. While generally frail, the wizard has access to so many spells you can do anything you want, such as freely controlling the elements or levitating.

THE CLERIC

Blessed with divine power, the cleric is a faithful servant of their god, wielding magic and a mighty blow. Clerics can choose from different domains that affect their abilities, and their patron god as well. Clerics are powerhouses, boasting some of the best damage and healing capability in the game.

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THE BARBARIAN

Wielding savage strength, barbarians will charge into battle without a second though.

Able to take heaps of damage and be fine, while dishing twice as much, the barbarian is a raging force throughout the course of a battle. For even more stregnth,Barbarians can summon the spirits of their ancestors or turn into beasts.

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“Thus, the plan…”

A look into competitve policy debate

By Maile Low

Sam Church at a state tournament Photo courtesy of Yao Yao Chen.

B

efore the debate has started, before your opponents have asked if you, your partner and your judge are ready, you take a look at the document they’ve sent out in the email chain. Fingers rapping against the dark gray keyboard, you feel the pulsating rhythm of your heart beat like a drum.

Taking a deep breath, you pull out pieces of paper from your bag, punched in eight minutes on your XREXS timer. One of your opponents has stood up, and signaled to everyone in the room that they’re ready with a raised thumb. It’s time to begin.

Debate, specifically competitive policy debate, requires teams of two to either support the resolution that involves a policy change enacted by the U.S. federal government or negate it.

The round is separated into four eight minute-long constructive speeches called the first affirmative constructive (1AC), first negative constructive (1NC), second affirmative constructive (2AC), and second negative constructive (2NC). After the 2NC, there are four five minute long rebuttal speeches called the first negative rebuttal (1NR), first affirmative rebuttal (1AR), second negative rebuttal (2NR), and second affirmative rebuttal (2AR).

Four cross examination (CX) periods, each three minutes long, are between each constructive speech. The debate is decided by a judge who typically discloses at the end of the round.

Bill Batterman, the Associate Director of Debate at Woodward Academy, is a past recipient of the Wisconsin Debate Coaches’ Association Coach of the Year

“… there is a defined objective, there are rules, governering conduct, within the space of the game, and there is an outcome of the game.”

game, and contest, and sport, and competition can be difficult to draw,” Batterman said. “But I think that it fits the definition of a game in the sense that there is a defined objective, there are rules, governing conduct within the space of the game, and there is an outcome of the game.

Obviously, it’s quite different than many other games, sport games, video games, or sports. But yes, I think debate is a game.”

Yao Yao Chen has been the volunteer LASA debate coach since 2005. In 2021, he won the Kandi King Award for Coaching Excellence from the Winston Churchill Classic Tournament.

Chen agrees that debate is a game, and adds that debate helps open up new modes of thinking. “[Debate is] a competitive activity where contestants face constraints in their pursuit of wins,” Chen said. “But, like most games worth playing, it trains, teaches and molds its participants to see and engage the world and each other in ways they otherwise wouldn’t.”

Eleanor Barrett at a state tournament Photo courtesy of Yao Yao Chen.

Award and the National Debate Coaches Association Educator of the Year Award. Batterman explains why he sees debate as a game.

But treating debate as a game confounds people at first because of how different people who aren’t debaters imagine competitive policy debate.

“The delineating line between

Aaron Kall is the Director of

Students on the LASA debate team at a state tournament in Portland, Texas. Photo courtesy of Yao Yao Chen.

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Debate at the University of Michigan, and has been running the Michigan Debate Institutes, one of the most well known and accomplished debate camps in the nation, since 2010. When trying to explain debate, the place Kall always starts at is the speed at which debaters are speaking at.

“It’s like training, or riding a bike it just takes you a little bit longer to get adjusted to that,” Kall said.

“Don’t be too freaked out in the beginning about it. It’s not that weird, and there’s a reason for it.”

Debate might be different because of the speed, but ultimately, Kall notes that debate

“… it trains, teaches, and molds its participants to see and engage the world and each other in ways they otherwise wouldn’t.”

“The reason they do that is because we’re in a time activity,” Kall said. “You have a five minute speech, then an eight minute speech, and you have an incentive to try to say as many things as you can in that short amount of time. If you can speak twice as quickly and make twice as many points, then you’re gonna have an advantage and we’re gonna get educated over twice as many things as opposed to half the amount.”

Kall stresses that, while intimidating at first, the more debates you watch, the easier it is to understand what is being said.

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“You could quibble with the way that referees call individual plays, but you can’t really argue that the team that didn’t score as many points or that the team that didn’t score as many points should have won,” Batterman said.

Instead, Batterman insists to look at the way a debate judge evaluates a debate as a teacher grading an English paper might have a rubric that sets metrics for what they want to see, and different degrees of quality for each of the components of the paper.

comes down to a team’s ability to persuade the judge that their view of the optic is correct and should be endorsed.

