UPDATE: FEBRUARY 2024

Include me on the email chain: Irvinalvarado@outlook.com

It’s been over a decade since I was last active in this activity. To put this into context it means that if you’re currently a high school senior, the last time I judged a debate round you were in second grade (and you weren’t even old enough to enroll in school if you are a freshmen). This has certain implications for you:

First, I am verbally/vocally out of practice – this means i may have trouble with understanding spreading and/or remembering the meaning of certain debatery jargon right off the top of my head,

And Second, technically/tactically—I have not flowed any debates in a very long time and I am old. This means I might not write as fast as you might be able to speak. NOTE: this does *not* mean you need to go slow In front of me or that you can’t spread at all – you can –what it *does* mean is that if you notice my hands are starting to cramp while I am trying to flow your speech, maybe slow it down just a little.

*Background*

I debated for two years in high school and three in college and coached/judged high school (as well as a few rounds of college) debate on and off for three years. I started debating in high school for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Debate League where I learned how to debate and argue “traditionally” or “straight up”. I finished my high school debate career in the Octas of the NAUDL Championship Tournament. Once graduating high school, I began my college debate career debating for CSU, Fullerton where I transitioned into more “critical” modes of debate, mainly focusing on criticisms based on sex/gender, race, as well as performance based arguments. I also debated for Weber State University in Ogden, UT where my research and argumentation interests gravitated towards both high theory post-modern critical analysis as well as stand-point location race and whiteness arguments. I ended my career at Fresno State University where I focused largely on critique largely based on radical queer theory (particularly queer negativity – odds are you’ve probably heard about me if you’ve heard about that one college debater reading the AIDS Good AFF).

NOTE:

While it is no secret the debate community is more polarized now than it has ever been, don’t for one second let my debate careers argumentative evolution trick you into thinking that I am some critical debate hack who you can file away in your “check in” folder – doing so is a disservice to you as a debater and to me as a critic; I don’t think one style of debate is better than the other. You won’t get my ballot just because you read a K in front of me if you debate poorly. Put simply:

· If you’re a project/performance/k debater – I’m with you.

· If you’re a traditional/roleplaying/policy debater – I’m with you.

I’ll enjoy a good politix/xo debate as much as a one-off K debate any day.

What I’m trying to say is that you shouldn’t feel obligated to change or Taylor your strategy because of me. I loathe the way judges and coaches who’s days as debaters have long since been over continue to try and make the activity continue to revolve around them; debate shouldn’t be about me and what I like but about the current debaters themselves; read what you want, argue how you want – I’ll do my best to judge you to the best of my ability.

*SPECIFICS*

AFFIRMATIVES:

Traditional AFF’s: Run em. Love big economy/hege impacts. Have solid link/internal link chains and come decked out with overviews for each speech that extend/explain your case.

Critical AFF’S: Love em. One thing I will say, though, is I usually prefer a critical affirmative which has at least some relation to the resolution, meaning: if you’re going to run a critical AFF (whatever variation of), try not to just get up and read something completely random. Instead, read critical affirmatives that criticize the topic, have specific topic links, as well as solid reasons which merit justifying a critical affirmative.

FRAMEWORK:

Framework: I’m a little iffy about framework debates. On one hand, I like clash of civ showdowns, on the other, I dislike how dry and boring they can be. If you’re going to go for a framework debate, try not to rely on overused framework backfiles.

OFFCASE:

Disadvantages: Run em. Make sure you have a central overview for each speech and can keep up with the line-by-line. I have a special place in my heart for good politics debates or debates where the DA in question accompanies a good CP.

Counterplans: CP’s are pretty great. I’m down with Agent Cps, Timeframe CPs, Advantage CPs, but love a good word PIC or solvency PIC. As a competitor, I made learning how to debate PIC’s and Text/Funct comp theory a part of my overall staple as a debater.

Kritiks: Make sure you have clear links/impacts and an alt for your K. Overviews can’t hurt you, either. Something I’ve noticed about high school debaters running the K is that they often have a hard time in big k debates like cap k debates where the 2AC pummels the k flow with perms and impact turns. My advice is as follows: if they K is going to be the argument you’re going for in the 2NR (if you’re a one off K team), split the block strategically. That is, the 2N reads an overview and handles the link/impact debate while the 1NR handles the alt/perm debate. My coach always said “the 2NC is the beat down and the 1NR is the kill shot” so make it count and make sure that coming out of the block, you’re winning most of the offense on the flow. (Note: Please see Paragraph 2 of Final Thoughts for specific K information).

Theory: It breaks my heart with the first c-x of the 1N isn’t what the status of 1n off cases are. If you’re gonna debate theory, debate it well. Keep up with the line by line, impact out the theory flow. I tend to err neg on conditionality but should the neg drop theory, don’t be afraid to go all in – I’ll def sign the ballot your way.

PAPERLESS DEBATE:

I transitioned to paperless debate while debating at Fullerton after debating strictly on paper up to that point. While it was hard to transition to at first, I found that I quickly fell in love with the financial benefits and the efficiency in evidence production/sharing/transportation both at and on the way to tournaments. However, I have found that as a judge, I get extremely annoyed with bad paperless debate, and as a result I’ve established a few paperless guidelines:

If you need to flash, then you need prep: Prep time does not stop when you’re ready to start flashing evidence, it stops when the other team has the flash drive in their hands.

Don’t be a jerk, format your evidence with Verbatim: Compatibility issues are annoying for all involved. If you’re paperless, you should be using verbatim anyway.

Paperless/Paperless debates: in the event of a paperless team debating a paper team, I defer the responsibility of having a viewing computer to the paper team. If the other team carries around tubs full of tangible paper evidence for you to hold and see, the least you could do is make sure they can see the evidence you use against them.

Failure to adhere to the above paperless debate guidelines will result in the docking of your speaker points beginning from a tenth and increasing after the failure of adhering to the first warning. Nobody wants to sit and waste time they could possibly be judging an amazing and engaging debate round staring at a debater struggle to open a file you didn’t save in the correct format.

SPEAKER POINT SCALE:

I disperse speaker points based on a normative scale and try to shy away from low point wins. The most I can tell you regarding speaker points goes as follows:

Policy teams debating the line by line: The highest speaker points go to the winning team. If you are going too fast or I don’t catch an argument/don’t speak clearly, the burden is not on me to figure it out but rather for you to make sure I am following the debate. I don’t have my laptop open and am online during your speeches for a reason – take advantage of that. I refuse to do work for you. Speaker points will be dispersed anywhere between the scale of 27-28.5. On rare occasions I have been known to give a 29-29.4 but nothing higher than that. Don’t expect higher than that for me.

Critical/Pefromance teams: I’m all about the performance and the critical debate but that does not mean I will inflate your speaker points. Don’t think that just because you rapped a bit or spoke from a personal experience that you deserve the highest speaks – at best I might give you a higher ranking (see “Note” section above).

ETHICS CHALLENGES:

It seems as though ethics challenges are becoming more prevalent now both in the high school and college debate circles. I’m generally not a fan of them and have been taught to debate cheaters and beat them. However, if you feel like the team you are debating has an unfair advantage (such as in round discussions with coaches over an online medium, card clipping, etc) feel free to voice them. The round will stop and I will proceed to go to tab and proceed from whatever directions they give me from there.

Note: Be sure you are making a legitimate ethics claim, there is nothing more annoying than a debater who makes an ethics claim for something silly like “they gave us the cards in the doc out of order” – the purpose of the document is so that you can see the cards. Keeping a proper flow resolves most of the offense of that argument.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Unlike other judges, i'm comfortable with admitting my limitations and embracing my shortcoming. That being said, i should probably mention that while i don't often run into this problem, i have judged rounds where i had a very hard time flowing arguments being delivered at a very high speed. This by no means is me telling you you can't spread; instead, spread but be conscious that if you are going TOO fast, i might not catch some of what your saying (a clear sign of this is when you jump from one flow to another and it takes me a little while to finish writing the argument on the current flow before jumping onto the new flow).

Another thing i should include is that while i love the K and could probably be considered a "critical debater" based on my time at Fullerton, i'm not as well versed on all of the rez-to-rez debate philosophers (aside from Nietzsche, Foucault, Heidegger, Spanos, Said) but that doesn't mean i won't be able to judge them. If you think i'm struggling with your argument, include an overview with a clear summarization of the argument and do extra detailed link and impact work on the line by line.

All in all, Debate and debate well. Have clear and accessible overviews for your central positions. Respect your opponents and their property, make eye contact with me and not your opponents. Impact out your claims, extend your evidence properly (claim/warrant), and give me reasons why you deserve the ballot. At the end we’re all here to have fun and win, let’s make sure its enjoyable for everyone involved.

