WSDC – Thank you

WSDC, although google insists stands for the World Swing Dance Council, will always invoke powerful memories of the one and only World Schools Debating Championships. First hearing about it in 2007, I began my WSDC journey back in 2009 with the Team Hong Kong trials. In January 2010, I headed to Doha, Qatar along with Ben, Prakash, Annette, Heather, Greg and Mr. Evershed where we broke by a whisker and made it to the octo-finals. Truly infected with the WSDC bug, 2011 meant an entirely new country, new school and a new WSDC team. Yes – I defected to Team Wales. After an elongated training period including a summer holiday, I headed to Dundee, Scotland in a train along with David, Sarah, Josephine and Johnny. Sadly, this campaign also ended at the octo-finals. Debating aside however, it was brilliant to be able to meet people from so many countries. Talking over a drink, on the bus and whilst playing pool; all part of the unforgettable experience we’ve had together. part and parcel of my WSDC experience of course has been they joys of blogging my way through it all.

During the campaign for WSDC 2010 and WSDC 2011, I’ve had the joy of representing 2 countries – Hong Kong and Wales, visited 2 countries – Doha, Qatar and Dundee, Scotland. After endless hours of training, I had 18 debates against 17 countries, given 22 speeches, at least 144 minutes of talking, lots of blogging, 11 wins, 38 ballots and 2 octo-finals. All good things come to a close and sadly I won’t be attending WSDC 2012.

The last two years have been a blast. I can’t thank enough the people who have helped me on this journey. Thank you and Goodbye!

WSDC 2011 – Unofficial Adjusted World Rankings

This is part of the WSDC 2011 series as I recount and report on the World School Debating Championship 2011 in Dundee, Scotland as a debater, blogger and Wales national team member.

Following yesterday’s post regarding raw world rankings of the top 31 teams, I have adjusted the world rankings to take into account all 48 teams that have been identified as taking part in WSDC 2011. There are some high ranking teams which have not be confirmed to be participating, I have chosen to include them in the list, especially if they appear likely to either be collecting funds or on the waiting list. I have however placed them in italics.

As with last time, I have used the same method that calculated last year’s team pre-tournament rankings, having removed WSDC 2007 results and substituted them with WSDC 2010 results. Results for a country from only one or even two WSDC tournaments reduces the accuracy of these pre-tournament rankings. To make calculations easier, I averaged the results to assume each national team debated at all three WSDCs between 2008 and 2010 and ranked them by the number of debates they have won and the number of judges they have received.

Adjusted in leiu of the participation list recently announced, the WSDC 2011 World Rankings are, in the following format – Country, Total wins out of 24, Total judges out of 72:

WSDC 2011 – Unofficial World Rankings

This is part of the WSDC 2011 series as I recount and report on the World School Debating Championship 2011 in Dundee, Scotland as a debater, blogger and Wales national team member.

At WSDC 2010, a total of 57 teams ultimately took part. WSDC 2011 has 350 spots open for registration, and despite registration being yet to open, they have announced a team cap of 44. It appears quite likely that the top 31 teams that appear in the World Rankings prior to WSDC 2011 will be attending WSDC 2011.

Using the same method that calculated last year’s team pre-tournament rankings, I have removed the results of WSDC 2007 and substituted them with WSDC 2010 results.

Results for a country from only one or even two WSDC tournaments reduces the accuracy of these pre-tournament rankings. And since the top 31 teams all conveniently won more than 3.333 debates at every WSDC they attended on average, I calculated only the results for the top 31 WSDC teams. The are ranked based upon average wins per WSDC and average judges per WSDC. Only in one case have I had to move on to total number of wins at WSDC 2010 and total number of judges at WSDC 2010. To make calculations easier, I averaged the results to assume each national team debated at all three WSDCs between 2008 and 2010.

The World Rankings or pre-tournament rankings for National Teams based on WSDC 2008 – 2010 are displayed in the following format – Country, Total wins out of 24, Total judges out of 72

WSDC 2010: Reflection

This is part of the WSDC 2010 series as I recount and report on the World School Debating Championship 2010 from Doha, Qatar as a debater, blogger and Hong Kong national team member.

It has been a while since WSDC 2010 ended. I’ve finally got round to putting pen to paper when considering what this competition has been, so here it is.

It’s hard to put into words exactly how the 22nd World Schools Debating Championship in Doha, Qatar truly was. It was lavish and comfortable, tiring and exhilarating, and it was a wonderful learning experience as well as a brilliant social event.

