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 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 World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) 2019 in Cape Town, which took place 28.12.18-03.01.19, has ended with victories for teams from Sydney, Hebrew Jerusalem and Keio A. The holding of the Open final was accompanied by protests of the Black-African debate community. Open [caption id="attachment_34947" align="alignright" width="400"] Kevin Lee and Bostan Nurlanov - © private[/caption] The Open final was won by Sydney D (Kevin Lee, Bostan Nurlanov) out of Closing Government. Their victory marked the third world championship triumph in the last five years for their debating union. Other participants in the final were Cornell B (Denny Lee, Aniroodh Ravikumar) in Opening Government ...

[caption id="attachment_34633" align="alignright" width="338"] © Saharalipour[/caption] The Hart House Inter-Varsity 2018 was won by Laurier/Unaffiliated SX (Ivy Xu and Brendt Schmidt) from Opening Opposition. They debated the final on the motion "This House opposes the propagation of Canadian exceptionalism" against Harvard CH (John Hunt, Sophia Caldera) in Opening Government, Yale AC (William Arnesen, Ko Lyn Cheang) in Closing Government, and Cornell KW (Jin Mo Koo, Emma Rose Wirshing) in Closing Opposition. The final was chaired by Mo Niaz with Alexandra Sundarsingh, James Hardy, Julia Milden, and Meghan Auckland. The Novice Final of the tournament was won by  Western DX (Vidit Desal, Emily Xie) in Closing Government, on the motion "With the goal of improving representation in media, this House would ...

[caption id="attachment_34093" align="alignleft" width="150"] View of Lake Jasna, Kranjska Gora - © Duncan Crowe[/caption] With over 225 participants, including students, teachers and trainers the World Schools Debate Academy 2018, the biggest version of the WSDA so far, came to a successful end after taking place from the 23rd to 30th of June. The WSDA is a debate academy that teaches school students between the ages of 13 to 18 everything about debating in the World Schools Debating format in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. The students participate in a very intense week of debate training, followed by a three day tournament. The educational part of ...

The World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) 2018 in Mexico, which took place 28.12.17-04.01.18, are concluded and the champions for the three language categories have emerged. Open Champion is Harvard, ESL-Champion is Oxford and EFL-Champion is Comillas. The finals were hosted in the historical Teatro de la Ciudad Esperanza Iris in the centre of Mexico-City. [caption id="attachment_33275" align="alignright" width="400"] The Open Final - © Jacky Hsinghsien Chang Chow[/caption] The team Harvard A (Danny DeBois, Archie Hall) won the Open Final as Opening Government on the motion "This house would rather save the life of a single child, over extending the life of 5 ...

Once again the anglophone World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) took place during the turn of the year. This year's location was Mexico City. The tournament started the 27.12.17 and ended the 04.01.18. After nine preliminary rounds the teams breaking to the outrounds were announced on New Year's Eve. At the WUDC, teams participate classified as one of three language categories: EPL (English as a Proficient Language), ESL (English as a Second Language) and EFL (English as a Foreign Language). EPL-classified teams can only participate in the Open Break, ESL-teams depending on their ranking either in the Open Break oder the ...

It is not uncommon for major tournaments to host training programmes, as Duncan Crowe, one of the main organizers of the Scottish EUDC training series, puts it. However, the effort invested in the Scottish EUDC training series has been exceptional in length and extent. Instead of being a selected set of workshops delivered directly prior to the competition, this training series has involved the production and distribution of new, live training content directly to societies across Europe. The launch of the Scottish EUDC Training Platform marks the introduction of a new pillar to the international debate education. ...

The EUDC is attracting many of the same people again and again every year. But there are also always the people who come to Euros the first time and don’t know what to expect and what will be happening. The Achte Minute has talked to some of the people who are at their first EUDC here in Tallinn about their experiences, expectations and how those expectations were met. Hilla Schwartz Tudor Musat Emma van der Horst and Fenna ten Haaf Rachel Mullally Mrinal Kumar Hila Schwartz, Ben Guiron University of the Negev (Israel) [caption id="attachment_32549" align="alignleft" width="213"] Hila Schwartz - © H.Hecke[/caption] AM: So for how long have you ...

[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_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 ...

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 ...

The break to the Finals at the European Universities Debating Championship 2014 has been announced. In the ESL category, Berlin A, Lund A, Belgrade B and BBU A made it through the semi-finals with the motion "This house believes that leaders of minority religions in Europe should strongly encourage their congregations to refrain from public displays of their faith". In the Open break, Oxford A, Sheffield A, Nottingham A, and Edinburgh A won the semi-finals with the motion "THBT the US should invade and forceably partition Iraq". Semi-finals of the Zagreb EUDC In the Open semi-final 1, the following teams competed: OG: Edinburgh A OO: ...

The break of the European Universities Debating Championship 2014 in Zagreb has been announced. The following teams will compete in the out-rounds on the 22nd of August (data might be inaccurate): Open Break 23: Cambridge C 22: Oxford B 21: Cambridge B 21: Oxford A 21: GUU A 20: Cambridge A 20: Oxford C 19: Edinburgh A 19: LSE A 19: Sheffield A 19: Durham B 19: KCL A 19: Hebrew A 19: Nottingham A 19: Durham C 18: BPP A ESL Break 19: Hebrew A 18; Belgrade B 18: Lund A 18: Tartu A 18: Berlin A 17: Tel Aviv B 17: Leiden A 17: Bucharest A 17: BBU A 17: Tilbury House A 17: Mannheim A 17: ELTE A 17 BGU A 16: Belgrade A 16: Tel Aviv A 16: tie of ...

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 ...

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 ...

This year's Cambridge Inter-Varsity will be held on November 15th-16th 2013. The organizers state: „The Cambridge IV is one of the largest and most prestigious debating events on the calendar. Hosted and run by the Cambridge Union Society, the IV attracts some of the best teams from universities all over the world. Over three hundred students will be attending and we hope you'll be one of them.“ The Cambridge Union dates from 1815, and has a long history of hosting Presidents, Prime Ministers, Statesmen, Celebrities and Sports Stars. The Unions weekly debates serve to engage and to challenge presumptions and prejudices. ...