The Yale IV 2018 was won by Harvard CH (John Hunt and Sophia Caldera) from Opening Government. They debated the final on the motion "This House would legalize and train sex workers specifically to work with disabled people" against Brown GG (Jack Gramlich, Sandy Greenberg) in Closing Opposition, Harvard BrMe (Ed Bracey, Dasha Metropolitansky) in Closing Government, and Princeton AO (Samuel Arnesen, Sinan Ozbay) in Opening Opposition. The final was chaired by Michael Mao with Bobbi Leet, Charlie Barton, Daniel Berman, Lorenzo Pinasco. The Novice Final of the tournament was won by  Princeton JW (Daniel Ju, Greg Weaving) in Opening Government, on the motion "This House believes that the horrors of history are incompatible with a belief in ...

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 ...

[caption id="attachment_33036" align="alignleft" width="400"] The champions of Cambridge Women's Open, left to right: Marina Tan, of Yale, and Bobbi Leet, of Stanford. photo credit: Marina Tan[/caption] Yale/Stanford LT (Bobbi Leet, Marina Tan) have won Cambridge Women's Open 2017 on the motion that "This house regrets the idealisation of motherhood" from Closing Opposition. In Opening Government was Bad at feminism motions but trying (Lucía Arce, Rachel O'Nunain); in Opening Opposition was LSE sarah or yings (Sarah Tay, Ciara Mitchell); and in Closing Government was the accurately-named More Women Here than in Oxbridge Finals (Melda Eren, Valerie Lim). Judging the final round was a ...

Breaking 9th seed, Darion Hotan and Sam van Elk from Kings College London proceed to win the 2017 Oxford Intervarsity. The tournament's Chief Adjudicators were Evan Lynyak, Sella Nevo, Sophie Large, Teck Wei Tan, and Joshua Bailey. The tab team, SUULUU Candles, was led by Roxana Legezynska and included Katherine Dunbar, Steven Roy, Alex Murray, Joseph Sisson, and Jiwoo Won. [caption id="attachment_33048" align="alignright" width="400"] In Closing Opposition, BPP A ran an economics extension in the Final. photo credit: Justin Kirk[/caption] Debating as KCL A, Darion and Sam proposed that “Assuming it could be done peacefully, this House would replace all existing governments ...

The Cambridge IV 2017 preliminary rounds concluded similar to the Oxford IV, with Tel Aviv AD again breaking first, this time on 13 points. Dan Lahav again topped the open speaker tab - this time accompanied by Darion Hotan of KCL A, both averaging an 83.6 that begged belief. Dan Lahav was once again the top ESL speaker. Xavier Redmond, of Oxford RK, was the top novice speaker with an average of 79. In the final round, Tel Aviv AD (Ayal Hayut-Man, Dan Lahav) won from Opening Government defending the motion that "This house believes that it is always immoral to ...

[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 ...