The Final of Doxbridge III: Return of the King was won by They're taking the ballots to Bidengard (Tin Puljić, Lovro Šprem; Zagreb) in Opening Government, speaking against Runner Up Maternal Damnation (Srishti Krishnamoorthy-Cavell, Tudor Musat; Cambridge) in Opening Opposition, Belgrade MD (Janko Đorđević, Miloš Marjanović) in Closing Government, and Yale QE (David Edimo, Eva-Marie Quinones). The debate on the motion " was judged by Aisling Tully as chair together with Hadar Goldberg, Jason Xiao, Kit Mercer, Lucie Slamova, Niki Linganur and Uphie Abdurrahman. Fitting the tournament theme, the final motion read "Assuming the One Ring has been destroyed and Sauron defeated, TH, as a Hobbit, ...

The grand final of the Effective Altruism Debating Championship 2020 was won by We Were There When the Social Contract was Signed (Teck Wei Tan, Srishti Krishnamoorthy-Cavell) in Opening Government. Speaking against them were We are utility monsters, give us the 1 (Karthik Tadepalli, Tejas Subramanian) in Opening Opposition, WSDC Canada Rejects (Trenton Sewell, Tyson Dennis-Sharma) in Closing Government, Putting the Fun in Dysfunctional (Franka Boender, Ayal Mor) in Closing Opposition. The motion read "THBT, after meeting their basic needs, individuals have a moral responsibility to donate their wealth towards poverty alleviation". The adjudication panel was chaired by Hadar Goldberg and also ...

Princeton 1 (Greg Weaving, Xiao-Ke Lu) in Opening Opposition has won the Open category of the United States University Debating Championships 2020. Speaking against them were Chicago 1 (Devesh Kodnani, Brian Li) in Opening Government, Princeton 2 (Shreyas Kumar, Preston Johnson) in Closing Government, and Chicago 2 (Jaewon Park, Jay Gibbs) in Closing Opposition. They spoke on the motion "THBT it is in the interest of the US to take measures to significantly reduce its economic ties and connections with China (e.g. reducing investment and redirecting trade, and shifting away from yuan in its reserve currency basket)". Chairing the adjudication ...

The winners of the Asian British Parliamentary Championship 2020 in Malaysia are Ateneo 1 (Mikko Vitug, Ignaceo Villareal). They won the grand final out of Closing Opposition, speaking against  UPD 2 (Alia Yao, Clarice Tee) in Opening Government, NUS 1 (Tao En Qi, Shaun Lee) in Opening Opposition), and Taylor's 1 (Har Naveenjeet Singh, Ploopy) in Closing Government. The final was chaired by Piali Bopanno. Judging with them were Boby Andika Ruitang, Connor O'Brien, Dominic, EnTing Lee, Erica Liu, Fardeen Ameen, Taha Iqbal, Udai Kamanth. The motion read "TH, as the feminist movement, would advocate for aggressive government intervention to counteract behaviours which the feminist movement determines are ...

The final of the Hart House Inter-Varsity 2020 was won by the team in Opening Government Yale EQ (David Edimo, Eva-Marie Quinones). They defeated MDU FP (Naomi Panovka, Matt Farrell; McGill) in Opening Opposition, UADS BJ (Karel Brandenbarg, Emma Jones; Alberta) in Closing Government and Princeton JW (Greg Weaving, Daniel Ju) in Closing Opposition. The motion of the final read "THBT it is in the interest of countries that experienced Japanese colonial occupation (e.g., South Korea, China, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam) to boycott the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo if far-right paraphernalia (e.g., displays of the Rising Sun flag) are permitted".  ...

