The grand final of the Effective Altruism Debating Championship 2020 was won by We Were There When the Social Contract was Signed (Teck Wei Tan, Srishti Krishnamoorthy-Cavell) in Opening Government. Speaking against them were We are utility monsters, give us the 1 (Karthik Tadepalli, Tejas Subramanian) in Opening Opposition, WSDC Canada Rejects (Trenton Sewell, Tyson Dennis-Sharma) in Closing Government, Putting the Fun in Dysfunctional (Franka Boender, Ayal Mor) in Closing Opposition. The motion read "THBT, after meeting their basic needs, individuals have a moral responsibility to donate their wealth towards poverty alleviation". The adjudication panel was chaired by Hadar Goldberg and also ...

[caption id="attachment_36956" align="alignright" width="455"] The Dutch victory celebration featuring European champions Katharina Margareta Jansen (4th from left), Emma Lucas (5th f.l.) Louis Honee (6th f.l.) and David Metz (7th f.l.) - © Louis Honee[/caption] The Astana EUDC 2020 has come to an end and it has been a successful tournament for the Leiden Debating Union. The Dutch debating society was able to win both the ESL and Open final and topped the ESL speaker awards as well. In the grand final, Leiden A (David Metz, Emma Lucas) took the victory out of Closing Opposition against the Opening Government Leiden C (Louis Honee, ...

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 ...

[caption id="attachment_35384" align="alignright" width="400"] The Spanish language division was won by Cornell A (c) Pan - American UDC Panama City 2019[/caption] The Pan-American Universities Debate Championships 2019 was hosted in Panama on April 19 - 22 and featured both English and Spanish language divisions. The Spanish language final was won by Cornell A (Leo Grageda, Aurelien Salas) in Opening Government. Competing against them was PUCP A (Omar Espinoza, Jose Arturo Tipismana) in Opening Opposition, UdeG A (Itzcoatl Ilhuitcatl Bravo Rosas, Daniel Cuauhtli Aguilar Yanez) in Closing Government, and ITESM CEM A (Jubal Esteban Paez Belmonte, Mariana Morales Urbina) in Closing Opposition on the ...

[caption id="attachment_35314" align="alignright" width="400"] Kit Mercer and Jason Xiao - (c) Eric Barnes[/caption] The HWS Round Robin 2019 was won by Oxford (Kit Mercer, Jason Xiao) speaking in Opening Opposition on the motion "This House believes that the Black Lives Matter movement should embrace open carry gun laws and engage in armed community patrols". The Runner-Up was Melbourne (Stuart Dixon, Connor O'Brien) in Closing Opposition, on a 3-2 split decision. In Opening Government was Harvard HN (John Hunt, Michael Nehme)  and in Closing Government was Harvard DH (Danny DeBois, Mars He). The final panel was chaired by Eric Barnes with a panel ...

The World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) 2019 in Cape Town, which took place 28.12.18-03.01.19, has ended with victories for teams from Sydney, Hebrew Jerusalem and Keio A. The holding of the Open final was accompanied by protests of the Black-African debate community. Open [caption id="attachment_34947" align="alignright" width="400"] Kevin Lee and Bostan Nurlanov - © private[/caption] The Open final was won by Sydney D (Kevin Lee, Bostan Nurlanov) out of Closing Government. Their victory marked the third world championship triumph in the last five years for their debating union. Other participants in the final were Cornell B (Denny Lee, Aniroodh Ravikumar) in Opening Government ...

[caption id="attachment_34639" align="alignright" width="400"] The top two speakers and champions of this year's HWS IV: Aditya Dhar and Tejal Patwardhan - © Eric Barnes[/caption] The HWS IV 2018 was won by Harvard DP (Tejal Patwardhan, Aditya Dhar) from Opening Government. They debated the final on the motion "This House believes that the state should curb assortative mating" against Yale CP (Ko Lyn Cheang, Lorenzo Pinasco) in Opening Opposition, Brandeis/Northeastern SS (Ravi Simon, Dennis Su) in Closing Government, and Rochester FO (Ben Frazer, Warish Orko) in Closing Opposition. The final was chaired by Buzz Klinger with Alexander Beaumont, Allie McGowan, Dan Yoon, Daniel Berman, Shani Bennett, and Steph White.  The Novice Final of the tournament was ...

As the 2018 European Universities Debate Championship progresses, the break is now online. ...

[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 ...

The World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) 2018 in Mexico, which took place 28.12.17-04.01.18, are concluded and the champions for the three language categories have emerged. Open Champion is Harvard, ESL-Champion is Oxford and EFL-Champion is Comillas. The finals were hosted in the historical Teatro de la Ciudad Esperanza Iris in the centre of Mexico-City. [caption id="attachment_33275" align="alignright" width="400"] The Open Final - © Jacky Hsinghsien Chang Chow[/caption] The team Harvard A (Danny DeBois, Archie Hall) won the Open Final as Opening Government on the motion "This house would rather save the life of a single child, over extending the life of 5 ...

Once again the anglophone World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) took place during the turn of the year. This year's location was Mexico City. The tournament started the 27.12.17 and ended the 04.01.18. After nine preliminary rounds the teams breaking to the outrounds were announced on New Year's Eve. At the WUDC, teams participate classified as one of three language categories: EPL (English as a Proficient Language), ESL (English as a Second Language) and EFL (English as a Foreign Language). EPL-classified teams can only participate in the Open Break, ESL-teams depending on their ranking either in the Open Break oder the ...

