*The Debatewise Blog
WODC 2011 Review: Three is a magic number for Canada
The World Online Debating Championships (WODC) celebrates its triennial (3 year anniversary) after delighting you with gripping, exotic and thought provoking debates around subjects including philosophy, sexuality, politics. This year’s WODC reached a full grid of 32 teams with new countries such as Brazil and Uzbekistan taking to the stage against veteran countries such as title defending Czech Republic, Lithuania and some stalwarts such as Venezuela and Canada. An interesting pool but ultimately there could only be one team that would reign supreme and from two academies: One new to the tournament and one in its second attempt at climbing to the peak of championship stardom.Prelims: Thirty two teams were whittled down to eight in these two rounds with the championship finalists filtered out from the championship contenders. The opening debate of this year saw an impressive debut by Uzbekistan who consigned USA 2 to a first round loss with their sister team following suit. Next up the defending champions of the Czech Republic took their opening round win against Mongolia and Canada also emerged victorious. However, Lithuania the inaugural champions would go no further this year after a loss to Canada, adjudicator Protagoras (he who shall not be named) advised:“Use every weapon you’ve got or die like dogs”. At the bottom of the table Romania made an improvement defeating South Korea in a tight contest on the motion of: “Governments Should Try To Reduce The Gap Between Their Richest And Poorest Citizens” with more focus regarding: “human interaction with foreign policy” . However, the South Koreans’ impressive performance as team Opp was duly noted by the adjudicators... who allowed them a crucial second chance along with Mongolia 1 after the retirement of a number of teams.
Round two: Latvia started off against Uzbekistan. Latvia may have had some stalwarts in its ranks but the Uzbeks won the key clashes in the debate. In the regional derby of the tournament Venezuela faced off against Colombia. The Prop (proposition) started well but were beaten by a hair’s breadth in the end. Adjudicator Abida Shareen summed up the match as follows, “Opp managed to clearly illustrate that Prop’s proposition could create multitude levels of harms for the South American nations... A good debate overall.”
Following this, South Korea took their second chance and ran with it against Pakistan 2. As adjudicator Rinat Gershfeld assessed “Opp, despite the dangers explained by Prop, was able to prove that the benefits of nuclear technology in terms of resources and the environment are greater.”
Israel continued their impressive performance with a win over Macedonia. And in doing so, Israel became the most improved nation of the WODC going from two first round losses in previous years to the semis this year, impressive.
On this particular debate adjudicator Protagoras concluded,“ Opp proves that although it's tough to give the HRC credit, it does do some good action.”
Meanwhile Canada and Australia both enjoyed a high-quality debate with a gracious Amie McGraw the Australian- team co-ordinator praising the Canadians for their debating and wishing them well towards winning the tournament. But the quarter finals would be round the corner first...
Quarter Finals
The quarter finals commenced with a right-on-the-money debate (Uzbekistan vs. Czech Republic) on NATO’s stance in Syria. Adjudicator Adiba Shareen Al-Ayubi summed up the show down, thus: “In conclusion Opp managed to clearly illustrate that the idea put forth by Prop though noble could create multitude levels of harms for Syria in the long run, thus not benefiting the very people they aim to protect.” This proved on the whole, a well-rounded match very relevant to current political affairs won fairly and squarely by the Opp. Uzbekistan’s loss to the the Czechs marked the first time a debuting nation will not win a WODC title. This loss can be counted as symbolic of the championships’ maturity. The WODC is getting bigger and better!
Second to bat were Venezeula up against Canada, on the time-independent topic of steroids and sports’ stars. This was a stellar, descriptive and well balanced debate as one would expect in the quarter finals: Another Opp win. “In sum, I gave the win to Team Canada on the basis that Team Venezuela's claim of justification and effectiveness of their policy were successfully opposed and defeated by the Opp.” Adjudicator Loke Wing Fatt.
Third in the lineup, was still another Opp win, Mexico vs. South Korea. In a delicious debate titled “Antarctica should be opened up for resource exploitation”, South Korea stepped up for global environmentalists and Antarctica’s people alike, in great style and as adjudicator Rinat Gershfeld noted, “The comparisons to tourism and fishing for successful regulation - are not equivalent to regulation required in the case of extracting oil and water, as the Opp stated.”
