The Dutch victory celebration featuring European champions Katharina Margareta Jansen (4th from left), Emma Lucas (5th f.l.) Louis Honee (6th f.l.) and David Metz (7th f.l.) – © Louis Honee

The Astana EUDC 2020 has come to an end and it has been a successful tournament for the Leiden Debating Union. The Dutch debating society was able to win both the ESL and Open final and topped the ESL speaker awards as well.

In the grand final, Leiden A (David Metz, Emma Lucas) took the victory out of Closing Opposition against the Opening Government Leiden C (Louis Honee, Katharina Margareta Jansen), Opening Opposition HUJI A (Miriam Kalman, Neta Kenneth Portal; Jerusalem) and Closing Government Tel Aviv B (Assaph Hanany, Gil Peled). The debate on the motion “THW allow police officers to refuse orders on grounds of conscience” was adjudicated by Lucía Arce Cubas as chair together with Lovro Šprem, Lucy Murphy, Melda Eren, Milos Marjanovic, Raffy Marshall and Sebastián Dasso.

The ESL final was won by the Closing Government Leiden C (Louis Honee, Katharina Margareta Jansen), speaking against Opening Government UDIMA A (Javier de la Puerta, Antonio Fabregat; Madrid), Opening Opposition Warwick A (Lucie Slamova, Rafael Shimabukuro) and Closing Opposition Vienna A (Ingo Bandhauer, Miri Muntean). The debate featured the motion “THW only recruit atheists to be part of the group, and would not allow any religious books or items of worship on board (incl. Infoslide)”. The adjudication panel consisted of Dan Lahav as chair, Hadar Goldberg, Ife Grillo, Janko Đorđević, Milla Huuskonen, Noam Dahan and Sarah Tay.

The best Open speaker was Hamza Tariq Chaudhry with an average of 83.22 speaker points.
Best ESL speaker (and second best Open speaker) was Emma Lucas, averaging 83.11 speaker points.

Additionally, Antonio Fabregat received the Brilliance Award (most memorable speech) for his performance in the ESL Semifinal. Responsible for the selection was the award committee of Michael Shapira, Helena Ivanov and Manos Moschopoulos. The complete shortlist also featured the speeches of Miri Muntean (Open QF), Katharina Margareta Jansen (Open QF) and Hamza Tariq Chaudhry (Open QF).

The Astana EUDC 2020 was convened by the Astana Debate Union and took place from August 2nd to 6th 2020. The Chief Adjudication panel consisted of Monica Forman and Raffy Marshall (CAs) as well as Melda Eren, Tin Puljić and Tom Manor (DCAs). Leading the tab team were Alex Murray and George Chen as co-directors. They were supported by Steven Roy, Abylai Boranbay, Aiya Yegenberdiyeva, Ayazhan Ramazanova and Edmund Ross. Due to the Corona situation, the tournament was held via Discord and Zoom. The outrounds as well as the closing ceremony and several workshops are available on the Astana Debate Union Youtube channel.

Open Break:

Open Champions: Emma Lucas & David Metz – © Lucy McManus

1. LSE A (Hamza Tariq Chaudhry, Ciara Mitchell) – 24 pts | 1489 spks
2. Leiden B (Roel Becker, Romée Lind) – 22 pts | 1478 spks
3. Leiden A (David Metz, Emma Lucas) – 21 pts | 1481 spks
4. NU A (Alisher Juzgenbayev, Mukhtar Tashkenbayev) – 20 pts | 1459 spks
5. Berlin E (Braedon Lehman, Marc-Andre Schulz) – 20 pts | 1443 spks
6. Oxford A (Jack Solomon, Oskar Sherry) – 19 pts | 1458 spks
7. Imperial A (Ivan Kapelyukh, Rhys Steele) – 19 pts | 1453 spks
8. Tel Aviv A (Ido Bar-Sella, Joseph Kalman) – 19 pts | 1441 spks
9. HUJI A (Miriam Kalman, Neta Kenneth Portal) – 19 pts | 1439 spks
10. Edinburgh C (Cerys Walsh, Jason Woods) – 19 pts | 1435 spks
11. Warwick A (Lucie Slamova, Rafael Shimabukuro) – 19 pts | 1430 spks
12. Durham A (George Filippopoulos, Hannah Cook) – 19 pts | 1429 spks
13. Leiden C (Louis Honee, Katharina Margareta Jansen) – 19 pts | 1428 spks
14. Cambridge A (Han Yang Goh, Joshua Yeung) – 18 pts | 1478 spks
15. TCD Hist A (Caoimhin Hamill, Jack Synnott) – 18 pts | 1448 spks
16. UDIMA A (Javier de la Puerta, Antonio Fabregat) – 18 pts | 1439 spks
17. Belgrade A (Đorđe Radosavljević, Marta Vasić) – 18 pts | 1431 spks
18. Sofia A (Nikolay Angelov, Rumen Marinov) – 18 pts | 1422 spks
19. OpenU A (Daniel Bareket, David Hundia) – 18 pts | 1417 spks
20. LSE C (Mingxuan Lin, Murtaza Zaidi) – 18 pts | 1413 spks
20. Vienna A (Ingo Bandhauer, Miri Muntean) – 18 pts | 1413 spks
22. Tel Aviv B (Assaph Hanany, Gil Peled) – 17 pts | 1431 spks
23. Bristol A (Ron Leizrowice, Timothy Lo) – 17 pts | 1429 spks
24. Oxford B (Louisa Broeg, Sukhmani Kaur) – 17 pts | 1424 spks

ESL Break:

ESL Champions: Louis Honee and Katharina Margareta Jansen – © Devin van den Berg

1. Leiden B (Roel Becker, Romée Lind) – 22 pts | 1478 spks
2. Leiden A (David Metz, Emma Lucas) – 21 pts | 1481 spks
3. NU A (Alisher Juzgenbayev, Mukhtar Tashkenbayev) – 20 pts | 1459 spks
4. Warwick A (Lucie Slamova, Rafael Shimabukuro) – 19 pts | 1430 spks
5. Leiden C (Louis Honee, Katharina Margareta Jansen) – 19 pts | 1428 spks
6. UDIMA A (Javier de la Puerta, Antonio Fabregat) – 18 pts | 1439 spks
7. Belgrade A (Đorđe Radosavljević, Marta Vasić) – 18 pts | 1431 spks
8. Sofia A (Nikolay Angelov, Rumen Marinov) – 18 pts | 1422 spks
9. OpenU A (Daniel Bareket, David Hundia) – 18 pts | 1417 spks
10. Vienna A (Ingo Bandhauer, Miri Muntean) – 18 pts | 1413 spks
11. Tel Aviv B (Assaph Hanany, Gil Peled) – 17 pts | 1431 spks
12. HUJI B (Lior Sokol, Tamar Ben Meir) – 17 pts | 1407 spks
13. OpenU B (Itay Nourian, Yarin Samuel) – 17 pts | 1399 spks
14. Haifa A (Anna Shreder, Morad Khoury) – 17 pts | 1392 spks
15. Amsterdam A (Marike Breed, Nikola Michaylov) – 16 pts | 1438 spks
16. Streitkultur A (Marius Hobbhahn, Samuel Scheuer) – 16 pts | 1415 spks

Adjudication Break (in alphabetical order):

Aisling Tully, Alexander Fraser, Ayal Hayut-man, Daan Spackler, Daan Welling, Dan Lahav, Dana Green, Dani Georgiev, Deepak Manchikanti, Doireann O’Brien, Duncan Crowe, Edith Chow, Elaye Karstadt, Emily Frizell, Eva-Marie Quinones, Grace Amilbangsa, Hadar Goldberg, Harmen de Jong, Ian Wu, Ido Kotler, Ife Grillo, Ilija Ivanišević, Jacklin Kwan, Jan-Gunther Gosselke, Janko Đorđević, Jessica Musulin, Joona Suhonen, Joseph Lewis, Khalis Khalid, Klaudia Maciejewska, Lena Kolle, Linsey Keur, Lovro Šprem, Lucía Arce Cubas, Lucy Murphy, Melda Eren, Milla Huuskonen, Milos Marjanovic, Monica Forman, Nick Zervoudis, Nicole O’Sullivan, Noam Dahan, Raffy Marshall, Reed, Robert Barrie, Roy Schulman, Sajid Khandaker, Sarah Tay, Sebastián Dasso, Senkai Hsia, Seyoung Jeon, Sourodip Paul, Tin Puljić,Tom Manor, Tudor Musat, Udai Kamath and Yoni Cohen-Idov

