With the EUDC 2017 in Tallinn coming closer, people might want to prepare their trip - but what to prepare for? We've asked convenor Selene Gnadenteich about the tournament, including the questions we got from the community. ...

[caption id="attachment_32286" align="alignleft" width="309"] Winning team Toronto 1 - © UTS Speech and Debate Society[/caption] The tournament at the World Schools Debate Academy 2017 was won on a 6 - 3 split desicion by Toronto 1 (Gautam Manohar, Adithya Chakravarthy, Angela Li, Andrei Comlosan Pop and Mia Richmond; Canada) in Opposition on the motion "THBT developed nations should not recruit high skilled workers such as doctors and engineers from developing countries". They debated in the final against the team North European Trade Agreement (Sonia Meehan, Leo Ohl, Julius Schillinger, Luesa Vallin and Mariam Kojo; Finnland/Germany). The final was adjudicated by Duncan Crowe (c), Kristina Loayza, Jenny Tumas, Rok Hafner, Penny Sadeghi , Malvika Kala, Roel Becker, Elizabeta ...

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, ...

[caption id="attachment_32196" align="alignright" width="400"] Roel Becker and Floris Holstege, winners of the Delft Open 2017 - © Helena Hecke[/caption] The grand final of the first Delft Open ever was won by Leiden A(rrogant) (Floris Holstege, Roel Becker) from Opening Opposition on the Motion This house would introduce a Social Credit System in liberal democracies. They debated agains UDS: Sharpay and Ryan (Pieter van der Veere, Angela Portocarrero - Utrecht) in Opening Government, David en Simone (Simone Landman - Trivium, David Metz - Leiden) in Closing Government and Brandeis ST (Ravi Simon, Sagie Tvizer) in Closing Opposition. The final was chaired by Lennart van Laake, who adjudicated together with Daan ...

[caption id="attachment_32163" align="alignright" width="400"] The GUU delegation at the Durham Open with winners Bethany Garry (standing) and Owen Mooney (green shirt) - © GUU[/caption] The Durham Open 2017 was won by GUU A (Bethany Garry and Owen Mooney) in Opening Opposition on an open motion. They debated against Consider Phlebas (Sam van Elk, Cambridge and Joe Roussos, LSE) in Opening Government, Oxford RJ (Jure Hederih and Raffy Marshall) in Closing Government and Cambridge E (Camilo Ruiz and Matt Hankin) in Closing Opposition. The final was judged by Kez Exley (C) Dee Courtney, Aislin Flynn, Rory Flynn and Chris Paschali Best speaker of the tournament was ...

[caption id="attachment_32158" align="alignright" width="400"] Winners Katherine Dunbar (left) and Etsuko Lim (right) during prep time - © TCD Hist/Phil[/caption] The Trinity Open 2017 was won by Cambridge B (Etsuko Lim & Katherine Dunbar) in Closing Government. They debated against Oxford Tecks and Sophie (Teck Wei Tan & Sophie Large) in Opening Government,  Upgrading from Aodhan (Adam Stairs & Clíodhna Ní Chéileachair, UCD Law) in Opening Opposition and Edinburgh A (Tim Squirrel & Nish Hegde) in Closing Opposition on the motion "You are an author who has just been granted a power such that any book you write would be taken as gospel by all who read it. ...

The Amsterdam Open 2017 was won by Floris en Pieter (Jelte Schievels, Utrecht & David Metz; Leiden) in Opening Government on the motion THBT the Left should focus on using class as its central organising principle, rather than other aspects of identity. [caption id="attachment_32071" align="alignright" width="315"] Winners of Amsterdam Open: Jelte Schievels and David Metz - © David Metz[/caption] They debated against In the quiet words of the Virgin Mary: come again? (Anastasia Grishkova, KCL & Bas Tönissen, St. Andrews) in Opening Opposition, Wong Call, Bagequit (Brian Wong, Oxford & Johan Bage, Stockholm) in Closing Government and You are fake news (Weronika Mincewicz-Podrecka, Leiden & John Tsopanis, ULU) in Closing Opposition. The final was judged by ...