Breaking 9th seed, Darion Hotan and Sam van Elk from Kings College London proceed to win the 2017 Oxford Intervarsity. The tournament's Chief Adjudicators were Evan Lynyak, Sella Nevo, Sophie Large, Teck Wei Tan, and Joshua Bailey. The tab team, SUULUU Candles, was led by Roxana Legezynska and included Katherine Dunbar, Steven Roy, Alex Murray, Joseph Sisson, and Jiwoo Won. [caption id="attachment_33048" align="alignright" width="400"] In Closing Opposition, BPP A ran an economics extension in the Final. photo credit: Justin Kirk[/caption] Debating as KCL A, Darion and Sam proposed that “Assuming it could be done peacefully, this House would replace all existing governments ...

The Cambridge IV 2017 preliminary rounds concluded similar to the Oxford IV, with Tel Aviv AD again breaking first, this time on 13 points. Dan Lahav again topped the open speaker tab - this time accompanied by Darion Hotan of KCL A, both averaging an 83.6 that begged belief. Dan Lahav was once again the top ESL speaker. Xavier Redmond, of Oxford RK, was the top novice speaker with an average of 79. In the final round, Tel Aviv AD (Ayal Hayut-Man, Dan Lahav) won from Opening Government defending the motion that "This house believes that it is always immoral to ...

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 ...

On the third day of the European University Debate Championship 2017 the pre-rounds come to an end, meaning: The break happens. We've gathered all the information available for you and will edit more once we get our hands on it. ...

[caption id="attachment_31902" align="alignright" width="400"] Enting Lee speaks as Leader Opposition in the final round of the 2017 HWS Round Robin (c) Howard and William Smith Colleges[/caption] The HWS Round Robin has claimed yet another weekend of the lives of some of the best debaters in the world. In a tradition that began at the 2016 HWS Round Robin, two judging panels watched each round and delivered oral adjudications independently, with the aggregate number of points & speaker points used to determine the break (tab here). After a struggle for team spots, which can be achieved either through winning a prestigious named tournament or ...

[caption id="attachment_31439" align="alignright" width="400"] Monica Forman and Daan Welling - © Balázs Dezsényi[/caption] The team Orban Outfitters (Daan Welling & Monica Forman) won the final of the 96-team Budapest Open 2017. They were Opening Opposition on the motion "THBT it is the Moral Imperative of Liberals within Eastern Europe to stay within their Home Country, rather than Emigrate to More Progressive Countries.” Orban Outfitters beat out We know team names. We have the best team names (Olle Reberg, Jamie Batchelor) in Opening Government who replaced the advancing Melda + Jonah (Melda Eren, Johan Båge) who left due to scheduling conflicts. They also ranked above Tel Aviv Ya Habibi ...

The team Bailey orders asian Teck-a-Wei (Teck Wei Tan & Bailey Reid, Oxford/KC London) won the final of Centrale Open 2016 from Opening Opposition. They won over Tilbury House Minions (Agnes Putri & Leonard Münstermann, Cologne) in Opening Government, There is but one God and He is not called Jesus (Dan Lahav & Muhammad Asadullah Khan, Tel Aviv/Cambridge) in Closing Government and Cardiff A (Raphael Hill & Calan Eskandar) in Closing Opposition on the motion "THBT the Democratic Party should take on a much more centre-leftist position and support a mass redistribution of wealth agenda". The final was judged by Harish Natarajan in chair, together with Sharmila Parmanand, Nika ...

[caption id="attachment_29710" align="alignright" width="344"] View over Warsaw - © Lennart Lokstein[/caption] The European Universities Debating Championship is over. Winner of the ESL-final is Tel Aviv A (Dan Lahav, Ayal Hayut-man) from Closing Government, thus becoming ESL-Champions, whereas the teams Tel Aviv C (Tom Manor, Noam Dahan) from Opening Government, Leiden D (Lisa Schallenberg, Simon Martina-Perez) from Opening Opposition and Leiden A (Floris Holstege, Emma Lucas) from Closing Opposition become vice ESL-Champions. The final's motion was "This house believes that western states should support breakaway regions in former Sovjet states (e.g. East Ukraine l South Ossetia) joining the Russian federation conditional on holding free and ...

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 ...

As a prominent part of the thematic focus on Europe, the VDCH – Association of German Speaking University Debating Societies – and two member clubs organized two “European Debates Conferences”. They aim to bring the participants of the other projects and many other debating societies together to jointly debate about controversial political, economic and societal issues. The participants are not only improving their knowledge about Europe and their rhetorical and argumentative skills. They also get to know students from up to 11 other countries and learn about the differences and similarities in their points of view on common challenges. [caption id="attachment_25351" ...

Dan Lahav and Yair Har-Oz won the Tilbury House IV - the 2nd European Debates Conference. They beat Osnabrück A (Stefan Torges, Jan Dirk Capelle), Maastricht Guess The Novice (Srdjan Miletic, Evelyn Svingen) and BDU Die schweigenden Lämmer (Rebecca Irvine, Philippe Holzhey) in the final, debating the motion "This House would ban anti EU parties from participating in the EU elections."  The final was jugded by Senna Maatoug (Chair), Itay Ben Yair, John Harper, Leo Münstermann and Emma Hartholt. [caption id="attachment_25062" align="alignright" width="320"] The final of the Tilbury House IV 2014. © Achte Minute[/caption] The following teams broke to the semi-finals and ...

Yael Bell and Dan Lahav have won the first BBU Open that took place from the 11th to the 13th July 2014 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The team from Tel Aviv won from Closing Opposition in a debate with the motion: You are a scientist. You have discovered absolute conclusive proof that God does not exist. This house would destroy the information. [caption id="attachment_23996" align="alignleft" width="320"] Yael Bell and Dan Lahav(c) BBU DS[/caption] In Opening Government, Belgrade with Helena Ivanov and Stefan Siridžansky competed against Lund with Michael Saliba and Peer Klüßendorf in Opening Opposition and a Mixed team with Georgiana Mihut and ...