February 29 is a date not so common, recurring only once in four years. This year, it'll be a day to remember for another reason, too: Registration for the European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC or Euros) opens that day. Get your computers ready, check your internet connection and make sure eveything is in the right place on Wednesday, 12 o'clock CET, i.e. Central European Time. Convener Milan Vignjevic explains it more detailed: "That is 11:00 London/Dublin/Lisbon, 12:00 Belgrade/Paris/Amsterdam/Berlin, 13:00 Athens/Ankara/Tallinn and 14:00 Moscow/Doha time." And he's got another good advice: "Make sure your institutional representative has their clicking finger warmed ...

Simeon Reusch, VDCH vice-president knows the answer: South: Debating soieties from Switzerland, Austria, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria Central: Deb socs from Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saarland and Thuringia North: Deb socs from Berlin, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Northrhine-Westphalia und Schleswig-Holstein Chief adjudicators for the tourneys from 21 to 22 April are: Marcus Ewald and Jan Lüken, for the South, to be held in Ingolstadt Benedikt Nufer and Michael Saliba, for the North, to be held in Kiel Pauline Leopold and Clemens Lechner, for the Center, to be held in Jena Language of debate is German, all competitions will be held in the format of BPS.

Debating at the Dutch Open: From 30 to 31 March, the Erasmus Debating Union of Leiden is host to up to 52 teams. 50 Euros per team for five prelims, 7-minutes-speeches, break to semis, a novice final, meals on Friday and Saturday, two socials and crash - plus, judges go free! Apropos judges: As usual, the n-1 rule applies. The chief adjudication team is formed by Rogier Baart (WUDC ESL finalist), Becky West (EUDC semi-finalist), Steph Bell (WUDC finalist) and Marcus Ewald (EUDC ESL quarter-finalist). Register now via Google Spreadsheet - don't wait longer than 1 March! More details are available ...

New FDL results: Tübingen (44) Mainz (37) Heidelberg Debating (34) AFA Wien (20), Hamburg (20) Top speakers FDL: Philipp Stiel (44) Willy Witthaut (38) Zsolt Szilagyi (35) Read more in this in the German version.

Julian Ohm and Barbara Schunicht from Debattierclub Hamburg won the Berlin Punk 2012. They defeated Andreas Lazar and Roxanna Noll from Debattierclub Stuttgart and two teams from Berlin Debating Union: Jonas Werner and Katja Krüger aswell as Christina Dexel and Lilian Seffer. The final motion read “Dieses Haus glaubt, dass Menschenversuche Richtern als Strafmaß zur Verfügung stehen sollten.“ ...

Please read the German version of this.

Come to Warwick IV: On February 4, Susan Connolly, Yina Koh and Lindsay Bing are going to CA four prelims, semis and final with five-minute-speeches. Reg fee is £40, n-1 applies. Registration is already opened, more information please check the website of the Warwick Debating Society or the tournament's Facebook page. There is going to be a „fantastic club social on the Saturday night“ with lots of pizza and drinks. If you have any questions, please contact the org com at su315@sunion.warwick.ac.uk. xzy / tr

sorry, there is no English translation available. Please read the German version. ...

Please read the German version of this.

Oxford Women's Open from January 20 to 21 means debating without men – only female debaters and judges are admitted. The same is true of the chief adjudication team consisting of Catherine Murphy (Trinity College Dublin Historical Society) and Jen Coyne (Oxford Union). Catherine is a Euros finalist 2011 and also topped the tab there. Jen broke to quarters at the Euros 2010 in Amsterdam and at the Worlds 2011 in Gaborone, Botswana. Reg fee is 20 British Pound (about 24 Euros) per institution, no matter how many teams an institution sends. Mixed teams are welcome, too. Registration is already open, if ...

The German language ZEIT DEBATTEN series is taking on again in the (not so) new year - this time with a stop in Hamburg. Please read the German version of this to read more on the convenors, the chief adjudication core and the socials. To get current news from ZEIT DEBATTE Hamburg please follow Achte Minute on Twitter and look out for the hashtag #ZDhh.

Trauma overcome! Worlds' runner-up Dessislava Kirova gives Achte Minute'e appreciated readers an insight on how she and her team mate Juliane Mendelsohn have overcome their trauma of being defeated in quarters - and how the proceed straight on to the finals of the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds) in Manila, Philippines. (The story is in German, please check back later for an English translation.) ...

Since we guess that our appreciated readers follow us on Twitter your head will most probably be replete with impressions from De La Salle Worlds. But what are the facts and figures about the Wolrd Universities Debating Championships (WUDC)? Or maybe you have been there yourself and want to sort things out now? Your Achte Minute team provides you with all you might want to know – and even beyond. By the way, you still might wanna follow the Hashtag #WUDC on Twitter – you’ll find funny stories and how everybody copes with the aftermath of post-Worlds exhaustion. ...

