This makes me feel old to say, but I have been judging four years now, and competed for four years as well at Hillsdale doing both Parli and LD.

New - I am really starting to dislike PICs, do with that knowledge what you will. I highly value overviews or underviews in the 2AR and the NR.

Newish - I have an inbuilt bias against plan texts that rely on solvency authors for clarification about what plan does. Whatever your plan says is all that you get to FIAT, and you should not be able to rely on your solvency author to shift what the plan will be doing. Also am against Affs advocating resolution as their plantext (unless 100% necessary in a hyperspecific parli round). I will happily vote neg on FIAT theory about concrete plantexts, voting neg on vagueness based on this, or doing a rules oriented thing about plantext specificity.

Speed/Flowing: I am fine with whatever speed as long as it is equitable, if one side can not keep up they need to be extremely vocal about the issue instead of not commenting and just running a speed position. I do NOT flow card cites so don't tell me to extend Wolf in 14, tell me to extend the C card, or third inherency card.

K/Project Affs/CP's: I am not a kritical theory guru. I have a limited background, and am not ultra hip with the jargon. If you want to run / win these positions you need to explain it to me in your own words and not by repeating words that no one in the room really understand. I need a really clear articulation of how me voting for you solves the problem you identify, yes you can say the 'squo is terrible' but thats not a reason for me to vote against your opponent. I need to understand how a ballot for you is a vote to make the world better in a tangible way. I hold K's and CP's to the same burden of solvency as I would a policy based aff. Also, if you are reading me 15 year old backfile link cards, just don't.

Impact Stories/DA's: Quantifiable is good. The question of 'probability' really depends on the ink on the flow. If the aff never argues how an alien invasion will not happen on the Link/Internal Link/Impact level I will grant it 100% probability. Saying 'Its not probable' is not an argument.

T/Procedurals/Theory: My T threshold is probably lower then the average judge, mostly because I don’t buy that there has to be a fair division of ground between the aff and neg. If the resolution only allows two topical affs, I am not going to ignore T so that there are more affs that can be ran, instead people need to stop voting for terrible resolutions. I am completely ok voting on straight theory regarding say FIAT, if the neg says FIAT can’t do xyz things, I could totally vote on that even if its not mentioned in the rules.

Closing thoughts: I will vote neg on 100% terminal solvency takeouts. Tell me where to vote, you don’t want me thinking. You should be moderately pleasant, I can deal with someone that is sassy or whatever, but don’t devolve to being rude.

TL:DR – I try to be as tab as possible. Impact calculus is my default weighing mechanic unless told otherwise. Run what makes you feel comfortable and try to have a fun round. I will not join Speech Drop unless absolutely necessary.

Note from PSU February tournament: I am not particularly swayed by full-cites procedurals/Ks and have a very very high threshold for voting on them, whereas a very very low threshold for buying "community norm is author/date and readily available doc" arguments.

Experience/About Me: I was on the UCM Speech and Debate team from 2012-2016. I did NPDA and IEs all four years and NFA-LD for three years. I’ve been judging here and there since I graduated, but my real job is as a reference librarian, so I’m not super involved in the debate community and the ever-changing norms. I use they/them pronouns.

Overall Paradigm: I try to be tab. It is impossible for anyone to remove every bias before coming into a round, as we all have preconceived notions about how the world works and what debate should look like. Debating is supposed to be fun, so I like to think that we should all do our best to provide an enjoyable, inclusive space for anyone to feel at home. In the spirit of being transparent (if you’re still reading this far) the following are my preconceived notions of debate so that you have a better idea of how I might view a round.

Round behavior: Don’t be rude. I don’t mean that in a respectability politics sort of way. It’s not rude to be angry at your opponent for saying something reprehensible. It is rude to make fun of a new debater for not knowing how a piece of theory works. Debate is supposed to be enjoyable, which is why we keep doing it. So have fun and try to let your opponent and judge(s) have fun as well. I will tank the speaker points and potentially award the L (you’ll get 20 or less depending on how late in the day it is) to competitors that engage in behaviors that are offensive, discriminatory and/or cruel towards their opponents and/or groups of people. I am also not the biggest fan of people that argue with my RFD – questions are fine, trying to continue the debate when I've already made up my mind is not.

Technical Stuff: Speed is fine if it’s not used as an exclusionary behavior. I will call “slow” if you’re going too fast, and “clear” if I cannot understand you due to lack of clarity. I also really appreciate when debaters differentiate (pause, go a tad slower) on tags and plan/alt/CP texts. And and Next do not make flowing easy. I will not join your Speech Drop. While I'm glad I don't have to wait 10 years for a flash drive swap to happen – I don’t want to read your case unless there’s a specific card in question, which I will ask for after the round. The only reason I might join is if I was suspicious of clipping or power-tagging. I've squirrelled on a handful of panels where the other judges voted for arguments that were in the cards but were never articulated in any way by the debater. I want to hear you tell me what your cards say and why that's important. If I wanted to just read debate cards, I'd dig up my backfiles from 2014. UPDATE FOR VIRTUAL TOURNAMENTS: I do open Speech drop to catch tags in the event of poor audio quality. I still do not read the content of cards until after the round and only when specific warrants have been mentioned by debaters. My stance on not wanting to vote for arguments in the card but not in the speech is unchanged.

Procedurals: Ts have always been my favorite argument. Procedurals (ESPEC, Vagueness, etc.) are also fun to see. Proven abuse is always easier to win than potential abuse, but I’ve voted for both. The best sort of T/Procedural debate is when the Neg collapses and then impacts out the position. Topicalities and Procedurals have discursive implications in the round and within the debate community. RVIs are not good arguments unless they are specific kritikal turns to standards/voters - this means I am extremely unlikely to vote for "procedurals take away education from the round" or "Topicality/ESPEC/Vagueness/Trichotomy is just a time suck." An RVI in the sense that the negative is running an exclusionary interpretation that is racist/sexist/ableist/etc and I should vote them down because of it is something I will vote on.

DAs: A good ol’ plain DA debate is fun. Clean link stories in the rebuttals will help you immensely. Well-articulated impact calculus is also great.

Kritiks: I'm fine with them. Please run a framework (a role of the ballot is a nice addition as well, but not necessarily required) on your K. It seems to be the new “thing” to jump straight into the links but I’d vote for an aff that says “K doesn’t have a framework so the alt doesn’t work in a policy-oriented impact calculus.” That’s a painful RFD, but easily avoided if you'd just put a FW card on top. I’m not familiar with much philosophy or critical theory so if you expect me to just understand your very convoluted alternative, you're going to have a bad time.

Counterplans: See DAs. The only caveat I’ll add is that I am bad with counterplan theory. When people run 10 points on why conditional counterplans are bad, just spreading through their theory backfiles as fast as they possibly can, my flow gets messy real quick and there is nothing to vote on because there's no explanation of the impacts of why dispositional counterplans are bad. I try my best to flow it all and listen, but just know that CP theory was always my weak spot and I never improved in that respect. I have nothing against it though, so if that's your thing, I have voted on CP theory before.

Performance: (updated 4/16 for NFA) I have judged a few performance debates in the 2020-2021 season so I no longer have only a theoretical idea of how I would judge. Framework, workability and community solvency clashes are always more interesting and convincing than someone running a generic T and/or generic cap K. I would *also* say that the performance rounds I've judged were all performance vs performance and they all ended up being very adversarial rounds. If you are a debater running a performance about your identity: if another debater runs a performance about THEIR identity there are PLENTY of ways for either of you to win the round without invalidating the other person's identity. I do NOT want screaming matches about whose identity is more Valid as I think it's an ideological farce we've been sold to continue to in-fight and not address the people causing actual oppression. Again, not respectability politics - call in whatever problematic behavior you see - but there's no reason to villainize someone who has faced similar struggles.

Impact Calc: Do it. Whether it’s an aff, T, K, DA....whatever it is, if you frame where specifically on the flow that you win the debate (e.g. “I still have the internal link to dehumanization through the K, which was never permed, which means.....”), you’ll likely hear me reiterate your underview in my RFD.

