Yes I'd like to be on the email chain: Sebbydebate@gmail.com

A bit about me: What up I'm Seb/Sebby pronouns They/She. I've been doing debate ever since Highschool, shoutout to my peeps at Brandeis. Currently I debate policy at UTSA and love it. In my time in hs I was primarily a policy debater, but over the years I've become much more K oriented, but that being said I'm not afraid to engage with policy from time to time.

My Judging Philosophy:I would def say I'm more of a big picture thinker, if by the end of the debate you can Identify the key args and explain why you win those you'll probably have my ballot. I think that debate is a space for us to learn about and practice persuasion, that being said I'm much less of a technical judge, meaning that trying to out speed your opponents probably won't work with me, and is very likely to result in arguments not being on my flow. a good rule of thumb is that if your goal is to out speed your opponents you'll probably out speed me. That's not to say I have slow ears or anything, talking fast is fine, I do it myself, just don't be the debater streotype and you're fine. Other than that I'll vote on anything as long as there's a clear articulation of why I'm voting for it.

For non policy:

I still know the fundamentals of the args and probably have a basic understanding of your event, but don't assume I do. I take judge instruction and impact calc to be the most important factors in weighing of these events, so you should take the time to do that if you want a clear ballot from me.

For policy:

Da's: I'm very skeptical of long Link chains that span 6 different cards each with different authors, that being said I'm not afraid to vote on a well explained Da, but you should be able to articulate the story of the da in a coherent way. Specific plan links are always better. I also think uniqueness args are underrated, I think it's maybe the best aff strategy to argue the da is already happening/going to happen.

Counter plans:TBH I'm not a big plan of counterplans, but it's something I'll still vote on. If you want a chance of me voting on the cp you need to prove that there's some net benefit or reason we can't perm it. I also think the CP should at least attempt to solve the aff. If your 2nr strat involves a cp you're probably gonna need a DA to go with it for me to weigh it.

Topicality:I'm pretty inclined towards reasonability on T, and I do think a lot of teams run it more as a time skew than anything else. That being said the way you get me to vote on T is you prove there has been abuse in the round, really impact out your standards. A TVA will do you wonders in that sense, but also just examples (like if this aff is allowed then what other unpredictable affs are gonna happen, or what specific args does either team loose out on). I also don't think an aff needs to be topical assuming you can give warrants as to why in relation to your affirmative. All that given if your 2nr strat is T you should probably signal that as early as possible.

K on neg: So I love a good K debate, and I'm generally familiar with the lit, but that being said don't assume I know everything or even your specific link/alt. That being said I think the most important things that should be on your mind when running k is fw and the link. for the link you should be able explain how either the plan action causes your impacts to become worse or how rhetoric links are important in debate and why those should be considered prior to plan itself. For framing/work you should be able to articulate why your K comes first and is a prerequisite to plan action. I think that the best aff strategy against the K is to engage with it (Link turn, perm, etc). I wont vote on a framework that says "you don't get to run the k".

K on aff: The aff should 1. at least be in the direction of the topic, and have a clear articulation of Solvency. The aff should especially have a clear solvency advocate

Congress:

Be Respectful- Do not deliberately attack a person or their identity in bad faith, however while some may have opinions and arguments that you disagree with personally that does not mean you are being attacked.

Be Logical- Make it make sense. Stay on topic and don't just throw in extra information we don't need, or you won't use. Diction, your word choice matters so make it count. Convince me that you are right.

Be Confident- Fluency, tone, expression, and pacing. This isn't a race, and it isn't a library.

Secret fourth paradigm- Add something new and relevant when you speak or challenge what has already been said.

LD:

Delivery-It is hard for me to listen if you speak really fast, so I prefer a slower delivery, if your speech is unintelligible then I have nothing to judge you on.

Criterion and Value-Judging your arguments will be based on this. If you want me to use yours over the opponent's convince me that your value and criterion is the proper one to use.

Evidence-Use evidence when making claims, but feel free to use rhetoric to make your arguments.

PF:

Don't make arguments or use evidence you don't understand.

IE Speech:

While I understand that you may be very passionate about a topic, please approach it in an age/school appropriate way. Unnecessary shock factor is just that, unnecessary. With that in mind, don't be afraid of sensitive topics that are naturally shocking. For example, DO NOT Reanact an active shooter event. However, you could do a protrayal of the thoughts or feelings of the event, not the actual event itself

For all events creativity is key just as well as relevance. This is your performance, make it unique to you.

I like to see a variety of sources in extemp. Don't just throw it in there to have it, make sure it helps paint the picture.

I like to see some type of extemp walk to help me visualize the speech more.

Threads not the most important to have in extemp, but there should be some solid transitions going into each point.

Significance in all speech events are super important to me. I need to know why I should listen to you.

If using language it really needs to have it's purpose.

Debate:

Talk Pretty

I enjoy role of the ballot and role of the judge you tell me how to vote on the round.

Run whatever as long as you can explain. Key word is EXPLAIN.

Don't be rude to one another or you will lose speaker points.

For any further questions about rounds/ email chains please email me at haldebate25@gmail.com

For anything involving judging opportunities, please email me at hdivalentone04@gmail.com

I was a 4 year policy debater and extemporaneous speaker, who also dabbled in interp events once or twice , I have experience mostly in the UIL circuit, so my judging style reflects that. I currently compete in the collegiate circuit and have seen many different styles of debate, so if you can run a type of argument, I have probably seen it before.

~Policy/CX~

Yes email chain :D

Decorum is one of my highest priorities when it comes to rounds, if you decide to be rude to your oppponents during rounds I'm not going to reward you with a win; this includes being racist, homophobic, sexist, or talking down to your opponent in any way.

If I had to label my judging type it would be a tabula rusa judge. When it comes to the actual content of the round, I dont mind if you run new in the 2, I dont mind the usage of theory like Kritiks, CPs etc, if its argued effectively and not just used as a timesuck. Anything can be game IF argued effectively.

This also goes for dropping arguments in rebuttals, dont just throw it out because you're not arguing it effectively, if your opponent still won the argument its going on my ballot, unless you can provide a good reason for why that argument doesnt matter in the realm of this specific debate.

If you're going to bring up a stock issues argument, please understand what the stock issue means, i.e dont run a "my opponent has no harms" argument if you dont know what a harm is.

Persuasiveness is also a huge thing for me, you can have all the facts and evidence you want but if you cant create a believable argument I have no reason to vote on it.

I know that disclosure is becoming a huge thing on the national circuit, but I wont vote on if someone does or does not disclose, since part of debate is the premise that you will have to think on your feet, and people have been debating without disclosure for decades, however I do feel that if you are going to stand there and emphasize disclosure and how it is effective for the education of the round, I think you shoud be reflecting those same qualities on your own end too.

I dont do spreading, I think its detrimental to the art of debate and your speaks will be docked for it. I wont flow anything that is being spread, and if its up to your opponents to tell me what youre saying, then thats what im gonna have to put on the ballot if its the only thing that is being spoken clearly. If you choose to spread, you get a single verbal clear, after that I will not be flowing and your speaks will be docked. I think there are much better ways to have a productive debate without exclusionary tactics, that being said I am fine with speed if you are speaking coherently and without excessive breaths in between every word. At that point you waste more time attempting to catch your breath than you do speaking, and its not productive.

~PF~

I am pretty comfortable judging PF, and I have quite a bit of experience doing so. While I never actually competed in the event, part of the philosophy behind PF is that it is supposed to be an accessible event for all, thus my judging philosophy upholds this.

One of the biggest things about PF is that, more so than Policy, this event should have no spreading what so ever, as it defeats the purpose of the event entirely.

In Public Forum, a lot of your arguments should not be evidence based unless you have something that specifically counters the evidence given by your opponent. I think that this is a super fun event to sit down and judge, but debates over evidence are kind of meaningless in this event. If you are able to attack your opponents arguments logically and with tact persuasion, then I believe there shouldnt need to be a huge amount of cards that support your case if there is a logical conclusion. For example, if your opponent is saying to ban all baked goods because they are unhealthy, and your logical refutation is that banning all baked goods will put small business bakers out of a job, thats a lodical conclusion that doesnt necessarily require a lot of evidence.

You should also be respectful during crossfire, no matter if it is regular or grand. Little quips or comments are not appreciated, as decorum is something that is supposed to be emphasized in this event, yall arent policy kids, so dont act like it.

~LD~

I am all for technical arguments in LD such as Kritiks, but I think that CPs and DAs should be used disparingly since the whole premise of LD is the moral question of should we or should we not pass this resolution, so sometimes Disads and CPs work and sometimes they do not, keep this in mind.

As is with my philosophy in all events, I believe that decorum and communication come first, without these two mutual things there is not a physical way possible to have a productive round. If you both chose to disregard this, your speaks will get docked.

Another thing that is crucial for me in LD is defintely the framework of the round, it is preferable when both sides present a strong framework for their cases, complete with philosophical reasons to prefer. Definitions are neither here nor there unless theres a really good reason to prefer one definition over the other. Overall, LD is one of those events where I dont judge on the same thing every time, just because I vote on one thing in one round doesnt mean I will vote on the same thing the next round. I try my best not to bring background knowledge into this event, but if you are presenting something that I have reason to believe an average person would reasonably know, then I can bring that into the round and use it in personal decision.

I also enjoy when rebuttals are clean cut, and well organized, as it helps me fully emphasize points on my ballot.

Overall, have a good debate, dont be a jerk, and good luck

TL;DR:

You should be good to run whatever you want as quick as you're comfortable running it. If there’s no framing, I default to offense/defense. Yes, I want the files too. Prep time doesn't stop until the doc is uploaded.

If you have any questions for me, or need to put me in the email chain: jteverett53@gmail.com

If you are a junior or senior and want to do debate in college, ask me about Texas State!! We have a nationally competitive program with speech events, NFA-LD (policy), parli, and public debate. If you have any questions about debating here at all just hunt me down or email me at the same email above!!

Hello! I am the current debate coach for Claudia Taylor Johnson High School in San Antonio, and was a 4 year policy debater in high school on the UIL, TFA, and NSDA circuits for China Spring High School, and I competed in NFA LD, NPDA, and IPDA for Texas State, so I’ve seen tons and tons of debating styles. I'm here to evaluate arguments not to tell you what to run, so you can probably read any argument you're comfortable with if I'm in the back of your room. I tend to evaluate rounds based on an offense/defense paradigm, so I enjoy rounds with a lot of interaction between arguments and good articulations of their stories.

Speech drop is ideal, but email chain is fine. I'd like to be included in whatever form of file sharing y'all engage in. Prep time doesn't stop until the doc is uploaded (unless y'all are physically uploading to a flash drive and walking it to the other team, then prep stops when you start to walk the drive to the opponents)-- too many teams have taken advantage of their ability to "save the doc" to steal prep time.

I'm usually not looking at the doc during round, but occasionally I will based on how the round plays out. Don't count on me looking back over the doc to fill holes in my flow though, if you're not clear enough for it to end up on my paper then I'm not evaluating it. I look over evidence for questions of ethics, quality, or for resolving major points of interest in the round when I absolutely have to-- not to fill in blanks from what I couldn't catch.

