[caption id="attachment_34546" align="alignright" width="230"] Leiden TBA, the Winners of the Tournament - ©David Metz[/caption] The Roosevelt Open 2018 in Middleburg was won by Leiden TBA (David Metz and Joas Bakker) from Closing Opposition. They debated the final on the motion "Given the choice, THBT US Supreme  Court Justices should be elected by a vote amongst federal judges rather than a popular vote" against DSDC Orange (Lukas Joosten and Elian Lavrijsen) in Opening Government, Pure Esoteric Wisdom (Tanya Shrivastava and Fabian Beitsma; Delft) in Opening Opposition and Leiden, Mike is your Problem now (Roel Schoenmackers and Lotte Classen; Cicero) in Closing Government. The final was chaired by Lisa Schallenberg with Daan Spackler, Jeroen Wijnen, Milos Marjanovic and Simone Landman. The Novice Final ...

[caption id="attachment_34093" align="alignleft" width="150"] View of Lake Jasna, Kranjska Gora - © Duncan Crowe[/caption] With over 225 participants, including students, teachers and trainers the World Schools Debate Academy 2018, the biggest version of the WSDA so far, came to a successful end after taking place from the 23rd to 30th of June. The WSDA is a debate academy that teaches school students between the ages of 13 to 18 everything about debating in the World Schools Debating format in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. The students participate in a very intense week of debate training, followed by a three day tournament. The educational part of ...

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="281"] The Winner of the tournament, USA Red - © ZIP[/caption] 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. [caption id="attachment_33763" align="alignright" width="286"] The final of the tournament - © ZIP[/caption] The tournament was held from the 8th ...

[caption id="attachment_33120" align="alignright" width="400"] USA Red, the winner of the tournament - © EurOpen[/caption] The EurOpen 2017 (taking place 9.11.-15.11.) was won by USA Red (Ella Michaels, Piper Doyle, Emily Grantham) from Opposition on the motion "THBT capitalism does more harm than good for women’s liberation". The final was judged by Anna England Kerr as chair together with Miha Andrič, Tracey Lee, Bedrich Bluma, Klaus-Peter Heil, Ann-Sophie Zeipekkis and  Devin van den Berg. Best speaker of the tournament was Samuel Wooddell from American Logos Glacier with an average of 73.13. Best ESL speaker was Brian Li from SAS China with an average of 72.35 speaker points. EurOpen is an annual World Schools ...

[caption id="attachment_33123" align="alignright" width="225"] The Winners of the Cork IV 2017 bringing the christmas cheer - © Matt Hazell[/caption] Cambridge (Alasdair Donovan and Matt Hazell) won the Cork IV 2017 from Closing Government on the motion From behind a veil of ignorance, THW rather be born in the City of Omelas than a city in this world where you would have an average standard of life (eg: London, Dublin, Amsterdam, etc). They won over TCD Hist SD (Daniel Gilligan and Sam Browne) in Opening Government, TCD RR (Ronan Daly and Rory O'Sullivan) ind Opening Opposition and TCD Phil B (Eoin O' Gorman and Christopher Costigan) in Closing Opposition. The final was chaired ...

Tel Aviv L&H (Dan Lahav & Ayal Hayut-Man) won the first ever UCD Law Soc IV from Opening Opposition on the motion "THBT the Catalonian Government should have cancelled the independence referendum after it was ruled unconstitutional".  [caption id="attachment_32806" align="alignright" width="400"] Tel Aviv L&H (Ayal Hayut-man and Dan Lahav ) - © UCD Law Soc[/caption] They debated against We Gonna Rokc Dwon Two Dyslexic Avenue (Cian Luddy & Caoimhe Meaney, UCC Philosophical Society) in Opening Government, I'm fine. It's fine. We're fine. (Chris Costigan & Amy O'Sullivan, TCD Philosophical Society) in Closing Government and Bailey orders Asian Teck-a-Wei II: The Chopstick Chronicles (Bailey Reid, KCL &  Teck Wei Tan, Oxford) in Closing Opposition. The ...

