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. 

WSDC 2014: Indonesia With 2 Wins So Far in Unpredictable Tourney

At the mid-way point of the 2014 World Schools Debating Championship, Team Indonesia has collected 2 wins from 4 rounds. There are 4 preliminaries to go with an open chance to break into the top 16. Our national squad defeated lowly ranked Sweden and  highly seeded Greece. They lost to the 2010 champion Canada and United Arab Emirates, which are among the top ten favorites. In the next 4 rounds, they will face opponents with more or less of the same quality. They need at least 5 wins out of 8 debates to be able to advance into the elimination stage.

The tournament itself has been full of surprises, showing the tight level of competition. Former WSDC champions Scotland and Singapore bowed to underdogs China and Germany, respectively in round 1. Barbados, a team with erratic participation and without a good track record in WSDC, is becoming a dark horse with 3 wins out of 4. All teams have lost at least one judge point.  

Team Indonesia 2014 consist of Alif Azadi (SMA Modal Bangsa Aceh), Kevin Bonaparte (SMA 17 Makassar), Marsa Harisa (SMA 9 Yogyakarta), Regina Cara Riantoputra (SMA 2 Tangerang Selatan)
and John Amadeo (Raffles International Christian School Jakarta). Their coaches are Australs ESL champion Subarkah Syafruddin, an Universitas Indonesia alumnus who guided Team Indonesia to respectable 4-4 finishes in WSDC 2012 and 2013,  and his Australs teammate and fellow UI graduate Riza Aryani.

Indonesia has only broken twice into the WSDC out rounds, in 2003 and 2004, both times with a 5-3 record in the 8-round mandatory stage. The 2010 team also won 5 times in the preliminaries but came short from breaking. The 2013 team won the best EFL team award.

UADC 2014: 6 Indonesian Teams Reach EFL QF, None in Main Break

Seeing an Indonesian team performing in the main elimination stage of the United Asian Debating Championships continues to be elusive. The highest ranked from Indonesia in UADC 2014, Universitas Gadjah Mada 2 (Erwina Salsabila, Nabila Aghniarizqa, Romario Tambunan), reached #30, missing the top 24 break on speaker points.

The good news is 6 Indonesian squads broke into the English-as-Foreign-Language knockouts with UGM 2 leading the way. Since UADC started in 2010, every edition had an all-Indonesian EFL final. The streak would prevail if the Indonesians could beat 2 teams from China. Here is the EFL break list, which came out late today due to technical errors. In brackets are the teams' win-lose record in the preliminaries and overall rank.

1. Universitas Gadjah Mada 2 (5-3, #30)
2. Binus International 1 (4-4, #61)
3. Shanghai University of Finance and Economics 1 (4-4, #64)
4. Binus University 1 (4-4, #65)
5. Institut Teknologi Bandung 1 (4-4, #69)
6. Institut Teknologi Bandung 2 (4-4, #76)
7. Universitas Atma Jaya 1 (3-5, #78)
8. Sun Yat Sen University 1 (3-5, #80)

Indonesia has presence in another form in UADC. Two Universitas Indonesia students, Boby Andika Ruitang and Colley Windya, along with Arifian Adin from Institut Teknologi Bandung qualified to adjudicate the out rounds. Main and EFL knockouts start tomorrow.  

ABP 2013: List of Motions

Open GF. THBT military conscription should be regarded as a war crime
Open SF. THBT Southeast Asian nations should not help to stop the flow of asylum seekers to Australia
Open QF. Michael murdered his wife and 2 children. In his bid to escape the police, he fell and his his head. As a result of the fall, he lost all his memories after age 5. THW not convict Michael of any crime
EFL GF. THW ban all donations to religious organizations
EFL SF. THBT the US should reform its political system to encourage the creation of smaller parties
EFL QF. You are a doctor at an IVF clinic. A prominent conservative politician is at your clinic seeking IVF treatment. A 'gay gene' has been identified and one of the politician's embryo carries it. THW implant the gay embryo
R9. THW allow individuals to contract out of all basic employment provision in their contracts in return for increased wage
R8. THBT indigenous groups who live in geographically separate area should be given their own completely autonomous government
R7. THW prohibit financial settlements in lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies
R6. THBT media should never report on crimes intended to attract public attention
R5. THW ban Google from retaining users' data
R4. THBT Iran should take a leading role in the negotiation in Syria
R3. THW stop teaching classic literary works in favour of recently written text when teaching literature in school
R2. THW only prosecute the management, not the athlete, for usage of performance enhancing drugs
R1. THW ban all arranged marriage

ABP 2013: EFL Title Slips Away From Indonesia Again, NUS Keeps Trophy

Just like last year, three Indonesian teams reached the final of the English-as-Foreign-Language category of the 2013 Asian British Parliamentary debate tournament and had to beat the only non-Indonesian squad in the room. Unfortunately for Indonesia, history repeated itself -- the odd team won. In 2012, it was Waseda University from Japan. This year Sichuan University from host country China denied the Indonesians - Binus International A (Jaran Walia & Melisa Irene), Binus International B (Andrianto Khiputra & Wilson Salim) and Universitas Indonesia B (Anastasia Sijabat & Magreta Kailla Adenta).

There was some consolation this time, though. Jaran Walia, who has had an amazing debating year, grabbed the best EFL speaker award.  Schoolmates Melisa Irene and Wilson Salim also got into the top 10 EFL speaker list.

