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WODC- Slamming the alarm clock
ZZZZZZZZZZ sleeping sound of alarm clock ringing slaps ZZZZZZZ"WAKE UP ALL OF YOU!"
Over the past ten days we've had eight fully active interesting debates which have decided who are the eight Quarter Finalists. Thing is some of our adjudicators and our resident reporter have been slow on the mark for various reasons this was due to a mixture of technical problems and people being particularly busy. So apologies from all the team including myself on that but can't be helped. Anyway here’s a report on what’s been happening in the Second Round and a sight of what’s to come all the way to the final
Mexico are the only representative from North America after their northern rivals and preliminary round winners, the United States of America were knocked out by South Africa in a closely fought debate which was ultimately decided by adjudication. Something that Eusebius Mckaiser to use British understatement was more than happy about: "We are delighted to be in the quarters after sleepless nights about how we would defy our liberal souls by arguing against same sex marriage in the debate against the USA! In the end, we were rather chuffed to use LIBERAL arguments in support of an illiberal conclusion." Mexico in turn won their match by adjudication against Indonesia despite a protest by indonesia about one of the adjudications being not up to standard. However the protest was denied partly as there had been repeated complaints by other judges including Ian Lising about the word length of debates for example in the preliminary rounds. Also the USA's Northern neighbour Canada was knocked out by Lithuania fresh from defeating Latvia in the first round.
Estonia won the battle of the forfeits against Pakistan by adjudication with Pakistan's strategy of comprehensive demolition failing to . Latvia also won through in the second regional derby of the competition defeating Bulgaria and showing more than why the Latvians got through as a top 3 loser in to the Second round in the first place. Speaking for the Latvian Team Robert Bernans said that they were glad to have made the Quarter Finals and winning their first full debate (they got through the first round as a result of Dubai withdrawing).
After getting a bye against Singapore, England won their match V India. India protested the definition of the debate but the protest was disallowed as the adjudicators did not find anything specific in the definition that could be challenged. The other home nation Scotland didn’t fare so well being drawn against Venezuela and lost in a close debate, which was one of the most popular on the facebook group. Jamil Navarro captain of the Venezuelan team commented that” There’s also a certain satisfaction in going toe to toe against native english speakers and in reading compliments from the judges regarding the sophistication of our arguments or the boldness of our case.
So far excluding the teams that went through by forfeit all teams have won by adjudication so no one has gone to the people’s vote or the Chief adjudicator… yet although that may change. Also out of the eight debates in the second round only two were won by the side in the proposition as opposed to six matches being won by teams in opposing teams. Those results are strikingly similar to the matches that weren’t forfeited where a majority of the teams that won were teams in the opposition
South Korea beat Bangladesh in the trans continental battle and proved that their bye into the second round was not misplaced and are the only Asian representative in the WODC. Something that Josh Siwook Kim was happy about: “The inability to convey certain vocal tones or rhetorical remarks was a bit perplexing at times, but all the more we were able to concentrate on the logic and content itself. We had to slim down our "speeches" by discarding a lot of - what turned out to be - flowery verbal waste. (But even after all that cutting down, we realized we were walking on the subtle line between "persuasive rhetorics" and "unnecessary fluff".) So yeah, we learned a lot in terms of effective delivery and substantial research.”
Here are the results for the second round in full
SECOND ROUND RESULTS:
Started on Wednesday the 26th:
(Proposing)USA v South Africa; (Opposing)
South Africa win by Adjudication
(P) England v India (O)
England win by Adjudication
Thu 27th:
(P) Bulgaria v Latvia; (O)
Latvia win by Adjudication
(P) S Korea v Bangladesh (O)
South Korea win by Adjudication
Fri 28th:
(P)Pakistan v Estonia; (O)
Estonia win by Adjudication
(P)Lithuania v Canada (O)
Lithuania win by Adjudication
Sat 29th:
(P) Indonesia v Mexico; (O)
Mexico win by adjudication
(P)Scotland v Venezuela (O)
Venezuela win by adjudication
Moving away from the past, it’s time to look at the draw for the Quarter Finals which was done yesterday at 9.23 by Neill Harvey Smith and is also the draw that sets up the final bracket for these final three rounds with one debate starting off each day rather than the two debates in previous rounds.
Some interesting matches are in store as all three of the Eastern European countries battle various opponents from different parts of the globe and England face Venezuela raising the question of whether England can stop Venezuela’s Bolivarian march towards the WODC Crown or will Venezuela gain the honour of getting both home nations scalps in this tournament if they go into the final four?. Will we see another Battle of the two L’s in the semi finals as well or will South Africa have something to say about that after accurately predicting their victory over the USA after all South Africa: “…fear motions only, not Lithuanians!” . Oh and not to forget South Korea who are looking forward to debating against Latvia and :“ are expecting a great debate with the best European team so far.” The feeling is mutual from Latvia who having gone through two rounds of European competition are looking for a nice twist and “for exciting, fun and, of course, tough debate”
LINE UP FOR QUARTER FINALS
Starting on Thursday 10th September
1. (Proposition)Mexico v Estonia (Opposition)
Friday 11th September
2.(P) Latvia v South Korea (O)
Saturday 12th September
3.(P) England v Venezuela (O)
Sunday 13th September
4. (P) South Africa v Lithuania (O)
After the Quarter Finals we have the semi finals, The winners of Quarter Final 1 will battle the winners of Quarter Final 3 and the Winner of Quarter Final 2 will face the winner of Quarter Final 4. This goes without saying but both winners of both semi finals will go on to be the finalists of the WODC. Added to that unlike the previous rounds where teams were drawn into positions for the semi finals, a coin toss will be used to decide who will be the proposition and who will be the opposition for each debate. No such luck in the Quarter Finals though!. So the curtain will rise on a group of finalists on the 10th of September, eight out of twenty five teams remain but which one will go all the way?
N.B: Edited with thanks to those who pointed out mistakes in the earlier draft. If there are any more unresolved errors in further posts please let me know either through the blog or through e-mailing me on leo@debatewise.com.
Comments
it seems that the author of the entry has not been able to distinguish among the three Baltic States throughout the competition and still is in great confusion. a lot of factual mistakes about the outcomes of the debates (LT, LV and EE)
Noticed that as well. As far as I know Lithuania won Canada.
p.s. Bulgaria is in South of Latvia not vice versa
The author apologises to all those concerned for the mistakes made and is working on them now.