The team Idli and Sambar (Salil Mitra, Nitin Subramanian; Duke) has won the Grand Final of the VIT Debating Tournament Round Robin 2020 from Closing Government. They debated the motion "This House Believes That Imran Khan should pivot away from China, and towards India" against the other finalists Seamus and Oliver (Oliver Cummins, Seamus Dove; Sydney) in Opening Government; Liminal Spaces Debating (Samuel Scheuer, Braedon Lehman; Tübingen/Berlin); and MISRIT OO (Daniel Monteiro, Atul RH). The Grand Final was judged by Vishaka Raj, Shantanu Bariar, Abhilaksh Sharma, Yash Varshan Thirani, Omkar Masurkar, and Bansal Kartik, with Reed chairing. The top speaker of the tournament was ...

This article will review recruitment and outreach projects some debate societies have undertaken. It does not attempt to provide  recommendations / criticisms of different policies and responses. The first part of this series profiled experiences of organizers, coaches, and debaters in different parts of the world. The third part of this series will discuss the technical challenges and options available for organizing large tournaments and events online. If you would like to share projects on your local circuit or have comments please feel free to email me at spruced@tuta.io Featuring Gaini Ibragimova, DC "Parassat": With a 20 year history, DC "Parassat" is ...

The Asia Queer Open 2020 was won by I like it like that (Meabh, Arctic Monkies) in Opening Government, speaking against Don't stop me now in Opening Opposition (Sam Huang, Daniel Maier Gant), Feeling Myself  (Chris Morillo, Mia Stone-Molloy) in Closing Government; and Laws of Attraction (Gwen Stearns, Pandora's Boxx) in Closing Opposition. The debate was on the motion "This House Prefers representation of queer characters in media whose stories do not centre around their queerness" and chaired by Brian Wong. Judging with them were Ellen Page, David Benardy, Ploopy, Prashasti Saxena, Rachel Homnick, and Ryan Patrick Thalari. The Pro Am ...