Thank you, Koc!

Back in Germany, and it has been raining for two days straight. That gives me a chance to reflect for a moment on Euros in Istanbul.

Having been part of the organisation staff for Berlin Euros, I find it hard to find an "objective" view. And despite of the bias, I truly believe that this was probably the best Euros ever.

Of course, the nature of the event was different from holding it in a big city - here, no transfers were required, everything was close by.

The org comm really lived up to their promises: The competition ran on schedule for most of the time. The food was good, especially for the dinners. The nightlife was very diverse, and speaking of culture: I imagine the trip to Istanbul was just great.

And lastly, also the weather played along: With temperatures around 30°C and a steady breeze, competition days were very bearable. Even more so, climatized rooms ensured that concentration could be upheld during the rounds.

As a summary: What a fantastic competition, and thank you to everyone who made this happen.

From this perspective: All the best to Tallinn Euros, we are looking forward to meeting under the northern summer!

PS: There is a little downside though, The mood was slightly gloomy amongst several prospective Euros hosts I talked to. One debater told me: "We would love to host Euros in 2009 or 2010, but we have no idea how we could possibly match this experience".

New EUDC council president

As new EUDC council president, Branka Marusic of Zagreb, Croatia was elected. Congratulations!

Here is her introductory mail:

"Dear debating community,

This is the first (of many) e-mails by your newly elected president.

But to start off I would like to introduce myself. My name is Branka Marusic and for the past 3 years I have coordinated debate in Croatia and for the last year and a half I have been the EUDC Council VP for Central and Eastern Europe. In that period of time I had been dealing with various issues which gave me an insight into the specific situations and difficulties faced by countries when developing their debate programs (such as funding, institution recognition etc.) and answered and helped resolve questions, doubts and qualms. That experience served as an incentive to run for the EUDC Council president. Although it is most certainly challenging to live up to the standards set up by my dear predecessor Mr Lars Duursma, I am most willing - and by the trust you have expressed by electing me to this position also recognized as capable - to take up this task head-on.

In the coming year my wish is to improve cooperation between societies, instıtutions, countries and regions in Europe, as well as to represent the interests of all European regions such as working on setting up the criteria for clearer definitions of eligible institutions and speaker statuses (ENL, ESL, EFL).

And as the last point of this brief introduction, but certainly not the least important one, great many thanks to the organizing committtee of the Koc University and a fantastic Euros, and congrats to Tallinn as the venue of our next meeting.

Till soon,
With love from the gorgeous Istanbul,

Branka Marusic"

Tab

The team tab for EUDC 2007 can be viewed at:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pMWOJaP7GaGyGy5QCN6-rVg

and here is the speaker tab:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pMWOJaP7GaGwAWb3SVY2YEg

have fun!

Euros 2008

The council meeting has finished and the two bids from Tallinn (Estonia) and IDC Herliya (Israel) competed. Tallinn got 14 of 19 votes so they will be hosting Euros next year.

Day 6

This is the last day of the tournament and according to the schedule it will be a free day to discover Istanbul.
Today the council meeting will take place and vote for which country will be the host of the next EUDC.
I also will be posting the full team tab and the speaker tab which are readily delivered everybody as hard copy.
details coming...

ESL Winner

is Tallinn Red.

PS: sorry to forget including this announcement.

and the winner is...

1p Cambridge B

Congratulations...

Top 10 EFL Speakers

1. Sam Block 579
2. Alex Blenkinsopp 578
3. Alex Just 576
4. Samir Deger-Sen 572
5. Derek Lande 571
6. Alex Worsnip 568
Derek Doyle 568
8. Siddharth Khajuria 567
9. Ian Chapman 566
10. Constance Grieve 564

Top 10+1 ESL Speakers

1. Leela Koenig 533
2. Sharon Kroes 531
3. Lars Duursma 529
4. Felix Lamouroux 527
5. Kai Menzel 526
6. Irina Subulica 523
Anna Karolin 523
8. Rosanne Hertzberger 521
9. Anita Acavalos 520
Mollie Gerver 520
Uve Poom 520

Grand Final motion

"This house believes that the state should publish deliberate mistruths during times of war."

Grand Final

1g Cambridge B
1o UCC Law B
2g Cambridge A
2o St. Andrews A

ESL Final Motion

"This house would withdraw the right to veto the accession of new members to EU."

ESL Final

1g Tilbury House White
1o Leiden B
2g HSoG Berlin
2o Tallinn Red

Final judges

The final judges for ESL and the grand final are announced to be as:

ESL final: Anat Gelber, Kate Stegemann, Jess Harvey-Smith, Tony Murphy, Daniel Schut, Kirsty Russell, Uri Zakai, Rhydian Morgan, Alistair Cormack.

