The corona crisis hit everything, including the debate sport. Earlier this year, the Erasmus Rotterdam Open, the Kalliope Groningen Open, and the Benelux Debate Competition, among others, already fell at the virus’ hand. Where several (student) debating tournaments were held online internationally, this was not the case in the Netherlands. However, the TU Delft Debating Club did not give up: they simply held their debating tournament online!
The Delft Open 2020 may have taken place later than the original schedule but the organization committee delivered excellent work with an excellently organized tournament via Discord. The registration went smoothly, exciting debates were held, and even a social was held with online games. I judged during the tournament and was lucky enough to see some really cool debates and chair the novice final. It was also of very high quality and only 1 out of 8 team comparisons had a consensus about the placement. That shows something about the persuasiveness of the teams: they were very well matched and that promises a lot of good for the future of the debate sport.
In the end, the finals were held between teams from Dublin, Cambridge/London, Leiden, and Cardiff. At the end of the debate, the team from Cambridge/London triumphed and won the tournament.
Motion analysis
THW rather be an individual of average appearance and extreme intelligence, than of extreme beauty and average intelligence.
Novice final – Delft Open 2020
In my opinion, the motion of the novice final is one of the most interesting of the Delft Open 2020. In this article, I will briefly outline an important characterization, after which I will present an argument for both sides of the debate. Have you come up with other arguments? Then leave them in the comments!
Mike Weltevrede
Mike is an alumnus of the Tilburg Debating Society Cicero and has served as the secretary of the Nederlandse Debatbond (2019-2021). He was vice-chair of Cicero (2015-2016) and in that function oversaw the newly set-up international branch. He also organized the Dutch Debating Winter School, a debating training week that attracted participants of over 20 nationalities.
About the author