The date is set: This year’s Berlin IV will be staged from July 8 to 10. With this BPS tournament, the German capital will thus be a good place to exercis for the Galway Euros in August.

IV is not the Roman number 4, but stands for “InterVarsity”, hence a competition between universities. Students from insitutions from all over the world are welcome to compete over six prelims with seven-minute speeches and break to open semis and final or to the ESL final where ESL stands for English as a Second Language. The team cap is 52, the first 40 of which will be distributed due to “first come, first serve”. The other 12 will be allocated to clubs that haven’t got a team.

Registration will be open from May 2, please go to the Berlin IV website. Reg fees are 35 Euros for debaters and 25 Euros for judges where n-1 applies! Participation is free for debaters from Scandinavia since the hosting Berlin Debating Union (BDU) observed a developping scene up in the North.

Convenor Dessislava Kirova promises top judges from the international debating circuit. The chief adjudication team is to be announced. Last year’s CA team consisted of Patrick Emann (BDU), Leela Koenig (CA Amsterdam Euros 2010) and Doug Cochran (final judge at Koc Worlds 2010).

Accommodation will be offered as crash – those havoing friends and siblings in Berlin are asked to stay at their places for the tourney. For further details, please go to the Berlin IV homepage, visit the Berlin IV on Facebook or ask Dessislava at Dessislavka [at] web [dot] de.

Sensation of last year’s Berlin IV: Anat Gelber, twice runner-up to Euros, accepted Michael Shapira‘s hand who had popped the question after the break announcement. They are now married since the week before Passover.

Winners of the Berlin IV 2010 were Jeroen Heun and Daniel Springer from Rotterdam (Erasmus Debating Society)in the open final, and Micha Beekman and Joris Vincent from Utrecht (UCU Debating Union) in the ESL final. im ESL-Finale den Sieg mit nach Hause. Best speaker of the final was Anat – a nice proposal present!

xzy / glx / apf