[caption id="attachment_32765" align="alignright" width="300"] The winners: Cian Higgins (left) and Paddy Flynn (right) - © Helena Hecke[/caption] The Novice IV of UCD Law Soc and L&H was won by UCD Law HF (Cian Higgins and Paddy Flynn) from Closing Government. They debated on the motion THB the US media should restrict coverage of mass shooting in the US against UCD Law/ Hist LA (Samuel Ajentunmobi and Jack Lowe) in Opening Government, Edinburgh I am Sasha Fierce (Lukas Augustin Reynoso and Nathanial Cliftion) in Opening Opposition and Bialystok A (Przimyslaw Stolarski and Alicja Owdiez) in Closing Opposition. The debate was chaired by Beth Mallen together with Cian Luddy, Eoin O'Sullivan, Milla Huuskonen and Mark Wilson. The best speaker of the tournament was ...

The EUDC is attracting many of the same people again and again every year. But there are also always the people who come to Euros the first time and don’t know what to expect and what will be happening. The Achte Minute has talked to some of the people who are at their first EUDC here in Tallinn about their experiences, expectations and how those expectations were met. Hilla Schwartz Tudor Musat Emma van der Horst and Fenna ten Haaf Rachel Mullally Mrinal Kumar Hila Schwartz, Ben Guiron University of the Negev (Israel) [caption id="attachment_32549" align="alignleft" width="213"] Hila Schwartz - © H.Hecke[/caption] AM: So for how long have you ...

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 ...

[caption id="attachment_32286" align="alignleft" width="309"] Winning team Toronto 1 - © UTS Speech and Debate Society[/caption] The tournament at the World Schools Debate Academy 2017 was won on a 6 - 3 split desicion by Toronto 1 (Gautam Manohar, Adithya Chakravarthy, Angela Li, Andrei Comlosan Pop and Mia Richmond; Canada) in Opposition on the motion "THBT developed nations should not recruit high skilled workers such as doctors and engineers from developing countries". They debated in the final against the team North European Trade Agreement (Sonia Meehan, Leo Ohl, Julius Schillinger, Luesa Vallin and Mariam Kojo; Finnland/Germany). The final was adjudicated by Duncan Crowe (c), Kristina Loayza, Jenny Tumas, Rok Hafner, Penny Sadeghi , Malvika Kala, Roel Becker, Elizabeta ...

[caption id="attachment_32196" align="alignright" width="400"] Roel Becker and Floris Holstege, winners of the Delft Open 2017 - © Helena Hecke[/caption] The grand final of the first Delft Open ever was won by Leiden A(rrogant) (Floris Holstege, Roel Becker) from Opening Opposition on the Motion This house would introduce a Social Credit System in liberal democracies. They debated agains UDS: Sharpay and Ryan (Pieter van der Veere, Angela Portocarrero - Utrecht) in Opening Government, David en Simone (Simone Landman - Trivium, David Metz - Leiden) in Closing Government and Brandeis ST (Ravi Simon, Sagie Tvizer) in Closing Opposition. The final was chaired by Lennart van Laake, who adjudicated together with Daan ...

[caption id="attachment_32163" align="alignright" width="400"] The GUU delegation at the Durham Open with winners Bethany Garry (standing) and Owen Mooney (green shirt) - © GUU[/caption] The Durham Open 2017 was won by GUU A (Bethany Garry and Owen Mooney) in Opening Opposition on an open motion. They debated against Consider Phlebas (Sam van Elk, Cambridge and Joe Roussos, LSE) in Opening Government, Oxford RJ (Jure Hederih and Raffy Marshall) in Closing Government and Cambridge E (Camilo Ruiz and Matt Hankin) in Closing Opposition. The final was judged by Kez Exley (C) Dee Courtney, Aislin Flynn, Rory Flynn and Chris Paschali Best speaker of the tournament was ...

