L is more intelligent than Light but Light is more efficient at using his intellect

I shall assume you have chosen option 'C' for the debate. We shall argue both angles on the topic.L being more intelligent is apparent in that he has torn down many master criminals in the past. Don't deny this, we both know it's a stated fact in the anime. Not only this but he finds out who they are, how they do it and plans every move... in his head! Not at one point in the anime (unless for recording purposes) does L ever type or put pen to paper regarding his thought process. He only ever writes to record what has happened or has been found, not ever to form plans themself or to take record of who may or may not be Kira.I defined intelligence as displaying ot characterized by quickness of understandin, sound thought or good judgement. IT is blatant that both L and Light has intelligence levels (I won't say IQ since IQ's validity is debatable) are far superior to the average human, that's jsut how the characters are portrayed from the beginning of the anime. Light is the top of his entire year group in grades and yet is able to also maintain the killing process while maintaining top grades! However, what Light is good at is memory, as is L. Memory and retention of information is only related to perhaps the 'good judgement' since if one can remember everythign about an event or person they can judge it 'good' or 'better'. On the other hand, in terms of quick understanding and sound thought L thrashes Light. Quick understanding is displayed where L notices Kira was standing on the train when the FBI Agent Raye Penber dies on video and a mere shadow comes at the last second. To interpret the situation in an instant of viewing the video indicates EXTREME speed of understanding. Additionally, as an orphan L was the smartest in his orphanage, an orphanage where all genius children were taken to be turned into detectives, this is proven by the fact that out of all of them Watari (the former head of the orphanage's selection process chose L to be his accomplice in the world of fighting crime). In fact Watari begins to see L as his superior, shown by how willingly he brings L cakes, ice cream and offer L any assistance at any time, instead of leading L the teacher becomes led by L (teacher being Watari). Light Yagami never seems to surpass any of his superiors in terms of talent at something.That is all for my introduction as to why L is more intelligent than Light.Now I shall explain why Light is better at using his intellect than L. Intellect is different to intelligence. Intellect is the faculty of the mind by which one KNOWS or UNDERSTANDS and it represented by the methodology with which one takes to think and aquire knowledge. Just like with intelligence, both L and Light display exceptional intellect, far above the average human being. However, I believe that Light is able to gain and think of how to gain, information better than L. Light began as a student with a book that can kill people, L began as millionaire detective who has access to basically all kinds of intelligences, technological methods of gaining information (as displayed by him tapping the car of the money-grabbing Kira when Light 'loses' his memories of being Kira temorarily) yet can't even gain the first clue as to whether or not Light is ACTUALLY Kira. L goes by pure intuition, Light by pure logic. L is simply lucky that 999 out of 1000 times his intuition happens to conincidentally match logic. His only actual display of intellect was when displaying the TV News program of a fake 'L' in order to find out if Kira can Kill without touching the person, but also he only broadcasted the program in Japan. Nonetheless, Light used his minimal sources of information to firstly learn how to hack, then used that information to hack into his Father's computer, then used that information to kill off criminals. Then when meeting L, L merely reads any sign the Light oculd be Kira, but Light doesn't just read L's actions, Light reads L's mind almost. He begins to truly befriend L, while L begins to stupidly think that Light as his 'best friend I(meaning he) had'. Light, on the other hand, knows L suspects him the whole time and completely fools everyone into a situation where he show shis intellectual cpabilities to gain information form people. For example, Raye Penber's wife almost got Light foudn out but in that small, tiny space of time where he conversed iwth her he rapidly found a way to get the information from her that she knew how to find Kira, thus saving himself.In short, L is naturally more talented than basically any human I would know (posisbly less than 'Near' when he beigns to chase Kira, but arguably Near only succeeded due to indirect help from Mello fighting Kira the whole time). Light, you could say is seocnd or third place because he never displays INTELLIGENCE, meaning pure ability to rapidly understand nearly as fast as L. He took a whole week of having the Death Note to realise he should actually find a way to hide it and took three days of having it to realise he could control how people died. Now this is faster than all other owners who have had the Death Note (I quote Ryuk saying 'I have never seen any one come close to this many kills in such a short space of time'). Light is very able to gain information rapidly, despite showing less natural core intellignece than L, but L relies TOO MUCH on his intelligence so that he doesn't ever fear being outsmarted, this reduces his intellect.