Here’s what happened at the Seminole Smackdown Invitational competition
‘Objection!’
Florida State was the home of the first ever spring Mock Trial tournament with competitors coming from as close as Georgia to as far as Tennessee to compete in the competition.
“Objection your honor! This is irrelevant in today’s case and CANNOT BE allowed in”
[20 minutes of verbal legal tussling]
“I’m gonna allow the testimony in counselor, your argument is well noted”
Mock Trial is a collegiate “activity” in which teams are given a case and must put together a theory for prosecuting a specific defendant or defending them. Trials themselves involve a team of three attorneys and witnesses that present their side of the case to a presiding judge and scoring jury members.
The first ever Seminole Smackdown bought out some of the best red hot back and forth arguments between opposing attorneys along with sass-tastic character witnesses that took the stands. And we can’t forget the beautiful ladies and gentlemen in their kick ass suits.
Florida State has hosted the Capital City Invitational in the month of October for a number of years. All types of teams were invited to come on down, (literally) to tally and lawyer it up with other schools for bragging rights and pretty little trophies.
The Seminole Smackdown invitational was exclusive to only teams who have got to National competition in the last two years. We’re talking attorneys who connect three different case laws and totally poo on unprepared lawyers. Witnesses who will get up on that stand and CRY for their character if it is needed. Teams whose members are willing to do whatever to get that score of “10” and rank among the scoring ballots in the top 4 of that round.
Though we did not keep the grand trophy of first at home, we did bring quite a few other rewards here in Tally. Winners included Peter Chechanover, Kristian Gonzalez, Carlos Zapata, and Ian Skewes. FSU Mock Trial enjoyed hosting the event sponsored by TestMasters and look forward to an even more intense competition next time around.
Georgia Tech, the school which will host super regionals, placed first in the competition with UF coming in second and our very own Florida State coming in a very close third.