The story
Why Legacy?
Every debate ends. This event exists for the part that doesn't — the idea still in the room after the speaker sits down.
The Event
A stage built by students, for speakers
GFS Legacy Debates is the flagship debate event of GEMS Founders School — conceived, organised and run by its students. Speakers face carefully constructed motions across multiple rounds, judged by adjudicators who reward substance, structure and honesty under pressure.
Seasoned competitors and first-time speakers share the same stage. What the event asks of everyone is the same: argue in good faith, and be prepared to be persuaded.
Why Legacy?
The name is a standard, not a slogan
A speech is over in minutes. A good one isn't. The event is named after the thing a genuinely good argument does: it survives its own delivery. It gets quoted at dinner tables, contested in corridors, and handed — slightly changed — to the next person willing to defend it.
Legacy is what an argument becomes when the speaker is no longer there to defend it.
Each edition inherits something from the one before — motions revisited with new evidence, records to beat, standards to keep. The speakers change. The argument continues.
The Experience
What participants can expect
Motions that resist easy answers — drawn from politics, ethics, technology and culture. Preparation rooms with more whiteboard than wall. Rounds where the stronger case loses to the better-argued one. Feedback that treats you as a speaker worth improving, not a score to be filed.
Around the rounds: a hosted opening and closing ceremony, time to meet speakers from other schools, and adjudication that explains its decisions. You will leave tired, and better.
What We Believe
Disagreement, done properly, is a form of respect
To argue against someone seriously is to take their thinking seriously. That conviction shapes how motions are set, how rounds are judged, and how winners and losers are expected to treat one another.
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Steel, not straw Answer the strongest version of the other side's case — anything less is theatre, not debate.
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Clarity over volume A quiet argument that holds is worth more than a loud one that doesn't.
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Changing your mind is winning Being persuaded by better evidence is not losing the round. It is the point of the round.
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The floor belongs to everyone First-time speakers receive the same stage, the same respect, and the same honest adjudication.
The short version
Your argument lasts minutes.
Your impact can last far longer.