Berlin expects about 1.400 Debattierer from around 70 countries to the World Universities Debating Championships 2013 from December 27 2012 until January 4 2013 when about 400 teams will be competing for the title of world champion in the German capital. Since 1981, debaters from all over the world have been competing at the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds) at alternating locations across the planet. It was not before 1996 that the British Parliamentary Style became the mandatory format for this annual tournament. From 27 December 2011 to 4 January 2012, the international debating community assembled in Manila for ...

Today's sixth day of the Worlds Universities Debating Championship saw lots of joy and lots of heartbreak - it was the first day of final rounds! After yesterday's break announcement started with the open octofinals, followed by English as a Second Language (ESL) quarterfinals, open quarterfinals and concurrent EFL and ESL semifinals. ...

New year's daywas quiet at World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worls) in Manila:Most debater had the chance to take a tour around the Philippinian capital, relaxed and hang out at the hotel. That was not true today for the national delegates. They had to sit in the WUDC Council where they decide about a new Council president, the confirmation of the current bid for next Worlds and the bid for the Worlds after that. And there we have a new president: Steve Johnson, until recently "registrar", followed Jens Fischer in the office. With him on the Council board are Eoin ...

As usual at Worlds, the last day of the year is also the last day of preliminary rounds. Another three rounds capped off those rounds and finally determined who will advance to the final rounds ("break") and who won't. To discourage bad and destructive behaviour in these rounds, no adjudication is given after the rounds end. That means that the latest available information regarding standings is from last night after round 6 - Can Okar and Florian Umscheid have compiled unofficial tabs based on publicly available data: Can's GoogleDoc and Florian's Facebook posts thus provided a glimpse of who might ...

In the following we provide you the breaks and tab positions at WUDC 2012 after the nine preliminary rounds. This data was compiled with the help of Colm Flynn and confirmed by WUDC tabmaster Bob Nimmo. Some institutions' names may not be accurately typed up, please excuse any errors. EFL break (team points not yet available): Universitas Indonesia C Ewha Debating Society A Belgrade C Defense Technology A Zagreb A UCD Venezuela A Tianjin FSU A STAN A ESL break (team points not yet available): Tel Aviv A Utrecht A Leiden A Ljubljana A Belgrade A Johannes Gutenberg A BDU A University of the Philippines Manila A International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) A Chinese University Hong Kong A Galatasaray A Malaya A KDU A Lahore ...

It was another busy day at De La Salle Worlds in Manila, and debaters got a glimpse of what they all hope to hold in their hands on January 3 - trophies! ...

For debaters at De La Salle Worlds in Manila today was launch day, with three preliminary rounds taking place at De La Salle University (DLSU). During preliminary rounds, no distinction is made between different language levels (Open/ESL/EFL), so especially round 1 saw a wild mix of debaters from all over the world, clashing over the motion "This house would make fathers take paternity leave", a nice and not-too-hard start into the day. ...

Today, De La Salle Worlds in Manila kicked off for good! Day 1, however, was an easy one for debaters. Many of them were asked to take part in ESL and EFL interviews to confirm their status in the respective category: English as a Second Language and English as a Foreign Language. Adjudicators were challenged more thoroughly. They had to go through a test to determine their skill as a judge. It consisted of a live debate performed in front of the adjudicators, which they had to critique. The motion for that test debate read: "This house would ban all reporting ...

Debaters from all over the world are flocking in to Manila, Philippines. From 27 December 2011 to 4 January 2012, they assemble at De La Salle University (DLSU) to compete for the title of the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC or Worlds). From under the roof of VDCH there will be the following debating society competing with around 400 teams from about 70 countries - all in a peaceful competition, the WUDC 2012 or DLSU Worlds: Berlin Debating Union: John Eltringham, Narendran Ramasendaran, Dessislava Kirova, Juliane Mendelsohn, Kai Dittmann, Matthias Winkelmann S.A.E.C.L.O. Greifswald: Rafael Heinisch, Ida Heidecker Debattierclub Mannheim: Jana Gilke, Katrin Sadroschinski Debattierclub Johannes ...

"BP comes to BP": That means an opportunity to participate in an extra tournament before Vienna IV 2012. The debating societies of Central European University and Corvinus University Budapest are going to host the first international tournament in Hungary from March 2 to 5. Registration is already opened until January 10. To registrate, you need firstly to express your will to participate in an e-mail at budapestopen2012@gmail.com. After sending this e-mail, you are going to receive a registration form that have to be filled out and sent back. After that, you are going to receive a confirmation letter. The reg fee ...

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Nicolas Eberle, member of the executive board of Deutsche Debattiergeselschaft (DDG), prepped Austrian debaters in Vienna. Please read more on this in the German version of this article. ...

FDL Rankings after round 2: 1. Heidelberg Debating (34 points) 2. Mainz (32) 3. Freiburg, Tübingen (19) 5. München (14) The top five speakers: 1. Zsolt Szilagyi (35 Punkte) 2. Almut Graebsch, Victoria Reuter (30) 4. Peter Croonenbroeck (26) 5. Jan Papsch, Willy Witthaut (24) Manuel Adams / apf