Hello friends!

Experience: I debated for 3 years of policy in high school, and did 4 years of NFA-LD in college. I am now an assistant coach at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In my experience as a debater, I primarily focused on policy arguments but did some K debate as well.

Speed: Speed is fine with me, but please be clear, and please respect the wishes of your opponent. I won't drop you for continuing to spread if your opponent asks you to stop, but I will dock your speaks.

Evidence: Obviously skipping in between lines when highlighting is fine, but if you change the intent of the author, or highlight the evidence in such a way that ignores grammar (incomplete or incoherent sentences, subject-verb disagreement, generating entirely new significations, etc.) I won't be happy. Changing the intent of the author is cheating and is sufficient ground to drop you if pointed out by your opponent, and poor-highlighting practices make me inclined to ignore that piece of evidence, or listen to theory about how your evidence practices are abusive/anti-educational.

Framework: Stock Issues don't matter much to me. I evaluate the debate through an offense-defense paradigm unless you tell me otherwise. I'm very open to you changing the frame of the debate, so don't hesitate to do so.

Impact Framing: Please do. If you don't, I will intervene and evaluate the round in terms of the relative probabilities of 'something bad' happening, so it comes down to the risk of the aff solving something bad vs. it creating something bad. If you don't do impact framing, and I 'intervene' in a way that you disagree with, that's your fault.

K: K's are persuasive to me. Please read framework in the 1NC if you wish to change the frame of the debate (ROB, ROJ, etc.). I'm generally comfortable with K lit, but there are definitely some lit bases that I'm less familiar with, so be sure to ask me before round if you have any questions regarding my expertise or whatever. Alt debate is important, and you should probably spend a fair amount of time here, but its not necessary. If you kick the alt but win the framework and link debate you can still get my ballot. The perm is a test of competition, but you can talk about the perm in terms of an 'advocacy' in order to stress test the links. In other words, talk about the perm as if it 'goes into effect' in order to imagine if the perm resolves the links. If there are conceded links to the aff, its much harder to vote on the perm, but I could still do so if it sufficiently resolves the links.

CP: Cool with me. The CP just needs to be a competitive option of action compared to the aff. The perm is a test of competition.

T: T is persuasive to me, especially toward the beginning of the season. You don't need in-round abuse for me to vote for you, but I do find it persuasive, and you need to internal link potential abuse arguments out to your voters. I probably default to viewing the T debate through competing interps, but I will vote on reasonability if you win the framing question. On reasonability, note that I view it operating in conjecture with the counter-interp. Reasonability means that if the aff provides a 'reasonable' counter-interpretation, and meets it, then I don't drop the aff on T. Reasonability does not mean 'I reasonably meet my opponents interp,' so don't frame it this way.

Theory: T is more or less persuasive to me, depending on the abuse/fairness/education story. If an argument is clearly abusive, or operating on sketchy ground theoretically, then make a theory argument. Here's some specifics:

Condo: If the opponent reads 2+ conditional advocacies, condo is more persuasive to me than if they just read one.

PICS Bad: Not overly persuasive unless the PIC is uniquely abusive, but I'll always listen to it.

Vagueness: Probably the least persuasive to me. The plan/cp/alt has got to be really vague for me to vote here. Once again, I'll always listen to it.

Intl Fiat/States Fiat: I will definitely listen to theory args here. I don't think that either type of fiat is inherently abusive, but they have the potential to be.

Do nots: Don't be racist/sexist/transphobic/etc. Don't tell your opponent to harm themselves. Don't flagrantly insult your opponent. I'll drop you.

(They/Them)

Yes, put me in the email chain. But also speechdrop >>> email chains.
keegandbosch@gmail.com

Experience: My personal competitive experience is mainly in IEs, though I have competed nationally in debate events and coached LD, Policy, and IE students. My debate background is primarily policy and NFA-LD.

Paradigm:
In all forms of debate, my primary concern as a judge is to remove as much subjectivity as possible. In the interest of this goal, I vote almost exclusively off of the flow. This is not to say, however, that I will blindly flow your arguments without thought. Ex: if your opponent drops an interpretation in their T flow, that does not mean you can define the word to mean whatever you want.

In the interest of being flow-centric, I try not to make assumptions and do the work for you. I will judge based on what actually happens in the round, not what I assume you meant should have happened. If you want credit for running an argument, I need you to actually run that argument.

I really appreciate debaters who give clear overviews in the final speeches. I want to be explicitly walked through the round so far, and told step-by-step what arguments I should prioritize and why. If you make it easy for me to vote for you, you will be happy with the vote.

I believe Kritikal argumentation is a vital cornerstone of inclusive debate practice, and I generally consider the K to be a priori. However, as with everything, if you can provide me with a solid argument why the K is bad and you debate on that flow better than your opponent, I will still vote against the K. It's not about what I believe, it's about who is the better debater in that round.

As long as you are supporting your arguments with strong evidence and you are debating well, I will not vote against you simply because I disagree with your claims. If your opponent doesn't disprove it analytically, I will not vote against it simply because of preference.

(NOTE: there are obviously exceptions to these rules. I will not vote in favor of something like "slavery good" or "women's suffrage bad." Any argument that is inherently problematic or harmful to others will not get my vote, even if you argue it better than your opponent. You don't get to hurt other people for a ballot.)


SPEAKER POINTS:
This is not my own words; it was shared with me by a teammate and I believe in the system as a method of removing subjectivity in scoring. (Updated as of 11:22 AM on 12/12/2015.)

27.3 or less-Something offensive occurred or something went terribly wrong
27.3-27.7- You didn't fill speech times, didn't flow, didn't look up from your laptop, mumbled, were unclear, or generally debated poorly
27.7-28.2- You are an average debater in your division who based on this rounds performance probably shouldn't clear but didn't do anything wrong per se...
28.2-28.5- Based on this rounds performance you might clear at the bottom.
28.5-28.9- You probably should clear in the middle/bottom based on this rounds performance. Same rules as above on moving in to this bracket from above or below.
28.9-29.3- You probably should clear in the middle/top based on this rounds performance. Same rules as above on moving in to this bracket from above or below.
29.3-29.7- You probably should clear at the top based on this rounds performance. Same rules as above on moving in to this bracket from below.
(You can also be moved in to this bracket from an above or below point bracket by debating someone in this bracket and performing well or debating someone in the lower point bracket and performing poorly. Or you can move up in brackets by doing stuff that was compelling in the round, such as reading arguments I liked, made me think, were technically proficient, or generally did something interesting.)

Version for tournaments that force whole-number speaks:

25 - Something went awry
26 - Probably won't clear, but nothing was wrong
27 - Should clear at the bottom
28 - Should clear in the middle
29 - Should probably clear at the top
30 - Exceptional

If both speakers fall into the same category, the winner will bump up 1 point. A few random notes (I update these as things come up)

About Specific Issues (I update these as things come up in rounds)

Re: in-round abuse. I am extremely sympathetic to in-round abuse. If you treat your opponent's poorly and they read a theory shell about why that's a reason to reject the team, odds are fairly good that I'll buy into that line of argumentation. You can avoid this by not being a jerk to your opponents.

Re: post-rounding. I do everything in my power to give a clear and thorough explanation of the round and why I voted the way I did. I am happy to answer questions about the round and do what I can to give you a sense of how to improve moving forward. I am happy to spend as much time after the round as you need answering questions and discussing the round. HOWEVER, I guarantee that debating me post-round will not change my ballot. I always submit my ballot before disclosure. Post-round debating just creates a hostile space for judges and debaters alike, and it's not the image of debate that I want to create.

Re: evidence sharing. In ALL FORMATS I want to be included on the email chain or the speechdrop. Particularly in PF, I don't like the community norm of asking for evidence after the speech and taking a bunch of time off the clock to find and share evidence. Your speech docs should be put together before the speech, and you should send your speech to the email chain or send it in the speech drop before you speak.

