Gina Scorpiniti Wins 2014 Westside Warrior Invitational

david_mcginnis January 12, 2014 29 Comments

Omaha, NE- Congratulations to WDM Valley’s Gina Scorpiniti for defeating St. Louis Park’s Dana Councilman to win the 2014 edition of the Omaha Westside Warrior Invitational. Gina is coached by Lucy Korsakov, Alex Kramer, Adam Hoffman and Dave McGinnis. Dana is coached by Charles McClung, Christian Tarsney, Graham Tierney and Geoffrey Kristoff.

Partial Octofinals

WDM Valley GS Advances w/out debating

St. Louis Park DC Advances w/out debating

Hopkins MB Advances w/out debating

Hopkins CK Advances w/out debating

WDM Valley TG Advances w/out debating

Lincoln CM defeats Ralston GB (Grant Brown)

St. Louis Park DC defeats Millard West RS (Richa Sirohi)

Hopkins RA defeats Millard North CB (Connor Brown)

Quarterfinals

WDM Valley GS defeats Lincoln CM (Caleb Martin)

St. Louis Park DC defeats Lincoln SD (Sarah DiMagno)

Hopkins MB advances over Hopkins RA (Rae Akinsanya)

Hopkins CK defeats WDM Valley TG (Trent Gilbert)

Semifinals

WDM Valley GS defeats Hopkins CK (Claire Kuefner)

St. Louis Park DC defeats Hopkins MB (Mia Berman)

Finals

WDM Valley GS defeats St. Louis Park DC (Dana Councilman)

Champion

WDM Valley GS (Gina Scorpiniti)

Jeb Puryear

any prelim packet results out there for this? none on JOT
interested debater

Is someone going to post judges and ballots picked up for each round? [for example each round would have the three judges + how many ballots each person picked up] I think that would increase transparency and I am genuinely interested in the ballots each debater picked up. If a moderator could add that, that would be great!!
- interested debater
  
  just to clarify an example:
  
  Hopkins RA defeated Millard North CB (Mcginnis, *Saker, ??)
- mcgin029
  
  I love how transparency has become a meaningless buzzword, as though somehow there were a nefarious cloak of secrecy over who judged the out rounds. We all wore those hoods from the last Harry Potter movie and our RFDs were intoned over incense and dragon-shaped candles. To post all of the judges, we’d need a copy of the elim results printout, and one was not provided by tab.
  - anon
    
    I really don’t think that this should be a problem. Almost every out-round at this tournament was a 2-1 decision. Doesn’t it seem right that people at least know how judges voted? It shouldn’t be that hard to gain access to the judges in each round and how each judge voted. There might have been a round in octas that was a 3-0 (and maybe the round w/ Trent & Claire), but other than that, I’m almost certain every round was a 2-1 decision.
    - Drew Burd
      
      Assuming that the decisions haven’t been released, then it seems to be quite hard to figure out who was on each panel and how the judges voted.
    - mcgin029
      
      You’re wrong. In order to “gain access” to who judged each round and how they voted, one of two things would have to happen. Either:
      
      1) There would have to be a tabroom printout of all of the rounds including judges and decisions,
      
      or
      
      2) There would have to be a crowdsourcing movement to generate the same information.
      
      There is no tab printout available, and not enough of the people involved are in on this conversation to generate the information through crowdsourcing. If it makes you feel better, I can tell you that the decision in Councilman v. DiMagno was 2-1 (McGinnis, Shudak, *Saker.) The decision in Councilman v. Berman was 3-0 (McGinnis, Kramer, fellow I hadn’t ever met before whose name I don’t remember.)
anon

Is anyone else tired of Valley and all of the unethical things they do to get their kids to win? The blatant biases towards Valley at this tournament were unreal. So sad that debate has become more about an individual student getting a bid than for education in the activity.
- Ryan Teehan
  
  Anonymous accusations are one thing, but not even specifying what you are accusing a team of doing is a whole other level. If you have criticism it would be best for everyone if you actually pointed out specific things done wrong instead of a nebulous notion of acting “unethical[ly]”.
- Alex Kramer
  
  Clearly, Valley debate is designed to churn out local circuit debate-killing machines whose only goal in life is accumulating TOC bids. That’s probably why Jason Smith didn’t clear at Westside this weekend; he’s simply not ruthless enough to fully exploit all of the blatant biases we were afforded.
  
