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GFCA 1st 2nd Year State Championships

2021 — NSDA Campus, GA/US

Policy Paradigm List

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Zach Adam Pace Academy 5 rounds

Last changed on Sat February 13, 2021 at 1:13 PM EDT

Zach Adam, Chattahoochee High School, University of Georgia, 2023 B.S. Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Can't believe I have to say this, but considering the amount of speeches I have heard about Trump and even CP texts about Trump I have to:

Biden is our president now, let's update our blocks. Trump cannot "make escalate uniquely likely" when he is not in office. Thank you

General:

1 - I like detailed & nuanced debates that center around specific strategies.

2 - I'm probably not voting on theory

3 - I'd probably vote on framework more times than planless AFFs

4 - The politics DA is great & back in business but unfortunately, so many debaters still can't even define 'political capital'. If you are one of those, maybe the politics DA isn't the move...

5 - Evidence quality is important in adjudicating close debates, but I won't dig out warrants for you.

6 - Each argument needs a warrant please, especially in the rebuttals.

7 - Most frustrating is adjudicating a debate in which neither team provides judge instruction, implications of their arguments, or generalized framing claims about what each argument you are going for means for the debate. This often leads to judge bias & interpretation or bailed out by evidence quality.

Counterplans

1 - judge kick is my default until debated otherwise from the 1AR

2 - it's the first thing I evaluate in a debate

Kritiks

1 - Pre-written extensions that you think applies to every topical AFF isn't going to get it done. Tailor your kritik to the 1AC with detail and specificity for me to vote for it

Topicality

1 - Do comparisons. Evidence comparison & impact comparison. Too often, debates are 50/50 which is the fault of not having enough judge instruction and comparisons in the rebuttals

2 - Plan text in a vacuum makes sense depending on the plan text

Be chill, debate is great, don't hate on your peers, & please don't be toxic

Khushi Afre Northview High School 1 rounds

Kalyani Allums Hire 5 rounds

Matt Cekanor Northview High School 5 rounds

Last changed on Thu January 4, 2024 at 6:02 AM CDT

Experience-This will be my fifth year as the head coach at Northview High School. Before moving to Georgia, I coached for 7 years at Marquette High in Milwaukee, WI.

Yes, add me to the email chain. My email is mcekanordebate@gmail.com

*As I have gained more coaching and judging experience, I find that I highly value teams who respect their opponents who might not have the same experience as them. This includes watching how you come across in CX, prep time, and your general comportment towards your opponent. In some local circuits, circuit-style policy debate is dwindling and we all have a responsibility to be respectful of the experience of everyone trying to be involved in policy debate.*

I recommend that you go to the bathroom and fill your water bottles before the debate rather than before a speech.

LD Folks please read the addendum at the end of my paradigm.

Meta-Level Strike Sheet Concerns

1. Debates are rarely won or lost on technical concessions or truth claims alone. In other words, I think the “tech vs. truth” distinction is a little silly. Technical concessions make it more complicated to win a debate, but rarely do they make wins impossible. Keeping your arguments closer to “truer” forms of an argument make it easier to overcome technical concessions because your arguments are easier to identify, and they’re more explicitly supported by your evidence (or at least should be). That being said, using truth alone as a metric of which of y’all to pick up incentivizes intervention and is not how I will evaluate the debate.

2. Evidence quality matters a bunch to me- it’s evidence that you have spent time and effort on your positions, it’s a way to determine the relative truth level of your claims, and it helps overcome some of the time constraints of the activity in a way that allows you to raise the level of complexity of your position in a shorter amount of time. I will read your evidence throughout the debate, especially if it is on a position with which I’m less familiar. I won’t vote on evidence comparison claims unless it becomes a question of the debate raised by either team, but I will think about how your evidence could have been used more effectively by the end of the debate. I enjoy rewarding teams for evidence quality.

3. Every debate could benefit from more comparative work particularly in terms of the relative quality of arguments/the interactions between arguments by the end of the round. Teams should ask "Why?", such as "If I win this argument, WHY is this important?", "If I lose this argument WHY does this matter?". Strategically explaining the implications of winning or losing an argument is the difference between being a middle of the road team and a team advancing to elims.