For pref sheets:

Clash- 1

LARP- 1

K- 1

Trad- 2

T/Theory- 2

Phil- 3

Tricks- Strike/5

Feel free to ask me any other questions pre round!!

POLICY/NFA LD:

I enjoy watching K v K, K v Policy, and Policy v Policy rounds equally.

T/Theory: I love T and hold it at the highest standard in the round, when it’s used effectively. If T isn't your game, you probably don't want to run it in front of me because I always have a hard time voting for Ts that are blippy and not impacted out. I enjoy T debates that have a lot of clash on the reasons to prefer, and that attempt to compare the division of ground/education of each interpretation. Reasonability does not mean "You shouldn't care abt me bcuz im REASONABLY topical-"-- I have no idea what this means or how to decide whether you are or aren't "reasonably topical". Reasonability is about the aff's interpretation and its place in the literature/its division of ground.

Condo is fine, but it's on thin ice. I don't really have a preset threshold on how many conditional advocacies are okay, but I generally find myself enjoying watching rounds with less than 4 conditional advocacies more than rounds with 4+ in CX rounds. This doesn't mean that I'm not willing to vote on condo bad in rounds with less than 4 negative advocacies, this is just a statement of personal preference. For the LDers looking over this (NFA, or HS), I find myself enjoying rounds with less than 3 advocacies more than rounds with 3+.

I'm probably not voting on disclosure theory at a HS tournament unless we're at a TOC bid tourney (UIL norms, and new TFA rules), if you're a college debater you should be disclosing and I am very open to voting on disclosure theory.

I typically start theoretical questions from a "reject the argument" mindset-- I need a well warranted argument as to why I should reject the team to overcome this (with the exception of condo/dispo bad).

DA: Disads are great. Impact calc of some sort is key to win a disad (on both sides). DAs are won through the link chain, and lost through the aff’s offense.

CP: Counter plans are great. I like most CPs, and I really have any dispositions toward any CP (I've voted on PICs, Consult, Delay, International CPs, and many many more) however I am also more than down to hear a great theory as to why their CP isn't legit. I typically start the round from a drop the argument mindset and need warranted reasons as to why I should drop the team in these debates though. The only CPs I'm really suspect of are artificially competitive CPs (if you're confused what I mean, look here: https://www.debatemusings.org/home/stupid-cps-are-stupid ) but, I have in fact voted on them before.

I'm not the biggest fan of judge kick and start the round from the assumption I'm not judge kicking (however, you can make arguments for why this should change).

K: I love K debates, and I wish more teams would go for the K in front of me. This is the argument I collapsed on the most when I was competing. I like well constructed Kritiks that have good link chains, and solid alternatives. I probably haven't read the lit you're talking about in the K, so just assume that I haven't and make a concerted effort to explain it to me. Probably not the best judge for most Baudy (and friends), psychoanalysis, or any other high theory K-- I have voted on them, and am willing to vote on them again, but often teams who read these args just fill their overviews and tags with paragraphs of the most esoteric wording I've ever seen, and I often get lost in both flowing and understanding the round when teams do this.

K Affs: Go ahead, whatever is most comfortable to you. I enjoy good Kritikal affirmatives, and love both KvK and K v T/theory debates. Framework is definitely a viable collapse in front of me, but often teams who collapse on framework just won't resolve the offense on the flow when they go for it so I usually vote aff in these debates. If you are going for framework, make sure you're doing the work and establishing a clear link chain to the impacts on the T sheet.

A lot of judges say to be "in the direction of the topic"-- I think this is vague and arbitrary. You will probably have an easier time on the framework sheet with me if you are able to explain how your advocacy affirms the topic in some way or form, and you should still be arguing that we should change from the status quo (even if you're running pess), however I am also a fan of "debate about debate" Ks and I don't feel that the aff should be bound to being "in the direction of the topic" if they can win args about why the topic (or debate) is bad/exclusionary. That being said, if you can't win that debate then you'll probably lose the round. If you're not reading evidence that is at least somewhat in the lit for this year's topic, I'm also probably more likely to buy into impact chains on fwk/t-usfg (i.e. If you're debating on the college nukes topic and none of your ev is about nuclear weapons, predictability and limits become a lot easier to win on the neg. Same goes for the current HS CX income inequality topic/LD topic of the month)

Case Debate: I love good case debate, it's really a lost art now. If you're a good case debater, you should rely on that with me in the back of the room-- it will help you and your speaks out a ton.

Speaks: speaks are awarded based on performance, strategy, comfort, and your ability to bs without me catching you. Average speaker points for me typically come out to be a 27-28, stellar speakers range from a 28.5-29, and perfect speakers get 30s. Speaks will be docked if you’re mean, rude, or say something that comes out as harmful in any way possible (if you are being racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexist, etc. it's L 20s across the board). Speed is cool, just make sure you're being inclusive-- I also flow on paper because I'm not the quickest on a computer so you'll probably want to give me some pen time on tags and analytics.

-.5 speaks every time you say "Game over"-- idk how this became the standard grandstand of debaters, but it's the worst and you're better than having to rely on this to make it sound like you're winning.

This is true of all levels of debate, but it's something the NFA LDers looking over this need to pay closer attention to. Please chill out. There is absolutely no need to be as rude as I've seen the past couple of years in this event. Snide remarks in CX, unnecessary comebacks to questions, and general lack of respect for opponents is probably my LEAST favorite thing to watch in debate. I'd rather watch someone read a 7-8 minute NC of only friv theory or 26 off a-z spec and be nice than someone execute the best strategy I've ever seen while being an ass. In CX, ask the question get an answer and move on-- there is no need to say something snarky after you get a bad answer (I promise I heard it too).

(The average speaks I've given in the spring '24 semester are approximately 28.26)

Miscellaneous things you might want to know:

You probably won't see my face a ton in debates. I am typically a "nose in the flow" type of judge and don't really look away from the papers on my desk to make sure that I don't miss anything. If I am making facial expressions, or if you see my hands in the air/on my head it is because you have said something incredibly confusing, egregious, or I have absolutely no clue where to write down what you are saying (or some combination of the three).

Prompting/open CX is generally fine, but if it's overused it could result in speaker points docked

How I evaluate things: Procedurals/theory first, Pre-fiat arguments second, Post-fiat arguments third

Tech over truth, but truth influences tech.

Most of these assumptions are subject to change from round-to-round depending on the args in round.

The only rules of debate are the speech times.

When I was competing I primarily collapsed on system/reps ks and T in NRs, and ran soft left/topical K affs with a bit of trad policy affs sprinkled in. I never ran a planless affirmative but have coached/judged/debated quite a few.

My ideas on debate were shaped by: Jeremy Hutchins, Michael Donaldson, Tony Wyatt, John Anderson, and Josh Miller-- if you like these judges you'll probably like me as a judge.

"The past tense of flow is flew" -- Tony

High School LD:

I'm typically in the policy side of things, but I have been in many a value round and know more than enough to judge this activity. That being said, I typically find myself more engaged in progressive LD rounds than traditional rounds but please just run the round however best suits you and your style of argument. I love comparative analysis, impact calc, and rounds where there is a lot of interaction between y’all’s arguments. You can go as fast as you want. My off case positions remain pretty close to the exact same as policy, so you can scroll up to get a more in depth look at those specifically.

I typically find myself using the framework of the round as a heavy component when making my decision, so use your value and criterion strategically-- make comparisons, tell me why your opponents framing is wrong, and tell me why I should care about your impacts through the lens of your value, debaters that do that work usually have an easier time winning my ballot.

If the values in the round are the same, or if there's no sort of clash on values for why I should pref one over the other then I typically find myself defaulting to looking for offense and defense on the flow. I'm probably a bit more flow oriented than some other judges you might see, I pay very close attention to my flows and if there's not an argument on it then it's not in the round. That being said; having good case structure, signposting, and line-by-line really helps yourself out with me.

I thoroughly enjoy good phil debate (especially on topics that don't use the word "ought"), although I am not a philosophy head myself. I will make a pretty key distinction here though-- I am not a fan of these cases that are 5 minutes of abstract framing that, half of which aren't carded, spewed out as quickly as possible and then two cards that are like "oh yeah, and one minor link to the rez", I do not enjoy this style of argumentation. 1) these cases are incredibly hard to flow (too much flowery language, confusing concepts, lack of cards, and spreading through taglines/analytics), and 2) they rarely make a full argument which means the other side doesn't have an incredibly high threshold to meet in terms of answering these cases. That being said, if you're doing the work to explain your case, how the contentions back up the framework, and explaining what my ballot does and what it says when I vote for you you will probably do just fine with this style.

Tricks is bad debate, and I have a hard time justifying a vote on most tricks even if they're straight dropped. I wouldn't recommend running this style of debate with me in the back of the room-- even if you win on tricks with me, your speaks are probably getting tanked (expect a 27, tops).

World Schools:

I competed in collegiate NPDA style Parliamentary debate, so I have relative familiarity with the event and how it works, although I am very unfamiliar with the norms in this style of debate. I operate off of an offense/defense paradigm, so I appreciate a lot of interaction between arguments. Please focus on your warrants, and the logic behind your arguments-- just because this is a non-evidentiary form of debate (or at the very least, the evidence standards are not as rigorous as other events) doesn't mean we shouldn't have complete arguments with a claim, data, and warrant. There are a lot of WSD rounds where students will get to the third or fourth speeches and will be saying "We said 'x', they dropped that" and then that's all they say on the argument-- don't do this, it will not get you very far with me. When extending arguments tell me why it's important that they dropped it, and/or how the argument impacts the round as a whole. I usually find myself deciding these rounds based off of the framework, so good comparison between the competing burdens and resolutional analysis will probably help you. If you have any specific questions before round just be sure to ask!

Hi,

I normally judge LD and CX debate. I flow theory, plans, disads, kritiks, spreading, progressive, as long as both opponents are okay with it. I do really like unique and personalized frameworks and framework debate though for LD.

Just ask that during CX both students look at the wall behind the judge, be polite, try not to take so much time sharing cases, and no flex prep.

For Debate:

First and foremost I deduct points for Speed Reading/Fast Talk. If I can't understand a word you are saying, it doesn't matter what you're saying. Enunciate and show some emotion. You can't convince anyone of your position if you don't seem convinced of it yourself. Poise and confidence, or at least the appearance thereof win the round regardless of how big a pile of facts you happen to be reading. Show conviction without overt adversity when questioning your opponent... you aren't attacking them, you're attacking their position.

I am a former LD debater with lots of experience under my belt on the state and national level. I am open to almost all arguments, it is really about how well you convey them, persuasion is key. I wont vote anyone down for my own bias, but if you are going for technical arguments, eloquence is essential to persuading my ballot. When it comes to spreading, speed is ok, but if you are unintelligible, it will be reflected on your ballot.

Have fun and do your thing!

Mitchellheartfield@gmail.com

My name is pronounced Leeee - uhh Where - ta

I did policy in high school at Winston Churchill, 2019-2023

Currently at UT ’27

Add me to the email chain: huertadebate@gmail.com

TFA UPDATE!!

if you are a K debater don't pref me. I do not know the topic well enough to adjudicate a tough K debate. If you are forced to pref me for some reason PLEASE read the K section below. (I'm begging you) Please just do your best.

