The World University Debating Championship 2020 in Thailand is over and the winners come from Oxford, Open University of Israel and Institut Teknologi Bandung. The break after the preliminary rounds can be found here. EFL category [caption id="attachment_36182" align="alignright" width="400"] EFL winners Mohammad Akbar (l.) and Vincentius Michael (r.) - © Mauditra Matin[/caption] The team IT Bandung A (Mohammad Akbar, Vincentius Michael) won the EFL final as Closing Opposition against Opening Government Rosario A (Jorge Portocarrero, Juanita Hincapie), Opening Opposition TEC CEM A (Benjamín Vigueras, Ruben Sanchez; Monterrey) and Kyushu A (Khac Hung, Anonymous). The teams debated the motion "This House would abolish the ...

Today's feature presents: The first speaker to be top of the tab at an EUDC in both categories as an ESL participant since 2001, Lucía Arce Cubas! In the interview Lucía told us about her origins, debating career and being ESL in the UK. ...

Olzhas Abdukhamitov and Aigerim Shadeyeva are the conveners of the Astana EUDC, Olzhas volunteered at Novi Sad and Aigerim competed, making it to the ESL Quaters. Raffy Marshall and Monica Forman are the CAs of Astana EUDC. We sat down with them to talk about bringing the EUDC to Central Asia. ...

On Monday afternoon, the EUDC 2018 precouncil took place at Novi Sad University. Apart from the usual updates from the OrgComm, the equity and language teams and the chief-adjudicators, the following notable aspects were discussed. Partial Octo Finals Due to the comparatively low number of teams (188) that registered on Monday, the CA-team strongly recommended to cut partial octo finals to keep the break competitively at 10% as suggested by the constitution. Precouncil rejected this recommendation unanimously, arguing that the no-show teams usually are not top teams, but teams that were not to break anyway. Language Committee Suggestion on Language Bias Feedback The language ...

[caption id="attachment_33925" align="alignright" width="400"] Left to right: Dan Lahav (CA), Idan Bressler (Winner), Amichay Even Chen (Winner), Ido Kotler (Best Speaker), Duncan Crowe (CA) - © Annie Schwartz[/caption] After a weekend in Greece the Athens Open 2018 got won by ‘Tel Aviv A’ (Amichay Even Chen and Idan Bressler). They spoke in the final from Opening Government defeating ‘Novi Sad kenobi’ (Jovan Petronijević and Milos Marjanovic) in Opening Opposition, ‘Tel Aviv - You’ve been struck by a smooth POI’ (Annie Schwartz and Gil Peled) in Closing Government, and ‘Random nomen graecum’ (Roy Schulman and Elaye Karstadt) in Closing Opposition on the motion ‘This house believes that the general approach of states ...

As announced on our international facebook page we planned doing an interview with the newly elected hosts of the EUDC 2018 in Novi Sad. Everything has happened rather quickly since the former hosts from Edinburgh declared their problems with hosting the EUDC 2018 and we wanted to give the community the opportunity to ask the questions they had in mind. So we ended up having a conference call with Jovan Petronijević, the convener, and Miriana Muntean, the logistics officer and asking them a bunch of question you guys had sent in.  ...

Some people debate to improve their skills, some for the competition and some for an ideal of discourse or knowledge. For the latter, we'd like to present an opportunity to engage in conversations with people from all around the world to exchange and discuss differing views: Bridger. The newly developed app just got publicly available, so we thought it a good time to have in interview with the people behind it. ...

It is not uncommon for major tournaments to host training programmes, as Duncan Crowe, one of the main organizers of the Scottish EUDC training series, puts it. However, the effort invested in the Scottish EUDC training series has been exceptional in length and extent. Instead of being a selected set of workshops delivered directly prior to the competition, this training series has involved the production and distribution of new, live training content directly to societies across Europe. The launch of the Scottish EUDC Training Platform marks the introduction of a new pillar to the international debate education. ...

A few days ago, we interviewed the magnificient Owen Mooney, current EUDC champion. We asked him some questions about his debating development and which advice he would give to novices and debaters who seek to become better. Enjoy some funny stories, expert suggestions and clever comments! ...

Some weeks ago, we interviewed David Alatorre and Montserrat Legorreta, convenors of México WUDC 2018. This week, we can finally present you the results with tons of information - whether it's about the Masters' Competition, the Socials, Livestreams, México Open, Triple breaks, Wi-Fi or the IA allocation system. Enjoy! ...

Apart from regular tournaments with debates around topics that generally move - or should move - society, there are some examples were debaters just combine some of their various interests. This led German debaters to establish their very own ruleset for what they call "history debates", ultimately resulting in history tournaments. Additionally, a history debate sometimes even gets set for one round of a regular tournament. In this article, we will introduce you to this feature - maybe you even want to do your own history debate? ...