[caption id="attachment_32040" align="alignright" width="158"] Winners of the Helsinki Open - Alex Harris (left) and Brian Wong (right) - © Brian Wong[/caption] Congratulations to ‘Alex is never Wong’ (Alex Harris, former ULU, and Brian Wong, Oxford) for winning the Helsinki Open 2017. They won the final from Closing Government defeating ‘The Cupcakes or Your Life’ (Miri Muntean and Ingo Bandhauer, Vienna) in Opening Government, ‘Schrodinger’s Dichotomy’ (Jenni Juvonven, former Tampere, and Martijn Roo, Berlin) in Opening Opposition, and ‘Mainor A’ (Oskar Gross and Kasper) in Closing Opposition on the motion ‘This House would grant an amnesty to citizens who fought for ISIS ...

[caption id="attachment_31994" align="alignleft" width="206"] The winners of the tournament ©Helena Hecke[/caption] The Maastricht Open 2017 was won by Phil and Gloria (Roel Becker; Leiden and Lucia Arce; Sheffield) in Closing Opposition. They debated against Trivium A (Simone Landman and Daan Spackler; Middelburg) in Opening Government, The Maastricht Titties (Annabell van Beusekom and Milka Gerovska; Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje) in Opening Opposition and The Wong Tangent (Rebecca Lee, Bristol and Brian Wong, Oxford) in Closing Opposition on the motion "You are the commander of an Israeli submarine on the Persian Gulf. It is the day after Israel was annihilated in a ...

[caption id="attachment_31966" align="alignright" width="200"] Winning Team and CA Team of Turku Mini - Craig McDonald (left), Milla Huuskonen (centre), Joona Suhonen (centre) and Kaisa Hyry (right) - © Imène Mimouni.[/caption] Congratulations to the team Winland A (Milla Huuskonen, Helsinki, and Joona Suhonen, Aalto) for winning the Turku Mini 2017! They won the final from Opening Opposition defeating Max&Johan (Johan Vilén and Max Fogdell, Helsinki) in Opening Government, Kakkaa lumella (Ella Jonninen and Aleksi Niemi, Tampere) in Closing Government, and Aalto Right (Sara Halonen and Adnan Abdi) in Closing Opposition on the motion "This House would grant the five veto bearing UN ...

Congratulations to ‘William of Orange is the New Black’ (Monica Forman, Tel Aviv, and Melda Eren, Munich [caption id="attachment_31959" align="alignright" width="146"] Monica Forman and Melda Eren - (c) Craig McDonald[/caption] and UDCH) for winning the Open Final of the Erasmus Rotterdam Open 2017. They won the final from Opening Government defeating ‘She's not that mean in prep.’ (Romée Lind and Jop Flameling, no institution) in Opening Opposition, ‘Devid’ (Devin van den Berg and David Metz, Leiden) in Closing Government, and ‘Privileged Angry Men’ (Philipp R. Mueller, Munich, and Calyxx Peucker, UDCH) in Closing Opposition on the motion ‘This House Regrets the dominance ...

The use of language in university debating hasn't been studied a lot so far. Miriam Kohn from the University of Rochester did some research - in this interview, she tells us about her results and thoughts on the use of "hedging". Edited for length & clarity with entire thesis and speech transcriptions available here. ...

[caption id="attachment_31902" align="alignright" width="400"] Enting Lee speaks as Leader Opposition in the final round of the 2017 HWS Round Robin (c) Howard and William Smith Colleges[/caption] The HWS Round Robin has claimed yet another weekend of the lives of some of the best debaters in the world. In a tradition that began at the 2016 HWS Round Robin, two judging panels watched each round and delivered oral adjudications independently, with the aggregate number of points & speaker points used to determine the break (tab here). After a struggle for team spots, which can be achieved either through winning a prestigious named tournament or ...

