However the rapid growth of the university championships since its founding in 1981 showed the potential for international debating competitions.
Six nations competed in the inaugural tournament – Australia, Canada, England, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the United States.
The teams flew into different cities in Australia for their first debates, before meeting-up in Canberra for the second week of the competition.
As with some other international competitions (such as the FIFA World Cup), the nations of the United Kingdom are allowed to take part individually, as are dependent territories (such as Bermuda) and special regions of some countries (such as Hong Kong).
Special awards have been introduced for the highest-ranked teams made-up of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) and English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) speakers.
Between the end of the first and the beginning of the last minute of an eight-minute speech, the opposing party may offer "points of information".
However, the style has since been embraced by many countries for their national competitions, including Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Israel, Lithuania, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Wales.
Once the eight preliminary rounds have been completed, the 16 best teams compete in knock-out debates (known as the Octofinals) culminating in a Grand Final.
Special awards are presented at each year's World Schools Debating Championships to the best-performing English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) teams.
To be eligible for the EFL award, a team must be predominantly made-up of students who do not come from English-speaking homes and who do not attend schools where English is used as a medium of instruction.
The ESL award is for teams predominantly composed of students who are not first-language English-speakers, but who attend schools where some or all of the teaching is in English.
Before 2005, the WSDC rules stipulated that teams who reached the semi-finals or Grand Final of the championship were not eligible to receive the ESL award.
In the online editions of the championship (2020, 2021, 2022), teams debated their preliminary rounds in two separate divisions which grouped nations together by timezone.