Top Level things:

Do what you do best.

Disclose to your opponents (good teams aren't scared of clash)

Do not be racist, homophobic, misogynistic, transphobic, etc. I have absolutely zero tolerance for this behavior. Be cordial with your opponents. “If I think you're being rude or condescending to me or your opponents, I will enthusiastically knock you back down to Earth.” - Yao Yao Chen

Do not say death is good in any context.

Please flow. It's a dying art. If you flow "on your computer"...stop. "A fairy dies every time you ask “Did you read x card”." - Natalie Stone

Tech> truth every time.

LD thoughts:

I'm fine with basically anything. The only things I do not like are tricks; RVIs and other fake arguments are annoying and bad for debate. Engage with your opponent and you'll be fine.

If you read more than 4 off (this is highly variable depending on the arguments you read) I will give you bad speaks. I believe to my core that you do not have enough time to develop these arguments and if you purely read them to throw off your opponent that is not a good strategy. Please engage with your opponent.

Please talk about the aff and not just the framing page. I need to know what I'm voting on rather than what lens to view nothing through.

If you have any specific questions it's probably answered in the policy section below.

Policy thoughts:

Case: I LOVE the case debate. Make it big if you can. Case turns, author indites, recuts/rehighlightings, responsive articles, any specific research makes the debate really fun and educational. I feel like everyone always forgets about the case page when it is supposed to be the “focus” of the debate.

Make it clean. Make it epic!!!!

Topicality: Really tough to sell sometimes but I applaud y’all who do it well. If it’s the 2nr you better have the goods. Please have real and contextual definitions from people in the field. I will default to that rather than a dictionary.

I default to competing interpretations rather than reasonability as there is no “reasonable” threshold or metric in deciding what is/isn’t “reasonable enough”.

Definitions that exclude specific actions rather than provide a caselist are more persuasive but obviously, both are great.

Disads: Severely under-utilized. Love em <3. I appreciate the in-depth research required for a good disad. Please have recent uniqueness.

Please have a specific link.

If you have an ultra-specific disad, I applaud you. Tiny debate is well-researched debate is good debate.

Counterplans: Love a really good creative counterplan. All are good with me, adv cp, actor cp, process cp, pics, etc. If you read a really generic one, I need you to have a really niche net benefit.

If you read a cp with a silly “internal” net benefit it better be real. Ie. “Do it this way because it will make x-thing better” is not persuasive. Please say something similar to “the aff causes x-bad-thing, and the cp avoids it.”

Kritiks: Preface: I am a K bro's worst nightmare. I have a VERY high standard for Ks. I was not a K debater and did not read much Kritikal literature. If you read a unique K I will need you to explain it to me very thoroughly or else I will have no idea what I am voting for. If you read something more mainstream ( Cap, Set Col, Fem adjacent args) I will have some prior knowledge but if you do not explain it well I will not spot you my understanding.

I need you to be ORGANIZED. Large stretches of text are boring and difficult to follow. Tell me where we are on the flow. Name links so everyone is on the same page. I am not a fan of big overviews with hidden arguments – I will not flow them. Put those arguments on the flow where appropriate.

For K affs - I need you to have a tie to the resolution and a thorough reason why the resolution requires the team to endorse/uphold/advocate for/etc what you are kritiking. I find really generic K affs quite boring but if you have something nuanced and in the direction of the topic, you’ve got my attention.

Framework – More often than not I will default to the negative in k aff debates. I need real explanations of your standards and actual responses. If your blocks don’t match up, I don’t care. Answer what is in the debate, do not rely on your preconceived answers. You actually have to think about what matters in the debate and most importantly WHY it matters to a “fair” model. Do not go for every standard in your final rebuttals. It only matters as much as you tell me it does.

ROJ/ROB: These arguments mean almost nothing at the end of the debate. I tend to default to the Role of the Judge is to decide who wins/loses and the Role of the Ballot is to indicate who won or lost. If you have a real reason why those should be different, you really need to sell it well.

For Ks on the negative – I need you to have specific links to the aff ie. Why does the aff action make your -ism worse or create a bad thing(s) for the world post-aff? It is far too easy for the aff to just say no link or win an easy perm if your link is just to the squo or a link of omission.

Floating PIKS – Do not lie to your opponents. If it’s a floating PIK tell them.

Theory: Generally, I need you to prove why the thing they did was actually bad or creates a really bad model of debate in the future. I’ll evaluate any theory arguments with some level of skepticism because you have to do an immense amount of work 90% of the time to prove violence.

Conditionality: I tend to lean on the side of "condo is good" with the caveat that all arguments need to be real and viable arguments. If you are an older team debating younger kids do not dump on them “for fun”. There is no real bright line for “how many condo is too many condo” because I think it is highly subjective to the debate itself, where it is, who’s debating, etc.

Random details:

I do not follow docs while you speak. I will open them after your speech to read ev. Please do not wait for me to receive a doc to start your speech.

Please do not send card docs at the end of the debate. I will ask if I want one.

I will say “clear” but if I can’t understand you, I will not flow you.

You will be able to tell what I think of your arguments as I am a very expressive person. Please do not take it personally.

“I won't flow things being said by anyone besides the person giving the speech.” – Ian Dill

Number or say “and” in between arguments ESPECIALLY analytics – walls of text are boring and hard to flow. If you want me to flow your arguments, be organized.

If you “insert” a case list or rehighlighting I will not evaluate it. Read it.

• Be respectful to one another
• No outlandish arguments
• Style of speaking plays a role in how persuasive your arguments are

Please email your case ahead of the round to dlaynekelly@gmail.com If I can preflow ahead of time, it will help me during the round. I want to know your contentions ahead of time.

Please do not spread; I want to understand your words and ideas clearly. If you spread, I will dock speaker points.

I appreciate logical, sequential arguments. Make sure throughout the round you are clearly explaining to me what your argument is and why it matters.

Present clear framework.

State impacts clearly.

Make sure during your speech, you are sign posting. Otherwise, I will have a hard time following your argument.

Extensions need to include warrants - simply saying extend Smith '20 isn't enough, you need to be warranting your arguments in every speech. This is the biggest and easiest thing you can do to win my ballot. Rounds constantly end with "extended" offense on both sides that are essentially absent any warrants in the back half and I end up having to decide who has the closest thing to a warrant.

Don’t run theory or k; I tend to vote for logical, warranted out evidence.

Make sure you convince me in your final focus why you should win. I will weigh heavily on that. Basically, your FF should write my RFD

Be respectful in words and actions to your opponents. If you interrupt, cut them off, or speak over them, I will dock speaker points

Do your best and have fun!

Speech Events:

I value your ability to communicate your ideas in a well organized structure. A good speaker is one that is able to keep the audience engaged but also has good ideas and argumentation that flows with good transitions, sources, and analysis. There shouldn’t be any holes in your speech where I’m able to question the credentials of the author or their research or their analysis or any other number of things.

Winston Churchill ‘23

TU '27

they/she

Email chain: bking2@trinity.edu

Trinity University debate has plenty of scholarships! please don't hesitate to ask me about college debate!

T/L:

- promptness >> everything. disclosure when pairings are sent and sending the doc shouldn't take more than 10 seconds

- do what you do best, I have ideological biases but nothing good debate can't overcome

- please please please don't try to over adapt! I am perfectly capable and willing to listen to your best arguments

– Tech > truth

- I take judging very seriously to provide the most amount of education to everyone and to be respectful of the time and effort you put into this activity. As a result, I will not tolerate discrimination of any kind.

- Please feel free to email me with any questions you have after the round, I am more than happy to clarify, send cards, or listen to a redo! [please include the tournament name and round in emails]

LD------

if tricks or phil debate is essential to your strategy i am likely not the judge for you, that being said I still know how to evaluate these debates.

it would behoove you to do evidence comparison and impact calculus

many of my policy thoughts are applicable

from every RFD i've ever given -"do not think about cross ex as an argument with your opponent, think about it as a conversation with the judge to showcase holes in your opponents argument. you should be asking questions, not making statements. look at the judge, not your opponent."

Policy-----

Topicality:

-- yeah!! I am willing to vote for T against any aff

-- I default to competing interps

-- evidence > community consensus

-- im totally open to whatever impact you can give the best 2nr on

-- the team with the best articulation of a season of debates under their interpretation and why its uniquely good is probably going to win my ballot. TVAs/Caselists can be helpful here.

Kritikal Affs/ Framework:

-- my thoughts here are probably best summed up by natalie stone, "I’ll probably like your k aff if it has a reason why people should negate it."

-- always down for a non fwk strat but specificity is always key

-- yes I've read kritikal affs but do NOT assume I know your lit base

-- I tend to lean neg in fwk debates but I find that topic-specific aff offense is pretty compelling. I am terminally unpersuaded by debate bad args.

-- the team with the most contextual offense and thorough comparisons of a model of debate is more likely to get my ballot.

K V Policy Affs:

-- potentially my favorite debates

-- I am of the opinion that the best K debate requires great case debate.

-- im well versed in cap, set col, anti-blackness, security, realism. Anything more niche than this is cool but make sure to explain.

-- read an alt or don't, but I tend to auto-filter the link debate through the scope of alt solvency. More than happy to hear why I shouldn't though.

-- link specificity goes crazy but I will also listen to shady piks

side note for policy affs:

explain how the perm solves individual links!! it would be great if this started in the 2ac.

I adore case debates and would love to listen to 13 minutes of author indicts + case turn

Counterplans:

-- yes please!

-- CPs should be functionally and textually competitive but I have certainly been on the most abusive side of this and I've also given the 1ar on theory. I don't lean a particular way here but impact calc and comparison goes a very long way.

-- solvency advocates are a must

-- cps cut from aff solvency ev will earn you speaker points

-- we let affs get away with permutation murder and it is my moral belief that written perm texts are best policy. i would probably find myself nodding along with the 2nr telling why the 1ars bizzare extrapolation of “perm do both” is illegitimate.

Disads:

-- yeah of course

-- not much to say here but link uniqueness and uq controls the link args are quite persuasive to me

-- a dramatic reading of the link wall and a substantial amount of time spent on impact calculus will make me oh so very happy. otherwise, I will be sad sifting through this "goes nuclear" mess

Theory:

SLOW DOWN SLOW DOWN SLOW DOWN SLOW DOWN

-- condo is good but i will vote on it

-- i will judge kick the cp but the threshold for the aff convincing me not to is quite low

misc:

- I am quite expressive, you will probably know how I feel about your argument

- I am flowing cx, why you would use this as prep is beyond me.

- Evidence quality is very important to me: peer-reviewed, written by people with relevant quals, from reputable sites, etc. Well-done evidence comparison will be advantageous to you. I will not evaluate evidence that lacks citation.

- Insertions = thumbs down. If you didn't say it, I didn't flow it. Inserting egregious rehighlighting may be my only exception.

- I prefer to listen to complete arguments. I will not decide a debate based on a six word perm answer

rileydwing@gmail.com

Debate:

I am a firm believer that this is your debate not mine. As a result I view the round how the debaters ask me to.

