Determining the placement of teams who will debate at the Phi Ro Pi National Tournament in the spring will be the goal for the forensics team as it prepares to compete for the Pacific Southwest Collegiate Forensics Association (PSCFA) Fall Championship Tournament tomorrow.

Competitors such as Moorpark, Irvine Valley, Biola University, Northern Arizona University and Arizona State University will be on hand to give EC some stiff competition.

“This tournament will be the indicator of who will be making the nationals team. Although it will also be up to the coaches to decide,” Juan Victorio, political science major and open debater, said.

A style of debate unique to this competition is the Lincoln Douglas debate, which will allow debaters the opportunity to develop arguments and prepare for fact-based rebuttals ahead of time for their one-on-one debate.

Only Vivian Amezcua, open debater, will be competing in this event, as lack of time and other external issues have left the other open debaters bereft of the skills needed to compete in the event.

“None of us have ever done it before,” Jose Crespo, speech communication and English major, open debater, said. “It is uniquely difficult in that one knows the topic (ahead of time).”

The event will be spread out over three days, beginning tomorrow and ending with an awards ceremony Sunday evening, Dec. 2.

“One event begins at 6 a.m.,” Victorio, said. “They just want to do it so that the one-on-one debates do not overlap with two-person, parliamentary debates.”

Two days of debate will leave Sunday’s itinerary full of extemporaneous speeches and individual events.

“I think we’re going to do well, although it’s a hard tournament. It means it’s going to be difficult to win,” Crespo said.

“We might not be able to sweep anyone this time,” he said.

Along with the rounds of debates, individual events, which will have been edited and revised several times throughout the semester, will allow certain debaters to present their cases in a more creative manner by the implementation of dramatic interpretation, prose interpretation or poetry interpretation.

“It’s going to be a great competition and we are going to benefit in either one of two ways,” Victorio said.

“If we lose, we learn not to make those mistakes again,” he said. “If we win, we will see how we’ve progressed and will be set for the championships.”