関西圏や関東圏に比して圧倒的に大会数が少ない九州ではありますが、九州大学では毎年夏に日本唯一のBPのオープン世界大会、Kyushu Debate Open（通称QDO）が開催されています。今回は2019年度の審査委員長、CAの1人となったQUDSのKhac Hungさんに今後CAをする人々に向けてのブログを書いてもらいました。ぜひ読んでみてください。
Hi, my name is Khac Hung from Kyushu University. Thank you for spending time reading this blog. I was asked to write about Kyushu Debate Open 2019 (QDO 2019) from the adjudication core perspective and share some experience for next year's QU adjudication core member, so I will do so. I hope that you will find it helpful for your debating work.
This blog will be divided into 3 main parts
1. About Kyushu Debate Open
2. Preparation and motion discussion before the tournament
3. Tournament
1. Kyushu Debate Open
Kyushu Debate Open (QDO) is an international BP tournament held in Fukuoka, Kyushu in August. It started in 2014 (I’m so sorry if I remember it wrong), and at first, the tournament was quite small in the number of participants but then gradually it grew to become the biggest international tournament in Japan with over 100 participants every year from more than 10 countries. From 2017, QDO started adapting Sustainable Developing Goals (SDGs) as its theme to make the tournament for educative and also make the discussion go further than just the debate round. That’s the general background of the Kyushu Debate Open that can be found on the Facebook page and website of QDO. But for QU members, there is something more about QDO that I would like you to know. “QDO is the trademark, the symbol of our development as a debating circuit”. In 2014, QUDS was just a small circuit that no one knows about, but as time goes by, QUDS started growing and getting stronger. We started to have achievements in some tournaments in Japan and internationals (QDO). If you look at the timeline of how QUDS was growing, you will find it similar to how QDO the tournament was growing, and I don’t think it was a coincidence. QDO is one of the main factors that make QUDS get stronger. Why do I say that? Let’s start with a little bit background of Kyushu region. Kyushu region is very far away from Kanto, where most of the tournaments are being held (some people even make jokes that Kyushu is a foreign country, which I found funny but quite sad at the same time). This means it costs a lot for a debater in the Kyushu region to join a tournament and get access to training, practicing at high quality. Kyushu Debate Open can bring all these things to Kyushu, not only from Kanto but from international circuits (what more I can ask for). Every year in August, QUDS members have a chance to participate and observe high-quality rounds, feedbacks from World top debaters and judges, make new friends and connections. And that’s why QUDS starts growing up, or at least, that was how I got better and better in debating (and I know some members same as me). Kyushu Debate Open, to a certain extends, mitigates the difficulties and creates a new chance for QUDS. For all of this, I want to send my appreciation to Prof. Joshua Park and Akira Kato (AK) san. Thank you for always helping QDO and our circuit. In short, Kyushu Debate Tournament is a great chance for all QU debaters, thus I recommend all members of QUDS to participate in each year. Regardless of how you participate in, as debater, committee or helper, you will learn something and get stronger after the tournament.
2. Preparation and motion discussion before the tournament
From the second part, I would like to write about my experience as adjudication core of Kyushu Debate Open 2019 so that next year adj core member from Kyushu can refer to. I cannot say that I fulfilled all my duties, but I will try my best to deliver what the adj coring looks like.
Adjudication core is the group of adjudicators who will be in charge of motion creation and the debate-related issue of a tournament. Adjudication core often consists of 5-9 members (up to the tournament). In Kyushu Debate Open, we have Akira Kato san and prof. Joshua Park as co-chief adjudicators, 4-5 deputy chief adjudicators, who are world top-level debaters and judges and 1 deputy chief adjudicator from Kyushu. This year, the system has a bit change and I have the honor to serve as a co-chief adjudicator with Akira Kato san and prof. Joshua Park. Besides the normal work as a member of the adjudication core (motion discussion, preparation of form, decide IAs, etc.), there are some tasks that the representative of QUDS in the adjudication core will be in charge of. Firstly, you will be working as the coordinator between organizing committees and adjudication core (along with Tournament Director and Akira Kato san). Your job is to convey the message of adjudication core to organizing committees and vice versa in case there is some work requiring both sides to deal with (for example, venue, number of participations, etc.) Secondly, you will be in charge of contacting Subsidized adjudicators (SA) and take care of them. You will be involved in the process of deciding SA, negotiating subsidy and contacting them (detailed work will be later discussed when you officially become DCA/CA). Lastly, you will be in charge of some other events, such as workshops, or some bonding events within the Adjudication core group. This year, I took part in the preparation of a debating workshop before the tournament and guide the adjudication core to some nice place for bonding (cat cafe, somehow we all love cats). The advice I want to give to the next year adj core member from QU is to learn to communicate well in English (because most of your job will be conducted in English) and also be confident. Don’t hesitate to ask and give opinions, all the members of the adjudication core and SA are nice so you can learn a lot from them.