Re: speed. I am completely fine with spreading, but YOU are responsible for clarity. I will call clear twice in a speech. After that, if I don't get it on the flow, then I don't get it on the flow. Speed is only okay as long as it isn't excluding anybody from the round. If your opponent asks for a slow debate, don't spread them out of the round, be inclusive first and foremost. But I personally love speed, so don't slow down for me, certainly.

TL;DR
I will vote for the team who debates better, regardless of what techniques are used to do so (so long as those arguments are not harmful to others.) WHAT YOU ARE MOST COMFORTABLE AND CLEAN DEBATING WITH IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHAT I LIKE. If you have any questions, coaches and students can contact me at keegandbosch@gmail.com

Experience:

I have competed in Parli, Public forum, NFA LD Policy, and British Parli. I competed for UCM's Talking Mules for 4 years in undergrad and have competed in debate 4 years in high school in Missouri. I also have experience with individual events.

Speed: I am fine with speed as long it is not used as a weapon of exclusion. Further, if I stop flowing it is because I can no longer understand what is being said. Thus, it would be helpful to hear you slow down in your last few speeches to summarize voting points.

2020 topic: I have not researched this topic, nor have I judged any tournaments this season. Please do not assume that I have background knowledge of the topic.

T/procedurals:

I default to viewing T's/Procedurals through the lens of competing interpretations unless told otherwise. Therefore, it is important that you provide a counter interpretation and explain how you meet their interpretation in addition to your interpretation. This approach is a smart strategy and I enjoy hearing them. I don't like hearing arguments that only have the purpose of spreading someone else out of the discussion or preventing important topics to be spoken about.

CP:

CP need to have impacts and analysis of actual benefits.

DAs:

They need to actually link. If you are wanting me to vote here, you need to take the time to flesh out the impacts of the DA and weigh them against the advantages of the 1AC.

Ks:

I love them. I need to know exactly what links, just like normal, links of omission are not as strong as case specific links. This does not mean that I will not vote on links of omission.

Solvency hits on case:

These are smart and I have voted on them. Do work on case.

* Overall I am a tab judge. Simply tell me where to vote, why I am voting there and do all the work for me.

I judge rounds based on impact calculus. I will vote for just about any argument, as long as it is explained. However, I do generally put a heavier burden on warranting out your points than other judges (i.e. I won't vote for an argument that I don't understand), so be wary of running more complex Ks, as I'm not very familiar with the literature. I am a big fan of procedurals and will vote on potential abuse. I debated 4 years in NFA, so I am fine with speed, as long as it okay with all competitors and other judges in the round.

Email- mmdoggett@gmail.com

Background:

My college career started back in the 90s when CEDA still had 2 resolutions a year. I have coached in CEDA, NFA, NPDA, IPDA, and a little public forum. I am now coaching mainly in NFA LD.

General:

First, you should not assume that I know anything. This includes your shorthand, theory, or K literature. If you do, given our age differences, you might be shocked at the conclusions I'm going to come to.

Second, if you don't offer an alternative framework I will be net benefits and prefer big impacts.

Third, I presume the aff is topical unless the negative proves otherwise. I don't necessarily need proven abuse either. What I need is a clean story from the final negative explaining why they win and why I'm voting there. T is a voter, and I'm not going to vote on a reverse voter (vote against a debater) unless it is dropped or the carded evidence is really good. I am more willing to ignore topicality and look elsewhere than I am to vote the negative down on it. In rare instances, a negative can win without going all in on it, but that is very, very unlikely.

Fourth, I tend to give the affirmative risk of solvency and the negative, a risk of their DA.

Fifth, I'm probably going to need some offense/risk of offense somewhere on the flow to vote for you.

Sixth, if your K links are non-unique (apply to the status quo as well), you are only going to win if you win your alternative.

Seventh, on conditionality (LD specific)- I will probably vote conditionality bad if you have more than one conditional position.

Eighth, I will vote on them, but I'm not a fan of tricks. Tricks are usually a good indication that you know that you have done something pretty shady but if the opponent let's you get away with it, I'll vote for it.

In closing, I think that pretty accurately describes who I am but just remember I try to vote on the flow, but I tend to only look at the parts of the flow the debaters tell me too. Good luck!

Scott Elliott, Ph.D. J.D.

Asst Director of Forensics, KCKCC

Years Judging: 35+

Judging Philosophy:

What you need to know 10 minutes before your round starts:

I believe the affirmative should affirm the resolution chosen by the organization. I have been persuaded to vote otherwise. But, it is tough.

That argument you always wanted to run, but were afraid to run it….this may be your day to throw the Hail Mary. I prefer impact turns and arguments that most judges dislike.

Affirmatives still have to win basic stock issues. I prefer counterplans and disads. But I also believe that the affirmative has a burden to defend the ontological, epistemological, pedagogical and ethical assumptions of the affirmative arguments they have chosen.

I have probably written, cut cards for and against, and coached teams about, the “cutting edge” argument you are thinking of running. I have also voted for it and against it depending upon how that argument is deployed in the round.

I am not intimidated nor persuaded by team reputation, verbal abuse, physical assaults or threats. If you won, I am willing to take the heat and I do not care about the community’s reaction. I have friends outside the debate community and I have my dogs. I don’t need to be your buddy and I certainly do not care about my social standing within this so-called “community.”

Memorable examples of ways teams have unexpectedly picked up my ballot:
1) Voted for Baylor one time because Emory misspelled their plan text;
2) Voted for Emporia once because their plan wiped-out the universe, destroying all life (you had to be there);
3) Voted numerous times on anthro kritiks, De-Dev, Cap K's, anarchy, malthus, space, aliens A-Life, etc.;
4) voted for a counter-performance because it made me feel more emotional than the 1AC narrative;
5) voted for porn good turns;
6) voted for genocide reduces overpopulation turns;
7) did not vote, but the team won, because they took my ballot filled it out, gave themselves the win and double 30's;
8) voted once on a triple turn--link turned, impact turned, and turned back the impact turn (had to be there);
9) voted on inherency;
10) voted on foul language in a round--both ways--foul language bad and "yeah, we said F***, but that's good" turns;
11) voted for veganism K while eating a cheeseburger.

One last point: All of you need to flow the round. The speech document they flash over to you is not the debater's actual speech. Look. Listen. You may be surprised what the other team is actually saying.

My name is Miao, I am a new student judge, I have debated LD for two years. I hate to admit it but English is my second language, so I'm not good with speed, and spreading is a definite no. I look for strong logic and eloquence.

T is not my favorite, so please debate the topic, but if you think the other side has really violated your ground, go ahead and defend it.

Tell me to crx-apply, or extend, because I won't do that for you.

I have been involved in debate for about 15 years. I debated for 2 years and have been a coach/judge for about 13 years. When I judge a round, I try to be as tabula rasa as possible. I tend to view the round as a court, where I am an actual judge, and the affirmative and negative are presenting me with a case. It is my job to judge the evidence and arguments as they are presented in the round. I am to assume no outside opinions or evidence which is not presented in the round. Under this theory, any argument can win. I will listen to and vote for any argument in the round, provided that it is well-evidenced and argued. Also, I tend to be a very standard judge, your average judge will probably vote the same way I do. The only thing you need to win is good evidence and impact calculus.

I feel as though debate rules are more like guidelines than a list set in stone. Proper debaters should strive to meet the rules or guidelines in front of them. However, unless there is a clear argument in the debate that the other team is violating important rules, I will not vote a team down for it. I believe it is up to the debaters to point out those rules and explain their importance in the debate. I will vote on properly laid arguments for or against the rules based on how the debaters handle these issues.

I will vote for any argument that a debater places in the debate, if I’m given a good reason to do so. Also, although I do like Topicality, it is a harder argument to win. The negative must really go for it and prove their violations, standards, and the impact it has on the round. Also I don’t like it when someone makes a bunch of Topicality arguments and then drops them with no given reason. Try to use Topicality strategically, and if it needs dropped, explain why and what that means for the round.