Grand final: Can Okar, Will Jones, Anat Gelber, Neill Harvey-Smith, Jamie Furniss, Jenni Harrison, Klaas van Schelven, Eoin Kilkenny, Andrew Fitch

PS: The ESL final will be held at 10 am and the grand final will be at sometime afternoon.

Goodbye and hello

Your German Correspondent will tonight return home on the happy occasion of a family wedding. Since we want to continue informing you, tomorrow the local computer genius Ramazan will pick up from where I left.

I will be putting pictures online from Germany. Also, of course, we will publish the full tab as soon as it is made available.

Thank you to all the people who were reading this stuff in Germany, England, Ireland, USA, Croatia, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Russia, Estonia, Argentina or from whereever else!

Can I add: You really are missing a wonderful competition. As I am writing these lines, the country night is in full swing - under a full moon, with a warm breeze and local specialities like bacclava and turkish coffee, raki and small , delicious, hot salad rolls. People are tasting Croatian palinkovac and Israeli wines, Scottish whisky and even Austrian 60% Strohrum. All in all: Awesome.

Oh, and did I mention the belly dancer?

Main break to final

The teams in the Grand Final tomorrow will be

Cambridge A
Cambridge B
UCC Law B
St. Andrews A


Congratulations!

ESL break to final

The teams in the ESL-final are

Tallinn Red
Tilbury House White
HSoG Berlin
Leiden B


Congratulations so far, guys!

Main break SF motion

"This House would grant the state the exclusive right to make decisions on behalf of the mentally ill."

Main break SF

SF 1:
1g UCC Phil B
1o Oxford B
2g Cambridge A
2o UCC Law B

SF 2:
1g UCC Phil C
1o Cambridge B
2g UCD L&H B
2o St. Andrews A


PS: I took down a wrong note earlier: UCC Phil A went out in the Quarterfinal, teams B and C are still in. Apologies and everything.

ESL SF motion

"This House believes that the state should not fund any fertility treatments."

ESL SF

SF 1:
1g Ljubljana Law A
1o Tallinn Red
2g Tilbury House White
2o Tartu B

SF 2:
1g TAU B
1o Bonaparte A
2g Leiden B
2o HSoG Berlin

Main break SF

Yes, it happened: Oxford A is out...

1. QF
1p Oxford A
1o KCL A
2p UCC Phil B
2o Cambridge A

going through: UCC Phil B, Cambridge A

2. QF
1p UCD L&H A
1o Oxford C
2p UCD L&H B
2o Cambridge B

going through: Cambridge B, UCD L&H B

3. QF
1p St. Andrews A
1o UCC Phil C
2p Oxford D
2o UCC Phil A

going through: St. Andrews A, UCC Phil C

4 QF
1p Durham B
1o Oxford B
2p UCC Law B
2o UCC Law A

going through: Oxford B, UCC Law B

ESL break to SF

1. QF
1G Tartu B
1O Erasmus C
2G IDC A
2O Tilbury House White

going through: Tartu B, Tilbury House White

2. QF
1G Tel Aviv B
1O HSoG Berlin
2G Erasmus A
2O Hebrew A

going through: Tel Aviv B, HSoG Berlin

3. QF
1G Bonaparte A
1O Leiden A
2G Comenius 1
2O Leiden B

going through: Bonaparte A, Leiden B

4. QF
1G Tilbury House Blue
1O Ljubljana Law A
2G Tilbury House Red
2O Tallinn Red

going through: Ljubljana Law A, Tallinn Red

QF main break motion

"This House would forcibly settle the Roma."

QF main break

1. QF

1p Oxford A
1o KCL A
2p UCC Phil B
2o Cambridge A

Judges: Isabelle Loewe, Eoin Kilkenny, Jenni Harrison, Mert Onen, Uri Zakai

2. QF

1p UCD L&H A
1o Oxford C
2p UCD L&H B
2o Cambridge B

Judges: Andrew Fitch, Neil Harvey-Smith, Özlem Unal, Tony Murphy, Victor Chernov

3. QF

1p St. Andrews A
1o UCC Phil C
2p Oxford D
2o UCC Phil A

Judges: Daniel Schut, Can Okar, Kate Stegemann, Rhydian Morgan, Shane Cranley

4. QF

1p Durham B
1o Oxford B
2p UCC Law B
2o UCC Law A

Judges: Jessica Harvey-Smith, Jason Vit, Klaas van Schelven, Ruvi Ziegler, Will Jones

ESL QF motion

"This House would distribute development aid through religious organizations rather than the state."