The grand final of the Kyiv Open 2020 was won by DU Players (Jack Williams, Gabrielle Fullam) of Trinity College Dublin, speaking in Opening Opposition. Concluding the tournament as finalists were TBC (Lucie Slamova, Triinu Jogi; Warwick/Sheffield) in Opening Government, Both of us actually wanted to speak with Jack (Caoimhin Hamill, Olja Bosnjak; TCD/Zagreb) in Closing Government, and Maastricht A(ges Past) (Katharina Jansen, Alwin Bakker) in Closing Opposition. The final was chaired by Lucy Murphy, judging alongside Shruti Deb, Tin Puljic, Arie Mora and Harmen de Jong. The top speaker was Caoimhin Hamill, with an average of 81 speaker points. The Break: 1. Both of ...

This is the second part of a four (!) part series on accessibility in debate, looking at strategies for debaters and judges seeking safe access to debate. The first part covered strategies for participants to improve access to debate and is available here. The third part will encompass different regions' structures of equity within and outside of tournaments. The fourth and final part will contextualize the gendered and racialized experiences of leaders and organizers across the spectrum of debate circuits. If you have questions, suggestions, or experiences to share, please contact spruced@tuta.io. As always, people are sincerely encouraged to share ...

The final of the Astana Open 2020 was won by the team Arie Potter and Ron Weasley (Arie Mora, Ron Leizrowice; Kiev/Bristol). Out of Closing Opposition, they defeated the Opening Government MDM A (Jason Woods, Maurice Coutiel; Edinburgh/London), Opening Opposition Astana is where I put my laptop (Eyal Horowitz, Boaz Katzir; Tel Aviv) and Closing Government we can do anything we put our minds to ???‍♀️✨just not this????‍♀️ (Daniela Williams, Isabelle Healy; Dublin). The debate on the motion "THBT the Kremlin should support Svetlana Tichanovskaya (incl. infoslide) was judged by Milla Huuskonen as chair, Aigerim Shadeyeva, Caoimhin Hamill, Dani Georgiev ...

The Open Final of the Europe Queer Open 2020 was won by I Feel Love (Robert Raos, Simon Luo), speaking against Brave (Adam Lambert, Jamie Clayton) in Opening Government, I Will Survive (Jeffrey Huang Ma, Zuha Tanweer), and Born This Way (Lena Kolle, Rachel Homnick). They spoke on the motion "This House Prefers Utilitarianism to Deontology." The Final was chaired by Lucie Slamova. Judging with them were Dominique Jackson, Katherine Harris, Parth Pandya, and Rhys Steele. The Pro Am Final was won by I'm Coming Out (Hannah Gadsby, Daniela Williams) in Closing Government, speaking against Over the Rainbow (Michael Conway, Steward Johnson) in Opening Government, Vogue (Aleks Bell, Rebecca Harrigan), and Come ...

The IIT Bombay Debate 2020 was won by Trade Chonks Not Stonks (Enting Lee, Cveta Gotovats) speaking in Closing Opposition on the motion "THW abolish the law against scandalizing the court in India." They spoke against Taylors A (Ploopy, Har Naveenjeet Singh) in Opening Government; 2 bomb bombabes in Bombay (redacted, Josh Kemp) in Opening Opposition; and Is that Jess birthday party for debate addicts? (Hadar Goldberg, Klaudia Maciejewska) in Closing Government. The Final was chaired by Nicolas Lozano. Judging with them were Sera Yun, Sachit Ram, Jordyn Gibson, Karthik Bansal, Uphie Abdurrahman. The top Speaker was Amrit Agastia, Taylors University, with ...

The Zagreb Random Pro Am, hosted by the Zagreb 2022 bid's organising team, was held on August 29th and 30th 2020 and comprised of 32 teams, some registered together and some randomly assigned as partnerships. The Chief Adjudication Panel consisted of Emma Lucas, Matt Hazell, and Lovro Sprem. The tournament featured three preliminary rounds followed by a break to three finals corresponding with the positions 1 - 4; positions 5 - 8; and positions 9 - 12. Each final debated the same motion: "For crimes with low prosecution and conviction rates (e.g. sexual assault, domestic violence or membership of criminal gangs), ...

