When most Mavericks rejoiced and donned their traditional sweatpants for the Thanksgiving break, a handful of McNeil’s best debaters went to Round Rock High School to compete in the 21st annual Round Rock TFA Qualifying Tournament. The tournament took place Nov. 21-22.

The main debate of the tournament was in the style of the Lincoln Douglas debates back in 1858. The case was Resolved: In the United States criminal justice system, jury nullification ought to be used in the face of perceived injustice. This case questioned whether the judgement of one’s peers should factor into deciding a case, or if citizens should stick tried and true to the laws put in place by the government.

“Jury nullification is a very important topic that not a lot of people know about,” sophomore Sara Brennan said.

Brennan, in her first year of debate, took her concern to the competition, won best speaker overall out of the novice debaters.

“I didn’t see winning as a big deal, but I’m glad kids are learning about serious aspects of our judicial system,” Brennan said.

Other novice debate wins go to freshman Abhinav Mugunda, who placed second overall Lincoln Douglas debate; and freshman Brooke Frank finished semi-finalist overall Lincoln Douglas debate.

Contestants are told to be prepared for both sides of the argument due to a coin flip being the deciding factor over whether participants argue for or against the given topic. Therefore students have to forgo their own bias to write a convincing argument against their personal views.

“I know my own bias, so when I am crafting an argument that goes against it, I work twice as hard to make sure the argument is not weak,” junior Deevika Sharma said.

Sharma has learned to open her mind to many conflicts in real life, knowing that there are two sides to everything. Sharma was awarded best speaker overall in the varsity division of the Lincoln-Douglas debate.

Vishal Bandaru, a senior in varsity debate, has learned to separate himself from his bias as well.

“You have to understand that everything in our consciousness dictates what we believe in,” Bandaru said.

Bandaru uses his understanding of perception and judgement to better see both the pros and cons of everything. He was a quarterfinalist at the competition but was not satisfied.

“There will be more competitions to do better. This is my last year, but I still have all next semester,” Bandaru said.

Another part of the competition was original oratory. In this division, contestants perform speeches, dramatic/comedic interpretations, and original speeches they write before hand. Sophomore Bahiya Khan took fourth place overall for her speech about social injustice. Original oratories are valued based on their structure, elegance and personal narrative. The speech must reach a length of around 7-10 minutes.

“I could have gone a little slower and edited my speech more,” Khan said, noting that there is always room for improvement.

Junior Natalie Malluru and senior Teresa Ulcak placed fifth and sixth place, respectively.