  But seriously, you just sound immaturely and irrationally upset about losing rounds to Valley debaters. Grow up.
  - Nick Smith
    
    Let’s all be clear on one thing: Valley was responsible for what happened to the Lindbergh baby. Dave McGinnis used his bureau contacts to thwart the investigatory efforts of the Bureau of Investigation (the FBI wasn’t a thing yet).
    - mcgin029
      
      Not. That. Old.
  - mcgin029
    
    He’s absolutely ruthless enough. But apparently Nebraska is just his Kryptonite.
- mcgin029
  
  That didn’t happen.
- Guest
  
  Would you care to give an example of how valley rigged the tournament in their favor or how they were unethical? Gina is a fantastic debater who was deserving of a second bid, and she went to westside as most valley debaters do every other year. She won the tournament. I don’t see on how that in any way shows how valley as a team or any indvidual debater breached any ethical code, except if winning is against the rules.
Jessie

So proud of Nebraska debaters Connor Brown, Caleb Martin, Sarah Dimagno, and Richa Sirohi for breaking!! Nebraska represent xD
- Guest
  
  Grant Brown of Ralston also broke, and deserves some major creds.
  - Debater
    
    Yes, Grant does! He is doing many wonderful things and deserves great props! I am so incredibly impressed with this new debater! Huge shout to all the Nebraska debaters that broke!
McKay Giller

I’m rather upset that the title of this article wasn’t “Gina Scorpiniti is the 2014 Westside Warrior”
CHANGEDEBATE

I am disappointed with the way the this tournament was run. For many local schools in Nebraska, Westside is the only bid tournament of the year. Many don’t have the means of traveling out of state and the fact that this tournament was run poorly was a major let down. It saddens me that for many kids, this was their only shot at a bid. I have two major problems with the tournament:

First, the shenanigans with judging were simply unacceptable. Not only was a 12 year-old allowed to judge NLD, but multiple freshman were allowed to judge NLD out rounds. Additionally, there were issues with striking. Some judges got struck in the end of the day Saturday and were not allowed to judge, even though strikes were officially submitted the day before. Schools with a large presence in the tournament were allowed to get away with striking more than the acceptable amount, specifically striking local circuit judges in front of debaters from Nebraska. These schools got an extra amount of strikes than other schools.

Second, the lack of decorum shown by debaters was simply disappointing. Many times throughout the day, out of state competitors were seen storming out rooms and talking quite loudly about how terrible a judge and/or their opponent was. This is extremely disheartening. Many debaters in Nebraska get very little access to the national circuit, and having suck a lack of decorum doesn’t garner support among parents and coaches to send debaters out of state.

Some coaches present would have done well to have listened to what Ryan Wash said at awards: that coaches need to leave their debating years behind and focus on education, not winning.
- Anonymous
  
  Throughout the Westside tournament, out of state debaters were continuously mistreated by tab, which not only paired rounds incorrectly, but also ensured that out of state debaters hit each other almost every round or hit the hardest debaters in the pool in order to give in state debaters an advantage. The distinction between in and out of state debaters shouldn’t be one that prevents debaters from succeeding at a tournament. While students behavior is important, the only way students learn is through example. The actions by tab, in state judges, in state coaches and competitors were simply unacceptable, and before fingers are pointed at the kids who are attempting to learn, those adults in charge must take a step back and ensure that they set up the best possible position for all kids involved, in or out of state. Your name and message indicates that you want to change debate, however you must be the change you wish to see.
  - mcgin029
    
    “Throughout the Westside tournament, out of state debaters were continuously mistreated by tab, which not only paired rounds incorrectly, but also ensured that out of state debaters hit each other almost every round or hit the hardest debaters in the pool in order to give in state debaters an advantage.”
    
    That’s just blatantly untrue. Tab let the computer pair rounds, as it should. There were some weird pull-ups but those were the unavoidable result ot tabbing relatively small division on TRPC. My kid got one of the weird pull-ups and I asked about it, and the tab staff was very tolerant of me and showed me the computer pairing. There were absolutely NO modifications made by tab staff to the auto-pairing of the computer.
    
