Tournament scrapbook - World Schools Debating Championships

CZECH REPUBLIC
12/3/08 9:59 AM
= Anna Hlavacova
No matter what was happening, Anna was pushing us forward. Whether it was
a debate preparation, a queue in front of the Victoria's Secret or an edge of a
cliff. Her desire to win was so great that sometimes, actually, she attacked
*both* teams argumentation respectively.
Needless to say that with her years of experience and wealth of knowledge,
she was regularly the best speaker. Well, she would have been... hadn't it
been for Barbora. That's the drawback of being in one team with a prodigy,
right?
Her obsession with shoes and other fashion items remains her only known
weakness. After all, that's the real difference between a robot and a human
being, isn't it? A lipstick.
= Martin "Mini" Dunaj
Having been extraordinarily gifted, Martin somehow had to control the level of
awesome put into an ordinary human. (Still no match for Barbora, though.) So
he got himself dreadlocks. He, thus, started to attract a completely new group
of people - as from that moment, it's not only girls who desire to hold him
tight, but also police officers and members of the airport security staff.
(There's a LOT of funny stories out there.) But unlike other charmingly
handsome male members of the Czech National Team, he's also been born
with intelligence - a lot of it, apparently (not enough to avert his dreadlocks
idea, though) - and an astonishing sense for rhythm.
If you ever see him on street, you'll recognize him instantly. He'll be the only
badass rapper wearing a suit.
= Simon "Shippy" Podhajsky
This year's experiment hasn't gone very well. Even though Barbora tried her
best to change his pointless arguing into rational argumentation, her attempt -
as many others - was to no avail. That is not to say that he is not extremely
cool in his very own way - depending on your definition of "cool", of course.
So is his sense of humour - with the same definition clash. Yes, he's mad
about those. And about economics. No-one has ever made so many idiotic
claims about supply and demand, although his presence in the national team
presents a clear example of an opportunity cost.
That is not to say that nobody likes him. Quite upon the contrary! Of course, it
depends on the definition of "contrary". It'd be downright wrong to claim that
nobody dislikes him, anyway.
After he wasn't able to sneak into the Irish preparation room and to pretend
that he really is one of them - because look at the hair! - and just speaks really
bad and incomprehensible English, the rest of the team stuck him into our
coach's luggage, anyway. But it was too late at that point.
= Andrea "Panda Watcher" Jamborova
Last but definitely not least - the nicest of the nice.
If I was asked to think of someone who'll negotiate the world peace one day,
we'd have to say: Andrea. Her sensitivity, her ability to calm things down and
not to lose her senses while doing this job was, at times, the only thing
holding the Czech National Team together. Somehow, she managed to
contain Bára's awesomeness, Anna's fortitude, Martin's intelligence and
Shippy's twisted conception of humour - a task which truly requires some
prowess. Also, she proved to be an indespensable guide - without her, we
wouldn't be able to communicate in Washington D. C.'s language of majority.
Spanish.
And, her brilliant personality notwithstanding, she's a super-awesome debater,
too, even though her modesty doesn't allow her to concede it.
I'm not sure if she could make it, though, if she hadn't carried her love for
pandas and other fluffy animals all along.
= Anna "K" Kouznetsova
What kind of a Czech organization would this be if it wasn't controlled by at
least one Russian? Because say what you might, all that "sovereignty" talk is
http://debate.uvm.edu/debateblog/wsdc/Czech_Rep..html
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