Hi! I did Lincoln-Douglas debate in freshman and sophomore year and switched to Public-Forum debate this year. During the round, please make sure to answer your opponent's framework. In addition, please TIE your contentions into your framework.This is the first place I'll be looking at when I evaluate the round. Once I figure out who won the framework debate, I'll be evaluating on which debater ties their arguments into the framework the best. Also, some important things that I look for when I figure out who wins the round are if you weighed and if you extended arguments. I can't evaluate anything that is brought up in the 2NR or 2AR. Also, please make sure for your arguments, you use ACTUAL evidence; I can't vote off something super blippy and unjustified. Other extra things, please be respectful to your opponent. Speak loud and clear. Give voters and off-time roadmaps.

Each round is a learning experience, and I hope you learn something from every single round you have! :)

Edgemont '20

-- Read mostly k stuff so have most experience w these debates but am comfortable judging any style

-- I'll vote on basically(?) anything as long as it has a warrant, isn't morally repugnant, and isn't objectively false (like an incorrect theory violation). The only relevant caveats to this are noted below.

-- Know I have a lower threshold for responses to frivolous arguments (a prioris, tricks, etc) and a higher threshold for warranting large, structural claims.

-- Be reasonable!

General

-- Add me to the email chain ~ riyagan@gmail.com

-- You must disclose — first three/last three at minimum, but open source or full text is far better.

-- You can’t jettison CX for prep time.

-- Asking what was or wasn't read comes out of your prep. Or, you know, just flow.

-- Personal attacks against debaters/schools/coaches won’t be evaluated.

-- I also won't vote on “evaluate the entire debate after any non-2AR speech” arguments.

-- Presumption flows neg unless the 2N defends an advocacy in which case it flips aff. Never heard a compelling warrant as to why speech times would change this.

-- Evidence ethics accusations stop the round - if true the person who clipped/miscut gets an L 20. If false the person who made the accusation gets an L 20.

Content

-- Will vote on phil but didn’t read it in high school — over-explain, give material examples, slow down

-- Good k debate — 2Ns that are more line by line, pulling lines from the affirmative for links, winning case defense

-- Bad k debate — long overviews, repeating “that’s another link,” blippy independent voters

-- Clear evidence comparison makes policy debates far easier to evaluate

-- Hard pressed to vote for an RVI on T

-- Fwk v k aff debate — ill vote either way — negs should ideally have a carded TVA and an external impact to T.

important for 2020:

- i have not judged a debate round since Harvard 2019 so please slow the frick frack down especially when you start and don't expect me to be up-to-date w all the new jazzy tricks and fun things yall have come up with

- the internet is unpredictable and things happen and everyone is stressed out right now about like a trillion billion things so please be kind and understanding w each other thank u

t/l:

- i really dont care about things so despite my personal preferences i still evaluate most arguments as arguments and will vote on them if and when they are won so just do good debate thank

- tricks/friv theory/a priori/skep/racism good/other bullshit is out, Ks and performance stuff/policy is in, philosophy/high theory is eh (it's interesting, i’ll try my best but if I don't understand it then I don't understand it and I won't vote on itttttt), traditional debate is fine

addendum: T is fine i guess. like i am much much much more willing to listen to a T debate than a theory debate

addendum #2: if you can win a ~compelling abuse story on theory then like sure i'll vote for it i guess i have done it a good number of times before

addendum #3: fun fact i have almost a 50-50 voting record on t v k affs so stop reading half-assed k-affs/neg k strats in front of me bc u think i will like them better it is soooooooooooo annoying

-disclosing is good

-email chains are good (minaslee00@gmail.com)

-debate is about education if you just treat it like a game, treat other debaters like your enemies, and treat your arguments like cheap shots at winning, i will be sad and so will you when the round is over

-bc of the above point, i do like answering questions about things you think you could have done differently/other learning opportunities from the round so feel free to ask or to hit me up on facebook/email

-idc who your coach is or who you think you are, if you think i made a bad decision and you and your ~ posse ~ decide to yell at me for the sake of trying to prove me wrong as opposed to trying to understand the decision i will just leave the room lmao

-i don’t really care that much about things and i am usually very tired

-be nice

-i don't care if you sit or stand please stop asking me

-please don’t shake my hand

-please start slow especially in the morning i am so tired spreading is so fast i do not know why people think it is a good idea to scream at me at 40000 wpm at 8 in the morning :(

Quick thoughts because I’m too lazy to write a real paradigm:

