2024 NCT Final

It's a little sad that any real mt discussions seems to have firmly shifted away from impeachments to confessions. Discussion there is bound to be less interesting given that replying to posts is pretty messy and also the page is designed for spicy hot takes/random flaming/mockcest stuff and not actual intellectual discussion. So here's an effort to have better discussion over here.

What did everyone think of this years NCT? Personally I was pretty disappointed. From Hillsdale, I was expecting them to have some whack ass theory as is their reputation and play a fun round but they pretty much attempted UVA's style but did it worse. Pretty standard stuff from UVA, I wonder if they would have had more fun in there if they were up against a team they were a little more scared of/knew they would have to punish more - I am 100% sure that they had scouted Hillsdale prior to the NCT and adapted accordingly (most significantly in the nurse cross).

What does this NCT say about the state of mock trial? Does advancing to the highest stages of this competion now require a style that is so stale, unanimated and easily palatable so as to not polarize judges at all? Because that is what UVA essentially did - deliver something void of any real risks so that it doesn't potentially upset anyone. Maybe this was incentivized by the nature of this case since they were pretty narrow theories and a lot of objections were pre ruled upon. But I am still left mildly disillusioned by this round, and I think it is telling that some of the judges actually complained about the lack of passion in what they knew was a national final.

To any UVA/Hillsdale competitors reading this I don't intend to be mean/dispiriting in any way! Y'all deserve all the success you have achieved, congrats.

Yeah, I definitely agree that the trial we watched was too... clinical. Like you said, no hate to hillsdale or uva, but I didn't find it as compelling as the other finals I've watched.

That said, I think that the community is being a little too hyperbolic about how the finals reflects on the activity as a whole. Those teams were there for a reason, they both won the most ballots in their divisions. I think a lot of why they made it to the finals in the first place and why the final round seemed a little lacking has to do with factors that were specific to this nct only:

1) The case: maimd made a great point that this case was extremely complex and required a very clear breakdown of the facts from each team to effectively make the presentation of the facts coherent. and that this probably benefitted teams with an emphasis on polish a lot more than normal. It's possible that neither hillsdale or uva do as well as they did with a simpler case that left more room for court histrionics.

2) the judging pool: c'mon guys, it's the midwest. even with the final round judges commenting on the lack of courtroom personality, I think it's safe to assume that overall the judges preferred clean and realistic styles.

3) and finally, good old fashioned luck: not exactly the most mindblowing, because luck is significant at nearly every tournament, but it's entirely possible that either texas or michigan (or rhodes rather than uva for that matter) makes it to the final round instead. I mean we were half a ballot off in darrow and a single ballot off in bradwell from having a different final round with more dynamism. this final was not inevitable by any means.

Again, none of this is supposed to take away from hillsdale or uva. they clearly read the case, saw the judging pool, and adapted their styles to have the best shot possible at the final and it clearly worked. that was smart and something all teams should do.

Also, as other people have already pointed out, the teams weren't the only thing that made the final round less excited than usual - a lot of that is amta's fault, from basically objection proofing the case, to the possible cic stuff that made witness testimony really awkward. Ultimately, I think this round is more of an outlier than a predictor of the future tournament scene, and if amta can throttle back on their end, I'm sure we'll get more exciting mock trial in the future (maybe even from these teams lol).

For the most part I agree with what’s been said up above—I think both teams gave impressive, high-level performances, but the final was personally not my cup of tea stylistically. I do want to throw in something about Hillsdale’s performance just for the record here. As someone who’s had the chance to compete against them a couple of times, I think their typical round looks different than what we saw in the final. They are, in my experience, usually much much more interesting performatively. There’s the weird theories, yes, but in my experience Hillsdale’s greatest virtue has always been that their advocates bring an emotion to their attorney style that makes them both bring a feeling of realness to the fantasy stakes and give a bit of a showier trial.

That was less on display this final, but I think that’s attributable to a couple of things. For one, this case was just a rough one for that style—particularly on the defense. With pretty much no baseline objectionable content in the standard P case in chief, Hillsdale lost a HUGE tool in their arsenal to demonstrate what they do best—emphatic, legally sound objections that feel righteous. Secondly, Virginia is kind of Hillsdale’s kryptonite. A lot of what Hillsdale does best is make any error in their OC’s case an opportunity for grandstanding, be it a gratuitous impeachment or a series of insistent objections on a piece of content. It’s very, very hard to do either of those things when your opponent came into the game with the #1 priority of making no mistakes. Finally, and probably most critically, this was Hillsdale’s first time in the final round against Virginia, maybe the closest thing to a traditional powerhouse we have on the circuit right now. If ever there was a round to be intimidated, it’s this one. I think it’s possible that the fact Hillsdale didn’t play the way they typically do this final is the result of nothing more than a touch of impostor syndrome. At the very least, that’s the impression I got.

All this, of course, is not to say that Hillsdale didn’t put up a good fight or have a competitive round—of course they did. It’s more to emphasize I think if we see them in another final down the line, there’s more up their sleeves than we’ve seen so far.