The Women and Gender Minorities Online Debate Open 2020 was hosted by Livi McAlrea and Emily Xie on the 25th and 26th of July. It featured 68 teams and a break to open quarterfinals and to a novice final. The tournament was founded and initially organized alongside Meehakk Mulani. A panel discussion was organized, and included a series of question and answers as well as broader discussions of womxn and gender minority experiences in debate. The Adjudication Team included Ivy Xu, Noam Shurin, Micaela Lewis, Hadley Parum, and Eva-Marie Quinones. Tab was run by Reed Herter and initially organized alongside Amanda Liang. It is available here.

Couple things to note about the tab that are unique to the regional circuit and tournament nature:

1. Where teams had requested anonymity, when decoded, the tab listed their team names as “ind.” and two random letters. Independent and open teams are listed as “ind.” and the subsequent first letter of each participants surname.
2. Speaker award ties were broken on standard deviation scores where possible.

The open final was won by Bard SS (Gwen Stearns, Julia Sands), speaking from Opening Opposition on the motion that “THP a world where epistemic humility is widely believed in, as opposed to a world where skepticism is widely believed in.” Speaking against them were Carleton OZ (Sarah Zaitlin, Natanya Olusania) in Opening Government, W & M ST (Sania Shahid, Aba Tieku) in Closing Government, and McGill RM (Ruth Silcoff, Maiya Werba) in Closing Opposition. The final was chaired by Niki Linganur. Judging with them were Alexandra Lovell, Jessica Awurum, Noam Shurin, and Parth Pandya. 

The novice final was won by Independent LW (Gaby Lin, Little Women) speaking from Opening Opposition on the motion “THR the popular belief in free will.” Speaking against them were Ind. TT (Allenna Tang, Angela Tang) in Opening Government, Ind. JW (Rubyfruit Jungle, The Blazing World) in Closing Government, and Ind. SS (Aliza Sultan, Alina Salman) in Closing Opposition. The novice final was chaired by Hadley Parum. Judging with them were Bossy Pants, Betsy Studholme, Mozaien Tak, Naama Or.

The top EPL speaker of the tournament was Ruth Silcoff, averaging 80.8 speaker points.

The top ESL/EFL speaker was Tejasvi Yadav, averaging 80.6 speaker points.

The top novice speaker was Emily Ni, averaging 79 speaker points.

Speaker Awards:
1 . Ruth Silcoff, McGill RS, speak avg 80.8; speak total 404
2. Sania Shahid, W&M ST, speak avg 80.6; speak total 403
3. Tejasvi Yadav, Miranda YR, speak avg 80.6; speak total; speak total 403
4. Maiya Werba, McGill RS, speak avg 80.4; speak total 402
5. Anna Saint, ind. BS, speak avg 80.4; speak total 402
6. Aba Tieku, W&M ST, speak avg 80.2; speak total 401
7. Jacqueline Belzberg, ind. BS, speak avg 80.2; speak total 401
8. ✨?✨, ind. GG, speak avg 80; speak total 400
9. Emma Jones, SF-Alberta Hybrid CJ, speak avg 79.6; speak total 398
10. Prakriti Ranjan, Miranda YR, speak avg 79.4; speak total 397
10. Kanika Kaur, Miranda KP, speak avg 79.4; speak total 397

ESL/EFL Speaker Awards
1.  Tejasvi Yadav, Miranda YR, speak avg 80.6; speak total; speak total 403
2. Prakriti Ranjan, Miranda YR, speak avg 79.4; speak total 397
2. Kanika Kaur, Miranda KP, speak avg 79.4; speak total 397
4. Pranjal Swami, Miranda KP, speak avg 78.6; speak total 393
5. Vaishnavi Prasad, Tamil NaDu PS, speak avg 78.4; speak total 392

Novice Speaker Awards:
1. Emily Ni, ind. ZN, speak avg 79; speak total 395
2. Sarah Zaitlin, Carleton OZ  speak avg 79; speak total 395
3. Hannah Zhao, ind. ZN, speak avg 78.6; speak total 393
4. Sophie Wu, UWODS CW, 78; speak total 390
5. Gaby Lin, ind. LW, speak avg 77.8; speak total 389

