Invitation to Debate

On April 16, ACS will host a debate tournament. Organized by 12-Graders Kamen Velichkov and Stoyan Trenchev, the battleground will be set for contestants from Blagoevgrad, Rousse, Shumen, Plovdiv, Pazardzhik, Sofia and an international team from BEST Foundation.

The format of the debates will be the World Schools model, most popular in this country. Each team has three members and they are given an hour to defend their position. The language of the competition will be English.

The topics of debate are announced in advance so that all participants can prepare in the best possible way. Plucked straight from the headlines, the topics are:

Round 1: This House would make voting mandatory in Bulgaria. Round 2: This House believes that democratic governments should have the right to bypass the encryption protection of smartphones. Round 3: This House believes Marvel movies are an insult to the art of cinema. Round Four is peculiar. To make things easier on the contestants, Round Four will feature a topic from Round One or Two. However, each team will have to defend the opposite of their position the first time around, i.e. those who debated Pro will now debate Contra, and vice versa. Final Round: This House believes EU countries should not have the right to refuse refugee quotas.

The winning team will be awarded a 600 leva prize. The best individual speaker will receive 50 leva.

Sounds like a fun way to spend a Saturday? The first debate starts at 10 am.

Read here what Scott Bleiweis, former ACS Debate Team coach, says about the state of our team.