Engagement

How directly a team deals with the other side's material and its POIs. The WUDC 2027 Manual (section 2.5) sets the following guidance.

• Unrebutted arguments are still treated as impactful once made and substantiated, but judges still weigh how significant they are; being ignored does not make an argument lose.
• There is no duty to "hit every argument". An absurd or marginal argument may reasonably be left unanswered.
• If major claims go unchallenged, they count as conceded by the team that passed up the chance to respond.
• Between teams that cannot rebut each other (for example on diagonals), judges assess independently which arguments are most important and most clearly proven, without inventing arguments for any team. Deliberately shutting out a relevant team's POIs is unpersuasive.
• Closing-half rebuttal should not influence the comparison between the two Opening teams.
• Each speaker must take at least one POI when sufficient opportunities are offered; see POIs.