[caption id="attachment_32158" align="alignright" width="400"] Winners Katherine Dunbar (left) and Etsuko Lim (right) during prep time - © TCD Hist/Phil[/caption] The Trinity Open 2017 was won by Cambridge B (Etsuko Lim & Katherine Dunbar) in Closing Government. They debated against Oxford Tecks and Sophie (Teck Wei Tan & Sophie Large) in Opening Government,  Upgrading from Aodhan (Adam Stairs & Clíodhna Ní Chéileachair, UCD Law) in Opening Opposition and Edinburgh A (Tim Squirrel & Nish Hegde) in Closing Opposition on the motion "You are an author who has just been granted a power such that any book you write would be taken as gospel by all who read it. ...

The Amsterdam Open 2017 was won by Floris en Pieter (Jelte Schievels, Utrecht & David Metz; Leiden) in Opening Government on the motion THBT the Left should focus on using class as its central organising principle, rather than other aspects of identity. [caption id="attachment_32071" align="alignright" width="315"] Winners of Amsterdam Open: Jelte Schievels and David Metz - © David Metz[/caption] They debated against In the quiet words of the Virgin Mary: come again? (Anastasia Grishkova, KCL & Bas Tönissen, St. Andrews) in Opening Opposition, Wong Call, Bagequit (Brian Wong, Oxford & Johan Bage, Stockholm) in Closing Government and You are fake news (Weronika Mincewicz-Podrecka, Leiden & John Tsopanis, ULU) in Closing Opposition. The final was judged by ...

[caption id="attachment_31994" align="alignleft" width="206"] The winners of the tournament ©Helena Hecke[/caption] 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 ...

[caption id="attachment_31828" align="alignleft" width="241"] Winners of Glasgow Ancients - © Srishti Krishnamoorthy-Cavell[/caption] Glasgow Ancients The team Iconic Misandry (Clíodhna Ní Chéileachair, Srishti Krishnamoorthy-Cavell; UCD/Cambridge) was victorious in the final on the motion "THW grant legal personhood to major ecological entities (eg. the Amazon rainforest, the Great Barrier Reef etc.)." They won as Closing Government over 2 indy 2ref: edinburgh drift (Oskar Avery, Chris Paschali; Newcastle) in Opening Government, My teammate didn't want any puns, but Im feeling quite ADAM-ant (Adam Stairs, Aodhan Peelo, UCD) in Opening Opposition and Already Broke (Up) (Lucia Arce, Jure Hederih; Sheffield/Oxford) in Closing Opposition. The Final was judged by Eilidh McCreath in ...

In this week's feature, Helena Hecke investigates the issue of women not being taken serious in adjudication discussions, along with some suggestions to fix it. ...

[caption id="attachment_31750" align="alignleft" width="280"] The Final - © Private[/caption] The Maynooth Open 2017 was won by Men I'd shift if I weren't a misandrist (Tim Squirrell, Richeal Ní Laoghaire; Edinburgh/UCD L&H) in Closing Government in an open motion. Opening Government Minorities are people not extensions (Lorna Staines, Mark Finn; Trinity Hist) set it as "THB the usa should pay reparations to african americans". The other two teams in the final were Nothing wrong with two men crying or taking valium (Eoin O'Sullivan, Chris Costigan; Cork/Trinity Phil) in Opening Opposition and  We all need somebody to Leon (Aodhan Peelo, Leon Langdon; UCD L&H) as Closing Government. [caption id="attachment_31748" align="alignright" ...