In the rebuttals, I expect debaters to give me clear voters and tell me why I vote on these issues. When a person does not give me clear voters, it is up to me to interpret the round and I don’t like doing that. I prefer clear cut reasons to vote for each side. If one person has clear voters and the other does not; the person with the clear voters and impact stories will usually win.

I have coached and judged college debate for almost 15 years, and have judged hundreds (if not over 1000) intercollegiate policy debates in all formats: CEDA/NDT, NFA-LD, BP/Worlds, IPDA, and NPDA. I think all forms of debate have merit. I will generally judge a debate consistent with the norms and goals of the particular format.

You do not need to “adapt” to me. I will “adapt” to you. That is my role as an educator, and being an educator is the primary role of a judge / critic in intercollegiate debate.

You work hard doing this. You give up your weekends and substantial portions of your life to participate in this activity. It is my role to make sure you get rewarded, educationally, for that. Debate should be fun, and educational, and rewarding. I will do my best to make sure it is all those things.

I have judged all kinds of debates in all kinds of frameworks and voted for all kinds of arguments. I've voted for and against my own political and philosophical beliefs.

My general assumptions are: policy, critical, performance, and procedural debate are of roughly equal value.

I love a good policy debate. I love a good critical debate. I love a good performance debate. I especially love when the debaters agree on a style and go all in on it. Two policy teams running “5-off” and going fast and engaging in good issue selection in rebuttals is a beautiful thing. Seeking someone run a K, really well, and knowing the critical literature inside and out, is a beautiful thing. Judging in a magnificent “performance” debate, it a beautiful thing. Do what you do. Do it well. Do it with passion. Teach me something. Teach your opponent something. Teach yourself something.

I can't be "objective" or neutral about intentionally hostile and exclusionary speech acts (classism, racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism etc.)

I enjoy good theory and procedural debates. In competitive debate, I prefer competing interpretations and tend to believe conditionality is good. You can convince me otherwise.

T:Generally, T is a time suck. I have voted on T many times, however, if handled well or poorly. I have also voted for many “non-topical” and performance Affs. I do not require a debater to “role play” the USFG. An aff that does not want to debate in a traditional policy format can do so, the Neg must then convince me that this is not part of the Aff’s right to define, etc. It’s easier to win T if you can show in-round abuse than hypothetical abuse, although I’ve voted on both. In theory, I can be convinced T is a “reverse voter” and would vote on this in a rare case, when properly argued by one side and poorly rebutted by the other. Although if you are going for this, you are probably desperate on the flow everywhere else.

Aff, you needn’t necessarily have a plan (although your opponents might convince me otherwise) but you need a clear statement of advocacy. Neg, your advocacy must be a reason to reject the affirmative advocacy.

CP: You can have more than one (LD rules notwithstanding) although if are you doing this, then something odd is happening in the round. I will default to conditionality on CP’s unless convinced otherwise.

A “perm” is a test of competition, and not part of affirmative advocacy. I tend to default to the position that CP’s must be competitive.

I view the resolution an initial division of ground, and not the matter to be “proved.” Thus, I default to the position that PICS are OK. As with all theory, however, the debater can convince me otherwise and I have voted Aff on PICs bad before.

K: A K is not required to have an ALT, but certainly can have one. If there is no ALT, however, there needs to be a reason to vote for K, set up as a voting issue (usually through a framework). If you run a K, you need to know the literature – don’t run Ks you don’t understand. I do enjoy reading and listening to good discussions of critical literature.

I'm autistic and strictly speaking have a lower audio processesing speed. This only ever really impacts me on theory arguments happening at speed and in especially background noise-ful online debates. Prioritize clarity please. Make it very clear where you're at and what you're doing. I've been doing just fine recently (I think I became accustomed to online debate) but it never hurts to disclose these sorts of things

An update on the above, I honestly have begun to beleive that the shift to speech docs has shifted students AWAY from emphasizing clarity.

I only vote on what I hear you say, not whats in the speech document. I also do not read cards for you unless there is debate on what a card says.

About Me and Debate: I have been doing competitive debate in some capacity since 2007. In terms of reading me: Generally if I look confused, I am. If I am holding my hands in the air and staring at you that means I think you're making a brand spanking new argument in the NR or 2AR that I have no idea what existing argument to put it on. So if that's happening, please make sure I understand why this isn't new (so why its an extension of an existing arg or in the NR's case a response to an Aff arg). Reading your judge is a good skill to have. Ultimately I think the debaters are in charge of their own destiny and I’ll vote wherever/however you tell me I should. I like offense. I am willing to vote on defense, but I will be unhappy about it.

Good line by line argumentation is always awesome. Good analysis will beat just reading a card (a good card PLUS good analysis is even better). I prefer not to read cards after a round unless there is contention on what that cards actually says.

Speed: I am fine with speed, but (especially in this activity) clarity is KEY, if both your opponent and myself can understand then we're all good. I have judged too many rounds where debaters will try to go quickly not because they can do it clearly/efficiently, but because I'm fine with it so why not. That is a terrible reason to spread and I will dock speaks accordingly. Additionally please slow down on your theoretical positions, no one can write that fast. If I don't get all those sick T arguments you're making then my ballot will probably reflect it. Most important thing is everyone in the round understanding you, but don't be that person who says 'clear' just so slow someone down then go that speed yourself. No one should be winning rounds strictly because one person was much quicker than the other or because one debater can't understand the words another is saying.

I will say clear once, and that it all.

Ethos: For the most part, your ethos will only effect your speaker points and not whether or not you win the debate. Just because I think you're a jerk doesn't mean you're not a jerk who won. Though keep in mind that often the things that ruin your ethos ALSO lose you rounds (like assuming arguments are stupid and not explaining why or not finishing your argument because the implications are clear enough to you). I will usually let you know if you have done something that damaged your ethos.

There is another surefire way of damaging your speaks with me in the back of the room: I can get a bit angry when debaters I know are smart make stupid decisions.

General Theory: The voting issue "The NFA-LD rules say X" holds exactly no weight with me. I do not follow/enforce rules simply because they are rules. You should at least explain why that particular rule is good. In fact, if you wish for me to judge based on what the rules say, then I can. Please disregard the entirety of this paradigm, I am now a stock issues judge. If you want me to the follow the rules I will.

There are SO MANY other reasons T is an a priori issue and I never hear most of them.

Topicality: Topicality is my jam. It is quite possibly one of my favorite arguments in debate. I have fairly low threshold for voting on reasonability on marginally topical affs. I think debaters are the ones who set the realm of the topic. Tell me why your aff deserves to be topical. Tell me why your definition is the best one for this topic. Tell me about it. If your aff deserves to be considered topical, TELL ME WHY. For my negatives, remember to tell me why the Aff is taking the topic in the wrong direction. Make sure you think through your position and all of its implications. Make sure you tell me why this aff hurts you. Try to force them into showing their true colors. Run that DA you claim they will No Link out of, worst case is they don't make that argument but now you have a DA with a conceded link. My brain breaks when you refer to things as limits DAs or education DA. Say links.

Kritiks: The Kritik is a special animal, in my opinion. If you run the K like the NDT/CEDA people do I think you’re doing it wrong. In fact, there is a good chance you will lose the debate if you just pull an NDT/CEDA K out of some backfile and read it. Keep your implications tied to policy action and try to avoid flowery and long tags on evidence.View the K as if you are a lobbyist for X cause and you want to convince congress (me) to vote against a policy currently on the floor (the aff) due to a negative assumption that policy is making. Explain to me what happens when we keep making policies that make this bad assumption. Reject the Aff is a fine alt, just keep the above in mind. If you start reading a K and look at me and I look extremely annoyed, its probably because you aren't adapting to me. Not an auto loss, just a rough go. DO NOT RUN LINKS OF OMISSION. I am extremely partial to the 'we can't talk about all the things all of the time' argument.

