The first World Scholar's Cup University Global Tournament will be held June 4-6, 2010, at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China. I hope to see many of you there! Special thanks to our hosts at Zhejiang, including the student group "Power of Voice".

Might get my old AD crew back together for one last glorious run.

Awesome! Too bad I probably will have enough stuff to study anyway!

got one already, looking for more...good call on starting before the world cup!

Yeah, I have one too, with another possible (although he's not much of a fan of work; former varsity). Damn, I was hoping if he didn't pan out we could draft you, heh. Wasn't particularly faithful in that possibility, though.

Just to clarify: you can form "consolidated" teams that span different campuses. And, also, the first guide for the new season went up last night.

Does it cost money to register for the materials? It's probable that I wouldn't be able to do it but I want to check it out.

Is there going to be a national competition or just the world finals?

You go straight to world tournament in Year One. And no cost for materials.

was looking at the website for WSC, I'm absolutely amazed at the level of international competition you've created in just a few years.

on a side note, it also looks like the asians are completely dominating the competition...

It'd be fun, but I don't know where I'd get the money to travel to China. Thanks for providing the opportunity anyway, Daniel!

yeah, that's the only thing holding me back, too. for some reason, I get the feeling that, unlike in high school, my current school would be unwilling to pay for my travel expenses associated with an academic competition...

I go to a college of less than 600.
MEGA THIS.

That would be awesome, except for your obsession with holding events ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD[/smurf and moan]

^pretty much the main reason asians are dominating the competition

China obviously has something to prove (see: summer Olympics, '08). Why don't we hold it in some central location (NOT AFRICA...or the more expensive, touristy parts of Europe), I'm sure the Chinese government would love to throw money at something to prove they can win at intellectual competitions.

that's probably one of the worst posts of all time.

There are like nine or ten problems with that statement. I hoped you would be able to save it after the first bad statement. Nopppppppppppppppppe.

Sorry, I have a very dry sense of humor today. Either that or my roommate's storing his stash near the air vent...both are likely.
That was only about half kidding though. I know I'd be a lot more likely to go to competitions if they were actually on this continent. I'm sure a lot of past decathletes with the experience, skill, and drive to win are in the same boat. As for the asians, I haven't seen the stats, but I'd be willing to bet that there are a lot more people participating from the region that the event is actually hosted at.

the whole thing with China was pretty much just joking, though.

let's see if we can break it down and hit all the stupid points.

no it's not. there are still americans going, aren't there? the reason they're dominating is because they're studying harder. most americans that go just see it as something to do in the AD offseason, and don't take it as seriously. so they don't do as well.


wait, you don't think the chinese government was involved in the selection of the WSC venue, do you?




holy crap, you actually think the chinese government was involved in the selection of the WSC venue. um--it wasn't? i don't know how to respond to this. Hu Jintao is not paying dan to hold it in hangzhou, and the probably don't care that it's there.

^did you start writing that before or after my last post?

WE LIVE ON A SPHERE. THERE IS NO CENTRAL LOCATION. the only centralized location is 5700 degrees celsius and has no gravity.


I'm not sure what this means. is this code for "in north america"?

to coclude, stop speaking.

I certainly hope it was before

it was before. even if you were joking, the parts that weren't jokes were equally stupid and the joke was a bad one and stupid. standing by my original assessment.

Come on...you can't seriously believe that geography isn't a factor. But that would be a problem no matter where it was held; most people in most countries don't have the resources to travel around the world for an academic competition.

well, thanks for something resembling a little bit of agreement...
In the future, can we keep the insulting-of-peoples'-intelligence to a minimum on these boards? Most of us on here are of reasonable intelligence, though perhaps lacking in taste a bit.

Yeah, I agree. However, if anyone is making statements that appear to be racist, they will be subjected to a merciless takedown. I didn't really take your comment that way, but I think debator did.

not racist as much as america-centric.

and i sincerely believe that geography has a negligible effect on scores. the first year of the program, the top two teams were from the US. the reason we don't do well is, like i said, because most people look at WSC as a priority second to AD, and dedicate their time to the latter program at the expense of the former.

As a former representative of team USA, I'm going to say this is dead on.

I don't really know how it could have been taken as racist...the only way I see for it to be interpreted in a negative manner is insulting the intelligence of asians, which is very counter-stereotypical...possibly making fun China's nationalism? But would that even classify as racist?