Comment by spectators: "Tough".

Main break

1. Oxford A (20)
2. Cambridge B (18)
3. UCC Phil A (17)
4. Oxford B (16)
5. Durham B (16)
6. St. Andrews A
7. Oxford C (16)
8. UCC Phil B (16)
9. KCL A (15)
10. UCD L&H B (15)
11. UCC Phil C (15)
12. UCC Law A (15)
13. UCC Law B (15)
14. Oxford D (15)
15. UCD L&H A (14)
16. Cambridge A (14)


No ESL team made the main break.

ESL QF

1. QF

1G Tartu B
1O Erasmus C
2G IDC A
2O Tilbury House White

Judges: Ciaran Lawlor, Alanna Landers, Domagoj Baric, Luka Keller, Manolis Polychronides

2. QF

1G Tel Aviv B
1O HSoG Berlin
2G Erasmus A
2O Hebrew A

Judges: Debbie Newman, Ewan McDonald, Eyal Oron, Rose Grogan, Simone van Elk

3. QF

1G Bonaparte A
1O Leiden A
2G Comenius 1
2O Leiden B

Judges: Jens Fischer, Anat Gelber, Alistair Cormack, Danny Gleeson, Kirsty Russell

4. QF

1G Tilbury House Blue
1O Ljubljana Law A
2G Tilbury House Red
2O Tallinn Red

Judges: Jamie Furniss, Alex Ward, Alex Wright, Deirdre Milner, Luke Harris

(Some judges were changed afterwards announcement.)

The ESL break

1. Tilbury House White (14)
2. Erasmus A (13)
3. Leiden A (13)
4. Tilbury House Blue (13)
5. Tallin Red (13)
6. Leiden B (13)
7. Tel Aviv B (13)
8. Tartu B (13)
9. Erasmus C (13)
10. HSoG Berlin (12)
11. Bonaparte A (12)
12. Ljubljana Law A (12)
13. Tilbury House Red (12)
(14. Haifa A (12) - didn't break because one of them missed a round.)
15. Comenius 1 (12)
16. Hebrew A (11)
17. IDC A (11)

R7 motion

"This House would prosecute parents who take their children to another legal jurisdiction in order to carry out an act which is illegal in their home country."

Tough one, right? Well, it's round 7.

Top room R7

Nice one:

1g Oxford C
1o Oxford A
2g Cambridge C
2o Cambridge B

Chair: Neill Harvey-Smith

Oxford A...

... are Alex Just and Alex Worsnip.

R6 motion

"This House would introduce a time limit on bringing prosecutions for genocide."

Top room R6

Cambridge B
KCL A
Oxford A
UCD L&H A

Other results later

I'll try to get some more information on the ranking after R5. The next two rounds are closed adjudication. Also, the break will be announced on a boat trip across the Bosphorus around midnight.

Top room results

Oxford A is now on 5 wins. KCL A took a 2nd, Tilbury House Blue a 3rd, and Durham B lost the debate.

Top room R5

The top room in this round is
KCL A
Oxford A
Durham B
Tilbury House Blue.

Tilbury House Blue is on 10 points for sure.

R5 motion

"This House would require prescription for the 'morning-after-pill'"

Day 3

It's a beautiful morning here in Turkey: Clear blue sky, and a very slight breeze to ensure agreeable temperatures. A perfect opportunity to enter the catacombes of Koc University to cram with 150 judges into a relatively small room and wait for round 5 to be started.

Some people complained about Nausea, and they insist they haven't been drinking. Let's hope this is not going to spread around; booze-indicated nausea seems to be preferable...

EFL vs ESL - no longer

It really seems that the old ESL-EFL division is slowly diluting a little. EFL judges point out that EFL teams speak to fast for ESL teams, and EFL teams approach ESL judges for feedback on their performance. This seemed fairly unthinkably only a couple of years ago...

Also, the Turks and the English tonight performed a serious sing-off, but this in the end was still won by the English.

Some news on teams

Sorry for this incomplete information, but:

To the best of my knowledge, the only team on straigth 1st's so far is Oxford A with 12 points. I haven't heard of any team on 11 points. Derek and Jimmy are on 10 points, as well as many other teams.

The bulk of teams is on 6 or 7 points however, so we will most likely see a very close break. With the new QF-break for ESL-teams, they are all excited about the possibilities. Even teams on today around 3 points even get a realistic chance of advancing to QF.

Pre-Council

Pre-Council approved to hold Quarter finals for ESL for the first time in the history of the competition (hazaa!).