The few things I request is professionalism, fairness, and politeness. This stops being an educational experience when you sacrifice any of those 3 things for a win. I ask that all debaters be polite and do not partake in any sort of shady behavior.

I am more than ok with spreading if I have the case in front of me.

Lastly write my ballot for me, tell me why you won. I can make connections mentally, but I vote off the flow so vocalize everything.

Speech:

Speech is equal parts argumentation as it is presentation, I believe that both are imperative to a high ranking. I will always prefer average speaking and great analysis to average analysis and fantastic speaking. If you have both expect a high ranking.

Reagan High School – 2021

ale35093@gmail.com

Top Level- was a k debater but open to anything non problematic

-only judged a handful of tournament on this topic so if your going to have a super techy policy debate help me out a little more to understand the arguments and dont just assume that I already know things specific to the topic and aff or neg specific terms

-if you any questions feel free to email me

Speaks- spreading is fine with me as long as it is coherent and able to be understood

K's-read alot of diverse k's so I should be familiar with most arguments but that doesnt mean I will do any work for you it just means I will understand the arguments as you are reading them

Framing-I value framing alot in debates and it will definately go a long way with me in winning my ballot

Topicality- atleast be related to the topic don't bring that foolishness around here and althought I would preffer for you to engage in k affs on a content level topicality is still a good strat in front of me

Disad's- again not super familiar with the DA's on this topic so work with me and make sure they are fleshed out enough for me to understand or it will be much harder for me to vote on it in any capacity

CP's- must have a cp exclusive net benefit in order for me to vote on it i know this is kind of a given but none the less

my bio

-was a 2N

-making me laugh equals +.1 speaks

-i enjoy debates alot more whenever both teams are respectful towards eaech other

UPDATE FOR TFA STATE 2024 - Since this is state and the level of competition is high, you should feel free to run theory, kritiks, framework debate, and things in that wheelhouse (despite what my LD paradigm says below). Keep in mind I don't have really any experience with them (so explain them well) but as I'm now coaching a lot of LDers I would like to learn more about progressive debate and will keep a open mind. However, still please don't spread and on this topic I will likely not be very susceptible to extinction arguments. Beyond that, I will vote on anything that is argued well.

Email is jamescraiglong@gmail.com

History/Current Position: I competed 10 years ago for Evanston Township High School (Chicago suburbs) on the national circuit in PF attending tournaments such as Harvard, Glenbrooks, Dowling, West Des Moines Valley, Mini-apple, and Blake. I reached the final round of Dowling and Blake and made it to the round of 32 at NSDA nationals. I currently am a social studies teacher and debate coach at Boerne-Champion.

LD Debate - I never competed in LD, as you can read above I was a PF debater my whole career. I am more of a traditional judge. Do not spread in front of me, otherwise I won't be able to understand you and you likely won't win. I generally don't like extinction arguments unless the topic clearly connects to extinction like something nuclear weapons or global warming but for example I constantly heard arguments about extinction in the right to housing topic which really doesn't make any sense. In terms of K's or theory, I don't have a lot of experience with them and prefer the debate to be topical only but it's LD so I know those are allowed and won't inherently vote them down. I like a mix of line by line debate and framework debate - I'm generally not a fan of trying to use a framework only to win, I think that trend encourages debaters to ignore the line by line which is a valuable skill. The biggest thing though for me, above all this, is clarity. Given that I don't have a background in LD, I sometimes have trouble following the structure. Please be clear. If I can't understand you, I won't be able to vote for you. Otherwise, I will judge the round similar to how I judge PF so read my PF paradigm below

PF Debate -

Things I don't Like:

I am a more traditional judge in the sense that I don't like spreading (or even "PF" spreading) and I don't like the use of policy/LD jargon in PF and especially don't like extreme impacts like extinction without very strong links. So unless a topic has clear relation to nuclear war, you really shouldn't be using it as an impact. I'm also generally not a fan of K's or Theory or any of that stuff in PF. PF was designed for lay judges and it's a bit frustrating to see that many competitors/programs seem to have forgotten this.

How I vote:

The way I vote is I see what has been mostly cleanly extended throughout the round either by the opponent dropping or failing to adequately respond and then I will weigh whatever arguments have been extended so make sure to explain why the arguments you are bringing to the final focus matter more than your opponents (don't just rely on saying their argument has been refuted, it's better to also say that even if their argument flows through - you still win. Ideally do this weighing using terms like probability, magnitude, or timeframe (but please don't just say these words without adding any explanation or context - you must explain why you outweigh on probability or magnitude, etc.)

Assistant Debate Coach Dripping Springs High School

2a/1n UH debate 2016-19

email chain- ryanwaynelove@gmail.com

I do not watch the news.

Novices:

I have infinite patience with novices. So just do your best to learn, and have fun; welcome to debate!

Unrelated:

Hegel updates just dropped: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/29/manuscript-treasure-trove-may-offer-fresh-understanding-of-hegel

Policy: TFA State Update: (Ask me questions! This is an important tournament, I really do not like how hostile some judges can be to debaters. Y'all deserve to be able to ask whatever you want before the round).

Really important: You have got to slow down a bit for me. If you are not clear, you are doing yourself a disservice. The clearer you are, the faster you can go in front of me. The less clear you are means the more you should slow down.

You do you. But please crystallize the debate. I am infinitely more comfortable voting on well explained, well warranted, argument(s) that were explained persuasively, that took up the vast majority of the time in the 2nr/2ar, than I am on voting on a blippy technically conceded argument that was 20 seconds of the 2nr/2ar. This means I prefer deep debates over crucial issues of clash much more than debates where both sides are trying to spread the opponents thin. In debates where debaters take the latter approach rather than the former, I often times find myself seeking to determine the core "truthiness" of an argument. I often times have a different interpretation of "truth" than others. This means that in debates where little weighing is done for me you may not like how I intervene to make a decision. Similarly, if there is a conceded argument I much prefer you explain why that concession matters in the context of the greater debate being had, instead of just saying "this was conceded so vote for it." Most important to me is how you frame the round. If structural violence outweighs make it clear. If ontology is a pre-requisite to topical discussion make it clear, and so on. I do not want to adjudicate a round where both sides "pass each other like two ships in the night." Weigh your arguments, compare evidence, indict the ideas and arguments your opponents put forth.

Many times in conversations with debaters after the round I will be asked "Well what about this argument?" The debater will then go on to give an awesome, nuanced, explanation of that argument. I will then say "If it had been explained like that in rebuttal, I probably would have voted for it." If you expect me to vote on something, make it important in the last rebuttal.

I have not judged much on this topic. So start slower and work your way up to full speed. If I cannot understand you I will say clear.

Slow down in rebuttals. If you are going blazing fast I will miss something and I will not do the work for you on the flow. If you are fast and clear you should be fine. I need a clear impact scenario in the 2nr/2ar. Tell me the story of your impact(s); whether it be nuclear war, limits/ground, education, or settler violence. Be sure to weigh it in comparison with the impact scenario(s) of your opponents. In short, do the work for me, do not make me intervene to reach a decision.

Argument specific stuff:

Topicality-I am not aware of topical norms, so do not be afraid to go for topicality; especially against super vague plan texts.

Kritiks-I am most comfortable judging kritikal debate. As a debater I debated the kritik explicitly. I say this because I think y'all deserve to know that the finer techne of policy throw-downs are not my strong suit. If you read the Kritik I likely have at least some passing familiarity with your arguments. That does not mean I will hack for you. I expect you to explain any argument to me that you expect me to vote on in a clear and intelligible way. If I can not explain to a team why they lost, I will not vote for an argument.

K Aff v. Framework- I am about 50/50 regarding my voting record. Something, something, the duality of being ya know?

Disads- These are fun. The more internal links to get to the impact the more suss I think the arg is, the more likely I am to believe there is very low risk.

Counterplans-If your strat is to read 900 counterplans that do not really compete I am not the judge for you. Counterplans that have a legit net benefit on the other hand...those are nice. That being said, I have a soft spot for words PICS/PIKS.

Misc- Debate is a game. So if your A-strat is to go for that heg advantage, federalism and 50 states, or cap good, then go for it. You do you. Be polite, be friendly, don't waste anyone's time. Speaking honestly, these things are far more likely to influence my mood than whatever arguments you read.

Please use cross-x effectively

Please act like you want to be here.

Please be efficient in setting up the email chain, sharing docs, et cetera.

Please know I am only human. I will work hard. But know I am not perfect.

Last but not least, have fun! Debate is a great place to express yourself and talk about really interesting and pertinent things; enjoy your time in debate because it is quite fleeting!

LD:

This is the event I am least familiar with of all of the ones I have on this page. I would say look at my Policy paradigm and know that I am very comfortable with any policy-esque arguments. What the cool kids call LARP in LD I am told. For anything else judge instruction and weighing of args is going to be critical. As I have also stated in my policy paradigm I am more familiar with Kritikal args than policy ones, but I think for LD I am a good judge to have if you want to read a plan or something.

That being said I do appreciate debaters using their framing IE Value/standard/whatever to help me adjudicate the round. If you win framing you will probably win the debate when I am in the back of the room, as long as you have an impact as to why your framing matters.

Frivolous theory, RVI's, and tricks are going to be a hard sell for me. Legit theory abuse, topicality, or "T-you gotta defend the topic on the aff" are args I am more than willing to vote on.

Phil arguments are cool but do not assume I have any familiarity with your author. If I do not understand something I ain't voting on it.

San Antonio specifics

Unless both parties agree I do not want to see any spreading.

Do not be afraid to be a traditional debater in front of me. Just be sure you can debate against other styles.

Public Forum

Update a la Churchill on the Kritik- I am down like Charlie Brown for the kritik in PF (understatement). However, if you introduce the K in rebuttal I will be willing to evaluate theory args in response.

TLDR: Tech>truth, I keep a rigorous flow, I appreciate good analytics, and I hate theory in PF. I do not care if you sit or stand. If you want to call for a card go for it; BUT PLEASE do this efficiently. Do not try to spread, but going quick is fine.

Long version: I have judged a lot of rounds in Public Forum this year. There are a few things that you need to know to win my ballot:

The teams who have routinely gotten my ballot have done a great job collapsing the debate down to a few key points. After this, they have compared specific warrants, evidence, and analytics and explained why their arguments are better, why their opponents arguments are worse, and why their arguments being better means they win the debate. This may sound easy, however, it is not. Trust your instincts, debate fearlessly, take chances, and do not worry about whatever facial expression I have. I promise you do not have any idea where my thoughts are.

Crossfires: Use this time wisely. Use it to clarify, use it to create ethos, use it to get concessions, use it to make their arguments look bad and yours good. But use it. I think answers given in crossfire are binding in the debate. If you get a big concession use it in your speeches.

Framework(s): I like these debates. Reading a framework IE structural violence or explaining via an observation how the debate should be framed is helpful because it clarifies for me how to evaluate the debate. I like this in debates, it makes things easier for me. If you are reading a framework be sure to extend it in every speech and use it as a lens to explain your impacts in the debate/weigh your impacts against your opponents.

