The Debates and Recitation Society at LUMS Earns International Acclaim
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Debates and Recitation Society at LUMS (DRUMS) hosted the largest international debate tournament in Pakistan’s history titled ‘The LUMS Online Pre-ABP. The three-day long event took place on September 11, 2020 and made a significant mark in the international debating community.
The tournament served as one of the most prestigious debating tournaments, leading up to the annual Asian tournament, i.e. Asian-British Parliamentary (ABP) where the whole of Asia competes for the crown of the best team in Asia.
The LUMS Online Pre-ABP was conducted entirely online, allowing teams from all across the globe to participate. It featured 108 teams, which included teams from India, Australia, Bangladesh, Philippines, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, and various other countries.
The tournament followed the British-Parliamentary format, which consists of two speakers, each debating a particular motion or topic given out to their teams 15 minutes prior to the start of the match. It consisted of 5 preliminary rounds, followed by 3 knockouts, including the Open Grand Final.
All rounds were judged by a group of globally renowned debaters, including multiple times Asian Champion Sher May Nar from Singapore and Mr Harish Natarajan, a world finalist and the only in the world to have debated against an AI machine.
The tournament was split into two categories, the ‘Open’ category and the ‘Novice’ Category; as the name suggests, the novice category was exclusive to teams who were relatively inexperienced debaters.
After days of extremely tough and close debates, “CSS A” from Australia came out as the winners of the Open Category, with “IIT Bombay 2” from India as the runners up.
For the Novice Category – which featured relatively new debaters – team “Cedar 1” from Karachi, Pakistan, were the winners, with “ILS S” from India being the runners up.
“We are very proud of the fact that we were able to evoke such a global confidence in our quality that we gathered so many registrations and hosted over a hundred teams virtually. It validates the global significance DRUMS has acquired as a debate team, one of South Asia’s most well-known and recognised debate unions,” said Zaid Ahmed Abro, President, DRUMS.
DRUMS wholeheartedly congratulates the winners and is looking forward to hosting the teams in future tournaments.
To watch the Grand Finale of the tournament, click here.
