The Debate Club Sweeps HELP's Debate Open!
The debating scene is no stranger to BAC as our Debate Club has participated in competitions such as UADC, ABP and many others. Headed by Cyril Joachim and Ryan Rayner, the Debate Club has worked its way through many of the competitions in the debating circuit, with members acting as both debaters and judges.
However, they've remained the underdogs for a long time, considering they were always up against Malaysian champions - students who are regular competitors in the world debating arena. However, this has never stopped them from trying. And it was with this 'never say die' attitude that the Debate Club entered the HELP Debate Open.
Dhivyah Chandrasegaran and Chris Chua represented the Debate Club and Club President, Cyril, joined them as part of the Core Adjudicating Panel.
"We went in not expecting much; I was not at my best that day. I was quite tired but I put in all the effort I could. It was quite challenging as the competition got tighter towards the end of the preliminary rounds." said Chris.
But they beat the odds to rank the second best team in the preliminaries and enter the quarter finals and then the grand finals against the MWS team, the Sunway team, and a composite team from Sunway and UTM.
Assigned a challenging topic ("This house prefers a world where the dominant belief system is that God judges on the purity of people's intentions rather than the consequences of their actions") where they had to take on the role of closing opposition against stiff competition, the Debate Club was understandably very nervous.
"It was a difficult one, as religion is very conceptual and we had to argue what we felt was the more difficult topic. We ended up brainstorming a seemingly random argument which no one else brought up. Because of how intangible the concept was, it was difficult to tell who would win. After the round was over, we went outside thinking that the win could go to any one of the four participating teams," said Dhivyah.
When they finally announced the winners, both Chris and Dhivyah couldn't believe it. They turned to look at each other in shock, taking time to process the wonderful news as this was the first time, since 2016, that BAC had won a debate competition. BAC also bagged Best Speaker in the finals, and Top 2 Best Speaker overall.
Dhivyah and Chris were also extremely proud that they successfully challenged past world championship debaters. It was a crowning achievement for them, and for the club. BAC wishes them a well-deserved congratulations and the best of luck for future debates! Here's hoping they will continue this winning streak and make BAC proud.
If you're interested to know more about the debate club, you can visit their Instagram or sign on up bacengage.my.
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