This Blog has now moved to idebate.org/worlddebating - all future posts will be made there!

6 January 2012

Moving to the new idebate.org among other things


Preview of New iDebate.org Website from Alfred Snider on Vimeo.

Invitation to the LSE Open 2012


The LSE Open is the largest and most prestigious open debate tournament in the UK. Registration is now open, so be sure to register early to guarantee yourself a spot before we fill our team cap!

This year, the Bank of America Merrill Lynch LSE Open will be taking place on the 18th and 19th of February 2012.

Registration Details:

  •  Please register on our website starting January 1st 2012. Click here to register.

  •  The registration fee will be £50 for IONA teams, and £40 for international teams.

  •  The team cap is set at 100 (there will be no institutional cap). The N-1 judges rule applies.

This year, the Bank of America Merrill Lynch LSE Open will be bigger and better than ever:
  •  5 Preliminary Rounds of Closed Motions, 7 minute speeches. Open break to Quarter-Finals, ESL break to Semi-Finals.
  •  Our distinguished CA team will include:

           Chief Adjudicator Shengwu Li (WUDC Finalist, EUDC & Cambridge IV Winner)


           Chief Adjudicator Ruth Faller (
EUDC Semi-Finalist, EUDC CA 2011, Durham IV & Galway IV Winner)

           Deputy Chief Adjudicator Koen van Schie (Oxford IV ESL Winner, EUDC ESL Semifinalist & Cambridge IV ESL Final
ist)
  • We will be having amazing socials on Friday (for early arrivals), Saturday and Sunday nights! 

For more information, please contact our Organising Committee at lsedebate@gmail.com
We  look forward to seeing you come February!

Best wishes,
John Lee

Convenor  | Bank of America Merrill Lynch LSE Open 2012 
LSE SU Debate Society |  London School of Economics & Political Science 

3 January 2012

WUDC 2012 Tab

Still waiting for an electronic version of the tab to be published but in the meantime @henrikmaedler on twitter has published photographs of the hardcopy tab that was distributed after the final.

You can find them at campl.us/user/henrikmae

Comedy Winners at WUDC

One result that was left out of the original announcement was:

Chris Lee and Conor O Hanlon from UCD Law won the Comic Public speaking competition at WUDC 2012

Monash are the 2012 World Debating Champions WUDC

The winners of the 2012 World Debating Champions are

Monash B (Kiran Iyer and Amit Golder) on a unanimous decision

Tel Aviv win the ESL competition at WUDC 2012

The Winners of the 2012 English as a Second Language Competition are

Tel Aviv A

EWHA Win EFL WUDC 2012

Winners of the 2012 English as a foreign language competition at Worlds are

EWHA A

WUDC 2012 Masters Champions

The winners of the 2012 World Masters are

Australia A (Tim Jefferies & Bronwyn Cowel)

World Public Speaking Champion 2012 WUDC

The 2012 World Public Speaking Champion is

Joe McGrea?

Will confirm the name ASAP

Ben Woolgar is top Speaker at WUDC 2012

Apologies for any incorrect spelling.

1 Ben Woolgar (Oxford A)
2 Steph Bell (Oxford B)
3 Steve Wittington (Victoria Wellington A)
4 Paul Karp (Sydney A)
5 Hugh Burns (Oxford A)
6 Michael Baer (Stanford A)
7 Pat Cadwell (Sydney A)
8 Udayan Mukherjee (Victoria Wellington A)
9 Chris Bisset (Monash C)
10 Catherine Murphy (TCD Phil B)

ESL Best Speakers

Apologies for the spelling if incorrect

1 Omar Nevo (Tel Aviv A)
2 Sella Nevo (Tel Aviv A)
3 Danique van Koppenhagen (Utrecht A)
4 Rogier Baart (Leiden A)
5 Thomas Beerthuis (Utrecht A)

EFL Best Speakers

Apologies for spellings if incorrect.

