Representatives from the nine divisions gathered at the Dotterweich building as they competed for a slot in the Ignatian Cup debate finals held last Sunday, August 4.

The event was officiated by the Ateneo Debate Varsity (ADV).

“The Ignatian Debates aim to spread the culture of debate,” said Alyana Gutierrez of ADV.

Gutierrez added that it is a platform for individuals to share their thoughts on current issues.

All divisions sent two teams of three, except Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Nursing, and Computer Studies who sent only one.

The four teams who ranked highest will proceed to the finals. However, there was a tie for the third and fourth slot.

Gutierrez proposed and agreed with the participants that the ADV will be hosting a pre-semifinal on August 5, allowing four teams to compete for the final two slots. She stated that the need emerged because ADV was aiming for a quality debate on the Ignatians.

She said that the variation between the sum of the individual scores of each speaker in the teams that tied were small. ADV did not break the tie using these scores but would rather judge using results from the pre-semifinal.

The teams who made it to the semifinals were from the Accountancy Team B and School of Engineering and Architecture Team A.

Accountancy Team A shall be competing against School of Education Team A and School of Engineering and Architecture Team B against Social Sciences Team A in the pre-semifinal.

The semifinal shall be held on August 7 and will reduce the competing teams to two.