Clear your throats and prepare your notes for the Debating competitions in this year's Roots Olympiad. This is a fantastic opportunity to work on those public speaking skills, meet other debators and add something impressive to your college application. Or to get some handy experience and see if you're any good. We'd love to show you the ropes and acquaint you with the fickle world of debating.

Sign up today and show the world that you can prove a point. Especially if it makes no sense at all. See you!

Rules and Regulations

Debate procedure:
There will be two teams- Proposition (Government) and Opposition. The Proposition speaks in favor of the motion whereas the Opposition speaks against it. Each team shall have three members (first speaker, second speaker and third speaker) and one adjudicator. The teams will be given the position of opposition or proposition and the topic will be given to them in sealed envelopes which they must open at a fixed time. The teams will then have one hour to prepare their case after which the session will be conducted.

Order of the debate:

First speaker of proposition will open the debate by defining the topic and presenting his team's stance, as well as his first line of argument (LOA).
First speaker of the opposition will refute the proposition’s case and present his or her own team stance and 1st LOA in opposition to the proposition.
2nd speaker of the proposition comes and refutes the 1st speaker of OPP and builds on their own case and presents the second LOA.
2nd speaker opposition comes and refutes the proposition's whole case and presents his 2nd LOA.
3rd speaker of proposition comes and highlights the ISSUES of the debate and argues in a way to make their own case look strong and negate the other team’s case.
3rd speaker opposition does the same as the 3rd speaker of proposition.

During the speech of a speaker, the OTHER team can ask Points of Information (POI's) i.e. questions regarding the points they have made.
Each speaker is allotted 8 minutes to speak and the first and last min of their speech is free of POI's.
The decision is made by the judges, which cannot be challenged.

Every team’s respective adjudicator will be present through out the sessions to ensure impartiality.