In order to further these aims, all participating nations and institutions agree that:

• The team of any participating nation and region may be required to debate any issue
• The team of any participating nation and region may be required to debate against the team of any other participating nation
• The team of any participating nation and region is entitled to take part in the tournament on the same basis as any other participating nation's team

• Accommodation: THREE (3) nights at the tournament hotel
• Food: THREE (3) full meals per day in cafeteria — authentic homemade Russian cuisine
• TRANSPORTATION: will likely offer St. Petersburg LED airport or bus station pickup for the international teams depending on demand as well as local transportation between Komarovo and St. Petersburg downtown on chartered bus
• ENTERTAINMENT: sports activities, the fireworks show and BBQ break party as well as guided walking tours across St. Petersburg Downtown
• VISAS: For all international participants from EU Schengen Area — visas will be issued by Russian Embassies free of charge. For other countries (e.g. UK, USA), we will try to negotiate the visa fees reduction or even a waiver.
• EXTRA NIGHTS discount — 20% discount for extra-nights prior or after the tournaments if you stay in hostels/hotels in St. Petersburg downtown.

REGISTRATION

The registration will open on February 14, 2019. There will be a team cap of 20 teams in English-speaking track. We may be able to increase the cap significantly, but we need teams to register as soon as possible. Teams, independent adjudicators and observers can register in English using this form and in Russian using this form. If you need visa (see VISAS section) please register AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

DEBATE ROUNDS AND MOTIONS:

The tournament will take place in the Worlds Schools Debate format. This means that there will be points of information, no cross examinations and the constructive speeches will be 6 minutes long in premilinary rounds — 3 min Replies and 8 minutes long in elimination rounds, 4 min replies.

There will be five preliminary rounds, two on prepared motion, and three on impromptu motions, announced at the Tournament, 30-45 minutes prior to the round. The top four teams after the preliminary rounds will advance to the semi-finals. Round 1 will be seeded randomly; subsequent rounds will be power-paired.

• PREPARED MOTION I (R1 and R2):
• FINAL ROUND MOTION: 

Round I – prepared motion I

Round II – prepared motion I

Round III – impromptu motion

Round IV – impromptu motion

Round V – impromptu motion

Quarters/Semis – impromptu motion

GRAND FINAL — prepared topic II

VISAS

1. Group 1: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine are permitted to stay in the Russian Federation for up to 90 days without a visa.
2. Group 2: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Israel, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela. Citizens of these countries are allowed to stay in the Russian Federation without a visa for up to 90 days in each 180-day period, provided they will not be involved in any commercial or work-related activities during their stay.
3. Group 3: Cuba, Montenegro, Serbia (with biometric passport), Thailand, Hong Kong SAR (up to 14 days), Macao SAR. Citizens of the countries in this group can stay in the Russian Federation for up to 30 days without a visa.
4. Group 4: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia. Citizens of these Balkan countries can also stay in Russia without a visa for up to 30 days, but must also show an official invitation to immigration officials.

EU members and other countries DO NEED a visa to RUSSIA. But considering support provided by one of our partners — Russian Foreign Ministry is agreed to issue Russian visas for tournament participants from EU country-members FREE OF CHARGE. We work directly with the Russian Consulates abroad to expedite Russian visa applications.

However, you need to get an official invitation letter from us that takes some time!

All applications for Russian visas must be prepared electronically – a web-based application form is available here: visa.kdmid.ru. (please do it individually for every participant that needs a visa)

However before that you should SUBMIT a valid passport scan copy AS SOON AS POSSIBLE for each individual in your delegation to official tournament email — NOTE: Passport should be valid for at least 6 months after the visa expiration date. You will need to have at least two blank Visa pages in your passport.

VENUE

The Tournament will be held in the Theater Art House Hotel in Komarovo, St.Petersburg -  31 Leitenantov str., St.Petersburg, Komarovo, 197733, RUSSIA.

Fantastic red-pine forest, sand dunes and beaches of the Gulf of Finland (just 15 minutes walk from the Hotel), pretty lakes, see climate and water from the artesian well makes Komarovo the popular resort in North-Western Russia which is 45km from the city center of St. Petersburg. This is not noisy and luxurious place like Peterhoff or Pushkin with palaces and fountains. It's a quiet place, green in summer and white at winter, where you can still find wooden houses built in «northern modern» style with nice fences around. You could expect to be treated warmly by Russian weather that you could check it here. Be prepared for rather cold weather at night or in the morning!

