WUDC 2012: UI Team at Double-Digit After R5

Universitas Indonesia C (Ahmad Naufal Dai & Irene Severina) won 3 rounds in a row from R3 to R5 at the 2012 World Universities Debating Championships in Manila. With 4 preliminaries to go, including one more today, they are at a favourable standing with 11 VPs so far. Usually, teams need to garner 18 VPs in 9 rounds to advance into the main WUDC break. No Indonesian pair have broken into the main knockouts and the current record-holder, another UI team, ended with 16 points in WUDC 2008 in Bangkok. Several Indonesians made the ESL/EFL cut in previous editions.

The teams that Naufal and Irene defeated include University of Auckland (NZ), Georgetown University (US) and a pair from University of Leiden (NL) who championed the ESL category at Oxford IV this year. Last year, Naufal's team bagged 11 VPs and reached the EFL semifinals. This is Irene's first Worlds. The pair, both majoring in International Relations, and another UI student won the 3-on-3 Java Overland Varsities English Debate in 2009. Naufal won the 2009 Founders' Trophy and the 2011 Binus International Debate with other UI partners.