10 Best (& 5 Worst) Moments In Fanzone Debate
Fanzone has been my personal favorite division of Multiplex to keep up with for basically as long as I’ve known about it. A division centered entirely around discussing and debating movies as opposed to just knowing a lot about them, although that’s still part of the game it’s not the most important factor in the matches. From legendary screaming matches and iconic quotes to massive upsets and everything in between, the division has given us some of the best moments & matches in Multiplex’s history. Below I’ve listed just a few of my favorite moments to come out of these matches as well as a handful of some other memorable moments, though not for the right reason.
#10 (Best)
Benedict Cumberbatch vs Robert Downey Jr. - #2 Jacoby Bancroft vs #15 Adelaide Spence
Jacoby is one of the greatest debaters in the game. He beat the reigning undefeated champion Tim Brzakala before losing the belt to Kirk in one of the greatest matches in Fanzone history. Meanwhile, Adelaide has been one of the unluckiest players regardless of the division they’ve played in, so when their tournament match against Jacoby got set up it would be totally understandable to expect a KO. Spence, however, instead of rolling over and accepting the loss, put their all into this match which resulted in them winning a point against Jacoby by 3 votes to 0. The question was “What actor or actress is way too overpraised?”. Jacoby picked Robert Downey Jr. & Adelaide picked Benedict Cumberbatch. Jacoby had a strong argument, in his opening especially, for why RDJ is overpraised, however Spence was able to tear down Jacoby’s argument in the first half of the free-form by saying “Both of the noms you named for [Cumberbatch] is just a twink who hates his sexuality. Robert Downey Jr. was nominated for playing Charlie Chaplin and a black guy! There is nothing close to similar to that.” and just took control of the debate from there.
#9 (Best)
Riddles vs Penguin - Bill Cariola vs Amaru Moses
There are very few people more fun to listen to talk about movies than Bill & Ru so when this match came out near the end of the 2023 season we knew we were in for a really fun match and that’s exactly what we got. Though I could've gone with the Ip Man or Captain America questions for this choice I’d be lying if I said either of those were better than these two arguing which Batman villain they’d least like to be stuck on a road trip with. They both picked the two objectively correct villains. Ru took Penguin from Batman Returns played by Danny DeVito who is absolutely revolting. Bill then picked The Riddler (who he accidentally submitted as “Riddles” in the chat when making his choice) from The Batman played by Paul Dano who may be a pretty great Batman villain but is insufferable. Though we were expecting a chaotic debate, the free-form went in a direction no one could’ve expected with Bill dropping some truly out of pocket lines like “You actually pitched riddles as the thing to pass the time?! Honestly I think I would rather have my dick tied to the tailpipe of the car and be dragged to our destination. Just leave me outside.” & “[Penguin] had a rough life! He got abandoned by his family. You just pitch that sob story, set up our carnival and just get some women.”. This debate exceeded any and all expectations I had for it and is one I regularly revisit thanks in large part to this question.
#5 (Worst)
“Cool” - Bill Cariola vs Chadwick Webb
While Chadwick has proven himself to be a very good debater in spite of what his record may tell you, there’s only so much you can do with a bad pick. The question drafted in the category of musicals, by Bill for some reason, was “Which post-1990 musical has the coolest musical number?”. Chadwick drafted “Cool” from 2021’s West Side Story. Though it may be called “Cool” the song is anything but and is ruined almost exclusively by the Ansel Elgort of it all. While an out of the box pick can definitely work in some cases, this just wasn’t one of them.