The organisers set out to host the biggest and the best WSDC ever, I’m very doubtful if anyone says otherwise after those two weeks between the 8th and 18th of February 2010. Flushed with funding and more than enough resources, QatarDebate had additional adjudicators sponsored, top notch facilities and well thought-out plans laid out well before we even landed at the tiny Doha International Airport. From that point on, we always had someone there to help us, to set up and organiser for us and to make the event what it was. The Marriott Hotel, with its quite location, private beach and food tent covering two full tennis courts complete with chandeliers, was never going to be easy to beat. Although the rooms were found wanting in some respects, it was in now way below par or problematic for anyone living there.

The Last Good Meal

The lunch we had the day we arrived was jokingly titled ‘the last good meal’. How wrong we were. We discovered that the buffet which we thought was our last would merge into only the first in a whole two weeks worth of buffets. As much as we’d like to complain, it was delicious, varied and filled with Prakash’s favorite green leaves.

WSDC 2010 – Videos

This is part of the WSDC 2010 series as I recount and report on the World School Debating Championship 2010 from Doha, Qatar as a debater, blogger and Hong Kong national team member.

WSDC 2010 Doha may have concluded, but it’s time to review some of the highlights.

First, here is a finalized list of all the Awards handed out, after the organizers finally filled in the ‘Results‘ page of http://www.wsdc2010doha.com/.

Videos

In addition, videos of the event are starting to pop up, I will continue to post them here as they appear.
You can see two full debates that people have uploaded. The first is round 6 between Canada and England (http://www.youtube.com/user/debaterandskeptic#p/u). The second is round 8 between Nepal and Mongolia (http://www.youtube.com/user/hobbyscience#p/u)

Opening Ceremony

School Performances
School Performances

WSDC 2010 – Final Rankings

WSDC 2010 Logo

This is part of the WSDC 2010 series as I recount and report on the World School Debating Championship 2010 from Doha, Qatar as a debater, blogger and Hong Kong national team member.

Following the conclusion of World Schools Debating Championship 2010, the numbers are in, the results crunched and the final rankings decided. Here they are courtesy of the organizers at WSDC Charity.

Motions

R1: That we should support Military Intervention in Somalia
R2: That we should make physical education compulsory in schools
R3: That every Country should have the right to possess Nuclear Weapons
R4: That we should support quotas for women in high government positions
R5: That Doctors should report evidence of Martial Abuse to the police
R6: That developing nations should have the right to give priority to development ahead of the environment
R7: That Terrorist suspects should have the right to a Trial in Civilian courts
R8: That we should legalise performance enhancing drugs
OF: That we should have no law restricting freedom of speech
QF: That compensation should be paid for the injustices committed by past generations
SF: That the United States should withdraw from the Middle East
GF : That Governments should Never Bail out Big Companies

Teams

You can find the results for each individual round here.
See how the 16 teams progressed during the Knockout Stages.

Overall Team Rankings

1. Canada
2. England
3. Singapore
4. Wales
5. Australia
6. Slovenia
7. New Zealand
8. Pakistan
9. Greece
10. Israel
11. Netherlands
12. Sri Lanka
13. India
14. Scotland
15. Ireland
16. Hong Kong

Best New Country : United Arab Emirates
China (2nd) and Sudan (3rd)

Best English as Foreign Language Country : Netherlands
Romania (2nd) and Germany (3rd)

Best English as Second Language Country : Slovenia
Greece (2nd) and Sri Lanka (3rd)

The Break

1. Australia, 8 wins, 23 judges, 6277 points
2. Canada, 8 wins, 22 judges, 6171 points
3. Singapore, 8 wins, 22 judges, 6161 points
4. Greece, 8 wins, 22 judges, 6105 points
5. England, 8 wins, 21 judges, 6188.5 points
6. Slovenia, 7 wins, 19 judges, 6016.5 points
7. New Zealand, 6 wins, 19 judges, 6189.5 points
8. Wales, 6 wins, 19 judges, 6080.5 points
9. Israel, 6 wins, 18 judges, 6012 points
10. Netherland, 6 wins, 18 judges, 5961 points
11. Sir Lanka, 6 wins, 17 judges, 6047.5 points
12. India, 6 wins, 16 judges, 5982.5 points
13. Pakistan, 5 wins, 18 judges 6114.5 points
14. Scotland, 5 wins, 17 judges, 6163 points
15. Ireland, 5 wins, 16 judges, 6093.5 points

