Add me to the chain nedabahrani16@gmail.com

Please subject the email "Tournament Name -- Round # -- Aff School AF vs Neg School NG"

About me:

She/her/hers… also good with they/them

Hey I’m Neda Bahrani and I am a current Junior at UC Berkeley. I used to debate Lincoln Douglas/Policy Debate with Dougherty Valley for 5 years. During my time on the team I was Policy Captain for DV and mentor our middle school team. I have competed in both LD and policy style debate through out high school as well as attended camps like CNDI and TDI.

I agree with almost all of Julian Kaffour, Magi Ortiz , Savit Bhat’s Paradigm/Judging philosophy

Tl/dr:

Number your arguments PLEASE

Don’t be offensive. Debate is a game, and supposed to be fun, so don’t take yourself too seriously.

Tech > truth. BUT true arguments are better arguments.

Tricks/Spikes - just no. I won’t flow these.

Friv theory - also a no for me

No RVIs

3 + condo = bad (for LD)

5 + condo = bad (for policy)

You can also refer to my teammate, Savit Bhat’s paradigm if you would like more info than this ^.

Top Level Preferences:

I’m good with anything as long as you do link level analysis and impact out everything. Winning the thesis of your K, your aff, your affirmative, or even your violation is not enough for me to vote for you.

1 - Policy/T

1 - K’s/ K affs

2 - Phil (actual phil, ie nc’s)

3 - Theory

4 - Strike for tricks

K’s

1 - Topic Ks

1 - Security

2 - Set Col

3 - Identity Ks

4 - Anthro/Humanism

5 - Cap

6 - Pomo (Pomo’s are 6 for a reason, don’t pref me just bc “she likes Ks”)

I do enjoy a good K debate. On neg the K winning a turns case, solves case, or some impact ow arg is something I usually like to vote for. I dislike when the alt is intangible and cannot be the intricacies cannot be articulated in cross. You should be able to answer the question “What does the alt look like in the real world?”

Straight Up

This was the style of debate I primarily debated throughout high school. I usually went for “edgy” pics like the asteroids pic, womxn pic, etc. So yeh love those. Honestly at the end of the day it comes down to impact calc and whether you did it and answered the line by line. I like GOOD arguments. My team, throughout highschool, has always produced a really high quality of cards and affirmatives, and that is something I have come to appreciate as I start judging. I hate opening the doc and scrolling through and just being like, “oof this is just a bad aff.” Because those bad arguments are just easily beatable.

If Lay:

If your opponent requests a lay round and it's a ggsa tournament or a "usually" lay tournament you should default lay. However, if your opponent requests a lay round and you are entered in Var TOC at an invitational, I am completely okay with you saying "I won't go fast." That is sufficient for me.

If it is a lay round, I look to who does the most impact weighing.

At the end of the day, be nice and have fun. Debate means more than just your wins and loses.

Peninsula Debate 2019-2021

Damien Debate 2021-2022

Top Level Stuff

Tech>Truth but truth doesn't hurt.

Offense/defense - zero risk only exists for theory.

An argument without warrants isn't an argument.

Dropped warrants are true - you still need some explanation to extend them though.

Neg on theory - infinite condo's good, judge kick, etc. Sole exception here is that while perf con obviously isn't a voter, I become very skeptical of certain "epistemology first/reps first" K framework arguments.

Inserts are fine.

Fairness is an impact.

Bias/Ideological Leanings

I'm a lot better for Ks v policy affs than I was a year ago, as they have become my most common 2NR. I especially have a soft spot for psychoanalysis as a security K. I don't have a predisposed opinion on framework (on the aff or neg) that can't be reversed with good debating (if you win that I shouldn't weigh the aff then I shouldn't weigh the aff, and vice versa).

Nevertheless, I always love and am familiar with classic policy arguments.

I'm probably not great for you if you read a K Aff, even simply on a level of familiarity, although I will do my best to adjudicate without bias.

Novice Notes

Try to only use word documents.

Don't say a count down before speeches.

Give an order of what FLOWS you'll be going to (ie "Case in the order of advantage one, then two. The X CP. The X DA").