#8 (Best)
“I can't carry it for you…” vs “I am no man.” - Tim Brzakala vs Kaleb Koho (Title Match)
To make a list of the best moments in Fanzone history without including a moment from one of Tim’s matches would be criminal. With a 7-1 record before stepping away from playing, Tim was an absolute titan in debate, and more likely than not still would be if he came back to play. With all that being said, the single best moment from Tim’s matches in my opinion is in his title match against Kaleb Koho when they debated what the best line in The Return Of The King was. Tim picked the line “I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you!” which Sam says to Frodo when they are approaching the end of their journey as they climb Mount Doom, whereas Koho picked the line “I am no man.” which Éowyn says before killing the Witch King of Angmar during the battle of Pelennor Fields. Both are incredible moments in the film, however, Tim was able to explain why his was the superior line and took down Koho’s wild arguments against Sam’s line with ease. Though this moment wasn’t the closest moment in any of his matches or a back and forth argument it’s by far Tim’s most dominant showing in any of his debates which is what earns it a spot on this list.
#7 (Best)
Boatman Argues The Wrong Scene - #5 Caleb Boatman vs #9 Kaleb Koho
Boatman and Koho love to argue. More specifically, they love to argue about movies. So when they came face to face in the 2023 tournament we knew we were in for something… explosive. And oh boy that match certainly lived up to expectations. The very first question of their match was “What is the best action scene in a Matrix film?”. Koho chose the highway chase from Reloaded and Boatman argued the lobby shootout from the first film. There’s only one issue with this. Boatman didn’t pick the lobby shootout when submitting scenes in the green room. Koho, however, didn’t realize this and never called Boatman out on it so on the strength of an argument for a scene he didn’t pick Boatman wound up getting the point.
#4 (Worst)
Koho Doesn't Call Boatman Out For Arguing The Wrong Scene - #5 Caleb Boatman vs #9 Kaleb Koho
See above.
#6 (Best)
Mike Gets A Point Against Cody - Cody Newberry vs Mike Hanley
Currently holding a record of 9-1 in Fanzone (with a record of 5-0 in the 2023 season), Cody Newberry is without question one of the most dominant debaters in the league. Mike Hanley however, currently holds an 0-3 record and has only received a single point thus far in debate. That point, however, he earned against Cody. The question they were debating was “What is the worst horror movie of the 2010’s?”. Cody, having first pick for this question, took The Haunting Of Sharon Tate. Mike then decided to take the 2018 film Slender Man. Not only did Mike win this point, he won it by a score of 3 votes to 0 from the judges by very effectively tearing down his film as a more laughable attempt at horror while highlighting the gore and other horror elements on display in Cody’s film. Although Mike is the lowest ranked competitor in the division, he showed that when he puts the effort in he can be a formidable opponent.
#5 (Best)
Boatman Beats Nazario On A Child's Play Question - #5 Caleb Boatman vs #12 Nazario Montenegro
Cody had a saying a while ago he would repeat while judging. “Debate is 50% prep & 50% bullshit.”. While that is typically true, this debate is the exception to the rule. Boatman went into this question with zero prep and bullshitted his way to the win. The question was “Who is the worst character in the Child's Play series?”. Nazario picked Jade Kincaide, played by Katherine Heigl in Bride Of Chucky & Boatman picked Ronald Tyler played by Jeremy Sylvers in Child’s Play 3. Boatman did a fantastic job of explaining why Ronald was the absolute worst part of the franchise and tearing down Nazario’s defenses for him while making Jade feel like an almost Hitchcockian character by comparing her situation of being married to someone she suspects may be a murderer to characters from Suspicion or Notorious, regardless of whether or not those comparisons actually worked. And at the end of the debate Boatman won the point by a score of 2 votes to 1, winning the match and punching his ticket to the second round of the 2021 tournament.
