The Draw

The draw has officially been released! So now we know which teams Wales will be facing in the eight preliminary rounds, and which side of the motion we’ll be supporting in each debate.

You can find the draw videos at:

Part one - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_78qQHU15E

Part two - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7I7Gc5dNjI

(See if you can spot me and David!)

Just to briefly explain what’s going on in the draw videos - a table was drawn up and released prior to the draw to establish the structure of the draw. This table can be found at:

http://wsdctournament.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/grid2011-final.pdf

The code in each cell refers to the position of the left team debating the top team, and whether the motion is prepared or unprepared (impromptu). So, for example,  the grid shows that in round one D5 will be in proposition against H1 who will be in opposition, but before today we did not know which teams are represented by D5 and H1.

A more detailed (and probably more coherent) explaination can be found at:
http://wsdctournament.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/the-grid-explanation-final.pdf

Now, following the draw and using the table, we can see that Wales will be facing the following in the first eight rounds:

Round 1 - THW offer dictators immunity in return for leaving power

Proposition against Germany (F)

Round 2 - Impromptu

Opposition against Scotland (C)

Round 3 - THBT UPE is a misallocation of resources for the developing world

Opposition against the Philippines (D)

Round 4 - Impromptu

Proposition against Argentina (E)

Round 5 - THW legalise the sale of human organs

Proposition against Canada (A)

Round 6 - Impromptu

Opposition against Barbados (H)

Round 7 - THBT women can only achieve equality under a secular system of government

Opposition against Nigeria (G)

Round 8 - Impromptu

Proposition against Pakistan (B)

As you can see, we’ve been drawn not only against last year’s champion, Canada, but also against Scotland, the host nation, which should result in some exciting debates.

WSDC Format

Tournament structure

Every team competes in eight preliminary rounds. The top sixteen teams then go on to a knockout stage, involving octo-finals, quarter-finals, semi-finals and ultimately the grand final.

Preparation time

Some of the rounds are pre-prepared, and some are impromptu debates. Rounds 1, 3, 5, and 7 of the preliminary rounds and the grand final are all pre-prepared debates. The motions for these rounds were released at noon GMT on 1^st June 2011, and are as follows:

Round 1 - This House would offer dictators immunity in return for leaving power

Round 3 - This House believes that Universal Primary Education is a misallocation of resources for the developing world

Round 5 - This House would legalise the sale of human organs

Round 7 - This House believes that women can only achieve equality under a secular system of government

Grand Final - This House believes that autocracy is doomed in the age of Facebook

However, teams only find out which side of the motion they will be supporting and which team they will be debating against when the official draw is released. This will take place at noon GMT on 5^th July 2011, exactly six weeks before the tournament is due to commence.

The remaining rounds are impromptu debates. Teams are given one hour to prepare for the debate, starting when then motion is announced. All of the team members are involved in preparation, although only three will speak in the debate.

Team classification

Each participating country is assigned a letter from A-H, depending on the performance of the country’s team in the tournaments held over the last three years. This year, the performances of teams in Washington (2008), Athens (2009) and Doha (2010) will determine the letter given.

The purpose of the grading system is to ensure that each team has preliminary rounds of equal difficulty - each team faces one team of each grade over the first eight rounds. There is no direct advantage to being a higher ranked team.

This year, Wales is a B team. The full rankings can be found here:

http://wsdctournament.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/pretournamentrankings-final.pdf

Judging

The eight preliminary debates are nearly always judged by three individuals - one chair judge and two wing judges. Each of them individually mark the speakers and the teams, and then place their judging sheet in a sealed envelope. At this point, they reveal their decision to each other. There are two possible outcomes of any debate - either a team wins unanimously, where each of the three judges has independently concluded that the same team has won the debate, or a team wins on a split, where one of the judges as reached a different conclusion to the other two.

The break

After the eight preliminary rounds, the break is announced. This is the announcement of the top sixteen teams (also known as ‘breaking’ teams) who progress to the ‘out’ rounds (see below)

The breaking teams are decided firstly by number of wins, then by number of judges, and then by the speaker points (‘speaks’) accumulated by each team over the eight rounds.

The ‘out’ rounds

The ‘out’ rounds follow the break. These are knock-out rounds, beginning with the octo-finals, progressing to the quarter-finals, then semi-finals, and finally the grand final. The order in which teams break determines who they will face in the out rounds, as illustrated by the diagram below.

The number of judges in the out rounds increases - there are five in the octo-finals, seven in the quarter-finals, nine in the semi-finals and eleven in the grand final.

Last year, Team Wales 2010 became the first Welsh team in the history of the tournament to reach the semi-finals, so the pressure is really on this year!

Hello!

This is my first post on this blog, which shall keep you updated on Team Wales’ progress throughout the World Schools Debating Championships 2011, which will be held this year in Dundee from 16^th August to 26^th August.

Prior to the tournament, I plan to release several posts introducing Team Wales 2011 and outlining the general format of a WSDC tournament, to make this blog easier to follow during the tournament.

In the meantime, you can visit the official WSDC 2011 website at:

http://wsdctournament.wordpress.com

And you can also visit the website of CEWC Cymru, the charity responsible for the selection, training and management of Team Wales, at:

http://www.cewc-cymru.org.uk

Watch this space for new posts!

Josephine