I am currently a senior at CKM Mclatchy High School, I have been in policy debate for three years and would consider myself open to a lot of different forms of debate. I have been fairly successful in high school and would consider myself experienced enough for any debate. If you have any questions my email is boettner.eric@gmail.com. I want to be on your email chain but i don't read speech docs until the end of the round so don't scramble cards or make your files cryptic to hurt the other team, because that will just make it harder for me to evaluate any contentious evidence. 
Specifics

Topicality - I actually love a well developed T debate. I don't automatically default to reasonability or competing interpretations and will evaluate the debate based on the arguments you make. That being said, if your gonna go for T you need to make it clear that their model of debate links directly to an impact. Clash, Ground and Limits ARE NOT impacts, they are internal links and you need to clearly link them to education to be able to garner any sort of a tangible impact. I will vote on any T violation, as long as the debating is their to defend it, answer a counter interoperation and do impact calculus and not internal link work. I do think you need both a Topical Version of their aff (if it relates to surveillance) and/or a really good case list in close debates between interpretations.

Framework - As someone who read a K aff the last two years i have a lot of experience in these debates. However i would say i don't have the normal "K kid" bias against framework. If you run it correctly and win the argument i will vote for you. That being said you cannot ignore a counter interpretation "Because it is stupid" or ignore their offense because "its k gibberish". If you go for T version of their off engage the thesis of their argument and attempt to explain how your interpretation can solve their impacts and their specific pieces of offense on framework, don't just yell a plan text. Framework debates should be strongly developed in the block and the 2nr should be very good on the impact level and answering potential 2ar arguments. Also please try to do a good case debate, sometimes your best offense will be generated on the case for both sides.

K Affs - You do you. I really like seeing new and weird affs and don't have any objections.

Ks - Again i don't mind what you run, just understand it well enough to contextualize links. I don't believe in "you don't get ks" framework but you obviously have to debate it. Aff teams should fight back in the link debate and have good offense on the alt to win a Perm. Neg teams should be very good on links and win the alt as well as specific offense on the Perm.

Policy - You do you as well. I can spread and flow pretty fast so if i tell you to clear, your speaking badly/need to just annunciate more not slow down. A good disad debate makes me very happy and as much as i hate bad internal link chains I'm a sucker for the politics DA or a cheeky CP.

CP
Have a net benefit. Otherwise just debate it

Theory
I really will vote for tech here. Regardless of the argument you have to do the same basic things as Topicality, no i won't vote to reject the team in most instances i.e. severance perms, but i won't evaluate arguments with dropped theory and will reject the team when the other team does good impact work on a legitimate theoretical issue (condo, cp theory, etc)

he/him/his

email: jchoe001 at gmail

Notre Dame 2012 - 2016
Northwestern 2016 - 2020

Judging/coaching for: Notre Dame, New Trier
Overall experience: ~100 varsity policy debates judged including a dozen or so elim rounds

ETHS note: ***I've judged a single tournament on the 2019-2020 topic*** so pls try to avoid acronyms and spend a bit more time than usual on t if you want me to understand your arguments (goes for both aff and neg). This also means that I will be reading more cards after the round than usual - this is only bad news for you if 1. your ev is bad, or 2. your ev says something different than what you/the tag says

The information you came here for:

More Policy than K.

Other things:

Topicality

Neg should provide a caselist and impact out their standards (ground is not an impact it's an internal link to terminal, portable impacts like research skills). Likewise, the aff should impact out their offense i.e. overlimiting and reasonability.

I like card-heavy techy T-debates.

Disads

Sure.

Politics DA's are ok. I love it when they're innovative/tricky, but not in the way that people usually define those terms. I don't really like riders, time/focus tradeoff links, and other versions that link off of fiat rather than the substance of the aff

I like reading cards - please have good ev.

Impact calc is my favorite part of disad debate so do that well and you will be rewarded

Counterplans

Anything goes if you can win that your counterplan is legitimate. With that being said, I'm a bit tougher on the neg with counterplan theory than others, so treat the theory debate like a T debate and define your standards, impact it out, explain your model of competition, etc.

I'm often persuaded by sufficiency framing but am not super persuaded by 1% risk of net benefit.

I don't default to judge-kick but I'm more than willing to hear a debate on whether that's a thing I should do.

Kritiks

K debates have been very hit-and-miss in my experience judging. The tend to be either really lackluster or really good. If Ks are your thing and has always been your thing then do your thing don't change anything for me. But also even if you're just experimenting with Ks you can still read it in front of me anyways and I'll make sure to give you lots of feedback. tl;dr not a "k hack"

"Non-traditional" affs

They're fine. They should probably have something to do with the topic but the meaning of that statement is up for debate. I think that k on k debates are fun and should probably include a discussion of whether aff gets perm. If you're neg, don't throw shit at the wall and see what sticks (I don't have a strict criterion for this but I'll know it when I see it).

I don't think framework is a "generic" vs. k affs. I think with the right nuances, it's probably the best substantive argument. Usually I find the impact debate very lacking from the neg, while it is way too heavily focused on by the aff. I think my judging record on framework vs. k aff is about 60/40.

Theory

As a default, I consider conditionality to be the only worthy theory argument to be a voting issue. Doesn't mean I won't vote on other theory arguments - just means that you have to explicitly impact them out more.

I also don't reward gotcha-type theory args that teams extend for 10 seconds every speech. Don't expect me to vote on them.

I don't like performative contradictions but I love perf con debates. I am making this position very explicit in my paradigm to discourage people from reading things like cap k + a politics DA with econ impact and legalism k + agent CP. But this doesn't mean I'll automatically vote aff if the neg reads performatively contradicting positions, it's actually somewhat opposite - affs have a good chance of winning on perf con in front of me but has to actually invest time developing and extending it.

General: Graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2021 with a double-major in computer science and anthropology and now work as a product manager in the tech industry.

My email is amoghden@gmail.com - please add me to the email chain and/or reach out with any questions!

Debate Background: 4 years of circuit policy debate at Milpitas High School (2013-17). 3 years of NPDA Parliamentary and NFA-LD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2018-21).

During my time in college, I coached a handful of high school policy/LD teams and worked as a lab leader (leading labs focused on K arguments) at the University of Texas National Institute of Forensics. Since I graduated and started working, I have been completely removed from debate.

GENERAL VIEWS:

DISCLAIMER: This paradigm was originally written for policy debate but is pretty consistent with how I evaluate ANY style of debate. Let's be real, every debate event seems to slowly adopts new "progressive" norms that make it closer and closer to policy anyway.

Debate is a game. It is influenced by (and often a microcosm of) the social, political, cultural, and libidinal constitution of what we might call the "real world", but is ultimately an argumentative testing ground for ideas.

The only thing I know to be "true" as a judge is that I have been tasked to listen, evaluate, and arrive at a decision based on the presentation and clash of ideas. The scope / nature / telos of those ideas, how I interpret and evaluate argumentation, and what influences my decision-making is entirely up for contestation. I can be compelled to vote for anything regardless of its simplicity, complexity, or absurdity without any preconceived biases as long as it is not racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist, etc.

My personal debate career and involvement as a coach was primarily invested into kritikal styles of advocacy, but I do not have any fixed stylistic biases. I will not have a problem understanding and evaluating traditional arguments, but this is an area of research in debate that I did not have too much personal investment in. My policy debate background means I generally won't have a problem flowing speed.

I really do NOT care about trivial debate etiquette. Dress however you want. As long as you're not compromising the safety or access of people, say whatever you want, however you want. Call people out on their BS.

WHAT I LOOK FOR IN (GOOD) DEBATES:

- Tech > truth (but I will only evaluate arguments that I understand).

- Organization, specificity, evidence comparison and argument interaction are key to amazing debates.

- Write my ballot for me - judge instruction is the mark of a well executed rebuttal speech. Frame every part of the debate: tell me how I should be viewing and evaluating arguments and why. Leaving it up to me (or your opponents) to make assumptions or connect the dots to influence my decision may not bode well for you.

- The debate is NOT determined by evidence in a vacuum; it's up to YOU to explain (or spin) warrants, regardless of how amazing (or unfortunately terrible) your cards may be.

- Cross-x is an underutilized art. Destroy your opponents with precise and impactful questions. Be one step ahead. Be witty!

SPECIFIC ARGUMENTS:

TRADITIONAL/POLICY AFFS:

I may not be intimately familiar with topic-specific political processes or terminology, so be sure to explain things and be precise. I would much rather you read one or two well-developed and strategic contentions than several mediocre ones.

I believe that the art of nuanced technical debate is dying, but I'm hoping you prove me wrong. I've noticed a troubling trend of terrible evidence, mediocre internal link explanations, and extensions without substance in the traditional rounds I've had the opportunity to judge. Put in the effort to explain and contextually apply the arguments made in your evidence. Question the merits of bad evidence. Spend the time to frame and impact out your arguments in detail.

Well developed weighing mechanism / impact framing arguments will go a long way with me. I don't presume to know what is good and what is bad - it's up to you to tell me and justify why things are important and what my ballot ought to prioritize.

Because the traditional affirmatives I judge usually end up being versus the K, here's some specific thoughts on those debates:

- Defend your affirmative. Pivoting to spike out of offense is not as strategic as you think. Avoid resorting to vague permutations and/or shifty link defense.

- Utilize and apply your affirmative. Take the time to make specific link/impact turn arguments.

