About me: I did policy for four years at Guymon High School, won state my senior year, and was on the podium every other year. I'm currently debating for UCO. I did a lot of K's in high school, anthro was my main strat, so Im comfortable with all kinds of weird arguments. I will probably vote you down on death good.

I'd like to be included in the email chain: kennalynngarcia@gmail.com. If you have more questions after the round or want a more in depth RFD feel free to email me there too.

TLDR; tech>truth, the more specific the better, weigh your arguments.

T: T isn't a huge voter for me unless the aff is wayyy out of the topic area and it gets pointed out. Make sure to weigh topicality if you want me to consider it.

DA: Disads are fun! I prefer specific links because they make for a better debate but if you have a generic one and do a good job at explaining how the aff links I'll go for it. Internal links are very important to me so extend that storyline throughout the round!

CP: I really enjoy counterplans I think they're underrated. Specific cps add a lot of clash to the debate so the more specific the better. Make sure you have a net benefit(s) if you want me to vote for the cp, I have to know why it's better than the aff to vote for it.

K: Ks are my favorite so ngl I will probably give you better speaks for a well done k. Im most familiar with anthro, set col/imperialism, biopower, and cap. I did a lot of nuclearism senior year too. So I will be okay with whatever you run, the weirder the better imo. BUT FRAME THE KRITIK!! I can't stress this enough. I <3 k affs too as long as they're topical, still needs framing

Case: Woo! under appreciated and underutilized

Extra stuff

Im okay with speed, just signpost and slow down for tags/analysis. If I say clear twice Im not flowing anymore

No racism, sexism, homophobia etc etc that ruins the activity for everyone and will ruin any chance you have at winning

Be respectful in round and speaks won't be an issue:)

Keep track of your own prep. I don't count flash or emailing as prep unless it's weirdly long

And of course have fun! That's what the activity is for after all

*Updated for 2024*
Bryan Gaston
Director of Debate
Heritage Hall School
1800 Northwest 122nd St.
Oklahoma City, OK 73120-9598
bgaston@heritagehall.com

I view judging as a responsibility and one I take very seriously. I have decided to try and give you as much information about my tendencies to assist with MPJ and adaptation.

**NEW NOTE, I may be old but I'm 100% right on this trend: Under-highlighting of evidence has gotten OUT OF CONTROL, some teams are reading cards with such few things highlighted it is amazing they actually got away with claiming the evidence as tagged. When I evaluate evidence, I will ONLY EVALUATE the words in that evidence that were read in the round. If you didn't read it in a speech I will not read the unhighlighted sections and give you the full weight of the evidence--you get credit for what you actually say in the speech, and what you actually read in the round. Debaters, highlight better. When you see garbage highlighting point it out, and make an argument about it---if the highlighting is really bad I will likely agree and won't give the card much credit. This does not mean you can't have good, efficient highlighting, but you must have a claim, data, and warrant(s) on each card.**

Quick Version:

1. Debate is a competitive game.

2. I will vote on framework and topicality-Affs should be topical. But, you can still beat framework with good offense or a crafty counter-interpretation.

3. DA's and Aff advantages can have zero risk.

4. Neg conditionality is mostly good.

5. Counterplans and PICs --good (better to have a solvency advocate than not), process CPs a bit different. It is a very debatable thing for me but topic-specific justifications go a long way with me.

6. K's that link to the Aff plan/advocacy/advantages/reps are good.

7. I will not decide the round over something X team did in another round, at another tournament, or a team's judge prefs.

8. Email Chain access please: bgaston@heritagehall.com

9. The debate should be a fun and competitive activity, be kind to each other and try your best.

My Golden Rule: When you have the option to choose a more specific strategy vs a more generic strategy, always choose the more specific strategy if you are equally capable of executing both strategies. But I get it, sometimes you have to run a process CP or a more generic K.

Things not to do: Don't run T is an RVI, don't hide evidence from the other team to sabotage their prep, don't lie about your source qualifications, don't text or talk to coaches to get "in round coaching" after the round has started, please stay and listen to RFD's I am typically brief, and don't deliberately spy on the other teams pre-round coaching. I am a high school teacher and coach, who is responsible for high school-age students. Please, don't read things overtly sexual if you have a performance aff--since there are minors in the room I think that is inappropriate.

