UPDATE FOR TOC 2024

a.bhaijidebate(at)gmail.com

gbsdebatelovesdocs(at)gmail.com

**please add both emails to the chain!**

Aasiyah (ah-see-yuh) Bhaiji (by-jee)

any pronouns (pls don't call me judge)

Debated for GBS 2016-2019, qualified to the TOC my third year and was awarded the JW Patterson Fellowship as a member of the graduating class of 2020. I do not debate in college.

I’ve judged around 30 debates on the fiscal redistribution topic. Most of my work related to debate is with Chicago Debates, where I help to build and maintain programs.

SHORT VERSION

"Do your thing, so long as you enjoy the thing you do. My favorite debates to watch are between debaters who demonstrate a nuanced understanding of their literature bases and seem to enjoy the scholarship they choose to engage in...I think judging is a privilege."-Maddie Pieropan.

I flow as much as my fingers will allow me. Slow down on the important parts and always remember clarity should be prioritized over speed.

LONG VERSION

Debate as an activity loses all value when debaters do not consider that there has to be a reason why a team deserves the ballot. I try my hardest to stick to my flow and rely heavily on judge instruction as to how I will write my ballot. YOU DO NOT WANT ME TO CONNECT THE DOTS FOR YOU.

I appreciate debaters who are passionate, excited, and well-prepared. The best debaters I’ve witnessed throughout the years have been the ones who show kindness and respect towards their partners and opponents. I am not a fan of teams that openly mock, belittle, and disrespect the people they are debating.

Clarity is key and seems to be a lost art. I mostly flow by ear and will not catch what you are saying if you blast through your analytics. Please slow down and do not start at 100% speed at the top of your speech.

Planless Affirmatives

I like planless affirmatives, but you absolutely need to defend the choices and explanations you give in early cross-exes. I need to know what your version of debate looks like, and I am finding that most teams aren’t willing to defend a solid interpretation, which makes it hard for me to vote for them.

Please stick to an interpretation once you’ve read it. Clash debates with affs that are centered around the resolution are fun, and I find myself in the back of those debates most of the time.

CPs

I do not default to judge kick; you have to give me instructions. What does it mean to sufficiently frame something? I am so serious. I have been asking this question for what seems like forever now.

I miss advantage counterplans, and I am a less-than-ideal judge for Process CPs (I'm not saying I won’t vote for them, it might do you well to spend a couple more seconds on process cps good in the block).

Solvency advocates are good but not always necessary.

DAs

Zero risk of the DA is super real; sometimes you might not even need a card for it!

DAs as case turns will inevitably end up on the same flow, so please just tell me where to flow things earlier on in the debate.

Ks

Biiig fan of 'em.

“Kritiks that rely entirely on winning through framework tricks are miserable. If I am not skeptical of the aff's ability to solve their internal links or the alt's ability to solve them, then I am unlikely to vote negative.”-AJ Byrne

If you cannot explain your alternative using a vocabulary a 7th grader can understand, you are likely using language and debate jargon that I find counterintuitive and, quite frankly, boring.

T

Why are we putting this as the first off? I will most likely miss the interpretation if you are speeding through it.

FW

Fairness is an internal link, clash is good and I personally think that more teams should be going for portable skills.

I am not good for “our interpretation is better for small schools”.

Other things:

1. If I could implement the no more than 5 off rule, I would.Obviously against new affirmatives, the circumstances are different, but I firmly believe that everything in the 1NC should be a viable option for the 2NR.
2. DISCLOSURE IS GOOD!I will try my hardest to be in the room for when it happens and I am not afraid to check teams wikis to see their disclosure practices. If you post round docs and show before I give you my decision, you will be rewarded.
3. I am super expressive, and you will be able to tell if I am vibing with whatever you are saying. I do have a very prominent RBF. Don’t take it personally; it means I am trying to get everything down.
4. Fine with tag-team but have found myself becoming frustrated when one debater from a team dominates all of cx. I do think that all debaters should speak at some point during cross-ex.
5. CX as prep is only justified when there is a new aff or if you are maverick.
6. The 1AC should be sent out at the scheduled round start time, the only exception is if the tournament is behind schedule and Tab has alerted everyone of the timing change.

More things I have thought about in regards to debate but aren’t wholly necessary to pre-round prep.

1. There is a difference between speaking up and yelling, I do not do well with debaters talking over their partners.

2. STOP HIDING ASPEC ON YOUR FLOWS, say it with your CHEST.

3. I LOVE good case debating, and I get sad when the block treats it as an afterthought.

4. I had no idea teams gained the ability to remember every single thing their opponent said. FLOW! PLEASE!

5. Why are we reading the tier 3 argument against planless affirmatives.... let's start using our critical thinking skills

6. Rehighlighting evidence is a lost art. Bring it back for 2024

7. Clipping is bad, don't do it. I will clear you twice, and after that, I will stop flowing. If there is a recording of you clipping, it's an auto loss and a talk with your coach

8. I flow straight down (primarily because of sloppy line-by-line); the more organized your speeches are, the happier I am.

9. DRINK WATER

10. I do not care if you put a single card in the body of the email chain.

11. Have fun and let the games begin!

I'm a teacher and debate coach at Montgomery Bell Academy.

Put me on the email chain: abrown123564@gmail.com

Here is how you can make me want to give you a ballot + good speaks:

1. Make the debate comfortable and fun. I am not a good judge for you if you get super aggressive, snarky, or rude in round. I am a teacher - treat your partner and opponents the way you'd treat your classmates.

2. Please do not "cut corners" in your prep - I get very sad when I see incomplete DAs, incoherent T arguments, meaningless Adv CP texts, or evidence so un-highlighted it doesn't say anything, etc, deployed for the purpose of winning through out-spreading instead of out-debating. I generally don't think teams should be reading more than 6 off.

3. Do not forget you are in a public speaking activity. I am not evaluating the debate based off your speech doc. You should be clear, and you should flow. Please stop offering or asking for marked docs unless it is absolutely necessary.

4. Please do not abuse tag-team CX in either asking or answering questions.

4a. If you're not debating a new aff/debating as a maverick, and you decide to take CX as prep instead of asking questions, then I will allow the other team to keep reading cards for the remainder of CX.

Sorry if that all came across as grumpy. If you can do all of those things, then I'm happy and I look forward to judging you. I think that policy debate is good and that clash/fairness/etc. are all things which matter. I think debates should not exclude critical perspectives and we should seek to do what best improves the activity overall.

I am a tremendously bad judge for arguments advocating death, human extinction, or nuclear war. I probably just won't vote for them.

Have fun!

Glenbrook North '21

He/him/his

Please add derrikcdebate@gmail.com to the email chain, and please give the email chain a relevant name (e.g. "Round 1 Viking Rumble: GBN XX [AFF] v. GBN YY [NEG])

Top Level:

Qualifications: Debated at Glenbrook North for four years as a 2A and mostly read extinction impacts. Champion and 4th speaker at the Cross River Classic Invitational, qualified to the TOC, etc.