To my K Affs: Kritikal affs are my favorite thing. I think they're a lot of fun and are super educational. If your K aff doesn't have a plan text that is relevent to the rez you will never get my ballot, preferably it should be fiated but I have softened on that issue. However, I do not listen to Topicality Bad. Consider my position on the K in the paragraph above this one. There are plenty of excellent examples of this. Once I read a position that changed the definition of torture to include mental anguish as a form of torture as a staunch rejection of Cartesian Dualism. This both helped the people we're doing terrible things to in Gitmo and other places, but also began the break down of dualistic rhetoric in the government (and yes, my card did say that. It was a sick card). What I'm trying to stress here is that we are a policy making role play activity. To defend a position you do not believe in is to become more educated on that position. Debates about the political are important and I think the way we do them is especially important.

Please note all of my personal views on competitive equity and having topical and preferably fiated affs can be ignored if your opponent should not even be at the tournament. See: Is a predator.

Roles of the Ballot: The role of the ballot functions as a round framing and a focus. If you think that a particular minority group is underrepresented within the topic and you'd like the debate to be solely about their betterment, make THAT the role of the ballot. Use it as offense on that generic nonsense test the neg didn't bother to make more specific to your position. We can have the debate on whether or not that framework is a productive one. Hell, the neg can agree that you're right about that minority group and tailor their position to operate within it. And isn't that what we should all want, assuming we truly care for said minority group and the role of the ballot is not simply to box the neg out of all of their ground?

Speaker Point Assignment: My speaker point assignment system is mostly gut based to be perfectly honest with you, but there are a couple tips and tricks I can provide to get your 30. Ultimately the assignment is a combination of debate style, organization, ethos, and clarity of speech. A perfectly clear speaker with poor organization won't get a 30, but neither will an unclear speaker with perfect organization. In terms of priority, I suppose, it goes Clarity, Ethos, Organization, Style.

My Flow and You: I would describe myself as a good flow. If you have any experience that statement should ring a few alarm bells and I get that. I have trouble getting cites at times, especially if you're of the 'full citation' mentality where the author and the date are 20 seconds apart. To be honest I prefer people actually extending their positions instead of "Cross apply XY in ## " and it definitely helps with my flowing. If you're flying through things like theory or don't clearly enunciate your tags I will miss things and you may lose because of it. You have been warned.

Things I think are dumb/Pet Peeves: Disease extinction impacts, "The rules say so", State links, Kritiks without impact D, "99% of species that ever existed are now extinct" logical fallacies, the rest of the logical fallacies, Putting the burden of proof on the negating position, blatantly asking your opponent how they'd respond to a potential argument you may make in your next speech (like come on, have some nuance), caring about white nationalists and their feelings. "Just read my evidence" in cross ex.

You'd have thought living through a global pandemic would have put the kabosh on disease extinction impacts. It has not. :(

Other Thoughts: Debate is my favorite thing and happy rounds full of debaters who also love debate is my other favorite thing. Remember, THIS IS A GAME. As the great Abe Lincoln once said in a fictional movie "Be excellent to each other. And... PARTY ON, DUDES!"

History: This is my sixth year out from undergrad and my second year judging NFA-LD on the regular. 2 years of CEDA/NDT debating, 2 years of NFA-LD debating. High school; Congress and Mock Trial.

Dear Trans Debaters (and judges): Please feel free to approach me at any time over any medium for any reason. I am happy and honored to give any support you may need. Seriously, do not hesitate or think you are being a bother or a burden. You are important and deserve support.

NOW LETS TALK ABOUT DEBATE

New Thoughts: I feel in the last few years Ive gotten a better idea of where I lean on a few things.

In round: You should generally ignore faces I make, I make them a lot. The one thing you should not ignore is if I make a point to lean back in my chair, cross my arms, and frown at you. I am making it obvious that I am not flowing because you are either a)making a completely brand new argument when you shouldn't be b) repeating yourself or c)being offensive.

KRITIKS: Kritiks to me are about questioning and attacking the assumptions inherent in the 1AC and proving that those assumptions cause policy failure and/or significant harms. Note that this does not mean I think the K needs to solve for the case. In fact, most Kritiks that attempt to do so *usually* have terrible Alternatives. Your evidence probably turns case, takes out solvency, or outweighs on impact on its own. Your alternative should be well supported by your evidence. Reject Alts usually don't. I prefer Ks to be as focused on policy making as possible.I probably won't vote for Ks based on links of omission 99.99% of the time, they put an obscene burden on the aff.

COUNTERPLANS: Counterplans are great for education and fairness in debate. Topical counterplans are BEST for these things. If you run a counterplan, you should probably go for it because they take a lot of time to just not go for in an LD structured round. That said, if you somehow have another viable position, you should be able to kick the counterplan as long as you don't use the affs own answers to it against them ? Thats abusive and the one thing I will vote you down for regardless of how poorly the aff explains the abuse.

THE AFFIRMATIVE: I love both traditional policy affs and kritikal affs. K Affs should keep my K section in mind as it applies to them. You should be topical and you MUST specify an actor within the resolution. Technically its not impossible to get me to vote for an untopical aff, but you should be relevant enough to be able to pretend you're topical, and defending yourself as such, or at least that the educational importance of your aff justifies the deviation from the topic. But it needs to at least incorporate some core aspect of the topic, like bare minimum. If you aren't relevant enough to do that, you shouldn't be running this. If you're not heavily involved in the topic, and/or you are refusing to use the USFG, you are blocking your opponent out of the round. Switch side debate is vital for fairness and education and rejecting the USFG cuz its evil is firmly neg ground. This is a game. Without fair rules it devolves into madness and national tournaments where Affs win 90% of their rounds (lookin at you CEDA (yeah that actually happened)). Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, there is always radical lit discussing these issues within the topic, and that radical lit does not preclude USFG usage/topicality as much as everyone thinks it does.

Ultimately running the same thing every round is only robbing yourself of the educational value of switch side debate and learning about the system we are stuck in right now (valuable knowledge for a radical as well). If your opponent does not want to go for the arguments Ive stated preference for here, or doesn't actually win that debate I will still vote for you. It is very easy though to get me to vote on switch side debate good, fairness k2 debate survival. The fairly low number of statism/reject usfg affs does not justify my intervention on this matter, but I will definitely re-evaluate that position if it starts to crowd out topical traditional affs.

ROLE OF THE BALLOT: Roles of the ballot can be used as a great way to open up debate about priorities and whats important. They can also be used to box the neg out of their fair share of ground. The neg should be able to critic it's productiveness and/or work within it. Forcing the neg to run a counterproposal probably means I hate your FW/Role of the Ballot

TOPICALITY: The best way to get my ballot on topicality is a really good brightline and a really good argument on the lost ground and why you should have it. You MUST talk about fairness and education and the topic as a whole. Refer back to General Theory below. If you are going to run it, you should probably mean it.

GENERAL THEORY/PROCEDURALS: In order to vote for a theory/procedural and treat it as a voter I need a clear description of what they did wrong, a brightline/what they should have done instead, and why it matters. It should detail exactly why it is abusive, and how it effects fair/equitable ground and education in this round and debate as a whole. I am not against voting on potential abuse and in fact, you should probably have some examples of it in your impacts. HOWEVER, it is more of an uphill battle.

If all you say is "its abusive and a voter" with no abuse story and no impact on debate as a whole I will not consider it a voter and you couldn't convince me to vote for it even if they drop it. If you can't make a full procedural for whatever reason, don't be afraid to use the word abusive though. It could still make me more likely to drop the arg if you do it right.

Don't rely on the Da Rules. It will eventually come back to haunt you because the rulebook does not distribute ground fairly and is outdated (#sorrynotsorry). Its also a lazy non argument that doesn't develop your critical thinking skills and will lose you speaks.

FLOWING: My flowing capability is decent. I will write everything you say down, and will *probably* put it in the place you want me to, but you should *definitely* be clear about where that is just to be sure. I do not always (or often) catch citations (ya'll mumble them...I did too tho) so you probably shouldn't use just the cite and assume I know exactly which card you are referring to. Tags/Parts of the argument are preferable.

