After placing nearly at the bottom last year, the School of Engineering and Architecture (SEA) Tigers bounced back and were named this year’s Ignatian Cup grand champions against the Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM) Falcons.

The grand finals motion was centered on weighing the choice of a middle-income, queer hypothetical individual deciding between being a scientist or an architect, with the SEA Tigers defending the former and the NSM Falcons the latter.

According to Ateneo Debate Varsity President Jhoanna Cayanan, they formulated the motion for it to be thought-provoking and for the teams to think really critically.

“[The motion] was us trying to really force the participants to think outside their comfort [zone]…We had to think about the nuances and the complexities in order to ensure that it is a rich motion capable of having a fruitful debate,” Cayanan said.

Cayanan also noted that focusing on a queer middle-class individual allows participants to reflect on the actor’s circumstances.

“The reason why it’s also a queer middle-class person is in order for the participants to really think about the actor, about their circumstances, about who this actor is, what does being queer in a developing state and also from the middle class actually mean, how does that actually impact your decision making, how difficult is it for you to navigate all those but at the same time also come to terms with your identity and to reconcile that with society.”

SEA B: Ang mag POI, labayan ug T-square, featured Jeo Tagaunsod (8th best speaker), Cristan Manabat (4th best speaker), and Will Oville, while the NSM A: Maybe this Time, was composed of Hannah Kolencheril, Joshua Morata (5th best speaker), and Shekinah de Veyra.

Manabat, who was also the Finals Best Speaker of the grandfinals, shared that leaving no arguments unanswered was their key strategy to winning.

“The strategy was to respond to every speaker, making sure that there were no standing arguments… It felt so good, we were tenth place last year and it was so fulfilling [to finally win].”

The Ignatian Cup grandfinals was held in Conference Room E of Ricci Hall, CCFC Building, last September 27.