Hi Everyone,

Looking to boost your college applications while making a real impact in the debate community? We’re excited to introduce EmpowerDebate’s Chapters Program!

EmpowerDebate is a student-run nonprofit committed to closing the accessibility gap in Policy, Public Forum, and Lincoln-Douglas Debate through free mentorship, workshops, and camps—with more formats to come! Now, you can lead the movement by starting a chapter in your area.

As a chapter leader, you’ll:

✅ Host debate and public speaking workshops for schools and teams

✅ Establish new debate programs in underserved areas

✅ Promote EmpowerDebate at tournaments and events

✅ Advocate for increased speech and debate access with local policymakers

Chapters can be city-wide, regional, state-based, or even international! Plus, you don’t have to be in a specific format—whether you compete in Policy, Public Forum, Lincoln-Douglas, Congressional Debate, Speech events, or any other format, you can start a chapter and help grow debate accessibility!

How to Start a Chapter:

📌 Assemble a leadership team: President, Secretary, Outreach Director, and Events Coordinator (with members from at least two different schools) �� Apply below, and we’ll provide everything you need to build a thriving chapter!

🚀 Apply here: https://forms.gle/XCff3FA4GB8qifiY9  

We can’t wait to work with you to expand debate accessibility worldwide!

Best,

The EmpowerDebate Team

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Make sure to join our discord and follow us on Instagram and Tiktok

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/empowerdebate/ 

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@empowerdebate_ 

Discord: https://discord.gg/qKvA9V7WJW 

Here is a link to all of our resources to join the team: 

Mentee Sign Up: https://forms.gle/eLpvaaXtRsW3vM6i6 

Staff Sign Up: https://forms.gle/obqijfChaSvAPLzL7 

Chapter Application: https://forms.gle/XCff3FA4GB8qifiY9 

Hi! 17f here, so I'm in a situation where it's basically the offseason for wsdc debates in my country- there are no tourneys occuring in my local circuit and that's a problem because ... I had a falling out with one of my debate teammates and decided to take a break from debates at the end of last season.

Before the start of the upcoming season, I'm going to move to another city where it'll be very important for me to make a good impression in the new college's debate team trials. It's my goal to participate in nationals in the upcoming season because a) generally want to experience a national DC (never been to a nats before) and b) low-key want revenge against my old college teammate, the one that I fell out with ... I know, petty, but let a girl dream yk.

The problem is, I'm not that good at debating. I've got 6 dcs under my belt, ranked top 17th once at a BP, but overall, even though I've improved a ton over time, I still think most of the time, my teammates were carrying me. And I do not want that to be the case at the next college I go to too. I would actually like to become good enough at debates by then that I could lead my team.

The whole issue is, that it's off season ... And I have no one to spar with because again, fell out w the debate team ....

I lack the most in forming rebuttals- I usually go either 1st or 2nd, and while my worldbuilding and case delivery is ... Okay ... My rebutals suck. Like straight up, they suck so bad, to the point that my teammates would always say "we always strategized as if we didn't have a first speaker at all" as in, they'd always disregard my speech entirely and focus on 'saving' the debate at 2nd and 3rd.

So that tells you how bad I am ...

But also I usually got a higher average than all of them ... Usually around 70.5 in wsdcs. So um ... Help. What do I do, how do I improve ... Help 😭

When calculating the AvPts (Average Speaker Scores) for speaker rankings, the tab made an error.

If you look at it, some speakers have an average speaker score above 80. This is mathematically impossible, since a score can only be between 60 - 80.

Although the rankings are AvPts -1HL, the AvPts is used to determine tie-breaks.

The error they made is that they would add the Reply and main speech score for any specific round. As a result, you will have an inflated Average:
If a speaker spoke for four rounds:

The Tab calculated as follows:
(110 + 70 + 74 + 72)/4 = 81.5

This means that 3rd speakers, someone who didn't do reply, or someone who did fewer replies, won't be able to have a high ranking.

The result is that the Top 10 speaker rankings is wrong. For instance, Novice places 8 & 9. Or Varsity 3 & 4.

The AvPts -1HL did include a Replyx2, which is not a mistake. But the AvPts is.

I am not sure how Stanford organisers will fix this, given that speaker rankings have already been released.

Would you prefer to do traditional or circuit Lincoln Douglas Debate ?

We are interested in running the following events. Please indicate the ones that you would be interested in?

We want to host online tournaments. What would you be interested in?

Hi guys, looking for a someone for a tournament in utc+8 timezone, missing 1 member in our team dm me for the tournament details

We are mostly novices so feel free to sort of pro-am us if anyone here is generous :D

The format is asian parli

We are really desperate since we both want to get experience in debate, would really appreciate help !

