The winners of the tournament ©Helena Hecke

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 surprise Iranian nuclear attack: THW not use Israel’s second strike capabilities”.

The Final was judged by Daniel Noble Stairs in chair, together with Helena Hecke, Monica Forman, Michael Naudé and Katharina Jansen.

The novice final was won by 9 Downing Street (Alessandro Sona and Manisha Sethia, Eindhoven) on the motion “TH prefers a world in which individuals can permanently and irreversibly emotionally detach themselves from someone else”.

Winner of the Novice Final – © Helena Hecke

Roel Becker and Brian Wong were joined best speaker with an average of 82.2. Through the standard division, Brian Wong was announced best speaker of the tournament.

Best novice speaker was Dino Wildi with an average of 75.79 speaker points.

CA team of the tournament were Daniel Noble Stairs (UCD), Jure Hederih (Oxford) and Monica Forman (Tel Aviv).

The tournament was organised by Rhetorica Debating Society Maastricht and convened by Anna Vasylyeva and Marina Markatou.

The Break:

1. The Wong Tangent (Brian Wong, Oxford and Rebecca Lee, Bristol) – 14 team points
2. Phil and Gloria (Roel Becker, Leiden and Lucia Arce, Sheffield) – 12 team points
3. Tilbury House Green (Ruben Dillmann and Linda Nolden, Cologne) – 12 team points
4. UDS Beauty and the beast (Angela Portocarrero and Pieter van der Veere, Utrecht) – 10 team points
5. Theresa May’s Election Special (Will Prescott and Steve Heo, Oxford) – 10 team points
6. Berlin CC (Christina Dexel and Christof Kebschull) – 10 team points
7. Trivium A (Simone Landman and Daan Spackler; Middelburg) – 10 team points
8. The Maastricht Titty (Annabell van Beusekom and Milka Gerovska; Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje) – 9 team points

The Novice Break:

1. 9 Downing Street (Alessandro Sona and Manisha Sethia, Eindhoven) – 8 team points
2. TU Delft – (Ishika Chakraborty and Ina Vollmer) 8 team points
3. UDS old colonial ties (Max de Kwaasteniet and Ryoji Yoshisada; Utrecht) – 7 team points
4. EDS E (Nam Quang Du and Reebien Esmaeel; Rotterdam) – 5 team points

The judge break

Monica Forman (Tel Aviv) , Daniel Noble Stairs (UCD), Jure Hederih (Oxford), Matthew Davis (Berlin/Bates), Marike Breed (Bonaparte Amsterdam), Helena Hecke (Tilbury House, Cologne), Cindy Wilhelm (Erasmus Rotterdam), Alwin Bakker (Rhetorica Maastricht), Katharina Jansen (Rhetorica Maastricht) and Michael Naudé (Rhetorica Maastricht)

The Motions

R1: THW cut welfare benefits for chronically unemployed men who refuse to undergo career retraining for jobs that have been deemed “femine” work (e.g. teaching, nursing, dentist assistance, cleaning, etc.)

R2: THR the decision of Germany and The Netherlands to block Turkish campaign rallies aimed at drumming up support among the Turkish diaspora for Erdogan’s referendum

R3: Infoslide: Fearless Girl statue installed in Wall Stree without permission, March 8 2017

THW remove the “fearless girl”.

R4: THW allow individuals and companies to invest into civil lawsuits in exchange for a share of the financial award

R5: Infoslide: A financial endowment is the pool of donations to universities which they use for the purpose of running the university, building buildings, scholarships, prize money and grants.For example Harvard endowment is currently 35.2 billion dollars.

THW redistribute US college endowments evenly among all colleges.

Semi Final: Assuming the technology exists, THW NOT allow parents to clone their deceased children.

Novice Final: TH prefers a world in which individuals can permanently and irreversibly emotionally detach themselves from someone else.

Grand Final: You are the commander of an Israeli submarine on the Persian Gulf. It is the day after Israel was annihilated in a surprise Iranian nuclear attack:

THW not use Israel’s second strike capabilities.

hh./jm.