UYNGO FIRE tournament

On March, 28-30 in Kharkiv took place the biggest in the whole Ukrainian debating history International Debate Tournament “FIRE”.

The tournament was conducted by UYNGO “Debate Academy” – an organization established by Ukrainian debaters to develop and coordinate debate movement in Ukraine. It was also supported by Olesya Orobets, who is not only one of the youngest members of Ukrainian Parliament but also a former debater.

The opening ceremony took place on March, 28 at Kharkiv National Skovoroda Pedagogical University. There were 56 participant teams from Ukraine, Russia, Belorussia and Kazakhstan. That made “FIRE” one of the biggest Russian-language international debate tournaments and the largest in Ukraine.

The competition included a greeting from the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko:

• “Dear friends!
  I greet all the participants and guests of the intellectual-rhetoric game debates, who gathered on the hospitable land of Slobozhanschina.
  I wish everyone to show the ability to analyze and persuade with dignity, discover strong and weak sides of certain points, give estimation to facts and consequences from the point of view of their efficiency.
  Let this meeting strengthen respect and tolerance to the opposite points of view and contribute to your further realization.”

Teams participated in five preliminary rounds debating the following motions:

• “This house (TH) will prohibit to change sports citizenship”,
• “TH should prohibit mass media to inform society of terrorist organizations’ activities”,
• “TH should prohibit silicone implants”,
• “TH believes that one should divest driving licence for rule of the road persistent delinquency for life”,
• “TH should reform Commonwealth of Independent States”.

The quarter-finals motion was “TH should abandon nuclear-free status” and semi-finals – “TH believes that USA President should be elected through direct elections”.

The Finalists were:

• “We’llalldie” (Anna Kanevskaya & Tamara Babakova) Kiev,
• “16 to 12” (Danil Grachov & Tamara Komissarova) Donetsk,
• “Baltic Lion” (Sergey Naumov & Pyotr Gorovoy-Tkach) St.Petersburg, and
• “Eastside” (Igor Velichko & Anatoliy Fedorchenko) Donetsk\Mariupol.

After debating the motion “This house believes that the president should not have privileges” team “16 to 12” (Danil Grachov & Tamara Komissarova) took the cup and $300. Top-speaker, Sergey Naumov, won a mobile phone. Second place team took $200, and the third and the fourth – $100.

UYNGO “Debate Academy” President,
Olexandra Matviichuk

International debate tournament “FIRE” Сonvener,
Roman Melnyk