Novices -- don't adapt to me. I'll adapt to you. Please be respectful, especially during cross-ex. There is no need to be overly rude, defensive, demeaning, etc. Everyone's learning.

My ideal debate to judge is one where teams go substantially slower, engage with and collapse to truthful arguments, and make bold strategic decisions. I would much rather judge a debate where the NEG reads four developed offcase positions than one where the NEG reads eight or more scattered offcase with no clear strategic vision. However, I do understand the strategic necessity of reading large amounts of offcase, so feel free to do whatever you please.

I largely agree with this section of Anthony Miklovis's paradigm: You do you. I'll do my best to not be ideological. Below are my predispositions that I'll usually err towards when debated equally. None of these are absolute truths and can be easily reversed through technical debating. BUT, my familiarity with certain arguments might affect my ability to adjudicate claims in round, so do be mindful of that when I say "you do you."

I'd like it if debaters gave me easy outs rather than forcing me to dive deeply into contested issues

Sending analytics is good for clash

Please speak slower and clearer, and watch my facial reactions to your arguments, as I tend to be rather expressive

Please respect your opponents

Rounds judged on the water topic: 46

'21-'22 lowest speaks: 27.5

'21-'22 highest speaks: 29.6

'21-'22 average speaks: 28.7

Ks:

I encourage you to read kritiks that function as disadvantages (e.g. Neolib/Cap K)

I find that the aff should get to weigh in the plan in almost all circumstances

It will be very difficult to convince me to vote for high theory or post-modernism

I do not find most ontology claims persuasive

Perf con makes sense versus epistemology claims

Planless Affs:

Generally not the judge for you

The aff should be related to and in the direction of the topic

Fairness is an impact, but I find clash and education-based arguments to be more persuasive

Counterinterps are usually self serving, so I would rather you impact turn T

NEG teams should impact turn (cap good, heg good, etc.)

Please do not go for a K vs a planless aff unless you can explain it extremely well

Topicality:

I would rather you not go for topicality in front of me, but I understand if it's the only option you have versus an abusive affirmative

Precision > everything. I think most interpretation evidence is atrocious and aff teams should exploit that more

I have never seen an affirmative team reasonably explain reasonability, but that does not mean that it is a bad argument

Counterplans:

I'll judge kick if the 2NR makes the argument. Sufficiency framing seems to be a waste of breath because I will always evaluate if the counterplan solves enough of the case.

Process counterplans are probably illegit (oftentimes dependent on literature), but I would rather affirmatives go for a solvency deficit and net benefit takeout than a tricky permutation or theoretical objection

Intuitive analytical advantage counterplans are strategic. Advantage counterplans + impact turns seem to be underutilized strategies that are killer.

Counterplans that are probably bad: international fiat, object fiat, delay fiat, 'going through legal deficits' fiat

If you want to go for theory, make more specific theory arguments to filter NEG offense

Disads:

The preferred 2NR. When I debated, I read politics, rider, case-specific, etc. Neg ground is atrocious, so I understand and would absolutely enjoy if you decide to go for politics. I think that turns case is usually the deciding factor in disad debates. Please do multiple levels of turns case (e.g. link turns internal link, link turns impact, AND impact turns internal link, etc.)

I think no risk is possible but difficult if the NEG executes correctly

Most disad internal links make little sense, so smart analytics can always lower disad risk

The 1AR seems to get away with a lot of murder here

Theory:

I don't think neg teams explain why conditionality is good well.

I have yet to see a team go for ASPEC, but I think it's a competent strategy given all the agent abuse affs seem to do these days. Same with vagueness, I guess.

Misc.

"Troll" arguments are interesting thought experiments, but I'm unlikely to vote on them

Debaters should time themselves during the round. I'll try to keep track of time, but I'm not perfect.

I want to judge impact turn debates (dedev, please)

Scale:

Policy---x----------------------------------------K

Read a plan-x-----------------------------------Do whatever

Tech----------------x------------------------------Truth

Read no cards----------------x-------------------Read all the cards

Conditionality good-------------------x----------Conditionality bad

PIC's good---x-----------------------------------PIC's bad

States CP good-----x-----------------------------States CP bad

Go for T-----------------------------------x------Don't go for T

Politics DA is a thing-x-------------------------------Politics DA not a thing

Always VTL-x--------------------------------------Sometimes NVTL

UQ matters most--------------------x-------------Link matters most

Not our Baudrillard------------------------------x- Yes your Baudrillard

Clarity-x--------------------------------------------Srsly who doesn't like clarity

Presumption------x--------------------------------Never votes on presumption

Resting grumpy face--x---------------------------Grumpy face is your fault

Longer ev--------------------x--------------------More ev

"Insert this rehighlighting"----------------------x-I only read what you read

Fiat solves circumvention-----x---------------------LOL trump messes w/ ur aff

2017 speaker points-------x------------------------2007 speaker points

CX about impacts---------------------x-----------CX about links and solvency

Fiat double bind------------------------------------------x-literally any other arg

Avy Gaytan-Aranda

Solorio Academy HS '19

UIUC '23

Short Version

-Tech over truth

-No judge kick

-quality over quantity of evidence

-default my paradigm as a policymaker but open to all arguments

-clash is key to any good debate

-Neg gets presumption

-email chain: amoravyg@gmail.com

Long Version

Short background about me: I debated for Solorio academy(Chicago) for four years. I debated in both the UDL and national circuit. I ran mostly policy through the first half of my career, however my junior and senior year my partner and I became more flex. With that being said, I have debated the most sketchy counterplans all the way to postmodern Ks. I am not familiar with the new topic, my knowledge solely comes from judging so you must provide substance in your debates rather than just jargon.

Affs- K affs: Although I always liked and read Ks, I find it really hard to read K Affs. Not about understating, rather how they are used. Hence, when you read a K AFF do not just stand up and explain what is that you are criticizing but also explain the utility of the aff itself. Make sure to implicitly describe the need to not use a plan, and the need to have the discussions that are being had, because otherwise i will likely lean neg on framework. I genuinely don't have a preference for any form of affirmation of the resolution, you can do any form of performance in front of me.

-By any means feel free to run any aff that you want in front of me.