#3 (Worst)
Avengers: Endgame vs Avengers: Snap Back To Reality - Jay Burnz vs Dominic Rizzi
Let’s take a trip down memory lane. Back to September 2018 when Multiplex was still young, Fanzone had a different name & we were anxiously awaiting Avengers: Endgame so we could finally find out the fates of the many characters we had spent the last decade getting to know and love. At this point, little was known about the plot of Endgame, even the title still hadn’t been released, so in this debate between Jay Burnz & Dominic Rizzi one of the topics they had to debate was a pitch for the upcoming movie. Rizzi pitched a plot that actually got pretty close to the movie… Jay on the other hand did not. In Avengers: Snap Back To Reality, the title to Jay’s pitched movie, the film took place entirely in downtown Detroit the mid-90’s with Captain Marvel as a club DJ for some reason and the way things are decided is by battle rapping. This pitch sounded like a parody, and not a particularly good one at that whereas Rizzi pitched a movie that provides a far more satisfying resolution and actually works within the MCU. And yet Jay ended up winning the point.
#4 (Best)
Captain Crunch - Cody Newberry vs Cameron Holzmann (Title Match)
Now for a moment that has absolutely nothing to do with debate, which is odd that the best moment from this title match between Cam & Cody has nothing to do with the actual arguments from these excellent debaters but here we are. When Tim revealed his vote for the second debate question he wrote “Captain Crunch” on his board instead of Cody’s name. Everyone had a little chuckle and that was it. Or at least it would’ve been had Brian not taken it upon himself to photoshop Cody’s face onto Captain Crunch while the next question was being debated. When the question was finished, so was Brian, who immediately sent the photo to the match’s green room reducing everyone, especially Tim & Mark to helpless laughter.
#3 (Best)
"F*cking a Vulcan does not give you a humpback whale." - #7 Kaleb Koho vs #15 Rene Villarreal Jr
I’m not even sure how to put my thoughts about this moment into words… but I’ll give it a shot. When Koho & RJ went up against each other in the second round of the 2021 tournament we weren't really sure what to expect considering RJ came into this tournament as the #15 seed and beat the #2 seed & former title challenger Robert Parker in the first round and was going up against Kaleb Koho, another former title challenger. So all bets for this match were off. Going into the third question of the match Koho & RJ were tied 1-1 so it was still anyone’s game. In the third question the two debated what the dumbest moment in the original Star Trek movie series was and things devolved quickly. With the sheer number of dumb moments in these movies the competitors were pretty spoiled for choice. RJ, having first pick here, made a wild, outside of the box choice when he picked the moment when Kirk asks Spock if they can find any humpback whales anywhere else in the universe after being told that they’re extinct in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Koho on the other hand picked the moment in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier when Uhura dances naked with some palm leaves on Nimbus III to cause a distraction, which is possibly as close to a correct choice as you can get for this question. So RJ definitely had an uphill battle here but he made it much closer than it honestly should’ve been. In the free-form Koho said that it’s reasonable to ask if these other Earth species could be found anywhere else in the universe since Spock, being half human, is proof that there are other humanoid species across the universe, to which RJ responded with the line “F*cking a Vulcan does not give you a humpback whale.” which is one of the wildest and funniest lines anyone has ever said in any of these matches and completely broke Tim when he came in to end the free-form after their five minus were up.
#2 (Worst)
Nico's Post-Match - Nazario Montenegro vs Nico Suave Regoli
No one likes to lose. It almost never feels good, if it ever does. At the end of the day though we’re in this community to have fun and talk about movies. However, sometimes when things seem to just never go your way it can be frustrating and tempers run hot. That’s exactly what happened here when Nazario KO’d Nico. In his post-match Nico let everyone know how he felt about what had just happened and finished things off with saying “I fucking quit, man.” and leaving the call. I get it, losing can be frustrating, but you’ve got to take a loss better than that.
#2 (Best)
"Sweet, sweet love." - Kirk Kolakowski vs Nazario Montenegro (Title Match)
On the surface Nazario had maybe the best possible choice for this debate. The question was “What horror villain, creature or entity would you NOT want to show up at your door?”. Nazario chose The Entity from It Follows. A creature that is only hunting you because you slept with someone you weren’t supposed to and will never stop hunting you. All you can do is delay it by sleeping with other people, you can never defeat it. And if you’re married, like Nazario or Kirk, that may be a problem for a number of reasons. Kirk essentially “built a brick wall around himself” in this argument according to Cody, one of the three judges of this match, and was able to take down Nazario’s choice seemingly with relative ease. Then in his closing argument Kirk said “Nazario picked the one horror monster you can fight by making sweet, sweet love.”. Reducing the judges, especially Tim, to tears laughing. This moment lives rent free in my head and is easily one of the greatest moments in Fanzone history.