0) An introduction: hello I debated for Edgemont LD (2018) and now I go to Princeton where I don’t do debate because hahahahahahahaha. I was coached by Brian Manuel, Rodrigo Paramo, Jack Ave, and was heavily influenced by Aurelia Williams, Chris Randall, Eli Smith, Jacob Koshak, and Sydney Pasquinelli. Put me on the email chain: minaslee00@gmail.com

1) IMPORTANT: I like sass but don’t be mean! I almost quit debate on three separate occasions in my senior year alone. I also almost quit debate after my second tournament ever because I was laughed at for not knowing deontology. People suck. If someone is clearly not as experienced as you and you read 7 off I will give you a 25 and you may also lose! So! Don’t! Be! A! Dick! As much as this activity can suck sometimes there are things I have learned that I wouldn’t have been able to learn anywhere else in high school and I will always, always be grateful for that. Don’t be the reason someone feels like they need to walk away from those opportunities.

1.5) Evidence ethics/other out-of-round issues: a) dont be shady with your evidence b) if you're going to make accusations, then be willing to stake the round on it. i'll stop the round, look at the evidence, and decide the round based on whoever I think is right on the question. but tbh there are so much unnecessary politics and personal/ad-hom attack brought into rounds whenever this happens and they make me uncomfortable and sad and angry please treat debaters like people thank you

2) I'm honestly pretty expressive, just read my face and you'll have a good idea re: how I feel about the round

3) Arguments I read: I mostly read policy-esque arguments with critical impacts and then second half of senior year I said “fuck it” and went really hard for ID politics K debate. I finished out my career reading a performance aff that I also ran as a neg K in outrounds. That being said, if you can explain an argument really well to me I will probably vote for it. Don’t assume just because I was a “K debater” I know all your warrants and I’ll just make the arguments for you when you blip through them. In fact, if you do that and you’re missing warrants I will be EXTRA sad and so will you when you hear my rfd. My favorite neg strat my senior year was one-off K where most of my case arguments were just links to the K so if that tells you anything about how much I enjoy the explanation of complicated critical (or even philosophical) arguments, there ya go

4) JUST BECAUSE I READ AN ARGUMENT DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD READ IT IN FRONT OF MEEeee. Do what you’re good at (for the most part) and if you explain it well to me I’ll probably vote on it. I don’t hate philosophy, I was just never good at it so I never read it in high school. But if you think Kant is a cool guy and you can get me to understand his nonsense, then sure! Go for it! I’m telling you right now though I have no problem just being like “I did not understand this argument so I did not vote on it”

5) EXCEPTIONS: If you read tricks/frivolous theory/a prioris/whatever etc. etc. in front of me I will just pretend I didn’t hear you and not flow it and just doodle some flowers on my flow and also kill your speaks (see: Rebecca Kuang)

6) Flowing and analytics: I’m going to flow what I hear so if I say clear and you don’t slow down or get clear and if I miss 25 of your 30 analytical arguments and any of your post-rounding includes “but it was in the speech doc” I will just shrug my shoulders, pack my stuff up, and go get myself a coffee. NOTE: I’ll say clear/loud/slow twice and then your speaks will probably go down, but I’ll keep saying clear to keep the round going

7) T v K: I know I read a performance aff but tbh I think I’m pretty 50-50 on the T v K aff debate. I am definitely not 50-50 on the K v frivolous theory to answer Ks because people don’t actually know how to answer Ks, and if you try to randomly up-layer to answer a K that you handled poorly, I will be sad and so will you when you see your speaks and probably also the results of the round

8) ON FAIRNESS: I don't really think it's its own voter, i'll vote on it but i usually just evaluate it as an internal link to education which means that i also care about in round abuse more than i care about norm setting by default, but i will listen to arguments to the contrary i suppose

9) More on theory in general: if there's actual abuse then obviously go nuts with theory but in general theory debates really bore me and so if you must run theory I will likely be very lazy in evaluating the debate and if I can find something easy to vote on or a simple reason to default to other flows where there’s more interesting offense, I will probably do so. I was also never particularly good at really detailed theory debates, so my evaluation of intense line-by-line argumentation will probably be shit. Sorry :)

10) disclose lol.

Byram Hills '19

UPenn '23

lindseyperlman14@gmail.com

COVID UPDATE: I would strongly appreciate it if everyone keeps their cameras on throughout the entirety of the debate, and **point the camera so I can clearly see your face while you speak. There's undeniably a performative/theatrical element to debate that disappears if your camera is off. I understand that some debaters may lack a webcam or have connectivity/bandwidth issues that would require cameras to be off, but in all other situations I expect for cameras to be turned on (it's also part of the tournament's rules).