- Engage the criticism. Failing to answer the negative's theory of power is usually an instant recipe for a loss.

- I have a high standard for perm articulation from the affirmative, and link/alt explanation from the negative. Do NOT let lazy K teams get away with bad link analysis or incoherent explanations of their theory.

- Substantive 2AC framework arguments are more likely to influence my decision than whiny procedural stuff.

KRITIKAL AFFS:

I have debated against, affirmed, written, and judged a wide variety of K-Aff arguments and fully encourage you to experiment, push the boundaries of literature and debate as an activity, and ultimately use this space to advocate for things of interest or importance to you. If you're looking for an idea of literature bases with which I am most familiar, check the "Kritiks" section of my paradigm.

I will NOT uncritically vote for you because I like your choice or style of argumentation. Although kritikal affirmatives enable potentially valuable breaks in the traditional form/content of debate and the resolution, I believe that there is a level of investment with the literature and knowledge about debate as an activity necessary to successfully challenge the ideological protocols of the game itself and/or operationalize the game as a site of critical contestation.

Take the time to make smart and offensive application of your Aff's criticism, and explain the unique friction between your methodology and the Neg's argumentation. Supplement your blocks and cards with smart in-round analysis and contextual application of your theory. Going beyond the jargon and providing concrete examples in support of your theory of power and/or methodological strategy will typically go a long way.

KRITIKS:

Successful kritik debating at a minimum requires intimate familiarity with the literature, and clarity and depth in explanation. The best kritik debates happen when you generate unique links to the affirmative and are able to build intricate link-stories by strategically referencing specific warrants, lines, or moments in your opponents performance, argumentation, and evidence and tying it back to your theory of power. Going beyond the jargon and providing concrete examples in support of your theory of power and/or methodological strategy will typically go a long way. I will reward you generously with speaks if you are well versed in your literature and are able to demonstrate your knowledge by making smart and strategic analytic claims and arguments in your speeches and cross-x.

I believe form precedes and determines content: I often begin my decision-making in kritik debates by asking what the telos (or perhaps a lack thereof) of this debate is, and what interpretational lens I ought to use to understand and assess what content means in relation to the presentation of the affirmative and alternative.

I have a general understanding of most criticisms read in debate, but my personal knowledge and interest lies in criticisms pertaining to identity politics and structural positionality. Most of the scholarship I've engaged with as a former debater and coach pertains to various branches of theory speaking to Anti-blackness, South Asian identity, Settler Colonialism, Feminism, Queer/Quare/Kuaerness, and Disability. Although I'm not AS well-read up on the edgy and often unintelligible works of old white dudes, I've judged or been personally involved in a fair share of those debates too and much of the scholarship I engaged with as a debater had its ideological roots in the works of Lacan, Heidegger, Marx, Deleuze, and Baudrillard among others. If YOU understand your criticism and YOU do the work to explain and contextualize your offense, you'll probably be fine.

DISADS/COUNTER-PLANS:

The more specific and less generic your strategy is, the happier I will be. I have no pre-defined standard for what makes a CP legitimate or abusive. Absent theory arguments, I will evaluate and happily vote on any DA and/or CP strategy without any predispositions.

I may not be intimately familiar with topic-specific political processes or terminology, so be sure to explain things and be precise.

TOPICALITY/THEORY:

The path to a ballot in these debates (on either side) is to do real comparative work on the level of interpretations and standards. Dive into the nitty-gritty analysis: what type of norms do we want to set in this activity/topic? Why? Why does it matter if the violation is true? What is the threshold to meet your interpretation?

Unlike many judges, I don't mind frivolous theory arguments. This is YOUR debate. If you want to make the debate about some trivial procedural question and you do it well, I'll happily vote on it. If you see strategic value in wasting your opponent's time with frivolous theory, more power to you. Likewise, if you make a well-developed argument that frivolous theory is bad, I'll happily vote on that too.

I think innovative or unconventional topicality and theory arguments (on either side) can make for very interesting discussions about the norms of the activity: arguments about identity, body politics, performativity, agency, boredom, death, simulation, educational models etc.

Impact analysis is CRITICAL to winning T/Theory debates:

Fairness is NOT an intrinsic good. What does fairness mean? Fairness for whom? Why is fairness something we ought to preserve in debate? What is fairness an internal link to?

Education is also NOT an intrinsic good. Why should the telos of debate be to produce education? Why does your model of debate have the ability to produce "good" kinds of education? Why are the specific skills we gain from your model good, and how do we operationalize them?

FRAMEWORK (VS. K-AFFS):

I spent my entire debate career arguing against Framework, but I think there's a lot of merit to these debates (on both sides).

What does your interpretation and model of debate look like in context of the affirmative's criticism? What types of norms and rules do we want to set for the activity? You probably have to win that the affirmative's theory about the way power operates (at least within the debate space) is bad AND/OR fundamentally not testable.

Impact analysis is CRITICAL to winning framework debates:

Fairness is NOT an intrinsic good. What does fairness mean? Fairness for whom? Why is fairness something we ought to preserve in debate? What is fairness an internal link to?

Education is also NOT an intrinsic good. Why should the telos of debate be to produce education? Why does your model of debate have the ability to produce "good" kinds of education? Why are the specific skills we gain from your model good, and how do we operationalize them?

LD and policy paradigm below ---

I did policy debate for College Prep for 4 years in high school and am now a sophomore at Wellesley College. When I debated, I did everything from Fem K's to politics DA's, so I'm down to watch any debate. I have no problem with FW, K's, or K affs. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at kismat98@gmail.com

i use they/them pronouns!

Add me to the email chain! tonyhackett (at) alumni.stanford.edu

Chances are if you're reading this, you're up late deciding where you should pref me or you already have me in the back and you're frantically trying to prep and look and see if I'll be down for what you want to read. To save you the time -- I'm probably fine with it, and the tldr; of my philosophy is that you should feel comfortable doing whatever you're best at.

If you want to read the more long-winded version of my debate background / personal style / my methodology for adjudicating debate rounds, read below.

I debated for C. K. McClatchy High School in Sacramento, CA, and Stanford University ('20). I did the whole TOC thing my senior year and qualified to the NDT my freshman year. I'm currently affiliated with C. K. McClatchy/Nevada Union and St. Francis High School (Mountain View, CA).

I'll try to keep this brief --

Ultimately, my goals are to try my hardest and vote for the team who won the debate, no matter who they are.

If i have the pleasure of sitting in the back of the room and watching you debate, here are some pieces of advice --

Do what you do best. I'd rather see a well-debated counterplan and disad debate (if that's what you want to do!) than a poorly executed attempt to appease me based on my argumentative preferences in high school. If you're asking yourself at this moment whether or not I'm fine with the arguments you're planning on reading, the answer is almost assuredly yes.

Critics that I most respect are: Sarah Lim, Mimi Sergent-Leventhal, Kevin Hirn, Jarod Atchison, John Spurlock, and Sam Haley-Hill, Taylor Brough, Brian Manuel, Shanara Reid-Brinkley, Syndey Pasquinelli, and Brian McBride.

When I go about deciding debates, I try answer a series of questions. Primarily, if both teams win all of their arguments, who wins the debate? Is there a major execution error? Is there a team lacking offense on any given position? Has either team won an impact framing argument by virtue of execution or evidence? Is there significant argument interaction? Once I have found answers to these questions, I've likely decided who won the debate.

That being said, here are some specific thoughts.

K affs -- I think Kevin Hirn said it best when he said " Despite some of the arguments I've read and coached, I'm still sympathetic to the framework argument (especially in high school). I don't presumptively think that topicality arguments are violent, and I think it's generally rather reasonable (and often strategic) to question the aff's relationship to the resolution. For what it's worth, I would generally prefer to see a substantive strategy if one's available, but I understand that often framework is the best option (especially in certain circumstances, like when the aff is new or you're from a school with a small research base).

I typically think winning unique offense, in the rare scenario where a team invests substantial time in poking defensive holes in the other team's standards, is difficult for both sides in a framework debate. I think affs should think more about their answers to "switch side solves your offense" and "sufficient neg engagement key to meaningfully test the aff", while neg's should brainstorm better responses to "other policy debates solve your offense" and "wiki/disclosure/contestable advocacy in the 1ac provides some degree of predictability/debateability."

I'm interested (and invested) in both sides of the framework debate, and have about a 50/50 record voting both ways. Being inventive, smart, daring, and responsive will win you major points, as it seems like I judge mostly clash debates, and the prospect of listening to a decaf state good/reform bad debate seems unfair.

Disads/CP's -- I love nuanced counterplan/disad debates. Explain the mechanism for your counterplan and slow down on the text. I'm persuaded by presumption arguments insofaras you win a turns case argument or are winning some hard core terminal defense to the aff. I love intrinsic offense and well-prepared stategies over generics with poor evidence quality. Disads with plan specific links are for real.

Topicality -- I used to think that Topicality was incredibly trivial, but after having debated in college and seeing some of the downright wild things that policy aff's can try to get away with sometimes, I think it's an essential argument for the negative arsenal. You should explain your internal links in the context of the aff and have external impacts. Ask Jordan Foley.