This is the first part of a four (!) part series on accessibility in debate, looking at strategies for debaters and judges seeking safe access to debate. The second part will cover CA responsibilities and approaches to ensuring access to debate. The third part will encompass different regions' structures of equity within and outside of tournaments. The fourth and final part will contextualize the gendered and racialized experiences of leaders and organizers across the spectrum of debate circuits. If you have questions, suggestions, or experiences to share, please contact spruced@tuta.io Accessibility in Debate At tournaments, underrepresented gender and ability identities face barriers ...

[caption id="attachment_36956" align="alignright" width="455"] 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[/caption] 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, ...

The Women and Gender Minorities Online Debate Open 2020 was hosted by Livi McAlrea and Emily Xie on the 25th and 26th of July. It featured 68 teams and a break to open quarterfinals and to a novice final. The tournament was founded and initially organized alongside Meehakk Mulani. A panel discussion was organized, and included a series of question and answers as well as broader discussions of womxn and gender minority experiences in debate. The Adjudication Team included Ivy Xu, Noam Shurin, Micaela Lewis, Hadley Parum, and Eva-Marie Quinones. Tab was run by Reed Herter and initially organized alongside ...

The team TCD Hist (Caoimhin Hamill, Jack Synnott) has emerged victorious in the Grand Final of the KCL Online Open 2020, speaking from OG on the motion "THP to be alone in the universe." Against them were левый коронный (Milla Huuskonen, Muhktar Tashkenbayev) in Opening Opposition, LSE A (Ciara Mitchell, Hamza Tariq Chaudhry) in Closing Government, and Persistent Pufferfish (Naomi Panovka, Xiao-Ke Lu) in Closing Opposition. The adjudication panel consisted of Neo Way Shen (chair), Dani Georgiev, Ife Grillo, Jacklin Kwan and Marta Vasić. The ESL Final was won by Amsterdam A (Marike Breed, Nikola Michaylov) in Opening Opposition on the motion ...

The Open Final of the Suzhou Debate Open 2020 has been won by Cambridge JH (Joshua Yeung, Han Yang; Cambridge Union) from Closing Opposition. Speaking against them were Sun Fuji (Tota Takahashi, Kanan Ishizaka; Tokyo) in Opening Government, anyideas (Andrius Budiono, Matthew Ling; Chinese University of Hong Kong) in Opening Opposition, and Team Ascension (Fardeen Ameen, Zobayer Ahmed; Independent University of Bangladesh) in Closing Government. The motion before the house was that "Assuming feasibility, THW allow individuals to sell their units of Intelligence Quotient (IQ)," for which there is a recording available as part 1 and part 2. The adjudication panel ...

The Grand Final of the Restricted Mara Open 2020 has been won by MWS MWS A & W (Wee-ern, Avinash).  Speaking in Closing Government, they faced Piali's Peeps (Aryan, Adidev) in Opening Government, So debating is a gender now? (Josh Kemp, Reed) in Opening Opposition, and stan red velvet (anonymous, anonymous) in Closing Opposition. The adjudication panel was chaired by Clinton Wee Yuan together with Uphie, Hanna Zawawi, Inna Fermin, and TJ. The motion read "THBT it is in Mahathir's interest to cede leadership of the Opposition to Anwar Ibrahim". The Novice Final was won by MWS More and More (Mikhail Taufiq, Arjun ...

The champions of the St Petersburg Online Open are LSE A (Hamza Chaudhry, Ciara Mitchell). In the grand final, they spoke in Closing Opposition on the motion "THBT the scientific community should reject the notion of 'non-overlapping magisteria' ". Speaking against them were Bristol (Timothy Lo, Ron Leizrowice) in Opening Government, Edinburgh (C)lutchies (Jason Woods, Cerys Walsh) in Opening Opposition, and TCD Hist Ayyy lmao (Caoimhin Hamill, Jack Synnott) in Closing Government. The Grand Final was chaired by Alicja Filbier together with Anasuya Narasimhan, Dani Georgiev, Olja Bosnjak and Suzanne Elliott.  The top speaker was Ciara Mitchell with an average of 82.4 speaker ...

