[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 Central European Cyberspace Open 2020 has been won by We're used to no audience debates (Tin Puljić, Lovro Šprem; Zagreb) in Closing Opposition, speaking against UDS Trivium GDS LDU Chronos Coalition (Joris Graff, Daan Spackler; Utrecht/Nijmegen) in Opening Government, Bristol A (Ron Leizrowice, Timothy Lo); in Opening Opposition, and This house would stay in this house (Hadar Goldberg, Ido Kotler; Tel Aviv) in Closing Government on the motion "THBT all countries should implement legislation similar to the US Defense Production Act to combat the Covid-19 pandemic." The adjudication was chaired by Emily Frizell. Judging with her were Joona ...

[caption id="attachment_35651" align="alignright" width="400"] The winners: Samuel Scheuer and Marius Hobbhahn - © Tilbury House[/caption] In the Grand Final of the Tilbury House Cologne Open 2019, Marius Hobbhahn and Samuel Scheuer of the Streitkultur Tübingen were able to take the tournament win as team Colognialism - Appropriating your points in Opening Opposition on the motion “THO artwork that humanizes pro-regime germans during the Second World War". They defeated Opening Government Be my Whip (Lisa Knodt, Lion Seiffert; Maastricht), Closing Government The DDG was wrong (Luise Häder, Anton Leicht; Heidelberg/Münster) and Closing Opposition BDU Breaking Down (Lena Kolle, Elena Müller; Berlin). The final was ...

[caption id="attachment_35325" align="alignright" width="351"] Paula Villaseñor Cano and Carlota Delso González - © Barcelona Debating Society[/caption] The team Fabregat's Angels (Paula Villaseñor Cano, Carlota Delso González; Madrid) has won both the EFL and Grand final of the Barcelona Debating Open 2019! In the Grand final, they were victorious out of Opening Government, defeating the Opening Opposition Crazy Broke Asians (Kenneth Foo Wui Kit, Seyoung Jeon; KCL), Closing Government Abbas & Faizan (Abbas Azmat, Faizan Raja; Lahore) and Closing Opposition Ek Chutki sindoor (Arth Mishra, Ishaan Kapoor; LSE/Oxford). The debate on the motion "THP a world where the majority believed in determinism over ...

[caption id="attachment_35269" align="alignright" width="400"] Katharina Jansen and Lisa Knodt - (c) Erasmus Debating Society[/caption] The team Merkel II & III (Lisa Knodt, Katharina Jansen) of the Rhetorica Debating Society Maastricht has won the Erasmus Rotterdam Open 2019. Out of Opening Opposition, they defeated the Opening Government Glorious like the Mongolian navy (Milla Huuskonen, Markus Myllymäki; Helsinki), Closing Government Tudor and Anne (but not Henry and Boleyn) (Tudor Musat, Ana Coman; Cambridge/Bukarest) and Closing Opposition We beg you to propose. That's what she said. (Elizabeta Korenčan, Roel Becker; Llubljana/Leiden) on the motion "Assuming the technology exists, TH supports the use of augmented ...

[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_35192" align="alignright" width="400"] Tin Puljić, top speaker of the Leiden Open - © Marina Kojić[/caption] The team Oxford Traitors A (Gigi Gil, Tommy Peto; Oxford) has won the final of the Leiden Open 2019. Out of Opening Opposition, they defeated the Opening Government ESL justice warriors (Jure Hederih, Sarah Brdnik; Oxford/Edinburgh), the Closing Government Yugoslavia A (Tin Puljić, Miloš Marjanović; Zagreb/Belgrade) and the Closing Opposition British Manufacturing Jobs - Coming to a Country Near You (Duncan Crowe, Sheraz Qureshi; Alumni). The motion read "This house believes that 'Dulce et Decorum Est pro Patria Mori' (i.e. the belief that it is sweet ...

The LSE team Line of Control (Hamza Tariq Chaudhry, Mythili Mishra) has won the Manchester IV 2019. Out of Closing Opposition, they defeated the Opening Government Moral Metrics and Shit (Arth Mishra, Josh Ashworth, LSE), Opening Opposition Oxford present and rejected (Abhinav Bathula, Jamie Johnson; LSE/Oxford) and Closing Government something something toxic masculinity (Ciara Mitchell, Cheyenne Ong; LSE). The motion for the grand final read "THBT the scientific community should reject the view that science and religion are non-overlapping magisteria (incl. infoslide)". The final was judged by Jacklin Kwan (chair), Jason Woods, Joel Richardson, John Karellis, Maurice Coutiel, Rosie Vorri and ...

[caption id="attachment_34894" align="alignright" width="400"] Tommy Peto and Gigi Gil - © UoB Debating[/caption] The team Oxford GP (Gigi Gil, Tommy Peto) was victorious at the Birmingham IV 2018. They won the final motion "TH prefers a world where co-parenting is primarily non-romantic (conducted by consenting partners who have no romantic or sexual relationship, eg. friends)" out of Opening Government against Only here so Luke gets moved up a squad (Luke Dunn, Jamie Johnson) in Opening Opposition, LSE B (Abhinav Reddy Bathula, Keshav Arvind) in Closing Government and 240 nuts cracked, 752 to go (Becky Elkington, Gwylim Taylor) in Closing Opposition. The ...

[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 ...

[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_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 ...