Tournaments are still happening and now we can even join places which are further away. In times of Corona is the key is online debating.
This time we aren’t the organizers but participants.
Helena Hecke enthusiastically participated St. Petersburg Online Open 2020. There she broke 10th place into the Quarter finals.
She didn’t stop there: Helena also was best ESL speaker, in total 12th best speaker of the tournament.
Congratulations for this great achievement!
From 30th to 31st May 2020 we hosted our annual tournament with twice as many participants as usual. Many of them coming from different countries.
In times of Corona this kind of news might raise some eyebrows but we managed to organize a tournament with 82 teams all perfectly aligning to the security measures against Corona – thanks to modern technology.
Since our weekly sessions with Helsinki Debating society are now held digitally, we thought of an opportunity to not miss out on a chance to organize a tournament this year.
Via digital conference call not only allows participants and organizer to enjoy a debating experience in the comfort of their own homes but also to invite debaters who’d usually have a harder time coming to Cologne due to geographical distance, like India or Kazakhstan.
Further we could also bring a great teams of CAs together who brought us great motions for the debates.
Our amazing CAs were…
Enting Lee
Enting has been a DCA at WUDC 2019 and is now going to be CA for Belgrade WUDC 2022.
She has judged an incredible 3 consecutive WUDC finals, 2 consecutive UADCs finals and the final of NAUDC, Pan-Ams and the Yale IV, as well as the finals of Cambridge IV and Oxford IV.
As a speaker she is an NAUDC finalist and top speaker, HWS RR finalist and 4th speaker, and Hart House IV finalist and top speaker.
Sharmilla Parmanand
Sharmila was part of the Athens EUDC 2019 CA team, as well as the CA team of Berlin WUDC 2013, twice a DCA of Australs and judged the grandfinals of it three times, as well as the Open Grand Finals of WUDC twice.
Her speaking achievements are equally as impressive: She has won Asians three times and was a Grand Finalist of Australs.
Tin Puljić
Tin is the currently reigning EUDC ESL champion and Open Finalist at both WUDC and EUDC, as well as being Oxford IV ESL champion twice and breaking open at Cambridge and LSE Open.
Additionally has won 10 other tournament and made it to 26 finals.
He is current best ESL speaker of both WUDC and EUDC, as well as being a top 10 Open speaker at both EUDC and WUDC.
His judge record is also very impressive, as he is going to be DCA at Astana EUDC and has CAed 8 tournaments. He chaired outrounds at many other tournaments, including Sofia Open 2018.
Joona Shounen
Joona is an EUDC open grand finalist and WUDC octofinalist, and has been a top 10 ESL speaker at both.
He has made the finals of Oxford IV (ESL) and won the Cambridge IV ESL final. Furthermore he made the finals of many more tournaments including PEP IV and Lund IV.
His nearly equally impressive judge record includes over 30 judge breaks and dozens of CAships, as well as chairing out-ounds at tournaments like Budapest Open and Munich Open.
Mubarat Wassey
Mubarrat is a Cambridge IV Open Champion and Best Speaker(Open and ESL), 3 time Asian Champion & Best Speaker, and part of the only Asian(and ESL) team to have won Australs.
He has already been part of CA teams for UADC, ABP and Australs, and if Korea WUDC does happen, he will be a DCA there too.
Of course, debating digitally is possible but not quiet the same. Due to juggling between different communication platforms to create the space needed for individual debates and debate preparation, the tournament had 4 rounds before the Quarter final.
1. “This House Would break up large pharmaceutical firms.”
2. “ This House Believes That feminists should not use rhetoric about women being more empathetic or more caring than men as part of their advocacy (e.g. “Women are good leaders because they are more gentle and nurturing”.)”
3. “This House Believes That attack on non-combatants involved in war activities are a legitimate strategy in war.”
4. “This House regrets the rise of philanthrocapitalism.”
With so many participants it was possible to hold Quarter-, Semi- and Pro-Am-Finals before the Grand final.
The motion for the quarter final read: “This House Regrets societal belief that one should strongly identify with the culture of one’s ancestry (e.g. if you’re ethically Chinese, identify strongly with Chinese culture).”
Following the Quarter Final was of course the Semi-final. This semi final’s motion read: “This House Regrets the US-Taliban peace deal.”
Amongst a large number of participants, we were also glad to have a lot of novices participating with their partners. Therefore we could also let an exciting Pro-Am-Final happen.
The teams making it to the Pro-Am final were: Tayseer Alwneh and Zaina Hurani, Aryan Khanna and Shivani Verma, Jaime Dalgety and Matilda Handley, and Cerys Wlash and Jason Woods – all debating the motion:
“This House Believes That teachers and parents belonging to oppressed minority groups should teach their group to contribute to the welfare of the group even at personal cost.”
We would like to congratulate the winners of this debate: Jason Woods and Cerys Walsh. Well done for winning this debate!
And finally the Final!
From the large number of so many participants for teams made far to the Grand Final. The final debate took place between the teams of Marta Vasić and Nick Zervoudis, Katharina Jansen, Laudia Macijewska, Nikola Michaylov and Radko Nedyalkov, and Jubayer Ibn Hamid and Wasif Khan
For this Final the motion read: “This House Prefers a world without a belief in free will.”
After a philosophical yet intriguing debate the winning team were Nick Zervoudis and Marta Vasić. We congratulate you for your victory!
Last but not least we also we also want to honour the best speakers of this tournament:
1. Maurice Courtiel
2. Ron Lezrowice
3. Jubayer Ibn Hamid
4. Brandon Lehman
5. Gwen Stearns
6. Pzemek Stolarski
7. Katharina Jansen
8. Emily Frizell
9. Klaudia Maciejewska
10. Marike Breed
Congratulations to your great achievements!