I'm very tabula rasa and expect the debaters to do the work for me rather than having me trying to piece everything together. Ideally, I'm looking for you to cross the t's & dot the i's rather than having me do it for you – claim, warrant, impact- contextualization, weighing, impact analysis

I am fine with speed.

Policy/CX/LD :

Run whatever you want: DA's, CP's, K's, T, Theory

I have no pre determined opinion about certain args such as condo good/bad

Don't worry about coming across as rude in cross

PF:

New args in FF will not be evaluated

Try not to speak over each other in GCX

currently competing in Parliamentary debate

- i care a lot about link level analysis, if you don't have strong links i'm more inclined to buy refutations against your argument

- don't forget to weigh impacts in rebuttal speeches

- please don't expect a single statistic to carry an entire argument

- i'm okay on fast speaking, but if your opponent asks you to slow down, please actually speak slower

- feel free to read theory, if your opponents are making the debate inaccessible to you i'm more likely to buy your shell

- i don't run Ks and i'm not familiar with most literature so keep that in mind if you decide to run a K

- i'm familiar with parli, pf, and congress; if i'm not familiar with the procedures of your event, please clarify anything necessary

- ask me any questions you have before the round starts and have fun :)

I'm a high school policy debater, I've been doing policy debate for almost 4 years now.

I don't have any preferences on speed or specific argument strategies.

Your role as a debater should be making my ballot easy for me -- if you tell me to prioritize an argument or vote off of a specific reason, I will until proven otherwise.

Weighing, especially in the last speech, will get you further than you think.

Coach for Peninsula

Plz put me on the email chain atStevenyu0923@gmail.com

Tech over truth dropped arguments are presumed to be true, but I do believe that true arguments are easier to defend.

Simplicity is good. The more complex an argument is, the more explanation is needed beyond it's "dropped" or tag line extensions.

Truthfully, not the best flow in the community so would like you to slow down on analytics especially if not in the doc.

Hiding theory is cowardice. You can and might win but speaks = nuked

Every argument needs a claim, warrant, impact. If it's missing any one of the 3 components, I reserve the right to not vote on it.

For every min of prep you don't use I will give 0.1 of extra speaks up to a cap of 29.5.

You should debate as if I have 0 understanding of the topic

I find myself somewhat expressive during the debate. Feel free to use that to your advantage.

Tech over truth. But below are my predispositions. They can all be changed by technical debating but I find myself being convinced easier if debaters abide by said predispositions.

Anything is game. No args are off limits. Whether it's egregious impact turns or stupid theory arguments. But arguments about personal issues or issues outside of debate is off limits.

Fairness is likely an impact.

Condo is good.

Process CPs are bad but likely hard to win absent a good answer to arbitrariness.

Reasonability is bad.

Inserting rehighlightings is NOT ok.

Predictability > debatability

Debates and characterizations of ev > ev quality itself

Timeframe matters, determines directionality of turns case.

PIKs are probably bad but likely theoretically justifiable against a K aff. (went for this a decent bit)

Plan text in a vacuum is stupid.

Familiarity with arguments

Policy stuff all fine. Not a big fan of politics.

Turns case is as probable as the rest of the DA. If DA is 1% and turns case is dropped, it net values to 1% so the aff weighs 99% of the aff vs 1% of the DA.

Not a fan of complex theory debates other than T.

Adv CPs + impact turns are my favorite 2NRs in high school.

Ks are fine. Although it's best if the FW interpretation allows your opponents to weigh the plan because it's defense not offense. If you win FW without a link to the 1AC then I still vote aff on presumption. If you are spreading analytics on FW straight down, please save pen time. Winning case is a good idea proves education about case is good.

K aff vs T --- I find myself more aff leaning then people would imagine. I believe the only real internal link for the neg is predictability. Even that internal link is arbitrary and likely can't solve. K affs that just call T or whatever the neg does microaggressions will find a hard time succeeding in front of me. K affs that undercut the neg's internal links to fairness by indicting legal precision or predictability could be very successful.

I believe PIKs, creative impact turns, or counter advocacies are also ways to negate K affs.

LD

God forbid I ever judge LD but if I do, please stay as far away as possible from Phil or Tricks.

Middleschool:

Clarity > speed

Flow

Don't steal prep