The online ballot of the WSDC Tournament Committee has now concluded.
38 nations (out of 52 eligible to vote) cast their ballots. Those nations
were: Australia, Barbados, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic,
Denmark, England, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia,
Ireland, Israel, Lithuania, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru,
Philippines, Qatar, Romania, Scotland, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South
Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, Uganda, United
States and Wales.
For some of the items on the ballot, the final results were extremely close
(in 2 cases being decided by a margin of just 1 vote). We have recounted
the votes very carefully to be certain of the results.
The final results of the various items on the ballot are as follows:
Motions Committee for WSDC 2018
Sharmila Parmanand (Philippines) – 31 votes (*ELECTED*)
Kevin Moar (New Zealand) – 25 votes (*ELECTED*)
Scott Ralston (Scotland) – 20 votes (*ELECTED*)
Luke Churchyard (South Africa) – 19 votes (*ELECTED*)
Alex de Jager (Qatar) – 14 votes (*ELECTED*)
Jumin Lee (South Korea) – 13 votes
Isabel Mateos Méndez (Mexico) – 13 votes
David Moscovici (Romania) – 13 votes
Janet Stevens (Scotland) – 10 votes
Sebastian Vera (Argentina) – 9 votes
The 5 individuals elected will be serving on the Motions Committee together
with 2 further members who will be appointed by the host organising
committee in Zagreb. The Hosts will be announcing the 2 appointed members
soon.
Power-Pairing Issue A
*Should the Rules specify whether the ‘seeded rounds’ (preliminary rounds 1
and 2) must be prepared or impromptu debates?*
Option 1: Rounds 1 and 2 should both prepared – 20 votes (*CHOSEN OPTION*)
Option 2: 1 prepared debate and 1 impromptu debate – 8 votes
Option 3: Allow the Hosts to decide – 7 votes
Abstentions: 3
Power-Pairing Issue B
*If a team needs to be ‘pulled-up’ to a higher bracket, how shall that team
be determined?*
Option 1: As far as possible, the team from the bracket below which has had
the ‘easiest’ opponents up to that point shall be ‘pulled-up’ – 26
votes (*CHOSEN
OPTION*)
Option 2: Randomly selected team from the bracket below shall be
‘pulled-up’ – 11 votes
Abstentions: 1
Power-Pairing Issue C
*Within each bracket, how should the computer tabulation programme aim to
pair teams up for each debate round?*
Option 1: As far as possible, the draw within each bracket should be a
folding table – 17 votes
Option 2: As far as possible, the draw within each bracket should be a
sliding table – 13 votes
Option 3: Teams should be randomly drawn against other teams in the bracket
– 8 votes
Abstentions: 0
*As no option received an overall majority, Option 3 was eliminated
(because it had the least votes) and the votes of the 8 delegates who voted
for Option 3 were transferred to their 2nd choice option. The final result
was: *
Option 1: As far as possible, the draw within each bracket should be a
folding table – 17 + 2 = 19 votes (*CHOSEN OPTION*)
Option 2: As far as possible, the draw within each bracket should be a
sliding table – 13 + 5 = 18 votes
Abstentions: 0 + 1 = 1
Power-Pairing Issue D
*Should teams be allowed to face debate against each other more than once
during the preliminary rounds?*
Option 1: No – 23 votes (*CHOSEN OPTION*)
Option 2: Yes – 15 votes
Abstentions: 0
Power-Pairing Issue E
*Should every team be given exactly 4 debates in proposition and exactly 4
debates in opposition over the 8 preliminary rounds?*
Option 1: Yes – 11
Option 2: No – 26 (*CHOSEN OPTION*)
Abstentions: 1
Power-Pairing Issue F
*What should happen in the event that there is an odd number of competing
nations?*
Option 1: The Host and the Chief Adjudicators shall decide – 10 votes
Option 2: A swing team will be added to the draw – 21 votes (*CHOSEN
OPTION*)
Option 3: A team will be given a walkover victory in each round – 7 votes
Abstentions: 1
Based on the above results, a fully updated version of the power-pairing
rules for WSDC 2018 will be compiled and released to the WSDC community.
Power-pairing is being implemented as a 1-year trail at WSDC 2018, so the
power-pairing rules will be a temporary amendment to the WSDC Rules for
2018 only. At the end of the 2018 championship, the Tournament Committee
will be able to decided whether it wishes to implement power-pairing again
at future WSDCs.
Regards,
Mark Gabriel & Christopher Sanchez
Returning Officers