WSDC 2013: Indonesia Undefeated After Beating Greece, Hungary

Team Indonesia are still undefeated after winning their first two matches in the 2013 World Schools Debating Championships in Turkey today. In the first round, they pulled off an upset by beating their highest-ranked opponent, #6 Greece, which is a category A participant or part of the best grouping in the competition. They successfully knocked down the prepared motion "THBT important decisions about children's health should be made by medical professionals and not by their parents" on a 2-1 split decision. This is Indonesia's second win against Greece after the victory in 2004 that helped the team broke into the octofinals.

In the next round, the national squad from the role of proposition routed #50 Hungary from the lowest group H in an impromptu debate on whether the media should be prevented from intruding the lives of public figures. All WSDC teams must debate 8 different teams in the prelims, one from each of the 8 rank-based groupings. Indonesia is in the E grouping (#25-30) and ranks #27 out of 50 contestants. The WSDC groupings are calculated based on victories and judge votes in the past 3 championships. Four preliminaries have prepared motions and the other four rounds are impromptu. Winning less than five prelims guarantees seats in the audience during the knockouts.

Since the first participation in 2001, Indonesia has broken into the knockouts twice, in 2003 and 2004, both with 5 wins from 8 rounds. In 2010, Indonesia also bagged 5 wins but came short from breaking on judges votes. Only the top 16 teams can break into the knockouts.The members of this year's team are Carrisa Tehputri and Ida Ayu Pradnya Paramita from SMA 4 Denpasar, Adeline Tiffanie from SMA Kristen 1 Jakarta and Sayyid Habibullah from SMA 3 Pontianak.The coaches are Universitas Indonesia students Subarkah Syafrudin and Roderick Sibarani.

The toughest match will be in round 4 as Team Indonesia face Wales, last year's finalist. The draw, speaking positions and motions for Team Indonesia 2013's remaining mandatory debates are as follows:

R3 Prop vs Bosnia & Herzegovina (#43/G) - TH supports greater US military presence in East Asia

R4 Opp vs Wales (#8/B) - Impromptu
R5 Opp vs Romania (#32/F) - THW cease the exploitation of resources in the Arctic region

R6 Prop vs United Arab Emirates (#17/C) - Impromptu
R7 Prop vs Malaysia (#20/D) - TH supports sovereign debt default as a legitimate economic strategy for countries 

R8 Opp vs Turkey (#26/E) - Impromptu