Pro-tip: FLOW---don't stop flowing just because you have a speech doc.

"Clipping" in debate: Clipping in the debate is a serious issue and one of the things I will be doing to deter clipping in my rounds is requesting a copy of all speech docs before the debaters start speaking and while flowing I read along to check from time to time.

CX: This is the only time you have “face time” with the judge. Please look at the judge not at each other. Your speaker points will be rewarded for a great CX and lowered for a bad one. Be smart in CX, assertive, but not rude.

Speaker Point Scale updated: Speed is fine, and clarity is important. If you are not clear I will yell out “Clear.” The average national circuit debate starts at 28.4, Good is 28.5-28.9 (many national circuit rounds end up in this range), and Excellent 29-29.9. Can I get a perfect 30? I have given 3 in 20 years if HS judging they all went on to win the NDT in college. I will punish your points if you are excessively rude to opponents or your partner during a round.

Long Version...

Affirmatives: I still at my heart of hearts prefer and Aff with a plan that's justifiably topical. But, I think it's not very hard for teams to win that if the Aff is germane to the topic that's good enough. I'm pretty sympathetic to the Neg if the Aff has very little to or nothing to do with the topic. If there is a topical version of the Aff I tend to think that takes away most of the Aff's offense in many of these T/FW debates vs no plan Affs--unless the Aff can explain why there is no topical version and they still need to speak about "X" on the Aff or why their offense on T still applies.

Disadvantages: I like them. I prefer specific link stories (or case-specific DA’s) to generic links, as I believe all judges do. But, if all you have is generic links go ahead and run them, I will evaluate them. The burden is on the Aff team to point out those weak link stories. I think Aff’s should have offense against DA’s it's just a smarter 2AC strategy, but if a DA clearly has zero link or zero chance of uniqueness you can win zero risk. I tend to think politics DA's are core negative ground--so it is hard for me to be convinced I should reject the politics DA because debating about it is bad for debate. My take: I often think the internal link chains of DA's are not challenged enough by the Aff, many Aff teams just spot the Neg the internal links---It's one of the worst effects of the prevalence of offense/defense paradigm judging over the past years...and it's normally one of the weaker parts of the DA.

Counterplans: I like them. I generally think most types of counterplans are legitimate as long as the Neg wins that they are competitive. I am also fine with multiple counterplans. On counterplan theory, I lean pretty hard that conditionality and PICs are ok. You can win theory debates over the issue of how far negatives can take conditionality (battle over the interps is key). Counterplans that are functionally and textually competitive are always your safest bet but, I am frequently persuaded that counterplans which are functionally competitive or textually competitive are legitimate. My Take: I do however think that the negative should have a solvency advocate or some basis in the literature for the counterplan. If you want to run a CP to solve terrorism you need at least some evidence supporting your mechanism. My default is that I reject the CP, not the team on Aff CP theory wins.

Case debates: I like it. Negative teams typically underutilize this. I believe well planned impacted case debate is essential to a great negative strategy. Takeouts and turns can go a long way in a round.

Critiques: I like them. In the past, I have voted for various types of critiques. I think they should have an alternative or they are just non-unique impacts. I think there should be a discussion of how the alternative interacts with the Aff advantages and solvency. Impact framing is important in these debates. The links to the Aff are very important---the more specific the better.

Big impact turn debates: I like them. Want to throw down in a big Hegemony Good/Bad debate, Dedev vs Growth Good, method vs method, it's all good.

Topicality/FW: I tend to think competing interpretations are good unless told otherwise...see the Aff section above for more related to T.

Theory: Theory sets up the rules for the debate game. I tend to evaluate theory debates in an offensive/defense paradigm, paying particular attention to each teams theory impacts and impact defense. The interpretation debate is very important to evaluating theory for me. For a team to drop the round on theory you must impact this debate well and have clear answers to the other side's defense.

Impact framing-- it's pretty important, especially in a round where you have a soft-left Aff with a big framing page vs a typical neg util based framing strat.

Have fun debating!

