come to an online speech & debate tournament with me (Feb 2025)

Hi!

I'm at a Speech & Debate tourney and I have a lot of time between rounds, so I figured I'd write a reflection again. This is the fourth time I'm posting a full wrap up:

This tournament is supposed to be more prestigious and stuff. I competed in it last year and made it to Semifinals (I don't have a wrap up post for it). That was a different event, though, so let's see how I do this time.

thoughts after round one

I'm like 95% sure I know who ranked first in round one- her initials were ML and she did really good! I also think I did good, but I was a little fast towards the end. I would rate my speech a 4/5 because it was good, just not great. And at this tournament, the judges probably expected greatness.

My next round isn't for another 35 minutes, and I literally have nothing to do. This tournament is strange because I have 3 rounds today, then a 4th one tomorrow morning, and all the elim rounds (semis, finals, etc) are tomorrow afternoon. Honestly, I like it better when everything is one day, but it's fine. Everything is fine.

Things to improve on: 

• expressions
• vocal variety
• passion
• acting

So basically everything??

But in all seriousness, I'm going to make finals. I can feel it.

Time - 10:16

thoughts after round two

You know that feeling when you're in a round and the judge is talking and you just realize that she's doing everything right and this is the best & kindest judge you've ever had and she's probably going to give you really good feedback & judge fairly?

That's what happened in this round. But like last time, I think I know who will get 1st, a girl named Amy. I'm not 100% sure though. I think this one was a little worse than last time, but my dad who was listening in said it was better.

Things to improve on:

• not saying "now" and other sneaky filler words
• strange pauses that break the flow of your speech
• varied voice (so not just UP and then  d o w n  and then UP and then  d o w n)
• more facial expressions (like at the sad parts) (but I did kinda good on that)
• e n u n c i a t e 
• look like you know what's going on
• dont glance to the side randomly or down while talking
• fix the ending

Time - 9:41

thoughts after round three

My biggest issue with this round was that at the end, the judge said my time was 9:11. I timed myself and it was 10:09!! The reason this is an issue is that you have a 30 second grace period (so your speech can go from 9:30 to 10:30) and obviously 9:11 falls outside of that grace period. Most judges would penalize the speaker by making them ineligible to rank first in that round.

HOWEVER I literally fell into the grace period and I don't know how the judge mistimed me by so much. The only thing is, this judge seemed a little bit inexperienced so maybe he doesn't know about the grace period thing?? We'll see once results are posted.

Oh also, something that was kind of funny was that after this girl asked her judge for the time and the judge said 8:31 somebody played the womp-womp sound effect (not me) and the girl was like "i promise that wasn't me"

Feedback to myself

• be more confident pre-round
• more low tones (in intro i only have a lot of high tones)
• make use of pauses 
• being dramatic is more than just pauses
• varied voice (so not just UP and then  d o w n  and then UP and then  d o w n)
• don't say "but" or "so" so much
• actually stop saying but
• don't blink for a long time
• take them on a journey with your speech (connected, flowing paragraphs)
• sound confident
• fix hair before the round
• don't be scared to pause in between a sentence
• don't become low energy during the sad parts (long term procrastination) 

thoughts after day 1 of the tourney

Round 3 was my last round of the day which means I have 15 hours and 30 minutes until my next round. I'm Speaker 1 in that, which means I'll go first. 

Some things that have been keeping me same throughout the day:

• Baby sitters club (IT'S ACTUALLY SO GOOD OMG WHAT???)
• this playlist (I promised myself I wouldn't get Taylor Swift as my top spotify artist again but this playlist may be proving me wrong)
• the slack channel my team uses to communicate (i was way too active on that)
• the hamilton soundtrack (no explanation needed)

My motto is "Believe you can and you're halfway there". I know this tourney is full of really good people, but not to brag, so am I. I won 1st place at the Regent Legacy, and therefore, I think I'll make it to finals. 

I actually really like Speech & Debate tourneys!! This feeling is so fun and it can't be replicated anywhere else. Is this why people love sports? Is this the feeling they get before a championship? If so, I finally get the hype surrounding them. It's like I can see the trophy, and I just have to figure out how to get there. A tingly fun inexplicable emotion. 

thoughts after knowing I got into finals

• AAAAH WHAT HOW 
• does this mean I have to compete in jv now??? against high schoolers???
• well now i get a trophy even if i completely fail (all finalists get trophies)
• but also i want a REALLY BIG trophy
• there's 1 hour until my round starts and i still need to eat lunch + practice
• OMG AAAAAAAAH
• i literally predicted the future by saying i was going to make finals earlier
• i should be a fortune teller
• believe you can and you're halfway there!! so i just need to visualize winning 
• AAAAAAAAAAH
• ok i need to eat lunch
• IM SO HYPER
• I WAS IN THE TOP 6 OUT OF 27 KIDS (INCLUDING HIGH SCHOOLERS) well i'm basically a high schooler but whatever
• TOP 22% now time to become top 1%
• ok time to lock in and practice now, ttyl <3333
• THERE ARE FIVE JUDGES FOR FINALS
• F I V E
• THATS A LOT OMGGG
• ok actually bye

thoughts after finals

Okay I kind of want to rank everyone:

• 1st FZ VVV: 7/10, I'm sorry. I think her presentation and speaking skills were really good, and she is an amazing actor (expressions, vocal variety, yada yada). BUT her choice of speech was not it.
• 3rd GC SH: my dad said 10/10
• 4th AD CC: 10/10. WHAT OH MY GOD. She should actually be an actor. This was perfect. I love it.
• 5th BZ RH: 9/10 bestie ateee omg. Her speech was really powerful!
• 6th AD ML: didn't hear hers

So I thought about it, and after much deliberation, I've decided my theory: I THINK I'LL GET FOURTH PLACE.

thoughts after results

GUYS. I GOT 3RD PLACE.

THAT'S REALLY GOOD but also it's not first place sooooooooooooooooooooooooo. I'm actually so shocked because I have a spot on the podium and I'm really happy with this.