Written by Daan and Jelte
Another year, another EUDC. This summer our beloved Dutch debaters have landed in Athens, where the true origin of debating lies! Although the first day of inrounds has already finished, we will get you up to speed about what to expect from the Dutch delegation this year. But first, a brief introduction to EUDC for all the parents.
The European University Debating Championships, abbreviated EUDC, is a yearly competition between universitites in Europe, whose students debate. Simple as that. There are roughly 200 teams competing, including a staggering 15 Dutch teams this year. All teams compete in 9 inrounds, taking place over three days. After the 9 rounds, the best teams can break either OPEN (meaning all participating teams can break) or ESL (meaning only non-native speakers can break).
A list of the participating Dutch teams can be found below. Who should you look out for in our updates over the coming days? One of the uncontested favourites in this year’s EUDC is Leiden A (David and Louis). David has shown in the past year to be one of the very best in the Dutch Debating Community. After winning finals such as Roosevelt, YCY, Cologne and Kalliope, he seems incredibly hard to beat. Louis, who we might still know from not knowing who Erdogan is, is rapidly improving. On his cv from the past year we find amongst others winning Bucharest Open and the ESL final of Cambridge IV. This duo managed to win Belgrade Open, so their prep is top notch. They can also be crowned as the team that is the most likely to run off with your mom, according to Daan Spackler.
Another fan favourite is Bonaparte A: Marike and Zeno. Marike was part of last year’s top team Marike and Tom, who managed to secure the first Bona break in years. This year she has traded Tom in for a better looking partner. Whether he will be just as good of a debater remains to be seen. Anyways, Marike knows what it’s like to be under pressure on the third day, and how to come out on top. That experience will undoubtedly be invaluable as the tournament progresses.
Cicero A (Lotte and Roel) might be one of the teams that has shown the most improvement. Lotte and Roel have been debating together for three years now, and their team dynamics got better and better. They managed to break at lots of competitions last year, such as Rotterdam and Delft. Roel missed the break last year narrowly. Lotte stated ‘In terms of prep, we have done nothing remarkable in the past few months, byt it helps that we have been speaking together for longer now. We did listen to some deeply boring podcasts and have ten practically untouched issues of the Economist.’ True debaters!
Kalliope A (Linsey and Joris) and Rhetorica A (Katharina and Alwin) are often mentioned as outsiders for the break. All four have been debaters for a while and have all participated in previous editions of either EUDC or WUDC. Joris and Linsey narrowly missed the break last year, still causing incidental nightmares when Joris is sleeping. Katharina and Alwin have both performed well at various tournaments, but have never managed to break at a large international. Will Katharina’s move to Leiden break the Maastricht curse?
Utrecht A (Friso and Harmen) is a relatively new team. Both haven’t been in the circle for longer than two years. You might still know them from the novice final of Amsterdam Open 2018. Ever since, they improved massively. The dynamic duo showed what they can do at DAPDI two weeks ago. After breaking on 12/12, becoming best and second best speaker ánd winning the final, Friso and Harmen showed that this is a team to take into consideration. Harmen stated: ‘I don’t think we already have the level to break, but we might get close. My main goal is to develop further. Making cases and rebuttal goes solid, but I need to structure more and be more efficient. We are really excited.’
Another lesser well-known team from the Dom city is Utrecht B (Justin and Vittoria). Justin has been a great treasurer for the last year and given great feedback. Vittoria managed to reach the final of Utrecht Internal, even though it was her first ever competition and she had a terrible team partner. Justin: ‘I hope to achieve the highest cannonball in the pool and I am incredibly excited for this opportunity and I would like to thank my swim teacher. Also, haven’t prepped for debating, but that’s alright since I am not in a competitive but vacation mood when it comes to debating.’
Want to know how all these teams and the others are doing? Follow SevenTwenty on Facebook. We will provide you with live updates as the tournament progresses. Let’s hope it will be another great year for Dutch debating!
A full list of all the teams:
Bonaparte A: Marike & Zeno
Bonaparte B: Dino & Ilinca
Cicero A: Lotte & Roel
Cicero B: Maarten and Maija
Erasmus A: Fenna and Neila
Erasmus B: Eugene and Nayan
Groningen A: Joris and Linsey
Leiden A: David and Louis
Leiden B: Fabian and Franka
Leiden C: Amal and Lucy
Rhetorica A: Alwin and Katharina
Rhetorica B: Angela and Lisa
Rhetorica C: Lion and Ziga
Utrecht A: Friso and Harmen
Utrecht B: Justin and Vittoria
Adi Cohen Berko
Anna Brose
Daan Spackler
David Simon
Huyen Thi Thanh Nguyen
Lena Martinovic
Lisa van Vliet
Nikola Michaylov
Reka Elter
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