Results, photos, thanks, and everything

Thank you all for attending the WUDC Berlin 2013, in Berlin or digitally from all over the world!

If you haven't seen it yet, you can find all teams and judges, breaks and out-rounds, motions and tabs, and more here; and the champions' gallery in our previous post and on our website.

The official collection of our photos is here. The Communications Office remains available for requests for high-resolution versions for press reporting or any usage-related questions. Please email Henrik.

Congratulations to Monash, BRAC, and Porto!

The Organising Committee of the WUDC Berlin 2013 congratulates the winning teams!

For the third time in a row Monash University (Australia) wins the world championship's open category.

Congratulations to Nita Rao and James Beavis!

After three Israeli victories in a row the 2013 title in the English as a Second Language (ESL) category goes to BRAC University (Bangladesh).

Congratulations to Aaqib Farhan Hossain and Ratib Mortuza Ali!

The 2013 world champions in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) category are from Porto (Portugal).

Congratulation to Tiago Vieira Laranjeiro and Ary Ferreira da Cunha!

Jan 3rd Preview

Brunch: 7:30 - 10:30 at the TU.
The ESL Semi-Finals start at 8:45, the Open Semi-Finals at 10:15.
Transfers to the Maritim Hotel start at 12:45. All Final Breaks will be announced there at 14:15.
EFL Final: 14:30
ESL Final: 17:00
Grand Final: 19:15
Transfers back to the TU for the Championship Dinner are at 21:00. The Award Ceremony in the Audimax is, we hope, at 23:00.

Jan 2nd Preview

There are transfers from 8:00 and there is breakfast at the TU from 8:30.

We wanted to make all out-rounds consecutive in order to maximize audience turnout but after finding out there will be EFL Quarter-Finals that is, alas, no longer possible.

The times below are for the respective draws. All rounds will be started in the Audimax, with debates beginning at least 15 minutes later. Streams will be available on wudcberlin.com/live/.

Open Double-Octo-Finals: 9:00
ESL Quarter-Finals: 11:00 (transfer at 10:30)
EFL Quarter-Finals: 11:00 (transfer at 10:30)
   Lunch: 12:30 - 14:00
Open Octo-Finals: 13:30
EFL Semi-Finals: 15:00
Open Quarter-Finals: 17:00
   Dinner: 17:30 - 20:00
Masters' Cup Grand Final: 18:30 (also at the TU)

The Public Speaking Grand Final takes place at the social. Note that WUDC participants do not need to have a Yucca ticket in order to join the fun. Please came along and watch. We are asking the finalists to be there by 21:30. We are starting right after the Worlds Semi-Final Break announcement.

The social's location is a place called "Prestige" (Mehringdamm 30, U-Bahn station "Mehringdamm"). The party is open to all. A ticket is required for Yukka only. We open at 21:00.

Berlin Worlds Breaks and Out-Rounds

The team breaks in all categories can be found here. We will keep track of all out-rounds in the same document. On wudcberlin.com/live/ we will continue our live-streams tomorrow.

Worlds Masters' Cup Break

The Worlds Masters' Cup Grand Final will be

England (273 points)
Fred Cowell
Andrew Tuffin
Ben Woolgar

vs

United Kingdom (262 points)
Jack Watson
Sam Block
James Hardy

The Grand Final takes place on January 2nd at 18:30 at the TU as the last debate event of the day, judged by the CAs Bronwyn Cowell and Philipp Stiel as well as Jacqui Yates, Mary Nugent and Michael Baer.

The tab can be found here.

Worlds Public Speaking Break

The eight finalists, chosen from more than 40 contestants by Kimera Chetty, Mathias Hamann and other panelists are, in alphabetical order:

• Alex McHale (Columbia)
• Casper McCauley (Dalhousie University)
• Daniel Enrlich (New York State University)
• Devon Black (University of Victoria)
• Edward Hauschild (Durham)
• Howard Cohen (McGill)
• Kobi Matsri (Tel Aviv University)
• Sulem Yong Ingrid (University of Dschang)

The Grand Final takes place at the social on January 2nd. Note that WUDC participants do not need to buy a Yucca ticket in order to join the fun. Please came along and watch.

We are asking the finalists to be there by 21:30. We are starting right after the Worlds Semi-Final Break announcement.

Jan 1st Preview

The final starting points and hours for excursions are the following:

• Szczecin and Dresden: Lobby Hotel Berlin, Berlin at 07:00
• Baltic Sea: Lobby Hotel Berlin, Berlin at 8:30
• Potsdam: Entrance Hall of the TU at 10:00
• "Wall Trip", "Introducing Berlin", "Prussia, Palaces, Politics" and "Capital of the 'Third Reich'": Entrance Hall of the TU at 10:30
• Brandenburg Stroll: Entrance Hall of the TU at 11:00

Council starts at noon at the TU main building room 2013.

There is brunch from 9:30 to noon at the TU.

In the evening (from 19:00) Chennai Worlds invites us to the Loewe Saal (map). There is free beer and food.

Debate Overview (up to Round 9)

The motions of the WUDC preliminary rounds were:

1. THW create public housing for the poor in wealthy areas
2. THBT Japan should acquire nuclear weapons
3. THW only imprison individuals who pose a direct and continuing threat to society
4. THBT international development institutions (such as the World Bank) should not finance natural resource extraction projects in corrupt states
5. THBT self-described progressive males of dominant ethnicities are morally obliged to refrain from taking positions of responsibility where there is a qualified alternative candidate from a historically disadvantaged group who would otherwise receive the post
6. THW legally permit soldiers to refuse to participate in military actions or missions on the basis of conscience
7. THBT European Union nations should forgive Greece's sovereign debt
8. THBT countries with booming populations should allocate every adult a single tradable permit to have a child
9. THW ban political parties and require all candidates for national public office to seek election as independents

There draws can be found here, debate videos here.

