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You need to watch the constructive speeches in this round. It is semifinals at the NCFCA Region 9 Vector Icebreaker, with Ethos authors Zack Voell and Drew Chambers squaring off. We forgot to tape the 1AC, but that’s okay because the NEG completely derailed the round to talk about everything except the ONE emotional issue Zack and Caroline wanted to talk about (that cluster bombs kill babies).

Before the round, Drew knew he didn’t stand a chance against one of the best teams around by using standard evidence researched in a brief. He chose to latch on to one point of the case, run some theory arguments, and run a big disadvantage even though he had no “evidence” for it.

“Straight up” negative debating will rarely beat the best team. As Josiah and Patrick proved by beating a team in quarterfinals at nationals that had not lost their case but once, so Drew served up Zack and Caroline’s first loss with their case (3-2 decision). By using their brains, Drew Chambers and Katie Bode made it to finals where they won the tournament (also as negative against FLEX, which they beat 7-0 by running topicality and logical arguments and quoting no evidence).
CX of 1AC…

Drew’s 1NC

Zack’s 2AC

Katie’s 2NC

Will that strategy work next time? Maybe… but Drew and Katie will have to improve their topicality arguments significantly and expect that Zack and Caroline will have improved their responses.

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