Three-hundred sixteen schools.

One thousand three-hundred competitors.

Thirteen champions.

Seven students competed at the JW Patterson Tournament of Champions at the University of Kentucky from April 26-28. Juniors Samantha Tran and Alia Hassan advanced to the semi-final round of Congressional Debate.

Tran, a three-time competitor, appreciated having teammates Hassan and junior Catherine Xue to help research and write speeches both in support and in opposition for 14 pieces of legislation.

“Last year, having to prepare alone was a scary experience because there wasn’t anyone that I could talk to about my fears and stress for the tournament,” Tran said. “I came in with a completely different mindset this year, thanks to my strong support system and teammates.”

The TOC this year marked a significant moment in Tran’s debate career, as she advanced from prelims to semifinals for the first time.

“In past years, I couldn’t break free from my ‘prelims curse’ – I didn’t advance my freshman and sophomore years,” Tran said. “My favorite part of the tournament was when advancing competitors were announced on Tabroom. Alia and I quickly reloaded the page, and we had a look of complete shock on both of our faces when we realized we broke through.”

Established in 1972, the TOC is recognized as the most prestigious competition in the speech and debate community, with competitors from all over the United States, Taiwan, Canada and the Dominican Republic. To qualify, competitors must attain two “bids” by placing highly at select competitive tournaments, including the Barkley Forum for High Schools.

Junior Eliza Teo and sophomore Ishani Kaushik were the first Informative Speaking qualifiers in Bellaire Debate history. For Teo, qualifying for the TOC was a “huge milestone.”

“This is my first time being at the TOC, and I’m very privileged to be here,” Teo said. “Everyone here is so talented. It motivates me to work even harder, and I see the valuable connections I’ve been making with these people that are so passionate.”

The TOC was the second-to-last tournament for seniors and Public Forum debaters Mingyi Chen and Feifan Liu. The first team to qualify for the TOC since 2021, Chen and Liu finished with a 4-3 win-loss record in the preliminary rounds.

“The main thing we found disappointing was that there were quite a few judges that were inexperienced parents,” Chen said. “It felt like a lot of times, the complex research and preparation that was done beforehand was less relevant when it came to the teams that were more persuasive and less researched.”

As the TOC is regarded as “the hardest tournament of the year,” Chen and Liu began preparing over a month prior on their topic about increasing investment into nuclear energy.

“Since the TOC qualification process is already difficult, everyone here is competitive,” Chen said. “Feifan and I did a ton of research on both sides of the topic. We made a prep group with some other teams going to the TOC and did eight total practice rounds, which is more rounds than the actual number in the TOC prelims.”

Although not advancing past prelims, Chen gained skills that extend beyond debate rounds.

“Debate is ultimately about the skills that you get from researching and applying that when you go into jobs, become a student, an academic or a social activist,” Chen said. “You analyze policies and see how they’ve actually shaped our lives. Losing a debate round is not that bad in the broader picture of things.”

Despite a “grueling” three days of competition, debate coach Isaac Chao is proud of the students for the support they have shown each other and relationships they have cultivated.

“The TOC is a product of months of investment over the course of practices and countless hours of research at home to perfect cases and speeches,” Chao said. “The intellectual and academic growth that they have demonstrated is something to be proud of over the competitive season.”

The speech and debate team will end its 2024-25 season with the NSDA National Speech and Debate Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa from June 15-20.