Category Archive Tournament Reports

The Dutch National Debating Championships (or NK for short) is the calling card and annual highlight of the Dutch debating community. It is the most attractive event for new members, it is the best prize for competitive debaters, and it is the tournament that people who have retired for years want to do again. I was really looking forward to the NK 2020 in Utrecht. I saw that Jelte Schievels and the organizing committee were creating something beautiful. There was a nice website, good promotion, and low registration fees. Unfortunately, the NK was eventually forced to move online to 2021 due to the corona crisis. How was this and did the organization manage to guarantee the survival of our most beautiful event?

Source cover image: RTV Noord

Last weekend, the Groninger Debating Society Kalliope hosted the first-ever edition of the Groningen Open. Despite the long and successful tradition of Kalliope debaters contributing to the Dutch debating circuit, there has never been an international tournament held in Groningen. However, that changed on the 8th of May 2021, when over 120 participants from all across the world gathered in the cybersphere to exchange ideas and debate current issues. While few of us were physically in Groningen, the friendly atmosphere, interesting topics and the hard-working organizational team helped make the competition a pleasant and immersive experience.

Tilburg Women’s Open 2021 was one of the first BP tournaments I have been able to attend. It was certainly a successful introduction to the Dutch debating circuit. The online environment, Discord, which had to be used out of necessity, gave the opportunity for many international teams to join it as well. A familiarity at this time but also an extra opportunity for me as a newcomer to learn a lot and, of course, meet new people.

Source cover image: Phys.org

This year, the first-ever online Leiden Open was held on the 27th and 28th of March. The tournament ran on a mixture of online platforms including Discord and Zoom. After 5 preliminary rounds of debate, the top 16 teams broke to the quarterfinals as well as the top 4 Pro-Am teams who broke to the Pro-Am final. At the end of the weekend, Klaudia Maciejewska and Kat Jansen brought the trophy home by winning the Grand Final!

As someone fairly new to the Dutch debate circuit, debating at Leiden Open 2021 was definitely a memorable experience for me. With teams from Croatia to the Philippines, you were bound to run into experienced opponents from all over the world. On top of that, the qualified adjudicators only added to the quality of the tournament. 

One of the most useful skills you gain from competitive debating is to be able to think and react quickly. You can use this in your studies, your work, and sometimes even at the kitchen table. You may learn this even better in the American Parliamentary debate format than in British Parliamentary debates (especially when the debates are in your native tongue). I really like that about AP and that’s why I participated with Jos Buijvoets (who doesn’t know him?) in the Bonapartian Debate Tournament 2021.

Although the Utrecht Debating Society has long been one of the reliable pillars of the Dutch debating world, the association had never organized an international tournament. Until 2018, the English-language UCU Opens, which were organized by the independent University College Utrecht, took place but after this small association collapsed, a gaping void in the middle of the Netherlands emerged on the international debate map. Until January 2021, because the association seized the transition to online debating to organize the first Utrecht Online Open, without being dependent on the excessive rates that Utrecht University demands for accommodation. Thus, on Saturday, January 16, debaters from the American West Coast to India gathered in a shared cyberspace to experience the organizational science of the Dom city.

Source cover image: Holland.com

On December 19, 2020, the first Nijmegen Online Open took place. It was great to see the lovely Trivium organize another competition, especially because the society has certainly seen its ups and downs over the last years. On top of that, it was a special competition for me personally: Nijmegen is where I grew up, started debating, and the place where I CAd my first (and now probably last) competition.

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!