The winners are Kaspar Kelder and Pild Maarja from the team Tartu A.
Acting as Second Government the team won a debate on „THW legalize duels in cases of adultery“. There were three Estonian and one Lithuanian team in the finals : Tartu A ( 2nd Gov), Cheeryfist (1st Opp), Alfa (1st Gov), Paper st. Soup co. (2nd Opp).

The tournament had 4 rounds with the fourth closed and then finals. All speeches were 5 minutes long.  32 teams participated in the tournament.

The motions are as follows:

1. Round: This house believes that the Baltic states should not provide any development aid.
2. Round: THW create a state-run monopoly of porn and use it for social engineering.
3. Round: THW ban any religious influence on people below the age of 18.
4. Round: THW gradually stop paying old age pensions.
5. Final: THW legalize duels in cases of adultery.

We wish to share a little secret with you – it seems that a couple of our debaters ( Reinholds Pirags and Vladimirs Zlotnikovs) were offered a chance to go to China, Beijing (16 EU teams vs. 16 Chinese teams) this September with all expenses paid. We will see how this plays out, but let’s wish them best of luck for the moment.

SSE Riga DS

we are back from Galway EUDC 2011, whose tabs are available here. Sadly, none of the three Baltic teams broke; Estonians (Kaspar and Sten as Tartu and Elise and Viktor as Tallinn ) were most unfortunate since they finished 17th and 18th, respectively, missing the break by just a few speaker points. Reinholds and Vladimirs were doing well at the end of day 2 (10 points), but took two 4th places on day 3 and thus finished very low (on 13 points).

Cheers,

DS

We look forward to an adventurous trip and a great tournament in Bremen! 20h on the way

UPDATE

The main takeaway: our teams can come up with decent stuff (well, at least some…), but we really need to focus on our engagement, i.e. understanding the very logic of the opposing team’s case and tackling it rather than mere arguments. Our judges are good, though

Apparently, it is too expensive to pull something like that off in Latvia… but good job by our neighbours!

it’s been a while since our last update; fortunately, we have some good news to share.

First, Debate Society is up and running, with quite a few people (both Y1s and Y2s) attending sessions. We hope to keep the current competitive yet friendly atmosphere.

Second, since February our society has won 2 tournaments: Latvian University tournament, which was a nice small regional tournament with one English room, and Estonian Open 2011, which was held in Tartu and gathered some of the best Baltic debaters. In both cases, the victorious team consisted of Reinholds and Vladimirs; other SSE Riga have also achieved decent results.

Third, we are looking forward to the upcoming tournaments in Bremen and Vilnius. Obviously being in high spirits after two victories in a row, we have high aspirations  to win. Wish us good luck!

Stay tuned,

SSE Riga Debate Society

On January 27-29, the annual Trinity IV was held in Dublin, Ireland, with a team cap of 100 and a prominent adjudication pool including Ruth Faller, Catherine Murphy, and Shengwu Li. SSE Riga Debate Society was represented by Stanislavs Filatovs and Rokas Narkus; interestingly, both of them are Y2s, which means they managed to get away to Dublin in the middle of Financial Economics.

Stas and Rokas did really well, finishing on 9 points (team and speaker tabs can be downloaded here) and thus becoming the best ESL team and beating Berlin, Talinn, and many native teams. Congrats to them and long live SSE Riga!

The motions were as follows (the wording may not be entirely correct):

Round 1: THBT liberal democracies should promote atheism

Round 2: THW become a legal haven for organizations and individuals that leak sensitive information about governments.

Round 3: THW hold parents administratively liable for bad parenting that falls short from child abuse.

Round 4: THW stop all attempts of search for extra-terrestrial life.

Round 5: THB that abortion should always be unethical when mothers life is not at stake.

Quarterfinals: THBT liberal democracies should turn to vigilante measures when the state fails to act.

Semifinals: THW organize a Women-only IV

Finals: THB that “I was simply following the orders” should be a valid line of defense in trials of crimes against humanity.

Full results are available here: SSE Riga IV 2010 tab

We are looking forward to welcoming debaters all over the world to the SSE Riga IV 2011!

P.S.: we would like to thank our sponsors for providing us with an opportunity to make the tournament happen. We look forward to successful cooperation in the future.

Many thanks to the organisers for the chance to visit Moscow, experience beer from a kiosk in ‘vokzal’, enjoy the social and the company that creates the Moscow Open athmoshpere.

Find the tournament tab here: MO 2010 tab

See you in Riga on Friday!