Speed: I think PF should be more accessible to the general public than policy. With that being said I have not seen a team go too fast yet.

Theory: This is silly. Disclosure theory is silly. Do not read it in front of me. Do not read any theory arguments in front of me. I will not vote on them. With that being said arguing that your opponents are not fitting within the bounds of the resolution is a good argument to make if it applies. If you make this argument and have warrants and impacts do not be afraid to go for it in final focus.

Non-traditional stuff: I enjoy creative takes on the topic, unique cases, and smart argumentation. I do think that PF should always revolve around the topic, I also think the topic is broader than most do. That being said avoid jargon. You can make a lot of creative arguments in this event, do so while avoiding weird debate jargon. No this does not contradict the "theory" section above. I will weigh claims about someone not fitting within the bounds of the resolution vs explanations about why a team is satisfying the burden of the resolution. Whoever does the better debating will win this question in the debate.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: I am a firm believer that my role as a judge is to be impartial and adjudicate fairly. I will flow what you say and weigh it in comparison with what your opponent says. Be polite, be friendly, don't waste anyone's time. Speaking honestly, these things are far more likely to influence my mood than whatever arguments you read.

Congress:

I was a finalist at the TOC in this event. This means I am looking for a lot of specific things to rank high on my ballot.

Clash over everything. If you rehash I am not ranking you.

Authors/sponsors: get into the specifics of the Bill: funding, implementation, agent of action, date of implementation. I appreciate a good authorship/sponsorship speech.

1st neg: Lay out the big neg args, also clash the author/sponsor.

Everyone else needs to clash, clash, clash. Specifically reference the Rep's you are refuting, and refute their specific arguments.

Leave debate jargon for other events.

Ask lots of questions. Good questions. No easy questions to help your side out.

This is as much a speaking event as it is a debate event. Do not over-read on your legal pad (do not use anything else to speak off of), fluency breaks/over gesturing/swaying are distracting, and be sure to use intros, transitions, and conclusions effectively.

I loath breaking cycle. If it happens those speaking on whatever side there are speeches on need to crystallize, clash, or make new arguments.

I appreciate decorum, role-playing as congress-people, and politicking.

1 good speech is better than 100 bad ones.

Wear a suit and tie/ power suit. Do not say "at the leisure of everyone above me" that's weird. My criticisms may seem harsh. I promise they are not intended to be mean. I just want to make you better.

Presiding Officer: To rank in my top 3 you need to be perfect. That being said as long as you do not catastrophically mess up precedence or something like that I will rank you top 8 (usually). The less I notice your presence in the round the better.

BOOMER thoughts (WIP):

Outside of policy/LD I think you should dress professionally.

In cross-x you should be looking at the judge not at your opponents. You are trying to convince the judge to vote for you not your opponents.

At the conclusion of a debate you should shake hands with your opponents and say good debate. If you are worried about COVID you can at least say good debate.

You should have your cases/blocks saved to your desktop in case the WIFI is bad. You should also have a flash drive just in case we have to go back to the stone age of debate.

"Is anyone not ready?" is not epic.

"Is everyone ready?" is epic.

The phrases "taking running prep" or "taking 'insert x seconds of prep'" should not exist.

"Taking prep" is all you need.

"Starting on my first word" umm duh that's when the speech starts. Just start after asking if everyone is ready.

Debated for Winston Churchill High School (TX). Debated at Texas. Camps worked at: VBI, Baylor, UTNIF.

Email: jacoblugo101@gmail.com

Please have the email chain ready as soon as both opponents meet before the round.

A few thoughts:

• I consider my role in the debate is to decide who did the better debating.
• I prefer for there to not be any room in the debate to input my own opinions. Prefer debates to be as clean and explicit as possible to make the most objective decision.
• I'll listen to most any type of argument. Not a fan of vacuous theory arguments or paragraphs of spikes/preempts (most pertinent to LD).
• I tend to/prefer to flow on paper. Take that into consideration. If you see me flowing on my computer, be mindful when you are transitioning between arguments.
• I flow what you say. Not looking at the doc during speeches unless I have absolutely no idea what you are saying (at which point I will stop flowing and stare at you until you notice). I read the docs between speeches/during CX/after the round.
• Please slow down during analytics. For some reason people tend to read through these faster and faster every year.
• I'm very expressive. My face is a good indicator of where the debate is going.
• If I'm absolutely unsure of what is going on/no arguments have been made, I'm most likely going to err neg.
• I'm always listening.
• Speaker points: I like to be entertained. I care about pathos. I enjoy creative and strategic argumentation. I generously doc speaks if I feel that you are being unnecessarily rude.

Former Public Forum debater at Winston Churchill High School.

Speaker Points:

- I will evaluate you as a speaker on a scale from 26 - 30. It is very easy to get a 30 with me as long as you are clear when speaking and demonstrate a clear knowledge of the topic. A severe lack of signposting and argument organization will knock you down points. Calling for an unnecessarily large amount of evidence will also drop you points. Only call for what you need. (shouldn't be too much)

Email Chain:

- Email chains are completely up to the two teams, but if one is started I would like to be included. My email is "thenikita0302@gmail.com".

Crossfire:

- Don't be rude in cross. Make sure you keep your cool and give everyone a chance to speak. Questions should do more than just clarification unless you truly do not understand a part of your opponents case. Questions should be asked with the goal of setting up an argument in your future speeches. I do not flow or vote off anything in cross.

Public Forum General info

- Not a fan of theory or K's but the debater is free to run them. Please do not blindly assume I'll understand your progressive arg. Make sure to clearly explain why the theory/ k is important and why it might be something I should vote on. Theory debate needs to be engaging. I don't wanna just see blocks read back and forth. If blocks are the only form of attack / defense of a theory or K in Summary speaker points will be docked.

- With framework, make sure to extend it every round and really tell me why it should be the evaluation factor. If two frameworks clash explain to me why yours matter more on a Impact, timeframe, probability scale.

Speech Specific

First Speech (Constructive):

I am fine with speed as long as your opponents are as well. Make sure you are using adequate volume and speaking clearly.

Second Speech (Rebuttal):

Frontline if speaking second. Make sure you at least say something to everything, group arguments if you must, dropping args is detrimental. Your speech should be a mix of analytics and actual evidence. Don't just read me statistics, make sure you implicate those stats and explain why they matter. Also don't just attack sources, unless they are undoubtedly corrupt or biased.

Third Speech (Summary):

Make sure you extend everything. Anything you do not mention I will not vote on regardless of if it is mentioned in ff. This speech is called the summary for a reason! Make sure to go over everything that has happened in the round and outline to me why your side has won the ballot. Lets not overcomplicate it. Remember to weigh and address framework. (if any)

Fourth Speech (Final Focus):

If your summary was good, then all you need to do in ff is wrap up the round. That means touching up on any last args on the offensive and defensive side. Weigh the round! Make sure you use impact calculus, magnitude, probability, timeframe, scope, etc... Your goal should be to write my ballot for me.

Lincoln-Douglas:

I have not spent nearly as much time in LD as I have in PF. That being said I am fine with any argument as long as you implicate it and truly explain to me why it wins. Write my ballot.

Hey Guys, I'm Akshath I've been involved in debate for over 3 years, I was heavily involved in policy but have decent experience in other forms of debate. Please include me in the email chain, my email is akshathprasad05@gmail.com. Spreading is fine, just make sure the taglines are loud and clear for me to follow, but it’s the job of the debaters to explain, contextualize, and impact the warrants in any piece of evidence. Please please please read analytics very very slowly and clearly so I can understand, if you don't I simply will not be able to flow them. I will always try to frame my decision based on the explanations on the flow if any or given. I have a decent knowledge of this year's topic. I am a technicality over truth judge and I definitely play impact calc into my AFF voting decision. Think of me like a blank slate, it is the debaters' job to educate me with all the information.

Like any other judge, I love well-reasoned and thoughtful arguments, quality over quantity any day.

Topicality: I was never too much of a fan of Topicality, if you are a team that goes for T please explain it thoroughly and why I should vote for it, walk me through the T's. Make T arguments interesting, and take it to another level.

CPs: I love a good CP, CPs are game-breakers to me and I will very much vote on a CP if the NEG can easily explain to me the Net Benefit and the Mutual Exclusivity. Perms are great responses from the AFF, Explain to me why the CP can be permed and if the NEG is not able to explain why the PERM fails, AFF wins CP.

DAs: Just like CPs I love a good DA, emphasize the Uniqueness, link, and impact, extend the DAs throughout the neg block, and keep on pushing them. If the AFF is able to provide a solid non-uniq argument or no link, AFF wins DA, but once again the neg needs to find ways to counter this. I prefer specific links to the DA over broad links.

Ks: Ks are very interesting to me because if the K is solid I will easily cast my ballot for the neg, prioritize the framework and the role of debate and focus a lot on the theory aspect. Frame the debate space around the K, but if the K is too sloppy and not properly organized and read I will most likely not vote for the K. I love a great K. Expand on the Alternative and the link, please please, please. I love Roll of Ballot arguments when they are connected to K's.

FW:Arguably the best part of the round, is framing the debate round in the same way as your arguments. emphasize ROB

Condo: not really a fan of

quick pref

K-1

larp/policy-2

phil-3

Theory/trix-4

here is my email, Michael.reichle48@gmail.com

TLDR; I will vote on most things if explained well and not bigoted.

Hi, I'm Michael (He/Him). I just got out of high school debate so if you can just refer to me by my name rather than judge. I won't take off speaks but it would make me glad that at least you put in the bare minimum effort of reading my paradigm.

k- I was mainly a K debater in high school and it was what I had the most amount of experience with, I am somewhat knowledgeable in a variety of literature but I am the best with ableism and set col literature. If you are reading like Baudrillard or Deleuze don't just assume that I will know what you are talking about it, it is your role as a debater to communicate your ideas in a way that makes sense. also off hand but I am more susceptible to voting on independent voting issues, if explained well along with proper weighing, even if the violation occurred in there 2nr ill be open to 2ar IVI's.

Larp/policy- my experience with this type of debate mainly comes from the K side, ultimately like most forms of debate it comes down to the strength of link and proper weighing. I think that these debates should come down more to evidence quality rather than power tagged under highlighted cards that barley make a connection.

Phil- I am somewhat knowledgable about Phil debate, I just need an explanation for why your framework is true, why it comes first and then how should I evaluate offense through that.

Trix/theory- Its not like I don't like these types of strategies it is just that when unoriginal it can be very boring and genuinely can be the worst form of debate (I am very suseptibale to IVI's for reading trix for being ableist, also no I will not evaluate the arg that trix has to be defined, you know what you are doing at least be honest).

In terms of theory more generally I'll vote on it but I am not very knowledgeable about the nuances of theory versus theory. Please walk me through the violation/standards and the paradigm issues and why yours come before your opponent.

TFW/ in terms of this I Lean more on the side of K aff's, I think much of the fairness complaints about K offs from debaters are overvblown and less important than the aff. Debate is a game but at the same time that doesn't make it immune from oppression.

If you still have questions, message me before round about a specific issue.

