Here we are, one of the most awaited days for students who love debate, writing and quizzes. Of course, it’s the World Scholars Cup. An iconic event, the only one of its kind. WSC, also known as World Scholars Cup, is an active platform where participants showcase their skills in debate, essay writing and quiz taking. Many people around the world are well aware of them and their team. I personally have been in quite a few Dubai regional rounds. This article is to commemorate the most recent round I attended, the Dubai regional round, 2025

First, as soon as the registration was done, we had the opening ceremony, of course. This was the WSC classics, the records that never rust. Always fresh and alive as long as the WSC legacy continues. I was seated with my team and another team from my class at the far left group of chairs for the audience. As the WSC team introduce themselves and the event, the audience is beaming with enthusiasm, putting a smile on our faces. The WSC team explains to us the procedure of the event in a quirky and amusing way, keeping us on our feet with the data.

Coming to our first event, we were in the morning debate wave, so we had a debate first. I was with my group of two others as we rushed our way through the corridors, occasionally missing our room numbers and awkwardly walking back to that particular room. The debate topics were not the usual ‘Do u think student would wear a uniform?’, it was more like ‘Should we have an AI BFF?’. Now, these were some topics that pushed us to rack our brains to make sure we won the argument. A brilliant experience. There were three debates in total, and our team won all three.

Coming to our second event, collaborative writing. As a person who enjoys writing, this was the event that I enjoyed most in comparison to all the others. Previously, WSC would first give us a list of 6 topics, from which we had to choose 3 topics, one for each teammate. Now, we were only given three topics, out of which each teammate would write about one. My team and I brainstormed on our topics and came up with an epic storyline worthy of the Greek gods, just kidding, though I do know someone who wrote about Greek gods. We were given 20 minutes to brainstorm and 40 minutes to write, which included no talking. After which, we got 15 minutes to check over each other’s work, which included talking.

This is our last event for the day, the Scholars Challenge. This and the scholar’s bowl are the events that we studied beforehand. All the teams were separated for this since they would be writing the multiple-choice quiz on their own. We were given around 60 minutes to complete this 120-question quiz. I believe time flew during this event, which is part of the fun, right?

Let’s move on to the events of Day 2. Our first event, in fact, was the test of gravity. This is where scholars, one from each school, go up on stage to debunk a famous scientific theory, gravity. The alpaca community, WSC, believes that gravity does not exist, and for that reason, students are made to balance soft toy alpacas on their heads without dropping them to prove the same. An intense game, ‘Does gravity exist’, is similar to the tension of Game of Thrones, which continued to eliminate students who dropped their alpacas. With this, we had only one student victorious. However, by the end, the scholars were pretty hyped up about the next event, the scholar’s bowl.

Coming to the scholar’s bowl, an event with unlimited amounts of joy and depression. Yes, depression, you had to be there to know. Anyway, in this event, scholars would use their teamwork and their brains to solve questions with a clicker based on the questions that are put up on stage. This is basically like the scholar’s challenge, but this time we work as a group. The noise levels were…debatable. I wonder if anyone else thought we were uncivilised.

Next, we had the Debate showcase, in which the best debaters from each school will form new teams, proposition and opposition, along with a student judge panel, and will take part in a debate on stage. The best debaters face off against each other on whether their side of the motion is correct, and in the end, the panel of judges decide who stood most firm with their point. At the end of the debate, during the time the judges decide, students from the audience are allowed to put in their inputs regarding the motion. The crowd would be wild when the debate speeches were lit. Applause would be ringing through your ears even after the showcase. And with that, we come to the end of the academic parts of the World Scholars Cup.

Our second last event was the Untalent show, where scholars showcase their talent or lack thereof. For alpacas and humans alike. The participants of this lovely event will have the chance to exhibit their talents and un-talents to the audience. The audience was extremely encouraging to the participants up on stage, and with the number of songs performed, it seemed like a concert.

Coming to our last and final event, the Award ceremony. This is the long-awaited conclusion of the World Scholars Cup, the one where you find out whether you qualified for the globals or not, and the other achievements you have been able to showcase over the span of two days. Applause and other inhuman sounds echo through the auditorium while prize winners run up on stage. This is an extremely hyped-up part of the entire event because the excitement of both the junior division and senior division is shown splendidly. My team and I had won multiple team and individual awards. Gold is scholars’ bowl, team debate and team writing. MY individual awards included gold in debate, quiz and writing. Along with an overall 7th-best scholar. Our team was actually the runner-up qualifiers to the global rounds from the junior division.

And with that, we come to the end of the World Scholars Cup original rounds. However, don’t think it’s over yet, the teams that qualified for the globals, us included, Round 2 is around the corner!