Below you can read about Elisas experience at the Eurasian Championships 2025 which took place in Istanbul, Turkey from January 18-20, 2025. It was the first tournament for our selected national and development teams. You can find the full tab here.
Our Teams competed against 66 teams and secured spots in the Octo- and Quarterfinals. In addition, Viktor Vojnoski was 13th best speaker and Sofia Schuppler 15th best speaker.

 ESDC 2025 took place in Istanbul and invited Asian and European teams to compete (as well as teams from Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, etc.). This year, Austria sent three teams: Team Austria Gold, composed of our team captain Sofia Schuppler, Viktor Vojnoski, Mihail Zahariev, and Elisa Cerda (me); Team Austria Tungsten, with their team captain Felix Fintl, Felix Piletta, Violetta Sebastyen, Yoto Krastev, and Clemens Bervoets; and last but not least, Team Austria Red, with Nils Maletz as their team captain, Ágoston Melis, Cecily Schwarz, and Elisabeth Main.

 All the teams managed to win 4 out of 6 debates, and two of them advanced past the break, with Team Austria Gold reaching the quarterfinals.

The first day, we had to wake up at 3:30 am to meet the team at the airport and start our journey to Istanbul. After arriving and meeting up with our second coach, Samuel Gall, we continued to the Hotel Haliç. Once settled, we rested a bit before exploring the city. We ate fresh fish at the fishing bridge while watching the sunset. Exhausted, we returned to the hotel, but we were never too tired to prepare cases with our coach, Marina. After some “military talk,” we went to sleep, excited for the first day of the tournament.

Our day started at 6 am. We were looking forward to debating the first prepared motion of the tournament: “This House Would make military service mandatory.” After a very engaging debate, which we ended up winning, we continued our lucky streak and performed well throughout the rest of the day. The other Austrian teams also had great results. That afternoon, we returned to the hotel. After a productive debrief, our coaches prepped the cases, allowing us to rest and bond as a team. We decided to do face masks to care for our health and feel beautiful and powerful for the next day.

Day two of the tournament was harder to wake up for but still exciting. We had breakfast and printed materials at the hotel next door before boarding the bus. On the way, we prepared and focused on what we thought would be a debate against Team Serbia. However, when the room announcements came, we had a surprise twist: we were debating one of the Chinese teams instead. Even though we lost that round, it was my favorite debate of the tournament. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the debate and the lovely gifts the Chinese team gave us. One of these gifts—a whistle—ended up being a bit of a distraction because one of our teammates became obsessed with using it, leading to random whistling as we walked through the halls of Robert College.
 The day ended with us debating in the octofinals, where we had one of the funniest rounds against another Chinese team.

The next day, every member of Team Austria woke up to support Team Austria Gold in the quarterfinals, for which we were very thankful. Unfortunately, we lost the debate. However, thanks to our amazing coaches, we spent the rest of the day exploring Istanbul. We admired the city’s unique mosques and visited the Grand Bazaar, where I bought gifts for my family.

With that, our trip came to an end, and we had to say goodbye to Samuel before starting our journey back to Vienna. Although we felt a little sad that the tournament was over, the plane ride was far from boring. Viktor and I spent time learning about the Second Punic War, while Felix P. entertained by creating memes about the tournament. These moments reflected just how much fun we had during our four unforgettable days in Turkey.