WSDC 2014: Key Results & Motions

Here are the key results from the 2014 World Schools Debating Championships, the most prestigious high school debating tournament this year. The numbers in the brackets after a team name follow this order: post-tournament position, place after 8 preliminary rounds, pre-tournament rank and group. WSDC uses a 3-on-3 format but each team can have up to 5 members and rotate their turns. Only speakers who debated at least 4 times in the prelims can enter the top individual list.

Champions: England (#1/#3/#2/A) -- 4th trophy

(Will Cook, Louis Collier, Eleanor Shearer, Sam Feinburg)

Finalists: South Africa (#2/#1/#4/A) -- 2nd appearance in GF

(Josh Broomberg, Samuel Musker, Saadiyah Mayet, Kate Dewey, Rachel Gardiner)

Best ESL Team: Peru (#6/#9/#24/D)

Best EFL Team: Netherlands (#7/#10/#7/B)

Top 10 Speakers

1. Will Cook (England)
2. Jane Carroll (Australia)
3. James Stratton (Australia)
4. Chin Wee Lee (Singapore)
5. Josh Broomberg (South Africa)
6. Kuan Hian Tan (Singapore)
7. Samuel Musker (South Africa)
8. Louis Collier (England)
9. Eleanor Shearer (England)
10. Sam Feinburg (England)

Best English-as-Second Language Speaker: Nishanth Selvalingam (Malaysia)

Best English-as-Foreign Language Speaker: Regina Cara Riantoputra (Indonesia)

Motions:
R0: THW Ban Children from Becoming Professional Models
R1: THW Ban Unpaid Internships
R2: THBT Only Liberal Democracies Should Host International Sporting Events
R3: THW Allow Prisoners to Volunteer for Drug Trials in Exchange for a Lighter Sentence
R4: THBT Post-Revolution States Should Delegate Trials of Former Rulers and High Ranking Officials to the ICC
R5: THBT Slum Tourism Does More Than Good
R6: THW Disallow Unvaccinated Children from Attending Public Schools
R7: THW Lift Tax Exemptions from Religious Institutions that Refuse to Recognize Marriage Equality
R8: THW Remove All Patents on Green Technology
Octofinal: THW not Prosecute Defamation
Quarterfinal: THBT Labour Unions are Becoming Obsolete
Semifinal: THBT Drone Strikes are a Legitimate Tool of Foreign Policy
Final: THBT an ASEAN Political Union is an Impossible Dream  

WSDC 2014: Team Indonesia Return with Awesome Accolades, New Records

WSDC 2014 Best EFL Speaker Regina Cara with Thai host

 

#11 Indonesia came out of the 2014 World Schools Debating Championship  in Thailand with a trail of new national records and Regina Cara Riantoputra snatching the top EFL speaker title. The SMA 2 Tangerang Selatan debater, who has been winning awards for her school for years, was the team's star as she debated in all matches in WSDC Bangkok, making her presence widely known in the world's top high school debating event.

The 2014 team now hold almost all pf the Indonesian WSDC records, some without match. They are the Indonesian team with the most wins ever. The 2014 team won 6 out of 8 mandatory WSDC rounds, enabling Indonesia to break into the octofinal for the first time since 2004. They matched a 10-year record of breaking into the WSDC knockouts set by the 2003 and 2004 teams, which were made up by almost the same debaters.  Moreover, they bested the score of the 2003 and 2004 teams that also reached the octofinal but both 'only' had 5 preliminary wins. The 2014 team equaled the 2003's record #11 position. Only 16 teams can advance into the WSDC knockouts.

Reaching the quarterfinal stage is still an elusive feat for Team Indonesia. In the recent tournament's octofinal, WSDC 2013 champion Australia stopped Team Indonesia's amazing journey that included wins over Greece, Sweden, Romania Turkey, Estonia and 2012 finalist Wales. 

Cara, however, reached a place where no Indonesian has gone before. She entered the elite Top 20 club after she ranked 17th on the overall speaker list. That club is usually populated by debaters from countries that have won WSDC before. This year, only Cara and a Malaysian debater who broke into the party. She is now the Indonesian WSDC debater with the highest rank so far. Her team mate John Amadeo Daniswara from Raffles International School Jakarta also slipped into the Top 50 main speaker list and ended at #39. This is the first time two Indonesian speakers could enter that honourable group in the same year.