Top-10 Speakers (+ speaks on average):
1. Hamza Tariq Chaudhry – 83.22
2. Emma Lucas – 83.11
3. Romée Lind – 82.56
4. Joshua Yeung – 82.22
4. Ciara Mitchell – 82.22
6. David Metz – 82.11
7. Roel Becker – 81.67
8. Han Yang Goh – 81.33
8. Oskar Sherry – 81.33
10. Alisher Juzgenbayev – 81.22
10. Rhys Steele – 81.22

Top-10 Speakers (ESL):
1. Emma Lucas – 83.11
2. Romée Lind – 82.56
3. Joshua Yeung – 82.22
4. David Metz – 82.11
5. Roel Becker – 81.67
6. Alisher Juzgenbayev – 81.22
7. Mukhtar Tashkenbayev – 80.89
8. Ido Bar-Sella – 80.56
9. Antonio Fabregat – 80.33
10. Katharina Margareta Jansen – 80.11
10. Nikola Michaylov – 80.11

The Motions:

R1: THW only allow university admission on the basis of standardized testing, as opposed to non-quantitative methods (e.g. essays, alumni interviews)

R2: Infoslide: All third-party sellers on Amazon are contractually obliged to settle any dispute between them and Amazon in an Amazon internal arbitration process

This House Would ban Amazon’s internal arbitration courts

R3: Infoslide: Mindfulness is the psychological process of purposely bringing one’s attention to experiences occurring in the present moment without judgment, which one develops through the practice of meditation and through other training

This House Opposes the commercialization of Mindfulness

R4: This House Believes That pro-democratic activists should use fake news and synthetic media (e.g. “deepfake”, fake video or audio recordings) to advance their cause.

R5: THR the trend of central banks setting extremely low interest rates after the 2008 financial crisis

R6: Infoslide: 10 Minute School is a large educational start-up operating in Bangladesh. It produces very popular online content including lessons on school subjects, as well as basic life skills such as writing a CV.Recently, in response to several videos about consent, LGBTQ+ rights and gender equality, extremists in Bangladesh have come out against the organization and its founders, calling the organization anti-Muslim and openly threatening them.

THBT 10 Minute School should remove the videos.

R7: Given the technology, This House Would erase society’s memory and evidence of the criminal past of former convicts after their release from prison.

R8: This House Believes That leaders of an occupied nation should not assist the occupying powers in maintaining stability.

R9: This House Would ban ownership consolidation of newspapers by a single entity e.g. private equity firms, single media company.

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ESL

QF: Infoslide: From 1976 to 1983, Argentina was ruled by a military junta. In order to ensure lasting loyalty to the regime, the junta secretly kidnapped children of “subversive” parents as infants.

This House Would force individuals suspected of being a “stolen child” under the junta to undergo DNA testing to establish whether they are indeed stolen children.

SF: THBT countries should suspend all elections in times of severe health crises

F: Infoslide: The year is 2140. A distant planet very similar to Earth has been discovered. A group of humans is supposed to embark on a journey to settle the planet.

THW only recruit atheists to be part of the group, and would not allow any religious books or items of worship on board

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Open

PDQ: This House Would ban insurance coverage for sexual misconduct claims.

QF: This House Would transfer management of all water resources to an international body.

SF: TH, as Israel, would form a strategic military alliance with the Kurds in Syria.

F: THW allow police officers to refuse orders on grounds of conscience

jm.