[caption id="attachment_31871" align="alignright" width="400"] The winning team: Erik Haamer & Kerli Kalk - © Tartu Ülikooli Väitlusklubi[/caption] Tartu has scored a home victory at the Estonian Open 2017 with Tartu A (Erik Haamer, Kerli Kalk) taking the victory in Closing Opposition on the motion "TH supports US airstrikes on Syrian military targets". They defeated the Opening Government Riga B (Rasmuss Filips Geks, Edgars Klētnieks), Opening Opposition Müün sapaka keret (Vikki Perijainen, Maria Kull) and Closing Government Mainor A (Kaspar Kelder, Oskar Gross). The judge panel consisted of Triin Toimetaja as chair, Daan Welling, Olesja Zorina, Maarja Tambet and Anneliis Rea. [caption id="attachment_31870" align="alignleft" width="199"] Novice winners: Heleriin ...

[caption id="attachment_31855" align="alignright" width="400"] Winners of PEP IV 2017: Mark Etzel and Miri Muntean - (c) DK Wien[/caption] Vienna Z (Miri Muntean, Mark Etzel) has won this year's PEP IV, debating the motion 'This House Supports the EU backed Western Balkans Customs Union, even at the price of terminating the free trade agreement with Russia and joining the EU sanctions on Russia' in Opening Opposition against the Opening Government St. Gallen University A (Jan-Gunther Gosselke, Katarina Kuzman), Closing Government CEC A (Kristina Georgieva, Monika Naydenova) and Closing Opposition Bard College Berlin A (John Kay, Matt Caito). Best speaker of the tournament was ...

[caption id="attachment_31828" align="alignleft" width="241"] Winners of Glasgow Ancients - © Srishti Krishnamoorthy-Cavell[/caption] Glasgow Ancients The team Iconic Misandry (Clíodhna Ní Chéileachair, Srishti Krishnamoorthy-Cavell; UCD/Cambridge) was victorious in the final on the motion "THW grant legal personhood to major ecological entities (eg. the Amazon rainforest, the Great Barrier Reef etc.)." They won as Closing Government over 2 indy 2ref: edinburgh drift (Oskar Avery, Chris Paschali; Newcastle) in Opening Government, My teammate didn't want any puns, but Im feeling quite ADAM-ant (Adam Stairs, Aodhan Peelo, UCD) in Opening Opposition and Already Broke (Up) (Lucia Arce, Jure Hederih; Sheffield/Oxford) in Closing Opposition. The Final was judged by Eilidh McCreath in ...

In this week's feature, Helena Hecke investigates the issue of women not being taken serious in adjudication discussions, along with some suggestions to fix it. ...

[caption id="attachment_31824" align="alignleft" width="215"] Winners of the Aberystwyth Open - Katrin Fallman (left) and Tommy Cave (right) - © Craig McDonald[/caption] Congratulations to ‘The Anti-Frederalist League’ (Tommy Cave, Katrin Fallman, University of West Midlands Union (Warwick and Birmingham)) for winning the Aberystwyth Open 2017. They won the final from Closing Government defeating ‘Sounds like your analysis needs a bit more nuance’ (Freddie Marshall, Warwick, Dean Foley, Manchester) in Opening Government, ‘Spanish Armanda’ (Jim McKenna, UCL, and Armand Lluka, Nottingham Trent) in Opening Opposition and ‘What do you mean this isn’t Glasgow?’ (Rayne Goddard, Hull, Abbie Green, Liverpool) in Closing Opposition on ...

In this article, I’d like to argue for more knives in BPS debating. Not because I’m the owner of a knife shop – which I’m not – but because there are certain cases where the current rules are unfair towards certain teams and this could be easily corrected. ...

