MGCNL Debate Team Members Dominate in Visayas Intervarsity

MGCNL Debaters Bianca Iyesha Sy from Patmos C and En Duo Wang from Zion GAS took the cake in the Visayas Intervarsity (VIV) Debate Competition held last November 4-5 via Discord and Zoom. 

Taking on the role of Closing Government under the team name MGC A, the duo emerged as champions in the High School Finals on a split majority of 7-2, with the debate centering on philosophy.  Wang was also awarded the HS Finals Best Speaker as Member of Government.

“We never imagined we'd be winning the Grand Finals. Thinking about it feels surreal. At first, we made small goals like breaking in the HS division or winning in the semi-finals. However, we eventually found ourselves in the final round. With the support of our coaches and friends, we were motivated to win the tournament,” Sy stated.

Wang expressed his gratitude in his bagging the best speaker award, “I think I owe it to my partner and the strategy we adopted. We were able to predict almost the exact arguments the opposing teams decided to run, so we were able to completely dismantle their case literal moments after their speech.”

Initially, MGC A was the 6th breaking team,  accumulating 7 points and 598 speaker points, requiring them to go through the pre-semifinals. However, the team got moved up to the 4th breaking team after another one was disqualified, which led them directly to the semifinals and subsequently into the Finals Round. 

In addition to MGC A, three other teams valiantly represented the school.  MGC B had Yutong Xing from Zion STEM and Joshua Clark Tan of Patmos B. MGC C was composed of Patmos B’s En Hui Ge and Zaira Meighan Gonzaga, while MGC D had Anastasia Elise Albano of Patmos C and Samara Fionna Ang from Berea D.

Hosted by the Cebu Inter-school Debating Association, the VIV Debate Competition uses the British Parliamentary format, where four teams consisting of two members compete against each other. More than 30 institutions participated in the competition, among them are Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, Bicol University, and Polytechnic University of the Philippines.