1. How do I register?

1. Please read all the details on our registration page.

2. Click here to register your first 2 teams.

3. Click here to register your 3rd team.

4. Wait for an email confirmation from our organising committee if you require extra accommodation.

5. Pay your registration fee. Click here for more details on payment.

6. Send a scanned copy of the transfer slip/evidence to thsdc.info@gmail.com .

7. Your slot will be confirmed once the organising committee has emailed back to confirm that the amount you’ve paid is correct

2. What defines a ‘rookie’ and will I be qualified?

The objective of rookie status / rookie final is to encourage institutions who just debuted into the English debating circle to remain in the circle. We understand that it could be very intimidating for new institutions at first, to meet with the well trained institutions. We wish to recognise their efforts to learn English debating with little chance of exposure to experienced trainers.

Rookie speaker requirement

1. The debater has never debated in a national or an international debate tournament before.
2. Is not from an institute that makes it to the main break at the championships or any of the last 2 preceding championships

Rookie team requirement

1. All 3 debaters have never debated in a national or an international debate tournament before.
2. Is not from an institute that makes it to the main break at the championships or any of the last 2 preceding championships

3. I have SAT on Saturday 6th October. Will I be able to participate?

Yes we are well aware that there’s SAT test on Saturday 6th November. But we aren’t so worried about it because as usual, adjudication test will be in the morning. We’ve also added the council meeting after lunch. The first round will be starting at 3 p.m.

We’ve been informed that SAT test will be over at 1:45 p.m. at the latest. Thus we believe that’s plenty of time for students who take SAT test in Bangkok and Chonburi to travel to Suvarnabhumi Campus which is in the middle between Bangkok and Chonburi. Though we still need someone from your institution to be here and register all of you in the morning, so please send someone. For those taking SAT somewhere far from the central area, it’s unfortunate. You can still participate but your team will become a non-breaking team.

4. I think I’ll be missing a few rounds, can I still participate or break?

Yes you can still participate. But your team will not be able to break for several reasons.

1. If your team miss a few rounds, that would mean the scores for those rounds becomes 0. You’ll need as many points as you can to break. There’s no way, statistically, anyone can break when they miss a round.

2. Switching members in a team is NOT allowed, it is in fact forbidden and the team will be automatically disqualified. If you can not make it for a few rounds, we recommend you either adjudicate or debate in a team who’s not serious about breaking to avoid dragging your first team down.

5. What are the important dates for this tournament?

Official Training => Sunday 22nd August 2010
Press Conference => Wednesday 8th September 2010
Registration Phase 1 => Wednesday 8th – Thursday 30th September 2010
Registration Phase 2 => Friday 1st – Friday 25th October 2010
Motion Release => Sunday 10th October 2010
Tournament => Saturday 6th – Tuesday 9th November 2010

6. How and when do I pay the registration fees?

Please go to the payment details page.

7. Can middle school students compete in this tournament?

Though the tournament is called ‘High-School Debate’, we still allow secondary school students of all levels to compete. Some breaking teams in the past consisted of three 13 years old kids. We believe that as long a you’re in secondary school, you should be allowed to display your ability fairly. We only name it ‘High-School Debate’ for a minor discouragement because we assume that middle school students from Thai institutions may not be able to use English comfortably in debate rounds.

8. Why isn’t there a separate league for international schools?

We do not have an English as a Foreign Language category (EFL). Nor do we have a separate category for native English speakers. We believe that there aren’t many native speakers in Thai secondary institutions to begin with. True that Thai schools are competing with international schools, but we believe that we should not automatically assume that Thai student’s English debate skills is sub-par. This style of debating is different from traditional Thai debate. We focus on the speech’s content, argumentation and analysis, rather than manner and how well the student speak English. As long as the person is able to convey good arguments and structured analysis in the time given, he/she will be rewarded with higher score. In fact, none of the champions from the past 4 THSDC came from an international school.

9. Why isn’t there a completely separate league for rookie and advanced teams?

Some schools new to debate may fear that they’ll keep meeting advanced teams. This is not generally the case. All teams will get to ( and required to ) compete in the 6 preliminary rounds. We use an internationally recognised tabulation software called ‘Asians Tab’ to generate rounds. The first 2 rounds will be at random so your teams may or may not meet the teams of your level. But number of wins and the scores for 1st 2 rounds will be accumulated. Teams with the same or similar number of wins and score will meet each other in round 3. Scores will be added again and the process repeats. We believe that this system is the fairest possible and the rest, is up to your team’s skills and luck. We also have a rookie final on the last day to recognised and encourage new talents.

10. Can we register inexperience adjudicators to meet N=1 rule ?

To register, experience in adjudicating or debating doesnot matter. During the course of debating rounds, inexperienced adjudicators will get to learn from senior adjudicators. There will be a test on the 6th October to determine whether you’ll be okay to judge rounds. So yes, of course you can register inexperienced adjudicators. It’s a learning process! How else would experienced adjudicators become ‘experienced’.

11. Since I’m a trainee adjudicator and my decision doesn’t matter in the debate, can I go watch my teams ?

NO YOU CAN NOT. The adjudicator’s registration fee is cheaper than observer’s for a reason. That is because adjudicators contribute to the tournament. Even if you’re not experienced, being taught my chairs and gain experience from judging rounds will eventually help you develop your institution’s debate club. All clubs need adjudicators otherwise there are no point in practising debate. If you want to watch your team, please register as an observer and pay the extra fee.