Ks- I want to hear a good explanation of it, defended well, also explain why it matters more than any other arguments in the round. How the alt solves better ..how the K fw suits best for the round...how it outweighs the aff..how it is a issue in the world of the debate round and the real world, etc. Neg, in order to have weight of the K trough the round, articulate a link, wait, articulate MULTIPLE links on the K, without a link you can't win K. Go beyond the techy sutff and K jargin and go further on, expand on the literature authors and their ideas, and connect them to the debate round, to engage not only with the people in the round, but to orient yourself as debater. In other words have a cohesive understanding of the K. Preference wise, even though I have been policy most of my debate career (so far), I do read K literature on my spare time, so with that being said, I am knowledgeable with Stuff like Wilderson, Sexton, Baudrillard, Agamben. The evidence of the kritik should be pretty extensive and well Also, I encourage to defends a solid solvency mechanism aka a strong alt, otherwise, I view myself judging a non-unique disad. Having a solid alternative is literally the most compelling thing when leveraging a framework and the impacts of a link because it makes it easy for me as a judge to prefer it over any fiated plan. With that being said I don't like voting for kritiks with weak alternatives, because I view it as a burden of the neg to prove how the alt overcomes the link story and the premise highlighted in the kritik, well at least explain how they substantially change the sqou described in the world of the K. Overviews are nice when making the extension of the K in the later speeches of the debate, however be aware of how long it's going to be, should be no more than 45 seconds.

- If you go one off K, do your thing, but a major thing! Learn how to split the block please.

- Any death drive, death good stuff is probably not good in front of me (not with that, nor I like that).

- I probably wont vote for you regardless of how well you defend if you read the following: Time Cube, death good, shreck.

Theory, theory is awesome, theory is the most amazing thing in debate. In my opinion theory debate is underrated and underused in modern debate. However if you are reading theory make it interesting. That being that I love theory on CP debates.

Regarding T, CPs, DAs, etc make sure no nonsense argument to waste time. By that I refer to, run an argument you are comfortable with and don't run random arguments just to catch the other team off guard ,be very strategic.....

- I am very sympathetic towards condo, because I believe in teams reading plus 6 off just to catch other teams not responding to args. However going for condo just because it was dropped is not enough to win my ballot, there has to be substance regarding as to why condo matters specifically in the context of the round and why it matter overall.

Be strategic...

For example....Don't run Baudrillard and a heg DA with a war impact, c'mon, it's pretty self explanatory why not.

CPs- Big fan of consults CPs, Not voting for a counter plan without a net benefit...Also, a MUST when reading a CP, don't just prove how phenomenal a CP is independently, but prove to why the CP is specifically competitive with the Solvency of the Plan. Consider not getting too caught up in the explanation of how the CP works, but rather include comparative analysis to the 1ac, and distinction to the net benefit. Also, yes counterplans could get messy and stuff but overviews are helpful in later speeches in the debate if you want to make the CP a possible 2NR strategy. For AFF teams, theory is phenomenal against counterplans in front of me, I tend to believe that just like the 1ac, the counterplan should be questioned and attacked as much as possible the 1ac. That being by either perms, CP specific DAs, theory, etc.

Multi-plank counterplans are really tricky and fun, however, they could get sketchy, I don't think plank kicking is a thing, you either defend the full counterplan or none of it.

- Functionally competitive CP's are better in my opinion; easier to defend and to debate thoroughly.

Theory on CP's such as agent, delay, or int. fiat probably have some truth value considering how abusive CP's could get, however I don't think that 5-20 second extensions are enough for me to vote for any of the theory arguments on CPs

DAs- Even if I believe your DA is bad/ or non uq, I will still give your 100% risk until proven otherwise.

-Not a fan of the courts DAs, because most of them a false and exaggerated. If you read these, please give me a good link story that is coherent to the aff, thus multiple links make it strong for not only picking fewer in the debate, but using them as case turns if mishandled by the affirmative. Impact analysis along with a strong internal link story will probably be the most important when trying to get my vote because it is up to the aff or neg to either prove why such impacts matter more or less than the others.

-Politics are nice.

T- if you are going for T in the 2NR, you better go for it all 5 minutes, I expect some serious analysis on T if you end up going for it in the 2NR. Definitely a winnable argument considering it is the negatives job to prove that the aff doesn't work/ is not topical to begin with.

- consider having a debate past the interpretation and the "they say-we say" stuff, but prove your voters as being true.

- By default I think reasonability is good, so it's your job to convince me otherwise.

- Set the bar as to why T is an independent reason to not evaluate anything but the argument in the round.

Framework- Awesome!!When reading/going for framework, please have a solid interpretation. Having a vague interpretation makes it hard for me as the judge to validate arguments you claim to solve for. Moreover, when going to framework please engage into a line by line, nonetheless I won't feel convinced that your idea of what debate should be is true or convincing. Why is voting the other team bad for debate? what are the impacts of not having your framework? what makes your framework best for the debate? Please answer these questions when articulating the argument in your speech. Additionally, I don't really buy the "screw debate", "f debate" "debate is bad" framings of debates and rounds. However I do like when frameworks present a challenging paradigm for the round such as "Debate should be a sight of x or y" or "engaging in this form of debate is key because..."

- I also think fairness is not an impact; coming from a small school, it is pretty evident that there is things outside the round that make debate pretty unfair.

Moreover, I find that now days framework debates are very reciprocal..either "aff should defend a hypothetical USFG plan", or "we should test the aff's orientation before anything". Those debates can get boring, try to expand and have creative interpretations, to have clashful and more concise debates. Which overall are way better than having broad big impact debates.

-impact wise...explain how procedural impacts outweigh pre-fiated impacts

Moreover, clash is always the key to a good debate round, thus making it not just educational to you as a debater but to me as a judge too.

In round stuff/Random

- PICs are fine with me but don't be abusive.

-Jokes are nice

-Never make fun of opponent

-Never card clip (although there is some leeway for novices)

-If I suspect any stealing of prep during flashing or w.e, I will be Conor Cameron with time through the rest of the round.

- Remember that debate is not a reading game, it's a thinking game. Thus, warrants win you debates not cards.

-AFF: always disclose affirmative case before the round if asked by the negative team.

If I am judging you at a tournament with preferences, then you should strike me if you do not agree with all of the following:

-I am an educator first. If anything happens in the debate that I deem would not be okay in a high school classroom, I will stop the debate and vote against the team that engaged in the inappropriate behavior.

-The affirmative should defend a topical plan and defend the implementation of the plan.

-Affirmative plans these days are too vague. You only get to fiat what your plan says, not what it could mean or what you want it to mean. If you clarify your plan in cross-x, the negative can use that clarification to setup counterplan competition.

-The negative should prove why the plan causes something bad to happen, not why it justifies something bad. In other words - most of your Kritks are probably just FYIs.

-I evaluate debate in large part based on the line-by-line. If you cannot flow, I am not a good judge for you. If you cannot specifically answer the other team's arguments and apply your arguments to them and instead just read pre-scripted blocks, I am not a good judge for you.

-Debate is a communicative activity. I don't follow a card document. I listen to what you say. I will only read evidence if I cannot resolve something in the debate based on how it was debated.

-For something to count as an argument it must be complete and explained. I also must be able to understand what you are saying.

-My lifetime speaker point average range is probably lower than what you are used to.

-If you are visibly sick during the debate, I reserve the right to forfeit you and leave.