Individually, only two Indonesians had made it into the Top 50 list before WSDC 2014. Siti Astrid Kusumawardhani was the first one when she was ranked 49th in 2003. Two years later in WSDC Calgary, her sister Siti Soraya Cassandra ranked five notches higher at #44. Cara and John broke that record in Bangkok. Cara also became the first Indonesian to top the EFL speaker list with team mate Alif Azadi from SMA Modal Bangsa Aceh coming at 6th on that list. John could not enter the EFL list due to his international school background but ranked 6th on the English-as-Second-Language speaker list. The only record that still stands is Cassandra's speaker score of 72.47, which is only 0.1 higher than Cara's.           

The other members of Team Indonesia in WSDC 2014 were Marsa Harisa from SMA 9 Yogyakarta and Kevin Bonaparte from SMA 17 Makassar. Although they debated less than the previous trio, the duo played a vital role in the construction of the cases. All members of the team, which range from 3 to 5 debaters, can be involved in casebuilding although only three are allowed to debate in one match. Coaches have the chance to rotate the debating lineup throughout the tournament. This year's coaches were Australs 2011 ESL champions Subarkah Syafruddin and Riza Aryani, who have graduated from Universitas Indonesia. 

WSDC 2014: Title Goes to England, Indonesia Debater Best EFL Speaker

WSDC 2014 Champion - England

#3 England (Will Cook, Eleanor Shearer, Sam Feinburg, Louis Collier) won the 2014 World Schools Debating Championships in Bangkok, giving their country its fourth title from the most prestigious high school debate competition on the planet. Team Indonesia came home with the best EFL speaker award after an astonishing performance by a Banten high school debating star.

In the final that had England oppose the motion 'This House Believes That an ASEAN Political Union is an Impossible Dream', the eventual champion dashed the hope of  #1 South Africa (Saadiyah Mayet, Kate Dewey, Josh Broomberg, Rachel Gardiner, Samuel Musker) to become the first champion from the continent of Africa. England's Will Cook took home the best speaker award.

WSDC 2014 turned out to be a tournament of surprises. The teams that debated in the WSDC 2012 final, Scotland and Wales, failed to advance. In the top 16, there were 6 Asian teams - Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Pakistan, Singapore and the Philippines. Indonesia, which had never broken in the last decade, advanced with 6 wins, the most ever scored by a team from the country. China broke for the first time ever. South Africa, which has never won WSDC, topped the preliminary tab with 8 wins and 23 judge points, short one ballot from perfect. They continued to convince all judges in knockout rounds before the final. Triumphant England stopped that incredible run after a 7-2 split decision.  

#9 Peru ranked as the Best English-as-Second-Language Team with Nishant Selvalingam from Malaysia topping the ESL speaker list. #10 Netherlands exited the tournament as the Best English-as-Foreign-Language Team with SMA 2 Tangerang Selatan Regina Cara Riantoputra snatching the top EFL speaker title. She is the first Indonesian to officially win that title. Last year, another Indonesian debater was announced to get that award but the organizers had to give it to another speaker after the eventual winner's language status was corrected. The next tournament will take place in Singapore, the only Asian country with a WSDC title. 

WUDC 2015: 10 Indonesian Teams Secure Slots, ITB Missing

Ten teams from 7 Indonesian institutions are on the updated attendance list of the 2015 World Universities Debating Championship in Kuala Lumpur. Those who have been part of the original list should pay before July 31 while teams that got updated allocations have until August 29 to meet their payment obligations. The number of Indonesian participants may increase if other teams from Indonesia can get on the main list after the aforementioned deadlines. Institut Teknologi Bandung, which championed the 2014 WUDC's English-as-Foreign-Language category, was missing from the main list after its allocation was dropped. Click here to access the registration list. The 10 teams are as follows:
 
Universitas Indonesia - 3 teams
Universitas Gadjah Mada - 2 teams
Binus International - 1 teamBinus University - 1 team
Institut Pertanian Bogor - 1 team
Universitas Atma Jaya Jakarta - 1 team
Universitas Padjadjaran - 1 team

WUDC 2014: Full List of Motions

The motions at the 2014 World Universities Debating Championships were the highlight of the Chennai tournament amid shortcomings in other organizational aspects. Most of them, especially the mandatory ones, were fair and relevant. The most controversial was the open octofinal motion that led to the demise of several favorite teams that had to defend it. Here is the full list of WUDC 2014 motions:

Preliminaries
R1. THBT the United States of America should fund moderate madrassas throughout the Islamic world
R2. THW allow first-time offenders to, with the consent of the victims, pay compensation to them in place of a prison sentence
R3. TH regreats the rise of a 'hookup culture'
R4. THBT developing countries should ban members of political dynasties from standing for elected office
R5. THBT the Trans-Pacific Partnership is in the interests of the small and medium-sized negotiating countries
R6. THW make the receipt of welfare payments to raise children conditional on the use of long-term, but reversible, contraception
R7. THBT government agencies that regulate drugs should only test whether a drug is safe, not whether it is effective, before approving it for public use
R8. THBT NATO should unconditionally offer membership to the states of the former Soviet Union, excluding Russia
R9. TH regrets the commodification of indigenous cultures

