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.
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After nine preliminary rounds and seven final rounds in total, two teams of the Leiden Debating Union have won the finals of the European Debating Championships! Katharina Margareta Jansen and Louis Honee did not only reach the finals for teams with English as a Second Language (ESL) but also the open finals. David Metz and Emma Lucas also reached the open finals; there were two Dutch teams in this final round!
In the end, Katharina and Louis have won the ESL finals and David and Emma are taking home the trophy for the open finals. This is an incredibly impressive achievement!
We have also kept a live blog with more information per day. Check that out here!
By: Harmen de Jong (Utrecht Debating Society)
Today (August 2, 2020) was the first day of the Astana EUDC, the European Championships in debating. Because of the coronavirus, the tournament takes place on Discord and Zoom, so a trip to Kazakhstan is unfortunately not possible. Partially because everyone can join from their living room, the judge panels are very strong this year; every room has 3 to 5 judges and many rooms even have two judges that I would put in the chair, without a doubt. Do expect a competitive judge break and strong calls, even though Leiden A did actually earn the first place in round 3.
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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!
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In these times of corona it is difficult to practice our hobby: debating0. Student societies and the Dutch Schools Debating College sometimes hold online evenings and training sessions, but almost all tournaments have been cancelled. That is why the Nederlandse Debatbond organized an online debate tournament on May 10, especially for high school students.
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During the weekend of 29th of February and 1st of March, there was a little tournament called Leiden Open 2020. This debating tournament did not only have a strong CA team but also had a crazy good judge pool, which meant that the feedback was excellent. This was of course complemented by great (international) teams ranging from Leiden to the London School of Economics. Trivium was sadly only represented by myself and the powerhouse that is Mara Burgstede.
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Editor’s note: From this tournament report on, we will use a new style where we give a shorter summary of the tournament and then dive deeper into one of the motions at the tournament so that this may be used for training purposes, for example. The writer will propose one argument in favour and one against. We welcome everyone to leave their thoughts on the motion in the comments at the bottom of the page!
On the first weekend of February, the days were finally here: the first-ever Eindhoven Open. We knew the CA team was excellent, we knew the Eindhoven debating society, so we were all really excited for the tournament. And looking back at the tournament now, I think we can all agree that it was a big success and definitely deserves another edition next year.
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Written by: Mike Weltevrede
With WUDC having concluded, we look back with the participants. How did they experience the tournament? What were their favourite motions? Did they spend more time in Thailand and surroundings and how did they like it?
Author’s note: They were in a sunny country while we were here in the cold. I bet they had a great time. *grunt*
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Written by: Mike Weltevrede
The outrounds of WUDC 2020 hosted a variety of motions. Unfortunately, these motions were only published as video titles to the streams (not to the tab) and the corresponding infoslides were not provided. Moreover, not all outrounds were streamed (probably because the speakers in those debates did not consent). Nonetheless, we will provide you with the motions that are known to us and the results of the three finals.
Edit (January 7, 2020): The motions tab has just been published to Tabbycat. The missing motions have been added to this article.
We will soon post some interviews with the Dutch participants at WUDC. For now, leave your comments on these motions and enjoy the rest of your weekend!
PS: Huyen and Angela judged the ESL and EFL semifinals, respectively!
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Written by: Mike Weltevrede
The 40th edition of the World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC) has started. This time, it takes place on the campus of Assumption University in Bangkok, Thailand. The Netherlands is represented by one team: Saskia Bergmann and Nikola Michaylov. There are two (former) Dutch debaters judging the competition: Huyen Nguyen (formerly EDS, also serving as language officer) and Angela Portocarrero (formerly UDS). In this article, we will give a short insight into the first three rounds of the competition. In summary, Saskia and Nikola were able to snatch 6 out of 9 points and both Angela and Huyen were honoured to chair all three rounds.
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