2016 UC Berkeley Speech and Debate Tournament, February 13th-15th, 2016

The annual UC Berkeley Tournament is an event Kudos, and other middle and high school competitive teams across the nation, would not want to miss.
This February, Kudos team to Berkeley is the largest ever, consisting of 21 students, six parents, and three coaches. In addition, six students from Kudos Shanghai participated in this unprecedented event.

The Kudos Shanghai team arrived in sunny Southern California one week prior to the tournament, to receive face-to-face coaching from Kudos Head Coach Mr. Scott Wheeler and two other coaches, whom they had met only through video conferencing scrimmages during the two months training time.

Soon the competitors from two sides of the Pacific Ocean became comrades facing the same battle.

138 students, from 10 states, competed in Junior Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate. Three Kudos contestants, Nikhil Navare, Olivia Kaneko, and Purvaja Balaji all went a fantastic 4-2 but missed clearing to elimination rounds based on a slight short on speaker points.

124 teams, from 10 states and 2 countries, competed in Junior Varsity Policy Debate. In Policy, Eric Gao and Matthew Zhang, both 7th graders, went a rare 3-3, losing their 6th round, where victory would have allowed them to clear to elimination rounds. Jacob Chon and Eric Lu also went 3-3, a stellar record for middle school students amid strong high school competitors.

In Junior Varsity Public Forum debate, 118 teams, from 7 states and 2 countries, competed. Emma Chen and Nanette Zhang went a remarkable 3-3, losing their 6th round, where victory would have allowed them to clear to elimination rounds. Lydia Fraser and Helina Zhao, Iris Choi and Angela Pang, both teams had two victorious rounds.

Among Kudos Shanghai’s six-member, three Public Forum teams, Steven Xue and Calvin Pan, Stephanie Dan and Katherine Wang, had winning records for two rounds in Junior Varsity Public Forum which was exceptional. Together with Maya Liu and Stephanie Feng, each of them also competed in Original Oratory Speech, where they had momentous and outstanding experience.