4. Some expectations for what should be present in arguments that seem to have disappeared in the last few years-

-For me to vote on a single argument, it must have a claim, warrant, impact, and impact comparison.

-A DA is not a full DA until a uniqueness, link, internal link and impact argument is presented.Too many teams are getting away with 2 card DA shells in the 1NC and then reading uniqueness walls in the block. I will generally allow for new 1AR answers.

Similarly, CP's should have a solvency advocate read in the 1NC. I'll be flexible on allowing 1AR arguments in a world where the aff makes an argument about the lack of a solvency advocate.

-Yes, terminal defense exists, however, I do not think that teams take enough advantage of this kind of argument in front of me. I will not always evaluate the round through a lens of offense-defense, but you still need to make arguments as to why I shouldn’t by at least explaining why your argument functions as terminal defense. Again this plays into evidence questions and the relative impacts of arguments claims made above.

Specifics

Case-Debates are won or lost in the case debate. By this, I mean that proving whether or not the aff successfully accesses all, some or none of the case advantages has implications on every flow of the debate and should be a fundamental question of most 2NRs and 2ARs. I think that blocks that are heavy in case defense or impact turns are incredibly advantageous for the neg because they enable you to win any CP (by proving the case defense as a response to the solvency deficit), K (see below) or DA (pretty obvious). I'm also more likely than others to write a presumption ballot or vote neg on inherency arguments. If the status quo solves your aff or you're not a big enough divergence, then you probably need to reconsider your approach to the topic.

Most affs can be divided into two categories: affs with a lot of impacts but poor internal links and affs with very solid internal links but questionable impacts. Acknowledging in which of these two categories the aff you are debating falls should shape how you approach the case debate. I find myself growing increasingly disappointed by negative teams that do not test weak affirmatives. Where's your internal link defense?? I also miss judging impact turn debates, but don't think that spark or wipeout are persuasive arguments. A high level de-dev debate or heg debate, on the other hand, love it.

DA-DAs are questions of probability. Your job as the aff team when debating a DA is to use your defensive arguments to question the probability of the internal links to the DA. Affirmative teams should take more advantage of terminal defense against disads. I'll probably also have a lower threshold for your theory arguments on the disad. Likewise, the neg should use turns case arguments as a reason why your DA calls into question the probability of the aff's internal links. Don't usually find "____ controls the direction of the link" arguments very persuasive. You need to warrant out that claim more if you're going to go for it. Make more rollback-style turns case arguments or more creative turns case arguments to lower the threshold for winning the debate on the disad alone.

CP-CP debates are about the relative weight of a solvency deficit versus the relative weight of the net benefit. The team that is more comparative when discussing the solvency level of these debates usually wins the debate. While, when it is a focus of the debate, I tend to err affirmative on questions of counterplan competiton, I have grown to be more persuaded by a well-executed counterplan strategy even if the counterplan is a process counterplan. The best counterplans have a solvency advocate who is, at least, specific to the topic, and, best, specific to the affirmative. I do not default to judge kicking the counterplan and will be easily persuaded by an affirmative argument about why I should not default to that kind of in-round conditionality. Not a huge fan of the NGA CP and I've voted three out of four times on intrinsic permutations against this counterplan so just be warned. Aff teams should take advantage of presumption arguments against the CP.

K-Used to have a bunch of thoughts spammed here that weren't too easy to navigate pre-round. I've left that section at the bottom of the paradigm for the historical record, but here's the cleaned up version:

What does the ballot do? What is the ballot absolutely incapable of doing? What does the ballot justify? No matter if you are on the aff or the neg, defending the topic or not, these are the kinds of questions that you need to answer by the end of the debate. As so much of K debating has become framework debates on the aff and the neg, I often find myself with a lot of floating pieces of offense that are not attached to a clear explanation of what a vote in either direction can/can't do.

T-Sitting through a bunch of framework debates has made me a better judge for topicality than I used to be. Comparative impact calculus alongside the use of strategic defensive arguments will make it easier for me to vote in a particular direction. Certain interps have a stronger internal link to limits claims and certain affs have better arguments for overlimiting. Being specific about what kind of offense you access, how it comes first, and the relative strength of your internal links in these debates will make it more likely that you win my ballot. I’m not a huge fan of tickytacky topicality claims but, if there’s substantial contestation in the literature, these can be good debates.