I am the head debate coach at Crossings Christian Schools. I graduated the University of North Texas. I debated for four years at Edmond North High School. I have debated and judged both traditional policy and critique debate. I have also judged LD debate.

Debate what you are good at. I am comfortable judging any argument as long as it is clearly explained. However, I am more of a traditional policy debater.

Email: alexaglendinning@gmail.com This is if you have any questions about my decision, debate in general, or for email chains.

Some argument specifics:

Topicality/FW: I love a good T or FW debate. I think that these arguments are critical because it determines the rules for the debate round. With this said, I do NOT like RVI's and I probably won't vote on those. With T, I need a clear interpretation of what is fair and why the other team violates that.

Theory: I love Theory debates. It sets up the rules for the debate round. I think theory could either favor the neg or be a complete wash in debate rounds depending on how it is debated. With theory debates, I need a clear interpretation of what is fair and why the other team violates that.

Disadvantages: I like them. The more specific your link story, the better. However, if you only have generic links, I will still evaluate them.

Counterplans: I like them. I believe that all counterplans are legitimate unless debated otherwise by the affirmative i.e. CP Theory. You have to win that they are competitive in order for me to vote on them.

Ks: They're fine.

Case debate: I love a good case debate. I think that this has gone out of style in current policy debate. I really want to see this come back.

Other Notes:

Use CX wisely. CX is a great tool that teams under-utilize. It is an important part of the debate round. It is in your best interest.

FLOW!!! Flowing is one of the most important things in a debate round. This is your map for where the debate has been and where the debate is going to go.

Speed is fine, but clarity is more important. If you aren't being clear, then I will not be able to understand or evaluate the arguments that you are making. I would rather you be clear than fast.

What not to do:

Do Not steal prep. Use it wisely. If you use it wisely then you wouldn't have to try and steal it. DON'T STEAL PREP.

Do Not Run T as an RVI. See the T section of my paradigm.

Do Not text with anyone during a debate round. Just Do Not use your phone at all during a debate round. The only exception is if you are using your phone as a timer. You should be focused on debating. Put your phone in airplane mode. This allows for less temptation.

Have Fun Debating!

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EMAIL FOR SPEECH DOCS: leigha.debate@gmail.com

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Policy Debater at Moore High School, Moore, OK: 2008-2011

Policy Debater at the University of Oklahoma: 2011-2015

Assistant Policy Debate Coach at Moore High School, Moore, OK: 2012 - 2015; 2018 - 2020

Assistant Coach at University of Central Oklahoma: Dec. 2019 - May 2021

Assistant Coach at Heritage Hall High School, Oklahoma City, OK: Current

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Stylistic:

For virtual debates:

Give me pen-time between arguments - and a second to move from one flow to the next. As one of the last practitioners of paper-debate and as judge who flows on paper, the cleaner and more organized the debate can be on my end, the more satisfying a decision I can give both teams.

I'm okay with observers in debates I judge, if you have affirmative consent from the teams debating. If you observe while recording, I also need to affirmatively consent to you doing so. Just ask me in the chat, that works.

I'll try to record prep time in the chat, if you end up losing your time.

- When the flash drive exits the computer, prep time is over. If using an email chain, verbally announce when you're sending the speech document out, and prep stops.

- I am fine with spreading, but I do want to hear a tag, citation, and the internals of the card. I will yell "clear" if I need.

- Let me know if you're going to have a long overview and I'll flow it on another sheet. My threshold for what I consider a "long" overview is very low, so keep that in mind. Play it safe and tell me to get another sheet, if you're on the fence about if this applies to you.

Argument Execution:

- Analysis needs a claim, a warrant, and an impact. "Extend our argument" is not an extension to me.

- Extending a piece of evidence by name and giving shallow analysis - ie: "Ext. our [blank] card here - means we turn the aff," and moving on. Without some explanation of the how and why that's true within the context of the evidence and the argument it's answering, I'm more reluctant to put in that work for you.

- I value debates where arguments are made with descriptive consistency in warrant extensions and analysis. Being able to trace the development of an argument from its introduction in evidence to the 2NR or 2AR is important to me - keep the key thesis of your argument alive in the debate. The same applies to application of warrants from a piece of evidence.

