World Scholars Cup

The World Scholar’s Cup (often abbreviated as WSC) is an annual international academic program. More than 50,000 students from over 60 countries participate every year.

The program was founded by DemiDec, in particular by Daniel Berdichevsky, in early 2006. The first WSC took place in South Korea in 2007 at the Hankuk Academy of Foreign Studies. The World Scholar's Cup aims to teach students with interesting, not-taught-in-school lessons, and find common ground between people of different backgrounds. Its mascot is the alpaca.

Tournament format

Teams and points system

Each team participating in the World Scholar's Cup is generally composed of three students, from the same school or different schools. Teams of two are permitted but face a scoring disadvantage. Teams within a country or region may participate in any regional round, which usually takes place in a participating school, hall, or both.

Qualifying for the various Global Rounds requires that a team to:
*exceed an 18,000 point threshold at a Regional Round (formerly 20,000 until 2023)
*have at least two members from the same team or school.

To qualify to the Tournament of Champions (ToC) at Yale University, New Haven, teams must:
*exceed a point threshold of about 20,000 points at a Global Round.
*have all members qualify in a Global Round.
*have at least two members from the same team.

A team can achieve a maximum score of 40,000 points. While specifics fluctuate, the Scholar's Challenge, Debate, and Collaborative Writing events typically provide 4000, 3500, and 2500 points respectively. The Bowl is generally worth 10,000 points. The World Scholar's Cup does not release scores publicly.

Age Divisions

The tournament is divided into junior and senior divisions, and participation in a division depends on the ages of a team's members. Participants who are 14 years of age or older on January 1 of the current year are classified as senior. In the 2017 Hanoi Global Round, a new Skittles Division was formed for students aged 8–9. In most regional rounds, both divisions participate separately but simultaneously, while global rounds have the events of each division staggered, with the junior division typically competing in an event a day before the seniors' event. Closing ceremonies are typically held separately as well.

In larger Regional and Global events, scholars may be divided into further age groups, as seen in the 2022 Bangkok Global Round, and the 2024 Stockholm Global Round. Additionally, scholars may be divided into different waves, as seen in the Kuala Lumpur Global Round in 2024.

Events

Each Regional Round consists of four main events: the Scholar's Challenge, Collaborative Writing, Team Debate, and the Scholar's Bowl. In addition to these four events, non-competitive social activities take place in select tournaments. The academic activities each require knowledge of a curriculum made at the start of each season, which consists of questions about subjects like history, social studies, art and music, literature and media, science and technology, and a special area.

Team Events

Events which are scored for performance are referred to as Team Events. The following are the team events.

The Scholar's Challenge

The Scholar's Challenge is a 120-question multiple choice exam given to each individual competitor to complete within 60 minutes during the regional round, and 75 minutes during the global round and during the Tournament of Champions. Prizes are awarded to top participants in each subject and to both top-scoring overall teams and individuals. Students can be awarded multiple medals for the Scholar's Challenge. The award for the highest score in the Scholar's Challenge for an event was formerly known as the Asimov Award, but in 2022, it was renamed to the Jac Khor Award in honor of the World Scholar's Cup team member who used to write the questions for the event but died during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A feature of the Scholar's Challenge, implemented in 2015, allows participants to select multiple answers per question. Though each question has only one correct answer, choosing multiple answers allows the participant to earn points that are the reciprocal of the number of answers chosen. For instance, a participant could shade in all five answers and win 0.2 points.

The Scholar's Challenge solely tests on the syllabus given by the World Scholar's Cup team. The challenge is intentionally designed to be challenging, hence the name, with many of its questions requiring deductive reasoning and logical understanding as opposed to memorization.

Collaborative Writing

This event is based on arguments, with students picking one of six different prompts associated to each subsection of the given curriculum. Each participant on a team must pick a different prompt. Any writing form is allowed. While computers and phones were permitted previously, a change occurring in late 2022 banned all devices in this event, most likely set due to the rise of ChatGPT.

At the beginning of the event, students have 20 (previously 30) minutes to work with their teammates to discuss and research their arguments. Following the collaboration period, students have 40 (previously 45) minutes to write their essay. There are no maximum or minimum word limits. Following the writing period, students then have 15 minutes to collaborate again with their teammates to edit one another's work, but they may not finish a teammate's piece.

This event is worth the least of the four scoring events, contributing 18.75% of a team's total score and 20% of an individual's score. The rubric as shown on the Scholars Cup website categorizes scoring into four segments: Clarity, Content, Style, and Originality. Clarity refers to how clearly a student argued their ideas, Content refers to the style and proficiency of such ideas, Style refers to the use of language and format of a writing piece, and Originality accounts for the memorability and impact the writing piece had on a person.