[caption id="attachment_31725" align="alignright" width="251"] EDS A - Winner of the Tilburg Women's Open - © Private[/caption] The Tilburg Women's Open 2017 was won by EDS A (Emma van der Horst, Migle Povilenaite; Rotterdam) in Opening Government on the motion "TH supports the Rise of Left-Wing Populism in Europe". They won over Groningen A (Linsey Keur, Lise van der Meer) in Opening Opposition, Underpreped & Overdressed (Lydia Vlagsma, Ike Lieshout; Nijmegen) in Closing Government and Bonaparte A (Marike Breed, Harriet Bergman) in Closing Government. The final was judged by Dee Ní Churnáin as chair together with Romée Lind, Annabelle van Beusekom, Olivia Sundberg Diez and Gigi ...

[caption id="attachment_31637" align="alignright" width="400"] The finalists and CAs - ©Private[/caption] The Alfred Tuna Snider International World Schools Tournament was won by Toronto Mix (Sarah Rana, Zain Daudi, Dori Zhoud, Sophie Wu) in Proposition on a 3:2 split decision. They debated the final on the motion "This House believes that the West should not portray ‘’The Great Explorers’’ (e.g. Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama) as heroes" against UTS A (Martine Duffy, Alykhan Jetha, Adithya Chakracarthy, Gautam Manohar; Canada) in Opposition. The final was judged by Adnan Muttalib, Cornell in chair together with Duncan Crowe, UK/Vermont, Nae Sovaiala, Romania, Zheng Bo, China and Wanda Gibson, ...

[caption id="attachment_31516" align="alignright" width="266"] Willam Wildi (left) and Stanisław Stefaniak (right), Winners of Cracow Open 2017 - © KDPUJ[/caption] The Cracow Open 2017 was won by the mixed team I am your Stan (Stanisław Stefaniak/Poznan, William Wildi/LSE) from Closing Opposition. They debated in the final against Mainor A (Oskar Gross, Kaspar Kelder) in Opening Government, Pun (Ben Shaw/GUU alumnus, Mirijana Muntean/DK Wien) in Opening Opposition and AGKŚ (Alexander Starchurski, Mateusz Wójtowicz - Warsaw) in Closing Government on the motion "This House welcomes the commercialisation of national symbols". The final was adjudicated by Alex Moise (chair) together with Harish Natarajan, Karolina Partyga, Calyxx Peucker and Cheryl Nazik. Wiliam Wildi was declared best speaker of ...

[caption id="attachment_31509" align="alignright" width="261"] HDDc - winners of the tournament © Private[/caption] The International Worlds Schools tournament Ljutomer, Slovenia was won by the team HDDc (Marija Jarnjak / Hrvoje Kozic / Maja Roglic).They debated the final on the motion "THBT we should boycott comedians who poke fun at minority stereotypes" in proposition against the team Bezigrad Green Stars (Reja Debevc / Matija Pusnik / Filip Koro) from Slovenia in opposition. Government won the debate with a very emotional case about the importance to protect minorities. Opposition argued against that on a principle level of how making fun about everyone means equality, as well as ...

[caption id="attachment_31072" align="alignright" width="242"] Winners of the Inner Temple IV 2017 - © Michael Dunn Goejikan[/caption] The team Fulfilling MDG's Virtue Signalling Quota (Michael Dunn Goejikan & Muhammad Assadullah Khan) has won the final of the Inner Temple IV 2017. The motion was "This house supports a norm where adult children take in their elderly parents, even in cases where their parents have the financial means to support themselves." The final was judged by Steven Ramesh Rajavinothan  in chair, together with Tek Wei Tan, Ibrahim Steele, Mackenzie Tse, Bruce Weaver and Penny S. Best speaker was Michael Dunn Goejikan with an average of 84.25 speaker points. The Novice Final ...

With debaters from all around the world recovering on their travels back home, it's time to look back at the ups and downs of the tournament. Helena Hecke commented on the Dutch WUDC experience. The debating world has once more crowned the best debaters in the world. This year it's USU A from Sydney in the Open category, Tel Aviv A in the ESL category and Belgrade C in the EFL category. But celebrating the new world champions is not all that has happened at this year’s Worlds. The debating: Of course debating is the most important aspect at WUDC. This year, the Adjudication ...

