The Tournament
All debates at SSE Riga IV will be held in the British parliamentary format with 5 preliminary rounds of 5-minute speeches followed by a break to the semi-finals. The semi-finals and the Grand Final will be conducted with 7 minute speeches.
The common power-pairing technique will be employed to ensure proper tab.
Adjudication
Chief Adjudicator
Arvydas Ziobakas is a recent graduate of SSE Riga and one of the most successful debaters the SSE Riga & LMT Debate Society has raised. He was one half of a team who got to the main break at the Oxford IV 2008 – an achievement that very few ESL teams could match throughout the long history of this competition. Winning Cambridge IV 2008 ESL as well as breaking at EUDC 2009 ESL as the 8th best ESL speaker adds to a long list of international tournaments where he broke or spoke at the finals.
This year Arvydas aspires to gather the strongest adjudication pool the SSE Riga IV has ever had, including some of the world’s best debaters and adjudicators as well as top notch alumni of the SSE Riga & LMT Debate Society. He is convinced that the participants of the IV will not only be fairly judged but also will gain invaluable learning experience receiving quality feedback.
Deputy Chief Adjudicator
Will Jones is the reigning world champion of university debating as well as the winner of EUDC and World Masters in 2008. Undoubtedly being one of the best speakers in his generation Will also has extensive experience as an adjudicator. Notably, he is the Deputy Chief Adjudicator of the upcoming WUDC 2010 and has been part of Chief Adjudication teams at European Championships 2007 as well as great many other international tournaments. Will is currently reading for his doctorate in African political history at Balliol College, Oxford as well as working as a tutor in politics at St Hugh’s college, Oxford.
Independent Adjudicators
The selected pool of independent adjudicators already includes, but is not limited to:
Leela Koenig is truly a legend of ESL debating currently being the best ESL speaker in the world as well as having topped the ESL tab in European Championships for two years in a row. She has held a great number of CA and DCA positions around Europe including being the DCA for Newcastle Euros. Notably, Leela is the CA of the upcoming EUDC in Amsterdam.
Gavin Illsley is yet another offspring of the Oxford Union we are proud to have in our adjudication pool. Gavin is the champion of EUDC 2006 as well as a Worlds semi-finalist in 2005. As an adjudicator he has chaired a number of breaking rounds in the World and European championships. Also, Gavin has significant experience as a debate mentor, having held this position in the English Speaking Union as well as Dutch Anglo-Saxon Parliamentary Debating Institute.
Yuri Romanenkov is a Worlds ESL Finalist in 2007, and spoke in the finals of at least ten more competitions. Being an SSE Riga graduate he has attended the SSE Riga IV in about every capacity since 2003, co-convening it in 2005, being the DCA in 2007 and a Co-CA in 2008. He currently serves as a Director of the World Schools Debate Championships and (to our joy) in order to come to the IV manages to get a day off from his hectic career with Boston Consulting Group in London.
Martins Vaivars is a former member of the SSE Riga & LMT Debate Society currently studying PPE at St Peter’s college, Oxford. Among his many debating achievements, Martins became the 3rd best ESL speaker in EUDC 2009, broke at Oxford IV 2008, won Cambridge IV 2008 ESL and easily topped the tab of the Baltic Championships 2009. As for now, he is struggling for place under the sun in the Oxford Union.
Paulius Ramanauskas is yet another prominent alumni of the SSE Riga & LMT Debate Society. He was an ESL finalist at WUDC 2007 in Vancouver, former Treasurer of SSE Riga & LMT Debate Society and co-convener of the SSE Riga IV in 2005.
Martin Kuusmaa – ESL semifinalist at Oxford IV 2007. Martin was Treasurer of the SSE Riga & LMT Debate Society in 2007-2008. He has significant judging experience in numerous international debate tournaments.
Martins Liberts – the President of the SSE Riga & LMT Debate Society. Martins has extensive judging experience in numerous high profile debate tournaments.
The list of independent adjudicators is quite long already, and we are still working on it. Nevertheless, we will be enforcing the n-1 rule for all the Baltic institutions (i.e. if you register n teams you must bring n-1 judges). If you come from outside the Baltic States, no n-1 rule is applied.