Theory- I debated on a team that engaged in a lot of theory debates in high school. There were multiple tournaments where most of our debates boiled down to theory questions, so I would like to think that I am a good judge for theory debates. I think that teams forget that theory debates are structured like a disadvantage. Again, comparative impact calculus is important to win my ballots in these debates. I will say that I tend to err aff on most theory questions. For example, I think that it is probably problematic for there to be more than one conditional advocacy in a round (and that it is equally problematic for your counter interpretation to be dispositionality) and I think that counterplans that compete off of certainty are bad for education and unfair to the aff. The biggest killer in a theory debate is when you just read down your blocks and don’t make specific claims. Debate like your

Notes for the Blue Key RR/Other LD Judging Obligations

Biggest shift for me in judging LD debates is the following: No tricks or intuitively false arguments. I'll vote on dropped arguments, but those arguments need a claim, data, warrant and an impact for me to vote on them. If I can't explain the argument back to you and the implications of that argument on the rest of the debate, I'm not voting for you.

I guess this wasn't clear enough the first time around- I don't flow off the document and your walls of framework and theory analytics are really hard to flow when you don't put any breaks in between them.

Similarly, phil debates are always difficult for me to analyze. I tend to think affirmative's should defend implementation particularly when the resolution specifies an actor. Outside of my general desire to see some debates about implementation, I don't have any kind of background in the phil literature bases and so will have a harder time picturing the implications of you winning specific arguments. If you want me to understand how your argumets interact, you will have to do a lot of explanation.

Theory debates- Yes, I said that I enjoy theory debates in my paradigm above and that is largely still true, but CX theory debates are a lot less technical than LD debates. I also think there are a lot of silly theory arguments in LD and I tend to have a higher threshold for those sorts of arguments. I also don't have much of a reference for norm setting in LD or what the norms actually are. Take that into account if you choose to go for theory and probably don't because I won't award you with high enough speaks for your liking.

K debates- Yes, I enjoy K debates but I tend to think that their LD variant is very shallow. You need to do more specific work in linking to the affirmative and developing the implications of your theory of power claims. While I enjoy good LD debates on the K, I always feel like I have to do a lot of work to justify a ballot in either direction. This is magnified by the limited amount of time that you have to develop your positions.

Old K Paradigm (2020-2022)

After y’all saw the school that I coach, I’m sure this is where you scrolled to first which is fair enough given how long it takes to fill out pref sheets. I will say, if you told me 10 years ago when I began coaching that I’d be coaching a team that primarily reads the K on the aff and on the neg, I probably would have found that absurd because that wasn’t my entry point into the activity so keep that in mind as you work with some of the thoughts below. That being said, I’ve now coached the K at a high level for the past two years which means that I have some semblance of a feeling for a good K debate. If the K is not something that you traditionally go for, you’re better off going for what you’re best at.

The best debates on the K are debates over the explanatory power of the negative’s theory of power relative to the affirmative’s specific example of liberalism, realism, etc. Put another way, the best K debaters are familiar enough with their theory of power AND the affirmative’s specific impact scenarios that they use their theory to explain the dangers of the aff. By the end of the 2NR I should have a very clear idea of what the affirmative does and how your theory explains why doing the affirmative won’t resolve the aff’s impacts or results in a bad thing. This does not necessarily mean that you need to have links to the affirmative’s mechanism (that’s probably a bit high of a research burden), but your link explanations need to be specific to the aff and should be bolstered by specific quotes from 1AC evidence or CX. The specificity of your link explanation should be sufficient to overcome questions of link-uniqueness or I’ll be comfortable voting on “your links only link to the status quo.”

On the flipside, aff teams need to explain why their contingency or specific example of policy action cannot be explained by the negative’s theory of power or that, even if some aspects can be, that the specificity of the aff’s claims justifies voting aff anyway because there’s some offense against the alternative or to the FW ballot. Affirmative teams that use the specificity of the affirmative to generate offense or push back against general link claims will win more debates than those that just default to generic “extinction is irreversible” ballots.