Team Debate

All teams have assigned rooms and arguments. In the room, teams will have 15 minutes to confer within the room before the debate begins. Teams may use World Scholar's Cup materials or any outside resources to prepare in the 15 minute preparation time. However, devices and external sources are not permitted afterwards. Speakers may use notes.

Students may speak for up to four minutes. Between speakers, teams have 60 seconds to prepare before the next speaker is called.

In 2025, the World Scholar's Cup made a change which states that no devices will be permitted for the third debate of every regional round.

Before the end of the debate, the competing teams are required to give positive and constructive feedback to the opposing team for roughly 90 seconds, before the judge(s) announce a winning team. The winning team will then proceed to a designated room and the non-winning team to a different designated room, where each will face another team with the same number of wins and non-wins. There is no point bonus for winning a debate.

In terms of scoring, Team Debate is the event worth second most, with it being worth 26.25% of a team's total score and 35% of an individual's score. The rubric dictates that the scoring for debaters individually includes details on presentation, strategy, and content, and team scores factor in teamwork and feedback as well. Every score in the debate ranges from 2-7. Additionally, the best speaker of a debate can be nominated by the judge, with the possibility of such speaker making it onto the Debate Showcase.

Presentation includes how clearly a person spoke as well as how their stage presence was. Strategy refers to how organized an argument was, as well as their use of language. Content includes evidence and justification for a point, as well as rebuttals/prebuttals against the opposing team. Teamwork includes details on how respectful a team is as well as how well their arguments fit together. Feedback is based on respectfulness of the feedback as well as how helpful it is. Teamwork and feedback are included in a team's score for debate, but not in an individual's score.

The Scholar's Bowl

The Scholar's Bowl is a quiz bowl usually held in a theater. Team members work together to answer multiple choice questions that are displayed on a large screen.

To answer the questions, each team of students is given a clicker that is connected to a scoring computer on stage. After a question is announced, teams choose their answer by pressing their choice on the clicker. Teams have a varying amount of time to answer each question, typically between 10-20 seconds. Each successive question is harder and is worth more than the previous one. Occasional "lighting rounds" with fewer/simpler options can occur, typically with a lower time threshold and scoring lower points.

The Scholar's Bowl implements questions, many of which tend including references to pop culture, and often include WSC in-jokes. Often, participants will be shown a video related to its following question.

Scholars may celebrate with a "Chauncey Roll" when getting a question correct, a reference to a celebration of former staff member Chauncey Lo during his period as a scholar in the event.

Community Events

Community events do not provide scores, but are present for community-building and engagement.

The Scholar's Scavenge

The Scholar's Scavenge is a scavenger hunt exclusively at Global Rounds and the ToC, first taking place in 2009 in Singapore.

Students are teamed up randomly and given tasks. At least one person in the team takes photos and videos in order to show completion of the tasks. The tasks may relate to the curriculum, teamwork, organizer, location, or simply be jokes. Each task is worth a certain number of points depending upon the difficulty. At the end of the scavenge, the leader collects the photos and score them. These scores do not count toward the scores in the competition as a whole, but are only used for this event. Teams with the highest scores can be called for an award in an award ceremony.

The Debate Showcase

The format of the Debate Showcase mirrors the format of the Team Debate event, but the students debate in teams of four, rather than three, on stage in front of the rest of the participants. When all eight speakers have gone, the host of the Showcase invites volunteers from the audience and debaters from the showcase to step forward and share their general thoughts on the topic that was debated.

Top-scoring debate participants from each delegation make up both the speakers and judging panel of the Showcase.

The Scholar's Ball

The Scholar's Ball is an event similar to a school dance that encourages mingling, dancing, and the chance to "look sharp." Some students refer to it as a "pseudo-prom" or "nerd-prom." It was introduced to allow students mingle with students from different countries.

The Scholar's Show

The Scholar's Show is an uncompetitive talent show where scholars may opt to showcase their unique abilities. No prior experience is required, and there are little to no boundaries on what a talent can be.

Typically, the show consists mostly of singing and dancing acts.

The Scholar's Fair

The Scholar's Fair takes place at every Global Round and Tournament of Champions. Delegations set up booths to represent their countries, typically including food, souvenirs, and sometimes performances or demonstrations.

Flag March

The Flag March happens at the end of every Global Round and ToC before the Awards Ceremony. One representative from every country participates. The flag bearers carry the flag of their country and march to the stage, followed by a member of staff giving a farewell speech.

The World Scholar's Camp

In 2012, the World Scholar's Camp was created and took place in Singapore in December 2012. It included seminars and outings to various locations in Singapore. Camps take place at various schools and cities through the year.