I think evidence comparison is a job of the debaters, but I'll call for it if there is a technical question that comes down to how the ev reads or if there is a concern about the validity of args made in the evidence by the debaters where a large portion of the debate rests.

If you've made it this far and you're still not sure if you should strike me, maybe seeing what args I currently read in college can provide some insight:

https://opencaselist.paperlessdebate.com/Stanford/Prabhu-Hackett+Aff

https://opencaselist.paperlessdebate.com/Stanford/Prabhu-Hackett+Neg

Have fun!

--Background --

In my four years debating at Skyline High School (a school associated with the Bay Area Urban Debate League), I competed on the local and national circuit where I received multiple bids, invited to compete at various round robins, qualified to the TOC twice, and had the opportunity to compete at the National Urban Debate League Championship Tournament all four years of debating. At the National Urban Debate League Championships, I've won Top Speaker award twice and in 2017, was titled at the NAUDL Champion Team. Once I graduated high school in 2017, I went on to debate on the University of California, Berkeley's Policy Debate team for one year before moving from the debate space.

-- Disclaimer --

I am a firm believer that debate is what people in the community make of it. The best debates for me to judge and watch are ones where each team is utilizing and perfecting their craft which in turn means - you do you.

Update for NAUDL 2022: I have not judged a debate round since 2018 but I am very familiar with spreading, flowing and policy debate in general. That being said, I am a judge that is not a stickler for line-by-line but I do appreciate it but if you tell me where on my flow you want me to put the arguments, I definitely favor that and will likely boost speaking points :)

Please add me on the email chain: christine.harris@berkeley.edu

-- Specifics --

Ks - this is a debate is most familiar with. I would consider myself a critical debater all around as that is the only form of debating I did during my years competing - particularly critical race theory arguments. I was most comfortable with performance affs and anti-blackness kritiks.

Neg - I expect that there is a coherent link story and an explanation of the alternative.

Aff - utilize the permutation and don't forget the aff.

With that being said, if you're not comfortable running a k, don't run a k in front of me just to win the round. I'd prefer a good policy round than a awkward k round where no one knows what's going on tbh.

DAs - good link stories and strong impact calc is the way to go for me in weighing the da v. the aff

CPs - prove the competitiveness of the cp and make sure there is a coherent net benefit.

FW/T - refer to the disclaimer. debate is a game and these debates are just a question of what debate should be. i usually like education as a persuasive impact v. fairness as one. win why your interpretation is better for debate.

Theory - tbh,im not a big fan of theory. i hold a high threshold of a team persuading me that theory is a prior question but with this, you do you - but slow down so i get all your analytics for them.

-- How I Judge --

I am a fan of tech > truth as a framing of how I should evaluate a round. However, the team does have to persuade me in why that conceded argument is a winning argument in the context of the debate. Don't make me do the work for you please.

The only thing I have left to add is be clear, be loud, and be confident.

-- Misc. --

Also, don't be that person that makes ignorant, sexist, homophobic, etc. arguments just to win a round or have a response to a particular argument, just think it through, forreal forreal, it won't end well for you in front of me.

Any other specific questions you have, just ask me before the round. I'll be happy to answer.

Debate History :

I have debate policy debate for six years. I am currently a Sophomore debater for San Francisco State. I debate anti-blackness and theory for majority of my debate career. Specially the intersectionalites of racism and sexism for a black women and whiteness. So feel comfortable running any k's if I'm your judge. I personally love k aff so if you runs k aff feel comfortable running it. I personally believe debate isn't a game but it's your job as the debater to explain how I should be framing the round (is debate a game where we role play or not). I love hear rounds where the impacts aren't nuclear war but real life issues if you have impact as nuclear war it's less likely I will vote for you. The only way I can see my self voting on a nuclear war impact is if you explain to me that a nuclear war is going to happen to tomorrow, which you probably can't do so don't read that impact or other like it if I'm your judge. I prefer debaters to explain their argument in full , that means don't just read the card but explain it to me, cause I'm not going to do the work for you. Most importantly I value clarity over speed, of you can be fast and clear lit🔥.

Arguments:

So no matter my personal opinion on the argument I am willing to vote for you if you do the work necessary to win the round.

T/FW- I personally don't care for the argument but I have and will vote on the argument. It's your job as the debater to explain to me what the round is about and how I should be framing the debate round. You must win your impact for me to vote for you and you must explain why is the impact of the "T" outweight the aff impacts. You for me to vote on T you just have to do your job as a debater and explain to me why should I vote on this argument.

K/Performative Aff- I think they are really dope. I have ran different K/Performative aff's for 3 years so I understand them. However do not run a k aff just because I love voting for them, run what ever floats your boat. To k/performative aff's if you just run your aff like you want to and do your debate work I will probably more than likely vote for you.

K's- I think k's are good arguments and I love voting for k. If I am your judge running k's would be a good idea if you like running k's. Please do not pick to run a K just because I am your judge. Run what you know best and feel comfortable doing.

email chain: hillweld32@gmail.com
tl;dr - an argument is a claim+warrant+impact, do your thing and I'll evaluate the debate accordingly

I have debated (and listened to) some of the fastest debaters in the country, and I'm pretty comfortable flowing them. But unless you have the ability to be just as clear as they are, don't sacrifice your clarity to read 50 cards in your 1AC at a nice high pitched humming sound that no one understands. I'll give you two warnings if you're not being clear. Keep your speeches organized, line by line and signposting are important.

T - I default to competing interpretations unless told otherwise, and you should impact out why your model for evaluating topicality is good. The same goes for the competing interpretations debate; it's not good enough to say that your interpretation has better/different limits than theirs, I want to know why that's important.

Disads - they're cool. I prefer specific links (specific disads are even better) rather than generic ones, and it will also make your life easier. Impact calculus is very important, but you also have to make sure you win the internal link chain to get you to the impact in the first place. I'll default to utilitarianism (whatever you tell me it means) unless told otherwise but am quite open to other frameworks for evaluating the impact debate.

Counterplans - PICs are cool, case-specific CPs are cool. It's important that you're actually competitive and that you're not placing an unfair burden (whatever that means) on the affirmative.

Theory - Use it strategically, and if one team is clearly making the debate unfair and you can impact out why I should actually care about it, that's when you'll win your theory debate.

Kritiks - Do your thing. Explain the link (ideally it's specific or at least articulated in the context of the aff) and impact it out. Even if your alternative is to reject the team I need to know why I should endorse it as a method to combat whatever impact you present. This is what I've spent the most time thinking about, but I wont be doing any extra work for you.

Framework - I really enjoy K debates but this includes a defense of your framework for the round, whether it's a question of alt solvency or state engagement or whatever, impact it out.

K Affs/Planless Affs - The same way it is with everything else, explain your argument and why I should care about it. I'm open to critiques of engagement practices, the resolution, the debate community, or whatever else you can come up with.

Framework v. K Affs - I'll default to competing interpretations, but the same stuff I said about topicality applies here. These debates will most likely include some question about the pedagogical value of the 1AC and I think that a good explanation of why they create better education (or don't) can be extremely strategic for the aff. Similarly, a role of the ballot is an impact framing argument, the 2NR/2AR isn't going to be able to win on "they dropped the role of the ballot." If you win your impact framing, do your impact calculus.

I will actively listen and work hard to develop my understanding of your arguments as the debate progresses regardless of whether or not I am familiar with your style of debating or type of argument.

Updated: Long Beach 2018

Debated at Damien: 2012-2016

University of California, Santa Barbara: 2016-Current

Make sure to engage your opponents' arguments. Tech over truth. Smart, strategical moves during the debate like 1AR shifts or 2AC exploitations of the 1NC, etc... will be rewarded well if executed properly.

Affs:

Read whatever you want. Try to be at least tangentially related to the topic, if not make sure to have a solid justification for not being a part of the resolution.

Neg:

Be as engaging with the affirmative as possible.

Case:

I went for impact turns and internal link turns a lot in high school. A good, organized case debate is interesting

CP:

Make sure it's competitive. Net benefits that aren't just politics is pretty nice, even thought I went for politics in high school abundantly.

DA:

They're dope. Specific strategies are always nice to see.

K's:

Just don't throw around random jargon without contextualization. Make sure to explain the argument in its entirety and frame it as an argument. Not just "capitalism/security/binaries etc bad, they do it, next".

T/FW:

I resort to competing interpretations unless told otherwise. Make sure to impact out your claims. I went for framework mostly against K affs, but go for whatever argument you think you know best. Explain the framing issue and what I should prioritize in the debate. Like seriously, go for arguments you are comfortable with. The better debaters always win.

Keep the debate clean and organized. Frame your arguments efficiently and in relation to your opponents' and you'll be fine.

Feel free to ask questions before the round or email me: Jeong.Debate@gmail.com

Experience : Ex-Debater at CPS, 3x Tournament of Champions Qualifier, Sophomore at Harvard
Speaker Position : Have done all of them
Email : ryanjiang98@gmail.com

2017 Update:
Stanford will be the first tournament I'm judging for the education topic. Still pretty up-to-date on current events, but probably not about the current 'meta' in debate, i.e. which affs are considered topical or not. Everything below still applies.

