The Arena

I just saw the new debate show, The Arena, and it was interesting that Loyang Secondary was up against Raffles Institution. Looking at the three debaters from RI, I thought they were a pretty competent trio since I've had the chance to work with them before. But I have to say that at the end, I have to agree with the final results. Personally, delivery-wise, I think RI edged out Loyang with their calmer disposition, but Loyang weren't thrashed coz I thought they fought back with more charisma and fire. RI also seemed to deliver a more steady argument. But I felt that the point which really tipped the scales is that Loyang controlled the fight. From the beginning to the end, RI seemed to only be in defence mode and allowed Loyang to dictate the arguments. Honestly, the motion would make it seem that RI should have an easy fight. But instead of piling on the offensive, they chose to keep picking up after the Loyang team. So, disappointed as I may be with results, I do think Loyang deserved to win this one.

As for the new format, I think it's an interesting step forward but it might get tedious to hear the judges talk every single round, simply coz I dun think the judges are really saying much. This is the age of 'instant-criticism' a-la-american idol/project superstar/so you think you can dance/etc, so I guess it's only natural for TCS to take the same route. But I don't know if it's effective if the judges aren't more interesting. The other thing is this messy button mashing. It seems like a really stupid system which the debaters can't really get the hang of. I think that the technical team should come up with a simpler system. Why must the debater hit his own button if the opposing team wants to rebut? It's should be piece of cake to design a system where one press can stop the debater's timer and start the rebutter's and vice-versa. Last but not least, and this is the most irritating point, why on earth is the results show 30mins later, after the news!? That's just plain stupid. It takes no more than a minute to announce the results and here we have to sit through a recap of the debate which just ended barely 30mins ago. Come on, surely the viewers aren't such a forgetful lot?

Well, there appears to be a 'Wild Card' round. Talk about being a copy cat. Oh well, at least that means RI has a chance to come back.