Email chain: richardsonmichael98@gmail.com

TL;DR. I’m cool with whatever you have to say in whatever format you would like to say it. I think that your arguments should interact with the topic in some way, though that doesn't necessitate having a plan text or defending the federal government. Assume you need to over-explain arguments and link stories, I like to refrain from doing work for the debater(s) - that has gone poorly for some folks I've judged in the past that assumed too much. I’ve lost some flowing proficiency since high school, but I will try my best to keep up.

Stuff about me:

I haven't debated for several years, so I’m not going to trick myself into thinking that I remember everything about every debate argument or that I'm still able to effectively flow at super high speeds. However, I vow that I will do everything in my power to be present and alert of what is happening in the round and be respectful of your time. I will also do my best to explain my thought process for every decision so that you understand why I voted a certain way if the tournament allows. If not, I will make myself available to you to provide my insight or comments if you wish.

I debated for 4 years at Ronald Reagan HS in San Antonio, TX (2012-2016) and I am a recent graduate of the University of Texas at Austin (hook'em). In my first three years, I did exclusively LD and Extemporaneous Speaking. I attended many national tournaments for LD, so I am very familiar with the argument types and strategies on the national circuit. I also attended UIL State for Informative Speaking. Policy debate, however, was the highlight of my senior year. As a 2A/1N, my partner and I attended elimination rounds at various national tournaments, was the top seed at TFA State where I was 5th overall speaker, was in late elims of NSDA Nationals, and attended the Tournament of Champions.

My advice to you: Do what you do best. That doesn’t mean that adaptation isn’t important. I’ve had to do my fair share and I know of its challenges and rewards. The big takeaway is that I am open to anything you have to say in any manner or format to which you would like to say it.

Some house-keeping items:

- Be Kind. Please.

- Prep stops when the email is sent/when the document is saved to the flash drive and is out of the computer.

- Speed is fine. Go slower on Theory/T Interpretations and CP Texts, as you should. I try to flow everything said in the round including the text of evidence and cross ex. Hopefully this isn’t anything new, but clarity is very important.

- I like reading evidence, and I'll call for it if it's pertinent to my thought process at the end of the round.

- Sure I'll be on the email chain: richardsonmichael98@gmail.com

Affs -- Read whatever you're comfortable with.

- I believe that affs should be a critical discussion of the topic. What that "critical discussion" entails is entirely up to the debaters. Heg/Econ scenarios, poetic performances, whatever you do best, do it. Though, I'm likely not going to be persuaded by an aff that I feel could be cross-applied to any other topic (I think you lose out too).

- In order of how much I've read them in HS (from the most to the least), it would go "middle-of-the-road" affs, K affs, then Policy affs. I do not have a proclivity towards any one of them: I've enjoyed reading them all.

- In LD, I do not have a preference as to what the aff should look like. You can do the traditional "definitions, framework, contentions," thing or you can switch it up and do it in reverse, I don't care. As long as the information is read.

Topicality -- I enjoy Topicality debates and have no qualms voting on a well-executed topicality shell.

- I default to competing interpretations if all things are equal - actually, I probably default to an offense/defense paradigm on most things.

- In HS, I rarely read any other standard than predictable limits; I intuitively think that both sides have reasonable ground for argumentation if they're smart enough, but I can be persuaded to vote for other standards. That being said, I generally think along the lines of "the caselist" in topicality debates, so doing your due diligence in these debates should be rewarded.

- I don’t think that RVI’s are a thing and I'm not sure why they ever were; I've yet to vote for an RVI argument I thought was persuasive. BUT, *shrugs* if it's conceded, then there's not much I can do about that, now can I?

Framework/T-USFG -- Go for it.

- As a 2A I've both defended and not defended a plan text, so I have experience with both sides of the framework debate. I've also read it quite a few times on the negative, so I'm familiar with how it ought to be executed.

- I don't think that FW is inherently violent, but that doesn't mean there aren't sweet impact turns to roleplaying/policy education.

- Carded topical versions of the aff are very persuasive for me.

LD Frameworks -- Do your thing.

- I don't have an expectation as to what the Framework should look like for the aff or neg. You can do the Value/Value-Criterion if you want. You can do a Standard if you want. You can read a Role of the Ballot/Judge interpretation if you want.

Theory -- With me, you should explain the violation more than normal if it's anything other than disclosure or condo.

- In all honesty, based on my skill level I'm probably not a good judge for you if your strategy is to spam 4 tricky theoretical violations and go for the undercovered ones.

- Except for conditionality and disclosure, I am not really experienced with the various types of theoretical violations floating out there, especially on the LD national circuit. In my HS experience, I'd never read anything on the affirmative that justified opponents making theory a 2NR position, so I rarely had to give a substantive 2AR on anything other than condo.

- If theory ends up being a "game-winning" 2NR/2AR strategy, I would implore you to please go slow and over-explain the argument. It’s not that I am incapable of understanding theory (I think I'm actually selling myself a little short), it's just an area of the argument spectrum that I don't have much personal experience with.

- I am more receptive to theory as a result of actual cheating, whatever that means for the debate.

- I don't think theory needs to be in a traditional "shell" format - as long as all the components are there, we should be good.

Counterplans -- Explain to me what they actually do.

- The only caveat I have with CPs is the quality of solvency advocate evidence; I'm just a sucker for evidence that actually says what you're claiming it says.

- An explanation as to what the counterplan actually does would really help me conceptualize how it interacts with and is different from the plan, especially if it deviates from being textually and functionally competitive.

- I don't have an expectation as to what the net benefit should be. Internal Net Benefits, DA's, on-case DA's. All fair game.

Disadvantages -- I'm game for anything you've got.

- I'm a stickler for strong, definitive pieces of evidence, especially on the uniqueness debate. Though, I'll probably give you the benefit of the doubt if you do a fair amount of explanation as to why that piece of evidence may be true.

- I've read politics, linear, and on-case DA's with extinction-level or structural violence impacts so I shouldn't be unfamiliar with whatever you decide to read.

- I've done my fair share of impact turning DA's on the affirmative (I am particularly familiar with dedev or "warming irreversible" arguments) and I think these can be particularly strategic.

Case debate -- Underrated, and that is a darn shame.

- I've had some 1NRs where I just extended the warrants of 1NC evidence, read 5 minutes of cards, or a mix of the two. I’ve got no qualms voting negative on presumption if the aff’s responses are lackluster.

- Some of my best and most fun 1NRs to give were impact turns to the aff (dedev and "warming irreversible" again).

"Critical" arguments/K Affs/The K -- Read whatever you want, but be smart.

- Out of anything on this page, the K is probably what I have the most experience reading in HS. K affs and one-off K strategies were the bread and butter of my senior year.

- Some authors/criticisms that I enjoyed reading and deploying in-round include: Anti-Blackness, Berlant, Oliver, Settler Colonialism (plus every Eve Tuck article, ever), Critical Asian Studies/Orientalism/Model Minority Myth, (Racialized) Capitalism, and the Academy K.

- I prefer the line-by-line to long-winded overviews (oftentimes, they are hard to reconcile).

- Big overarching theme: you do you. This also encapsulates different arguments characterized as “performance,” though I tend to think that how you choose to debate is a performance of sorts. If you need to play music, dance, scream, do your thing.

In conclusion, some parting words.

Since my paradigm page is part love-letter-to-debate, part diary, I would like to share a thought about my philosophy on judging that may be helpful for you to know. Reflecting on my experiences as both a debater and a judge, I am a firm believer that debate, while an educational activity, is also primarily a persuasive activity. I have become increasingly annoyed with debaters and judges that are disappointed with someone's skill level (particularly if they are a novice debater or judge) and verbally express those frustrations to the public or behind their backs. Yes, having an experienced judge gives you more options to deploy different arguments and strategies, and that can certainly make for a more entertaining and enjoyable debate. But the world is not full of debate hardos. The next time you have a "lay" judge in the back of your debate, consider this: if you lose, perhaps it has less to do with the judge missing something and more about your inability to persuade someone outside of the activity (i.e. 99.9999% of people). This academically elitist pedestal some debaters find themselves upon is incredibly insufferable. So don't vent to me about how your last round's judge was a random mom or pop, you will find the opposite of sympathy from me.

If there are any lingering questions about how I view the debate or argument types I haven't listed above, don’t hesitate to ask!

Thanks y’all. Happy debating, and good luck!

For PF, keep it as the event was intended, which is less CX and more general debate. Speed should allow even a novice debate participant to keep up, but does not need to be as slow as a general speaking event. Make sure that you stay civil, as debate in general is intended to make sure that you are learning civil discourse and not just how to argue with someone.

I strongly believe that debate is a game--I am not a policy maker--debate should be fun so argue what you want to argue.

For IE Competitors:

Wish me Happy International Women's Day if you're reading this! I check sources so beware of faking sources.

I did IX and DX for all four years of high school. I will be taking notes while you speak but I am actively listening. I pay attention to mannerisms and level of professionalism and confidence you carry through your speech. I will provide thorough feedback and I am more than happy to chat with you about your speech!

For LD/PF Competitors: add me on the chain, my email is ias982@my.utexas.edu.

Create an email chain EVERY round, it saves time from calling for evidence, thanks.

PF Paradigm:

• Tech > Truth
• I auto drop for racism/sexism/homophobia or anything that is problematic that can make the debate space unsafe for others.
• Spreading is fine.
• If you provide rational impact calculus and extend the right arguments, it will be reflected in my ballot.
• Not everything leads to extinction...
• AVOID SOURCE WARS

LD Paradigm:

• I classify myself as a "traditional" debater, with that being said it might take me longer to understand high theory. If you are running K's make link clear in every speech and explain well.
• Tech > Truth
• Complicated and convoluted arguments that are poorly conveyed are worse than simple arguments conveyed convincingly and strongly.
• I enjoy framework debate.
• Please remain professional and composed--especially during CX. I do not appreciate rude comments between competitors during CX.

As a general blanket statement, I am going to weigh and vote off of the arguments and the warrants you provide. If your spreading is muddled and incomprehensible I will stop flowing until I can understand you again.

If you have any questions or advice on your round, simply ask me after the round or email me at: ias982@my.utexas.edu.

Winston Churchill ‘23, UT Austin ‘27, She/They, you can just call me Natalie!

Email chain: natstone111@gmail.com

TLDR:
–I really like debate, and I like people who like debate. I have ideological tilts, but there’s no need to over-adapt to me.

–Tech over truth

–I have some involuntary facial twitches, don’t read into my expressions.

-I would prefer not to adjudicate things that happened outside of the round. That being said, Title IX investigations and Twitter beef are largely different offenses.

Things I like:

–Cross-ex. It’s useful! Thought-out cross-ex strategies are always obvious and very productive. If you’re running prep instead of cross-ex, what are you doing?

–Adaptivity. Nothing wrong with sticking to your A-strat, but capitalizing on mistakes will make my decision easier and your speaker points higher.

–Clarity. I’ll certainly open your docs to read ev, but I won’t fill in missing arguments on my flow. I'll call clear if I'm having trouble flowing

–Debaters who treat me and their opponents like human beings.