SPEED: I will understand most of what you say no matter how fast you go, but don't push my mediocre flowing to the brink ESPECIALLY if I am flowing on paper. I can only type/write so fast. If I can not understand you its probably an issue of clarity not speed. If I say CLEAR you need to CLEAR. If that requires you to slow down so be it.
You have the right to ask your opponent to slow down, but do not abuse this. I expect you to be able to keep up with above average conversing speed at bare minimum. If you ask someone to slow down, do not dare go any faster than that.

SPEAKS: There is not a very consistent speaker points range in this community. I am probably a bit of a fairy in this regards. Good oration skills will get you higher speaks. Good clear fast talk will get you higher speaks. Making it easy to flow will get you VERY good speaks. Best way to get good speaks is debate well and show you read this paradigm (or at least skimmed it).

My name is Callistina, but call me Callie, it's 2 syllables shorter :)

I debated parli 2 years for Valley Christian High School in San Jose, CA and then another 2 years LD for Ithaca College. Now I'm coaching LD at Ithaca College and occasionally judge for the Penn State Speech and Debate Society. My favorite kinds of tournament are those with a lot of food and those with civil, respectful and friendly debaters.

That being said, right off the bat, I don't tolerate any kind of disrespect and/or incivility towards your opponent and/or literally anybody else. I think it's important to maintain an educational environment with courtesy and respect to encourage debaters, especially novice debaters. If you're rude in round, make fun of your opponent under any circumstances, make racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic/xenophobic/ableist, etc. statements, misgender anyone in the round intentionally (and/or keep doing so after knowing everybody's pronouns) or just generally make the round hostile and intimidating to your opponent, I will drop you, period. Courtesy is a voting issue, and I have a generally low threshold for it, because I think it's important to be courteous before being a good debater.

On that note, I'm ok with speed, but please signpost and be clear and slower with your tags and plan text. I will frown upon spreading if it 1. trades off with your clarity and 2. excludes your opponent, especially when they're international students and/or don't speak English as their first language (like myself).

About CX and prep time - Please don't cut off your opponent as they're legitimately answering, BUT feel free to do so when they start rambling on to waste your time or frustrate you. Don't use CX as a weapon to exclude your opponent. If I notice things like that in round, the least severe action I will take is docking your speaks significantly, and the most severe being possibly dropping you, especially if a legitimate argument for that is raised by and defended by your opponent in their next speech. Also, I frown upon people attempting to start CX time or prep time for their opponent - it's pretty rude actually, so please try not to do that. I will notice if you do.

Now about debate itself. Tell me how you want me to vote and explain clearly why you're winning the argument.

Before your speech: please please please (yes I'm begging you) never ever forget to give me an off-time roadmap/order (if it's IPDA, then 10-15s at the beginning of your speech time). I've had to ask for it quite a handful of times and I kinda not want to anymore, because it really isn't my job to have to keep asking for it. Roadmaps/orders are extremely helpful for me to follow you in your speech, since (believe it or not) I struggle with English in debate pretty often.

For LD

** PSA** Regarding tagging and highlighting/underlining evidence: Please make sure your tags accurately reflect the body of your evidence and your highlighting/underlining preserves the context of the evidence and respects the intention of the author. Powertagging and highlighting/underlining out of context and the author's intention are enough grounds for dropping the debater who commits these practices, especially when called out by the opponent. At best, this will lead to the entire evidence card being rejected, which also hurts the debater in the round.

I really don't want to have to penalize anyone for this, so please try to avoid this situation entirely.

Stock Issues:

You as the aff should present/explain the stock issues clearly, and be ready to defend them against the neg with everything you have. That's the easiest way to get my ballot there. On the other side, when you're neg, if you can show me that the aff doesn't meet any of the stock issues they're supposed to present, then I will vote for you there.

Topicality:

This is also another easy way to get my ballot because I've found myself starting to love T debates a lot more lately.

T is a priori, but depending on the wording of the resolution, my threshold for T fluctuates accordingly. If you as the neg wanna go for T, then you should clearly explain 1. why I should prefer your interpretation, 2. why your standards are better and how the aff hasn't met them and 3. what I should be voting on and why I must do so.

Kritiks:

I don't love them, but I'll listen to them. My threshold for Ks isn't as high as it used to be, but it's definitely still not low. In a nutshell, Ks are some sort of thought process concerning certain issues, and I find them perm-able most of the time, since it is possible to enact policy and embrace a thought process at the same time. I don't hate Ks though, but you gotta do some real work to show me why your K is not perm-able and explain to me which level your K is engaging in and why it matters more than the aff.

My threshold for any theory against condo Ks varies depending on the K, but usually it's pretty low.

If you read a K aff, you'd better have a plan text and a good reason why your aff is better than a policy aff. My threshold remains high for those also.

Counterplans:

I think CPs are really strategic if done right. I think unconditional CPs are best. Condo CPs can get abusive in my opinion, so my threshold for any condo theory will be pretty low. It doesn't mean I'll vote against a condo CP right away though - I'll listen to it and try to follow it to the best of my ability, and how I vote also depends on the neg strat you're reading. Other than that, you should explain why your CP is competitive and why you have the net benefit, as well as how your CP doesn't bite (a) disad(s) like the aff does. I don't care whether or not your CP is 100% topical, but it's best to have a CP that has some sort of relevance to the resolution in my opinion. It'll be helpful to, based on my experience. Also you should be able to defend why the aff can't perm your CP and be very sure that you can fight tooth and nail to defend your position.

Disads:

I think these are underrated; disads are pretty straightforward and more often than not they do force a choice. To win a disad you need to do some impact calculus and show me why your impact(s) outweigh(s) the aff advantage(s). You also need to clearly explain why your disad scenario is unique and establish a link to the aff. As the aff, you only need to beat either uniqueness, link/threshold or impact, whichever one you can beat, to beat the disad.

Theories:

I have a love affair with those. I actually have a reputation of having read full cites way more than I should've, and I wear it like a badge of honor :D

That being said though, since theories are interesting wildcards, my threshold for those varies depending on how you read them, though my threshold for voting on theories without proven abuse is pretty high. I find them entertaining and refreshing, but you really need to tell me why your theory argument matters and what implications it has regarding the round. Be careful when reading these though; they can sometimes toe the line of an ethical charge, and you'd better make it clear that you're reading a theory and not bringing any charge against your opponent.

However, I will never, ever, ever vote for disclosure theory on either sides, in any shape or form, so don't bother. You'll be wasting your time.

RVIs:

All is fair game. If an RVI is not answered to sufficiently, I will vote for it.

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For Parli/NPDA and IPDA: TL;DR I'm pretty open-minded when it comes to parli or IPDA, so I will evaluate everything you say to me, as long as you can clearly explain it. I will not vote for something I don't/can't understand, because it's your job to help me understand where you're at in the debate. Be nice and courteous, because you can cross apply my whole paragraph on courtesy here too.

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That's it for my rambling TED Talk. Thanks for reading! If there's still anything you need me to clarify before your round with me, just ask!

Final note: Debate can sometimes be overwhelming and intimidating, and sometimes you find yourself in a bad tournament for you. It's discouraging and exhausting. I know, I've been there before. Please please please know that even if you don't do as well as you'd like to, you are a great debater with a lot of potential, and that a few bad tournaments don't define you as a person or even a debater. I'm always available to support you even emotionally in a tournament, should you feel like you need someone rooting for you during a tough weekend. I've made many friends from other schools during my debate years who have supported me, and I'd like to do the same for you too.

Background: I competed in policy debate for four years in college at the University of Mary Washington. I coached policy debate for seven years, public forum for one year, and LD debate for five years.

Despite my policy background I am committed to the spirit of LD. This means that while you can speak quickly, you should be comprehensible and both debaters should be ok with going fast. I have seen too many debates where a varsity debater unnecessarily spreads out a novice debater.

Topicality is a voting issue. I am unlikely to vote on a reverse voting issue on topicality even if it is dropped. Arguments about why topicality is problematic may be reasons to include your affirmative, but are rarely reasons for you to win the debate. It is probably best in front of me to frame these as expanding the interpretation of what the topic can be, rather than rejecting a topic all together.

