Tilbury House Cologne Open 2019

What an unusual date for our annual tournament. Usually our tournaments take place during colder months but this year, we choose 7th to 9th June for a warm welcome for our debaters.

The format was still „Business as usual“: 5 rounds in British Parliament style, two finals: Grand Final and a Pro-Am final. For this year we were glad to welcome many German teams, but also many Dutch, and mixed teams from across Europe.
Another constant element about our tournaments is our sheer luck of amazing CAs accepting our invitations to our tournaments. All of them could present an impressive history of expertise in judging, speaking, but also as CAs.

Katharina Jansen
Back in 2018, Katharina was actually finalist in Tilbury House Open 2018. In 2019, she returned as our CA. Tilbury was by far not her only time being a finalist. Around ten times breaking are on her breaking-list, amongst those Rossevelt Open, thrice atErasmus Rotterdam. To her breaks she cna count herself winning in Erasmus Rotterdam 2019, twice as ESL-finalist at LSE Open 2019, and at Trinitiy IV 2017.
Additionally Katharina is an experienced adjudicator, participating, and breaking at many tournaments, amongst various UCU Open, Tilburg’s Women, and Munich Open.

Aishling Kinsella
Aishling qualified twice at WUDC: Once as octofinalist in 2018, then as semifinalist in 2019. At EUDC 2018 she qualified as 10th speaker. Additionally to her in total 20 speaking breaks, Aishling got noticeably broke at the Oxford IV 2018 semifinals, and won Oxford Women’s Open.
Not only is Aishling breaking, she brought an elaborate experience as CA from 5 former tournaments, amongst which were Trinity Open, and Colgate Open.

Abigail Leblanc
Just by being a CA, Abigail can be credited as such for numerous US tournaments. Her records as adjudicator also start in the US, her breaking at the North American University Championship 2018, and continue as Chair Judge in Leiden Open 2018.
As a speaker she was equally active, breaking at US, and Canadian tournaments, including the Canadian National Championships. Then in Europe she broke at the final of Maastricht Open, in Maynooth Open 2019 and at the semi-final of Paris Open 2019.

With our great team of CAs assembled, the following five motions were presented:

1. This House supports the extra –legal and illegal methods to provide wider access to knowledge (eg. Sci-hub, unauthorized distribution of files and copies.)
2. In places where conscription of men already exist This House Believes That the feminist movement should advocate for the conscription of women.
3. This House Would ban the private ownership of 3D-printers
4. This House Supports such organisation (specified in infoslide)
5. This House Would elect 51% of parliament by lottery.

In five rounds eight finalists qualified for our two finals.

For the Pro-Am final qualifying teams were Humbug Heidelberg (Kostantin Krüger, Wiona Glänzer), the road to Athens begins (Dino Wildli, Illinca Berinde), Tirvium (slides into your) DM (Daan Spackler, Mara Burgstede), and Redereicebreaker (René Geci, Erik Frehse).
The following Pro-AM final motion was presentend: “This House Regrets the modern high priorisation of sexual compability in romantic relationships.”
The winners to be congratulated in this Pro-Am-final were the road to Athens begins.

Our second, and Grand Final was debated by the teams Colognialism (Samuel Scheuer, Marius Hobbhahn), BDU Breaking Down (Lena Kolle, Elena Müller), The DDG was wrong (Anton Leicht, Luise Häder), and Be my whip (Lisa Knodt, Lion Seiffert).
With the motion: “This House Opposes the humanizes pro-regime Germans during the Second World War.” the debaters had a considered, nuanced debates.
As a result of carefully chosen yet thoughtful arguments, the team Colognialism won Tilbury House Cologne Open 2019. Congratulations!

Another round of congratulations has to be given to our top ten speakers during the tournament which were:

1. Marius Hobbhahn
2. Elena Müller
3. Lena Kolle
4. Anton Leicht
5. Lisa Knodt
6. Nikola Michaylov
7. Delany Hurley, shared spor with Dino Wildli
9. Joris Graff
10. Friso Sheepstra

The last very last round of congratulations goes to our hard working volunteers having helped us with every single task given to them, and helping without a break to make turn the tournament is the successful event it was. Without them, it wouldn’t have been possible.
But we shall also not forget everyone else also contributing to the success of the tournament. As final words, a grand “Thank you” to the participants, the CAs, and the University of Cologne offering us rooms for our debates.