The Winner of the tournament, USA Red – © ZIP

The team USA Red (Ella Michaels, Nikhil Ramaswamy, Ranen Miao) has won the 16th International Debate Tournament Ljutomer, Slovenia from opposition on the motion “TH regrets privatisation of space research and travel” against Logos Bermuda (Vasja Grošelj, Iza Jerman, Taja Kovačič) from Slovenia in proposition.

The final was judged by Anna England Kerr (England) in chair, together with John Tomlinson (England), Ela Jurko (Croatia), Luka Baković (Croatia) and Ann-Sophie Zeipekkis (Germany).

The best speaker of the tournament was Nikhil Ramaswamy from USA Red with an impressive average of 73.67 speaker points.

The final of the tournament – © ZIP

The tournament was held from the 8th till 11th March and was organised by Gimnazija Franca Miklošiča Ljutomer and Slovenian national debate organisation Za in proti, zavod za kulturo dialoga/Pro et contra, Institute for culture of dialogue and convened by Liana Miholič, Saša Pergar and Aleš Kustec.

48 teams from 10 countries competed for the 16th time in Ljutomer, Slovenia.

The CA team were Anna England Kerr and Bojana Skrt (Slovenia).

The Break:

1. Logos Bermuda, Slovenia (Vasja Grošelj, Iza Jerman, Taja Kovačič)- 6 wins

2. USA Red, USA (Ella Michaels, Nikhil Ramaswamy, Ranen Miao) – 5 wins

3. USA blue (Piper Doyle, Shreya Agarwala, Brian Zhou), USA – 5 wins

4. US everglades (Davis Culy, Jacob Hatcher, Jeffery Pistor), USA – 5 wins

5. Turkey B (Arda Poda, Ali Erkmen, Emre Berçe, Zeynep Akçakaya)- 5 wins

6. DGM blue (Matevž Rezman Tasič, Emanuel Kranjc, Ema Žagar, Lucija Ivanuša), Slovenia – 5 wins

7. Bežigrad Golden Stars (Aniket Goodbole, Filip Gavranovič, Jure Sušnik), Slovenia – 5 wins

8. Klasična (Matko Dujmovič, Tara Jovič, Antun Zelič), Croatia – 5 wins

The judge break:

Anna England Kerr, John Tomlinson, Ela Jurko, Luka Baković, Ann-Sophie Zeipekkis, Josef Mezera (Czech Republic), Ivona Anić (Croatia), Cindi Timmons (USA),Barbara Švagan, Matija Pušnik,  Helena Beznec, Jure Macuh (all Slovenia)

The Motions:

• Round 1, impromptu, This House Would legalise all drugs.
• Round 2, prepared „This House would  disregared the opinions of local residents when building necessary public works.”
• Round 3, prepared „African states should withdraw from the  International Criminal Court and set up an African alternative”
• Round 4, impromptu, announcement of the motion. This House Would ban all unpaid internships.
• Round 5, impromptu,  This House Believes that 2^nd amendment should be removed from USA consitution.
• Round 6, prepared „This House  regrets privatisation of space research and travel”.
• Quarterfinals, prepared  „African states should withdraw from the  International Criminal Court and set up an African alternative.”
• Semi-finals, impromptu, This House believes that nationalism makes more harm than good.
• Finals prepared „This House  regrets privatisation of space research and travel”.

hh./lok.