At the Imperial Online IV 2020, hosted on June 27th and June 28th, 2020, the team Hybrid Statoosh (Lucy Murphy, Maurice Coutiel) has emerged victorious in the Open Final out of Opening Opposition. They spoke against Imperial IR (Ivan Kapelyukh, Rhys Steel) in Opening Government, LSE BD (Katya Broomberg, Andrea D'Souza) in Closing Government, and Stop talking about erectile dysfunction and start talking about female orgasmic dysfunction (Gabrielle Fullam, Jack Williams) in Closing Opposition. The motion read "THBT universities should establish "dangerous spaces (incl. Infoslide)". The debate was judged by Jacklin Kwan as chair, together with Gwen Stearns, Joseph Lewis, ...

The open final of the Astana Debate Union Online Tournament 2020 was won by LSE HC (Hamza Chaudhry, Ciara Mitchell) in Opening Opposition, speaking against GUU A (Emma Chan, Julie Nyerges) in Opening Government, Trying to get my ducks in a row (Lucy Murphy, Miri Muntean) in Closing Government, and Short and to the point (Neta Portal, Miriam Kalman) in Closing Opposition on the motion "THP the rule of the governing AI, with elections on priorities over, traditional representative democracy." The final was chaired by Hadar Goldberg, judging alongside Tin Puljic, Alicja Filbier, Dana Green, and Ron Leizrowice. The top speaker ...

The NTU Open Online 2020 was won by Karasuno High (Cavan Tay, Tan Yao Kun) in Opening Opposition speaking against NTU Sheng Siong (Darren, Rohan Kapur) in Opening Government, Bubbles (Vaishnavi Prasad, Nirmal Bhansali) in Closing Government, and NTU C Fairprice (Chaitu, Zhen Zhen) in Closing Opposition on the motion "THBT ASEAN should abandon the China-ASEAN South China Sea Code of Conduct negotiations." The final panel was chaired by Ploopy. Judging with them were Amrit, Connor O'Brien, Hannah Hafidzal, and Vedika Kedia. The Novice Champions were small brain (Joshua, Yi Xuan) debating in Opening Government. They spoke against Pocket Jacks (Dhruv ...

The Utopian Final of the Cyberpunk IV was won by The zoom where it happens (Gil Peled, Ido Kotler; Tel Aviv) in Opening Government, speaking against [KDA] the Real ULU A (Maurice Coutiel, Nick Zervoudis; London) in Opening Opposition, Team Underscore Name (Areeb Sherwani, Jacklin Kwan; Sheffield/Manchester)  in Closing Government, and To die hating OO, that was freedom (Josh Freeman, Joseph Lewis; LSE) in Closing Opposition on the motion "Assuming the technology exists, this house would allow people to buy and sell years of their life." The debate was chaired by Emily Frizell, judging with her were Arie Mora, Lucy ...

The Grand Final of the Trinity Open 2020 Online was won by Cambridge Cromwell's Men are Here Again (Matt Hazell, Alasdair Donovan) in Opening Opposition. Debating against them were BDU The prancing ponies (Josef Moscovici, Calyxx Peucker) in Opening Government; Open Break the tab not the quarantine (Hadar Goldberg,  Nadav barak) in Closing Government; and Open [KDA] Thanks Jacklin :D (Milla Huuskonen, Ron Leizrowice) in Closing Opposition. The motion read "This House Supports rioting as a means of fighting for social justice in the U.S." The debate was judged by Marta Vasic as chair together with Katharina Jansen, Nicole O'Sullivan, Lovro ...

This article will address how debate programs can respond to current funding and support cuts by universities. The first part of this series profiled experiences of organizers, coaches, and debaters in different parts of the world. The second part of this series covered different approaches to virtual recruitment and outreach. Will there be a fourth part? Probably not, debaters think in threes. If you have comments or want another COVID-19 piece, please email me at spruced@tuta.io I. Dollars for W's Didn't Work Before & Won't Work Now Most debate programs have historically appealed to their institutions through awards and selective representation at ...

