By Regina Elaine Vendivil

Two teams from Ateneo de Manila University have made it to the Grand Finals of the Korea World Universities Debating Championship 2021 (WUDC), held yesterday, 13th of July 2021, live-streamed via Facebook. 

The WUDC is an academic debate tournament and is considered the world’s largest debating competition with 4 teams of 2 people competing, in accordance with the British Parliamentary Debate format. 

This is the first time the Philippines has reached the grand finals of the four-team international student debating tournament since 1981 when the competition began. 

The Ateneo 1 Team, which consists of Ignacio Villareal (AB Economics- Honors 2021) and Mikko Vitug (4 BS Applied Mathematics with Specialization in Finance), was hailed second (2nd) in the Open Category bagging 24 out of 27 points, which is the highest break among all Philippine and Asian institutions in WUDC history.  

On the other hand, the Ateneo 2 Team, David Africa (3 BS Applied Mathematics – Master in Data Science) and Luigi Alcañeses (BS Management Engineering and AB Economics- Honors 2021), placed 14th in the Open Category with 19 out of 27 points.

Alcañeses is currently the coach of the ASHS Debate Varsity while Africa is the coach of the AJHS Debate Varsity. Both of them, along with Vitug, are graduates of the ASHS. 

These two teams will be competing against debaters from Zagreb and the London School of Economics later, 14th of July at 9 PM. 

Additionally, the Ateneo 4 team, composed of Julia Ocoma (4 BS Management-Honors) and Maeca Pansensoy (4 BS Management-Honors) concluded their WUDC journey as they placed 32nd with 18 team points. 

The World Grand Finals will be streamed live later at 9 PM (PHL time) on Korea WUDC 2021’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/koreawudc2021/

References:

Ateneo de Manila University (2021, July 14) Ateneo advances to the WUDC Grand Finals [Infographic]. Facebook. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/ateneodemanila/posts/10165153413170153 

Ateneo Debate Society (2021, July 14) Ateneo advances to the WUDC Grand Finals [Infographic]. Facebook. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/AteneoDebateSociety/posts/4437024072997013 

Photo Source: Ateneo Debate Society on Facebook