Case Page when going for the K- My biggest pet peeve with the current meta on the K is the role of the case page. Neither the affirmative nor the negative take enough advantage of this page to really stretch out their opponents on this question. For the negative, you need to be challenging the affirmative’s internal links with defense that can bolster some of your thesis level claims. Remember, you are trying to DISPROVE the affirmative’s contingent/specific policy which means that the more specificity you have the better off you will be. This means that just throwing your generic K links onto the case page probably isn’t the move. 9/10 the alternative doesn’t resolve them and you don’t have an explanation of how voting neg resolves the offense. K teams so frequently let policy affs get away with some really poor evidence quality and weak internal links. Please help the community and deter policy teams from reading one bad internal link to their heg aff against your [INSERT THEORY HERE] K. On that note, policy teams, why are you removing your best internal links when debating the K? Your generic framework cards are giving the neg more things to impact turn and your explanation of the internal link level of the aff is lowered when you do that. Read your normal aff against the K and just square up.

Framework debates (with the K on the neg) For better or worse, so much of contemporary K debate is resolved in the framework debate. The contemporary dependence on framework ballots means a couple of things:

1.) Both teams need to do more work here- treat this like a DA and a CP. Compare the relative strength of internal link claims and impact out the terminal impacts. Why does procedural fairness matter? What is the terminal impact to clash? How do we access your skills claims? What does/does not the ballot resolve? To what extent does the ballot resolve those things? The team that usually answers more of these questions usually wins these debates. K teams need to do more to push back against “ballot can solve procedural fairness” claims and aff teams need to do more than just “schools, family, culture, etc.” outweigh subject formation. Many of you all spend more time at debate tournaments or doing debate work than you do at school or doing schoolwork.

2.) I do think it’s possible for the aff to win education claims, but you need to do more comparative impact calculus. What does scenario planning do for subject formation that is more ethical than whatever the impact scenario is to the K? If you can’t explain your education claims at that level, just go for fairness and explain why the ballot can resolve it.

3.) Risk of the link- Explain what winning framework does for how much of a risk of a link that I need to justify a ballot either way. Usually, neg teams will want to say that winning framework means they get a very narrow risk of a link to outweigh. I don’t usually like defaulting to this but affirmative teams very rarely push back on this risk calculus in a world where they lose framework. If you don’t win that you can weigh the aff against the K, aff teams need to think about how they can use their scenarios as offense against the educational claims of the K. This can be done as answers to the link arguments as well, though you’ll probably need to win more pieces of defense elsewhere on the flow to make this viable.

Do I go for the alternative?

I don’t think that you need to go for the alternative if you have a solid enough framework push in the 2NR. However, few things to keep in mind here:

1.) I won’t judge kick the alternative for you unless you explicitly tell me to do it and include a theoretical justification for why that’s possible.

2.) The framework debate should include some arguments about how voting negative resolves the links- i.e. what is the kind of ethical subject position endorsed on the framework page that pushes us towards research projects that avoid the links to the critique? How does this position resolve those links?

3.) Depending on the alternative and the framework interpretation, some of your disads to the alternative will still link to the framework ballot. Smart teams will cross apply these arguments and explain why that complicates voting negative.

K affs (Generic)

Yes, I’m comfortable evaluating debates involving the K on the aff and think that I’ve reached a point where I’m pretty good for either side of this debate. Affirmative teams need to justify an affirmative ballot that beats presumption, especially if you’re defending status quo movements as examples of the aff’s method. Both teams benefit from clarifying early in the round whether or not the affirmative team spills up, whether or not in-round performances specific to this debate resolve any of the affirmative offense, and whatever the accumulation of ballots does or does not do for the aff. Affirmative teams that are not the Louisville project often get away with way too much by just reading a DSRB card and claiming their ballots function the same way. Aff teams should differentiate their ballot claims and negatives should make arguments about the aff’s homogenizing ballot claims. All that being said, like I discussed above, these debates are won and lost on the case page like any other debate. As the K becomes more normalized and standardized to a few specific schools of thought, I have a harder and harder time separating the case and framework pages on generic “we couldn’t truth test your arguments” because I think that shifts a bit too strongly to the negative. That said, I can be persuaded to separate the two if there’s decent time spent in the final rebuttals on this question.

