ANNOUNCEMENT
New Policies for 2024 Competition Cycle
December 2023
The world of debating excellence is ever-changing and for students with top university ambitions, it’s important to stay up-to-date on the latest developments.
This year, we took a closer look at the feedback from students, teachers and parents and here are the changes in the competition policies that will be implemented by the next series of competitions. We’ll also explore what this means for young competitors looking to join the series of events this year.
These changes to the Competition Policies will be implemented starting January 2024, and will be applicable for the 2024 academic year. This will also be the largest set of changes to the calculation of speaker positions and the elimination round eligibility used by both Junior and Senior competitions here at EduDrift. The changes outlined will simplify the method used to determine speaker positions and championship awards.
Here are some of the changes students can expect to see:
- SPEAKER RANKING WITH ABSOLUTE SCORES. Using a new and updated metric to determine speaker rankings
- ABOLISHING OPEN CATEGORY BREAKS. New elimination round methodology
Switch to Absolute Score for Speaker Rankings
Come 2024, speaker rankings at EduDrift competitions will be based on the ranking of their absolute scores. The Top 10 Speakers in their respective categories will be based on the Top 10 speaker scores as opposed to the 10 individuals with the highest cumulative speaker scores. This means that should there be a tie in the score, the next position to be recognised will not be based on the number of individuals tied in the same score. Traditionally, when there’s a tie in any of the Top 10 speaker ranking, the next position will factor in the number of speakers in the tie before awarding the next position. This is best illustrated through an example:
Current Speaker Ranking System:
- #1 John – 798 Points
- #2 Jenny – 795 Points
- #2 Victoria – 795 Points
- #2 Veronica – 795 Points
- #2 Daniel – 795 Points
- #6 Aisha – 794 Points
- #6 Terry – 794 Points
- #6 Andrew – 794 Points
- #9 Joseph – 792 Points
- #9 Luke – 792 Points
- #11 Lucy – 791
- #12 Yvonne – 790
- #13 Xavier – 789
- #14 Mark – 788
- #14 Bryan – 788
- #16 Charlie – 787
- #17 Dave – 786
In the updated system to be used starting January 2024, the Absolute Score Speaker Ranking system will change from the above to:
Absolute Score Speaker Ranking System:
- #1 John – 798 Points
- #2 Jenny – 795 Points
- #2 Victoria – 795 Points
- #2 Veronica – 795 Points
- #2 Daniel – 795 Points
- #3 Aisha – 794 Points
- #3 Terry – 794 Points
- #3 Andrew – 794 Points
- #4 Joseph – 792 Points
- #4 Luke – 792 Points
- #5 Lucy – 791
- #6 Yvonne – 790
- #7 Xavier – 789
- #8 Mark – 788
- #8 Bryan – 788
- #9 Charlie – 787
- #10 Dave – 786
Our new system of speaking ranking will capture all speakers who have successfully score within the top 10 scores of the tournament. This also gives them a specific rank based on that score rather than the number of people before them. This system is currently used in many countries for their National Championship scoring metric to determine scholarship awards and also used for try-out positions within National Team selections. As such we will be adopting the new system with confidence that it will more accurately reflect the achievements of our participants.
Age Category Break Rounds
EduDrift will be formally abolishing the Open Break Category at our tournaments starting January 2024. All participants will also be competing within their Age Categories in the elimination rounds.
For some context, the Open Break (previously known as the “Main Break”) is traditionally viewed as the premium break at the university level championships where English-as-a-Primary-Language (EPL) teams and/or teams with graduated members form the majority of competitors in the elimination round. Teams that are considered to be disadvantaged in terms of language exposure (ESL/EFL) as well as teams that are locked into their institutions often view this break as more prestigious given how difficult it might be to enter that elimination round without those privileges. Many ESL/EFL teams take pride in being able to make the Open Break after overcoming the structural barriers that they faced in their English Debating journey.
With that, many tournaments including EduDrift’s tournaments, adopted the same system when it came to Age segmentation. This was decided on the premise that younger debaters share the same pride and prestige when they make the Quarter Finals of the Open Category as opposed to being a Champion or a Grand Finalist in the U14 Category or the U16 Category.
Through the years of experience running these competitions, we’ve discovered that teams and students do not share the same sentiments as we expected when they make the Open Category. In fact, many feel that they were unfairly disadvantaged in their ability to attain an achievement that was more valuable on their resumes. Many of these students often feel that their fantastic preliminary rounds performances caused them to lose out on the championship title.
“My daughter and her teammates had 2 more wins than the other 11-year-old team but we had to compete and lose to older teams in the Open Octo-Finals. The other team went directly into the Grand Finals of the U11 Category and won the debate. They finished the tournament as Champions. How is this fair for my daughter and her teammates?”
—Priyanka, Mother
A deeper look into the matter also revealed that College Applications, internships and school admission boards in general do not place a premium on the “Open Break” label, we have come to accept that a Grand Finalist or a Champion title is far more valuable to a student than an Octo Finalist in the Open Category.
As such our Senior level tournaments will now feature the U18, U16 and U14 breaks, and our Junior level tournaments will now feature the U14, U12 and U10 breaks. Teams that have all members within that age category cannot break higher than their age group. So every team in the same category of the elimination round will be of the same age, giving rise to the accurately determined Champions of that Age Category.
It is also with this strict segmentation that EduDrift can maintain our promise to expand the break to capture as many teams as possible now that we know the team size in each category before the start of the tournament. If there are 10 teams in the U10 Category, we’ll break 8 into the Quarter Finals. If we have 17 teams in the U16 Category, we’ll be able to break 16 teams into the Octo Finals. Our only constraint will be time rather than to wait and see how many teams make it to a break thats higher than their age group.
For teams and debaters who still view an Open Break as a prestigious achievement, we believe that they are able to achieve those at many other tournaments frequently organised in the region.