Solorio High School '19, currently enrolled at UIUC

Add me to chain: steveguz29@gmail.com

Pronouns: he/him/his

Respect people's pronouns

I debated all four years of high school. My first experience with the topic would be the first round of the first tournament I judge in.

I'm open to any argument types, but I am more comfortable with CP+DAs. With K's, I'm most likely unfamiliar with the literature, so make sure to thoroughly explain the it. T's are fine.

Affs: prefer plan texts, but I'm open to judge K Affs, but be aware that I may be unfamiliar with them.

T: feel like they are underutilized especially in the beginning of the year. If this is a 2nr argument, make sure it's the priority (3+ minutes). I default to reasonability if that part of the debate isn't debated well enough.

DA: bread and butter. Explain the story. Link is more important than uniqueness unless proven in round. Impact calc key.

CP: again, bread and butter. Prove to me why the CP solves and is better (net benefit) and I'll vote for it. Don't abuse the number you read, then I give more leeway to Condo theory arguments. Aff prove why the CP can't solve, or prove there's no net benefit. Neg needs to prove it's not possible to do both, else i err aff.

K: I've debated against then, went for them before, but it's not my best offcase. Explain the story of the k and how the alt solves. I give more leeway for giving the Aff the option of weighing impacts in framework unless proven differently.

Theory: I'm fine with it. Prove in-round abuse, else I err the other side.

I prefer to be called Steve, not judge. I won't be annoyed or anything, just a preference

Tech over truth.

Don't be discriminatory to any group of people.

Read Death K but I won't be amused nor happy.

I give +0.2 speaks if you are able to roast Conor Cameron in your speeches

Brice Hansen

PGPs: he/him, they/them (no preference)

Email: bricedhansen@gmail.com

as of 10/28/21
About me:
-I debated for 4 years at La Crosse Central High school in Wisconsin being bounced back and forth between PF and Policy. I am now on my 8th year of judging/assistant coaching. I graduated from UW-La Crosse in 2020 with a major in political science focusing on political theory and ideology and a minor in math education. Currently I am a Graduate student at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in a Social Studies Master's Degree and Teacher Licensure program.

Paradigm as a Judge:
-As a debater who was thrown around between PF and Policy, I enter a round open to being told how I should judge the round. However if neither side argues the role of the judge/ballot/framing beyond the round, I will likely default to a role as a policy maker. Either way I still expect a full debate. I really enjoy K's (on aff or neg) just make sure you have and can explain the link. Framework is first priority in evaluating the round. If framework isn't read, then for most intents and purposes you can consider me a "policy judge," though I don't hold any strict views as to how a round should go or be evaluated.


Specifics:

Open CX- if it's your turn to ask questions and your partner asks the majority of them you'll probably both lose speaker points

Please include me in the email chain: bricedhansen@gmail.com

Arguments: I love framework. I don’t hold any "strict" views on the role of the ballot or of the judge so I leave it to the debaters to shape that. I love K’s, they're good and fair-ground.
There are arguments/authors I will not validate or listen to, a few are listed here (please don't make me add more):

*

low Speed = bad / faster speed = better

any card from Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, or any other author that makes claims of "race blindness" or uses biology pseudoscience to justify racist social/political theory.

cards and authors that actively support the oppression of peoples

Timecube
*

Delivery: In novice debates I never really expect speed. In a round I'll give everyone 1 warning. If the speaker doesn't slow down or clear up their speech I may stop flowing parts that aren't understandable or only record what I can keep up with, as well I will give leeway to the other team missing arguments or cards because they couldn't catch it. In other words, if you read like 14 one-sentence CP's and perms back to back I might only get down 7 of them, I might actively refuse to acknowledge any of them because I think it's malpractice and absolutely and laughably ridiculous. So just like don't do that, you're better than that.

Different Cases: I’ll listen to non-traditional affs, performance affs, and kritikal affs. In fact, I'd encourage you to test one out or run one. Just be ready for a Topicality/framework. I will not vote neg on T/FW on my own just to intervene against a non-traditional, performance, or K-Aff. If you want to win on T, framework, or a call of abuse it has to be the focus of your last rebuttal and evident, otherwise I won't give it much weight in what the round came down to.

Theory & Framework: I like good theory debates, but I need to know how it is relevant for me to care about it. If your fighting to win/view the round in a framework, you should be consistent with that and not just treat as a "hail-mary" argument from your first speech; pull yours through and weigh in your framework throughout the round.

Honestly, framework is huge in round and plays a huge role in how I evaluate the round. If you want to go for FW you can't drop it in any speech. If framework isn't contested, then isn't brought up until the 2nr/2ar I will not weigh it. FW doesn't get just to be opportunistically used, it must be used consistently to be considered valid praxis.

Topicality: T is important, but I won't just default a neg vote on T without it being the focus of the 2nr. I've voted for untopical plans before because T and abuse wasn't the focus of the rebuttals, and I will do so again. Right now I'd say T is best used as an argument when a plan text hinders the ability of a team to have a functional debate on the terms the 1ac sets, and/or is well beyond the span of the topic/resolution. If abuse isn't evident in the negative block and isn't the focus of the 2nr, I will not intervene for the neg and they will probably not win T.

In round let's be reasonable on T, not oblivious. If a team uses a common acronym such as USFG, and you're not sure what they mean just ask. Unless the team is using them to intentionally mislead, don't try to make some abstract T argument on it and claim they stand for something completely unrelated to the resolution like "United States Faceters Guild." Be reasonable about things, don't try to just strictly rulemonger in a nonconstructive way. If you want to go for an executive or courts CP that's fine, I don't make an assumption on what branch of the USFG the aff's actor is so there's merit to those CP's, just ask in CX what branch(es) the actor is. I don't like presumption on A-Spec when CX after the 1ac can resolve it. The aff gets to reserve clarification of the acting branch(es) for CX after the 1ac should it become a question, if you don't ask them about it then go for a-spec you are actively wasting everyone's time and it's clear as glass. 

DAs: If the disad’s uniqueness, link, and/or impact has been defeated or torn apart I’m not likely to weigh any of the DA other than evidence and arguments that apply to other areas in my decision. On DA's I look heavily at the risk of impact and the minimum impact it may have in a situation if it has any. Cross-applying DA's to other flows is fair game and more teams should remember that it's a thing they can do.

CPs: I will still flow through and apply any evidence and arguments you made if you kick a CP, I won't let you remove arguments from a round only your advocacy for the CP. Fiat and competitiveness are fair-ground arguments for me and I will listen to them. Really I'll listen to pretty much any argument you make on CP's but will not strike the evidence and arguments you presented from the round.