Things I dislike:

–Insertions. Debate is a communicative game; I won’t flow things you don’t communicate to me. Inserting perm texts, counterplan texts, and re-highlightings is bad practice. My only caveat to this rule is if ev has been misrepresented and large surrounding areas/paragraphs are necessary for context.

–Not flowing. A fairy dies every time you ask “did you read x card”.

–Clash intolerance. Refusing to disclose, not answering cx questions, or generally being shifty, is a no from me.

-Being super aggro. Why?

K Affs and FW:

–These are my favorite debates. I’ve been on both sides of it, but I probably lean neg ideologically. Nuance and contextualization behind your model of debate goes a long way.

–The most persuasive 2NR’s can encompass some portion of the aff’s offense, do good comparative impact calculus, and condense down quite a bit. I think 2NRs on framework can easily get unorganized and go for too much. Also, don’t drop the aff’s disads.

–I’ll probably like your k aff if it has a reason why people should negate it. I think that question ends up being the crux of these debates. If unanswered, I’m probably voting neg.

–I don’t like k affs that straight up negate the topic and dump k links into a 1AC. They feel lazy and clash-avoidant. That being said, if you have a genuine reason to negate the res, I’m down. I prefer k affs with unique takes on their relationship to the topic.

–Identity and performance affs are fine.

–If you’re reading a k aff, I don’t care if you want to impact turn framework, or go for a c/interp. That being said, you’ll have a hard time convincing me that debate is irredeemably bad, that this singular ballot has a significant impact, or that rules of a game are equivalent to real world violence.

–I prefer clash impacts to fairness ones, but you do you. I think fairness is a worse explained impact, not a worse impact. Fairness is the ability for judges to resolve a debate in an equitable manner, which I think is really important! However, debaters having to read critical literature isn’t unfair.

–Debate is certainly a game, but it can be many other things as well! The best K affs account for competition and use it to their advantage.

K V Policy Affs:

–I never extensively read or went for k’s other than cap and fem. I feel familiar enough with anti-blackness, security, set col, and liberalism/realism k’s. As far as anything more niche than what I listed above, I’m down, but please take a few moments for thesis explanation.

–I’d prefer you defend an alternative, but I suppose the scale of what constitutes solvency is up to you, make it as large or small as you like.

–Specificity and uniqueness of the link will guide my decision a lot. An aff specific, well-developed link with some alt solvency claim will make me skeptical of aff framework pushes about mooting the 1AC. That being said, a framework 2NR is fine by me.

–Biological death is bad and human suffering is bad.

–I dislike the fiat k.

Topicality:

–Love it. Read your questionably topical aff. Go for T. I'm probably better for the neg.

–Evidence > community consensus. Competing interps > reasonability. Impact calc >>>.

–I don’t really have a strong opinion regarding what internal links and impacts are best. Decide based on your 2NR vision and explain it well. Ground, limits, precision, education, fairness, etc are all perfectly viable.

–I care most teams having a defensible vision of a season long of debates. Whether it’s three affs good, or functionally no limits good, I want you to paint a picture of what affs will look like, what neg teams will go for, how that will change between tournaments, and why it’s good.

–Evidence quality matters a lot in these debates. Intent to define and exclude matter. Author quals matter.

–Reasonability has become 2A whining. Reasonability is guided by the lit base and thus must be grounded in it. Aff teams should cut quality T evidence, otherwise I probably will have a hard time assigning any precision, debatability, or education claims much weight.

Counterplans:

–Yes please.

–As far as counterplan theory like consult, certainty/immediacy, textual/functional competition I genuinely think I fall exactly in the middle. I double 2-ed my senior year going for process counterplans on the neg and theory on the aff. Comparative impact calculus and line-by-line go far. I care most about 2NR/2AR offense that centers around clash and quality debates.

–Sufficiency framing means basically nothing and I will judge kick if told.

–Well researched and well applied advantage counterplans are OP.

-You probably don't need to read that overview.

Disads:

–I love good link spin, comparative impact calc, and disad 2NRs.

–Link controls uq/uq controls link arguments are very persuasive to me and make decisions much easier. If not instructed by debaters, I’ll have to assign it myself anyways.

–Aff teams should turn straight turn disads more often.

Misc:

–I’ll keep prep and dock your speaks if you’re stealing it. Sending the email isn’t prep, but sending an email does not require typing.

Hi! I was primarily a CX debater in high school. I also did PF, Congress, and Extemporaneous Speaking!

I prefer a well-paced debate. I don't think you have to spread in order to be classified as a good debater. If I can't understand what your arguments are then I won't flow them.

I prefer policy debates but I also consider myself a STOCK issues judge. I don't mind Counterplans or DAs. I don't care about Kritiks.

As a policy judge, I enjoy listening to the AFF's plan, especially if they are unique. I want to know how AFF improves the status quo. This means that advantages and solvency are extremely important.

Sometimes I like Topicality arguments, other times I don't, it really just depends on how well the Topicality argument is presented in the round.

Clash is a key element during any kind of debate, please don't just read off of your pre-written arguments and expect to win. It's also important that you extend your arguments. And don't forget to weigh the round and give me voters!

Open to however you want me to vote, typically lean more towards policy, but i'm more Tab than anything. I value quality over quantity of arguments, I will flow arguments if you verbally signify the importance of them. I'm okay with speed in the constructive arguments but I really prefer if you talk me through your argument instead of reading as much as possible. I like analytical arguments a lot, and will vote based on the effectiveness of evidence provided, as well as your ability to speak with confidence.

Last updated: Spring 2023 -

I am currently in my second year of debate at Trinity University (Go Tigers!). I was in debate all 4 years in high school and competed primarily in Policy and LD; however, I have experience in most events.

I'm also currently an assistant coach at Basis Shavano in San Antonio.

Add me to the chain --- wwalker1@trinity.edu

Please create the subject in this format: "[Tournament Name] [Round number] [aff teamcode] v [neg teamcode]"

Send pet pictures/cute animal pictures in the 1AC/1NC I won't give speaks but it is kinda funny otherwise.

Tl:DR: I consider myself tabula rasa, and I like to think of myself as purely evaluating what is said in a debate and spitting out a decision, but I do have opinions and feelings like anyone else. However, I always make an effort to minimize the impact that has on my decisions. I do start from the position that the 1AC should establish some advocacy and mechanism to justify it, and the neg should forward some reason why the 1AC, 1ACs model of debate, etc. is undesirable. This view is certainly not set in stone; my decision is always based on what happens within the debate, but without an alternative way of viewing the debate, that is how I default. Winning offense in the last speech and weighing it against other offense in the round is really what is most important for me. LBL and warrant analysis is everything.

Please have the email chain and disclosure done before the round begins.

Speaker points - They are based on the strategic decisions made in a debate. Effectively collapsing, weighing, and making your line by line easy to follow is how you get good speaks in front of me. Please signpost, i find it hard to follow debates when there is minimal or subtle signposting. Please make it explicit so I know where to flow.

I don't Flow of the speech doc and won't even really look at it during the debate, I'm entirely listening to the words you say for my flow, This means I value clarity more than raw speed.

Speaker point note - I have noticed I'm not a speaker point fairy. I think what's really most important to get good speaker points from me is executing a well thought out strategy. I think this also needs to be supplemented with really good evidence. The people that get high speaks with me have a very solid strategy from the 1NC, and they executed it with cards that have highlighted warrants and good explanations and extensions in the latter speeches.

Topicality & Theory -I really love technical T debates. However, I think many teams don't execute it very well which makes it frustrating to judge. What's most important to me in these debates is judge instruction and warrant explanation. As in, I find these debates normally leave me with a lot of questions that could easily be resolved with better impact calc, as well as better line by line the teams actual warrants. Essentially, when these debates are super block heavy and/or aren't executed well, it can be frustrating to evaluate. When reading these positions, please just clean it up in the final speeches and articulate a clear interpretation of what debate should be like, how they violate it, and why it matters with impact calc that explains why your thing matters.

Disad & Counter plan - Not much to say here; I really like these strategies a lot. Well-executed policy strats make me very happy, and you shouldn’t be afraid of reading your process counter plan or disad + case strat with me in the back. As long as you can explain it, I should be able to hang. Ask specific questions pre-round or email me.

I think extending the counter plan into the 2NR does not automatically forfeit the ability for the judge to weigh the net benefit + status quo against the aff. Its a question of what the best policy option is that are being defended in the 2NR and 2AR. I think most of the weird ambiguity with when i should or shouldn't judge kick the counter plan can be resolved by more judge instruction, but as a default, I treat judge kicking the counter plan as a logical extension of conditionality and will default to it unless told otherwise.

The K - I enjoy well-executed critical debates, but I have found that I really dislike poorly executed Ks (aff and neg). I've spent most of my time in debate, reading, and learning about the K, and I really enjoy it. Rather than just listing off all the lit bases I've heard of or read, I'm just going to say that I am down for anything you can explain. Explain to me what debate is, why we should be here, and win offense. Technical debate does not disappear in K debates without some justification for why I should abandon the flow, but that would itself require the flow, so it's an uphill battle for me. K's as impact turns are really persuasive to me, I've found, more so than when the alt is just framework. Not that I am opposed to those flavors of Ks; I just tend to like Kritiks with large substantive components.

In K debates, I find that teams that don't establish a clear articulation of what my ballot does normally don't win in front of me. This looks different depending on what position you are going for; however, I think what it really boils down to for me is explaining what my job is, how I'm supposed to view an argument or debate, and a clear articulation of what I do with an argument if it is or is not won. This is really what makes the difference between a confident decision and an unsure or confused one.

T-FW/USfg - I don't think affs necessarily have to be instrumental defenses of policy to be topical. I really love these debates when done well and there is lots of clash on both sides. I don't have many specifc thoughts about framework, I have debated it and read it many times and familiar with both sides of the debate.

K affs in LD - I find teams often don't execute and/or allocate enough time to the fwk sheet to realistically win the debate by the 2AR. This does not mean that you should not read critical affirmatives in front of me; on the contrary, however, I think the 1AR should be much more offensive in most k aff debates that I judge.

Just for reference, I have defended both plans and planless affs throughout my career and love a good clash debate. I am absolutely willing to vote on framework against planless affs, and won’t hack one way or another.

Phil & Tricks - This is where i have spent the least amount of time thinking about in debate. I require a high level of warrant explanation for arguments like this because I think most tricks don't actually have warrants. Presumption and permissibility negates unless told otherwise. Tricks need to still be extended correctly with a claim warrant and impact; if there was not a sufficient level of explanation of the argument in the 1NC/AC and it was pointed out, then that would likely be sufficient to answer most tricks. I'm also likely to be extremely persuaded by any criticisms of trick debates or just some dump about why I reject them, which would likely be sufficient for me in most instances.

Note: I think it is almost impossible to win skep in front of me. I won't hack, but the 1AR uttering the words "pascals wager" and "morally repugnant" will always be wildly persuasive to me, and I don't think there is a skep debater that will be able to explain to me why it is not unethical.

None of this is to scare you away from reading your tricky 1NC; what the debate is about is always up to the debaters, but you should just be aware that I have a higher threshold for these types of strategies execution-wise than other judges might.

If you still have any questions, please email me or ask me before the round!