Framework vs. the K Aff

Framework debates are best when both teams spend time comparing the realities of debate in the status quo and the idealized form of debate proposed in model v. model rounds. In that light, both teams need to be thinking about what proposing framework in a status quo where the K is probably going to stick around means for those teams that currently read the K and for those teams that prefer to directly engage the resolution. In a world where the affirmative defends the counter interpretation, the affirmative should have an explanation of what happens when team don’t read an affirmative that meets their model. Most of the counter interpretations are arbitrary or equivalent to “no counter interpretation”, but an interp being arbitrary is just defense that you can still outweigh depending on the offense you’re winning.

In impact turn debates, both teams need to be much clearer about the terminal impacts to their offense while providing an explanation as to why voting in either direction resolves them. After sitting in so many of these debates, I tend to think that the ballot doesn’t do much for either team but that means that teams who have a better explanation of what it means to win the ballot will usually pick up my decision. You can’t just assert that voting negative resolves procedural fairness without warranting that out just like you can’t assert that the aff resolves all forms of violence in debate through a single debate. Both teams need to grapple with how the competitive incentives for debate establish offense for either side. The competitive incentive to read the K is strong and might counteract some of the aff’s access to offense, but the competitive incentives towards framework also have their same issues. Neither sides hands are clean on that question and those that are willing to admit it are usually better off. I have a hard time setting aside clash as an external impact due to the fact that I’m just not sure what the terminal impact is. I like teams that go for clash and think that it usually is an important part of negative strategy vs. the K, but I think this strategy is best when the clash warrants are explained as internal link turns to the aff’s education claims. Some of this has to due with the competitive incentives arguments that I’ve explained above. Both teams need to do more work explaining whether or not fairness or education claims come first. It’s introductory-level impact analysis I find lacking in many of these debates.

Other things to think about-

1.) These debates are at their worst when either team is dependent on blocks. Framework teams should be particularly cautious about this because they’ve had less of these debates over the course of the season, however, K teams are just as bad at just reading their blocks through the 1AR. I will try to draw a clean line between the 1AR and the 2AR and will hold a pretty strict one in debates where the 1AR is just screaming through blocks. Live debating contextualized to this round far outweighs robots with pre-written everything.

2.) I have a hard time pulling the trigger on arguments with “quitting the activity” as a terminal impact. Any evidence on either side of this question is usually anecdotal and that’s not enough to justify a ballot in either direction. There are also a bunch of alternative causes to numbers decline like the lack of coaches, the increased technical rigor of high-level policy debate, budgets, the pandemic, etc. that I think thump most of these impacts for either side. More often than not, the people that are going to stick with debate are already here but that doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences to the kinds of harms to the activity/teams as teams on either side of the clash question learn to coexist.

K vs. K Debates (Overview)

I’ll be perfectly honest, unless this is a K vs. Cap debate, these are the debates that I’m least comfortable evaluating because I feel like they end up being some of the messiest and “gooiest” debates possible. That being said, I think that high level K vs. K debates can be some of the most interesting to evaluate if both teams have a clear understanding of the distinctions between their positions, are able to base their theoretical distinctions in specific, grounded examples that demonstrate potential tradeoffs between each position, and can demonstrate mutual exclusivity outside of the artificial boundary of “no permutations in a method debate.” At their best, these debates require teams to meet a high research burden which is something that I like to reward so if your strat is specific or you can explain it in a nuanced way, go for it. That said, I’m not the greatest for teams whose generic position in these debates are to read “post-truth”/pomo arguments against identity positions and I feel uncomfortable resolving competing ontology claims in debates around identity unless they are specific and grounded. I feel like most debates are too time constrained to meaningfully resolve these positions. Similarly, teams that read framework should be cautious about reading conditional critiques with ontology claims- i.e. conditional pessimism with framework. I’m persuaded by theoretical arguments about conditional ontology claims regarding social death and cross apps to framework in these debates.

