Written by Katherine Xue

Hey PDA Fam! As another exciting stretch of tournaments wraps up, we’re back with another feature – this time, it’s another one of our captains! We’re traveling a bit farther than usual today; while the majority of our Potomac debaters are from the US, he is one of our international debaters, located across the globe in Taiwan.

Meet Anthony Lee, a 15-year old debater from Kang Chiao International School. He’s been with Potomac for four years, since 6th grade, where he’s experiencing his first year in the high school circuit as a freshman. He started with the high-speed rail topic of September 2022, where he “famously went 3-1 at the prestigious Potomac JV Intramural”. 

Ever since, he’s been braving the time zone differences both online and in-person, a unique challenge that comes with debating internationally. Taiwan is 12 to 16 hours ahead of time zones in the United States, which means that a debate happening at noon (Eastern Standard Time) is usually midnight for him. For Anthony, that’s the biggest challenge in debate— “to adjust, I have to literally pull an all-nighter on Friday, and sleep at around noon in order to get my body to be adjusted to the American time zone.” 

However, he’s also found this hurdle to be an effective—albeit unconventional—round strategy in the form of guilt-tripping judges. Anthony has found that, “When it’s 3AM, you can direct your camera towards the window and show that it’s pitch black…some judges, especially parents, will be incredibly concerned and end up complimenting and inflating your speak[er points].” Whether this is truly a winning strategy or simply the placebo effect at work is something we may never know.

Regardless, Anthony’s been having lots of fun both in and out of debate rounds. In fact, during the Harvard Invitational in 2023, he had just discovered “spreading”—or speed reading, a phenomenon common in more technical debate rounds—and decided to practice his skills with the infamous pen drill, where, “you put a pen in your mouth and attempt to speak clearly”. Obviously, Anthony needed a pen. His solution? Borrow a pen from an opposing school’s debater. “I did the pen drills and ended up giving it back to him, and he had no clue what I used it for.”

When it comes to pre-round rituals—outside of doing drills—Anthony and his partner Veer (who we interviewed earlier!) have come up with their own routine. From looking at an opponent’s Tabroom record, to listening to “really bad Spotify playlists, which I wouldn’t share even if my life was on the line”, these actions help prepare them mentally, hyping them up to perform their best. Maybe our Potomac debaters could try some of these strategies out!

Outside of debate, Anthony enjoys the usual, such as gaming and listening to music. However, he is also a competitive eSports player, specializing in Super Smash Brothers Melee—in fact, Anthony proudly states, “I was ranked #10 best in my region at one point.” A truly extraordinary (and unexpected!) feat.

Anthony’s journey highlights the global reach that Potomac Debate has grown throughout the years, and his story is only one of many international voices we have from all around the world, from Canada to India. We’re incredibly proud to have him as part of our Student Leadership team, and can’t wait to see what he does next as he makes his way through high school. That’s all for this week—see you all soon!