The Break:
1 . W&M ST (Sania Shahid, Aba Tieku), 13 points
2. ind. BS (Jacqueline Beizberg, Anna Saint)
3. McGill RM (Ruth Silcoff, Maiya Werba), 12 points
4. Miranda YR (Tejasvi Yadav, Prakriti Ranjan)
5. SF-Alberta Hybrid CJ (Miranda Collett, Emma Jones), 11 points
6. Queens LM (Livi McElrea, Grace Li)
7. ind. RF (Snuhee Roy, Estelle Florens)
8. Miranda KP (Kanika Kaur, Pranjal Swami), 10 points
9. ind. GG (✨?✨, Redacted)
9. Carleton OZ (Sarah Zaitlin, Natanya Olusania)
11. ind. ZN (Hannah Zhou, Emily Ni)
12. Tamil NaDu PS (Sowmya Srinivasan, Vaishnavi Prasad)
13. ind. LW (Gaby Lin, Little Women) Different Break
14. Saskatchewan DV (Talia Dixon, Abby Vadeboncoeur)
15. Hybrid-CR CK (Carson Crane, Meg Kandarpa), 9 points
16. Bard SS (Gwen Stearns, Julia Sands)
17. ind. JW (Rubyfruit Jungle, The Blazing World) Different Break
18. Hart House WR (Li Wan, Sarah Rana), Break Withdrawal
19. Cornell KZ (Alice Kreher, Katerina Zhuravel)

The Novice Break:
1. ind. ZN (Hannah Zhou, Emily Ni) Different Break, 10 points
2. ind. LW (Gaby Lin, Little Women)
3. ind. JW (Rubyfruit Jungle, The Blazing World), 9 points
4. ind. SS (Aliza Sultan, Alina Salman)
5. ind. TT (Angela Tan, Allenna Tang)

Judge Break:
Betsy Studholme, Bossypants, Cameron Chacon, Clarence Bronte-Logan, Alexandra Lovell, Elaina Taylor, Enshia Li, Eva-Marie Quinones, Ivy Xu, Hadley Parum, Jessica Awurum, Joanna Ding, Marina Shew, Kimia Raahemifar, Meghan Ackland, Meehakk Mulani, Micaela Lewis, Mozaien Tak, Naama Or, Nikhila Pushadapu, Niki Linganur, Noam Shurin, Parth Pandya, Thamera Naicker

Motions:

R1: Infoslide: Creator-driven content refers to media produced by individuals with a large online following who are responsible for the production and distribution of their own content (ie, YouTubers, IG influencers, TikTok stars, Twitch livestreamers)

THR the prominence of creator-driven content

R2: THP the removal of sex and gender markers (e.g., on government forms, IDs, and other areas of legal recognition) as opposed to the inclusion of nonbinary, “X”, and other gender or sex markers

R3: Infoslide: fter the passing of Hong Kong’s national security law, various foreign governments have announced separate immigration programs for Hong Kong citizens to resettle overseas. This ranges from fast-tracking residency (Taiwan and Australia) to path to citizenship (UK for all Hong Kong citizens holding the British National Overseas passports). This is in addition to existing, non-country-specifc asylum and refugee schemes.

THS facilitating massive emmigration in response to oppressive regimes.

R4: Infoslide: A “petroleum fund” is a sovereign wealth fund that holds revenues from state-owned oil extraction. In some places (such as Norway), the state cannot use the fund’s principal to finance welfare programs, but it can use the returns on investment of the principal and any interest the fund generates.

THBT developing countries should prohibit using the principal of petroleum funds to finance social and welfare programs.

R5: Infoslide: “Desperation science” is a scientific methodology that involves speeding up the process of research by loosening regulations on that research. In biomedical research, this includes processes such as allowing early approvals for use of various drugs before safety and efficacy (especially in the long-term) has been thoroughly proven, and doctors prescribing medication based on results of early stage trials. Data on drugs is often collected in postmarketing surveillance trials after the drug has gone to market/started being widely prescribed.

THO the use of “desperation science” during the coronavirus pandemic

Quarterfinal: THBT feminists should primarily combat pseudo-scientific claims of sex and gender based differences (e.g. claims that men are more intelligent/brave/strong) on the basis of their scientific inaccuracy as opposed to focusing on deconstructing the social value placed on those differences

Semifinal: THBT parliamentary ridings and congressional districts should be drawn to maximize electoral competitiveness.

Novice Final:THR the popular belief in free will

Final: Infoslide: For the purposes of this debate, “epistemic humility” is defined as a philosophy which believes in the existence of objective truth but is modest in the perception of how much of this truth is currently known. “Skepticism” is defined a philosophy that is agnostic about the existence of objective truth

THP a world where epistemic humility is widely believed in, as opposed to a world where skepticism is widely believed in.