Last but not least, another Opp team “Israel” won against Romania. Israel flaunted their militarily precise ability to put facts, substantiation and rebuttals in perfect alignment without leaving any loose ends for the Prop to jump on. Israel punched up an exemplary debate, in keeping with their performance in previous matches this year. In winning against Romania Israel secured their status as most improved nation. Romania’s loss meant that for the first time in WODC history a trophy would be leaving Europe. Whether it went East or West remained to be seen...
Semi finals
As the momentum sparked high so did the number of adjudicators who would decide the fate of the teams. Both semi final matches would be decided by the best of 3 adjudicators.
First up, a long awaited title fight which the “staff” religiously avoided jinxing, took place in the semis ‘weave a circle round it thrice’. The Canadians were revved up for a rematch after a brief victory dance...
Last year the Czech Republic won as Prop against Canada and went on to take 2010’s title. This year Canada attempted to do the same with the motion: “The US should immediately close Guantanamo Bay” fitting enough given that the Czech Republic has been accused of hosting a Canadian secret prison in the past and both countries are NATO members. However, the Canadians would be the ones to advance this time around as a result of convincing both Josh Martin and Sharmila Parmanand of their prowess. However, this was a close contest and the Czech Republic did well to get one adjudicator voting in their favour: Anne Valkering, who praised the Czechs for being “ more effective in rebutting and being more case-specific.” Josue Anderson one of three Canadian coaches noted that this was the motion that the Canadian team “connected with most” out of the all debates in the tournament.
The second semi final saw a tremendous effort by the Israelis who were stopped dead in their tracks by South Korea’s best and brightest! The debate saw South Korea a.k.a
the “comeback kids” of this year’s WODC bank a unanimous win. Adjudicator Jens Fisher remarked, “Both teams are much stronger in their rebuttals than in their own substantial arguments”
Min Hong lee (South Korea) told us that this was the Bugil academy’s first WODC. Adjudicator Jens Fisher noted that “both teams are much stronger in their rebuttals than in their own substantial arguments” something that seems to be a feature of WODC competition given that the majority of actively contested matches were won by a good defense rather than the best offense this year.
The Grand Final
The best of 5 adjudicators would crown the champion of this year’s tournament. A champion that would emerge rather interestingly enough from a modern equivalent of a regional derby as most of the team from British Colombia Academy (which is in Langley near Vancouver, Canada) were of South Korean origin, and would be opposing a team from Cheonam in South West Korea.
Canada got the three out of five majority vote with adjudicator Nick Bibby observing: Canada made better use of evidence and a clearer understanding that assertion is one thing but argument is another”. Loke Wing Fatt summed up that Team Canada did a better job of opposing the motion than the South Koreans did of proposing it. Neill Harvey Smith noted :”The Canadian teams critique of the behaviour of corporations was made consistently and with evidence”. Congrats to both teams from the adjudicators and us for a worthwhile final. And Congrats to Canada for winning the WODC’11 Trophy.
Team Canada 2011 CHAMPIONS Line up
● May HyunJi Lim
● Christina Seong
● Alice SeEun Kim
● Ally Jung
● Ryan Song
● Christina (CJ) Jeon
● Loretta Lee
● Harry Go
● Danny choo
● Coaches: Josue Anderson, David Jung, Jen Swan
The final marked Canada’s 9th debate win in the WODC. That makes Canada, the nation with the most debate wins in the WODC to date. Reacting to the Canadians victory a relieved and proud coach (and competitive debater in his own right) Josue Anderson praised the team for their willingness to learn, He also noted in the final that although it was “a battle of attrition” he thought that: “ it would be a point of pride if we could beat them on their terms, we mentioned Samsung (a Korean corp) in our [arguments].
“We won as we were the most dedicated. We met for 4-5 hours every single day we had something to post. After our meetings where the kids would exchange notes/research links, brainstorm ideas as I kept them focused (Kept them off Facebook) many would stay up until the last minutes (5am) polishing their posts. Outside of these meetings,everyone talked through a Facebook group, where things could be co-ordinated. we took it seriously and in return the tournament took us seriously” So there you have it, the WODC awards a mix of real talent and hard work.