The citation rules are so widely disregarded that I would feel uncomfortable enforcing them, especially if there is no conversation between the debaters about reading them prior to the first speech.

Winning topicality or any other theory issue requires more work than winning on a substantive issue. This is to say, if both teams go for substance I have to pick a winner, but if one team goes for theory I can assess that they have not surpassed the burden required to reject the other team. This does not mean that T and theory are unwinnable arguments in front of me. In order to win you should clearly explain your interpretation, explain how the other team has violated it, explain why your interpretation makes for good debates, explain what the opponent does or justifies, and explain why that is bad for debate. This is not code for I do not vote on theory. I will vote on theory.

Negatives should narrow the debate in their second speech. Pick the arguments you are winning and go in-depth. I will give affirmative’s wide latitude in debate where the negative goes for everything in a messy way. Going for T and substance is usually a mistake, unless one or both are such a clear win that you have extra time (this happens rarely).

Presumption goes to the status quo, which means that ties go to the negative (in the world of a counterplan presumption is up for debate). A negative can sometimes make a persuasive case that the affirmative has to prove solvency, which is a separate issue from presumption.

Many debate arguments can be defeated without cards by making smart, warranted, analytical arguments. I wish I saw more of these types of arguments.

I don’t subscribe to an offense defense paradigm; good defense is in many cases enough, especially with theory debates.

I am increasingly willing to intervene in theory debates. Two speeches does not allow for proper theory development and gives both sides the ability to simply block out every speech. Counterplans like consultation and 50 state fiat require a very low threshold to defeat on theory. I am not a fan of conditional counterproposals in LD. Negative arguments like the affirmative doesn’t get permutations are generally nonstarters.

I will vote on kritiks but prefer them specific to the topic and with a hardy dose of explanation about why it relates to the specific claims of the 1AC. I am not a good judge for generic backfile checks with one card that is semi relevant to the topic area. Some additional clarification. Changes to how the round should be evaluated (moving from the question of the desirability of the policy) need to be made explicitly and early and should include substantive justification about why the change excludes or makes undesirable the aff.

Final speeches need to make choices and clearly identify their path to the ballot. One part of this is the order you present ideas in your speech.

Things that will get you lower speaker points/make it hard for you to win.

1. Be rude to the other team.
2. Not answer or be evasive when answering cross ex questions.
3. Be unclear in CX about the status of counter plans
4. Being unable or unwilling to explain your arguments in CX
5. Read unwarranted/unqualified evidence.

One way to get (perhaps unfairly) good speaker points from me is to be entertaining. Many debaters, who were not the best at debate, but nevertheless were pleasant to watch debate, (being funny, speaking passionately, being nice to their opponents) have received speaker points that would typically fall outside of their skill range.

Background

My debate background is four years in NSDA LD, four years in NFA LD, and four years of judging NFA LD. I work as a general practice attorney in Lincoln, Nebraska.

NFA LD Judging Paradigm

Stock Issues: The affirmative has the burden to prove inherency, solvency, harms, and topicality. If the affirmative fails to meet that burden, I will vote for the negative.

Terminal Defense: The affirmative has the burden to show that their plan has a propensity to achieve their advantages or ameliorate their harms scenario. I do not like try-or-die arguments.

Theory: I believe that showing potential abuse is enough to justify voting for a theory shell.

Topicality: I default to competing interpretations. Show why your interpretation of the resolution is correct and that your plan is topical. If the debaters determine that I should use a reasonability standard, I will determine whether I believe that someone’s interpretation is reasonable.

Speed: I prefer a pleasant conversational speed, and I will enforce the rules related to speed. Given that a conversational speed is subjective, I request that a debater who believes that their opponent is talking too fast to call “speed.” If a debater is requested to slow down and does not, I will vote them down.

Counterplans: I will enforce all NFA-LD rules related to counterplans including: burden to proven counterplan solvency, burden to prove competition with plan, prohibitions on multiple counterplans, prohibitions on inconsistent arguments with counterplans, and prohibitions on counterplans related to form of government, economic system, or need for further study.

Citations: I prefer debaters to provide full source citations the first time they read from a source.

Feel free to ask any additional questions before the round starts.

Hey y’all, Nadya here, I’m glad that I’m getting the opportunity to judge you in this round! For the sake of a pre-round TL:DR-

I want my opinion to come into play as little as possible during the round. I would like to be told how to vote and why, by the end of the rebuttals I will almost always pick the easiest simplest route to ballot possible. You can do this through Impact Calc, Framing debates, link directionality claims, etc. I don’t particularly care what the debate ends up being about, topical or in total rejection of the resolution I’ll be fine either way. I am fairly familiar with Policy, Kritik, and theory debate, do what you want. I will give you the best possible feed back I am capable of at the end of the round. I am most familiar with NPDA and NFA-LD.

Some more specific things for when you have time to read more -

General Things -

- I find that people have gotten less interesting clear in their impact calculus as of late, I would like more explicit and clear articulations as to why I should care about what impact. Absent being given this context in a round I will default to probable over high magnitude impacts.

- My experience with debate, I am currently the Director of Debate at Lewis and Clark College and have been for the last 5 years.  Before that I competed in NPDA and NFA-LD for 5 years in college.  I read a little bit of everything as a debater but had some particular favourites (Queer Pes, D&G, DeCol, Impact Turns)

- I have no problem voting on terminal defense if the round comes down to it, but I am always much more excited to get to actual vote offense in a round.

- I’m fine with you going fast if you want, its not really a huge problem so long as you aren’t weaponizing speed to exclude other people in the round go wild. I have a pretty low threshold needed to be met to vote on speed theory

- I don’t vote on disclosure, don’t take this as a challenge, I DO NOT VOTE ON DISCLOSURE, I do not care if its conceded, I do not care if you think you’ve got the version of the argument to get me to finally change, I will not vote for it under any circumstances.

- Please please please, read analytics, be smart, just saying an argument isn’t an argument because it doesn’t have a piece of evidence immediately attached to it doesn’t mean that an argument wasn’t made, as long as its explained an analytic is a perfectly valid argument and needs to treated as such.

- I like creative extensions of the aff, I like well structured overviews, and in general am always excited to see what weird new things you all come up with, so please show me what you’ve got, I love seeing the limits of what debate is capable of being.

Theory Specifics

- I will vote on theory read in basically any speech within reason, I think that if abuse happens in the 1NR than the 2AR has a right to read arguments about it happening, it doesn’t mean I will automatically vote on it, but I will at least flow and eval it.

- Some jurisdictional issues regarding theory. Theory is by default Apriori, you can always make the argument that it isn’t or that I should evaluate something else first. “This is an NFA-LD rule” is not a voter its a statement, the action of them breaking a rule has a result, that is your voter. Fairness and Education are bad voters, please contextualize them, what kind of fairness, education about what? Please make sure you have a clear interpretation, please please please make sure its clear, I will hold you to the interp you read out of the first speech it is read out of. I will default to competing interpretations as an eval mechanism unless told explicitly not too.

- lighting round, Yes I’ll vote on 1AR theory, Condo is fine until it isn’t, Dispo is okay until it isn’t, Pics are good until they aren’t, Floating pics are great until they aren’t, CP theory is always a good option, I’ll vote on spec but I won’t be happy about it, Potential abuse is fine but proven abuse last forever.

Kritik Specifics

- I am familiar with most common critical authorship that has been popular in the last decade or so. This includes; Cap of all flavours, Queerness stuff, Blackness lit, Decol and Set Col stuff, PoMo stuff like D&G, Ableism stuff, and a few fringe things. Feel free to read whatever kind of kritik you want to in front of me and I will evaluate it to the absolute best of my ability.