[caption id="attachment_31750" align="alignleft" width="280"] The Final - © Private[/caption] The Maynooth Open 2017 was won by Men I'd shift if I weren't a misandrist (Tim Squirrell, Richeal Ní Laoghaire; Edinburgh/UCD L&H) in Closing Government in an open motion. Opening Government Minorities are people not extensions (Lorna Staines, Mark Finn; Trinity Hist) set it as "THB the usa should pay reparations to african americans". The other two teams in the final were Nothing wrong with two men crying or taking valium (Eoin O'Sullivan, Chris Costigan; Cork/Trinity Phil) in Opening Opposition and  We all need somebody to Leon (Aodhan Peelo, Leon Langdon; UCD L&H) as Closing Government. [caption id="attachment_31748" align="alignright" ...

[caption id="attachment_31732" align="alignright" width="171"] Cardiff Open Winners (Rebecca Tan left, Bailey Reid right) - © Craig McDonald[/caption] Congratulations to the team ‘Bailey’s white privilege’ (Bailey Reid, Rebecca Tan; KCL/Bristol) for winning the final of the Cardiff Open 2017. They won the final from Closing Opposition defeating ‘Oxford That Shakespeherian Rag’ (Richard Ngo, Steve Heo; Oxford) in Opening Government, ‘London University School College Economics London’ (Hamish Barker, Aiden Patrick; LSE/UCL) in Opening Opposition, and ‘Oxford Not Wong (literally – we’re not him)’ (Teck Wei Tan, Will Prescott; Oxford) on the motion "This House believes that marginalized groups should abandon respectability politics". The final ...

[caption id="attachment_31725" align="alignright" width="251"] EDS A - Winner of the Tilburg Women's Open - © Private[/caption] The Tilburg Women's Open 2017 was won by EDS A (Emma van der Horst, Migle Povilenaite; Rotterdam) in Opening Government on the motion "TH supports the Rise of Left-Wing Populism in Europe". They won over Groningen A (Linsey Keur, Lise van der Meer) in Opening Opposition, Underpreped & Overdressed (Lydia Vlagsma, Ike Lieshout; Nijmegen) in Closing Government and Bonaparte A (Marike Breed, Harriet Bergman) in Closing Government. The final was judged by Dee Ní Churnáin as chair together with Romée Lind, Annabelle van Beusekom, Olivia Sundberg Diez and Gigi ...

[caption id="attachment_31720" align="alignright" width="400"] The new Tunisian champions: Takwa Gnenna (left) and Gaith Ben Abdelhamid (right), along with their coordinator (middle). - © YAV[/caption] The grand final of the English track of the Tunisian National Debate Championship 2017, which took place for the first time under this name (formerly: Tunisia Boxing days), was won by the team SupCom (Gaith Ben Abdelhamid, Takwa Gnenna). They debated the motion "THR online journalism" as Opening Opposition against the teams ENIB (Marwa Soussi, Yassine Bouguerra) in Opening Government, TBS (Amir Ammar, Maram Chaabane) in Closing Government and ENS 1 (Manel Khedim, Zahra Mouakher) in Closing ...

[caption id="attachment_31673" align="alignright" width="400"] Left to right: Samantha Malone (finalist), Tessa Holtzman (champion), Abigail Westberry (champion) and Katherine Ziegler (finalist) - (c) Jan Hovden[/caption] Bates sophomores Bates HW (Tessa Holtzman, Abigail Westberry) were recognized Champions of the 2017 North American Women & Gender Minorities Debating Championships (NAW*DC) on a tight 3-2 call for Closing Government, beating out fellow Bates MZ (Samantha Malone, Katherine Ziegler) across the closing bench as well as UADS JK (Moira Kelly, Emma Jones) of the University of Alberta in Opening Government and University of British Columbia & Hart House team Hybrid FB (Gozal Farrokh, Jayun Bae) in Opening Opposition. In the ...

