Day one is over and the participants of Tallinn EUDC are still hopeful and excited.
At least it seems like it.

The Achte Minute went around asking participant to deliver their best case for either Government or Opposition on the motions “TH supports coming to Tallinn EUDC” The overwhelming majority proposed that it was a great idea to join and also the voice who regrets coming, can’t really been taken seriously.

Some of the arguments focused on the beauty of the city:

I generally like traveling. The city and the old town is fun to go around and the waterfront is beautiful. There is something quite nice about the feel. (Mieczyslaw Parker (Birmingham))

Or as Duncan Crowe (Scotland) phrased it:

First the Hotel is great. Second Tallinn is a great town. It might be a shame if people don’t see it. They should definitely do that. I had a chance to see it on Sunday and it’s beautiful. Went for a run at the sea to the old town and it was just a pleasant way to run. First round motion was great fun and I trust the CA team and they are cool people on it. So the debating should be quite fun, Lastly a lot of great people are here. Why else would one come to a debate competition?

The argumentation about meeting friends was repetitively used also by other participants:

It’s always nice to hang out with friends especially when they’re concentrated at one place, because you can hang out with them all at once (Benji Kalman (Hebrew University)) and Judging debates isn’t always great, but you get to catch up in the sunshine with old friends between rounds. Euros is big enough to have a huge variety of teams, but small enough that it feels like a genuine community (Jamie Jackson (Oxford/ BPP)) and It’s not really about Tallinn. I just really like coming to Euros. I like meeting my friends and lots of new people (Gareth Williams (London)).

Ybo Buruma shining brighter than the advertisement – © H. Hecke

Debaters really don’t seem to have much of a life outside of debating. Ybo Buruma (Leiden) even realized that: It’s really nice. Lot of nice people. Unfortunately, most of my friends are debater and so they are all here. And there is no government from stopping me from going here which would probably been better. So something, something, prisoner’s dilemma.

Others argued more for the debating aspect of Euros and why it therefor needs to be supported: Even if you go to it as a complete novice and have no chance of winning and have no life other, you just learn and improve otherwise because of all the debating you actually do. It helps you so much and otherwise would never get you further in debating. Also when you don’t spent your money on that, you’d spent it on booze. And overall the speaking skills are great in jobs or when fighting with your boyfriend (Caoimhe Gethings (UCD Law Soc)).

As well as the weather and sea: Weather not as bad as you’d have expected it in the north. We had a great time at the beach and was helpful at preparing in the debate (Tobias Hebel und Niels Grammes (Saarbrücken)).

A strong argument was also made on the organisation of the tournament so far: Gives you a good reason to go to a country you would normally go to, it’s very well organised, I haven’t seen a bad room yet and they’re generally pampering us. And I like being pampered (Angela Caredda (Maastricht)).

Milla Huuskonen and Joona Suhonen – © H. Hecke

For Milla Huuskonen and Joona Suhonen(Helsinki) one of the good things was also the geographic location of Tallinn: We can literally see home from the hotel window. It is cold in here unlike it will be in Athens and beer is cheap in case you don’t break.

Oskar Pablo Avery (former Newcastle) supports Tallinn EUDC that he came here already for the second time: I am the only participant who is not an organiser who went to the last Tallinn Euros and I think it is important that someone is here who tells everyone that it is so much better, how beautiful the city is. At least one grumpy old men has to be here. I judged some great rooms and it’s always great to help people improve. Not only speakers have asked for my

Returning to Tallinn EUDC: Oskar Pablo Avery – © H. Hecke

advice, but also judges. So these are the reasons I support coming to Tallinn EUDC.

Lucy Murphy (UCD L&H) argued as the only person for the opposition on this motion: It has been so far such a well run competition that it will make future international tournaments hail in admiration.

It is fair to say that the win in this round clearly goes to side government.
Let’s see how things look like at the end of the tournament.

hh./cmd./lok.