Konstantina Nathanail and Pegah Maham from the Berlin Debating Union have won the Bard College Berlin ProAm. [caption id="attachment_32914" align="alignright" width="377"] The winners of the Barc College Berlin Pro/Am: Konstantina Nathanail and Pegah Maham - © Elâ Marie Akay[/caption] The two from the team Constant Mayhem convinced the jury as Opening Opposition to the motion “This House would prefer to live in a world in which genetic engineering of fetuses is possible and widely accessible.” All three other teams in the final were from the Berlin Debating Union, too: Martian Law (Marcel John, Martijn Roo) in Opening Government, BDU Huggator (Kathrin Niederschuh, ...

Ido Kotler and Monica Forman from Tel Aviv won the Berlin IV 2017, speaking in Closing Opposition to the motion "This House would prefer a world where there is only one religion". [caption id="attachment_32206" align="alignright" width="400"] Chief Adjudicators van Beusekom, Irvine, Smith, Har-Oz, Large, Winners Kotler and Forman - © Jonas Huggins[/caption] As team #Reichs_tag_a_friend they beat Munich A (Melda Eren, Wladi Jachtchenko) in Opening Government,  Debating – not even once (Milla Huuskonen - Helsinki, Leo Yung - London) in Opening Opposition and Oxford A (Tommy Peto, Raffy Marshall) in Closing Government. The final was judged by Sivan Avitan in the chair, Namita Gupta, ...

It is the longest time at a debating tournament: The last closed round is over and you are waiting for the break. The tabbing team always takes longer than promised, and the social can barely pass the time. [caption id="attachment_25851" align="alignright" width="300"] Debatebreaker's logo[/caption]There are the patient debaters who can sit back and relax, and let the break surprise them. If you belong to the many who are not like that, you probably spend the time constantly speculating about your chances. You have a rough idea of your score, but will it be enough for the break?There are some rules of thumb that you ...

Update: As not enough teams have registered, the Open Worlds have been canceled.In the summer of 2015, Las Vegas will be the glamourous site for the Open Worlds. This is a new, week-long tournament meant to complement the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC). Just as at WUDC, the Open Worlds uses British Parliamentary Style. The main difference however is that as an open tournament, there is no restriction to university institutions.Teams may register independently or represent universities or even employers. “Too often debating is restricted to university students when experience tells us that communication skills, and the ability to develop ...

For the eleventh time, the Leiden Debating Union will host the Leiden Open. The tournament will last from February 28 to March 1 and features five preliminary rounds and breaks into semi-finals as well as a novice final. The tournament will be on Saturday and Sunday, but there will be a social on Friday night. A detailed schedule will be announced soon on the tournament’s facebook event. There will be one Chief Adjudicator (CA) with three Deputy Chief Adjudicators (DCAs): CA Daan Welling won last year’s Leiden Open and was a finalist at the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC) in Berlin 2013. ...

It is one of the oldest tournaments in Europe: This December, for the 16th time, the SSE Riga IV will take place. Latvia’s capital is European Capital of Culture in 2014.  The British Parliamentary Style-tournament will have five preliminary rounds and a break to quarterfinals as well as a novice final. On Saturday night, a spiritual debate will take place. Steven Ramesh Rajavinothan and Gediminas Užkuraitis are Chief Adjudicators. Both the Tabmaster and the Equity Officer are yet to be announced. Up to 72 teams can participate in the tournament. For more information, see the facebook event. Ruta Gabalina is the ...

The Lund Debate Society invites debaters to Sweden for its Lund IV 2014. The tournament will feature five preliminary rounds and a break into quarterfinals as well as a novice final. The organisers advertise the competition via the Facebook event, highlighting the 4-star hotel accommodation, the breakfast buffet, and the fact that the out rounds will take place in the hotel. The Chief Adjudicators (CAs) of Lund IV will be a team of four debaters: Ashish Kumar was champion of the European University Debating Championships (EUDC) in 2013 and Deputy Chief Adjudicator (DCA) of Zagreb EUDC 2014. Madeline Schultz won the Australasian Intervarsity ...

Ashish Kumar and Michael Dunn Goekjian have won the Paris Open 2014. The final jury unanimously decided that the team from Cambridge prevailed as Opening Opposition to the following motion: This House supports the unlimited use of war-time propaganda which aims to dehumanise the enemy. The Top of the tab team Pascal A (Alon van Dam, Harish Natarajan) was in Opening Government, Belgrade A (Helena Ivanov, Stefan Siridžansky) spoke in Closing Government, and Matthew Willmore and Scott Ralston from the team Wigglypuf in Closing Opposition. [caption id="attachment_22946" align="alignright" width="400"] Michael Dunn Goekjian offers a POI while his team partner Ashish Kumar ...

Kai Dittmann began cautiously. “It often is not easy to argue for free trade,” said the 2014 World Champion in the category English as a Second Language (ESL). “But it is the marginal benefits that sum up.” Together with John Eltringham, who works at the American Academy in Berlin, he represented the government side in a public debate on the first evening of the Berlin Intervarsity. The question debated was: “Does Europe need the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)?” Speakers at the public debate (from left to right): John Eltringham, Kai Dittmann, Christoph Krakowiak, Rebecca Irvine and Philipp Stiel (c) ...

Ruairidh Macintosh and Daan Welling from Leiden/St Andrews won the Lustrum Leiden Open 2014. The team with the name “Two Guys” beat 57 other teams from all over the world who attended the Dutch tournament. The decision was very narrow: The judging panel took very long to come to a conclusion, in the end favouring “Two Guys” in a 4-3 split decision. Ruairidh also was the best speaker after the five preliminary rounds, scoring 81.8 points on average and remarkable 89 points in the fifth round. The full team and speaker tab is available online. Martijn Otten, Lisa Schallenberg and Gigi ...