In the open category, history also repeated itself. National University of Singapore debaters Kelvin Chong and Xiao Hongyu reclaimed the title that they won last year. In the final, #3 NUS A defeated #1 Universiti Teknologi Mara A (Maizura Mokhsein & Shafiq Bazari), #2 Nanyang Technological University A (Vihasini Gopakumar & Lu Huiyi) and #9 International Islamic University A (Syed Saddiq & Mubarrat Wassey) in a debate with the motion "This House Believes That Military Conscription Should Regarded as a War Crime". For the fourth consecutive time, UT Mara's Mai Mokhsein fell in the grandfinal. Her partner Shafiq Bazari bagged the overall best speaker prize.  

ABP 2013: Bipeds, UI Face Sichuan in EFL Final

#2EFL Binus International A (Jaran Walia & Melisa Irene), #5EFL Binus International B (Andrianto Khiputra & Wilson Salim) and #16EFL Universitas Indonesia B (Anastasia Sijabat & Magreta Kailla Adenta) will fight for the title in the English-as-Foreign-Language category of the 2013 Asian British Parliamentary debate competition after defeating their semifinal opponents. Sichuan University from host country China will join them in the grand final later today.

ABP 2013: It's Indonesia v China in EFL Semifinals

Four Indonesian teams advanced into the semifinals of the English-as-Foreign-Language category at the 2013 Asian British Parliamentary Debate in China, taking half of the available slots. The rest of the semifinalists will come from the host country.

An all-Indonesian EFL final is possible. #2EFL Binus International A (Jaran Walia & Melisa Irene) and #15EFL Universitas Indonesia A (Ibrahim Panji Indra & Stella Kusumawardhani) will be in one chamber with 2 Chinese pairs while #5EFL Binus International B (Andrianto Khiputra & Wilson Salim) and #16EFL Universitas Indonesia B (Anas Sijabat & Magreta Kaila Adenta) will debate in the other against 2 other teams from China. The top 2 in each room will fight for the title in the final.

No Indonesian team slipped into the top 24 that can go into the open knockouts. Just like in the EFL section, the main semifinals will also be about two countries. The surviving 8 in the open competition all come from either Singapore or Malaysia. All remaining matches will take place tomorrow.

ABP 2013: 5 Indonesian Teams Break into EFL Quarters

pNone from Indonesia managed to advance into the main knockouts of the 2013 Asian British Parliamentary debate tournament but 5 Indonesian teams are still alive in the competition after breaking into the quarterfinals of the lower English-as-Foreign-Language category. Being held in populous China, where almost all teams from the host country are EFL, the category had more eligible teams than usual, compelling the organizers to qualify 16 pairs. The fifth Indonesian team, #17EFL Universitas Indonesia B, got through as a substitute after the ABP council meeting ruled one of the debaters of #9EFL Northeastern Normal University from China was an ineligible participant. The EFL break list is populated by Chinese, Indonesian, and Korean teams. The revised order is as follows.

Beihang University - Venue of ABP 2013

1. Chinese University of Hong Kong A
2. Binus International A
3. Beihang University C
4. Binus University A
5. Binus International B
6. Sichuan University A
7. Sun Yat Sen University A
8. Northeastern University Qinhuangdao A
9. Tsinghua University A
10. SolBridge International School of Business A
11. Sun Yat Sen University B
12. Tsinghua University C
13. NFLS A
14. China University of Petroleum D
15. Universitas Indonesia A
16. Universitas Indonesia B

Six Indonesian teams went to China ABP. The only team that will no longer debate, Universitas Indonesia C, ranked above the ones who broke with 16 points - only a notch shy from the open break. One of its debaters, however, lived in Australia long enough to make her ineligible for EFL status.

The main break list is led by Singaporean and Malaysian teams with some Chinese pairs from Hong Kong slipping into pre-quarters along with a few Koreans and a pair each from India and the Philippines. The top 24 teams in the open competition are:

1. Universiti Teknologi Mara A
2. Nanyang Technological University A
3. National University of Singapore A
4. National University of Singapore B
5. International Islamic University B
6. Universiti Teknologi Mara D
7. Multimedia University Melaka A
8. Singapore Management University A
9. International Islamic University A
10. National University of Singapore C
11. University of Hong Kong A
12. International Islamic University C
13. Underwood International College A
14. Universiti Malaya B
15. National Law School of India University C
16. De La Salle University A
17. University of Hong Kong B
18. University of Hong Kong C
19. National University of Singapore D
20. Universiti Teknologi Mara B
21. International Medical University A
22. Chung Ang University A
23. Multimedia University Melaka B
24. Universiti Malaya A

The elimination stage of ABP 2013 starts tomorrow.

WSDC 2013: Unlucky Day for Indonesia; Swaziland on Fire

Team Indonesia lost all two of their matches on Day 3 of the 2013 World Schools Debating Championships in Turkey, a competition that has become swooned by the fairytale campaign of Swaziland, a small African nation whose debaters have won all bar one of their rounds. Tomorrow is the last day for the preliminaries with R7 and R8.

Swaziland - WSDC 2013's cinderella

Indonesia's two losses came from split decisions that went in favour of their opponents - Romania in R5 and United Arab Emirates in R6. At the moment, Indonesia's scorecard is 3-3 with 2 rounds to go. Indonesia will meet Malaysia tomorrow morning and host Turkey in the afternoon. Both teams have higher ranks but pulling off an upset is very possible. Our debaters did it in R1 against Greece and have the ability to repeat that feat. 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 major upsets of the tournament came from a team from Swaziland, a country that only joined WSDC last year when they ended with a respectable 4-4 tally. They are now almost certain to break. Debaters of this tiny state have won 5 out of their 6 matches, only losing to 2011 champion Singapore on a 2-1 split decision in the first round. There was no more slip from there on. In the next round, they crushed Lebanon. Yesterday, they knocked down  Slovakia and then embarrased reigning champion Scotland through convincing 3-0 wins. Today, they outclassed Israel and China. Tomorrow, they face Baltic states Estonia and Lithuania.