did i mess up
Had a debate recently where my team and I felt the adjudicator was letting his personal opinions influence the decision instead of judging based on the actual clash. After the round, we discussed appealing because we all thought some of the comments crossed the line from adjudication into personal viewpoints.
I ended up being the one to speak during the appeal, but once the other team started framing it as us accusing the adjudicator of being unfair or incompetent, I tried to soften the wording and clarify that we just wanted a fair review of the decision. Afterwards though, some of my own teammates started saying the way it came across was “mean” and not what is usually according to what debaters do, even though the concerns raised were originally shared by all of us.
Now I’m wondering if I handled it badly, or if this is just one of those situations where the spokesperson ends up absorbing all the blame once things get uncomfortable.