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After seven excruciating rounds of debate on motions ranging from the international moratorium on whaling to Israel-Palestine politics in the wake of Yasser Arafat’s death, University of the Philippines-Diliman (UPD) Team A composed of Nicolo Cabrera and Mark Lim emerged as the champions of the 2nd Konrad Adenauer Foundation–Ateneo Intervarsity (IVs) Debate Championship. Debating on the motion that “This house believes that Queer Eye has done more for the straight guy at the expense of the queer guy”, Cabrera and Lim bested teams from UP Diliman, University of Santo Tomas (UST) Law and Singapore Management University (SMU) with a well-crafted opening opposition case.

The other finalists were Patricia Evangelista and David Ty of UPD B, who broke into the quarterfinals as the tournament’s top team with 14 out of a possible 15 points, John Baluyot and Eric Javeloza of UST Law A, and Shuvam Dutta and Priyam Saraf of SMU B, the highest-breaking foreign team in the tournament. Yves Aquino of UP Manila B was the tournament’s best speaker. The other top 10 speakers were Leloy Claudio (#2, ADMU A), Robin Lucas (#3, UPM E), Adrian Rabe (#4, UPM B), Charisse Borromeo (tied for #5, ADMU A), Patricia Evangelista (tied for #5, UPD B), Christine Pamela (tied for #7, MMU A), David Ty (tied for #7, UPD B), Miguel Jalandoni (tied for #7, DLSU C), and Luigi Mapa (#10, CSB A).

The KAF–Ateneo IVs was the second of two consecutive international debate tournaments held in Manila, with the first being held from December 3-5 by the De La Salle debate society, from which ADMU C composed of Sharmila Parmanand and Glenn Tuazon emerged victorious. The two IVs were intended to provide an intensive and competitive training environment for teams in preparation for the upcoming 25th World Universities Debate Championship in Multimedia University, Malaysia, on December 27 to January 4. As such, Worlds Chief Adjudicator Logan Balavijendran and Deputy Chief Adjudicator Praba Ganesan, as well as internationally accomplished adjudicator Maryam Jahanshahi of the University of Melbourne, all came to adjudicate at the KAF–Ateneo IVs.