After nine preliminary rounds, two days of elimination rounds and three finals, the winners of this years WUDC have been determined. [caption id="attachment_30874" align="alignright" width="302"] EFL Champions 2017: Belgrade C ©DutchWUDC[/caption] In the EFL Final, Belgrade C (Miloš Marjanović, Teodora Rešetar) took the win via unanimous decision against BINUS A (Stella Emada Bestio, Willem Chua) in Opening Government, SKT A (Konrad Gütschow, Philipp Schirmer) in Opening Opposition and SUFE B (Jinting Liu, Miranda Shen Yan) in Closing Government on the motion "THBT the European left should promote a hard left agenda, including the nationalisation of major industry, very high tax rates on the ...

There’s no other time in the year where more outstanding, successful, brilliant, superb, mind-blowing, astonishing, fascinating debaters meet at one location then whilst WUDC. That makes worlds the perfect time to talk to some of these people and get them to share their secrets to success. We have spoken to three more people from The Netherlands, Israel, Bangladesh and Germany. The interviews were conducted by Helena Hecke. In this Article you’ll hear about the tricks of the trade from Marc-Andre Schulz – Aachen Emma Lucas and Gigi Gil – Leiden Monica Forman - Tel Aviv Ratib Ali - Dhaka [caption id="attachment_30787" align="alignright" width="229"] Marc-Andre Schulz - ...

The second day of the World Universities Debating Championship in The Hague is coming to an end and of course the Achte Minute was there once again and has interviewed some of the participants from all around the world. Today six people from three continents were interviewed and there will be more coming the following days. The interviews were conducted by Helena Hecke. In this part you can find the interviews with: Ngozi Sibulele and Inga Macingwano – South Africa Charles Lewis and Alan Chan – Canada Minji Kim and Do Hyung Shin – South Korea   Ngozi Sibulele and Inga Macingwano – South Africa [caption id="attachment_30797" align="alignleft" ...

There is no other time in the year where more outstanding, successful, brilliant, superb, mind-blowing, astonishing, fascinating debaters meet at one location than whilst at WUDC. This makes Worlds the perfect time to talk to some of those people and get them to share their secrets to success. Today on the day of the first rounds, the Achte Minute has spoken to three different people from Sweden and New Zealand. In this article you’ll find the tricks of the trade. Gustaf Lundgren and Johan Båge – Stockholm Sebastian Templeton – Wellington Gustaf Lundgren and Johan Båge – Stockholm Gustaf and Johan are ...

The first day of the World University Debating Championship 2017 in The Hague is coming to an end and of course the Achte Minute was there and interviewed some of the participants from all around the world. Today seven people from three continents were interviewed and more will be coming the following days. Interviewing for the Achte Minute was Helena Hecke. In this part you can find the interviews with: Pradeepta Adhikari and Shreya Josmi – Nepal Roshelle Pinnock, Patrice Minto and Germaine Barrett – Jamaica Tyler Whitney and Lemuel Daher, Northwest University Kirkland – USA Pradeepta Adhikari and Shreya Josmi – Nepal [caption id="attachment_30746" align="alignleft" ...

At the Winter Holiday Open in Zagreb, a World Schools Debate tournament, USA Debate A (Liz Yount, Josh May, Aditya Dhar and Ella Michaels) participated the final in proposition against Bežigrad Green Stars (Matija Pušnik, Reja Debevc, Filip Korošec in Opposition on the motion TH regrets the commercialization of feminism. [caption id="attachment_30642" align="alignright" width="400"] The winning team bežigrad Green Stars - © WHO[/caption] The proposition debated the intersectionality of feminism, secondly the limitation of political action and lastly the resulting commodification and need for opposition to the system. Opposition argued against this with the arguments that the commercialization will lead to popularisation of feminism and ...