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
Hugh Burns – Hugh is studying for an undergraduate degree in History in Politics at St John’s College, Oxford (in his 3rd year). He won Euros, the Manchester IV and the Bristol Open, and reached the final of Worlds, the Trinity IV, The Durham/Newcastle IV and the Birmingham IV.
Deputy Chief Adjudicators
Martin Küüsmaa – ESL semifinalist at Oxford IV 2007, the winner of Kyiv Spring 2007 and the finalist of a number of international tournaments. Martin has judged the finals of Jacobs Open and all major tournaments in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. He was Treasurer of the SSE Riga & LMT Debate Society in 2007-2008.
Independent Adjudicators
Neil Dewar – Neil broke as a judge at worlds (Cork 2009) and judged finals at the Durham IV, Yeditepe Open and Four Nations debating tournament. He has also coached the Scottish World Schools’ team that made it to the Semi-final this year, runs the Oxford development squad for promising young debaters, and has run coaching and feedback sessions in Israel, the Netherlands and elsewhere. As an experienced debater Neil got into the finals at Euros twice.
Jen Coyne – Jen broke as a judge at worlds (Koc 2010), judged the final of the LSE open (which is the UK competition that probably gets the highest quality of speakers, including both the Oxford and Cambridge IVs), judged the semi of the Oxford IV, and judged the final of the Oxford Womens’ tournament. She has also run various workshops at all levels at Oxford. As an experienced debater Jen broke 4th at worlds in Botswana.
Mark Manson won the Tilbury Open and has broken as a speaker at the LSE Open. He has broken as a judge in Oxford, at Euros and also judged the grand finals of 7 Ivs. He was the DCA of the Estonia Open last year and is remembered for giving great feedback to speakers.
Martins Vaivars is a former member of the SSE Riga & LMT Debate Society currently reading Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St Peter’s College, Oxford. Among his many debating achievements, Martins became the 3rd best ESL speaker in the European University Debating Championships in Newcastle, broke at the main break of Oxford IV 2008, won and became the 2nd best speaker of Cambridge IV 2008 ESL, as well as easily topped the tab of the Baltic Championships 2009. Outside academia, Martins freelances as a coach of public speaking, holds the position of the President of the Oxford University Basketball Club and burns his time by watching far too many TED.com talks.
Arvydas Ziobakas is a recent graduate of SSE Riga, the CA of last year’s IV 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.
Anna Karolin – Anna was the winner and top speaker of all the Baltic tournaments in 2009/2010 season, a two time winner of SSE Riga IV, an ESL semi-finalist and 6th top speaker in Koc Euros, breaking judge in Amsterdam Euros, the CA of Estonian BP championships 2010 etc. She has coached numerous Estonian national teams for international competitions, served as the head of uni debating in the Estonian Debating Society and is currently a member of board for EDS.
Mihhail Jevdokimov – Mihhail was twice the Baltic Debate Champion, he also was best speaker at SSE Riga IV 2010 and Kyiv Open 2010 and made it to the ESL final at Oxford IV. He served as CA at Estonian Nationals was DCA at SUM Open (Moscow) and Kyiv Open 2011 and will serve as DCA at upcoming Estonian Open 2012.
Maria Kesa – Maria is two times Baltic Champion, Cork World’s 2009 ESL Semi-finalist and a finalist at several other IV’s. She has degrees in biology, mathematics and engineering physics
We are still working on the list of adjudicators to make the tournament fabulous. 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.