1 Goran Jankuloski (Belgrade)
2 Roderick Siberani
3 Yuki Tominaga
3 Ahmad Dai
5 Fumihiko Sano

Live Stream of #WUDC Results

Thanks to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/wudc-winners-announcement


Finalists in #WUDC 2012

The four finalists in this years World Debating Championships are:


Opening Government: Monash B
Opening Opposition: Stanford A (first Stanford team in the Final)
Closing Government: Oxford B
Closing Opposition: Sydney B

Judges:  Lucinda David, Sam Block, Adam Goldstein, Joe Roussos, Art Ward, Tate Thomas, Kirsten Price, Mary Nugent, Zayn Siddique.


Live Stream



Grand Final motion: This house supports nationalism

WUDC Manila 2012 Day 8

Today at the 2012 World Universities Debating Championships in Manila


Time Activity Venue
0600 - 0800 Breakfast Harbor Tent, Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila
0800 - 0900 Travel to Philippine N/A
International Convention Center
0900 - 0930 Convening Summit Halls C&D
0930 - 1100 Semi-Finals Summit Halls C&D and Meeting Rooms 2&3
1100 - 1200 Lunch 4th Floor Dining Area
1200 - 1300 Travel Back to Hotel / Freshen Up Time N/A
1330 - 1530 EFL Finals Summit Halls C&D
1530 - 1700 ESL Finals Summit Halls C&D
1700 - 1730 Snacks 4th Floor Dining Area
1800 - 2000 Grand Finals Plenary Hall
2000 - 0200 Championship Dinner and Reception Hall / Sofitel Tent
Black-Tie Ball

2 January 2012

WUDC Semi Finalists

The Semi Finalists in the 2012 World Universities Debating Championships are:
Stanford A
Oxford A
Oxford B
Sydney B
Monash C
UCD L&H A
Monash B
Oxford C




























 The Finalists in the ESL competition at WUDC are:

International Islamic University Malaysia IIUM B, 
Tel Aviv A, 
Berlin Debating Union BDU  B
Leiden A



























The Finalists in the EFL competition at WUDC are:
EWHA A,
Belgrade C, 
Defence Technology A 
Zagreb A



















The Finalists in the Masters competition are

Australia A, TJ and Bronwyn, 
Australia B, Victor and Kristen, 
USA B, Josh and ?
USA A, Adam and Balthaza?

World Championships Qtr Finalists at WUDC 2012

The Quarter Finalists of the 2012 World Debating Championships are

1 Oxford A
16 BPP A
8 Stanford A
24 Birmingham A
29 Oxford C
13 Nottingham A
5 Sydney A
28 Monash B
2 Oxford B
18 Sydney B
7 Victoria Wellington A
10 Durham A
3 Monash C
19 Harvard A
11 UCD L&H A
27 Auckland B

The motion for the Qtr Finals is:

This house believes that "Western" consultants advising dictatorships have a moral duty to sabotage them.
It is being broadcast live by IDEA at http://www.idebate.org/streaming/wudc/

EFL Semi Finals WUDC 2012

The Motion for the semi finals of the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) competition at the 2012 World Debating Championships is:

This house believes that when doctors discover a patient has a sexual transmitted disease, they should reveal that information to the patients partner.

ESL Qtr Final Results WUDC 2012

After the Qtr Finals in the English as a Second Language (ESL) competition at 2012 World Debating Championships the Semi Finalists are:

1 Tel Aviv A
9 IIUMB
4 Ljubljana A
5 Belgrade A
2 Utrecht A
7 BDU A
3 Leiden A
11 Galatasaray A

The motion for the Semi Final is  In countries with few female politicians, This house believes it is good to have a politically active 'first lady'





