{"id":1609,"date":"2025-06-07T15:06:33","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T15:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmadebate.com\/?post_type=product&p=1609"},"modified":"2026-04-16T01:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T17:25:08","slug":"tsdc25","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"http:\/\/gmadebate.com\/zh_ht\/products\/tsdc25\/","title":{"rendered":"TSDC 2025 | Taiwan Schools Debate Challenge 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taiwan Schools Debate Challenge is Taiwan’s largest school-level tournament in World Schools (WS) format that has taken place annually since 2018. It is also the tryout tournament for aspiring debaters who wish to join the National Taiwan WSDC Squad<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This year, seeing the massive growth of the competition pool in recent years, we are now expanding the tournament to a 3-day event in order to accommodate more rounds and learning opportunities. With a combination of international and domestic judging pool, the event promises to provide an inclusive and supportive environment for debaters of all levels.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfa4 Modified World Schools (WS) Format<\/strong>
\nEach team consists of 3-5 speakers.
\nEach substantive speech lasts 7 minutes.
\nEach Reply speech lasts 4 minutes.
\nPoints of Information (POIs) are allowed between the 1st and 6th minute of substantive speeches.
\nFor impromptu rounds, prep time is 30 minutes after motion release.
\nFor prepared rounds, motions are released 2 weeks prior and there is no additional prep time on the day. Team will not know their side until the start of the round.
\nThere will be one prepared motion to be used in 2 out of 6 preliminary rounds, with the 2 rounds being side-locked for all teams. Teams should prepare for both sides in advance.
\nAll other rules remain the same as the original World Schools format.<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcdd\u00a0Registration Policy
\n<\/strong>Per Debater: NT$ 1,700 (US$ 58)
\nPer Judge (including N-judge): NT$ 750 (US$ 26)
\nRegistration deadline: October 1<\/p>\n

\u2696\ufe0f\u00a0Mandatory N-judge Rules
\n<\/strong>Teams are required to provide affliated judges to enhance the overall competition pool.
\nN=1 rule applies to all teams, which means every team should provide one judge. For institutional teams, there is a maximum cap of 2 judges, meaning if they are sending 3 teams or more, only 2 judges are required.
\nN-judge penalty: Teams not meeting the requirement must pay NT$ 1,700 (US$ 58) penalty fee. Registration and penalty fee will be used to subsidize hiring qualified judges.<\/p>\n

Teams that have dishonestly provided non-existent or absent judges will be required to pay the same penalty, in additional to<\/strong> the regular judge fee or risk disqualification.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcc8\u00a0Judge placement
\n<\/strong>Depending on a registered judge’s past experiences, one could be initially assigned to be a trainee, a panelist, or chair.<\/p>\n

Trainees will be judging alongside other experienced, qualified judges but their verdicts will not impact the outcome of a round unless they are promoted to be chair or panelist.<\/p>\n

Both chair and panelist are voting judging. They will be making conferral decisions and the majority verdict determines the outcome of a round. They will then deliberate and provide feedback to help the teams improve.<\/p>\n

All the judges can be promoted or demoted based on the feedback they received from the judging panel and teams.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfa9\u00a0Adjudication Core
\n<\/strong>Banun Sabri
\nMicah Cook
\nCat Lai
\nVinodhan Kuppusamy<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd20\u00a0Breaking Eligibility<\/strong>
\nJunior category: Teams with all of their speakers at Grade 9 or below
\nOpen category: Teams with at least 1 speaker at Grade 10 or above
\nMixed teams (debaters from different countries\/schools) and international teams are allowed<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfaf National Taiwan WSDC Squad Tryout
\n<\/strong>TSDC is the part of the offical tryout process for individuals aspiring to join the National Squad. For the detailed policy, visit WSDC Taiwan FB page<\/a>.
\nThe following are a few general pointers that may be useful for your consideration:
\n1.) Individuals who perform well at the tournament will either directly accepted into Squad or offered opportunities to join a Stage 2 Tryout.
\n2.) While individuals who don’t compete at TSDC may still be eligible to join Stage 2 Tryout, there must be a proof of legitimate reasons to miss out the competition submitted to the TDU committee.
\n3.) Individuals who have participated at TSDC as either a speaker or a judge will receive a lighter test load at stage 2, if they are invited on the basis of outstanding track records (e.g. speaker ranks and judge feedback)<\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude14\u00a0Refund policy<\/strong>
\nA 50% refund is allowed until Sep. 11.
\nNo refund will be allowed since Sep. 12. Teams who wish to withdraw may either give up their slot or sell it to another team.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcdc\u00a0Organizer
\n<\/strong>Grey Matter Academy<\/p>\n

\u2709\ufe0f\u00a0Contacts
\n<\/strong>Organizing team: tsdc@gmadebate.com
\nConvener Jeff Tsai: jeff@gmadebate.com \/ 0934339192<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\ud83d\ude81\u00a0Basic info
\n<\/strong>Date: October 10-12, 2025
\nVenue: Taipei American School
\nCapacity: 40 teams, adjustable by judge pool size
\n\u8cfd\u4e8b\u884c\u7a0b<\/a>
\nEverything Link<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\ude80\u00a0\u5831\u540d\u6d41\u7a0b<\/strong>
\n\ud83d\udca1 \u6b65\u9a5f 1: \u5831\u540d\u4e26\u4ed8\u6b3e
\nEach team’s captain or institutional representative registers for a team slot through \u7070\u8cea\u6559\u80b2\u7db2\u7ad9<\/a>. Make sure the right number of debaters\/judges are selected.* If you are sending multiple teams, please double check each team slot is order as well. You will find an Order Number (E.g. #2150)in your account’s order history after completion the payment. Save the number for Step 2 later.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udca1 \u6b65\u9a5f 2: \u586b\u5165\u500b\u4eba\u8cc7\u6599
\nOnce a team slot is confirmed, an individual details form will be sent to the captain\/representative. Each team’s affliated debaters and judges should use the Order Number from Step 1 on their forms. Everyone should submit one form independently.<\/p>\n

*Note: To maximize the diversity of participants, there is an initial 5-team cap on all institutional teams. Institutions sending more than 5 teams will have the remainder of their requested slots wait-listed until Sep. 11, after which available slots will be given out on first-come-first-served basis.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":2008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[45,40],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1609","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-tournaments","7":"product_cat-ws","9":"first","10":"outofstock","11":"taxable","12":"shipping-taxable","13":"purchasable","14":"product-type-variable"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gmadebate.com\/zh_ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/1609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gmadebate.com\/zh_ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gmadebate.com\/zh_ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gmadebate.com\/zh_ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1609"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gmadebate.com\/zh_ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gmadebate.com\/zh_ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gmadebate.com\/zh_ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=1609"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gmadebate.com\/zh_ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=1609"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gmadebate.com\/zh_ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=1609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}