Well since everyone seems to be tossing out ideas for the next tourney, how about just assigning participants (whether paired or solo) a team in each of their matches. It would prevent anyone from having a superior team compared to the rest of the combatants and might be a greater test of debating skill. Again you would save time by not having a draft and there wouldn't be any question to the legality of the fighters.
The people hosting the tourney would have to be very careful to make the teams truly even but I think they could manage it ok. This way you could also vary the type of characters a person would have to debate with in each round. The fights could vary from herald level characters to street level ones with the participants being forced to develop new tactics in each fight. Again, just another idea 😄