Representing Bugil Academy South Korean team Min Hong Lee didn’t have much time to comment as he and the rest of Bugil Academy were (as this report went to press)in preparation for their mid term exams, something for which all of us at Debatewise/ IDEA wish them well on. However he did say that the team were “very honoured to be [finalists]” and was pleased to have earned some well deserved “attention”.
Debate of the Tournament
This award is a staff award for the best debate of the tournament. And it goes to : Uzbekistan Versus Czech Republic on the Motion of "NATO should act to protect civilians in Syria" primarily because of the way the two teams handled a hot, flagrant and messy topic in our world, today. Both teams demonstrated tolerance and civility with no attempts to cut each other off or get emotional about a subject it is very easy to get lost in. Good evidence and good rebuttals added the spice to this match, a very satisfying read.
To paraphrase adjudicator Adiba Shareen Al-Ayubi “ Prop managed to highlight the responsibility of UN and that of NATO in protecting civilian lives subjected to oppressive killings. But Unlike Libya (opp side), the geo-politics and internal dynamics of Syria makes it susceptible to break into civil war.” On this Alexander Helling, the content officer at Debatewise wrote, “(the debate) very much engaged with an issue that has been boiling over for the last few months and as such is something that deserves debate and the debate nicely compares the situation in Syria with that in Libya. As a student of international relations I like that it has been put in a framework (R2P) that is very much itself still open to debate and the debate recognises that. Both sides made use of evidence. This is something which is much more important in a text debate where the observer can read any backing evidence the debaters have and can quickly click on a link and review the weight of these proofs... from a debating stand point it has to be conceded that what Czech Rep. did was right, it would have been much harder for them to win if they were providing alternative methods of resolving the crisis as fundamentally there is no easy solution. When the other options are given (diplomacy - currently making no difference, sanctions - will the government really care when its survival is at stake?) then the case for military intervention or support for the opposition of some variety becomes a much better option by comparison!”
Wrap up...
BC Academy is turning its attention to the International Public Policy Forum(IPPF, NYC) but they’ll be back next year to defend their title . As for Josue Anderson his next move is to finish his psych degree and keep coaching to pay off his student loans. After that who knows? he might go on to teach in South Korea. The Manwha style chapter of the WODC epic will continue on. Either way we wish him all the best for the future.
For this year Canada raced to the finish despite a salvo of motions designed to raise their collective blood pressure in what has been a challenging 2011. To reiterate Josue Anderson’s last remark:“ We took the WODC seriously and in return the tournament took us seriously”
We depart with thanks to all of the adjudicators who spent their spare time thinking about which teams reigned supreme, Neil Harvey Smith our venerable chief adjudicator for setting the motions. and the staff in Curtain Road and last but not least to all the competitors who make the competition what it is.
2012 will be a Paralympic, Olympic and possibly a world-ending year. We hope to have a WODC field of grand proportions to match the excitement of the London Olympics 2012 (not too far from the Debatewise offices in London) . If you’re interested in forming a team , booking your interest and competing in next year’s tournament then please e-mail either Dave at dcrane@idebate.org or us at wodc32@gmail.com . This way we can send you reminders when registration opens.
For now its goodbye, annyǒnghi kaseyo and Syonara!
Leo Capella and Nadia Shireen Siddiqi- (with a long quote from Sir. Alexander Helling, knight of the round table)
Interviews & additional remarks came from Min Hong Lee (Team co-ordinator South Korea) and Josue Anderson (Canada) who kindly provided a roster of the Canadian team, comments and remarks came from the adjudicators all of whom can be found on the WODC 2011 Debates page
Appendices
ALL TIME DEBATE WINS BY NATIONS IN THE WODC
Rank Nation Wins counting byes Tournaments
1. Canada * 9 3
2. Czech Republic 8 2
3. South Korea * 5 2
= Lithuania 5 2
= England 5 3
= Mexico 5 3
• *=This years Finalists
Contested Debates won over past two years
Year From Proposition Opposition
2010 9 (36%) 14(56%)
2011 4(18.18%) 18 (81.81%)