I won’t default to “no perms in a methods debate”, though I am sympathetic to the theoretical arguments about why affs not grounded in the resolution are too shifty if they are allowed to defend the permutation. What gets me in these debates is that I think that the affirmative will make the “test of competition”-style permutation arguments anyway like “no link” or the aff is a disad/prereq to the alt regardless of whether or not there’s a permutation. I can’t just magically wave a theory wand here and make those kinds of distinctions go away. It lowers the burden way too much for the negative and creates shallow debates. Let’s have a fleshed out theory argument and you can persuade me otherwise. The aff still needs to win access to the permutation, but if you lose the theory argument still make the same kinds of arguments if you had the permutation. Just do the defensive work to thump the links.

Cap vs. K- I get the strategic utility of these debates, but this debate is becoming pretty stale for me. Teams that go for state-good style capitalism arguments need to explain the process of organization, accountability measures, the kind of party leadership, etc. Aff teams should generate offense off of these questions. Teams that defend Dean should have to defend psychoanalysis answers. Teams that defend Escalante should have specific historical examples of dual power working or not in 1917 or in post-Bolshevik organization elsewhere. Aff teams should force Dean teams to defend psycho and force Escalante teams to defend historical examples of dual power. State crackdown arguments should be specific. I fear that state crackdown arguments will apply to both the alternative and the aff and the team that does a better job describing the comparative risk of crackdown ends up winning my argument. Either team should make more of a push about what it means to shift our research practices towards or away from communist organizing. There are so many debates where we have come to the conclusion that the arguments we make in debate don’t spill out or up and, yet, I find debates where we are talking about politically organizing communist parties are still stuck in some universe where we are doing the actual organizing in a debate round. Tell me what a step towards the party means for our research praxis or provide disads to shifting the resource praxis. All the thoughts on the permutation debate are above. I’m less likely to say no permutation in these debates because there is plenty of clash in the literature between, at least, anti-capitalism and postcapitalism that there can be a robust debate even if you don’t have specifics. That being said, the more you can make ground your theory in specific examples the better off you’ll be.

Eric Forslund Pace Academy 1 rounds

Last changed on Tue January 2, 2024 at 12:53 PM EDT

email: eforslund@gmail.com

Copied and Pasted from my judge philosophy wiki page.

Recent Bio:

Director of Debate at Pace Academy

15 years judging and coaching high school debate. First at Damien High School then at Greenhill. Generally only judge a handful of college rounds a year.

Zero rounds on the current college topic in 2020.

Coached at the University of Wyoming 2004-2005.

I have decided to incentivize reading strategies that involve talking about the specifics of the affirmative case. Too many high school teams find a terrible agent or process cp and use politics as a crutch. Too many high school teams pull out their old, generic, k's and read them regardless of the aff. As an incentive to get away from this practice I will give any 2N that goes for a case-only strategy an extra point. If this means someone who would have earned a 29 ends up with a 30, then so be it. I would rather encourage a proliferation of higher speaker points, then a proliferation of bad, generic arguments. If you have to ask what a case strategy involves, then you probably aren't going to read one. I'm not talking about reading some case defense and going for a disad, or a counterplan that solves most of the aff. I'm talking about making a majority of the debate a case debate -- and that case debate continuing into the 2NR.

You'll notice "specificity good" throughout my philosophy. I will give higher points to those teams that engage in more specific strategies, then those that go for more generic ones. This doesnt mean that I hate the k -- on the contrary, I wouldn't mind hearing a debate on a k, but it needs to be ABOUT THE AFF. The genero security k doesnt apply to the South Korean Prostitutes aff, the Cap k doesnt apply to the South Korea Off-Shore Balancing aff - and you arent likely to convince me otherwise. But if you have an argument ABOUT the affirmative --especially a specific k that has yet to be read, then you will be rewarded if I am judging you.

I have judged high-level college and high school debates for the last 14 years. That should answer a few questions that you are thinking about asking: yes, speed is fine, no, lack of clarity is not. Yes, reading the k is ok, no, reading a bunch of junk that doesn't apply to the topic, and failing to explain why it does is not.