Hong Kong, 5 wins, 16 judges, 6074.5 points

16. South Korea, 5 wins, 16 judges, 6072 points
17. Bangladesh, 5 wins, 16 judges, 6022.5 points
18. South Africa, 5 wins, 15 judges, 6107.5 points
19. Mexico, 5 wins, 15 judges, 6023 points
20. Philippines, 5 wins, 15 judges, 6001.5 points
21. Indonesia, 5 wins, 15 judges, 5955.5 points
22. Romania, 5 wins, 14 judges, 5970 points
23. Germany, 5 wins, 13 judges, 5970 points
24. Sweden, 5 wins, 13 judges, 5821.0 points
25. Estonia, 5 wins, 12 judges, 5952.0 points

Shaheen

Speakers

Overall Best Speakers
The full top 100 speakers list can be found here.

1. Joanna Connolly – Australia – 75.333
2. Laura Birchall – Australia – 75.033
3. Charlotte Thomas – Australia – 74.875
4. Eleanor Gordon-Smith – Australia – 74.833
5. Manasvin Goswami – Canada – 74.292
6. Gregory Farquhar – England – 74.222
7. Shehryar Sheikh – Pakistan – 74.083
8. Maria English – New Zealand – 74.000
9. Georgina Barker – Scotland – 73.944
10. Hasan Dindjer – England – 73.917
11. Aria Newfield – New Zealand – 73.867
12. Ashish Kumar – Singapore – 73.813
13. Keenan Macneal – Canada – 73.800
14. Jonathan Carson – Canada – 73.792
15. Ella Katharine Robertson – Scotland – 73.694
16. Edward Schweitzer – England – 73.694
17. Rebecca Meredith – Scotland – 73.667
18. Jasmin Moran – New Zealand – 73.625
19. Teoh Ren Jie – Singapore – 73.605
20. Filippos Lekkas – Greece – 73.583

Hong Kong Individual Results (as stated in the top 100)

39 – Heather Pickerell – 4 – 72.583
40 – Ben Allen – 5 – 72.467
45 – Paul Lau – 4 – 72.333
50 – Annette Chau – 4 – 72.250
60 – Prakash Sanker – 7 – 72.048

Individual EFL Best Speakers :

1. Lionie Beyrle – Germany
2. Zan Zveplan – Slovenia
3. Sanjit Dias – Sri Lanka
4. Elisabeth Van Lieshout – The Netherlands
5. Inka Mobinger – Germany

Individual ESL Best Speakers

1. Shehryar Sheikh – Pakistan
2. Filippos Lekkas – Greece
3. Muhammad Gulzar – Pakistan
4. Do Kwon – South Korea
5. Jeewon Yoo – South Korea

Individual New Nation Best Speakers

1. Andirudh Sivaram – UAE
2. Raeesa Munshi – UAE
3. Sara Smylie – UAE
4. Calvin Cox – Sudan
5. Jiali Li – China

WSDC 2010 – Results

This is part of the WSDC 2010 series as I recount and report on the World School Debating Championship 2010 from Doha, Qatar as a debater, blogger and Hong Kong national team member.

Here are the overall results  from the prize presentation ceremony at La Caliga Hotel in Doha. All errors are mine until organizers confirm details.

Best New Country : United Arab Emirates
Best English as Foreign Language Country : Netherlands
Best English as Second Language Country : Slovenia
Overall 4th : Wales
Overall 3rd : Singapore
Overall Runner-up : England
Overall Champion : Canada

Individual EFL Best Speakers :

1. Lionie Beyrle – Germany
2. Zan Zveplan – Slovenia
3. Daluwatumullagamage Jayasuriya – Sir Lanka
4. Sandarruwani De Silva – Sir Lanka
5. Inka Mobinger – Germany

Individual ESL Best Speakers

1. Shehryar Sheikh – Pakistan
2. Filippos Lekkas – Greece
3. Muhammad Gulzar – Pakistan
4. Do Kwon – South Korea
5. Jeewon Yoo – South Korea

Overall Best Speakers

1. Joanna Connolly – Australia
2. Laura Birchall – Australia
3. Charlotte Thomas – Australia
4. Eleanor Gordon-Smith – Australia
5. Manasvin Goswami – Canada
6. Gregory Farquhar – England
7. Shehryar Sheikh – Pakistan
8. Maria English – New Zealand
9. Georgina Barker – Scotland
10. Hasan Dindjer – England

WSDC 2010 – AUS vs. HK Octofinal

This is part of the WSDC 2010 series as I recount and report on the World School Debating Championship 2010 from Doha, Qatar as a debater, blogger and Hong Kong national team member.