Probably this format of debating was new to all having participated, including us as organizers, but even with technical difficulties and diverging time zones the possibilities to still bring people together and enjoying debating experiences was a wonderful one.
We’d like to thank everyone who’d patience during all technical difficulties, your support but also having lively participants. Further we need to give a big shout out to a supportive CA team. We couldn’t have mastered but also not enjoyed this challenging but satisfying new format without you.
Over all we had a weekend never failing to busy but also excited to bring this many people together despite the hardships of Corona. Thank you for having participated!
Since the last few months we all had to adjust our lives to the security measures in order to prevent the virus from spreading. Of course, debating activities also needed to adapt to the new circumstances.
So far a physical meeting still isn’t possible. But we found a possibility to meet digitally, though.
Together with Helsinki Debating Society we welcome you to our weekly debates via zoom call. Every Tuesday at 6.30pm we meet at zoom for our debates.
If you’re interested joining us, please contact us via E-Mail or on facebook.
Dear debaters and all of those interested in debating,
in the light of the current Corona health crisis, the city of Cologne banned gatherings not being in the interest of public or medical service until 10th April 2020.
Due this measure we unfortunately have to cancel any debtae sessions in the forseeable future. Of course you will informed about possible developements regarding online deabte sessions, and when we will be back hosting our sessions again on our offcial channels (this website and our facebook).
We wish everyone a safe time!
(And please don’t forget to wash your hands.)
Let’s start the new year with a bang!
On the 1st to 2nd February 2020 E.S.D.A. Chronos hosted their first tournament in Eindhoven. Our team, Helena Hecke and Lin Jung, attended this special first tournament – enjoying it for two reasons. Not only was the tournament of great quality but because both speakers returned with success from the tournament, too.
High praise for both speakers shall be given: Helena debated herself in the 5th best speaker position of the tournament, Lin Jung achieved the place of 2nd best novice speaker. Their abilities also reflected in them breaking 3rd in the Open Break.
Highly impressed and proud we want to congratulate the team for this great debating entry for 2020!
Dear debaters,
please note that there won’t be any session tonight. Most of us are busy due the exam period.
Don’t worry, we will be active again next week.
Dear debaters, and all of those interested in debating,
every year Tilbury House organizes an internal tournament for our members. Each year, the final round is open to visitors.
The evening will be more formal, inviting you to enjoy snacks and drinks, and foremost two exciting debates.
The highlight of the evening will be the grand final debate betweent the four teams having qualified for the final round. Our speakers will engage in a challengig motion, judged by four external judges and one experienced Tilbury Alumni.
In addition we also want to relieve the mood by inviting our debaters to engage in an amusing fun debate.
Everyone who’s interested in an engaging evening or curious about debating or both, is invited to join (in formal fashion) at 7.30 pm, Firday 17th January 2020, in alter Senatssaal in the Hauptgebäude of the University of Cologne.
Dear debaters and all of you who’d be interested to debate,
Tilbury House will be back 7th January 2020, as usual at 19.30 o’clock, at Hörsaal XVIIb in the Hauptgebäude of the university of Cologne.
We hope you could enjoy festive holidays, and we’re happy to welcome you back in the new year.
On Saturday14th December we invited debaters from outside of Tilbury House to join our Winter Workshop. Experimenting with out Thursday workshop format we wanted to organize workshops during which the participants can ask specific questions about the presented topic.
WE were delighted to welcome participants from the Netherlands, and Germany.
The first topic “Debating Democracy” was presented by Ruben Dillmann.
At first the topic seems a bit provocative yet is quiet common in debates. Common debate motions lead to theoretical debates pointing systematic flaw causing a need that needs to be met with a satisfying policy, or if the policy in question is granted to work with intended efficiency. Or should be made mandatory in democracy to really include every individual’s political will? Plenty of debating motions treat the issue of the possibilities and limits in democratic societies.
In his presentation he began with presenting the theory behind the concept of the democracy, then followed by concrete examples of movements acting in offense or in favour of democracy.
The Workshop for the afternoon was about different types motions, conceptualized by our experienced workshop organizer Helena Hecke, and presented by Lin Jung.
This workshop was directed towards strategic as well as technical problems surrounding debates.
Debating motions are introduced with “This House would”, “This House supports”, or “This House as X would decide to…”.
By not regarding the motion properly debaters are at high risk losing their speech by not debating the actual topic. So this workshop aimed at dissecting the actual nature of the different types of motions, and proposing effective strategies for each type of motion. To not only discuss the theory the workshop included exercises for Regret-Motions (This House Regrets) and Actor-Motions (This House as X would do Y) as these are motions most likely to lure the speaker to debate anything but the actual motion. The answers given were well condensed to the essence of the essence, laced with humorous ideas of the participants.
After a day of learning, and being answered their questions all the newly acquired knowledge has to be put into practice.
The motion was: “This House Opposes left wing media to comically mock the far right (eg. The daily show, Last Week tonight)
The workshop day had been a pleasant experience to organize. At the end we want to thank those having prepared and having presented the workshops, those organizing the location, but especially the participants having come all their way to attend to our workshop, and bringing in a lot of enthusiasm and their active participation!
One last time before Christmas season demands all our attention and energy, still two teams had a driving enthusiasm to participate in Amsterdam Open 2019. On 7th to 8th December, two teams debated in this big tournament.
In a mixed team of Helena, and Angela Carreda from Maastricht Rhetorica even broke into the Quarter Final of Maastricht. Congratulations for having made it so far!
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