With the EUDC 2017 in Tallinn coming closer, people might want to prepare their trip - but what to prepare for? We've asked convenor Selene Gnadenteich about the tournament, including the questions we got from the community. ...

In this article, I’d like to argue for more knives in BPS debating. Not because I’m the owner of a knife shop – which I’m not – but because there are certain cases where the current rules are unfair towards certain teams and this could be easily corrected. ...

Lots of experienced debaters keep discussing what might be the best way to adjudicate in British Parliamentary Style. Today, Stefan Torges wants to discuss the perfect adjudicator's position. ...

Is it your first time at the World University Debating Championship? Don't worry - Melanie Sindelar has written down what experiences might await you. [caption id="attachment_28791" align="alignright" width="400"] WUDC in Malysia 2014 - © Matthias Carcasona[/caption] Attending Worlds is an experience like no other. There is so much to learn from each debate, so much excitement from travelling to a new place, and above all: so many new friends to meet. I myself have made many friends from different corners of the world despite not being the most forthcoming person in a competitive setting. Jokes aside: even as you pace back and ...

[caption id="attachment_30718" align="alignright" width="400"] This lovely picture from Warsaw EUDC 2016 can now be seen at the new facebook page. - © Kuba Mozolewski[/caption] In the new year the Achte Minute will strongly expand the international (English) section. Changes include the following areas: The international editory is growing In preparation of our expansion we recruited some editors for the international section over the last months. Those are not necessarily German speaking because we want and need voluntary editors all across Europe. We are looking forward to introducing Achte Minute at WUDC and hope to meet more future editors soon. If you are reading ...

[caption id="attachment_30437" align="alignright" width="300"] Philipp Müller and Calyxx Peucker  - © Katharina Heinrich[/caption] „Such a nasty team“ (Calyxx Peucker, Friedrichshafen and Philipp R. Müller, Munich) won the final of the Tilbury House IV in Closing Government. They defeated Münster F (Marc-Andre Schulz and Marcel Jühling) in Opening Government, TU Delft (Wissam Chalabi and Ina Vollmer) in Opening Opposition and Nerds on Tour (Lucy Lester and Alex, Maastricht) in Closing Opposition on the motion “THR the decision of Clinton supporters in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 US election to frame the Trump victory as the result of misogyny and racism and ...

On the 19th-29th Juli the World Schools Debating Championships take place in and around Stuttgart, Germany (an article about the WSDC 2016 can be found here). The Achte Minute was visiting the event and we’ve interviewed some of the participating debaters from all around the world. Because of the large number of interviews the first part of this Mittwochs-Feature was already published yesterday. In this part you can find the interviews with: Naz Gocek, Branksome Hall - Canada Barbara Krumpholz, Europäisches Gymnasium Bertha-von-Suttner - Germany Thomas Murphy, Dubai College - United Arabic Emirates Abhaya Gauchan, Ratobangala School - Nepal   Naz Gocek, Branksome Hall - Canada [caption id="attachment_29517" ...

On the 19th-29th Juli the World Schools Debating Championships take place in and around Stuttgart, Germany (an article about the WSDC 2016 can be found here). The Achte Minute was visiting the event and has interviewed some of the participating debaters from all around the world. Because of the large number of interviews, the first part of this Mittwochs-Feature is already published today. The second part will be published regularly at 10am on Wednesday. In this part you can find the interviews with: Kenza Wilks, Dulwich College - England Alejo Gonzalez Virgili, Belgrano Day School - Argentina Jay Tanatswa Muzhingi, Kutama College - Zimbabwe Kenza ...

In addition to debating at universities, competition has spread at schools all over the globe in recent decades. For example, participating countries annually send a delegation of pupils aged 14 to 19 to the World Schools Debating Championships (WSDC), which are comparable to the World Universities Debating Championships. Laura Alviz of the Debating Society Germany e.V. explains what exactly that means. WSDC takes place in Stuttgart next week. After the German team had to cover long distances in 2014 and 2015 to reach the Southeast Asian cities Bangkok and Singapore, traveling becomes easier this year. WSDC takes place in seven days ...

The WUDC - World Universities Debating Championship - are hosted annually around New Year and decide, who will become the english speaking university debating champions in one of three language categories. [caption id="attachment_28793" align="alignleft" width="400"] An Komfort völlig ausreichend? Jugendherberge in Tübingen // Sufficient comfort? Youth hostel in Tübingen // © Lennart Lokstein[/caption] In the German (in this article meaning: German speaking language region - primarily Germany, Austria and Switzerland) debate szene international tournaments aren't really important. The WUDC 2013 in Berlin and the EUDC 2015 in Vienna may have risen attention and as far as I'm informed the number of VDCH ...

