Really Bad Hombres, winners of the first Novi Sad Open – (c) Jan-Gunther Gosselke

The team Really Bad Hombres (Miloš Marjanović & Teodora Resetar)  has won Novi Sad Open 2017 in Opening Opposition, debating the motion “THBT all companies should be majority owned and controlled by their workers” against Break or Move Out (OG, Chris Edgar & Ben Shaw), Helicopters at night (CG, Dariusch Klett-Cotta & Paul Reiter) and Samo je korak do dna (CO, Ilija Ivanišević & Janko Djordjevic). The final was judged by Emilia Carlqvist, Paul Smith, Jovan Petronijevic and Milja Sijakinjic.

Best speaker of the tournament was Ilija Ivanišević with an average score of 81,25 points.

Novi Sad Open 2017 was the city’s first tournament, taking place in Novi Sad from 24th to 26th of February 2017 and being CAed by Emilia Carlqvist, Paul Smith, Jovan Petronijevic, Nikolay Neykov and Harish Natarajan although the latter didn’t seem to attend in person. It offered typical Serbian breakfast dishes, motions with an emphasis on political topics, and rather high amounts of Rakia for its participants. Unfortunately it also suffered from some logistical difficulties which resulted in round 5 getting cut.

The Breaks:

Open:

1. Samo je korak do dna (Ilija Ivanišević & Janko Djordjevic) – 12 points
2. Bebenevolent dictators (Miri Muntean & Ingo Van Bandi) – 9 points
3. Break or Move Out (Chris Edgar & Ben Shaw) – 8 points
4. Helicopters at night (Dariusch Klett-Cotta & Paul Reiter) – 8 points
5. Cinema Communisto (Milan Vignjevic & Stela Braje) – 8 points
6. Crooked Hillary and lying Ted (Jan-Gunther Gosselke & Katarina Kuzman) – 8 points
7. Really Bad Hombres (Miloš Marjanović & Teodora Resetar) – 7 points
8. Adam Whatever (Dawid Wojciech Bartkowiak & Primos Fabiani) – 7 points

Judge Break:

The breaking judges were Emilia Carlqvist, Paul Smith, Nikolay Neykov, Jovan Petronijevic, Milja Sijakinjic, John Tsopanis, Jelisaveta Stanisic and Alex Moise.

The Motions:

Rd 1: THBT universities should be primarily ranked on the quality of their teaching rather than their research output.

Rd 2: THW allow workers to forefit certain employment rights of their choosing in return for financial benefits.

Rd 3: TH regrets the expansion of NATO to eastern European countries.

Rd 4: THBT California should secede from USA.

SF: THBT European union should not seek to create European identity, but rather should focus solely on economic and trade policy.

F: THBT all companies should be majority owned and controlled by their workers.

jgg./jm.