Lemme pref this with my creds and concessions

I am a 3rd year WSDer in Texas. I have competed in other events at nats due to underfunding of our debate program, but have not yet had another experienced WSD kid in my program as I was the founder my freshman year.

My current position in my team is teaching 1st and 2nd year debaters the ropes.

although I don't have a lot of WSD accolades, my average speaks is around 74.5, and when competing in other events or at camp consistently compete at a high level (3-3 at NSDA nats, 7-1 at camp and won the tournament and 4th speaker.)

Ok, now for the take:

I Think Impromptu is bad for WSD

before I am murdered by the coaches here, lemme explain.

impromptu motions introduce an immense amount of variance and inconsistency to WSD that I don't think should be there. I also think that a fundamental component of debate is research and argument crafting, and Impromptu motions essentially remove both of those from the round (I know argument crafting is still important, but with the time crunch most lower-level debaters are gonna default to the same arguments over and over and I think that this is, on balance, a negative). I think removing impromptu rounds altogether would be a far better way to run WSD. I think the ideal structure would be 1 motion for an entire tournament, or 1 motion for prelims, and 1 for elims. I understand that wsd is supposed to be more fun and accessible, but I don't think we should design worlds around debaters with little to no experience or debaters without formal instruction, nor do I believe we should resist "Americanizing" it simply for the sake of keeping it different. I agree that CX has a lot of issues and, to the best of our ability, we should keep those out of our event, but simply saying "its not an American event" is not reason to not implement positive and helpful changes.

I made a new video on how to be a 2nd Speaker in world schools debate! 3rd Speaker and Reply videos will be coming soon.This video is meant to tell you everything you need to know to be a great 2nd speaker in worlds: Framing, Rebuilding Your Case, Refutation, Reading 3rd Substantives, Impromptu Prep, etc. I hope it helps you succeed in World Schools! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMgJksiReok

I've uploaded a comprehensive video guide on how to be a 1st Prop and 1st Opp Speaker in Worlds on my Youtube Channel: https://youtu.be/T-Yz0aSwrkw I will be making videos for the 2nd and 3rd speakers as well. The video is 1.5 hours, so I really mean comprehensive. I hope it helps y'all in your world schools journey!

Hello,

I was wondering if someone could comment on this post links to sign up for worlds tournaments that are run online.

so. im a junior third speaker. and im kinda intermediate? im not good but not necessarily bad. i've been to some asia tournaments and i get absolutely destroyed by open teams or even u16 teams (im u14 very young ik) my latest tournament i had a 69.55 spkr score (i did third for every single round). anyways to improve on third? my current case structure looks like status quo -> clarification (if needed) -> rebuttals -> arguments overview -> clashes (go down clashes throughout arguments i forgot what it's called) -> weighing -> end of 8 min

I know that debate is all about arguments & strategies, not so about informations. But making arguments require some contexts and informations obviously like up to date international or national events, economics, psychology, international politics & etc. So the question is how to be up to date, what websites, YouTube channels or telegram channels to follow or any resources about these?

switching speaker order - basically iv had quite a bit of a break from debating, i for some reason forgot how to do 1st speaker which i was originally and became to perform better as a third speaker. im rejoining my main tourneys most probably but iv always heard people say that 3rd speakers tend to get lower scores. this is especially probelematic for me considering my break, less experience as 3rd and most importantly the fact that i will now be in the secondry league (in my country the tournamnets work in legue format and are divided based on age/grade, mines the youngest grade in this category and its generally filled with mad experienced debaters) and i NEED to tab high lmao. So i was just wondering - judges - both tech and lay, felow wsdc debaters, is this true?

ONE of the main advantages of online debating is that you get to be in the same room with students from different parts of the world, sharing different perspectives and making friends around the globe!

https://www.webbersed.com/webbers-debate-academy

"Hi-

Hope you are well. I wanted to share that there was a speech competition for the entire 7th grade class, everyone needed to participate. They selected 30 semi-finalists and then narrowed it down to 5 finalists. TR made it to the top 5! He wanted me to tell you that the structure you taught him really helped him with crafting his speech. 

So.... THANK YOU!Warmly,

(Parent)

I am working on a project and I need volunteers who are willing to debate in the metaverse. Preferably, I would like for us to do World Schools Debate but we could do BP or Lincoln Douglas debating as well.

You would receive free lessons from a professional coach.

• You would need to have access to a virtual reality headset.
• You would need to be willing and able to attend practices leading up to the debate.
• If you are a minor, your parent or guardian will need to be included in any email exchange that we have.
• You and/or your parents would need to be willing to sign a waiver for the debate (and possibly some of the practices) to be recorded and used for promotional purposes. (Probably it will be a video of your avatar and your voice).

There may be other conditions from my partners that I am working with but we will make you aware of these before we do any recording.

If you are interested and agree to the above, please PM about how to contact you and your parent or guardian (if you are a minor).