The single most important piece of information I can give you about me as a judge is that I cut a lot of cards -- you should ALWAYS appeal to my interest in the literature and to protect the integrity of that literature. Specific is ALWAYS better than generic, and smart strategies that are well researched should ALWAYS win out over generic, lazy arguments. Even if you dont win debates where you execute specifics, you will be rewarded.

Although my tendencies in general are much more to the right than the rest of the community, I have voted on the k many times since I started judging, and am generally willing to listen to whatever argument the debaters want to make. Having said that, there are a few caveats:

1. I don't read a lot of critical literature; so using a lot of terms or references that only someone who reads a lot of critical literature would understand isn’t going to get you very far. If I don’t understand your arguments, chances are pretty good you aren’t going to win the debate, no matter how persuasive you sound. This goes for the aff too explain your argument, don’t assume I know what you are talking about.

2. You are much better off reading critical arguments on the negative then on the affirmative. I tend to believe that the affirmative has to defend a position that is at least somewhat predictable, and relates to the topic in a way that makes sense. If they don’t, I am very sympathetic to topicality and framework-type arguments. This doesn’t mean you can’t win a debate with a non-traditional affirmative in front of me, but it does mean that it is going to be much harder, and that you are going to have to take topicality and framework arguments seriously. To me, predictability and fairness are more important than stretching the boundaries of debate, and the topic. If your affirmative defends a predictable interpretation of the topic, you are welcome to read any critical arguments you want to defend that interpretation, with the above stipulations.

3. I would much rather watch a disad/counterplan/case debate than some other alternative.

In general, I love a good politics debate - but - specific counterplans and case arguments are THE BEST strategies. I like to hear new innovative disads, but I have read enough of the literature on this year’s topic that I would be able to follow any deep debate on any of the big generic disads as well.

As far as theory goes, I probably defer negative a bit more in theory debates than affirmative. That probably has to do with the fact that I like very well thought-out negative strategies that utilize PICS and specific disads and case arguments. As such, I would much rather see an affirmative team impact turn the net benefits to a counterplan then to go for theory (although I realize this is not always possible). I really believe that the boundaries of the topic are formed in T debates at the beginning of the year, therefore I am much less willing to vote on a topicality argument against one of the mainstream affirmatives later on in the year than I am at the first few tournaments. I’m not going to outline all of the affs that I think are mainstream, but chances are pretty good if there are more than a few teams across the country reading the affirmative, I’m probably going to err aff in a close T debate.

One last thing, if you really want to get high points in front of me, a deep warming debate is the way to go. I would be willing to wager that I have dug further into the warming literature than just about anybody in the country, and I love to hear warming debates. I realize by this point most teams have very specific strategies to most of the affirmatives on the topic, but if you are wondering what advantage to read, or whether or not to delve into the warming debate on the negative, it would be very rewarding to do so in front of me -- at the very least you will get some feedback that will help you in future debates.

Ok, I lied, one more thing. Ultimately I believe that debate is a game. I believe that debaters should have fun while debating. I realize that certain debates get heated, however do your best not to be mean to your partner, and to the other team. There are very few things I hate more than judging a debate where the teams are jerks to each other. Finally, although I understand the strategic value to impact turning the alternative to kritiks and disads (and would encourage it in most instances), there are a few arguments I am unwilling to listen to those include: sexism good, racism good, genocide good, and rape good. If you are considering reading one of those arguments, don’t. You are just going to piss me off.

Ashna Ghanate Woodward Academy 5 rounds

Last changed on Sun December 3, 2023 at 6:30 PM EDT

Woodward Academy '22

Dartmouth College '26

Email chain: ashna.ghanate@gmail.com

Important

The very most important thing to me is that everyone in the round has fun, learns something, and is respectful. Debate is a wonderful activity, and we should all be grateful for the opportunity (Especially when a lot of people can't do what they love anymore)! Your gratitude is proven through your etiquette.

Short Version + Novices

Win on clarity, clash, and argument comparison.

Flow, be nice, be clear, have fun, and send out analytics.

Please feel free to ask questions!

Longer Version

Case

Impact turns that are reasonable (LIO bad, economic growth bad, etc.) can make for extremely fun, nuanced debates.