2016 Update:
I haven't judged any debates on the China topic yet, so you should debate in front of me assuming I know nothing about the current policy debate meta/best arguments on the topic. I'm pretty up to date on current events and have a pretty solid cultural/historical understanding of current dynamics with China and East Asia, but don't take that for granted.
That will also implicate topicality for me - I have zero idea of what affirmatives are generally considered topical by the community, so that will have literally no impact on how I evaluate the debate.

Overall Wiki:
I'll try to be as objective as possible when evaluating arguments, and give each argument equal credence. Of course, a caveat is that if you say openly absurd or offensive statements, especially ad-hominem attacks on the other team, I will be inclined to not only openly dismiss those arguments but also wreck your speaker points.

Couple of pre-dispositions, I guess :

Cheap-shots are great. If they drop conditionality they drop conditionality. Don't make things more complicated than they are. As a judge, I will look for easy way outs. That said, if you are completely crushing a team on every flow and choose to go for a dumb theory arg, that will reflect poorly on your ethos, etc.

Role of the ballot is to tell the Tabroom who won the debate. Any arbitrary statements about the role of the ballot without warrants (i.e. the role of the ballot is to determine the best strategy towards X) is exactly that -- arbitrary, and I won't find it particularly persuasive without more explanation. However, if the other team does drop the role of the ballot, that's often an easy and clean way to deal with impact debates, which are normally pretty messy when it's a K versus a policy impact. More on this later.

I'll decide on the flow. Style points if you can be self-aware of the credibility of your arguments but crush the other team.

Be funny, being entertaining is always great if its not cringe-worthy or at the expense of quality debating.

Framing issues / Impact Calc :

General statements : in the second rebuttals, it is your job to write my ballot. If you can win the debate in the first 30 seconds to a minute, and successfully do so, you will earn respect from me.

K on K violence - I think role of the judge arguments or defenses of debate as a unique pedagogical institution are particularly convincing strategies. I want to know why I matter because half the time a ballot does not change anything and everyone knows it. These are more persuasive to me than role of the ballot arguments because if you position the judge as an educator / policymaker, I can change up the thought calculus. Role of the ballot arguments are tautological in that they don't change how I evaluate the flow and when teams blanket assert that the role of the ballot argument wins them the debate it only ends up muddling my thought process.

K vs policy - this is usually the trickiest to evaluate. K teams must work hard to tell me why VTL claims outweigh utilitarian framing, or why root cause is more important than proximate cause, etc. I tend to default towards lives saved and timeframe - the "try-or-die" framing most policy teams go for is sadly pretty persuasive.

Policy on Policy - this is straightforward. Don't try to win that your impact outweighs on timeframe AND magnitude AND probability. That's a giant lie. Tell me which one of those three you win, tell me why that matters. I love smart turns case/disad arguments, especially on the level of internal links.

Specific Args :

Counterplans: be abusive, be tricky, solve the case. That's what they're for. But if you're affirmative, call them out. Chances are, the neg is being pretty abusive and if you do a fairly decent job on the theory debate you should be okay. Tell me how to weigh the risk of a solvency deficit versus the net benefit.

I'm undecided on conditionality. If you actually do a decent job debating it out and not just reading blocks back and forth, I will be willing to vote on either side. Theory is a question of competing interpretations unless you drop reasonability.

Disads: Yup.

Case Debate: The aff is terrible. Point that out. Winning a minimal risk of case is often one of the best strategies to win the debate, regardless of what you're going for. This part of the debate is underutilized and is often reduced to nothing other than impact defense.

Topicality: Have good interpretations, and debate out the impacts.

Kritiks: Don't just throw 50 buzzwords at me in 1 minute and expect that to mean anything. I care about quality of analysis more than cheap-shots. I love anything from high-theory to race/feminism/identity args. If you do it well you don't have to worry about me.

Framework: I think the game is pretty rigged against the neg, but if the negative does a good job I will vote for it. As someone who has read a K aff all year, I will expect your warrants to be well fleshed out and impacted, and I won't let you get away with reading a K aff just because I did it too. You're "cheating" -- tell me why that doesn't matter / their definition of cheating is bad.

yo

I'm a senior @ stanford double majoring in international relations + anthropology and i did policy in high school

2020 NOTE: I don't know much about this years' resolution-- explain topic-specific acronyms if you use any!

email: edasulj@stanford.edu

POLICY:

tl;dr- i'll listen to literally anything! i love unique arguments but even more importantly i love clash.

kaffs- i love them. i came from the smallest school possible (no coaches, no other policy team) so i find them extremely helpful with specific research focus for small teams/schools. i love them when they are unique and tailored to each individual debater. i think that the best k affs are ones that i can feel the emotion and power in every word you choose to say/sing/rap/dance/draw/perform.

ks- i think ks are extremely productive in debate; prob read some lit on what you are planning on reading. specific links are super awesome and engaging. but if u do k debate pls don't read off your computer the entire time it's sad. i read a lot of postmodern theory (both in hs, but also now in school as a college student), but this may help/hurt you. bad k debates are worse than bad policy debates, so make sure you know what you're talking about. empirical examples for k debates are persuasive. many judges don't feel compelled to vote for postmodern ks because it is hard to tie them to something tangible in the status quo. there are examples-- refer to art, movements, historical events...etc.

framework- framework can be extremely productive, tailor your framework arguments specific to the aff. tva's are good arguments-- make them

das- a really good da debate is exciting to watch. i love it when teams destroy case and do really good anaylsis on the da. pls don't make your 2nc extension of the da just reading more cards, like take the warrants of your 1nc and exacerbate them in the block. good da debates are great.

cps- i mean i'm down for listening to the most abusive cps you have. i think really specific ones are killer. i don't really care about theory unless someone calls you out on it. if you read a delay cp or a plan plus like tell me why that plus/net ben is so important. otherwise i'll vote on like perm: do CP

t- if you can't list a topical caselist with your interpretation why read t. read t when there is an obvious advantage the aff is getting away with. i don't really have a favorite between reasonability vs. competiting interps. like tell me which one to prefer and i'll do whatever.

theory- tbh theory debates are boring i'd still vote on them if i have to

case- case is so underrated especially in kaff debates. if you can destroy case on the kaff i'll be happy to vote on neg presumption or some case turn. if you go destroy case i'll reward you.

truth over tech- i lean more for tech over truth. but i am persuaded by ethos.

do u love the jesus cp?- sure, read whatever weird args you have. if you commit to them i'll give them credit in the round. EDIT: ok but also I strongly dislike the 30-speaks argument!!!!!!!!!!

prep/cross-x- tag team is cool and flashing doesn't count as prep

extras:

debate is an activity that i love and that i invested a lot of time in. please look like you're having fun, at least.

i guess i am a point fairy. debaters work really hard and i think that getting average speaker points like 28.3 is just not exciting nor rewarding. if life is meaningless and debate fills a meaningless void in our lives ill try to give y'all some temporary happiness with higher speaker points.

LD:

pretty much the same as policy; i don't really vibe with debates that are only about the rules of debate

PUBLIC FORUM:

tldr; debate is a game, so use whatever strategies you want. don't care about your speed, but do care if you're using speed as an excuse to not make real arguments. warrant all your arguments! I don't judge PF too often, so assume that I do not know anything about your resolution. Explain acronyms if you use them. HAVE FUN :-)!!

Janice Li

8+ years experience with college debate (2 as debater, 6+ as coach/judge), 5+ with high school debate

I judge policy debate only.

I attended NYU and debated for the team formerly known as NY Coalition. After graduating, I regularly volunteered at college tournaments to judge and coach for CUNY and NYU. I moved out to California a few years ago, made the switch to high school debate and began volunteering with Bay Area Urban Debate League (BAUDL).

As of right now, I only judge and do not coach or write args, so I am not hip to what's new and I don't know the detailed intricacies of the topic. I also took a year off (2018-2019 schoolyear) but I'm making a return for 2019-2020!

The basics

1. Do you. I'll listen to everything fairly: CP/disads, T, all of the specs, theory, every type of K, non-USFG, advocacy statements, non-topical affs, performance, etc.
2. Tag team cross-ex is fine.
3. I'm strict about time, and I will keep time.
4. I don't want to be on your email chain.
5. I care a lot about the activity of debate. Respect the space.
6. Find me at me@janice.li if you have questions.

