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Yale Intervarsity 2025
Nov 1, 2025 · BP
Motions from this series
Yale IV 2025 (2025)9 motions
- Round 1This House Prefers significantly fewer Americans going to college
- Round 2This House Regrets the rise in content warnings
- Round 3This House Supports the increasing prominence of country music in the mainstream
- Round 4THBT the EU should impose limits on corporate tax competition between member states.
- Round 5This House Believes That the lottery-and-fee system for employee-sponsored H-1B visas should be replaced with an auction
- QuarterfinalsThis House Believes That the valuation of major AI companies will decrease in the next 2 years
- SemifinalsThis House Believes That the US should impose a full embargo on Venezuela until the opposition assumes power, rather than pursuing military action
- Grand FinalTHO pessimistic narratives about American democracy
- Novice FinalsThis House Believes That professional sports should adopt the athlete control model
Yale IV 2024 (2024)10 motions
- Round 1THS social media companies removing spaces and content associated with the incel movement
- Round 2THBT climate activists should prioritize funding the development of clean technology rather than increasing regulation of the fossil fuel industry
- Round 3This House Opposes the rise of the Situationship
- Round 4THR the rapid expansion of neobanks in the financial sector
- Round 5THP metaphorical art over visceral art as a tool for social change
- Open QuarterfinalsTHW fully privatize Fannie and Freddie (e.g. giving control of them back to private shareholders, removing subsidies, etc.)
- Open SemifinalsTHBT the US and Canadian government should financially facilitate the buyout of Cobre Panama to transfer ownership of the mine to the Panamanian government (e.g. by providing a loan)
- Open FinalsTHB it is not in Algernon's interests to take the drug
- Novice SemifinalsTHP a world where fine dining quality recognition (e.g. Michelin stars, James Beard awards) is evaluated solely on food quality as opposed to a holistic experience.
- Novice FinalsTHBT college graduates should prioritize their working environment (e.g. types of colleagues, team v individual work, etc.) over the content of their work for their first job after graduation.
Yale IV 2023 (2023)10 motions
- Round 1TH as Haiti would file a lawsuit against American gun manufacturers to seek compensation for gun-related crimes.
- Round 2THBT choice feminism has done more harm than good for the feminist movement.
- Round 3In the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic (early 2020), THS legislation banning vulture funds from buying sovereign and individual debt.
- Round 4THBT it is in the interest of religions that believe in an omnibenevolent deity (e.g. Islam, Christianity) to abandon the practice of proposing and using theodicies in order to argue for the plausibility of their God.
- Round 5THW increase the FDA clinical testing requirements for drugs in which the primary purpose is to change brain chemistry (e.g. Ozempic, Antidepressants)
- QuarterfinalsTHBT civil rights activists should push to expand municipal liability to include vicarious liability for the unlawful conduct of police officers rather than removing qualified immunity defenses for those officers
- SemifinalsTHW significantly tax private equity firms with more than 10% of AUM in dry powder.
- Grand FinalTHW force private universities to reimburse tuition to alumni if they do not make a return on their investment within 10 years after the completion of their final degree
- Novice SemifinalsTHBT the United States Federal Government should repeal section 230 of the communications decency act and aggressively prosecute online platforms.
- Novice FinalsTHS a world where "Upload" exists and is widely accessible.
Yale IV 2022 (2022)11 motions
- Round 1THBT the Effective Altruist community should prioritize alleviating short-term suffering over longtermism
- Round 2THBT the majority of rental housing should be communal housing
- Round 3THS the Chinese government's crackdown on private education
- Round 4THP a world in which platonic life partnerships are the primary relationship structure, rather than romantic life partnerships
- Round 5THBT the US should legalize the payment of extraterritorial bribes
- QuarterfinalsTHS women writing emotionally descriptive literature over emotionally prescriptive literature
- SemifinalsTHW allow US cities to petition courts to write down their pension obligations
- Grand FinalTHBT the US should try to increase the size of its population though immigration to approximately 1 billion people by 2050
- Novice SemifinalsTHR the increased focus on posting less curated “authentic” content in social media (BeReal, finstas, close friends instagram stories)
- Novice FinalsTHS a world where universities exclusively focused on professional training. In such a world, the purpose of an undergraduate degree at a research university would be to prepare students for a career in academic research, while a 'technical' university would prepare students for careers in specific technical fields
- ESL FinalsTHBT the environmental movement should advocate for adaptation to the effects of climate change over mitigation of the effects of climate change
Yale IV Fall 2021 (2021)11 motionsCA: Lior S., 🇦🇺 Jessica M., 🇮🇱 Hadar G., 🇺🇸 Aditya D.
- Round 1THW create medical bodies with the power to prevent individuals in professional sports from continuing their sporting careers (i.e. due to serious injuries)
- Round 2THP a world where international trade is regulated by practices and norms developed by merchants rather than agreements developed by governments
- Round 3THP a world where the dominant norm is one of open relationships* *Open relationships refer to relationships in which both partners have liberty to have sex with people outside of the relationship.