It is that time of year when debaters all around the world flock to virtual forums to discuss the merits of the bids for the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC). Most will argue that this year’s one horse race has already been decided. It probably has, and the Mexicans can be proud of the bid they have presented. This situation makes it all the easier for me to present what I believe to be a helpful metric in deciding on bids in general. With only one bid, I can hardly be accused of partisanship. I hope my words will resonate in ...

The World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) is the largest international debating tournament. The first WUDC took place in Glasgow in 1981 in which only 43 teams from seven nations participated. This year, more than 440 teams from all continents compete for the title of World Debating Champion. The WUDC 2016 will take place in Thessaloniki, Greece. Two clubs cooperate to host the tournament: The Rhetoric Club of Thessaloniki, one of the oldest debating societies in Greece, and the Debating Society of Greece, a group of experienced Greek debate trainers and organisers that provides debate training to young people in universities. ...

On September 6-10, 2015, the Red Sea Open will take place once more in Eilat, Israel.Besides the Red Sea, a pool and free alcohol at the hotel, the organization comittee promises workshops and an experienced Chief Adjudication Core, consisting of Monica Forman, Helena Ivanova and Amanda Moorghen.Teams and adjudicators can still register.The information on the tournament in a nutshell:Host: tba.Convener: tba.Date: 6-10 September, 2015Rounds: Six preliminary rounds, Semifinals and FinalChief Adjudicators: Monica Forman, Helena Ivanova and Amanda MoorghenRegistration fee: Israeli participants - 550 NIS, Participants from abroad - 470 NIS (about 110 Euros)You can find more information in the Facebook-event ...

St. Andrews A (Ruairidh Macintosh, Alex Don) and Tel Aviv B (Stav Singer, Iddan Golomb) are the European Champions 2015.St. Andrews won the debate on "This House would treat the deaths of soldiers as regrettable losses of lifes rather than examples of heroism." out of Closing Opposition against GUU A (Duncan Crowe, Chris Edgar) in Opening Government, UCD LawSoc A (Aodhan Peelo, Paul O'Dwyer) in Opening Opposition and Tel Aviv A (Ayal Hayut-man, Dan Lahav) in Closing Government.The final in the category "English as a Second Language" was won by Tel Aviv B out of Opening Opposition. They debated against ...

The European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC) are almost over. Time to publish the break and the results of the outrounds so far:The BreakThe following teams broke into the quarterfinals of this year's EUDC:     The outrounds were judged by Adam Hawksbee, Amanda Moorghen, Anat Shapira, Andrew Ford, Annabelle van Beusekom, Ary Ferreira de Cunha, Ben Adams, Bethany Garry, Beth Eades, Bionda Merkens, Claudia Hyde, Cerys Bradley, Christine Simpson, Craig McDonald, Daan Welling, Daniel Bregman, Eitan Har Oz, Eliot Pallot, Emilia Carlqvist, Franny Solnick, Fred Cowell, Gavin Tucker, Gavin Illsley, Gareth Williams, Sarah Jennings, Hannah Metcalfe, Harish Natarajan, James Clough, James Dixon, Jamie Batchelor, Jess pierce, Jess Redmond, Joe Mayes, Karin Merckens, Kitty Parker Brooks, Leela Koenig, Louis Collier, Luke Murray, Madeline Schultz , Mark Haughton, Matthew Wilmore , Michael Shapira, Niels Schröter, Nika Jelaska, Omer Nevo, Oskar Avery, Penny Sadeghi, Pete Doughton, Radu Cotarcea, Rebecca Irvine, Richard Hopps, Rosie Unwin, Ruby Holmes, Sam Block, Samuel Ward Packard, Sella ...

The first three days and six open rounds of the European Universities Debating Championships are already over. Tomorrow the competing teams will debate three more rounds without getting the results before the break will be announced at the Pratersauna.The Adjudication Team published the resultes in a Google-Doc, which is available online.The results of competing teams of debating societies of the VDCH - Association of German Speaking University Debating Societies are listed here:[caption id="attachment_27073" align="alignright" width="400"] Registration Desk on the first day of Vienna EUDC 2015. (c) Vienna EUDC 2015[/caption]Berlin A - 9 points (Florian Grünwald and Tanja Maximow, Berlin)Berlin B - 8 points ...

This summer, about 1000 people will travel to Vienna for the 17th European Universities Debating Championships (EUDC or Euros). The Debattierklub Wien (DK Wien) hosts the week-long tournament. Stefan Zweiker is the convener, overseeing 23 other members of the organising committee and international volunteers.One year after and 267 kilometres to the north of Zagreb EUDC, the championship is again up for grabs. Until then, Sheffield holds the title; in the category of English as a Second Language (ESL), the current champions are from Belgrade.The Blue Danube Euros, as the organisers call them, will last from August 2-8.The Chief Adjudicators (CAs) ...