- - -

The longer version

1. Run what you want, but if the opposing team questions the validity of your argument/style/presentation, you MUST answer that back. Make sure to do the necessary work on framework and role of ballot to explain why you run what you run and why I should vote for you. Also, even if you win framework, you still need to show how you "win" framework by accessing it better with better impacts. Speaking of which, the impact story should be clear by the end of the 2AR/2NR (that is, what impacts do you have, how do they outweigh, and how do you uniquely access them?).
2. I have a notably high threshold for any voters. If you like going for these, you need to do a lot more work than "opponent dropped, ergo we win" in your final speech. Violation needs to be crystal clear and impact of their violation needs to be reasonably real for me. In-round examples will help a lot. I can and will vote on future implications (that is, potential abuse) if you can explain why it matters now.
3. Be clear. Do not mumble and do not speed-read incoherently, and please differentiate tags/cites from the rest. Slow down on theory and procedurals. If the way you prefer to win rounds is merely by speaking fast, you probably shouldn't pref me because I probably won't be able to flow everything.
4. I care a lot about education, particularly in a way that challenges normative thinking. This also means I like analogies, metaphors, real-life examples, and general analytics as long as they make sense and draw connections rather than make assumptions. Also, expand and be specific; education doesn't mean the same thing nor is all education equal. What kind of education are you talking about? What kind of fairness? What does access mean?
5. Speaker points: To be honest, I'm still calibrating my speaker points. I like pop culture references and things that make me laugh. I also give high speaks to good strategic decisions made in your speeches, especially if you're behind on the flow. On the flip side, making me cringe on the cross-ex is not good.
• 29+ I think you're one of the top debaters at the tournament and will get a speaker award
• 28s You're good, made good args and probably will break
• 27s My average score; you did the right things but have many things to still work on
• 26s You're in the wrong bracket and are missing fundamentals
• 25s You said something super offensive and/or disrespected the debate space
6. Evidence: In 99% of debates, you should be clear enough that I don't have to look at your cards.

- - -

Paperless

I debated in the awkward transition to paperless; everyone had tubs and expandos, but people began to flow on computers and some began to have e-versions too, but they just gave their laptop over.

From what I can tell, no one does paper debates now, and it's a net beneficial thing for the environment.

With that said, figure out how you're sending/receiving before the 1AC. Be verbal during prep; tell me when you stop prep, and when that happens, you should actively be saying "I'm sending the email over now" or be pulling the flash drive out of your computer.

- - -

More about me

I live in San Francisco and do policy/advocacy work for a non-profit org there. I also ran for office in 2018 and won my seat on the BART Board. I truly love the activity of policy debate and think it's important and that it matters. I only volunteer as judge. I think I got a lot more "anything goes!" since transitioning from college to high school debate, but I'm generally value-neutral or agnostic to specific arguments.

I am currently a first-year at UC Davis, and I debated for three years at Skyline High School in Oakland, CA.

zhanchongli@gmail.com

I am cool with whatever, I think the best kinds of debates are the ones where you do what you're best at. I'll vote for most arguments, as long as they are not offensive or rude (racism/sexism/homophobia/ableism/transphobia/etc good, just please don't do it), explained well and developed throughout the debate.

Debate is hard enough as it is. Don't stress too much about what I have to say, just do you and have fun.

Here are just some additional preferences/beliefs that will hopefully guide you in understanding my views of debate:

- Specificity is always key to winning debates. This means case debate (an art), case-specific CP's and DA's, link contextualization on the neg (important difference between good generics and bad generics is the matter of grounding arguments towards the aff), specific internal links and solvency advocates, evidence comparison, etc.

- Generally, I am a fan of truth > tech. Just because an argument is conceded on the flow, does not make it true nor a good argument. Tell me why a conceded argument matters/doesn't matter. With that being said, line by line is still one of the most important things, will still help you even if you are going the capital T truth way.

- Framing is crucial. Tell me why I should see the debate your way and not your opponent's. This includes things like impact calc (a beautiful thing that is not being used enough), role of the ballot, etc.

- I love straight up debates with CPs and DAs and T just as much as I love K debate. Again, specificity is key here.

- Not a huge fan of theory, unless there is some blatant abuse or it's conceded and well-articulated and impacted, I will usually lean towards the side theory is read against.

- As a debater, I was mostly a 2A/1N that went for some sort of critical or performance argument, mostly critical race debate arguments. This doesn't mean I'll sign the ballot once I hear the word whiteness or roll my eyes the entire debate if you read framework. However, if your framework is some circular claims about predictability and fairness, I'm probably not the right judge for you. If your framework is based on comparative claims which construct the importance of differing roles of debate/the debate space/the judge, you will be okay.

- I am fine with speed, as long as you are clear. I don't flow CX. Flash doesn't count as prep as long as you don't abuse it. Tag team is fine. I most likely won't call for cards, so don't expect me to read your ev just because you tell me it's "fire", explain to me why it is.

- Miscellaneous things that I like: being able to explain the nuances of your argument and being well-versed in your literature (esp for K's), clear and concise line by line, strategic and petty CX (art, don't try it if you don't know the fine line between petty an rude), small dosages of good jokes, dogs.

I did four years of policy debate at Lynbrook HS from 2012-2016. I'm currently a high school senior and have both debated and on the transportation, latin american, oceans, and surveillance topics. I was a 1a / 2n if that makes a difference to anyone.

I'm open to any argument you want to make (provided that it's not offensive) and I'll try my best to evaluate it fairly. I'm more policy-oriented but ran kritiks throughout high school. If you do run a nuanced critical position, please explain it thoroughly and impact it well. 

General things: please slow down on tags/theory and impact calculus. If you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them before the round.

My paradigm was too long. Here is a good one that should make preffing easier.

“If you can’t beat the argument that genocide is good or that rocks are people, or that rock genocide is good even though they’re people, then you are a bad advocate of your cause and you should lose.” - Calum Matheson

Email for chain: adam.martin707@gmail.com

First: Qualifications

• Competing: St Vincent ‘16, UC Berkeley ‘20

• 3x TOC, 14 bids, coach’s poll, tournament wins, speaker trophies, etc

• Coaching: South Eugene 16-18, Analy 22-23, Sonoma Academy 2023-Present

Second: Argument Preferences

• I try very hard to be a judging robot. I will vote for any argument with a warrant. ASPEC, Process CPs, Death K, Set Col, Time-Cube - they are all as good as the warrant you give.

• I read a kritik on the aff and went for framework on the neg. I truly don’t have any emotional attachment to a particular argument.

• While I don’t have argument preferences, there are things I know more or less about.

• Debate things I know a lot about: Baudrillard, Deleuze, Bifo, Set Col, Queerness, Afropess, Framework debates, really any K

• Life things I know about: Philosophy, politics, tech, mushrooms!

• Debate things I don’t know a lot about: Most topics, competition theory norms, process CPs, general policy tricks. By don’t know “a lot” I just mean I’m not an expert - I still have a pretty solid understanding of all of this, but I generally prefer you explain more on competition shells rather than just reading 30 definitions and expecting me to know the norms of how to interpret them

• My lack of argument preferences applies to theory, meaning I’m more likely to vote for straight up “condo bad” than most judges. Just as I’m willing to listen to any arg, I’m equally willing to hear that an arg is unfair.

Third: Notes on How I Judge

• I flow what you say, not what I read in your doc. For the most part, I do not open speech docs during the round. I will not read your doc to understand something that didn’t make sense in your speech. This means you need to slow down on theory arguments and counterplan texts. I am a techy judge so if I don’t understand the CP because you went too fast, you don’t have a CP.

• Arguments need warrants. I will very quickly vote on 0 risk if you don't say "because" in your arguments and instead just extend author names. I am very strict about this so don't be surprised when my RFD says "you had no reason for this claim".

• Do not try and bring up anything that happened outside of the round. I cannot verify any claim about something external to the round. The only exception is disclosure. I will check the wiki to see if you disclosed if that is relevant to the round.

• Normal means is a thing and you should know how that works. If you write a vague plan text, you don’t get to define what it means. I assume that congress will pass the most likely interpretation of what your plan text says. You do not get to read a generic “federal jobs guarantee” plan text then say it just means bunny daycare jobs on Mars.

• New arguments in rebuttals are becoming the norm. I now hold the line for you in the 2nr and 2ar, but it is up to the 2nr to point out how certain 1ar args were completely new and explain why that means I should reject them. Flagging “no new 1ar args” in the block can help get ahead of this.

• Until an argument is made to the contrary, I think of voting for an advocacy as me signifying that that thing would be a good thing if done, not that the negative or affirmative has actually performed said advocacy.

• I will kick the CP for you if condo is never mentioned or won by the neg and I decide that the aff is a bad idea. This is something I am going to think about a lot but as of now, I will presume judge kick.

• Cross-applications are not new arguments. If the 1ar says reasonability on one T violation, and the 2nr goes for a different one, the 2ar can cross-apply it legitimately. However, this does assume that there was a reason why their c/i is reasonable in the 1ar.

• You can have my flow: I always wished that it wasn't awkward to ask the judge for their flow, so this is me telling you that it is not awkward for you to ask me for mine. I think that reading someone's flow of your speech is incredibly educational and so I will happily send you a copy.

• I may be standing for some or all of your speech. Yeah I know it’s weird, but sitting sucks. I promise I am paying better attention than the half-asleep judge sitting comfortably in their chair.