In this year's EUDC, approximately 110 ESL teams are taking part, easily passing the threshold of 80 teams set by Worlds Council for holding Quarterfinals.

This also means that around 60 EFL (or is it ENL now?) teams take part in the competition.

Lars Duursma expertly led through the very brief pre-council meeting: The ESL-status of teams was ratified without objections, the two competing bids circulated their materials. Many delegates were still undecided on whom to vote for - again we'll keep you informed.

R4 wrap up

People unsurprisingly expected this motion to happen, so many teams were very happy. In general, people are fairly content with everything: The organisation not only is excellent, but also on time, four rounds were completed, and dinner was great.

Now we are looking forward to a relaxed night with less Euro techno than yesterday.

ESL successes

After round 4, at least three ESL teams are on 10 points: Lars and Sharon (Erasmus), Leela and Rose (Leiden) and Kai and Felix (Tilbury House). Go on, guys!

R4 motion

"This House believes that Turkey should invade Northern Iraq to fight Kurdish terrorist organisations."

CA on analysis debates

Can Okar just said on round 4: "It was a test. I think we discarded it."

R3 wrap up

Generally, debates in this round apparently were very messy. It seems that people couldn't cope with the term "analysis debate", but also with the strong economic part of the debate. Furthermore, establishing causal links was a problem in many debates.

It begs the question why the debate was not focused further, e.g.: "THB that China will have to democratize in order to reap further economic benefits in the future." Or something like this. 1P still wouldn't need to give a model, but there would be a bit more beef to chew on. But that's just IMHO.

Awaiting round 4!

R3 motion

"This House believes that democracy is a necessary condition for economic growth and stability (ANALYSIS)"

Adjudication team decided to post this an analysis motion, ie: No model required, just debate first principles. Interesting.

Wrap up R2

Generally, people were satisfied with the motion and the debates. The impression is that there are less "star" teams this year, but that the general level is better than in previous years - especially in ESL-debates.

In ESL-news: Daniel and Patrick (Berlin) beat Cambridge B (or C?), while most of the other German teams hit hard rounds this time and came mostly 3rd or last.

R2 motion

"This House believes the state should prohibit all items of clothing which cover the face."

Very nice.

R1 wrap up

Most propositions seem to have interpreted the motion to be about organ donation, but so far we haven't heard of a sensible definition for "unhealthy lifestyle" in that context. A few cases were also run about extreme sports and insurance.

German teams apparently fared well, so far I have 3 wins and a third on the list.

Motion R1

"This House would take lifestyle choices into account in the allocation of scarce medical resources."

Opening ceremonies and party

Under a heavily clouded sky, opening ceremonies were held last night. We had an excellent dinner and heard refreshingly short and inspired speeches. At the opening party, we got to enjoy free and unlimited Beck's beer. The draw will be posted at 9 a.m. - let's see who isn't there...

Biggest Euros ever

Koc Euros will have 43 rooms of parallel debate. If I recall correctly, that also was the number of rooms in Berlin. However, Koc seems to have a very deep adjudication pool - Can Okar said they almost have 4 judges per room.

But Euros also grows in the numbers of participating countries: In Cork 2005, there were 15 countries present, in Berlin 2006 around 20, and here the estimate is around 22.

Debate about bids

This year, EUDC council members are voting on competing bids to host Euros 2008.

Tallinn (Estonia) wants to hold Euros in June, IDC Herzliya (Israel) is bidding to hold Euros by the end of March.

A first and incomplete poll showed that we have a few interesting days ahead. Representatives and other participants expressed sympathy for both bids, and many country reps are still undecided.

Council will be meet on Friday, Aug. 10th - we'll keep you posted.

DCA exchange

Prospective DCA Alex Betts (Oxford) had to cancel his participation on short notice. The adjudication team has appointed Will Jones (Oxford) as DCA in his place.

Rain before opening ceremonies

Today, it rained. According to Chief Adjudicator Can Okar, this has not happened in 3 months. For central Europeans, it is actually not only bad: Temperatures stayed modest during the day at probably 27°C. Unfortunately though, the evening barbecue had to be moved indoors.

They sent a bus for us to take us over the Bosphorus.

We arrived in Koc on the night between Friday and Saturday on Sabiha International Airport. And the first impression of the tournament was wonderful: We were picked up and transferred to Koc University by bus - a 70 minute trip including crossing the Bosphorus. Amazing.

The university is situated north of Istanbul and has a secluded campus. It has everything we could wish for: A swimming pool, nice rooms with mini bar and wonderful facilities. I'll include some pictures later.