Hi! My name is Lindsey Perlman. I did LD for 4 years and graduated in 2019, qualifying to TOC 3 times and reaching elims my junior year. I've worked at camps such as the National Symposium for Debate and the Urban Debate League, where I taught PF. I also have experience in World Schools Debate. Currently, I am a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania and member of Penn Debate Society and Mock Trial.

As a judge, I try to be as non-interventionist and tab as possible. Throughout my debate career, I read lots of theory/T but also lots of critical positions (Wynter, Weheliye, Deleuze, Lacanian feminism, etc.) and always loved framework debate (Kant, Sartre, etc). I don't prefer that you choose one type of debate over another - do what you're good at/passionate about!

TLDR: More than anything else, I value when a debater has a solid sense of strategy, and my judging preferences will shift if presented with warranted arguments impacted to an evaluative mechanism. I am comfortable listening to and voting on Ks, theory, phil, LARP, disclosure, performance affs, tricks, etc..

I won't vote on arguments that I don't understand. Please do not substitute debate jargon for thorough explanations of the arguments that you are making. Especially in the context of dense kritikal/philosophical debates as well as LARP debates, please err on the side of over-explaining things.

Speed: I have no problem with spreading. I would appreciate if you start slower at the beginning of your speech and work up to your max speed. Please slow down on interps, advocacy texts and taglines.

Defaults: If no arguments are presented to the contrary: competing interps over reasonability, drop the debater on T, drop the arg on theory, metatheory before theory, T and theory same layer, no RVIS, truth testing over comparing worlds.

Speaker points: I love a brief summative overview at the beginning of the 2nr and 2ar that breaks down what the layers of the debate are, why you are winning the highest layer, etc., as it is really a reflection of your strategic process and mindset. A compelling CX that elucidates the flaws in your opponent's position is a must for higher speaker points. If you are rude or overly arrogant/condescending, I will drop your speaks.

- Additionally, if all of your cards are obviously recycled from other debaters or past years (including the tags), don't expect a 30. I've been thoroughly disappointed that some debaters haven't even bothered to change tags of cards read when I was in high school. Do your own research and card cutting - as a "small school debater" in high school, I cut every card from articles I read myself; you can do it too. The same thing goes for speeches/CXs that are obviously scripted. Don't expect a reward for reading off of a document - that doesn't take skill.

- On the flip side, I will bump speaks for debaters with argument innovation/who read new affs/philosophies that have never been read before.

***Finally, anyone who knows me well knows that I like to laugh a lot. If you have a good sense of humor in your CX or speeches and can make me smile, I will bump your speaks.***

email: christinewang111@gmail.com

Hi! I'm a current freshman in college that did 3-ish years of circuit and trad LD debate. I didn't debate senior year. This is my first time judging Varsity LD. This is my first time judging and hearing any arguments on the jan/feb LD topic.

LD:

- I ran k's and larp in hs and that's what I'm most familiar with. less familiar with Phil, make sure you explain things clearly. not confident in evaluating t/theory but will vote on it if i have to. make sure you clearly articulate the abuse story. truth>tech

- please don't assume I know lit-specific buzzwords because I probably forgot them. it's been over a year

- speed is ok but please keep in mind that I have a bit of hearing loss that makes it hard for me to understand unclear speech (especially over the internet). if you're clear it should be fine, so clarity>>speed

- tricks, skep, friv theory: please do not run them.

But otherwise I judge similarly to Megha Prasad: https://www.tabroom.com/index/paradigm.mhtml?judge_person_id=41207

Look at me during CX: you’re trying to convince me, not your opponent.

I prefer fluency over speed. Speaking fast is fine, but if you’re going fast and stumbling over every other word, you save more time by just speaking a little slower. Plus it's easier to listen to.

No frivolous T or theory shells.

Bonus speaks if you make well-founded original args, WEIGH, or make me laugh (for a good reason).

Hey! I'm Kevin (he/him pronouns), I'm a fourth year LD debater for Lexington High School in Massachusetts.

I'm fine with pretty much all arguments as long as it isn't obviously racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic etc. Read whatever you're comfortable with.

Extend and weigh! It makes the round much easier for me to resolve. Framework debate is also super important, but please don't have a values debate or debate framework when you and your opponent basically have the same frameworks.

I mostly assign speaker points based on in-round strategy rather than speaking manner and try to average a 28.5.

If your opponent is clearly newer to debate and you're purposefully making the round inaccessible (through spreading, theory, kritiks, aprioris, etc.) you'll get low speaks. If you don't know what those arguments are, don't worry about this.

Debate is a game, play it however you want and have fun!!