• Contradictions are only abusive if the negative asserts two opposing truth claims neither of which did the affirmative explicitly defend. This standard usually means it is more strategic to just cross-apply one of their claims to take out the other then spend your time no-linking the first position. To give an example, I do not think that it is abusive for a team to read a death reps K and then read a disad that has death impacts if your affirmative also had death impacts. I just can't conceive of how that could be abusive. There is no functional distinction between '1nc - Death K, DA, Case' and '1nc - Disease Reps K, DA, Case' in terms of abusing the affirmative. However, reading the cap K and then a DA that says the aff hurts cap and cap is good against an aff that is about emission reduction and doesn't mention capitalism is obviously abusive. The negative has made two competing truth claims, neither of which did the affirmative defend. HOWEVER, this rant is just my thoughts, and can be used by either team in the round but it does not mean that I won't vote for con if the neg reads a Death K and an extinction-level DA, I'll still evaluate it like any other round.

• Always send cards in docs, not in the body of the email. Otherwise it's hard for me to steal them.

• You can ask for a marked copy outside of cx, but any question about which arguments were read is cx.

Speaker Points – (I inflate/curve points depending upon the difficulty of the tournament)

To me, speaker points are where I get to reward quality debating. Quality debating means the following: understanding of your argument, clear speaking, smart choices, and kindness. My speaks may surprise you. A team who is less technical but clearly communicates their argument may get a 29.5, while a highly technical team who shadow-extends arguments without warrants may get a 28.5. I heavily punish being mean - there is no reason for it.

- Above 29.5: I will spend tonight crying about how beautifully you debated

- 29.5: I will tell my friends about you

- 29 – 29.5: You should get a top 5 speaker award

- 28.7 – 29: You should probably break

- 28.5 – 28.7: You gave solid speeches

- 28 – 28.5: You are a good debater, some strategic errors

- 27.5 – 28: You are decent, but made many errors

- 27 – 27.5: You made many mistakes, and probably lost the debate for your team

- 26.5 – 27: You made many errors and should end 1-5 or 0-6

- 26 – 26.5: You shouldn’t be in whatever level of debate you are

- Under 26: You were literally incomprehensible or offensive

I debated for College Prep for all four years, graduating in 2017. Long Beach will be my first tournament on the current topic.

Impacts are important!! Make choices and commit to them- you really only need to win one argument in in the 2NR/2AR if you explain why that argument is the most important one in the debate.

I'm fine with speed if you're clear.

DAs- Specificity is important. Have clear impact and link analysis! Other than that these are pretty self-explanatory.

CPs- Counterplans are great, just make sure you clearly articulate your net benefit and how the cp is different from the aff. See the theory section below for notes on CP theory. I don't like to kick counterplans for you-- really the only scenario in which I will do that is if you justify it with a theory arg in the 2NR and the 2AR drops it.

Ks- I was a K debater my junior year and a policy debater my senior year so I don't think I'm biased one way or the other. Be sure to explain your args rather than just saying a few buzzwords & hoping one sticks. You should be explaining the alternative or why the affirmative makes the status quo uniquely worse. 

T- Substantive T debates are interesting. Explain the world of your interpretation rather than just saying “reasonability” and “overlimiting” over and over. Aff, make sure you have offense. I don’t have any pre-dispositions re: competing interpretations v reasonability.

Case Debate- I love case debate and I think it’s often underutilized. If your 2NR has zero case debate, I will be very persuaded by the 2AR’s “case outweighs” args unless you’re going for a PIC. I will definitely vote on presumption if you’re really winning the case debate. Neg should exploit contrived internal links chains (these make for really good cx moments too). Impact turns are cool (both for the aff and the neg).

Theory- Really depends on the individual debates. Process, consult, and 50 states counterplans are probably abusive. Condo is probably good. Please engage in the line-by-line on theory debates rather than just reading blocks your coach wrote in 2007 at top speed. Really.

K Affs- I have both defended a K aff against FW and read FW against a K aff. Both teams should be especially sure to clearly articulate their impacts in FW debates (I find that this often gets lost in these debates both for the aff and the neg). As with a T debate, both teams should be clear to tell me what the world of your interpretation looks like.  What kind of affs would be included? What kind of affs would be excluded? Why is this good/bad?

Please put me on your email chains, and feel free to email me with any questions at elizabethmillerschai@gmail.com.

As a debate judge, I ask all debaters to Avoid Spreading for the respect of the activity, 2nd English speakers, and people who have a cognative disability (e.g. ADD/ADHD, hard of hearing, etc). Spreading is not favorable with me and I will mark down speaker points for non-breathers. 

Note: I highly value depth over breath which means I'd rather have a few great arguments that are well rounded then a spit fire of rushed arguments that lead to no clash.

For the sake of Clash, I love when teams play their part and create good clash within the activity of debate. 

Lastly, I have Zero tolerence for any unethical acts or comments made during a round. I will deduct speaker points for any acts of ad hominems (personal attacks on the person), racial slurs, feminist remarks, or prejudice comments.

Experience: I debated for 4 years at Notre Dame in CA (2011-2015); University of San Francisco (BA in Psychology); JD from UC Davis School of Law (2022). Previously taught 4 classic week labs at University of Michigan Debate Camp.

Update for 2024 TOC: Currently am an attorney and I judge here and there. I judged a few rounds at Long Beach this year, but have not judged rounds since then.

tldr: I'll judge anything but I like policy debates more. Just make warranted arguments and tell me how I should vote and why.

Newest thoughts:

- steal prep and I'm docking points

- don't make your opponent send you a marked doc for just 1-2 marked cards - that is something you should be tracking - I notice this is something teams do and then they just use the time to keep prepping their next speeches

General Notes:

1. I am definitely very, very flow oriented. I flow on paper and care a lot about structure. That being said, to have a full argument you need to make a claim, warrant, and impact. If those things aren't there, I'd rather not do the work for you and reward the team that did.

2. Other than that, you do you. I'm down to listen to anything you want to talk about if you can defend it well.

3. I'm super easy to read. If I'm making faces, it's probably because I am confused or can't understand what you're saying. If I'm nodding, that is generally a good thing.

4. Be good people. There's nothing I hate more than people being unnecessarily rude.

5. There is always a risk of something, but a low risk is almost no risk in my mind when compared to something with a high risk.

6. I'll always prioritize good explanation of things over bad cards. If you don't explain things well and I have to read your evidence and your evidence sucks, you're in a tough spot. That being said, I would rather not call for cards, but if you think that there is a card that I simply need to read, then say so in your speech.

7. Tasteful jokes/puns are always accepted. They can be about anything/anyone (ie Jacob Goldschlag) as long as its funny :)

Topicality: I love topicality debates because they're techy and force debaters to really explain what they are talking about in terms of impacts. That being said, 2nr's/2ar's really need to focus on the impact debate and explain to me why education is an impact or why I should prefer a limited topic over an unlimited one. Reasonability is debatable. I was a 2n in high school and I lean towards a more limited topic, but I'm very easily persuaded otherwise.

K Aff's: I am very convinced by most framework arguments on the negative side. I think that K aff's need to be closer to the resolution than not and I do not think that many of them are. However, this does not mean that I will not vote for a K aff; I just have had trouble understanding the proliferation of Baudrillard and Bataille affs, so if you are aff, you will definitely need to be doing a higher level of experience. I think Cap K's versus these aff's can be very persuasive, but I also think Framework makes a lot of sense if the aff isn't topical. That being said, do you and make smart args. I'm not the most literate in a lot of high-theory literature, so if you want to play that game in front of me, do it BUT explain your theories and I'll catch on quick.Framework: I think that "traditional" framework debates fall prey to a big exclusion DA from the aff. I think we should be able to talk about K affs and that they should be included in the topic - HOWEVER I believe that K aff's do need to prove that they are topical in some way. I lean more towards the neg in framework debates because I do think that many K aff's have little to do with the topic, but there have been so many times when K aff's actually engage the topic in a great way. That being said, on the aff be closer to the resolution and on the neg, explain how your interpretation and model of debate interacts with the aff. Most teams forget that the aff will always try to weigh their impacts against framework, which sucks because it is hard to resolve real world impacts versus theoretical arguments about fairness and education.

Theory: I will most likely lean neg on most theory questions unless a CP is simply very, very abusive, but even those can be defended sometimes :)

Disads: I love disads, specifically the politics DA. Prioritize impact work! Despite my love for DA's, most of them are dumb and you can easily convince me that they are dumb even using analytics and indicting the neg's evidence. However, I still love DA's and wish I got to go for them more in high school. Good politics debates make me happy.

Counterplans: Everything is debatable in terms of theory, so do you. If a CP is very abusive, hopefully the aff says so. If the aff concedes planks of your CP, you should make sure you say that. I think all CP's need a solvency advocate, otherwise it will be hard for the neg to win solvency and potentially theory.

Kritiks: I really like the K when the link debate is specific and I can articulate a SPECIFIC link and reasons why the aff is bad. Fair warning - I am not the most literate in high-theory arguments. This doesn't mean I won't listen to your Baudrillard K's, but it means that I have a very high threshold for SPECIFIC links and also simple explaination of the argument since I will most likely be confused until you explain yourself. The neolib k was my baby in high school and I think it answers everything. Security was Notre Dame's main thing when I was there so go for that too. Teams need to explain what I need to prioritize first, whether that is epistemology, reps, framework, or whatever, just make sure you say so! I don't like overviews and I am a big believe in putting your link and impact work where it makes sense on the line by line because it will always make sense somewhere.

