From May 30th to June 1st, the 2014 Yangtze River Delta Debate Open was held at Zhejiang Wan Li College. The two-man NIT debate team of Lu Haochen and Xu Dingli competed with over 70 teams in four debate categories and received the highest score in the final round of the Chinese-language category. Other finalists included teams from the China University of Mining & Technology, Tan Kah Kee College, and Xiamen University . In addition, the NIT teams of Mao Haoyu and Yu Bing, Liu Zhaoxia and Song Qian, and Xia Xiang and Huang Hui won first, second, and third prizes respectively. Xu Dingli proudly received the distinction of being named a Top Ten Debater.

This open debate championship, which was hosted by IDEA (International Debate Education Association), uses the British Parliamentary Debate system of two debaters per team, and with four teams competing in each round. After several rounds, four teams entered the final competition. The debates covered a wide range of topics, including carbon tax, prenuptial agreements, legal sentencing to counter terrorism, and college enrollment. This required that debaters be able to master a variety of knowledge areas, speculate on key points, and skillfully organize their arguments.