The grand final of the Eastern Online IV 2020 was won by Cornell 3 (Dylan Young, Amaar Jeyasothy) in Closing Opposition, speaking against McGill 1 (Micaela Lewis, Naomi Panovka) in Opening Government, Yale 1 (Eva Quinones, Ko Lyn Cheang) in Opening Opposition, and Brandeis-NU Hybrid (Ravi Simon, Tanay Patri) in Closing Government on the motion "THW spend all of Jeff Bezos's money." The debate was chaired by Marlene Pierce, with a panel of Klaudia Maciejewska, Rob Ruiz, Chris Pang, Germaine Barrett, Niki Linganur, and Reed. In  the ESL Final Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology 1 (Shirsha Songshoptak, Tameer Hossain) took ...

The team Idli and Sambar (Salil Mitra, Nitin Subramanian; Duke) has won the Grand Final of the VIT Debating Tournament Round Robin 2020 from Closing Government. They debated the motion "This House Believes That Imran Khan should pivot away from China, and towards India" against the other finalists Seamus and Oliver (Oliver Cummins, Seamus Dove; Sydney) in Opening Government; Liminal Spaces Debating (Samuel Scheuer, Braedon Lehman; Tübingen/Berlin); and MISRIT OO (Daniel Monteiro, Atul RH). The Grand Final was judged by Vishaka Raj, Shantanu Bariar, Abhilaksh Sharma, Yash Varshan Thirani, Omkar Masurkar, and Bansal Kartik, with Reed chairing. The top speaker of the tournament was ...

This article will review recruitment and outreach projects some debate societies have undertaken. It does not attempt to provide  recommendations / criticisms of different policies and responses. The first part of this series profiled experiences of organizers, coaches, and debaters in different parts of the world. The third part of this series will discuss dealing with COVID-19 funding cuts. If you would like to share projects on your local circuit or have comments please feel free to email me at spruced@tuta.io Featuring Gaini Ibragimova, DC "Parassat": With a 20 year history, DC "Parassat" is one of the oldest and strongest debate clubs ...

NU A (Tashkenbayev Mukhtar, Alisher Juzgenbayev) won the 2020 Parassat Open. They were speaking from Opening Opposition against ULU A (Maurice Coutiel, Przemek Stolarski) in Opening Government, Ateneo AV (Luigi Alcaneses, Mikko Vitug) in Closing Government, and Stay hear hear (Hadar Goldberg, Lior Sokol) in Closing Opposition on the motion: "This House Opposes the commercialization of competitive debating (such as for profit debate training, paid workshops, paying IAs a salary, paying pros to speak with wealthy beginners, etc)". The adjudication panel was chaired by Milla Huuskonen. Judging with her were Alikhan Kazinov, Josef Moscovici, Katharina Margarita Jansen, and Miri Muntean. The Pro-Am final ...

The Asia Queer Open 2020 was won by I like it like that (Meabh, Arctic Monkies) in Opening Government, speaking against Don't stop me now in Opening Opposition (Sam Huang, Daniel Maier Gant), Feeling Myself  (Chris Morillo, Mia Stone-Molloy) in Closing Government; and Laws of Attraction (Gwen Stearns, Pandora's Boxx) in Closing Opposition. The debate was on the motion "This House Prefers representation of queer characters in media whose stories do not centre around their queerness" and chaired by Brian Wong. Judging with them were Ellen Page, David Benardy, Ploopy, Prashasti Saxena, Rachel Homnick, and Ryan Patrick Thalari. The Pro Am ...

This article will profile the experiences of organizers, coaches, and debaters in different parts of the world. It does not attempt to provide a comprehensive picture of the competitive debate scene in that region, nor to provide recommendations / criticisms of different policies and responses. The second part of this series will review strategies for virtual recruitment and outreach. If you would like to share projects on your local circuit or have comments please feel free to email me at spruced@tuta.io Organizing & Institutional Experiences with Virtual Debate The Participants: Vishal - "I've been involved with debating and judging for the University of Malaysia ...