About Me: Debated for Notre Dame HS (Sherman Oaks, CA) 2012-2016. Quarterfinals of the TOC in 2015. Top Speaker at NDCA Championships 2015

Favorite Debaters and Coaches: Christina Tallungan, Andres Gannon, Andrew Markoff, Hemanth Sanjeev, Elsa Givan, Ryan Wash, Harry Aaronson, Aron Berger, Alex Miles, Natalie Knez, John Spurlock

General Notes: Down for whatever, just do your thing and do it well. Haven't judged in a while (Berkeley will be my first tournament of the 2018-2019 school year) so go a tad slow and assume I know nothing about the topic. I generally was policy in high school but also went for k's (mostly security) a lot. Generally tech over truth. Went for almost everything in high school at least once, including t, politics, security, heidegger, wilderson, anthro, and framework.

PRONOUNS: they/them/theirs

mstekl@stanford.edu -- please put me on the email chain

PhD student @ Stanford, in Modern Thought and Literature

Emory '19 (did not debate; judged on the GA circuit for 4 years)

Bishop Guertin '15 (debated on the national circuit, went to the TOC, etc. etc.)

***UPDATE for Berkeley 2020: This will be my first tournament on the topic. Please do not assume any familiarity with the topic or especially with any topic-specific acronyms. You can spread, but clarity is paramount as always — clarity over speed any day, but today more than ever!***

My favorite judges in high school were jon sharp, Calum Matheson, and Jarrod Atchinson.

In general, you should not change what you do because you have me in the back of the room. As a debater, I tended to be pretty flexible, alternating frequently between "critical" and "policy" positions. This is your space to argue, not mine, so I will vote for the arguments on the flow that yield the path of least intervention. Pure objectivity being impossible, I nonetheless do my best to keep my subjective argumentative preferences out of the picture. That said, I'm not quite a blank slate; for instance, I won't be persuaded by racism/sexism/etc. good, or by any unapologetically discriminatory positions or practices.

I’m pretty well versed in K lit – I study theory at a graduate level, so I should have some degree of familiarity with whatever you choose to read. I'm an especially good judge for any brand of poststructuralism, including those concerned with questions of identity. Obviously, this doesn't mean that you can rely on buzzwords to get out of explaining your argument; it does mean, too, that I'll know if you have no idea what you're talking about. You should have at least a working knowledge of the position you are asking me to vote for, which requires you to do at least some cursory background reading and thinking. Then, bring your knowledge of critical theory to bear on the particulars of the aff, balancing overarching framing questions with specific link and impact analysis.

I'm not convinced that the aff must defend governmental action. Which is only to say that I will not enter the room with any dogmatic biases against plan-less affirmatives. That said, I probably enjoy a good framework debate more than most, and find myself voting for framework as often as I vote against it. Still, I don't think it should be your only strategy against all K affs; I will be more persuaded if you at least make an effort to substantively engage the aff. Of course, particularly obscure affs or those lacking a consistent advocacy will tend to be harder to defend against framework than core, topic-specific K affs.

***UPDATE September 2018: As I've judged more debates, I've become increasingly wary of framework as a default negative strategy against K affs. In my experience, framework very often becomes a lazy cop-out, even an excuse to avoid debating the substance of the aff. I can still be convinced that this is not always the case, and I will continue to evaluate framework debates technically, but it is on framework debaters to prove the value of their strategy.***

I think I tend to prioritize evidence quality less than most judges. Not that good cards aren't important – they're the pillars of your argument – but they can't replace good analysis. Depending on your argumentative genre of choice, it may be better to establish your position through evidence-reading or through your own explanation in the constructives; but in most cases, I'd rather you invest more time in nuanced and specific applications of your argument than read another card. In the final rebuttals, you absolutely shouldn't rely on your cards to do the work for you – extensions should be much more substantive than simple author name-drops. If you can't explain your author's argument, as well as its implications for the debate, I won't explain it for you.

Clear! I'll take clarity over speed any day. You should be comprehensible enough that I can understand the text of your cards. I will not call for cards after the debate if I was unable to understand them when you read them; I only read evidence for the sake of refreshing my memory.

Chill out. While antagonism is inevitable in this competitive forum and may even enhance debates in limited doses, I maintain that debaters too often take aggression to unhealthy extremes. Outside of a small number of "critical" strategies that benefit performatively from hostility, there is no reason to deliberately be an asshole to the other team, or – especially – to your partner (!!seriously!! if I can hear you yelling at your partner during prep time, you're doing something wrong). Jokes can also help ease the tension.

Speaks – Points vary by tournament (i.e. I'll give higher points at Samford than at the NDCA). Generally speaking, I'm a bit of a point fairy. Methods for improving your speaks include innovative, specific strategies and clear logical organization. Humor is the icing on the cake.

30 – Among the best speakers I’ve ever heard: you should be top speaker and win the tournament. A+
29.5-29.9 – Outstanding: expect to be one of the top 5 speakers – you should be able to make it to late elims. A
29-29.4 – Very impressive: a noteworthy performance with quite little room for improvement; you deserve to be among the top 20 speakers. A-
28.6-28.9 – High average: you are in or near the top of your division; with any luck – and, more surely, with just a little more practice – you should be able to break. B/B+
28-28.5 – Average: you're doing well, but still need to iron out some remaining issues with your clarity of speech or of argument. B-
27.5-27.9 – Low average: you have potential, but displayed: a) notable problems with both speaking and argument development, or b) more serious problems in one of the two areas. C/C+
27-27.4 – Below average: your performance was passable, but suffered from critical issues of both style and content. C-
26.5-26.9 – Needs improvement: you spoke poorly, made major strategic mistakes, and likely dropped some important arguments. D
26-26.4 – Needs major improvement: you failed to answer a majority of your opponent’s arguments and made some manner of unforgivable mistake. D-
0-25 – You did something offensive. F

Clipping will result in an immediate loss and the lowest speaks allowed by the tournament. I will follow along with the speech doc and record the debate; if I catch you clipping, I will stop the round you even if your opponent doesn’t call you on it.

This is not, in fact, your CX.

*** Update March 2019: YES TKO PLEASE TKO! Far too many debates drag on painfully long after they (should) have technically ended. For this reason, I am following B. Manuel's paradigm and urging you to invoke "total knock-out" mode if the other team makes an utterly irredeemable mistake – e.g., double turn, dropped T or a K, etc. Of course, you must stake the round on this; if you can pull it off (i.e., if you can satisfactorily extend the dropped/devastating argument while covering all your bases, e.g., answering condo if going for a dropped K...), then you will win the round after your speech and receive 30s. If you are unsuccessful, you lose and get a hard cap of 27.5. ***

Hi everyone!

I've been debating policy for four years and I am pretty much cool with whatever you want to run. I will make an effort to be as unbiased as I can be. I'm fine with tag team cx, spreading, etc. Flash is not prep, but if you misuse this, I will start counting it as prep.You are the debaters, you set the round.

That being said, I have listed a few preferences to help you understand the type of judge I am:

Likes:

• Providing good impact calculus is crucial regardless of what you read- its probably where a lot of my decision will come from
• Lay a good framework-make it easy for me to weigh your arguments against the other team.
• Most of my debating career I've read kritikal/identity oriented literature, so utilizing kritiks properly and with the right links makes me extremely happy
• Please be respectful
• Be funny, it'll definitely help your speaker points, but make sure not to feel anyone unwelcome in the debate space
• Slightly related- I love unique arguments that make me think. Even if they don't you win the round, if I can tell an effort has been made to uniquely answer your opponent, your speaks will reflect that
• I love line-by-line. I think it showcases your personal ability as a debater to answer individual args instead of relying solely on blocks.
• I'm down with arguments that might not be the norm-to give you an idea, I've run Consult Vermin Supreme. Just make sure there's a reason I'm voting.

Dislikes

• Making arguments like racism/rape good will automatically lose you the round because I think debate needs to be a safe, inclusive space. I will probably also mention it to tab.
• Disads are cool, but generic disads with practically no link are not fun.
• Same goes for generic kritiks
• Read things you're comfortable with, you'll probably do a better job than if you read blocks for something you don't understand.
• Being aggressive in cx is good and recommended, but if your opponents are novices, dont be jerks.
• Don't get lost in jargon, I'd much prefer clarity and conciseness.
• Don't assume I know all the literature or that I will make the connections for you. It's your job as debaters to convince me from scratch that voting for you is a good idea. Be specific and explain all parts of your args that arent self-explanatory.
• I probably don't know all the abbreviations, especially when the round is particularly policy oriented as I haven't debated this topic. I can follow along fine as long as the full abbreviation is mentioned.
• Don't be super stressed, debate is fun! At the end of the day, we're all just here to learn.
• Unclear spreading- I will say clear three times, and then I'll stop flowing.

If you have any specific questions, email me at elakya@gmail.com.