WUDC Manila 2012 Day 7

Today at the 2012 World Universities Debating Championships in Manila


Time Activity Venue
0600 - 0800 Breakfast Harbor Tent, Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila
0800 - 0900 Travel to DLSU N/A
0900 - 0930 Convening Teresa Yuchengco Auditorium
0930 - 1130 Octo-Finals Lecture Halls
1130 - 1300 Lunch Yuchengco Lobby, Marian Quadrangle and Central Plaza
1300 - 1500 ESL Quarter-Finals Lecture Halls
1500 - 1530 Snacks Yuchengco Lobby, Marian Quadrangle and Central Plaza
1530 - 1730 Quarter-Finals Lecture Halls
1730 - 1930 EFL & ESL Semifinals Lecture Halls
1900 - 0200 Filipino Fiesta Night University Grounds
2300 Travel Back to Hotel N/A
(First Optional Trip)

1 January 2012

Proposal to reform the Worlds Break

Update 1st January 2011.  Given that council voted to expand the break to all teams on 18 points this morning it is fitting that I move this post back up the blog.  I haven't figured out the impact of the decision on how to tab future worlds and won't try until I hear exact details of what was passed at council.

You will also find more information on Andy Hume's Facebook post or in the current edition of the Monash Debating review

Here is an extract from a mail from Mai Mokhsein (UT MARA) National Delegate for Malaysia at Council which he sent to the malaysian_debaters mail list:
This message is purely informational in nature. The Worlds Council 2012 has just passed the constitutional amendment to expand the main break. ALL teams on 18 points will now make the main break, applicable to Worlds 2013 henceforth.

Proposal passed with a slim two-thirds majority with strong opposition from the European, Oceania & IONA region. All Asian nations were unanimously stout in holding their ground for expanding the break after a disproportionately long discussion that carried on from last year. Great turnaround as the initial straw voting indicated that we didn't have the necessary two-thirds majority to make the amendment.

Implementation of the new break policy:
1. The bottom 32 teams will compete in Pre-Octos, while high-ranking teams will get a bye.
2. If an odd number of teams make the main break, the room with the lowest-ranking team will have three teams advancing to the Octos.


Update Jan 2011: this is a post that was first published on 24th November. It concerns the proposal to expand the break which is currently being discussed at council. I have changed the date on it to move it back up to the front page of this blog so people can be more fully informed about the proposal. The first 17 comments date from November.

Shawn Briscoe and Steve Johnson have written a proposal to allow all teams with 18 or more points to break at the WUDC. They plan to submit it to Council in Botswana and have asked that it be posted here to promote some discussion.  If you want to contribute to the discussion you can post here or e-mail Shawn and Steve directly at steve.johnson.alaska@gmail.com or shawn.briscoe@uaa.alaska.edu.



WUDC Manila 2012 break announcement.

Here is the break announcement from last night.

Draw for the knockout rounds of WUDC 2012


Updates from Council

Via various posts on Twitter here are some updates on events at council. 

Berlin bid defense was passed by council.  Registration fee 400euro. 400 team slots. Registration at end of March.

The report on Botswana Worlds was rejected by council.


There were no firm bids for WUDC 2014. North South Bangladesh & London indicated their interest, but nothing binding.  A decision will be made in March.  Indonesia have been indicating their interest in bidding for 2015.


Council passed motion to adopt the 18 point open break system as proposed by Canada. Worlds will now break every team on 18 points. Partial double Octo-Finals will now decide the top 32.

New Committee:
Steve Johnson: President,
Eoin Kilkenny: Registrar,
Coulter King: Secretary,
Deirdre & Meredith Women's Officers,
Tasneem Equity

WUDC Manila 2012 Day 6

Today at the 2012 World Universities Debating Championships in Manila


Time Activity Venue
0600 - 0900 Breakfast Sofitel Philippine Plaza Manila
0900 - 1800 Worlds Council De La Salle University
0800 - 1900 Excursions Different Areas
1900 - 2000 Travel to Comedy Night / Public Speaking Finals Venue N/A
2000 - 0100 Comedy Night / Public Speaking Finals Forums 1 and 2, Philippine International Convention Center
200 Travel Back to Hotel for Hyatt Participants N/A
(First Optional Trip)