World Schools Ranking Out, #27 Indonesia in Grouping E

The organizers of the Worlds Schools Debating Championships have revealed the pre-tournament rankings for the 2011 edition in Dundee, Scotland. Indonesia is ranked #27 of 48 contestants, sitting in the E group -- the fifth grade in the WSDC seedings. Indonesia's placement is one above USA, the weakest of WSDC's charter nations. England, the only country that has won all of its preliminary debates in the past three years, tops the list.

The WSDC seedings are calculated based on victories and judge votes in the past three championships and serve as the key in matching the teams in the coming tournament that will take place from August 16 to 26. Any WSDC team will face 8 opponents in the preliminary stage, ideally one from each of the 8 groupings.  In early 2000s, WSDC used 4 groupings, requiring teams to face 2 from each of the lots. The 8-round preliminary matchings are predetermined. Four preliminaries use prepared motions while the other four are impromptu rounds. Only the top 16 can proceed to the knockout rounds. While victory points are the ultimate decider like in any other debating competition, judge votes have more value in WSDC than team scores.

Group A: 1) England, 2) Australia, 3) Canada, 4) New Zealand, 5) Singapore, 6) South Africa
Group B: 7) Greece, 8) Slovenia, 9) Pakistan, 10) Ireland, 11) South Korea, 12) Wales
Group C: 13) Israel, 14) Netherlands, 15) Scotland, 16) Hong Kong, 17) Sri Lanka, 18) Peru
Group D: 19) UAE, 20) China, 21) India, 22) Philippines, 23) Mexico, 24) Qatar
Group E: 25) Argentina, 26) Bangladesh, 27) INDONESIA, 28) USA, 29) Estonia, 30) Bermuda
Group F: 31) Germany, 32) Sweden, 33) Slovakia, 34) Kuwait, 35) Czech, 36) Thailand
Group G: 37) Turkey, 38) Romania, 39) Chile, 40) Lithuania, 41) Nigeria, 42) Nepal
Group H: 43) Japan, 44) Namibia, 45) Croatia, 46) Barbados, 47) Poland, 48) Serbia