On May 11th and 12th, the annual Paris Open, featuring its traditional wine tasting during rounds, took place. Chief-adjudicated by Yair Har-Oz, Shrishty Krishnamoorthy and Harish Natarajan, the tournament was won by the team Michael and Desmond (Michael Dunn-Goekjan and Desmond Fairall, OO) against If you can’t beat them, join them (Floris Holstege and Tom Manor, OG), Break ou Grève (Martin Devenney and Nissrine Majdi, CG), and Wild Chicken University Z (Jacob Lan and Joseph Xiao Liang, CO on the motion ‘This House believes that Wakanda should transition into a democracy.’ (with infoslide). The panel judging this final consisted of Shristi Krishnamoorthy (chair), Oskar Sherry, Druhva Bath, Ioana Branga-Peicu and Huyen Nguyen.

The ESL Final was won by All your mechs are belong to us (Uzair Tajuddin and Patricia Walter) against PRC – People’s Republic of Coimbra (André Carvalho and Diogo Videira), Southeast Pride (Trieu Le and Cinantyan Punjung Prapatti) and All in the Family (Dafna Haran and Dan Haran) on the motion This House supports the Haussmann reconstruction of Paris (with infoslide).

Semi finals were judged by Huyen Nguyen (chair), Yair Har-Oz and Ioana Branga-Peicu (semi 1) and Olivia Sundberg-Diez (chair), Daniel Maier-Gant and Liv Rutkowska (semi 2).

The Top Speaker of the tournament was Michael Dunn-Goekjan, with an average of 84. Best ESL speaker was Lucía Arce (82.8), best novice speaker Trieu Le (74).

The Break:
Michael and Desmond (Michael Dunn-Goekjan and Desmond Fairall) – 14
Your threesome fantasy (Lucía Arce and Finia Kuhlmann) – 13
If you can’t beat them, join them (Floris Holstege and Tom Manor) – 13
Eastern Europe’ is a hoax created by the Chinese (Nick Zervoudis and Jure Heredih) – 11
Break ou Grève (Martin Devenney Nissrine Majdi) – 11
Make Poland Great Again (Dawid Bartkowiak and Mateusz Marciniak) – 10
Wild Chicken University Z (Jacob Lan and Joseph Xiao Liang) – 10
Leiden B (David Metz and Louis Honee) – 9

The ESL Break
PRC – People’s Republic of Coimbra (André Carvalho and Diogo Videira) – 9
All your mechs are belong to us (Uzair Tajuddin and Patricia Walter) – 9
Southeast Pride (Trieu Le and Cinantyan Punjung Prapatti) – 9
All in the Family (Dafna Haran and Dan Haran) – 9

Motions:

R1: This House regrets the awarding of the Nobel prize for chemistry to Fritz Haber.
Infoslide: Fritz Haber created the Haber-Bosch process, that allows the conversion of Nitrogen in the air into Ammonia which can then be used for fertilizer. The discovery has fed billions of people around the world. Haber was also a war criminal, creating Chlorine gas to be used by his native Germany during World War I. After the war, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, for the Haber-Bosch process.

R2: This house believes that liberal democracies should aggressively fund mainstream media outlets
(eg. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian and Haaretz).

R3: This house regrets the culture of casual sex.

R4: This house believes that armies should adopt the Hannibal Directive.
Infoslide: A policy of shooting to kill one’s own soldiers if they are being captured by the enemy

R5: This house regrets the westernisation of the elites in post-colonial societies (e.g. speaking predominantly in English, wearing western clothing, going to schools and/or universities in the west, consuming predominantly western media).

ESL Final: This House supports the Haussmann reconstruction of Paris.
Infoslide: Barron Haussmann, spearheaded the massive urban reconstruction of Paris, which involved the displacement residents from the then crowded city center, and created Paris’s iconic wide boulevards and grand buildings.

SF: This house would create a separate Internationally recognised and protected Rohingya state in northern Rahkine.

F: This House believes that Wakanda should transition into a democracy.
Infoslide: Wakanda is a mineral-rich small state in Africa. It is run by an absolutist monarchy, where the rulers have largely been thought to have led the country well and contributed to its prosperity.

jgg./jm.