Kritiks: K's are good, I enjoy them. I've voted for and against all kinds of K's so don't expect any K to immediately win or lose you the round, I can personally agree with your K and vote against it based on the round or disagree with aspects of your K but vote for it. I don't have a preference to whichever K you run; you won't lose a round for running a K I'm not as personally experienced with, just run a K whose link makes sense for the plan. On alt; the alt can be an advocacy, but you should be able to explain what your advocacy/alt is and be able to point out where you made the argument for it in your cards. Be consistent with your 'alt,' redefining what your advocating in rebuttals is analogous to changing your CP so try to avoid doing that. If you wanna run clash of the K's between a K-aff and a K on the neg, I'm up for it, make it constructive though and remember not every K is exclusive to others.

Role of the aff and neg: I tend to view the role of the aff to present a plan and/or defend the resolution, and the role of the neg is to negate that. I may be the judge but I don't set the rules of debate, I just have a say over what is fair. If you feel that the resolution is insufficient for the moment as the aff then go beyond and make the case why the resolution isn't enough, the debate space is a space for advocacy and the discussion of ideas so it's vital to have that discussion here. Just don't mistake settling for the resolution and presenting a plan as the end of one's advocacy, dual power is an important praxis and there may be many other plans a team may wish to advocate for but only can pick one for this space.

Other Things to consider:
My favorite techniques and practices in a round are explaining arguments and weighing the round in common terms so that there is no confusion. It makes my job easier and lets everyone do a better job in round of both learning the topic and arguing on it.

When deciding on a winner I look at what points were emphasized in the rebuttals and then the net impacts on the flow. I’ll look at it through whatever frames I’m asked to look at it through otherwise I’ll decide on which side presents the best policy in the round. I am a really big fan of world-by-world comparisons in the 2r's.

Framework is HUGE. If the 1ac reads framework and it isn't contested in the 1nc, and then is extended in the 2ac, then that is probably how I will be evaluating the round if it's pulled through in every speech. If FW is not argued in the 1nc and not mentioned in the 2ac, just consider the framework dead and weightless if/when used in the rebuttals, and me really disappointed.

I have a tendency to see the 2NR and 2AR as speeches that narrow down each side to their final arguments. It's not that 1R's are less important they're like the staging grounds for the final arguments, but if you intend to win on something then bring it up in the 2R. I don't want to vote on something you aren't convinced you won on, and if you are convinced you won an argument and are convinced that it should win you the round, it better be in the 2R.

Hot takes:

If climate change/warming bad is your impact, you don't need to read an impact card. Anyone who doesn't understand the scope of warming impacts, needs/wants it explained to them, or questions the validity warming impacts really shouldn't be judging in 2019. Just say it as an analytic. You should probably still read your link chain unless it's absolutely obvious.

Assume I watch the news regularly, obsessively even.

Saying Cap is as good as it gets is gonna take some work for me

impacts that don't lead or focus on extinction are more reasonable and more likely. People suffering is an impact by itself, any impact chain that extends from there is usually indefinite speculation or hyperbole that detracts from actual suffering that is more likely to happen and is ongoing. That's not to say worse impacts don't spiral from chains of events, but that most of the time there is a minimum definite impact of suffering.

Margaret Hecht, she /her

New Trier alum, Debating at Emory, Coaching for Westminster

margaretdebate@gmail.com

The most important thing when I'm your judge: Please time everything (prep, speeches, cx, tech time) yourselves. I am awful about timing things and will forget 99% of the time.

Please be nice. Respect your opponents, respect me, don't swear a ton, etc. This activity should be fun.

I don't have strong argumentative preferences. I care much more about how you debate than what you debate about. I prefer judging policy debates because it's what I can adjudicate best, but I do judge a good number of K debates and can usually keep up.

Pleasego in line-by-line order. This means no long overviews or 'I'll do the uniqueness debate here.' This is the easiest way to get good speaker points.

Debates are best when people make fewer, more developed arguments. This means referencing specific lines of your evidence, line by line, extending warrants, doing good impact calc, and reading things that are well-researched rather than stuff meant to confuse your opponents.

I care about evidence quality more than most people.

I will only read what's highlighted when reading cards at the end of a debate.

[Update Jan. 2023: I have recently judged a few K v. K debates and have found them particularly hard to follow. I might not be the best judge for these debates.]

If you have any questions about my philosophy, please email me! (Or if you have any questions about Emory debate)

Peter Karteczka (call me Peter, not judge)

UIUC '25

GBN '21

peterkarteczka@gmail.com (yes I want to be added)

Top Level -

- I debated at Glenbrook North HS for 4 years (3 years in person, 1 year virtually).

- The ballot goes to the team that did the better debating. That being said I am not well versed in kritikal literature and have little experience going for the kritik so if that is your thing I should not be your ordinal 1.

- Tech > Truth. I am comfortable voting for any argument (process CPs, ASPEC, floating PIKs, plan flaws, etc) as long as it is executed correctly.

- I'll only adjudicate claims about things that occur in-round.

- Quality of evidence is extremely important.

- "Marked copy" does not mean "remove the cards you read." You do not have to do that, and you should not ask your opponents to do that.

- Clipping is an auto-loss and accusations should have evidence.

Online debate -

- For online debate, you need to slow down and prioritize clarity.

- Get verbal confirmation from everyone before speaking and debate with your camera on.

- Please minimize unnecessary tech time, I understand things happen but taking a while to send out emails annoys me.

- If I suspect you are stealing prep I will deduct it from your prep time or speech time.

Novice + Camp debates-

- Don't adapt to me. I'll adapt to you. Please be respectful, especially during cross-ex. There is no need to be overly rude, defensive, demeaning, etc. These debates in my mind are solely for learning experiences, however, keep in mind, that you will get better feedback by going for arguments that I have more experience with.

My predispositions -

- These are my general predispositions, they can all be reversed through technical debating.

- I’d like to stress that you should do you. As a debater, it always annoyed me when judges were ideological or made decisions that I thought were arbitrary, so I try to minimize my own biases while judging as much as possible. However, I'd also like to emphasize that not understanding your argument is not the same as being ideologically opposed to it. My familiarity with certain arguments could affect my ability to adjudicate, if I do not understand your argument I will not vote on it.

- As a 2n, I primarily went for policy strategies (da + case, adv cp + da, process cp) against topical plans and for framework against kritikal affs.

- I like it when debaters gave me easy outs rather than forcing me to dive deeply into contested issues.

CPs -

- As a debater, I went for process counterplans relatively often. However, that does not mean I default negative on theoretical questions regarding legitimacy and competitiveness (having a solvency advocate goes a long way when debating legitimacy).

- I understand the need to go for generic counterplans with internal net benefits, though I think everyone would rather you opt for a more substantive strategy should it be possible.

- I find that affs that have advantages structured around the mechanism to be extremely strategic and persuasive against process cps.

- I will likely default to judge kick (if the counterplan is conditional) absent a substantive debate about it.

- Arguments I don't like: object fiat, delay fiat, 'going through legal deficits' fiat, counter planning out of a double turn.

- Perms should have warrants and perm texts.

DAs -

- I find theory arguments against politics DAs to be unpersuasive.

