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, ...

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 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), ...

[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 ...

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 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 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 ...

[caption id="attachment_36348" align="alignright" width="264"] The winning team: Tin Puljic and Miri Muntean - © Berlin Debating Union[/caption] The Berlin IV 2020 (Online edition) is over. The final was won by the team in Opening Opposition named Quarantined, Scrappy, and Hungry (Tin Puljić, Miri Muntean), a mixed-team by the Zagreb Student Debate Forum and the Debattierklub Wien. The other final teams were real pandemics have curves (Amichay Even Chen, Roy Schulman; Tel Aviv) in Opening Government, A License and a Penance (Srishti Krishnamoorthi-Cavell, Tudor Musat; Cambridge) in Closing Government and LSE CM (Ciara Mitchell, Hamza Tariq Chaudhry) in Closing Opposition. The debate ...

[caption id="attachment_35384" align="alignright" width="400"] The Spanish language division was won by Cornell A (c) Pan - American UDC Panama City 2019[/caption] The Pan-American Universities Debate Championships 2019 was hosted in Panama on April 19 - 22 and featured both English and Spanish language divisions. The Spanish language final was won by Cornell A (Leo Grageda, Aurelien Salas) in Opening Government. Competing against them was PUCP A (Omar Espinoza, Jose Arturo Tipismana) in Opening Opposition, UdeG A (Itzcoatl Ilhuitcatl Bravo Rosas, Daniel Cuauhtli Aguilar Yanez) in Closing Government, and ITESM CEM A (Jubal Esteban Paez Belmonte, Mariana Morales Urbina) in Closing Opposition on the ...

[caption id="attachment_35241" align="alignright" width="300"] Top Seed Carson Crane & Sukhmani Kaur (Cornell) prepare for the final round - (c) Achte Minute[/caption] The Open Champion of the North American Womxn's & Gender Minorities Debate Championship 2019 is the hybrid partnership Ella Baker (Harar Hall: Carleton/Hart House). They won from Closing Government on the motion "Assuming the public would never find out, THP historical narratives that prioritize equal representation throughout history, even if people and events need to be fabricated". Their opponents were the teams Sonia Sotomayor (Carson Crane, Sukhmani Kaur; Cornell) in Opening Government, Sunitha Krishnan (Emily Xie, Melissa Giblon; Western/Hart House) in ...

The team ‘Made in the Diff’ (Becky Wesson and Emma Meadows, Cardiff) won the Swansea Open.  They managed to win the final from Opening Opposition defeating ‘Swing B’ (Ieuan Skinner and Angus Rome, Swansea) in Opening Government, ‘Nid yw'n wir ein henw tîm’ (Catrin Richards, formerly Liverpool, and Craig McDonald, formerly Cardiff) in Closing Government and ‘First Opp Café’ (Aristed Kore, formerly Durham - due to illness, John Lewis was not able to take part in the final) in Closing Opposition on the motion ‘Assuming this Technology exists, This House would ban memory erasure technology’. [caption id="attachment_33554" align="alignright" width="320"] The winners ...

[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 ...

The second day of the World Universities Debating Championship in The Hague is coming to an end and of course the Achte Minute was there once again and has interviewed some of the participants from all around the world. Today six people from three continents were interviewed and there will be more coming the following days. The interviews were conducted by Helena Hecke. In this part you can find the interviews with: Ngozi Sibulele and Inga Macingwano – South Africa Charles Lewis and Alan Chan – Canada Minji Kim and Do Hyung Shin – South Korea   Ngozi Sibulele and Inga Macingwano – South Africa [caption id="attachment_30797" align="alignleft" ...