EFL Out-rounds
EFL SF. THBT the gay rights movement should abandon the claim that sexuality is not a choice
EFL GF. THBT multinational companies should be liable for human rights abuses that occur anywhere in their supply chain

ESL Out-rounds
ESL QF. THW remove all copyright protection for material deemed to be morally objectionable
ESL SF. THBT Pope Francis should publicly encourage Catholics to support radically redistributive government policies
ESL GF. THW allow countries to pay other countries to settle asylum seekers who reach their borders

Open Out-rounds
Open PDOF. THW abolish gated communities in the developing world
Open OF. THBT Japan should shame its soldiers who participated in World War II, including those who did not commit war crimes themselves
Open QF. THW auction off the long-term right to govern bankrupt cities for profit
Open SF. THBT women should reject practices that alter the appearance of their genitalia
Open GF. THBT India should adopt aggressive free market policies

Masters
Masters R1. THBT the feminist movement should actively fight to liberate men from their prescribed gender roles
Masters R2. THW redraw the borders of Africa
Masters GF. THW never categorize people by their race

WUDC 2014: Indonesian Results

Vicario Reinaldo (ITB A) offers a POI in the WUDC EFL final in Chennai

The 2014 World Universities Debating Championships in Chennai provided a high and a low for Indonesian debating. For the first time, a team from Indonesia grabbed a WUDC trophy after Institut Teknologi Bandung A (Vicario Reinaldo & Fauzan Reza Maulana) beat their opponents in the final of the English-as-Foreign-Language category,  putting our country on the map. They made all Indonesian debaters proud and showed that excellence on the world stage is very possible to attain.

However, WUDC 2014 also had a low point. Musamus University A from Papua became the worst team of the tournament with zero points after getting the 4th rank in all 9 preliminary matches. This was the first time an Indonesian team left WUDC pointless. The debaters also populated the floor of the tab with one of them scoring as low as 54 in a debate. This underlines how lack of preparation and involvement in the domestic circuit can spell disaster in an international competition.

Besides these two contrasting teams, there were nine other Indonesian pairs. Universitas Gadjah Mada A (Amir Abdul Aziz & Nabila Aghniarizqa) like ITB A also broke into the EFL knockouts. National champions Binus International A (Jaran Walia & Invi Atmanegara) along with 2 teams from Universitas Indonesia actually scored higher than UGM A and ITB A but they could not progress after the prelims because they were considered as English-as-Second-Language teams and failed to gather enough points to break into the ESL elimination stage. 

Only those with less than 3 months of living in an English-speaking country during school age or 6 months of studying in an institution where English is the instruction language can qualify as EFL speakers. The ESL threshold is less than 5 years of living in an English-speaking country during school age or studying in institutions where English is the instruction language.

Outside the historic ITB victory in the EFL category, other Indonesian records stay intact. The top scoring Indonesian team of all time gathered 16 points in WUDC 2008. The highest ranked Indonesian team ended at #85 in WUDC 1999. The best Indonesian speaker reached #186 also in WUDC 1999. The WUDC 2014 Indonesian debaters failed to best these stats. Click here to see Indonesia's WUDC history.

Interestingly, the highest ranked Indonesian speaker comes from a foreign school. It was Stevensen Chen, a former Medan high school debater who now studies at Hitotsubashi University in Japan. The detailed results of the Indonesian teams are as follows. 

Indonesian Team Standings (UI, Binus Intl were ESL teams; the rest EFL)
note: the ESL/EFL ranks can be different than the breaking ranks due to automatic promotions for over-achievers

#148/#22ESL Binus International A (Invi Atmanegara/Jaran Walia) - 14  points
#168/#31ESL Universitas Indonesia B (Aulia Anggita/Elghafiky Bimardhika) - 14 points
#214/#53ESL Universitas Indonesia A (Egalita Irfan/Roderick Sibarani) - 12 points
#220/#8EFL Universitas Gadjah Mada A (Amir Abdul Aziz/Nabila Aghniarizqa) - 12 points / EFL semifinalists
#223/#9EFL Institut Teknologi Bandung A (Vicario Reinaldo/Fauzan Reza Maulana) - 12 points / EFL champion
#282/#20EFL Binus University A (Cassandra Etania Liem/Rivera Kathrin) - 10 points
#288/#22EFL Universitas Brawijaya A (Nur Rizki Oceano/Queentries Regar) - 10 points
#294/#25EFL Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta A (Tika Destiratri/Arif Burhanudin) - 10 points
#325/#39EFL Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta B (Anisa Sukma/Rasman) - 8 points
#334/#44EFL Institut Pertanian Bogor A (Deanty Mulia/M. Iqbal Maulana) - 6 points
#340/#49EFL Universitas Musamus A (Umi Rakhmawati/Feronika Hutabarat) - 0 points