FOR MORE DETAILS: please read WIKIPEDIA article about KOMAROVO

SOCIALS

You can reach us at any time at:

1. Official e-mail
2. Facebook page
3. Make a Viber/WhatsApp call to +79523661747

WORLD SCHOOLS STYLE DEBATING

Here is a short overview of the rules:

•  Each debate comprises eight speeches delivered by two teams of three members, representing the Proposition and Opposition sides. The first six speeches are eight minutes in duration, with each team then finishing up by giving a four-minute concluding Reply Speech.
• Reply speech is a short, four-minute speech given by either the first or second speaker from the team, and presented in the opposite speaking order to the rest of the debate (i.e. the Opposition deliver the first reply speech, followed by the Proposition). The roles of the reply speech are to: outline one or more points of contention that the debate has centred around; evaluate the course of the debate; declare the reasoning of their team's victory.
• During any speech except the reply speeches, members of the opposing team may offer Points of Information to briefly interject a point that the speaker must immediately respond to. The speaker holding the Floor is not obliged to accept all the Points of Information offered to them, but is likely to be marked down by adjudicators if they do not accept any. Speakers delivering Points of Information are expected to keep them to 15 seconds or less. The first and last minute of each main speech, as well as the entire duration of reply speeches, are «protected time», meaning that no Points of Information may be offered.

SPEAKING ORDER AND TIMING:

    First speaker of the Proposition — 8 minutes
    First speaker of the Opposition — 8 minutes
    Second speaker of the Proposition — 8 minutes
    Second speaker of the Opposition — 8 minutes
    Third speaker of the Proposition — 8 minutes
    Third speaker of the Opposition — 8 minutes
    Reply speaker of the Opposition — 4 minutes
    Reply speaker of the Proposition — 4 minutes

The Roles of the Speakers

1. The debate begins with a speaker whose arguments are entirely new. As it goes on, more and more time is spent dealing with what has been said by previous speakers, and less and less comes in that is new. By the end of the debate there is no new argument, and the speakers deal only with what has gone before. If you were to graph this, there would be a line dropping from 100% new matter at first government to almost 0% at third opposition and replies, and a corresponding line rising from 0% rebuttal at first government to almost 100% rebuttal at third opposition and replies.
2. The first government speaker defines the motion, outlines the government case, announces the case division, and presents her or his part of the case.
3. The first opposition speaker deals with the definition if it is a problem, explains the important differences between the two team cases, and either outlines the opposition case, announces the case division, and presents her or his part of the case, or outlines the opposition's rebuttal case (i.e. the broad themes the opposition will use throughout the debate to rebut the government case) and expands on it. The difference between these two approaches depends on whether the opposition is content just to present a rebuttal case, or takes the stronger route and presents its own alternative case as well.
4. The second government speaker defends the government definition (if required) and case from the opposition attacks, rebuts the opposition case, and proceeds with her or his part of the government case. Somewhere around 2 to 3 minutes into the speech the speaker will turn from attacking the opposition to presenting the new part of the argument.
5. The second opposition speaker does much the same as the second government, If the opposition is presenting its own alternative case as well, this speaker will turn from attacking the government to presenting the new part of the argument somewhere around 3 to 4 minutes into the speech.
6. The third government speaker is going to spend a large part of her or his time attacking the other side. However, she or he can have a small part of the government case to present — Perhaps 1 or 2 minutes at the most. This is not obligatory, although many teams do it.
7. The third opposition speaker is going to spend most of her or his time attacking the other side, rather than presenting significant new arguments, She or he can have an even smaller part of the opposition case to present, but again this is not obligatory. Note that the opposition reply follows straight on from this speech, so it is better for the third opposition to deal with the detail of the government case and leave the broad overview to the reply speech.
8. The reply speeches are not going to delve into fine detail, but will take a broad approach to the issues of the debate. They should also summarize their own case either as part the analysis of the issues or towards the end of the speech as a separate section. For obvious reasons the reply speeches cannot introduce new arguments. Not only is this unfair but a complete misunderstanding of the role of reply speeches The reply speech is a summing up of the whole debate, not a chance to introduce new ideas.