About motion discussion, there might have some difficulty at first because a/ it is conducted in English, b/ it’s really fast and effective given that all adj core members are experts in making motions. However, don’t too much worry about that. One good thing in QDO is that you will have a long preparation time (around a half year from the time you become DCA/CA), so you can start thinking about motions, make some new ones, consider their fairness, etc. slowly and carefully. To get used to motion discussion and adj coring, I suggest that you should serve as an adj core member in some tournaments (部内戦is okay).
3. Tournament
During the tournament, besides judging the rounds (of course, don’t forget that you are the judge as well and practice judging before the tournament), adj core member from QU will also act as tournament coordinator to some extent. Given that it’s an international tournament, there will be lots of participants from outside Japan who cannot speak or understanding Japanese. They might have a difficult time to figure out the venue, some notifications, and rules ( in Japanese), so you might need to help them. But that’s all for during tournament, try to keep up to the schedule, final check the motions and then enjoy the tournament! And just a last time reminder, don’t forget to practice judging and giving RFD in English.
In conclusion, serving as DCA/CA in an International tournament is a tough but rewarding experience. For me, I feel joy when seeing people debating on the motions that we prepared, and especially in QDO, it also allows me to contribute back to the community that raised me. For next year DCA/CA from QU, there will be hard time that you don’t know what to do and feel pressure, but don’t give up or afraid, step out of your comfort zone, actively learn and work and you will find that the result is fruitful, therefore highly recommend you to take part in QDO next year.
ディベーターとしての実績が注目されがちなHungさんではありますが、審判、運営側としての実績、経験も群を抜いています。そのノウハウを少しでも読んだ方が共有してくださればこのブログの存在価値もあるというものです。
"highly recommend you to take part in QDO"とあるように、AC、コミ、ディベーターなど多様な関わり方はありますが皆さんもぜひ参加しましょう！
参加者
Co-Chief Adjudicator
Khac Hung
Akira Kato
Tournament Director
Miyu Himeno
Vice Tournament Director
Manae Yamashita
Communication Directors
Syunnsuke Takaki
Chen Jinyan
Rikuto Nakama
Satoko Ueno
Financial Director
Naoki Takaki
Media Directors
Tomoki Kiyama
Kaho Yamada
Kotaro Ii
Tournament Coordinators
Tomotaka Tanaka
Miyu Shibuya
Tatsuhiko Sakamoto
Sponsor Team
Mizuki Kitada
Syunya Kishimoto
Toru Oga
Naoto Fujisawa
Master of Runner
Yuki Yamaguchi
当日コミ(Swing含む)
Haruka Kawano
Yuki Imaizumi
Yuka Tsubota
Takehiko Yasumitsu
Kanako Kondo
Yuki Onishi
Kenji Tomita
Yoshihumi Okamoto
Ho Hai Phong
Ryo Nomura
Ryutarou Inage
Shuba Namba
ディベーター
Semi Finalist
Common Sense (Kota Jodoi, joint)
Quarter Finalist
Time for TRUE Revenge(Naoya Kondo, joint)
Beijing No.2 Railway Middle School(Senran Tao, joint)
Novice Grand Finalists
Que Sera, Sera(Toru Oga, joint)
2nd Reserved Breaking Team
QU Z(Haruka Umeda, Soma Furutachi)
NUS:Nationalism to Unify Shinwa H.S(Syunya Kishimoto, Ryushin Yanagi)
もんま(Monma)(Kosei Enomoto, Osama Khalid Hoshida)
QU Q(Kazuya Kiura, Yang Yakun)
4th Novice Best Speaker:
Soma Furutachi