PF - All that is above applies here. I have no experience with 'progressive' PF. I am very familiar with kritikal arguments and theory arguments, and I am not opposed to these arguments existing in PF in principle. However, my expectations for a competently run kritik or theory argument are not different, and I will evaluate these arguments to the same standard as I would any other argument. I'm not well versed in any PF jargon or techne. I am also not convinced that PF can facilitate a quality K debate given just the structural time constraints unless teams are willing to completely forgo cards and have actually done the reading. Feel free to prove me wrong, but keep that in mind.

Updated January 2024

About me:

I am currently the speech and debate coach at Theodore Roosevelt HS.

I debated policy and LD for four years at Winston Churchill HS and qualified to the TOC senior year.

I have been judging debate (mostly policy and LD) for over 5 years.

My email is benwolf8@gmail.com if you have any questions before or after rounds.

TL;DR version:

I have no preference to any sort of specific types of arguments. Sure, some debates I may find more interesting than others, but honestly the most interesting rounds to judge are ones where teams are good at what they do and they strategically execute a well planned strategy. I think link and perm analysis is good, affs should probably be topical/in the direction of the topic but I'm less convinced of the need for instrumental defense of the USFG. Everything below is insight into how I view/adjudicate debates, its questionably useful but will probably result in higher speaks.

Public Forum: Be polite and courteous during cross fire. Make sure to utilize your evidence and warrant arguments. I am open to whatever arguments you would like to make (obviously avoid racist, sexist, etc. arguments). I am open to all styles and speeds of delivery, but if your opponent is not speed reading, it would help your speaker points if you can avoid speed reading too. Everything else is more relevant to policy and LD debate, but you may find it useful for PF too.

Evidence Standards:

Share your evidence before you deliver the speech. If you ask to see multiple cards from your opponent after they have given their speech, I will start running your prep time.

Speech Drop is great, please use it. https://speechdrop.net/

You should always follow the NSDA evidence rules: https://www.speechanddebate.org/wp-content/uploads/Debate-Evidence-Guide.pdf

You should do your best to be honest with your evidence and not misconstrue evidence to say something that it clearly does not say.

Theory interpretations and violations, plan texts, and alternative advocacy statements should all be included in the speech document.

If you are reading a card and need to cut it short, you should clearly state that you are cutting the card and put a mark on your document so that you can easily find where you stopped reading that card. If you are skipping cards in the speech document, make sure to mention that and/or sign post where you are going. This should avoid the need to send a marked copy of your document after your speech if you do these things, unless you read cards that were not included in your original speech document.

Prep Time Standards:

Prep time begins after the preceding speech/cross-examination ends.

If you have not transferred your speech document to your opponent, then you are still taking prep time. Prep time ends when the flash drive leaves your computer. Prep time ends when the document is uploaded onto speech drop. Prep time ends when the email has been sent. Once the team taking prep time says they are done with prep, then both teams need to stop typing, writing, talking, etc. The speech document should then be automatically delivered to the opponents and judge as fast as technologically possible.

Speaker points: average = 27.5, I generally adjust relative to the pool when considering how I rank speakers.

-Things that will earn you speaker points: politeness, being organized, confidence, well-placed humor, well executed strategies/arguments, efficiency.

-Things that will lose you speaker points: arrogance, rudeness, humor at the expense of your opponent, stealing prep, pointless cross examination, running things you don’t understand, mumbling insults about myself or other judges who saw the round differently from you.

-Truth v Tech: I more frequently decide close debates based on questions of truth/solid evidence rather than purely technical skills. Super tech-y teams probably should be paying attention to overviews/nebulous arguments when debating teams who like to use a big overview to answer lots of arguments. I still vote on technical concessions/drops but am lenient to 2AR/2NR extrapolation of an argument made elsewhere on the flow answering a 'drop'. This also bleeds into policy v policy debates, I am much more willing to vote on probability/link analysis than magnitude/timeframe; taking claims of "policy discussions good" seriously also means we need to give probability of impacts/solvency more weight.

-Evidence v Spin: Ultimately good evidence trumps good spin. I will accept a debater’s spin until it is contested by the opposing team. I will read evidence if said evidence is contested and/or if compared/contrasted to the oppositions evidence. I will first read it through the lens of the debater’s spin but if it is apparent that the evidence has been mis-characterized spin becomes largely irrelevant. This can be easily rectified by combining good evidence with good spin. I often find this to be the case with politics, internal link, and affirmative permutation evidence for kritiks, pointing this out gets you speaks. That being said, there is always a point in which reading more evidence should take a backseat to detailed analysis, I do not need to listen to you read 10 cards about political capital being low.

-Speed vs Clarity: If I have never judged you or it is an early morning/late evening round you should probably start slower and speed up through the speech so I can get used to you speaking. When in doubt err on the side of clarity over speed. If you think things like theory or topicality will be options in the final rebuttals give me pen time so I am able to flow more than just the 'taglines' of your theory blocks.

-Permutation/Link Analysis: this is an increasingly important issue that I am noticing with kritik debates. I find that permutations that lack any discussion of what the world of the permutation would mean to be incredibly unpersuasive and you will have trouble winning a permutation unless the negative just concedes the perm. This does not mean that the 2AC needs an detailed permutation analysis but you should be able to explain your permutations if asked to in cross-x and there definitely should be analysis for whatever permutations make their way into the 1AR. Reading a slew of permutations with no explanation throughout the debate leaves the door wide open for the negative to justify strategic cross applications and the grouping of permutations since said grouping will still probably contain more analysis than the 1AR/2AR. That being said, well explained/specific permutations will earn you speaker points and often times the ballot. In the same way it benefits affirmatives to obtain alt/CP texts, it would behoove the negative to ask for permutation texts to prevent affirmatives shifting what the permutation means later in the debate.

The same goes for link/link-turn analysis I expect debaters to be able to explain the arguments that they are making beyond the taglines in their blocks. This ultimately means that on questions of permutations/links the team who is better explaining the warrants behind their argument will usually get more leeway than teams who spew multiple arguments but do not explain them.

Argument-by-argument breakdown:

Topicality/Theory: I tend to lean towards a competing interpretations framework for evaluating T, this does not mean I won't vote on reasonability but I DO think you need to have an interpretation of what is 'reasonable' otherwise it just becomes another competing interp debate. Aff teams should try and have some offense on the T flow, but I don't mean you should go for RVIs. I generally believe that affirmatives should try and be about the topic, this also applies to K affs, I think some of the best education in debate comes from learning to apply your favorite literature to the topic. This also means that I generally think that T is more strategic than FW when debating K affs. I've learned that I have a relatively high threshold for theory and that only goes up with "cheapshot" theory violations, especially in LD. Winning theory debates in front of me means picking a few solid arguments in the last rebuttal and doing some comparative analysis with the other teams arguments; a super tech-y condo 2AR where you go for 15 arguments is going to be a harder sell for me. Other default settings include: Topicality before theory, T before Aff impacts, T is probably not genocidal. These can be changed by a team making arguments, but in an effort for transparency, this is where my predispositions sit.

Kritiks: I have no problems with K's. I've read a decent amount of critical literature, there is also LOTS that I haven't read, it would be wise to not make assumptions and take the time to explain your argument; in general you should always err towards better explanation in front of me. I do not enjoy having to sift through unexplained cards after K v K rounds to find out where the actual tension is (you should be doing this work), as such I am more comfortable with not caring that I may not have understood whatever argument you were trying to go for, that lack of understanding is 9/10 times the debater's fault. Feel free to ask before the round how much I know about whatever author you may be reading, I'm generally pretty honest. I generally think that critical debates are more effective when I feel like things are explained clearly and in an academic way, blippy extensions or lack of warrants/explanation often results in me voting affirmative on permutations, framing, etc.


CP: I have no problems with counterplans, run whatever you want. I think that most counterplans are legitimate however I am pre-dispositioned to think that CP's like steal the funding, delay, and other sketchy counterplans are more suspect to theory debates. I have no preference on the textual/functional competition debate. On CP theory make sure to give me some pen time. If you are reading a multi-plank counterplan you need to either slow down or spend time in the block explaining exactly what the cp does.

DA: I dont have much to say here, disads are fine just give me a clear story on what's going on.

Performance/Other: I'm fine with these debates, I think my best advice is probably for those trying to answer these strats since those reading them already generally know whats up. I am very persuaded by two things 1) affs need to be intersectional with the topic (if we're talking about China your aff better be related to the conversation). 2) affirmatives need to be an affirmation of something, "affirming the negation of the resolution" is not what I mean by that either. These are not hard and fast rules but if you meet both of these things I will be less persuaded by framework/T arguments, if you do not meet these suggestions I will be much more persuaded by framework and topicality arguments. If you make a bunch of case arguments based on misreadings of their authors/theories I'm generally not super persuaded by those arguments.

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Public Forum: Be polite and courteous during cross fire. Make sure to utilize your evidence and author qualifications. I am open to whatever arguments you would like to make (obviously avoid racist, sexist, etc. arguments). I am open to all styles and speeds of delivery, but if your opponent is not speed reading, it would help your speaker points if you can avoid speed reading too. Everything else above is more relevant to policy and LD debate, but you may find it useful for PF too.

email chain? : chiwon.yi0113@gmail.com

3 years of debate at Junction City HS, KS (2015-2018)

-(2x state competitor)

(Best school speaker)

4 years of performance at Junction City HS, KS (pfd, ld, extemp, impromp, duo, hi, di, prose, and poetry) (2014-2018)

-(2x national performer) (HI and DI)

1 year of college debate at UT San Antonio.

Grad student at Boston University

I came to be educated. Educate me. I have no problem with voting for K, CP, DA, or Theory. Also, lay out the format. If you miss anything related to that argument, I will be inclined to drop it in my flow.

I also do not offend easily so conduct your rounds with confidence. Confidence is key.

I think speaker points for me is based on who, literally, was the best speaker.

*Round Notes (Aff/Neg)*

1. Theoretically speaking, the Aff can automatically lose the round if they fail to prove why they are topical within the resolution. FYI. HOWEVER, I can also very much not care if the AFF plan is not topical if the Neg does not call out the AFF on it. Not my job to call out the topicality of the plan.

2. Please signpost. It makes it so much easier to understand and flow the argument across the entire space. Also roadmap before you start would be great.

3. Answer ALL Links. Respond to all of them. If they do not link to your plan, please say so.

4. When presenting AFF/NEG impact, be sure to provide an impact calculus at the end of presenting that advantage or disadvantage: (Magnitude, Timeframe, and Impact). This is essential for me. If you fail to either A) provide one, or B) fail to outweigh the other team's impact by either disproving, proving why yours is the "better" impact, you will very likely lose the round.

5. At the end of the 2NR and 2AR, I expect the major voting issues to be summarized. Tell me why I should vote for the issues you presented. I you present DA and CP as the major voting issues, tell me why. If you present Advantage and Solvency as your major voting issue, tell me why. I can be very flexible with this. Voting issue is whatever you think I should vote for.

6. Preference to truth over tech. Not a significant voting issue unless everything is well-contested.

7 I love K’s. I understand them. Run them.

8. FYI, you should not be really taking prep time in CX when you are on the negative block.