On the weekend of April 8-9, my teammates, Iris Lee and Annie Lim, and I went to the World Scholar’s Cup Shanghai regional round. It was unexpectedly one of the most exciting experiences I had been to in a while filled with suspense, victory, and lots of alpacas. Here are some of my personal favourite moments from the experience.
During the first day, our last event was team debate. Some of us were running on three hours of sleep, and were quite ready to pass out, but we had to stay awake for just a bit longer. We had successfully won our first two rounds, and there was only one left. Slowly, we researched, gave our speeches, and gave feedback. At this point, we were quite nervous as our opponents had been quite skilled. This round depended on what the judge thought. After a moment of deliberation, the judge stood up, and announced that we had won the final round. We held back for the sake of the other team, but as soon as they left, we burst out cheering. We had officially won all three rounds.
One of the main events during the second day was the scholar’s show. Despite having prepared nothing, we decided to perform anyway. To raise Concordia spirit, we decided to perform an alpacafied version of the Concordia fight song. We went onstage, waved around our alpacas, and commanded the unsuspecting crowd to sing along. At the end when we revealed that everyone had been singing our school anthem, we left the stage to uproarious screams. Overall, a successful way to boost crowd energy and Concordia Spirit.
Despite not having high expectations, we came back with stacks of gold and silver medals and six trophies, including the one for overall champions. I remember the medals clanking loudly as we walked back to the bus. People turned to look and their eyes widened as they saw each of us carrying two trophies as well.
Although attending the Shanghai round of WSC meant I had to do most of my homework at 2 AM that weekend, I would not change a thing, and I’m sure my teammates would agree. We qualified for the global rounds, and I can’t wait to do it all over again this summer.
