The team Bailey orders asian Teck-a-Wei (Teck Wei Tan & Bailey Reid, Oxford/KC London) won the final of Centrale Open 2016 from Opening Opposition. They won over Tilbury House Minions (Agnes Putri & Leonard Münstermann, Cologne) in Opening Government, There is but one God and He is not called Jesus (Dan Lahav & Muhammad Asadullah Khan, Tel Aviv/Cambridge) in Closing Government and Cardiff A (Raphael Hill & Calan Eskandar) in Closing Opposition on the motion “THBT the Democratic Party should take on a much more centre-leftist position and support a mass redistribution of wealth agenda“.

The final was judged by Harish Natarajan in chair, together with Sharmila Parmanand, Nika Jelendorf, Samuel Chan and Duncan Crowe.

Best speaker was Teck Wei Tan with an average of 85.4 speaker points.

Tudor Musat and Viva Avasthi, the winners of the Novice final – © private

The novice final was won by Cambridge AM (Tudor Musat & Viva Avasthi) in Closing Government. They debated against Sorbonne ONU (team 2) (Anais Fiault & Olga Kiav, Paris) in Opening Government, DJ YOLO SWAG 2015 (Dina Baiche & Jacques Li) in Opening Opposition and Nanterre-ENS Paris Saclay (Xavier Olessa Daragon & Cai Fangyuan) in Closing Opposition on the motion “THW oppose human immortality”.

The Break:

1. Bailey orders Asian Teck-a-Wei (Teck Wei Tan & Bailey Reid, Oxford/KC London) 14 team points
2. There is but one God and He is not called Jesus (Dan Lahav & Muhammad Asadullah Khan, Tel Aviv/Cambridge) 13 team points
3. Snails are not a food (Lucy Lester & Anna Vasyleva, Maastricht) 11 team points
4. Frankenstein (Tjark Wüster & Carlota Noguerol, Cologne) 10 team points
5. Cardiff A (Raphael Hill & Calan Eskandar) 10 team points
6. Tilbury House Minions (Agnes Putri & Leonard Münstermann, Cologne) 10 team points
7. #Calexit2017 (Ingo Bandhauer & Paul Reiter, Vienna) 10 team points
8. Les viennoiseries (Dariusz Klett & Vinicius Maerschner Bremer, Vienna) 9 team points

The novice break:

1. Cambridge AM (Tudor Musat & Viva Avasthi) 8 team points
2. Nanterre-ENS Paris Saclay (Xavier Olessa Daragon & Cai Fangyuan) 7 team points
3. DJ YOLO SWAG 2015 (Dina Baiche & Jacques Li ) 6 team points
4. Sorbonne ONU (team 2) (Anais Fiault & Olga Kiav, Paris) 5 team points

Centrale Open took place on the 9th and 10th of December 2016 and was organized by Claire Mayer, Mehdi Thomas and Aion Feehan

The CA team consisted out of Sharmila Parmanand, Sella Nevo and Harish Natarajan. The best VDCH team was Tilbury House Minions, making it into the grand final. Overall it was a very successful competition for VDCH teams, having four of them making the break.

The motions:

Rd 1: THBT states should ban the positive depictions of former oppressive leaders.

Rd 2: THBT when allocating resources to their children, poor families should allocate most of their resources to support the most talented child in the family.

Rd 3: THW grant human rights to any machine that passes the “Extended Turing Test”.

Info slide: An Artificial Intelligence machine (such as a robot) passes the “Extended Turing Test” if through extended conversation a human being cannot distinguish between the machine and an actual human.

Rd 4: THBT African-American parents should teach their children to distrust and avoid contact with the police.

Rd 5: THW bail out failing established newspapers.

SF: THW use the Inquisitorial system in the Criminal Justice System (as opposed to the Adversarial one).

NF: THW oppose human immortality.

GF: THBT the Democratic Party should take on a much more centre-leftist position and support a mass redistribution of wealth agenda.

hh./lok.