- It's awesome to see arguments that challenge the aff on a substantive level using nuanced arguments. Specific links are great and encouraged. But, I also reward specific application and contextualization to the aff when using a more generic piece of evidence. Especially in critical debates.

- In rebuttals, especially in the 1AR and 2NR, cleaning up the debate and making larger explanations of strategic, technical decisions or concessions on the flow framing-level is rewarded by me. Consider this me asking you to "write my ballot for me" in the last stages of the debate. I value analysis that not only explains to me the thesis of your advantages, disad, counterplan, or kritik in terms of substance, but also what arguments you are winning and key questions on individual flows you're going for.

Specific Arguments:

I was a critical debater for most of my career but will vote on framework and policy arguments - do what makes you feel comfortable and I will do my best to evaluate the round. I'm just probably not hyper-knowledgable on the truth-claims of the literature for your hot, new Yuan devaluation scenario, so I'll read evidence for my own personal understanding of the debate when needed for a decision. A lot of my experience in debating and coaching critical arguments are in the literature areas of settler colonialism, critical race arguments, queer theory, IR Ks, and other method debates.

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- For those of you in a debate running a critical argument in front of me, this means I have a higher threshold for clarity in explanation and smart, explicit application to either affirmative or negative responses to your argument. A lot of the creativity in critical debate comes from application of specific warrants from your authors to the other team's argument - this is especially true in debates where you may not have a super-specific link argument in the 1NC and in high-theory debates that can devolve into word-salad. This is a basic requirement in you doing work for me in explaining the interaction between your argument and the other team's argument. Speeches that attempt to ground your theory with more concrete examples are good.

Being intentionally opaque about your position in cross-examination makes me roll my eyes a little bit (unless it's fundamental to the theory of your argument, as in some opacity-style method debates). I certainly become a little more sympathetic to the other team's frustrations when there's a sense you might be evasive during the explanation of your argument

- Theory debates are not my favorite, as I feel a lot of debaters can be unclear in their explanation of and the developing a theory argument enough for me to give it much weight inside of the round. I prefer if you give me a heads up during your roadmap to grab an additional sheet for flowing, and give the order with the new sheet with whatever argument the theory concerns. (IE: "The order is T, the dis-ad, and the counterplan with a new sheet of paper.")

Theory shells are easy to bury in a flow by couching it among other arguments and spreading right through - which is a strategy! But, in my style of evaluation and for clarity's sake, I recommend clearly signposting when you're moving onto the theory argument, taking a breath so I can quickly get my clean flow, and then begin the argument. A cleaner flow for me gives you a better chance of winning your argument.

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CX:

I am fine with open CX, to a certain degree. Being rude, mean, and continually speaking over your opponents can lose you speaker points.

Along the same line, speaking for your partner during most of their cross-examination time (whether asking or answering) reflects negatively for speaker points. I understand there is the desire to make sure that your argument is being explained correctly, but it is more persuasive to me if a team is able to have a consistent explanation of their argument between partners.

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If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to ask me before the round.

About Myself:
I debated for four years at Guymon High School and have been judging since 2018 and I am currently attending the University of Oklahoma. I am a Political Science major with a minor in Psychology looking to attend law school in 2025. My crowning achievements in debate are going undefeated at a tournament while dressed as a clown and placing at the state tournament without being enrolled in debate or speech class (feel free to ask about the context of either story). You can call me Andy or Judge.

I'd like to be included with all email chaining and the flashing over of evidence. You can use this email:

andy.ramirez2002@gmail.com

If you have any questions about strategy or want a more detailed RFD don't hesitate to ask me on this email (You can use the other email for this but I am far more responsive on this email):

andy.ramirez2002@ou.edu

Overview:
I like to think I’m a very laid-back judge. I think debate should be a place for innovation and self-expression so there are very few arguments that I won’t vote for, so feel free to try and experiment with new and creative arguments!

Topicality:
I think topicality debates are really great to watch. I will vote on topicality if the affirmative does seem too far out of the topic and that makes it difficult for the negative to debate. However, it is the negative’s responsibility to explain and show why an aff is untopical. Additionally, they must show why being untopical is unfair for the negative and why I should vote on it.