    “The actions by tab, in state judges, in state coaches and competitors were simply unacceptable, and before fingers are pointed at the kids who are attempting to learn, those adults in charge must take a step back and ensure that they set up the best possible position for all kids involved, in or out of state.”
    
    This is also just wrong. The tab staff at Westside and Nebraska coaches and judges in general have always been very friendly, helpful and accommodating to debaters from out of state. That is probably why debaters from nearby states enjoy debating on the Nebraska circuit so much.
    
    I really, really wish people would stop posting anonymously.
  - DGD
    
    First of all, tab was not even run by a Nebraskan, but by an out-of-state coach. Part of the tabbing problem was due to mistakes – some judge prefs got deleted on Friday night, which was just a computer error. But to argue that out of state debaters were somehow paired against each other more often is ludicrous. They made up a decent portion of the field, so it’s to be expected that they would hit each other often. Furthermore, one school was striking judges DURING the tournament for voting down their kids because – you guessed it! – the coach was friendly with the tab director. It was a sloppily run tournament, and that allowed coaches who were too worried about winning to take advantage of the situation.
    - mcgin029
      
      … just keep repeating… ignore the trolls…ignore the trolls…
  - Alex Kramer
    
    Yeah, there were a lot of odd pullups that happened. But I agree with Dave; I highly doubt think the blame lies with the tab staff – it’s far more likely an issue with TRPC combined with the fact that there was a relatively small VLD division with a few teams taking up a large number of slots in certain brackets. Despite the initial convenience of “blaming tab” and what may have been pairing errors, I definitely don’t think tab intentionally manipulated pairings. Dana and the other people running the Westside tournament are really great people. Sure, the tournament could have been run better, but it doesn’t deserve nearly as much vitriol it’s getting right now.
    
    Also, with regards to “ensuring that out of state debaters hit each other almost every round or hit the hardest debaters in the pool ..” that’s just false – it’s a consequence of the fact that many of the best debaters in the pool and many of the out of state debaters in the pool were in the same brackets, along with school and side constraints. It’s a small tournament; if you do well, you’re going to hit better debaters sooner.
- mcgin029
  
  “Not only was a 12 year-old allowed to judge NLD, but multiple freshman were allowed to judge NLD out rounds.”
  
  Varsity debaters judging novice debaters is common. It’s always been common at Westside and is also common at tournaments around the country. The 12-year-old in question is perfectly qualified to judge novices. Trust me, I know him pretty well.
  
  “Some judges got struck in the end of the day Saturday and were not allowed to judge, even though strikes were officially submitted the day before. Schools with a large presence in the tournament were allowed to get away with striking more than the acceptable amount, specifically striking local circuit judges in front of debaters from Nebraska.”
  
  That didn’t happen.
  
  “Many times throughout the day, out of state competitors were seen storming out rooms and talking quite loudly about how terrible a judge and/or their opponent was.”
  
  As a coach, I agree that students should show decorum and not complain when they lose. But, honestly, if you can’t handle kids occasionally complaining about a “BS loss,” you’re in the wrong activity.
- Anonymous
  
  “Some coaches present would have done well to have listened to what Ryan Wash said at awards: that coaches need to leave their debating years behind and focus on education, not winning.”
  
  Most coaches are hired and/or paid based on the success their debaters have. It’d be pretty difficult for debate to be educational if coaches aren’t trying to help their kids’ success, and if, as a result of not helping their kids win, they are fired. Further, how would you recommend coaches educate their debaters if not attempting to help them win?
  - anon24
    
    I don’t think they were referring to just the idea of coaches attempting to have their debaters win, but to the notion (and allegations) of coaches manipulating aspects of a tournament or Tab to get their debaters an advantage over others, which I think everyone agrees is something that is unacceptable.
    
    To be clear, I’m not taking a side on this issue because I was not present at the tournament or in Tab to see things unfold. I’m just clarifying what they were probably trying to say.
    - Anonymous
      
      CHANGEDEBATE made that comment about coaches prior to the allegations of manipulations of aspects of the tournament, so it would seem as though he or she was referring to just the idea of coaches attempting to have their debaters win

NSD Update Original content. Open results.

Gina Scorpiniti Wins 2014 Westside Warrior Invitational

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