Honorable Mention
Jackie Robinson vs Jackie Robinson - Andrew Barr vs Adelaide Spence
I’m gonna be honest. This moment is here because I wasn’t sure whether to put it in the 10 best moments or 5 worst. A case could honestly be made for either. The question was “Who is the best athlete in a baseball movie?”. Since Barr drafted the category Spence got to pick their answer first. They picked Jackie Robinson from 42, played by Chadwick Boseman. Barr then picked Jackie Robinson from The Jackie Robinson Story, played by the man himself, Jackie Robinson. On the one hand it's an incredibly tedious debate with Barr quoting Jackie Robinson’s career stats to Spence and Spence checking every stat in the transcript for Barr’s film. On the other hand though Spence played this question brilliantly, if frustratingly, by debunking every stat Barr threw at them by going through the film’s transcript and informing Barr and the judges that none of those stats are said throughout The Jackie Robinson Story while simultaneously giving examples of Robinson’s achievements shown throughout 42. All in all this is definitely the most entertaining a tedious semantics debate could be but a tedious semantics debate nonetheless.
#1 (Worst)
Dead Air - #4 Nick Twohig vs #13 Nico Suave Regoli
Sometimes in a debate your opponent throws an argument at you that you’re not prepared for or you just can’t find the words to explain yourself and that’s okay. It is, however, rather painful to listen to when there’s nothing but dead air for a solid chunk of the free-form portion of the debate. Unfortunately that’s the case for Nick & Nico’s 2021 tournament match. Though Nick did his best to fill the void by posing additional arguments to Nico, the words just couldn’t come to Nico in the moment which led to him essentially conceding the point which made this moment the worst moment in Fanzone with a bullet for me.
#1 (Best)
John Cazale vs Florence Pugh - Jacoby Bancroft vs Kirk Kolakowski (Title Match)
After beating Tim to win the title Jacoby had his work cut out for him in his first defense against Kirk, who is undoubtedly one of the best debaters I’ve ever seen. Kirk is incredibly knowledgeable and well spoken, prepared for every argument that could possibly come his way & he knows how to keep his cool. Well, most of the time. Kirk took an early 2-0 lead in the match. Then the third question arrived which was “Who is the best actor or actress with 10 movies or less?”. Kirk took John Cazale, probably the objectively correct choice. With only 5 movies under his belt (The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Conversation, Dog Day Afternoon & The Deer Hunter) Cazale has gone down in cinema history as one of the greatest acting talents of his time and has even had books written about him. Jacoby then took Florence Pugh, one of this generation’s most acclaimed actors who, at the time of this match’s recording, had only been in 9 films (The Falling, Lady Macbeth, The Commuter, Outlaw King, Malevolent, Fighting With My Family, Midsommar, Little Women & Black Widow). An outside of the box pick to say the least but a pick that paid off big time for Jacoby. Though Jacoby provided plenty of supporting arguments for Florence Pugh and pretty effectively combatted any criticisms Kirk threw at her as an actress, what ultimately won him the point was his ability to piss Kirk off and make him lose ground by getting him to talk about the films Cazale appeared in rather than Cazale’s performances in those films. In fact, Jacoby pissed Kirk off so badly in the dying seconds of the free-form by saying Cazale plays the same character in each of his five performances that Kirk threw his water bottle clear across his house before screaming “THAT IS NONSENSE!” and loudly defending John Cazale’s performances. It’s another moment that lives rent free in my head and never fails to make me laugh no matter how many times I come back to it.