- I’m not super picky about how you read a kritik, but I do think that every kritik needs to functionally make three claims in order to function. First, a Kritik must make some kind of evaluative claim, what should my ballot focus on and what impacts should be prioritized. Second, a Kritik must have a link to the specific actions either advanced explicitly or methodologically endorsed by the aff plan. Third, there needs to be a clear and explicit alternative that has a clear solvency claim.

- If you want to read a K Aff go wild, I did it a lot when I was a debater, I am usually sympathetic to them and enjoy a good K Aff, that being said, I do still expect you to fill your time and be strategic. If you’re rejecting the topic wholesale fine, but tell me why, give me a reason why the topic should be abandoned. Make sure that you are advancing a clear methodology in your 1AC as well, I don’t so much care what that method is just make sure you stick to it, I find that I am exceptionally compelled by a a good contextualization or warranted analysis of the 1AC vs theory etc. out of the 1NC. A sneaky 1Ar/2AC restart will almost always net you high speaks in my book, its a hard thing to do well but if you can manage a tricky restart to the debate in the second aff speech I won’t shut up about it.

- Rapid Fire, Links of omission are bad and warrant link turns of omission please be specific on your link sheet, you can read a K and theory at the same time I find that I not super compelled by “you read theory which is a form of X violent practice so it links to your K” like if you want to go for the double turn go for it but like its not a strong arg, K and theory operate on different levels which I evaluate comes first is up to you and your opponent, floating pics are fun please read them strategically but make sure you can answer the theory sheet first.

Policy Specifics

- I am fine evaluating a good Case vs CP and DA combo. In fact a good DA/PIC combo is one of perhaps the most fun strategies that exists in the negative tool box. I am fine with any sort of case argument. I will vote on terminal defense, the sqo is neg ground and if the aff can’t solve than the aff doesn’t change the sqo, so I vote negative. I am not happy to vote on terminal defense, but as they say, the status quo is always an option I guess.

- I find that too often people read uniqueness args at each other but never think about the way those arguments actually interact with each other. I think that the best way to win a policy debate is to win the uniqueness level. Who cares if the aff solves an impact if the sqo already solved it right? I think that too often we focus on impact debate and link debate and forgo some of the fundamentally important arguments that are needed to win these claims. If you’re reading this now, take it as a reminder, when was the last time you updated your 1AC uniqueness? Cutting updates should happen before every tournament, don’t let yourself lose because you didn’t stay on top of your research.

- Straight Case is perhaps the best thing a 1NC can read, if you read straight case in front of me you will almost certainly net 30 speaks no questions asked. I’ve almost never not voted on this strategy, just case defense and impact turns or link turns is such a compelling strategy and as you’ll find out, a lot of people are a lot less ready to actually defend their case than you may think.

Some last minute fun things -

- Try to have fun, I love voting on goofy stuff and am fine to have a good time. The only argument that has a 100% win rate in front of me is Wipe Out so like who cares what I think anyway right?

Hi! I'm Mary. Thanks for reading my paradigm :)

Who are you?

I am an attorney practicing business and employment law in Oregon. (If you are interested in law I'd love to chat!) From 2020-2023 while I went to law school, I was co NFA-LD coach for Lewis & Clark College. I graduated from L&C undergrad in May 2020 and did parli (NPDA) debate there. I also competed in high school for four years, mainly in LD. For the sake of ultimate transparency, I want to make my debate opinions as explicit as possible. I promise to try my best!

What is the tl;dr?

I will listen to any argument that you make and will weigh it how you tell me to. K's are my favorite and topicality is not (though I am down for the silly stuff!) Please make clear extensions. Don't be a jerk. I will absolutely not tolerate discriminatory behavior or post-rounding.

Note for High School:

You do you! I have done or am familiar with every high school event. All of the below would apply in a technical/circuit style debate round. If you are unfamiliar with any of that, don't worry! I will evaluate the round how you tell me to. Feel free to ask me questions. Be kind to each other. Have fun with it!

How do you allocate speaker points?

I really struggled with coming up with a consistent way to give speaks. They are usually arbitrary and reflective of personal biases... SO I usually give high speaks (30 + 29.9). That being said if I don't give you the speaks you wanted, don't read into it, I have no idea how to give speaks in a fair or consistent way. I'm open to any args you want to make about speaks and just let me know if you have any questions.

How do you feel about Speed?

I have not kept up with debate ever since starting my career and need you to go somewhere between your mid and top speed. If it's really important PLEASE slow down. If there is a doc, I can keep up better with faster spreading so please share it with me! I'll slow and/or clear you if I need to.

What about the K?

I love love love performative affs and GOOD k debates. I've almost always read non-topical Ks with some fun (loosely) topical debates mixed in every once in a while. I’m familiar with almost all K lit but please do not assume I know exactly what you are talking about (especially when it comes to D n G bc i simply do not get it.) I am most familiar with futurism arguments and performance affs. Cap is fun! Generic links are so frustrating and so are unclear alts. I love a good explanation of the world post the alt. I'd honestly rather vote for an uncarded link that is specific to the aff and contextualized to the debate than to vote on a generic carded link.

How do you feel about perms?

Love it. Fun stuff. Perms are probably advocacies because everyone treats them like they are.

What if I want to read theory/topicality?

If you read theory or topicality, read a smart interp with a clear violation and standards/voters that make sense. Voters that do not make sense to me include: fairness without a warrant, education without a warrant, and “NFA rules say it’s a voter.”

I prefer proven abuse. I don't think potential abuse has an impact.

I also think the competing interps vs. reasonability debate is SO dumb. "prefer CI bc reasonability leads to judge intervention" and "prefer reasonability bc CI leads to a race to the bottom” are not warrants. If you really want to know how I evaluate theory, it is likely that I will "reasonably" vote for whichever "competing interpretation" is doing the best.

We meets are terminal defense on T.

I wanna read some topical stuff! How does that sound?

Great! Read tons of topical stuff. I do like me a good topical debate! Clearly articulated link chains and impacts will go a long way.

Condo?

Be condo if you want plus I prefer a hard collapse anyway.

Anything else?

Collapse, slow down for important things you really want me to remember, don't forget to do impact calc, and have fun ;)

Please feel free to send/ask me questions! You can reach me at marytalamantez@lclark.edu or send me a message on facebook. Otherwise you can ask before a round!

Years involved in collegiate debate: 35

Debated: NDT policy debate

Coached: NDT, NFA LD, Worlds style BP

I like NFA LD style debate because it relies on evidence and emphasizes the stock issues. I default to policy making but will adjust my paradigm if directed to do so by the debaters.

I will seriously consider nearly every argument - CP's are ok, procedural arguments (T, Vagueness, K's) need to be very clearly explained. I have voted for K's but don't find them super compelling - I think they are frequently vulnerable to perms.

Please be clear, number your arguments, explain why you are winning issues.

I debated at Hillsdale College for 3 years in Parli and NFA LD. I've been judging since 2016, but very sporadically so I'm not as up to date on the norms of the circuit as I once was.

Overall, I try very hard to vote where I'm told to vote in the round. If someone tells me to make a voting issue of something, I will look there first. I will also try to go by the arguments that are made in the round rather than inserting my own opinion into the round. I especially appreciate impact calculus as it helps me figure out how to weigh everything in the round. If I have to make my own decision on how to weigh impacts and which impacts to vote on, you might not like the outcome. I try very hard to go by the flow when I make my decisions.

Speed: I haven't had any issues keeping up in most rounds even with my time out of the circuit, but I'll say speed if you're going to fast or clear if I can't understand you. I also do not approve of speed being used as a way to exclude your opponent (or a lay judge on the panel) from the round.

K's: I'm not hostile to them, but I usually don't understand them very well and won't typically vote on something unless I understand the argument. Imagine trying to explain your K to a toddler or your grandma. I don't have the background in the hefty philosophical arguments, so you'll need to walk me through it if you want me to vote there. I prefer policy alts or a clear role of the ballot.

Procedurals: I've probably got a lower threshold on procedurals than most judges. I don't need proven abuse to vote on them, but if you want to win it then you can't just shadow cover it and extend your violation. You'll need to win on the flow to win the procedural.