For debaters at De La Salle Worlds in Manila today was launch day, with three preliminary rounds taking place at De La Salle University (DLSU). During preliminary rounds, no distinction is made between different language levels (Open/ESL/EFL), so especially round 1 saw a wild mix of debaters from all over the world, clashing over the motion “This house would make fathers take paternity leave”, a nice and not-too-hard start into the day.

For round 2, the Chief Adjudicators Lucinda David and Sam Block and their colleagues of the Adjudication core team set the motion “This house would prevent politicians from making fact claims that, while not technically lies, are substantially misleading to voters”, and round 3 was fought over “This house would force large companies who leave an area to pay the costs of any resulting structural unemployment.”

The public speaking round 1, initially planned for today, had to be postponed to tomorrow due to some delays, which were mainly due to the fact that RFID tags for participants are still not available, which meant that check-ins and other administrative procedures were done via pen and paper. Altogether, the delays ended up as very manageable and it is your correspondent’s impression so far that the tournament is very well organized.

The evening program of WUDC day 2 is “Women’s Night” with an all-women debate at the Philippine International Convention Center.

The following unofficial standings after round 3 for teams from the German-speaking region were available at the time of writing:

• Berlin Debating Union A: 6 points
• Berlin Debating Union B: 5 points
• Berlin Debating Union C: 5 points
• Debattierclub Johannes Gutenberg Mainz: 5 points
• Debattierklub Wien A: 3 points
• Debattierklub Wien B: 4 points

For an overview of all German-speaking region teams, please see our introductory article to De La Salle Worlds.

Additionally, teams Monash B, Monash C, Oxford A, Oxford C and Utrecht A are all reported to have ended day 1 with 9 out of 9 possible points (unofficial).

Today’s motions at WUDC:

• Round 1: This House would make fathers take paternity leave.
• Round 2: This House would prevent politicians from making fact claims that, while not technically lies, are substantially misleading to voters.
• Round3: This House would force large companies who leave an area to pay the costs of any resulting structural unemployment.

Follow Achte Minute on Twitter for current news on the DLSU Worlds – hashtag #WUDC. Support our coverage of the Worlds: Help our correspondent Florian Prischl, send us e-mails to team [at] achteminute [dot] de or direct messages on Twitter. Wanna watch WUDC debates online? Then tune in to iDebate – they livestream debates from all rounds.

Since 1981, debaters from all over the world have been competing at the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds) at alternating locations across the planet. It was not before 1996 that the British Parliamentary Stylebecame the mandatory format for this annual tournament. From 27 December 2011 to 4 January 2012, the international debating community assembles in Manila for the second time: 1999’s host was Ateneo University in the Philippinian capital – the first time for WUDC to come to Asia at all. Language of debate is English and there are three categories: “Main” for native speakers, “ESL” (English as a Second Language) and “EFL” (English as a Foreign Language). Current World Champions are Monash A from Australien (“main break”), Haifa A from Israel (ESL) andTokyo B from Japan (EFL).

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