The evening started off with finger foods and refreshments before all the participants were asked to attend the briefing of the rules, during which each team got split into groups and were allocated a room and a judge. There were up to 4 pairs in each room due to the high level of attendance and each had a chance to debate against each other, however only one pair was able to get through to the next round. After the first round a light dinner was provided also in the form of finger foods, followed by the semi-finals and the finals.
The Spanish teams had to debate 1 of the 3 provided motions in each debate, which included:
Should social media be banned for under 18s?
Tourism has more disadvantages than advantages for local areas.
Famous people have an obligation to be good role models to young people
Each debate lasted 14 minutes. The teams were allocated 2 minutes each to state their main points, 1 minute for a conclusion and 4 minutes collectively for the rebuttal, during which each team had a chance to criticise and query the points of the other.
During the finals, the two teams left standing had to debate an unprepared topic, chosen out of the 2 motions put forward by each of the pairs.
It was a tough debate, with German having to allocate a joint winner as everybody attending had a good grasp of their studied language. However, many people really enjoyed it. Anna J. said:
“I really enjoyed the debate because it helped me gain confidence in my speaking and I was able to compare myself to other a level student. My favourite part was the rebuttals and also I had so much fun with the group that went.”