Awards Ceremony

The Awards Ceremony, also known as the Closing Ceremony, takes place just before the end of a round. Traditionally, staff members stand on stage and announce the winners for the entire round. Various winners may receive gold medals, silver medals, trophies, or pineapples (given with trophies). These winners are given these awards for achievement in all events, both for team and individual recognition. Awards are also given to scholars who scored relatively well overall, but did not receive a gold medal or trophy for any particular event. These were initially called Da Vinci Awards, but their name was changed to the Asimov Award in 2023, as the award for the highest Challenge score, which was formerly named Asimov, had been renamed. Later, a certificate is shipped to all participants.

Curriculum

The World Scholar's Cup curriculum has six subjects. The theme changes annually. Students are often given questions that require critical thinking skills as well as their basic knowledge to come to a conclusion rather than focusing on memorization. For instance, instead of asking "On which date an experiment was performed?", the question would ask, "Which artist would be most likely to oppose this experiment?"

The subjects are, in order,

* Art & Music
* Social Studies
* History
* Literature & Media
* Science & Technology
* Special Area (custom each year)

Until 2009, mathematics, economics, and trigonometry were included in the curriculum. However, in 2010 it was eliminated in order to better address the goals of the competition since the subjects were considered as inflexible and difficult to debate. In 2008, the World Scholar's Cup added a 'film' category to its visual arts section, and in 2010 added a "music" category to its art section.

Until 2013, the World Scholar's Cup released curriculum guides each year—one for each subject. The guides were available free-of-charge on its official website. Starting in 2013, topic outlines and theme-relevant material was made freely available to students through their website. The World Scholar's Cup recommends connecting each section of the outline to the given theme and how they connect or impact society.

Until 2014, there was a Current Affairs section, which was replaced by Social Studies. To address its absence, Current Affairs would from thereon out be integrated across all six subjects instead.

Until 2023, the World Scholar's Cup program organized their syllabus into their 6 main subjects. Currently, the curriculum is listed in one document broken down into non-subject based subsections. The change made categorizing subjects more challenging, however it also allowed for any article to appear in multiple subjects.

In 2025, the World Scholar's Cup briefly removed the history subject in regional rounds in order to transition between 2024 and 2025 content. In its typical fashion, the earliest regional rounds of a year feature the syllabus from the previous year.

Records

The all-time record for the highest individual score was achieved by Sol Swea at the 2019 Penang Regional Round, with a score of 9,116. The highest-ever individual score in the junior division is Thorin Thompson's score of 9,015 at the 2025 Montreal Regional Round.

The team score record was set by Aindra Tan, Lily Zhang, and Stephanie Liu at the 2024 Dalian Global Round, with a score of 35,140.2. The highest Tournament of Champions team score is 34,450.8, set by Aindra Tan, Lily Zhang, and Stephanie Liu in 2024. The all-time highest regional round team score is 34,797, set by Thorin Thompson, Ethan Wang, and Hanson Wu at the 2025 Montreal Regional Round.

Champions

The winners of the Global Rounds and Tournaments of Champions are as follows.

''Names in bold are the annual champions of the Tournament of Champions''

Overall Individual Champions

Seniors

Juniors

Overall Team Champions

Seniors

Juniors

Individual Event Champions

Seniors

Juniors

Coach of The Year

Alpaca Scholar of the Year

Cria Scholar of the Year

Alpaca of the Year

MVP

Events in China

World Scholar's Cup events in China are hosted by ASDAN China, a Chinese subsidiary of ASDAN. Participants are required to apply through a third party Mini Program in WeChat. Chinese event information as well as results are sometimes not provided on the World Scholar's Cup official website, but instead on ASDAN China's.

Unofficial study guides and resources

The World Scholar's Cup features a comprehensive curriculum available on its official website, though participants often find it challenging to study and memorize effectively on their own. To address these challenges, scholars around the world have created a variety of resources, including summarized notes, event guides, and other large reference documents. These resources also often include mock quizzes, debate motions, writing prompts, and more.

Current resources created by scholars include:

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PocketPwaa
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IGNITION-
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kumqwaat
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WSC Beijing Alpacas

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Pwaaparation
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Legacy resources (large guides no longer in operation) include:
* Pwaasources
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Avan's Alpacas
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OnePwaa
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See also

* Mediated intercultural communication
* United States Academic Decathlon

Notes

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{{efn, name=a, Stated in a picture at the official website.
{{efn, name=b, Teams joined were given materials to help them during the program months prior to the program.

References

External links

World Scholar's Cup official website

DemiDec
Companies based in Los Angeles
International competitions