The preliminary intermediate results after Round 6 are here.

Dec 31st Preview

Same procedure as today: 8:15 a.m. - That is the point in time by which we would love to have scanned your badge at the TU. It went very well today and we ask you to make the same thing possible tomorrow (despite whatever is about to happen at Brunnen 70).

Transfers to the TU and breakfast: same timing as well.

The rest of the day:
Round 7, lunch (about 1 hour), round 8, coffee break, round 9, dinner.
That's all happening at the TU, just like today. Feel free to freshen up and change at your hotel before joining the Break and New Year's Party in and around the TU.

Round 5 Motion in Full Length

"THBT self-described progressive males of dominant ethnicities are morally obliged to refrain from taking positions of responsibility where there is a qualified alternative candidate from a historically disadvantaged group who would otherwise receive the post." #wudc #longmotionsrock

Dec 30th State of Affairs

First of all: thank you for making our morning schedule work! After some announcements the draw was supposed to be up by 9:30 and it ended up being shown from 9:36. Six minutes is an amazingly insignificant delay and we are very happy that things today went so much better and faster than yesterday.

We have uploaded the draw for round 4 to the known draw folder. Also, thanks to the Tab Room, we were able to publish a list of all teams and judges.

Generally things are going rather smoothly now. There are some issues participants brought to our attention and we are dealing with them right now. Our Conferenciers will address some of them and we do our best to keep you posted about what we are doing. And we welcome your feedback to improve things further.

Dec 30th Preview and Important Remarks

8:15 a.m. - That is the point in time by which we would love to have scanned your badge at the TU. If you are so kind to make that happen, we can start round 4 by 9:15. The Tab Room is working hard to make sure we have the fairest tournament possible and we have to grant them the time needed.

All the following events take place consecutively and as soon as the respective preparations have been accomplished. We will keep you posted throughout the day. The exact times depend particularly on the check-in issue mentioned above (we repeat: 8:15).

Transfers to the TU:
07:00: Interconti → 07:10 HBB → 07:30 TU
07:30: Interconti → 07:40 HBB → 08:00 TU

Breakfast: 7:15-9:00 (so you have plenty of time to enjoy breakfast after check-in)

The rest of the day:
Round 4, lunch (about 1 hour), round 5, coffee break, round 6, dinner.
That's all happening at the TU, just like today.
Then you have the opportunity to freshen up at your hotel (we offer transfers), after which we have the Berlin Underground Party waiting for you (Brunnen 70). There are also transfers between hotels and social. The entrance is free between 21:00 and 23:00 and costs 10 EUR after that. Between 22:30 and 00:30 we offer transfers back to the hotels.

Dec 30th Schedule

[please see following post]

Dec 29th Debate Overview

Today we had the first three preliminary rounds of our Worlds. The motions:

1. THW create public housing for the poor in wealthy areas
2. THBT Japan should acquire nuclear weapons
3. THW only imprison individuals who pose a direct and continuing threat to society

There draws can be found here (sooner or later).

Are You Ready To Embrace Dissent?

We showed our opening video today before Round 2.

Are you ready to embrace dissent?

Schedule for Dec 29th

from 06:30: Registration at your hotel (last: 07:40)
from 06:45: Transfers from your hotel to the TU (last: 08:00)
07:15-09:00: Breakfast (TU atrium)
09:00-11:30: Draw & Round 1 (Audimax)
11:30-13:00: Lunch Lichthof (atrium)
13:00-15:30: Draw & Round 2 (Audimax)
15:30-16:15: Coffee Break Lichthof (atrium)
16:15-18:30: Draw & Round 3 (Audimax)
18:30-20:00: Dinner Lichthof (atrium)
from 19:00: Transfers to Hotel Berlin, Berlin (and back to the TU from 20:00)
21:00: Gender Night Lichthof (atrium)
from 22:00: Transfers to your hotel (last: 00:00)

Language Status List and Interviews

The Language Review Committee has kindly submitted the final Language Status List. If you have applied for ESL or EFL status, have a look. Time and place for interviews will be announced very soon.

Schedule for Dec 28th

Morning

Breakfast starts at 9 a.m. at the Technische Universität (TU) atrium.
Pre-Council starts at 10 a.m. in TU room 2013.
Worlds Masters' starts at 9:30 a.m. in TU room 0107.
Worlds Public Speaking starts at 10 a.m. in TU room 0110.
The 2nd chance for the judging test is at 10 a.m. in TU room 2032.
There will be live-streaming of Public Speaking and Masters'.

Afternoon

12:00-14:00: Lunch (TU atrium)
14:00-16:00: WUDC Briefings (TU Audimax)
16:00-16:30: Coffee Break (TU atrium)
Time to go back to the hotel (transfers available)
18:00-19:30: Dinner (TU atrium)
19:30-20:30: Opening Ceremony (TU Audimax)
20:30: Get-together and Jazz music (TU atrium)

The Morning of the 28th

Breakfast starts at 9 a.m. at the Technische Universität (TU).

Pre-Council starts at 10 a.m. in TU room 2013.

Worlds Masters' starts at 9:30 a.m. in TU room 0107.

Worlds Public Speaking starts at 10 a.m. in TU room 0110.

The 2nd chance for the judging test is at 10 a.m. in TU room 2032.

There will be live-streaming of Public Speaking and Masters'.