Disadvantages:
I like disadvantages since they generally have great versatility in rounds, and they also can be incredibly valuable to a team. They may seem like a vanilla argument, but vanilla is a classic for a reason. A good disadvantage should have a coherent impact story somewhat similar to an advantage in an affirmative case. This means that specific links are best but generic links will also work. A good internal link story will work wonders I promise.

Counterplans:
I think counterplans can be some of the most underutilized arguments in a round. There is really great potential for counterplans when they are paired with net benefits. I really like specific counterplans, but generic counterplans are fine. Just a tip, make sure that your counterplan really can't exist in a world with the aff (mutually exclusive). Naturally, feel free to disregard this if you are running a PIC.

Kritiks:
I really like kritiks and have been running them ever since I got into debate. I’m most well versed when it comes to capitalism, anthropocentrism, settler colonialism, and biopower kritiks. However, my favorite kritik has to be Imperialism, and often ran it in high school. Kritiks work best when they are paired with framework. This doesn’t mean you have to accommodate to what I just know best, however. Run any kritik you want to run! I just ask that you be prepared to explain the kritik if it could be considered more obscure (looking at the Time Cube K). Also, for my sake and yours please don't run kritiks if you don't understand it. Read through your evidence and know the arguments you are making.

Kritikal Affirmatives:
I am completely cool with kritikal affirmatives. I even ran a Kritikal Affirmative for half of my debate career. The only thing about kritikal affirmatives that I specifically like to see is, if you are running it untopically or planless, that you can argue why topicality is bad for debate or why the negative can still reasonably debate your team. If you are running it with a plan, then you don’t need to worry about that as much.

Framing and Framework:
Tech vs Truth:
I am very much a Tech over Truth Judge.
My reasons:
I don’t believe that my personal biases and views should interfere with an argument a debater makes.
If a claim is made that has no “truth” to it then it should be easy for the opposing team to call it out and answer it.

Impact framing:

Impact framing is one of my favorite things about debate since there is so much room to be creative and really show how voting for you is better than the other team. If there isn't any impact framing in a round then I usually just resort to biggest impact or utilitarianism. Impact framing is a place where you can experiment with a variety of ways to prove your impact is more pressing such as timeframe, magnitude, probability, and maybe a few more that I am forgetting as I write this.

Minor notes:
I am totally fine with speed but make sure that you are enunciating well.

When transferring files a flash drive or email chain is perfectly fine. If possible, I would like to be included in the file transfer.

Personal Preferences:
These are a few things that probably won’t get you the win, but I do like to see in a round. You can think of these items as ways to get bonus points. They are listed with the most important thing at the bottom and the least important at the top.

Cross Examination stare: I don’t know where or when this started but I just personally find it weird that during cross examination sometimes the debater being asked questions will constantly stare at me while their back is turned to the other team. It looks almost dismissive of the other team and just looks silly so if you do this you may see me laugh. Look at the other team while you are in cross examination and if you just give me the occasional glance then I'm perfectly happy.

Road Maps: Just a quick little rundown before the speech that details which arguments you will be covering so everyone can prepare their flow.

Equal Cross Examination: I am totally cool with open cross examination, but I do like to see both debaters asking and answering questions. This is a team activity so it's nice to see team chemistry at work.

Signposting: I love debate but one frustration that I have seen among debaters is that sometimes flows get unorganized. So just signposting when you are going onto a new argument can really help stop a flow from getting messy.

Effort: This is an activity you should want to be in and if you want to be in something you should put effort into it. I don't think debate needs to be totally serious all the time but there are some moments and some topics that should be fairly serious. Be sure to give them the effort and consideration they deserve.

Sportsmanship: I totally understand that debate can get really intense and heated but that shouldn’t mean the round should turn into an unconstructive shouting match. Everyone in the round is a person just like you so it's important to be mindful of other people and respectful.

Finally, have fun y’all!

Experience

Currently the Director of Debate at Casady School.

Competed at the University of Oklahoma and Owasso High School.