- Make turns case arguments, and make sure to answer turns case arguments. Having multiple levels to turns case arguments (e.g. link turns internal link, link turns impact, AND impact turns internal link, etc), is extremely persuasive.

- Specific link evidence and carded turns case evidence goes a long way as well.

- "Framing pages" where you say "DAs are bad" are bad.

- It has become apparent that strategic plan vagueness and plan text in a vacuum are becoming increasingly common. If I don't know whether the disad links until the 2ar we have a problem.

- For politics, uniqueness usually determines the direction the of the link. For generic/case-specific da's the link probably controls the direction of the uniqueness debate.

T -

- I appreciate strategic plan vagueness and plan text in a vacuum, but teams are going too far. At a minimum, it should be possible to line up your plan with your solvency evidence and it should be relatively straightforward about what the plan does.

- Don't assume that I know topic dynamics (side-bias/functional limits/link uniqueness/other resolutional words, etc).

- It is your job to paint a vivid vision of what debate looks like under your topic and why their interpretation of the topic is worst than yours.

- As a debater, I found that precision offense encompasses most predictability and ground offense. However, precision claims have to be followed with quality evidence.

- Plan text in a vacuum is silly and should not be your main form of offense.

Ks -

- Kritiks were never really my thing but I will try my best (the closer the K is to a DA the better).

- The strength of epistemological arguments are severely diminished with performative contradictions.

- Util is probably good. I find that approaches where the neg attempts to access aff impact framing through link turns case/alt/other things more persuading than further kritiking the affs framing.

- Long overviews can be incorporated in line by line, there should never be a time where I need a separate flow for the overview.

- It will be very difficult to convince me to vote for high theory or post-modernism.

Plan-less affs -

- If you tend to read these affs, I am probably not the judge for you, I tend to find that it is hard to fully grasp offensive arguments made on framework when I am not versed in the literature.

- Fairness is an impact, but I find clash and education-based arguments to be more persuasive especially when there are case turns involved.

- I find that impact turns are more persuasive as aff offense than most defensive counter-interpretation strategies.

- NEG teams should impact turn (cap good, heg good, etc.)

- Please do not go for a K vs a planless aff in front of me.

How to get good speaker points (28.5+) -

- Have a developed negative strategy with minimized abuse.

- Keep track of prep and speech times.

- Be efficient with prep time and time allocation.

- Have a well-formatted card and speech docs (this can go a long way).

- Sending analytics (As a debater, I was not allowed to send analytics, however, I find that sending them offers more substantive clash).

- In an effort to promote disclosure at the high school level, any team that practices near-universal "open source" will be awarded .3 extra per debater if you bring that to my attention prior to the RFD.

Things that will make me severely dislike: (you should probably strike me if this would apply to you)

- Not flowing, being mean to your partner or opponent, reading more than 7 off (unless new disclosed aff), not following speech times, not disclosing properly (this can be quite obvious), reading offensive arguments, giving up, going to the bathroom multiple times (if absolutely needed, go before opposing teams speech).

Tony Miklovis

Call me Tony, not judge. Add me to the chain: tonymikl11[at]gmail.com

Please make email subjects for rounds something like "Tournament Round x - (Aff team) Aff v (Neg team) Neg"

About me:

Glenbrook North '21

Michigan State '25 (Go Green!)

Feel free to talk to me in person or email me if you are interested in debating for MSU!

-I debated for 4 years in high school and am debating in college. 2N/1A. Very involved in college debate, not so much for high school (so explain acronyms!). People tell me that I am very expressive (use that to your advantage) and that I look grumpy. I'm probably just tired, you shouldn't take it personally.

-Minimize unnecessary tech time and don't steal prep (it's really obvious, esp. in person)

-Tech over truth except for death good (this is not the same as war good). Willing to vote on it if literally dropped but the bar is on the floor for a response to this argument. I find this argument morally abhorrent. Frankly, I don't care if this makes me "not tech over truth." People arbitrarily intervene and insert their predispositions all of the time when evaluating arguments - at least I'm transparent about it. Surely, you have something else you could read and if you don't, you should re-evaluate where your preparation priorities lie.

-Besides death good, I'll try to minimize my own biases and adjudicate the round at hand impartially and thoroughly. Willing to vote on ASPEC, floating PIKs, plan flaws, whatever. Execution trumps pre-dispositions. Make complete arguments and answer them in the order presented.

-Feel free to post-round or ask lots of questions (be mindful of the other team!)

-I am literally horrible at responding to messages. Feel free to bump an email if I don't. If I don't respond to an email, that is my own fault and has nothing to do with you.

-For online debate: don't start unless my camera is on

Non-negotiables:

-Ballot goes to the team who did the better debating. The ballot is yours to earn, speaker points are mine to give.

-I'll only adjudicate claims about things that occurred in-round.

-Follow speech times. I'm going to stop flowing after the timer goes off and let my timer beep until you stop because of decision times. (I can't believe I'm saying this)

-Clipping is an auto-loss---accusations should have evidence and stake the debate on it.

-Don't make offensive arguments (racism good, sexism good, etc.)

-You can insert re-highlightings. You have to explain the arg and the implication for me to evaluate it. e.g. "Alt causes - their ev - inserting" is not a complete arg, but "Alt causes - x, y, z, proves the scenario is inevitable - inserting" is a complete argument.

Specifics:

-Not everything requires a card, however, I love the research component of debate and very much appreciate well-formatted and high-quality evidence. I also appreciate evidence comparison, re-highlightings, and the likes.

Counterplans:

-Love them. Big fan of advantage CPs or topic-specific CPs. Don't really care for your uncooperative federalism backfile but you can read it, I guess.

-Competition is generally a good determinant of theoretical legitimacy. If you're defining words in the rez to generate competition and it's not something that obviously competes (e.g. advantage CPs), consider starting the standards debate in the block. I tend to think substance is your best path to victory when answering them.

-Bad for theory (except conditionality) unless particularly egregious (e.g. fiating the fed + states, or fed + international actors). If you have a topic-specific advocate, I’m heavily persuaded by predictability arguments.

Topicality:

-I'm down for pedantic T interpretations if supported by quality evidence---make sure to do lots of evidence comparison if that is the case.

-Don't assume that I know topic dynamics (explain things like side-bias, functional limits, the core Neg strategies, etc.)

-Predictable limits > limits, though I can be persuaded that predictability should be viewed as a floor and not necessarily a ceiling. Much more in the debatability > precision camp than I was in high school, unless the interp ev is completely unqualified / out of context.

Ks:

-Explain, give examples, contextualize links. I don't read critiques often as a strategy, but I'll vote on it if you win the flow and I am moderately familiar with most K args.

-Try not to performatively contradict yourself

-Good-ish for framework K's and K's as DAs. If you fiat the alt and don't win framework, I'm likely inclined to find the perm threatening.

Planless:

-Novices should read plans.