- Round 4THBT Supreme Courts should refrain from practicing judicial review in the early years of emerging constitutional democracies
- Round 5THBT the US should establish diplomatic relationships with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan
- Partial Double QuarterfinalsTHBT India should remove subsidies and protections on farms (i.e. free electricity, employment guarantees, minimum support prices) in favor of massively expanding the manufacturing sector
- QuarterfinalsTHP a moral system that perceives morality to stem from duties as opposed to rights
- SemifinalsTHBT limiting the negative effects of U.S. monetary policy on foreign economies should become an explicit part of the Federal Reserve’s mandate.
- Grand FinalTHP a world in which religions follow a Gadol rather than an official supreme leader
- ESL FinalsIn parliamentary systems, THBT governments should be formed through a union of parties from conflicting sides of the political spectrum
- Novice FinalsTHP undergrad programs (BA) that follow the holistic education model to ones that follow the specialisation model
Yale IV 2019 (2019)10 motions
- Round 1THBT it is immoral for the typical Yale undergraduate to work at a hedge fund after college
- Round 2THW expel Turkey from NATO.
- Round 3THBT the environmental movement should oppose any green policy initiatives and candidate platforms that do not also make racial and economic justice a central priority.
- Round 4In pluralistic societies, TH prefers official recognition of major religions as "public law corporations" to laïcité.
- Round 5This house believes that emerging markets should de-dollarize their economies
- Round 6This House Supports the creation of a Supreme Court of Facebook
- QuarterfinalsTHBT the left should apply its advocacy for reduced penalization and incarceration to all crimes, including those for which the left presently demands a more forceful policy response (e.g. gun violence, sexual assault, hate crimes)
- SemifinalsTHR the focus of venture capital on expanding market share over achieving profitability.
- Grand FinalTHBT 21st century western liberal democracy will fail to defeat the challenge of right-wing populism.
- Nov FinalTHBT it is preferable to pursue civil rights protections via the legislative process rather than the legal system.
Yale IV Parliamentary Debate 2019 (2019)10 motionsCA: 🇺🇸 Danny D., 🇺🇸 Eva-Marie Q., 🇬🇧 Sophie L., 🇺🇸 William A.
- Round 1THBT it is immoral for the typical Yale undergraduate to work at a hedge fund after college
- Round 2THW expel Turkey from NATO.
- Round 3THBT the environmental movement should oppose any green policy initiatives and candidate platforms that do not also make racial and economic justice a central priority.
- Round 4In pluralistic societies, TH prefers official recognition of major religions as "public law corporations" to laïcité.
- Round 5This house believes that emerging markets should de-dollarize their economies
- Round 6This House Supports the creation of a Supreme Court of Facebook
- QuarterfinalsTHBT the left should apply its advocacy for reduced penalization and incarceration to all crimes, including those for which the left presently demands a more forceful policy response (e.g. gun violence, sexual assault, hate crimes)
- SemifinalsTHR the focus of venture capital on expanding market share over achieving profitability.
- Grand FinalTHBT 21st century western liberal democracy will fail to defeat the challenge of right-wing populism.
- Nov FinalTHBT it is preferable to pursue civil rights protections via the legislative process rather than the legal system.
What gets set here
Economics21%
Social & Identity15%
Law & Crime11%
Education7%
Technology7%
International Relations7%
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Practice Economics motions ›Read: Generating arguments ›Breaking here
14% of teams break
Teams usually guarantee their break on 11 points.
Break on speaks? Average at least 79.5.
Last edition: 16 of 120 teams broke.
- 2019cut unknown20/178
- 2019cut unknown20/178
- 202111 pts · 79.0 speaks24/134
- 202211 pts · 79.4 speaks17/121
- 202311 pts · 79.0 speaks16/103
- 202411 pts · 80.3 speaks16/140
- 202511 pts · 79.9 speaks16/120
~??% estimated break chance
??.?–??.? estimated speaker score
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Break categories
This tournament runs a separate break for each category. From the most recent edition:
- Open break16 teams
- ESL break5 teams
- Novice break10 teams
Top speeches
The highest individual speaker scores recorded at this tournament.
| Debater | Speech | Motion | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸 Tejas S. | GW | This House Believes That the lottery-and-fee system for employee-sponsored H-1B visas should be replaced with an auction | 87 |
| 🇺🇸 Will R. | DLO | This House Regrets the rise in content warnings | 87 |
| 🇺🇸 Ryan L. | MG | This House Believes That the lottery-and-fee system for employee-sponsored H-1B visas should be replaced with an auction | 87 |
| 🇺🇸 Thej M. | PM | This House Believes That the lottery-and-fee system for employee-sponsored H-1B visas should be replaced with an auction | 84 |
| 🇺🇸 Ryan L. | MG | This House Regrets the rise in content warnings | 84 |
| 🇺🇸 Thej M. | PM | This House Regrets the rise in content warnings | 84 |
| 🇺🇸 Rahul K. | DPM | This House Regrets the rise in content warnings | 84 |
| 🇺🇸 Diego C. | DLO | This House Regrets the rise in content warnings | 84 |
| 🇺🇸 Richard C. | LO | This House Regrets the rise in content warnings | 83 |
| Max W. | MG | This House Regrets the rise in content warnings | 83 |
| Ann W. | MO | This House Supports the increasing prominence of country music in the mainstream | 83 |
| 🇺🇸 Sarah L. | OW | This House Supports the increasing prominence of country music in the mainstream | 83 |
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