Top 10 Indonesian Speakers
1. #254 Stevensen Chen (Hitotsubashi A) -- 685
2. #295 Jaran Walia (Binus Intl A) -- 680
3. #301 Invi Atmanegara (Binus Intl A) -- 679
4. #349 Egalita Irfan (UI A) -- 674
5. #381 Roderick Sibarani (UI A) -- 670
6. #398 Nabila Aghniarizqa (UGM A) -- 668
6. #398 Fauzan Reza Maulana (ITB A) -- 668
8. #413 Aulia Anggita Larasati (UI B) -- 666
8. #413 Amir Abdul Aziz (UGM A) -- 666
10. #443 Elghafiky Bimardhika (UI B) -- 664

WUDC 2014: Top 10 Speakers of Each Category

Open
1. Elle Jones (University of Sydney B)
2. Gemma Buckley (Monash University A)
3. James Beavis (Monash University A)
4. Chris Bisset (University of Sydney B)
5. Ben Sprung-Keyser (Harvard University A)
6. Ashish Kumar (University of Cambridge A)
7. Josh Zoffer (Harvard University A)
8. Joanna Connolly (University of Sydney A)
9. Thomas Simpson (University of Cambridge A)
10. Sarah Balakrishnan (McGill University A)
10. Alex Don (University of St. Andrews A)

ESL
1. Mubarrat Wassey (International Islamic University A)
2. Dessislava Kirova (Berlin Debating Union A)
3. Emilia Carlqvist (Lund University A)
4. Viktor Prlja (University of Belgrade A)

Top 10 EFL Speakers - Indonesian debater Stevensen (Hitotsubashi A) in grey suit

5. Abel Lam (London School of Economics A)
6. Goran Jankuloski (University of Belgrade A)
6. Radu Cotarcea (Babes-Bolyai University A)
6. Monica Forman (Ben-Gurion University A)
6. Ameera Moore (International Islamic University B)
10. Peer Klussendorf (Lund University A)

EFL
1. Helena Ivanova (University of Belgrade B)
2. Stefan Siridzanski (University of Belgrade B)
3. Kai Dittmann (Berlin Debating Union A)
4. Stefan Torges (Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg A)
4. Leonard Munstermann (Tilbury House Cologne A)
6. Stevensen Chen (Hitotsubashi University A)
7. Tomoya Yonaga (Hitotsubashi University A)
8. Felicia Hoer (Otto van Guericke University Magdeburg A)
9. Karolina Partyga (University of Warsaw A)
10. Yasufumi Tozuka (University of Tokyo A)

Picture: WUDC Chennai Org Comm

WUDC 2014: Victorious Harvard Debaters End US Drought, Aussie Reign

#4 Harvard University A (Josh Zoffer & Ben Sprung-Keyser) became the first American team for more than a decade or even two, depending on how one sees it, to triumph in the most prestigious debate tournament on the planet. Their victory in the 2014 World Universities Debating Championships in Chennai ended a long drought for the United States since New York University Law School won it in 2002.

Interestingly, both of the NYU Law speakers were students from the United Kingdom. The last true American pair to win WUDC also came from Harvard but they did it in 1993 when the format was 2-on-2, not the 4-team British Parliamentary style that is currently used.   

Harvard A (Ben Sprung-Keyser/Josh Zoffer)

In the recent final, Harvard acted as the Opening Government and proposed the motion "This House Believes That India Should Adopt Aggressive Free Market Policies" in front of an audience that included top government officials of India's Tamil Nadu state. Their stance arguing that India can only rise to become a world economic power if they radically change their protectionist policies stood until the end.

The victory was an upset because many had placed their bets on Closing Opposition #1 University of Sydney B (Chris Bisset & Elle Jones) who set a new record on points collected in the preliminary round with a whopping 26 from 8 wins and a second place finish. The other finalists were  #10 University of Cambridge B (Ben Adams & Kitty Parker-Brooks) and #27 University of Glasgow (John McKee/Duncan Crowe).

Harvard also stopped a four-year Australian reign. A Sydney team won it in 2010 and then their countrymen from Monash University secured the title for three straight years. The Australian strength was apparent on the speaker tab. The top four all come from Australia with Sydney's Elle Jones as the number one debater in WUDC 2014.