-Fairness or clash are both fine. I don't really like "external" impacts to clash like movement lawyering. I think they are too susceptible to impact turns and requires conceding the premise that debate spills out. Frame it as an even if, if you do decide to make those type of args.

-Neg impact turns (heg good, cap good, etc.) are oftentimes more strategic than framework if you win the link.

-Impact turns are more persuasive as AFF offense than most defensive counter-interpretation strategies.

DAs:

The more case specific (esp w turns case), the better.

Love them. Who doesn't? Topic DA + extensive case defense is one of my favorite 2NRs to give/hear

Make and answer turns case argument

I love when teams make mini-T arguments on the link

Maine East '21

Yale '25

medebatepiekut@gmail.com

Tech > truth

I am most comfortable with policy arguments, but will do my best to adjudicate the round based on the arguments presented in the speeches. Out debate the other team on your k and I will have no problem voting for you.

I am not familiar with the current topic and Yale will be the first tournament I judge this year. Make sure to include any explanations of things specific to your aff or about really niche parts of the topic. I think this is most important for T debates as I have no idea what topic consensus looks like, what affs are being run, how big the topic is, etc. Broad claims about how the topic is bad for one side or how some types of affs on the topic are trash will not be persuasive without detailed, warranted analysis. Be descriptive.

Don't like theory debates that much. Condo is the only reason to reject the team, but condo is probably good. However, solvency advocate theory, international fiat bad and object fiat bad are pretty persuasive reasons to reject the counterplan. Perms are probably your best bet against process counterplans.

Fairness is an impact on T-USfg (probably the best one), but is very difficult to explain well. Invest time in it. Utilize TVAs. I think the most persuasive strategy for K Affs against T-USfg is to impact turn the neg team's model. I usually don't find middle-of-the-road approaches with counterinterpretations very persuasive.

If your aff against the K, I find FW and util very convincing. Utilize your aff and impact turn the alt. If your neg and running the K, I think winning FW or that the links turn the aff is important. I think most alts are silly and don't do much (unless the aff team drops it or you win you can fiat away everything).

Politics DAs are inherently bad, but are necessary. They were a majority of my 2NRs in high school. Go for a clever ptx DA and read good evidence and I'll probably be happy and boost your speaks.

Glenbrook North- he/him

If you are visibly sick, I reserve the right to forfeit you and leave.

spipkin at gmail. Please set up the chain at least five minutes before start time. I don't check my email very often when I'm not at tournaments.

1. Flow and respond to what the other team says in order.

2. You almost certainly are going too fast for how clear you are.

3. Kritiks on the neg: Probably a bad idea in front of me.

4. K affs: You definitely want to strike me.

5. No inserting anything into the debate besides like charts or graphics (things that can't be read aloud). You don't need to re-read the plan and counterplan text, and you can say perm specific planks, but if you are reading a more complicated perm than that, you should read the text. The litmus test is "insert the perm text."

6. I generally flow cross-x but won't guarantee I'll pay attention to questions after cross-x time is up. I also don't think the other team has to indefinitely answer substantive questions once cx time is over.

7.Plans: If you say you fiat deficit spending in CX, you don't get to say PTIV on T taxes. If you say normal means is probably deficit spending but it could be taxes, you get to say PTIV but you also risk the neg winning you are taxes for a DA or CP. Fiat is limited to the text of what you have in the plan. Implementation specification beyond the text requires evidence and can be contested by the neg.

8. Highlighting should form a coherent sentence. If it's word salad, I'm not going to waste my time trying to parse the meaning.

9. I like counterplans that are germane to the topic. Most of the process counterplans I've seen this year are not that They either can't solve the net benefit or they're not competitive or both.

This paradigm is sorted in descending order in terms of the importance of each component as I perceive them.

djroytburg@gmail.com

I debated at New Trier and currently study Computer Science and Statistics at Emory. I am immensely grateful for the communities I found debating with these two institutions, and I aspire for my view on debate to replicate many of the values of the coaches and debaters that have supported me.

I try not to let my beliefs influence me.

I won’t entertain arguments that are facially unethical, including death good. I’ll stop flowing.

I am a big believer in decorum and procedure. Please time yourselves. Please take a shower if needed. Please send everything in one doc before you stop prep. Please do not come to the debate in your pajamas. The mass migration to the bathroom post-2NC needs to stop, or at least diffuse a little bit. Please treat your opponents and I with respect, at least until you leave the room. Your content is formed by your form.

I am an expressive judge. My face betrays my emotions, no matter how hard I try.

I believe the status quo to be a somewhat stabilized form of debate for both K and policy teams. I do not consider topicality to be unreasonable or dangerous. I do not consider K AFFs to be the reason debate is dying. I am difficult to persuade that ballots shape personal subjectivities. I believe that K teams are better-equipped to win alternative, equally impactful forms of offense.

Topicality debates against planless AFFs should rely more on delineating boundaries between interpretations. I feel that most K AFFs produce vague, unclear imperatives (“AFFs must trouble the epistemology of the resolution”) as if they are defined parameters on the topic, and everyone assumes that this makes sense. This makes it difficult to understand AFF offense beyond “this AFF is very important.” I think about topicality through models, not AFFs.

Teams defending K AFFs should be very clear about a solvent mechanism or advocacy that redresses harms outlined. The risk that you win offense is, to an extent, predicated on this question.

I have been told by every university-level debater and coach around me that “conditionality bad” is facially nonsensical, but I can’t seem to remember why.

Counterplan theory debates need to devolve to issues that are more enriching than AFF and NEG ground. Unless someone is interested in doing better comparative work to prove some definitive topic bias, I couldn’t help but care less.

Debaters generally need need higher-quality evidence, particularly on topicality. I cannot believe some the things I have read in your card docs pass as evidence.

Debaters need to substantiate their arguments much more. Debaters will spurt out any wild conjecture that comes to mind in order to answer solvency deficits. Many of these are claims that one would need a Ph.D. to prove in any serious context. Spin is for comparing or connecting substantiated arguments, not for constructing them from thin air.

You can substantiate an argument with something other than a card. Good analytics beat bad disads. Mid analytics don’t beat mid disads.

Lastly, please keep the following, little catchphrases to yourselves. I never want to hear them ever again:

“Uniqueness determines the link/the link determines uniqueness”

“No perms in a method debate”

“Sufficiency framing”

“Our impacts are linear”

“Intrinsicness”

Soundjata Sharod

Email: soundjatasharod@gmail.com

I competed in the National Circuit and sometimes in the Chicago Urban Debate League for 4 years at UC Laboratory Schools.

For my sophomore, junior, and senior years, I utilized mostly Kirtikal arguments like Afropessimism, Neolib Ks, Pan K, and Baudrillard Ks. However, im incredibly receptive to all argument types. I appreciate passion and creativity in whatever type of arguing is going on. I have a special place in my heart for performance debate.

