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 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, ...

[caption id="attachment_35249" align="alignright" width="400"] The Belgrade delegation and their teampartners including the open final winners Floris Holstege (l.) and Janko Djordjevic (2nd f. r.) as well as best speakers Miloš Marjanovic and Tin Puljić (3rd/4rd f. l.) - (c) Otvorena komunikacija[/caption] The Budapest Open 2019 saw the teams in Closing Government sweeping both final rounds, with De grootse Nederlands-Servische alliantie (Janko Djordjevic, Floris Holstege;Belgrade/Leiden) winning the crown on the motion "This house regrets the narrative that forgiveness is a virtue". Against them were Autinzam i renesansa (Tin Puljić, Ilija Ivanišević; Zagreb/Belgrade) in Opening Government, Velika Srpsko-Holandska Alijansa (Miloš Marjanovic, David Metz; Belgrade/Leiden) in ...

[caption id="attachment_34887" align="alignright" width="300"] Melda Eren and Jure Hederih - © Gigi Gil[/caption] The 20th edition of the SSE Riga IV was won by the mixed-team Balkans: Dangerously Emotional (Melda Eren, Jure Hederih; Munich/Oxford). They won the final motion "THW prefer a world where wealth is seen as shameful" out of Closing Government against the Opening Government Riga Mortis (Roel Schoenmakers, Nastia Grishkova; Tilburg/KCL), the Opening Opposition The Dark Knife (Meradj Oidermaa, Johan Allen; Stockholm) and the Closing Opposition Tartu A (Erik Haamer, Carl-Martin Keerberg). The final was judged by Tin Puljić, Tom Manor, Rasmuss Filips Geks, Edgars Klētnieks and Assel ...

[caption id="attachment_34546" align="alignright" width="230"] Leiden TBA, the Winners of the Tournament - ©David Metz[/caption] The Roosevelt Open 2018 in Middleburg was won by Leiden TBA (David Metz and Joas Bakker) from Closing Opposition. They debated the final on the motion "Given the choice, THBT US Supreme  Court Justices should be elected by a vote amongst federal judges rather than a popular vote" against DSDC Orange (Lukas Joosten and Elian Lavrijsen) in Opening Government, Pure Esoteric Wisdom (Tanya Shrivastava and Fabian Beitsma; Delft) in Opening Opposition and Leiden, Mike is your Problem now (Roel Schoenmackers and Lotte Classen; Cicero) in Closing Government. The final was chaired by Lisa Schallenberg with Daan Spackler, Jeroen Wijnen, Milos Marjanovic and Simone Landman. The Novice Final ...

On May 11th and 12th, the annual Paris Open, featuring its traditional wine tasting during rounds, took place. Chief-adjudicated by Yair Har-Oz, Shrishty Krishnamoorthy and Harish Natarajan, the tournament was won by the team Michael and Desmond (Michael Dunn-Goekjan and Desmond Fairall, OO) against If you can't beat them, join them (Floris Holstege and Tom Manor, OG), Break ou Grève (Martin Devenney and Nissrine Majdi, CG), and Wild Chicken University Z (Jacob Lan and Joseph Xiao Liang, CO on the motion ‘This House believes that Wakanda should transition into a democracy.’ (with infoslide). The panel judging this final consisted of ...

[caption id="attachment_33743" align="alignright" width="400"] The winners of the Rotterdam Open 2018 - © Laurens van Doorn[/caption] The Rotterdam Open (24.-25.03.2018) ist over and the results are here: In the Open Final, the team Cheaper than Couple's therapy (Marike Breed, Amsterdam & Roel Becker, Leiden) took the win as Closing Government on the motion "THW implement a system of ‘lease of life’ for all products of manufacture (such as: shoes, phones and machines)." The motion had an infotext (see below). They debated against Spatha A (Emma Lucas & David Metz, Leiden) in Opening Government, Stormy Daaniels plus one loyal customer (Floris Holstege, ...

[caption id="attachment_33707" align="alignright" width="400"] David Metz (left) and Oskar Sherry (right) - © Aditto Bhattacharjee‎[/caption] Congratulations to the team Sebas, you can't mech out racism with 10 seconds left in your speech (Oskar Sherry (Oxford), David Metz (Leiden)) for winning last weekend's Tilbury House IV 2018. They won the final from Opening Opposition on the motion "THW legalise dueling to the death" against Give us new podcasts (Katharina Jansen, Stefan Kotz (Maastricht)) in Opening Government, Streitkultur Peitho (Konrad Gütschow, Lennart Lokstein (Tübingen)) in Closing Government and Streitkultur - Focus on Science (Marius Hobbhahn, Samuel Scheuer (Tübingen)) in Closing Opposition. The final was ...

[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 ...

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 ...

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 team TCD Hist A (Lorna Staines, Catherine Prasifka, Dublin) won the open finals as Closing Opposition at the UCU Open 2016. They prevailed against Utrecht United (Danique van Koppenhagen, Florine Rombach) in Opening Government, X in Opening Opposition and Jules and Tom (Jules Boog, Tom Pouw)  in Closing Government on the motion "Assuming the technology exists, THW remove the fear of death from all (human) individuals." The final was adjudicated by Simone Landman (chair), Katharina Jansen, Mike Weltevrede, Clíodhna Ní Chéileachair,  Nishith Hegde and two others whose names we weren't provided. The novice finals were won by The Backup (Becky Mikova, Pelle Keulen, ...