2020 Tournament details

Ava Caudle is a born-and-raised Floridian who drinks too much tea and watches too much C-Span. Her love of advocacy led her to participate in her current debate and activism organization, Junior State of America. After four years (and counting!), she can lay claim to a honed ability in debate that she hopes to continue in college. While she had pursued public speaking since her elementary school years, it was learning to debate that truly caused Ava to grow her skills while learning to appreciate opposing viewpoints. An unapologetic type-A, she takes pride in having organized and run multiple conventions as well as creating ways to mentor younger debaters. Ava is beyond excited to be working with SYTYCD and expand her horizons internationally!

Top Debate (JSA) Achievements:

1. Southeast Governor (highest elected position in all of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina)

2. 2019 Statesperson of the Year

3. 11 Best Speaker Gavels

4. Southeast Cabinet Positions: Debate Agent (2017-2018), Convention Coordinator (2018-2019), Chief of Staff (2019-2020, highest appointed position in Southeast)

5. 2019 Governor’s Gavel Debate Winner

6. JSA Princeton Summer Graduate

7. JSA Montezuma Leadership Summit Graduate (one of 3 students selected from the Southeast)

8. 8. 3-year Chapter Officer

Top Adjudicating Experiences:

1. JSA Debate Moderator & Audience Voter

2. JSA Mock-Supreme Court Justice

3. Teen Court Jurist

It would be a gross understatement to say that Bala, a final-year student, is a warm, welcoming and hardworking debater and President. While her modest self would continually deny this and say that it is "not facts", everyone in and around the NTU Debate Squad can confirm that she has played an instrumental role in shaping the club's culture. When she's not ordering Coffee Bean right before selections or important out-rounds (a situation she finds herself quite frequently in), you can find her analyzing motions and ranting endlessly about debates, seconds after they conclude, to whoever will (or won't) listen.

Her spectrum of valid argumentation ranges from whether it is 'legit so stupid' or 'so smOrt', and her unmatched precision and clarity often leads her to making speeches easily classified as the latter. Her calm demeanor and candor makes her the perfect choice for being on the AC of this tournament, because she can bond with people faster than she can think of rebuttals, and that's saying something. In her free time, she enjoys making grand finals of tournaments, and commencing screaming matches with her teammates during prep. As a judge, Bala has adj-cored quite a few tournaments in the recent past, with her meticulousness & attentiveness making her the perfect person to seek feedback from!

Top Debate Achievements:

1. Double Octofinalist for Asian British Parliamentary Championships (2020)

2. Finalist for Malaysia Pre-ABPs (2020)

3. Finalist for Taylor's Debate Open (2020)

4. Winner and Finals Best Speaker of Cicero World Tour (2020)

5. Finalist for SP-Jain Debate Championships (2018)

6. Finalist for Kuala Lumpur Women’s Debate Novice Tournament (2018)

7. Semi-finalist for NTU Pro-Ams Debate tournament (2017)

Top Adjudicating Experiences:

1. Core Adjudicator for YNC Pro-Ams (2020)

2. Core Adjudicator for Youth Debate Open (2020)

3. Core Adjudicator for Interpolys (2020)

Emellia was a lawyer by profession, and now, a speech coach by passion. With her expertise as a litigator and coaching experience for the past 8 years, Emellia is one of the most renowned speech trainers in Malaysia. She is also a prominent gender rights advocate in Malaysia. Her activism led to her being chosen as part of the team that drafts the Sexual Harassment Bill in Malaysia.

Top Debate Achievements:

1. Malaysia’s National Champion (2012)

2. Top 10 Speaker Awards, awarded 6 times in both Malaysia and Singapore

3. Semifinalist for Asian British Parliamentary Championship, twice in a row

4. Quarter-finalist for World Universities Peace Invitation Debate (2012)

Top Adjudicating Experiences:

1. Breaking Judge in multiple international competitions (Singapore, Indonesia, China, Philippines, Bangladesh, etc.)

2. Coach of a group of students to win Asian Schools Debating Championship (2014)

3. Coach of a group of students to rank top 10 the World Scholar’s Cup (2017, 2018)

4. CEO of MIDP (2019)

Mateusz is heavily involved in the debate world, both as a speaker and a judge. He has worked as a debate coach and is passionate about providing debate opportunities for cross-school (and cross-country) engagement.

Top Debate Achievements:

1. Winner of Cracow Open (2019)

2. Best Speaker Awarded 5 times consecutively

3. Winner of Polish League of Debate (2018)

4. Winner of Polish National Championships (2016)

5. Broken at multiple international competitions (Kyiv Open (2020), Belgrade Open (2019), Split Open (2019), Cracow Open (2017))

Top Adjudicating Experiences:

1. Core Adjudicator for 20+ national/ international tournaments (Bombay, Russia Poland etc.)

2. Breaking Judge and Chair at: Parassat Open (2020), Trinity Open (2020), Rotterdam Open (2019), Estonian Open (2019), and Kyiv Open (2019)

3. Breaking Judge and IA at: Charity Open (2020), Astana Online Open (2020), Doxbridge (2020), Eastern IV (2020), and Vienna IV (2019)

4. Trainer at Central European Debate Academy (2019)