WUDC 2014: ITB Puts Indonesia on the Map, Wins EFL Title

Fauzan Reza Maulana (ITB)in red batik offers POI in WUDC 2014 EFL Final

#8EFL Institut Teknologi Bandung A (Fauzan Reza Maulana & Vicario Reinaldo) proved Indonesian debaters can excel on the world stage after winning the English-as-Foreign-Language category of the 2014 World Universities Debating Championships. This is the first time an Indonesian team championed a category in WUDC.

In the final, ITB A successfully knocked down the motion "This House Believes That Multinational Companies Should Be Liable for Human Rights Abuses That Occur Anywhere in Their Supply Chain". They defeated #1EFL University of Warsaw A, Russia's #3EFL New Economic School A and #6EFL Eberhard Karls University Tubingen A from Germany.

Although they came to the final as the lowest ranked team among the four, they put up a brave fight. Their strategy as Opening Opposition to attack the failure of the government bench to characterize the relations between MNCs and their outsourced supply chain in developing countries paid off. Their tenacity from the beginning until the end of the debate also bore fruit. The ITB pair persistently threw damaging points of information at the opponents to strengthen their  arguments. In the end, many of their points, from the impact of capital flight, as the by-product of the proposal, for rural areas in poor countries to the lack of direct control in the hands of the MNCs on their abusive suppliers, were left standing. 

In the other restricted category, Berlin Debating Union A (Dessislava Kirova & Kai Dittman) from Germany became the English-as-Second Language champion of WUDC 2014. In the final, they defeated teams from Lund, Belgrade and Romania's Babes-Bolyai University.

ESL is a higher class than EFL. The latter is only for speakers with none to less than 6 months study in an English speaking country or institution with English as its language of instruction. A requirement that has made some Indonesian teams, including from Universitas Indonesia and Binus International, to compete as ESL participants. 

Nobody from an Indonesian institution got into the top 10 speakers of the three categories (EFL, ESL and Open) but Stevensen Chen, an Indonesian debater representing Japan's Hitotsubashi University, became the 6th best EFL speaker. The best EFL speaker was Belgrade University's Helena Ivanov while Mubarrat Wassey from International Islamic University of Malaysia took the individual ESL title.

WUDC 2014: ITB Boys Become First Indonesians to Reach a Worlds' Final

ITB A (Fauzan Maulana & Vicario Reinaldo)

#8EFL Institut Teknologi Bandung A (Fauzan Maulana & Vicario Reinaldo) defeated their opponents in the English-as-Foreign-Language semifinal of the 2014 World Universities Debating Championships to become the first ever Indonesians to reach a WUDC final. In the penultimate debate, the pair, who won the 2013 Asian English Olympics in Jakarta, will face #1EFL University of Warsaw A from Poland, Russian #3EFL New Economic School A and Germany's #6EFL Eberhard Karls University Tubingen A.

No Indonesian has broken into the main WUDC knockouts. Several Indonesian teams have progressed into the ESL and EFL elimination stages since these categories became available less than a decade ago. ITB A became the first among them to earn the honour to debate in front of more than 1,000 debaters and judges from around the world. 

The EFL final, which will take place at the 5-star Taj Coromandel Hotel in Chennai, will be streamed live via  http://www.rajalakshmi.org/webinars/chennaiworlds.html around 3 pm local time or 16.30 WIB. Results will only emerge around 10.30 pm or 00.00 WIB 

WUDC 2014: ESL & EFL Knockout Brackets

ESL

1. Lund A
16. Belgrade C	1. Lund A
8. Babes-Bolyai B	8. Babes-Bolyai B
9. Zagreb B		1. Lund A
4. Babes-Bolyai A		4. Babes-Bolyai A
13. Tilbury A	4. Babes-Bolyai A
5. Ben-Gurion A	13. Tilbury A
12. Magdeburg A			CHAMPION
2. Berlin A			2. Berlin A
15. Kyung Hee A	2. Berlin A
7.  IBA-Dhaka A	10. IIUM B
10. IIUM B		2. Berlin A
3. Belgrade B		3. Belgrade B
14. IBA-Dhaka B	3. Belgrade B
6. RRIS A	6. RRIS A
11. Ewha EDIS A

EFL

1. Warsaw A
4. Kyoto B	1. Warsaw A
5. BLCU A	8. ITB A
8. ITB A		CHAMPION
2. Hitotsubashi A		8. ITB A
3. NES A	3. NES A
6. EKU Tubingen A	6. EKU Tubingen A
7. UGM A