To be honest, that was probably more ex-decathlete-centric than anything

I did see that in the first year, the top two teams were indeed American. However, now that we have a university division, financial concerns will be amplified, and we'll have a new group of Americans that don't have AD to put before WSC (however, there are those pesky little bachelor degrees most of us are pursuing to steal our time...).

As interesting as being on an ASU team for WSC would be this year, I'm starting to think there are a lot of other opportunities for travel through school that I think I'd be more inclined to take advantage of should I have surplus money to do so.

I may just try to see if we can field a team for The University of Texas at San Antonio.

We'd be so honored to see you there, Kort.

So, to give this some kind of a bump after I looked back through things, I have one question, will there be any from of a University-level online tournament?

Because what I see by talking to people and by what was said earlier in this thread, is that plenty of people are interested, but don't have the money to travel to China, myself included.
However, we could all probably scrape up $50 per person for an online tournament entry fee.

I'm gonna try to get Duke to pay if I can.

^same, but with cmc instead of duke.

If you live in the U.S. and do not have gobs of money, traveling to China for the WSC isn't a very affordable proposition. If you live near the venue, it's much more feasible. The reason U.S. teams dominated the first year is because (1) the program was just starting up so current and former Decathletes were the most familiar with it, and (2) most of the teams were made of people associated with DemiDec.

you know what? you're right. the year nationals was in honolulu, when travel expenses were greatest for all the other teams, kamehameha absolutely killed it.

look. some people see cost as a prohibitive factor, or are unable or unwilling to put the work in and muster the funds to make trip. many of these people are not american. you think a flight from singapore to incheon's cheap? the location isn't hurting the quality of american teams; american teams' lack of commitment to the program is. for a third time: almost every american going to the WSC sees it as a priority secondary to AD. so teams from other countries, who don't, put more time in and do better. this is what you have heard from every person who's actually competed in the world finals, so maybe you could acknowledge the fact that there might be other, non-exogenous reasons why your nationality doesn't dominate the competition.

What debator said, but mellowed with age. All travel to WSC will not be cheap.

I can't get WSC taken seriously in my school precisely because it's seen as an also-ran next to USAD. I want to change that, and if WSC Global didn't conflict with my AP Reading, I'd be even more gung-ho about the change.

I've had an awful lot of dreams about China lately, and two extended scenes in the WSC promo video matches EXACTLY with a dream I had about a year and a half ago, so I know I'll be involved with it somehow eventually...

I'm not saying the location is the reason Americans don't always win the competition, but rather that it's the reason there aren't as many Americans there. Maybe you could stop assuming that people are being racist/nationalist just because they point out empirical facts.

And teams going to USAD nationals get a lot more institutional support than WSC teams; for example, GCI, the sponsor of the Alaska state competition, pays for the winning team to go to nationals. Zzzptm is trying to change that at his school, but at the moment it remains the case across most of this country.

i was operating under the cooperative principle of conversation*, basically assuming that someone wouldn't offer unsolicited information for no reason. i figured that if you brought something up as a reply to a post i made earlier, it would be at least on the same topic. like, there's no reason to reply to a post about the reasons scores are the way they are with one about why there are few american teams (which, by the way, i don't think is very true; a lot of american teams do go). so, since your post (given the context that you created intentionally by quoting my original post) sounds like an attempt to refute what i was saying, i went ahead and re-emphasized the main points of my argument. as you point out, i certainly could stop assuming that people try to cooperate with you in conversation and don't bring up irrelevant information, but i'm not going to because that would be retarded.

and i don't think many states have sponsorship deals like alaska's that pay for trips to nationals. travel expenses are largely up to schools themselves. that's not to say that sponsorship is impossible (we went around and solicited donations from local businesses and service organizations) for individual schools, for either competition. but a lack of funding of this sort in the WSC is again attributable to a difference in priorities. few american students are willing to spend a good deal of time and effort procuring funding for a competition they see as secondary to AD. in conclusion: don't blame the location.



*here is a fun and educational comic on the cooperative principle. http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1271

Then again, if the WSC had a Solar Challenge on the moon, I doubt even DDD could make it there. Location can factor in.

If the Global Finals were in Garland, TX, I could get a team together, but they wouldn't be all that thrilled. They like a good road trip for a major competition. Something in Memphis would be perfect, because we could drive there in about 8 hours.