For the first time since its inception Debattierklub Wien had more teams applying for a Championship then there were slots available. Five teams competed for 3 slots, all of them had their merits and none of us knew how to settle that. Hence we decided to run the EUDC trials and find it out the hard way like we had seen it from the grown ups in Sydney, Oxford or Leiden. We set the dates for May 5 and 6 to run the evil but necessary “Battle For Belgrade”. 
Obviously running EUDC trials required external help and help was flown in: Rogier Baart (from Leiden) came to our rescue together with Sabine Kucher (from Newcastle and a bit of Austria) and Michael Schklowski (all sorts of places between Germany, Helsinki and Vienna). DK almuni Lukas Grill and Matthias Moser joined the panels and added much of the competitive but intimate atmosphere to the event. Not to forget Florian who ran the tab. Yes, even two rooms need proper power pairing – and yes, he had ballots preprinted.
With an actual world class CA (WUDC ESL Finalist, Euros ESL Semi Finalist, CA Dutch Open and DCA Dutch Nationals) on top of the motions, a pancake night on Friday, two rounds run on Saturday, two more on Sunday and eight teams competing – this felt a lot like a proper tournament. Needless to say the competition was very intense, too. 
The EUDC trials started on Saturday around 5 pm at WU and ended with drinks and food at “Selbstverständlich”, our regular social location. The third round started with some delay on Sunday morning around 10 am prettified with cake, wafers and energy drinks. The two rooms were chaired by Rogier and Sabine, while both had at least two to three wings on the panel. Both put an additional focus on extensive feedback. After tough but fair battles of the EUDC trials, we are proud to announce Austria’s contingent for this Belgrade EUDC 2012: Vienna A (on 10 points) Melanie Sindelar and Stefan Zweiker Vienna B (on 9 points) Christoph Jäger and Rosie Halmi Vienna C (on 7 points) Miriam Baghdady and Andreas Prischl On the basis of the internal EUDC Adjudication Trials that were held during our Wednesday BP session on April 25 the judges that will be accompany the delegation to EUDC this year are: Sabine Rainalter and Jakob Reiter The motions of the EUDC trials 2012 were: on Saturday, May 5 Round 1: THBT in countries in which abortion is illegal, there should be no exceptions made for cases of rape or incest. Round 2: THW ban convicted criminals from profiting from accounts of their crimes published in any way, shape or form. on Sunday, May 6 Round 3: THW require every average and above-average income family to provide a home for a foster child. Round 4: THBT the United States should pay reparations to its muslim population for policies carried out in the aftermath of 9/11. /All pictures were taken by Florian Prischl.
