Yale IV 2010 Results

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. After rocketing through the preliminary rounds and racking up a perfect 15 points in 5 rounds, McGill superstars Saro Setrakian and Sean Stefanik were locked out of the semi-finals after losing a vicious battle in their quarter-final round. While they may not have advanced to the final stage of the tournament this year, they were the top seeded team, and Stefanik managed to claim top speaker honours, while Setrakian was the tournament’s 4th best speaker.

Pros Sean Husband and Natalya Slepneva made it the furthest out of any McGill team. After breaking 14th on 11 points, they wrangled a victory in their quarter-final, and fought valiantly in the semi-final, but the win there managed to elude them. Slepneva was the tournament’s 12th speaker.

It appears that the McGill Debating Union is filled with staunch Keynesians as our remaining quarter-finalists were also dropped from the elimination rounds after failing to persuade judges that fiscal austerity measures were a good idea. Honours Economics students Bryce Balcom and Ross Duncan were ejected from the out rounds after breaking 16th.

While our last team of quarter-finalists also dropped, their success is still quite notable, as the team consisted of two McGill novices. Sarah Balakrishnan and Lewis Fainer managed to break 12th on 11 points, second only to Setrakian and Stefanik. Their effulgent example is an inspiration to all debaters in our club. Balakrishnan was 18th speaker, and the top novice speaker of the tournament.