Yao Yao Chen is the volunteer coach for LASA. Photo courtesy of Samantha Low.

game with its objective rules can be.

“Whichever team does the best in a 90 minute debate is the team who’s going to win,” Kall said. “The whole point of debate is convincing the judge of your correctness, and the judge is never wrong. If there’s an issue and you didn’t win, there was some disconnect where you didn’t get across your point the proper way.”

In this sense, debate is a subjective game where the gap between what a debater is trying to communicate and the judge’s personal interpretation of what actually was communicated is always trying to be closed.

Batterman explains that the way debate is judged can never be objectively standardized in the way a basketball

“They might follow that [rubric], but at the end of the day, they’re still making a value judgment or a subjective interpretation - ‘what did I think of this paper?’” Batterman said.

“Debate takes that and then applies it to the next level, which is, instead of evaluating just one student’s paper, you’re evaluating two teams of students’ papers as they are being put in tension or as they are clashing

Bill Batterman in his office at Woodward Academy. Photo courtesy of Bill Batterman.

against one another.”

In fact, clash, or the ability to address and refute arguments, is what makes debate such a unique activity, while also making it, as Batterman explains, difficult to judge well.

“It would be, in figure skating, instead of a figure skater going first and [the judge makes a decision], then another figure skater goes and then the judge [makes another decision], the figure skaters were going at the same time, and where [one figure skater] went and the moves they made then impacted the other figure skater and the judge dynamically decided ‘all right, after seeing that, I thought this figure skater was better,’” Batterman said. “It requires participants, coaches,

stakeholders and anybody who cares about the outcome to accept more of an inherent margin of error; you have to be more willing to accept some degree of subjectivity than you do in most other forums.”

However, that degree of subjectivity can be used to a debater’s advantage. Kall talks about paradigms, which are essentially a judge’s English paper rubric that list out how a judge feels about a particular argument.

teams use to choose judges who are the most ok with a team’s debate style.

“We’ve shifted to this ordinal system where each team gets to rank their judges, maybe 1-50, 1-100, depending on how many

“Paradigms gives students and coaches some insight on what the judge like, what their background was, maybe what they did when they debated, what arguments they like and don’t like,” Kall said. “[Reading those] is a big part of pre-round and pre-tournament prep these days.

“… you have to be more willing to accept some degree of subjectivity than you do in most other forums.”

Taking several hours to read through all the paradigms really maximizes your potential for success because you obviously want to get the most favorable judge to you, your style and your arguments when you get matched up in really important debates.”

But how does a team go about getting the most favorable judge for them? Kall describes the ranking system

Chen at a debate club meeting. Photo courtesy of Christian Bohmer.

judges there are,” Kall said.

“Then, when two teams match up, the computer system tries to give them the most mutually preferred judge between the two teams.”

Chen adds that the small amount of set in stone rules debate has offers its participants opportunities to engage in ways that are unique to debate.

“It’s high-speed verbal chess,” Chen said. “There are few limits on what you’re allowed to research or say in the debate, and that open-endedness and open-mindedness builds both critical thinking and strategic planning in ways no other extracurricular activity can.”

Aaron Kall in Ann Arbor. Photo courtesy of Aaron Kall.

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Academic & .................

Political Debate Explaining the differences between the two

1

Information courtesy of Aaron Kall at the University of Michigan

These can be televised or in front of an in-person audience.

Chances are, your debate will be viewed by more than just a few people,

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M

By: Maile Low

1

2

Competitive: it has a winner and loser chosen by a judge.

Usually, the judge will disclose their decision after the round concludes, though it isn’t a requirement.

2 Can be competed in teams of two or three or stand alone (policy and public forum is debated in two, Lincoln-Douglas is debated stand alone, World Schools is debated in three; etc.)

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S

Campaigns have research staff who create policy statements.

This staff can include political consultants, a general consultant, a media consultant, etc.

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3

Information courtesy of Bill Batterman at Woodward Academy

Chosen topic that is given at a certain time depending on what type of debate you compete in (the topic can be annual, monthly or based on tournament)

3

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Moderator or third party involved in some capacity in the debate

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4 Speeches are timed (depending on the speech, it’s either eight minutes or four minutes, leading to fast talking speeds

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Information courtesy of Jennifer von Freeden at Cronekit Zine

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4 It’s meant to persuade more than just one person. Even local elections draw in reporters who talk about what each candidate said.

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WORD SEARCHes

DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS

CONVENTION

BOARD

REBUTTAL

CHESS

KNIGHT

CHECKMATE

ROLEPLAYING

PAWN

BISHOP

DEXTERITY

STRENGTH

KING

ROOK

FANTASY

SXSW

QUEEN

INITIATIVE

FIANCHETTO

WISDOM

GRANDMASTER

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