Put me on the e-mail chain: snidert [at] casady [dot] org

On Evidence

Evidence quality and consistency is very important to me. I can easily be convinced to disregard a piece of evidence because it lacks quality, is insufficiently highlighted, or is not qualified.

Author qualifications are under debated and if a piece of evidence lacks a qualification then that should definitely be used in debate.

K Things General

One line should dictate how you approach reading the K in front of me:

“You are a debater, not a philosopher.”

This should be your guiding principle when reading and answering a kritik in front of me. Debaters seem to rely more on jargon than actually doing the work of explaining and applying their argument. Unnecessarily complex kritiks won't get good speaker points (90% of the time you could have just read the cap k).

I will not flow overviews on a separate sheet of paper.

If you plan on reading the K

I've got good news and bad news. I'll start with the bad news: You are very unlikely to convince me not the weigh/evaluate the aff. I'm not persuaded much by self-serving counter interpretations on framework.

That said, the good news is that I think people give the aff too much credit and most of the reasons why I shouldn't evaluate the plan are typically offense against it. For example while I don't find the FW interpretation "Debate should be about epistemological assumptions" very convincing, I will definitely vote on "the affirmative's plan relies on a flawed epistemology that ensures serial policy failure, which turns case."

If you're answering the K

While the above may seem like good news for the aff answering the K, I tend to hold the aff to a higher threshold than most in K debates. I don't think "you need a specific link to the plan" is responsive to a K of the aff's epistemology. Likewise, aff framework interps that exclude Ks entirely are pretty much a non-starter.

Theory Issues

Condo seems to be getting a bit excessive, but no one goes for condo anymore so I'm sort of stuck with it.

Tech vs Truth

I think of this as more of a continuum as opposed to a binary. I lean more towards tech than truth, but I'm not going to pretend that I evaluate all arguments with equal legitimacy. For example, I have a higher threshold for arguments like “climate change not real” than “plan doesn’t solve climate change.” I traditionally evaluate the debate in offense/defense paradigm, but there is a such thing as a 0% risk.

K affs/T-FW

I enter every debate with the assumption that the resolution is going to play a role in the round. What role it plays, however, is up for debate. I don’t have a preference between skills or fairness standards.

Common reasons I vote aff on FW:

The neg goes for too many “standards”/"DAs"/whatever-youre-calling-them in the 2NR.

The neg doesn’t even try to engage the aff’s 2AC to FW.

Common reasons I vote neg on FW:

The aff doesn’t have an offensive reasons why the TVA is bad.

The aff doesn’t even try to engage the neg’s standards on FW.

Misc

I only flow what I hear, I won't use the doc to correct my flow. If I don't catch an argument/tag because you're too unclear then *insert shrug emoji*. That said, with online debate I will flow what I hear and use the doc to correct my flow after the speech. Including your analytics in the speech document will make correcting my flows much easier.

Guaranteed 30 if you’re paper debate team #PaperDebate

My facial reactions will probably tell you how I feel about your arg.

I did LD for 3 years at Bishop McGuinness and now I do policy at OU.

Include me on the chain:

blaine3252001@gmail.com

Put me on the email chain: kadewilliams27@gmail.com

Please call me Kade not just judge.

History:

3 years at Moore highschool, double state finalist
1 year at UCO, quall to NDT and 33rd at CEDA
Current SNU

Policy:

I've done just about anything you could think of in policy debate and I'll be good for most things you say. In recent years I've ran almost exclusively settler colonialism, and I tend to be a K focus judge. I don't hold many strong opinions about things in debate, but I've been a 2n/1a for most of my time in debate and most of my 2nrs are the K.

Specific thoughts:

Policy v K debates: This is the type of debate I find that most teams kinda just read their blocks and not interact with the flow, please don't do this with me in the back. I lean a bit neg on the fw question on these debates I guess if I had to have a preference.

K v K debates: no specific comment - I greatly enjoy teams that do a lot of comparative works on their theories and I think that a lot of explanation on why your theory is correct goes a long way with me.

Framework: If the counter interp resolves a large chunk of limits I lean towards the aff. However, I think that if the counter interp doesn't I find it to be a bit hard for the affirmative to impact turn a lot of the neg offense.