My mother is African, and my father is African American. I personally identify as black, but these days I’m not sure. I don't care what pronouns you refer to me by, but I identify as a man.

The Rundown

1. Truth v.s. Tech

Leading towards tech. I don’t automatically presume that dropped arguments are 100% true, but I’m still a lot more likely to vote for dropped arguments. I do take technical leads very seriously. Dropped arguments are an easy way to decide debates, and I’m generally looking for an easy way to resolve debates.

If you kinda drop an argument and if you can make cross-application in speech, I’ll cut you some slack. Emphasis on some.

2. Is debate a game?

Its a slippery slope arguing that debate is just a game, because my ultimate goal in these types of debates is to decide what it should be. Because a lot of Krtikal affs are positioned to frame debate as some sort of revolutionary space or radical potentiality, it hard to win that a mere intellectual game only about policy is important in this world.

Please win a TVA.

- Winning a TVA for me pretty much is an automatic win for framework. But now in days, its hard to do it. Most of them strip the aff of their theory and education, which tends to be what the aff’s interp is about. If your going for the TVA, then you have to really sell your version of education and have compelling disads on the affs theory.

- You may have to win that debate should keep existing. Now in days, teams shrug at the possibility that their theory is activity destroying and world shattering, because that tends to be the goal.

3. Policy specific topicality

I love topicality. It’s definitely a voting issue. At the most, there should be 3 violations. If you spread through the block, put the analytics in the doc!

4. Ks

Framework and impact framing is the most important argument in this debate. That being said, I expect to hear a role of the judge or role of the debate argument in the negative block. Line by line refutation of the affs standards is also expected.

I wish i didnt have to say this but links need to be specific to the aff— decently specific. It has to be contextualized to a specific mechanism of the aff. Debates about risks of links are quite weird to me especially when we are talking about broad socio-political problems that are in some way already happening. You cant kinda be capitalist, antiblack, or facist. It’s either they are that thing you say or or they’re not.

Alternatives can be optional, but not having them in the 2nr makes it a lot harder for me to hang my ballot on something. Be clear upfront on the alternative. I’f your not, then i will pull the trigger and vote on a permutation even if the disads are extends.

Floating pics are bad.

5. Case turns/ Disads/ Counterplans

I need a coherent story. Overviews with impact analysis are important. Perms are a thing that I’m fine with. Perm theory— not so much.

Name : Lauren Velazquez

Affiliated School: Niles North

Email: Laurenida@gmail.com

General Background:
I debated competitively in high school in the 1990s for Maine East. I participated on the national circuit where counterplans and theory were common.

Director of Debate at Niles North

Laurenida@gmail.com

ME

Experience:

I competed in the 90s, helped around for a few years, took a bit of a break, have been back for about 7 years. My teams compete on the national circuit, I help heavily with my teams’ strategies, and am a lab leader at a University of Michigan. In recent years I have helped coach teams that cleared at the TOC, won state titles and consistently debated in late elim rounds at national tournaments. TL/DR--I am familiar with national circuit debate but I do not closely follow college debate so do not assume that I am attuned to the arguments that are currently cutting edge/new.

What this means for you---I lean tech over truth when it comes to execution, but truth controls the direction of tech, and some debate meta-arguments matter a lot less to me.

I am not ideological towards most arguments, I believe debate structurally is a game, but there are benefits to debate outside of it being just a game, give it your best shot and I will try my best to adapt to you.

The only caveat is do not read any arguments that you think would be inappropriate for me to teach in my classroom, if you are worried it might be inappropriate, you should stop yourself right there.

DISADS AND ADVANTAGES
When deciding to vote on disadvantages and affirmative advantages, I look for a combination of good story telling and evidence analysis. Strong teams are teams that frame impact calculations for me in their rebuttals (e.g. how do I decide between preventing a war or promoting human rights?). I should hear from teams how their internal links work and how their evidence and analysis refute indictments from their opponents. Affirmatives should have offense against disads (and Negs have offense against case). It is rare, in my mind, for a solvency argument or "non unique" argument to do enough damage to make the case/disad go away completely, at best, relying only on defensive arguments will diminish impacts and risks, but t is up to the teams to conduct a risk analysis telling me how to weigh risk of one scenario versus another.

TOPICALITY

I will vote on topicality if it is given time (more than 15 seconds in the 2NR) in the debate and the negative team is able to articulate the value of topicality as a debate “rule” and demonstrate that the affirmative has violated a clear and reasonable framework set by the negative. If the affirmative offers a counter interpretation, I will need someone to explain to me why their standards and definitions are best. Providing cases that meet your framework is always a good idea. I find the limits debate to be the crux generally of why I would vote for or against T so if you are neg you 100% should be articulating the limits implications of your interpretation.

KRITIKS
Over the years, I have heard and voted on Kritiks, but I do offer a few honest caveats:

*Please dont read "death good"/nihilism/psychoanalysis in front of me. I mean honestly I will consider it but I know I am biased and I HATE nihilism, psychoanalysis debates. I will try to listen with an open mind but I really don't think these arguments are good for the activity or good for pedagogy--they alienate younger debaters who are learning the game and I don't think that genuine discussions of metaphysics lend themselves to speed reading and "voting" on right/wrong. If you run these I will listen and work actively to be open minded but know you are making an uphill battle for yourself running these. If these are your bread and butter args you should pref me low.

I read newspapers daily so I feel confident in my knowledge around global events. I do not regularly read philosophy or theory papers, there is a chance that I am unfamiliar with your argument or the underlying paradigms. I do believe that Kritik evidence is inherently dense and should be read a tad slower and have accompanying argument overviews in negative block. Impact analysis is vital. What is the role of the ballot? How do I evaluate things like discourse against policy implications (DAs etc)

Also, I’m going to need you to go a tad slower if you are busting out a new kritik, as it does take time to process philosophical writings.

If you are doing something that kritiks the overall debate round framework (like being an Aff who doesnt have a plan text), make sure you explain to me the purpose of your framework and why it is competitively fair and educationally valuable.

COUNTERPLANS
I am generally a fan of CPs as a neg strategy. I will vote for counterplans but I am open to theory arguments from the affirmative (PICs bad etc). Counterplans are most persuasive to me when the negative is able to clearly explain the net benifts and how (if at all) the counterplan captures affirmative solvency. For permutations to be convincing offense against CPs, Affs should explain how permutation works and what voting for perm means (does the DA go away, do I automatically vote against neg etc?)

Random

Tag team is fine as long as you don’t start taking over cross-ex and dominating. You are part of a 2 person team for a reason.

Speed is ok as long as you are clear. If you have a ton of analytics in a row or are explaining a new/dense theory, you may want to slow down a little since processing time for flowing analytics or kritkits is a little slower than me just flowing the text of your evidence.

I listen to cross ex. I think teams come up with a lot of good arguments during this time. If you come up with an argument in cross ex-add it to the flow in your speech.