[caption id="attachment_31637" align="alignright" width="400"] The finalists and CAs - ©Private[/caption] The Alfred Tuna Snider International World Schools Tournament was won by Toronto Mix (Sarah Rana, Zain Daudi, Dori Zhoud, Sophie Wu) in Proposition on a 3:2 split decision. They debated the final on the motion "This House believes that the West should not portray ‘’The Great Explorers’’ (e.g. Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama) as heroes" against UTS A (Martine Duffy, Alykhan Jetha, Adithya Chakracarthy, Gautam Manohar; Canada) in Opposition. The final was judged by Adnan Muttalib, Cornell in chair together with Duncan Crowe, UK/Vermont, Nae Sovaiala, Romania, Zheng Bo, China and Wanda Gibson, ...

Note by the editors: This article will be updated to reflect the top novice speaker & Spanish division motions when such information is released. [caption id="attachment_31574" align="alignright" width="400"] left: Pan-American Champions Miriam Kohn & Chris Perkins. right: ESL top speaker Syed Reefat Aziz - © Brady Fletcher.[/caption] In the English division of the 2017 Pan-American Universities Debating Championships, the team Rochester PK (Miriam Kohn, Chris Perkins) emerged victorious from Closing Government on the grand final motion “This house prefers a world where American and Canadian Multi-National Corporations in South America adhere to the environmental and labour standards of their home countries." They debated against ULV LM (Kandin ...

[caption id="attachment_31538" align="alignleft" width="152"] Winners of the Liverpool IV - Owen Mooney (left), Skye Brettell (right) - © Bethany Garry[/caption] Congratulations to GUU Bush (Owen Mooney and Skye Bretell, Glasgow) for winning the Open Final of the Liverpool IV 2017. They won the final from Closing Government defeating The unwarranted irrigation extension (Michael Davidson and Cameron Cross, Edinburgh) in Opening Government, Never Speak At Your Own Competition (Jack Stanley, Strathclyde, and Patrick Collins-Price, Liverpool) in Opening Opposition, and I came here for Lucy Murphy because I love her. That is all (Dafe Orugbo and Daire O’boyle, Maynooth) in Closing Opposition on ...

[caption id="attachment_31516" align="alignright" width="266"] Willam Wildi (left) and Stanisław Stefaniak (right), Winners of Cracow Open 2017 - © KDPUJ[/caption] The Cracow Open 2017 was won by the mixed team I am your Stan (Stanisław Stefaniak/Poznan, William Wildi/LSE) from Closing Opposition. They debated in the final against Mainor A (Oskar Gross, Kaspar Kelder) in Opening Government, Pun (Ben Shaw/GUU alumnus, Mirijana Muntean/DK Wien) in Opening Opposition and AGKŚ (Alexander Starchurski, Mateusz Wójtowicz - Warsaw) in Closing Government on the motion "This House welcomes the commercialisation of national symbols". The final was adjudicated by Alex Moise (chair) together with Harish Natarajan, Karolina Partyga, Calyxx Peucker and Cheryl Nazik. Wiliam Wildi was declared best speaker of ...

[caption id="attachment_31509" align="alignright" width="261"] HDDc - winners of the tournament © Private[/caption] The International Worlds Schools tournament Ljutomer, Slovenia was won by the team HDDc (Marija Jarnjak / Hrvoje Kozic / Maja Roglic).They debated the final on the motion "THBT we should boycott comedians who poke fun at minority stereotypes" in proposition against the team Bezigrad Green Stars (Reja Debevc / Matija Pusnik / Filip Koro) from Slovenia in opposition. Government won the debate with a very emotional case about the importance to protect minorities. Opposition argued against that on a principle level of how making fun about everyone means equality, as well as ...

[caption id="attachment_31451" align="alignright" width="330"] Really Bad Hombres, winners of the first Novi Sad Open - (c) Jan-Gunther Gosselke[/caption] 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 ...