After breaking into the Octofinals ranked 16th, our path crossed with that of top breaker Australia. In what turned out to be a close, difficult and tense debate on the motion That there should be no law restricting freedom of speech, Australia emerged victorious by a unanimous decision of 5-0. However, as both sides admitted whilst waiting, the debate that was supposedly one-sided and easy debate on paper for Australia turned out to be quite a battle. At the end of the day, we gave Australia a run for their money, although we ultimately lost, the debate was one of our best performances ever and certainly a high-quality final bow.
Whilst not directly reflected in the result, the following article from the Qatar Tribune accurately captures the nature of the debate. I’ve highlighted my favorite elements, albeit from a biased stand-point of a Hong Kong debater.

Favourites Australia scored a

not-so-convincing win

over lowly placed Hong Kong in the octo-finals, to move into the quarter-finals of the World Schools Debating Championship (WSDC). The final eight teams who are in the final round are Australia, Canada, Singapore, England, New Zealand, Wales, Pakistan and Slovenia.
In the first phase of the knockout stage, all 16 teams debated the motion ‘There should be no law restricting freedom of speech’. The octo-finals took place at four venues in four different universities.
In a competition held at Weill Cornell Medical College, Team Australia took on Hong Kong and had a vigorous round of debating.
With Team Australia going for the motion and Team Hong Kong in opposition, it was a contest worth listening. Both teams failed to convince the audience on many key issues. But the all-girl Australian team came up trumps primarily due to its vast experience and flair.

Team Hong Kong gave quite a tough time to the Australians and were almost on the verge staging a big upset in the tournament.

But Team Australia, guided by the eloquent wrap-up by Janna Connolly, safely saw the argument wrested from Team Hong Kong. Team Australia with great presentations from Laura Birchall, Joanna Connolly and Eleanor Gordon Smith finally saw the competition going their way. However,

Team Hong Kong should be proud of their effort and of the fact of having taken the contest right down to the wire.

Claire Rayan, the chief adjudicator of the competition, while announcing the results, commended the efforts of both the teams and said that it was very close. She said “Probably both the teams should have a better understanding of the topics in terms of its applications as both restricted themselves on some part of the motion. This made both the teams miss on many of the key arguments.” It was a team of five judges that adjudicated on the competition. The quarter-finals as well as the semifinals will be held on Wednesday and the grand finale will be held on Thursday.

Grand Final tonight between Canada (proposing) and England (opposing) on the motion That governments should never bail out big companies. Will be posting all results from the closing ceremony as soon as I get back.

WSDC 2010 – Quarter & Semi Final

Quarterfinal

On the motion : That compensation should be paid for the injustices committed by past generations

Canada beat New Zealand 6-1
Wales beat Australia 4-3
Singapore beat Slovenia 6-1
England beat Pakistan 6-1

Semifinal

On the motion : That the United States should withdraw from the middle east

England beat Wales 9-0
Canada beat Singapore 9-0

Incidentally, both opposition sides won.

Grand Final

Hence the Grand Final will be
Canada vs. England
on the motion
“That governments should never bail out big companies”

WSDC 2010 – Quarter Final

This is part of the WSDC 2010 series as I recount and report on the World School Debating Championship 2010 from Doha, Qatar as a debater, blogger and Hong Kong national team member.

At the end of another tough day, AGM, Scotland and South Africa’s presentation as well as 8 difficult debates, those in the running for the 2010 World Schools Debating Championship has dropped from 16 to just 8 who after hard-fought victories today, progress to the quarter finals.

Today’s results on the motion :
That we should have no law restricting freedom of speech

Australia beat Hong Kong 5-0

Canada beat Ireland 3-2
Singapore beat Scotland 3-2
Pakistan beat Greece 5-0
England beat India 4-1
Slovenia beat Sir Lanka 4-2
New Zealand beat Netherlands 5-0
Wales beat Israel 5-0

This means the quarter final match-ups will be as follows :

• Quarterfinal A : Australia vs. Wales
• Quarterfinal B : Canada vs. New Zealand
• Quarterfinal C : Singapore vs. Slovenia
• Quarterfinal D : Pakistan vs. England

Best of lucks to all quarter finalists

Winner of quarterfinal A will debate winner of quarterfinal D in Semifinal 1.
Winner of quarterfinal B will debate winner of quarterfinal C in Semifinal 2.