At the Winter Holiday Open in Zagreb, a World Schools Debate tournament, USA Debate A (Liz Yount, Josh May, Aditya Dhar and Ella Michaels) participated the final in proposition against Bežigrad Green Stars (Matija Pušnik, Reja Debevc, Filip Korošec in Opposition on the motion TH regrets the commercialization of feminism.

The winning team bežigrad Green Stars – © WHO

The proposition debated the intersectionality of feminism, secondly the limitation of political action and lastly the resulting commodification and need for opposition to the system.

Opposition argued against this with the arguments that the commercialization will lead to popularisation of feminism and a concrete political change, especially in terms of self perception of women, critical mass for legislative change and role models. Additionally they argued about the impact on feminism in the developing world.

The tournament was ultimately won by Bežigrad Green Stars on a 4-3 split decision. The final was adjudicated by Geetha Creffield in chair, Tudor Musat, Laura Alviz, Ela Jurko, Filip Dobrovič, Piotr Pospišil and Martin šedovič.

Matija Pušnik from Bežigrad Green Stars was declared best speaker of the tournament.

Out of the originally 96 teams from 18 different countries, the following teams broke to the octofinals:

1. USA DEBATE B (Colette Faulkner, Sarah Lanier, Nikhil Ramaswamy & Gaurav Gawankar; 6 Wins)
2. USA DEBATE A (Liz Yount, Josh May, Aditya Dhar & Ella Michaels; 6 Wins)
3. Logos Trbovlje B (Vasja Grošelj, Zan Jernej Kovac & Iza Jerman; 6 Wins; Slovenia)
4. Bežigrad Green Stars (Matija Pušnik, Reja Debevc & Filip Korošec, 5 Wins; Slovenia)
5. US Logos 2 (Austin Lux, Madison Carroll & Lincoln Gilette; 5 Wins)
6. Romania Gold (Roxana Cisleanu, Miruna Cozianu & Petru Draghici; 5 Wins)
7. US Logos 3 (Nicole Wingard, Ben Lux & Austin Pistor; 5 Wins)
8. Romania Red (Mara Croitoru, Teodora Munteanu & Smaranda Morosanu; 5 Wins)
9. Romania Blue (Teodor Iancu, Radu Suciu & Calin Biberea; 5 Wins)
10. Czech Blue (Kateřina Adámková, Timofey Kozhukhov and Samuel Nvota; 5 Wins)
11. Busmani 1 (Marija Jarnjak, Igor Fras, Alma Dzarfic & Lovro Matic; 5 Wins; Croatia)
12. DGM A (Sara Brdnik, Lucija Ivaniša & Staša Kucer; 5 Wins; Croatia)
13. Bežigrad Moonshine (Primoz Fabiani, Urh Prosenc & Martin Flerin; 5 Wins; Slovenia)
14. Czech Red (Matěj Ballaty, Martin Kent Kraus, David Řehořka; 5 Wins)
15. USA IPDB B (Katie Na, Amari Huang & James Hu; 4 Wins)
16. Litija A (Ana Dimic Benko, Nina Zimic & Eva Mlinar; 4 Wins; Slovenia)

The runner-up USA Debate A – © WHO

The adjudicator break consisted of Chris Sanchez, Laura Alviz, Barbara Svagan, Ivona Antic, Tin Puljic, Manuel Kralj, Michael Pecena, Bedrich Bluma, Piotr Pospisil, Tudor Musat, Jure Macuh, Tilen Markelj, Martin Sedovic, Moez Dhahri, Vladimir Alexander, Sherri Russel, Annabel Tan, Adriana Kostic, Daniel Azaz, Diana Scorpan, Eta Krpanec, Gabrijela Martic, Karin Hrovatin, Miha Andric, Jernej Podgornic, Martin Zibert, Cindi Timmons, Geetha Creffield and Bojana Skrt.

Winter Holiday Open is an annual schools competition in the World Schools format. It was run in 2013 for the first time. Organizers of this years edition were Anastanzia Stupar and Bojan Marjanovic. The CA team consisted out of Bojana Skrt from Slovenia and Geetha Creffield from Singapore. It was held from the 16th to 18th of December 2016 in Zagreb, Croatia.

The two trial teams for Team Germany 2017 closely missed the break on speaker points and with one point. Two German judges, Chris Sanchez and Laura Alviz, broke to the outrounds. Laura also judged the grand final.

The Motions:

Round 1 and 2 : This house believes that developing countries should nationalize companies that extract their national resources (Motion is debated twice with every team debating both sides; prepared motion)

Round 3: THW impose a minimum age for pop stars (impromptu motion)

Round 4: This house regrets the phenomena of mobile games like Pokémon go (impromptu motion)

Round 5 and 6: This house regrets the commercialization of feminism (Motion is debated twice with every team debating both sides; prepared motion)

Octo Final: This house believes that developing countries should nationalize companies that extract their national resources

Quarter Final: TH regrets the rise of social media as a primary source of news distribution

Semi Final: THW stop commemorating wars

Grand Final: TH regrets the commercialization of feminism

hh./lok.