WSDL is a weekly debating league for middle and high school students across Asia. It's run by LearningLeaders, Asia's pre-eminent speech and debate training organization, in conjunction with the Harvard College Debating Union.

Representing their schools, teams take part in rounds on selected Wednesdays during the semester. At the end of the preliminary rounds, the top teams will contest the Finals on a weekend near the end of semester. 

Each team can have up to 7 members, although only 3 debate in any given round. After the roll call, teams will receive the matchups and debate motion for that round of debate. They will then have 30 minutes to prepare, before debating on the topic. After the round, the adjudicator will give the teams the result and detailed feedback for them to work on before the next week's debate.

As the competition progresses, teams are matched against other teams on similar win-loss records to themselves. After 7 preliminary rounds, the top teams "break" to elimination rounds to see who will be crowned World Schools Debating League Champion. 

WSDL takes place on Wednesdays during semester time from 18:45 - 21:00 China time (GMT +8). The Spring tournament runs from March until May, and the Fall season from September to November. 

You can find the Season schedule on our Schedule page. 

WSDL is open to middle and high school students from 21 countries and territories in Asia. There is no minimum age, although we recommend that students are at least in Grade 7 (Year 8 in the British system) to compete. 

WSDL is an inter-school competition, and students in a team must attend the same school to compete (ie. not just the same debate club, academy or training institution). Homeschooled students are able to participate under the banner of their homeschooling organization.

Due to the semester-long nature of this tournament, we will be accepting squads of 3-7 members. We recommend at least 5 members for each squad, as it is your responsibility to ensure that 3 people are available to debate each week.

These are the countries eligible to participate in WSDL: 

Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vietnam

You can pre-register your school or team on our registration page. After we receive your details, you will be sent a tournament information pack, payment guide, and a debater registration form so that you can tell us who's in your team. 

You don't have to pay when you register, but your registration isn't complete until we have received the registration fee. 

In the event that we have multiple applications from the same school, we may ask you to consolidate your registration into one or two teams.

Registration for the Spring 2023 competition has now closed, but filling out our registration form will add you to our mailing list for upcoming learning events and tournaments that we run.

WSDL is an inter-school tournament. All debaters on a team must attend the same school. If you attend a debate academy, hagwon, or after-school training club, you are welcome to participate, but it needs to be with other students from your regular school.

WSDL offers schools free membership, so that teachers and coaches can receive information about upcoming events, both online and in your region, as well as assistance with training and coaching. If you're a teacher and want to sign up for our free updates, please do so on our registration page. 

Of course! As long as you have at least three students who want to take part, you will be welcome to compete. We will ask you to provide the name of a Team Manager, to whom most tournament communications will be sent - this can be a teacher, coach, parent, team captain or other responsible person. 

Some students compete officially on behalf of their schools; others participate on their own initiative if their school doesn't support or recognize debate. Both are fine for participation in WSDL - and competing may help you persuade your school to set up a debate team in future!

We even have some free resources for debaters, which you can find on our Learn Debate page. 

Not at all! If you are new to WSDC format debating, then your WSDL registration also entitles you to participate in our free WSDL Novice Training Program. You'll have access to expert training materials, videos and live sessions with our CAP and coaches in the weeks leading up to the tournament.

If you want to take the next step, LearningLeaders also runs weekly online debate classes for debaters of all levels, from beginner to tournament championship level. 

Learn more about our Novice Training Program and our online Debate Courses on our Learn Debate page. 

WSDL Registration costs USD $199 per team per season. Since teams may comprise up to seven debaters, this means that the cost per student can be as low as $29 each for a semester's worth of debating. In addition, first-time schools can participate for a reduced fee of just $115 - contact us to find out more about this offer.

WSDL is non-profit; all proceeds from registration fees go into the costs of the tournament, including judging, tabulation and publicity.

The WSDL Registration fee also comprises the Novice Training Course, motion analysis and reading resources, participation in the WSDL Discord server, as well as special events with our partners from the Harvard College Debating Union. 

Payment methods include bank transfer, card payment, or PayPal. You can find more details on our Registration page.

For teams that are unable to afford the full cost of registration, we are always willing to accept applications for discounted registration fees or scholarships - these will be considered on a case-by-case basis and are dependent on having enough other teams in the tournament for us to be able to do so.