The term “Worlds” is used in its plural form because numerous winners have been awarded at Gaborone, Botswana last night. Foremost, the three best teams have to be mentioned who prevailed over the course of nine prelims. It is three best teams as there are three categories: “Open Break”, “English as a Second Language” (ESL) and “English as a Foreign Language” (EFL). And the winners are … Monash A from Australia, Haifa A from Israel and Tokyo B from Japan. There were about 300 teams from all over the globe competing for the title, 32 of which made it to octo-finals.

The Top 32 teams

1. Monash A

2. Sydney A

3. Cambridge A

4. Oxford C

5. TCD Hist B

6. Oxford A

7. Hart House A

8. Cambridge B

9. Durham A

10. Monash C

11. Oxford D

12. Sydney D

13. Sydney C

14. Monash B

15. NUS A

16. Alaska A

17. Kings Inn A

18. ANU A

19. UCD Law A

20. Yale A

21. ANU B

22. Alaska B

23. Sydney B

24. LSE A

25. Oxford B

26. Melbourne A

27. UNSW A

28. Yale C

29. McGill A

30. Vermont B

31. Cambridge C

32. TCD Hist A

In addition to the team ranking there always needs to be a toplist of the best speakers. The speaker points gathered throughout the nine prelims are summed up in these charts. Three debaters from VDCH societies made it to these toplists:Patrick Ehmann of Berlin Debating Union (BDU) and Michael Saliba and Andreas Lazar of Debattierclub Stuttgart (DCS).On top of this all, one German even sat in the final: Isabelle Loewe (Debattierclub Bonn) was a judge at the grand final.

Top Ten Speakers of Worlds 2011

1. Victor Finkel (Monash A)

2. Tim Mooney (Sydney A)

3. Fiona Prowse (Monash A)

4. Ben Woolgar (Oxford A)

4. Bronwyn Cowell (Sydney A)

6. Doug Cochran(Cambridge A)

7. Patrick Caldwell (Sydney B)

8. Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin (TCD Hist B)

9. Brent Kettles (Hart House A)

10. Stephanie Bell (Oxford C)

Top Five ESL Speakers

1. Filip Dobranić (Ljublijana A)

2. Maya Cimmerman (Ljublijana A)

3. Rob Honig (Leiden B)

4. Michael Saliba (Stuttgart A)

5. Patrick Ehmann (Berlin A)

Top Five EFL Speakers

1. Andreas Lazar (Stuttgart A)

2. Simon Belak (Ljubljana C)

3. Riza Aryani (Bating Society Universitas Indonesia)

4. Eldhianto Maulana Jusuf (Gadjah Mada)

5.Yunizar Adiputera (Gadjah Mada)

By the way: Andreas and Michael broke together as team Stuttgart A to ESL semi-finals. More German teams had made it to ESL quarters: Gutenberg A (Mainz, Marcus Ewald and Marietta Gädeke) Berlin B (Dessislava Kirova and Florian Umscheid) and Bastian Laubner and Patrick from Team Berlin A.Thus, German teams made up a quarter of the teams breaking to quarters.

We also have the draws of all final rounds for you, provided by Colm Flynn on his World Debating Website.

The Open Break

The draws of the open break at Worlds 2011 (Source: Colm Flynn, World Debating Website)

The ESL Break

The draws of the ESL break at Worlds 2011 (Source: Colm Flynn, World Debating Website)

Der EFL-Break

The draws of the EFL break at Worlds 2011 (Source: Colm Flynn, World Debating Website)

Then there were other competitions, more awards were distributed: Crystal Thompson from Jamaica won the “Public Speaking”, her runer-ups were Jack Gamble and Danny Blackman.Winner of the comedy night became Wudi Wu (Canada).And in the Masters’ final, four teams from Ireland, Scotland, England and the USA debated the motion “This house prefers a philosopher king to a tyrannical democracy.” The winners are Alex Just and UB McKaiser from Scotland.

See all motions at Worlds below.

The prelims:

• Round 1:  This house believes that national sporting teams should reflect the diversity of the national population.
• Round 2: This house believes that all countries should have the right to possess nuclear weapons.
• Round 3: This house believes that governments should not provide benefits on the basis of marital status.
• Round 4: This house believes that independent central banks should set limits on government spending.
• Round 5: This house would prioritise asylum seekers who have engaged in armed struggle against oppressive regimes.
• Round 6: This house would deny Teachers Unions the right to strike.
• Round 7: This house would require individuals to reveal their actual identity when communicating on the internet.
• Round 8: This house believes that the Southern Africa Development Community should pursue political union.
• Round 9: This house believes that social movements should use the courts rather than the legislature to advance social change.

English as a Foreign Language:

• EFL semis: This house supports a one state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
• EFL final: This house would give more votes to the poor.

English as a Second Language:

• ESL quarters: This house believes that domestic courts should try foreign nationals who commit war crimes abroad.
• ESL semis: This house would prefer that the children of racial minorities be adopted by parents of that race.
• ESL final: This house believes that courts should break up consistently dominant political parties.

Open Break:

• Octos: This house would buy countries’ votes in international organizations.
• Quarters: This house believes that courts should not enforce wills that discriminate on the basis of race.
• Semis: This house opposes organised religion.
• Final: This house would invade Zimbabwe.

apf / glx