88 teams gathered at Nueva Upper School on January 13th to compete in the open and junior varsity divisions at the second annual Nueva Invitational. The tournament featured 5 preliminary rounds for the open division and the junior division, with breaks to hidden semifinals in the 5th preliminary round. The tournament allowed casual dress, a change from formal dress promoted at most tournaments.

Campolindo was featured in Nueva’s closeout for the second year in a row, with Campolindo’s Shannon Bonet & Sharon Yuan co-championing with Los Altos/Campolindo’s Ryan Lee & Sophie Stankus. Last year, Bonet & Yuan closed out with teammates Kevin Deng & Krish Visht.

Bonet, Yuan, Stankus, & Lee after the tournament

In the semifinals round, Campolindo BY defeated El Cerrito’s Audrey Dowling and Maxime St-Jean on a 3-0 decision debating the resolution, “The United Nations should send a peacekeeping mission to the territory of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria.” Meanwhile, Los Altos/Campolindo LS walked over teammates Los Altos’s Angelina Lue & Henry Shi. Coincidentally, Lee & Stankus were walked over by Deng & Visht in semifinals last year.

Many competitors praised the the tournament’s hospitality, particularly appreciating the Mediterranean cuisine served for lunch. Gunn Sr. High School’s Grant Cheng said, “The food was nice — definitely a first for me at tournaments, especially since it didn’t go for the standard pizza/drinks/chips combo.”

Another point of appreciation for many was the tournament’s timeliness. Competitors enjoyed the easy progression of the event given minimal delays. Cupertino’s Jeffrey Xiong said, “This tournament was probably one of the smoothest tournaments I’ve ever been to. The staff communicated any interruptions really efficiently and transparently.”

Competitors were able to read a mix of technical and traditional arguments, mainly due to the “flay” nature of the judge pool, meaning both lay and flow judges were in attendance. There were 38 judges in the open pool and 18 judges in the junior pool, many being former or current debaters themselves. “The judge pool was decently flay, so pretty appreciated, especially since there were a lot of Nueva coaches,” said Cheng.

Semifinals

Campolindo Shannon Bonet and Sharon Yuan def. El Cerrito Audrey Dowling and Maxime St-Jean (3-0)

Los Altos/Campolindo Ryan Lee and Sophie Stankus def. Los Altos Henri Shi and Angelina Lue (walkover)

Finals

Campolindo Bonet & Yuan c/o Los Altos/Campolindo Lee & Stankus