Kritiks

I think you should explain your argument well. It's also important that you try to make affirmative specific links.

I personally believe critiques are better with framework that is about weighing the plan vs the competitive alternative. The kritik can also become a "DA". You can still get critiques of representations under this interpretation - just win that representations steer policy implementation. In round debating outweighs this opinion, though.

Topicality vs. USfg Action Affirmatives

It's important to emphasize why your model of debate is better. I think the smaller the case, the more persuasive topicality is. No real predispositions (although I think precision debates often become a wash).

Topicality vs. Critical Affirmatives

I'll most likely defer to the process of debating.

If you are confused about the affirmative, I probably am too. Just point it out.

Procedural fairness is an impact. This opinion can be changed for the ballot by in-round debating.

I think a lot of teams forget that you can read a topical affirmative that is also non-traditional/changes the debate space/creates good pedagogy.

Theory

I enjoy good theory debates. I have no real reservations, but try not to be silly.

Counterplans

I enjoy counterplan debates! Competition debates don't bother me that much, and I think they can be really fun.

Misc

Card/evidence quality matters a LOT.

I don't think framing debates matter as much as some people would like them too. For example, if you are saying "util outweighs," that doesn't mean that just because you think the affirmative has a "small" impact and the DA accesses extinction, I should vote negative. Mitigate the risk of case. Conversely, if you are reading an affirmative and say "probability should come first," I do not think you can just assert that the DA is low probability. You need to actually prove that the DA is low probability.

Intrinsic permutations can be justified.

Nishita Ghanate Woodward Academy 5 rounds

Last changed on Wed March 20, 2024 at 9:28 PM EDT

Woodward Academy '20

University of Virginia '24

Email chain: ghanate.nishita@gmail.com

People who taught me how to debate and their paradigms:

Bill Batterman: https://www.tabroom.com/index/paradigm.mhtml?judge_person_id=10298

Maggie Berthiaume: https://www.tabroom.com/index/paradigm.mhtml?judge_person_id=1265

Meta Comments

1. Respect your opponents. Don't do silly things or make fun of your opponents.

2. The document that you send out should be the exact same document that you are reading from your computer. Not only will you be depriving me the opportunity to read along with you, but you will also be giving me the impression that your arguments are bad enough that if your opponents knew what you were saying they would win.

3. I care the most about clash and nuanced arguments. The best debates are ones with aff-specific strategies that show off what both teams know about the topic. I am not impressed by winning debates on State CPs that fiat out of everything or affirmatives without a solvency advocate with contrived advantages. Engage the literature.

4. I read evidence at the end of a round. It doesn't make or break my decision, but I definitely would lean more to the side of being a "truth over tech" judge.

5. You can win absolute defense in front of me. It's hard but not impossible especially if your opponent reads cards that clearly conclude in the opposite direction or leave out an internal link.

Critiques

If the point of your kritik is to say words that your opponents won't understand, I will not understand what you are saying either. Avoid jargon. Try to explain your arguments more. I am familiar with the most common critiques (capitalism, anti-Blackness, settler colonialism, militarism, feminism, abolition).

I think aff-specific kritiks or generic kritiks with aff-specific links can be an amazing strategy especially if it's a core of the topic kritik (IE the abolition K on the CJR topic). However, I think too many "K teams" get away with reading silly links, links of omissions, serial policy failure, the fiat double bind, or any other K trick you can name. The best K debates are the ones that actually pinpoint something that the aff has done or something in their plan that is in fact bad. I'm not saying that all links should be to the plan, but I am saying that all links should be grounded in the 1AC. If the goal of your kritik is to clash with the aff from a new angle (IE reform vs transformative justice), you're on the right track.

Topicality

For not trying to be topical teams:

I think that teams should read a plan text especially in sub-varsity levels. Debate isn't a forum designed to provide a survival strategy or create a community of resistance. It is inherently a competitive space. Teams that do choose to read a non-topical aff should be prepared to defend every part of the 1AC through the end of the 2AR. CX is binding and I will hold you to what you say regardless of what you say in later speeches.

For teams with a plan text:

I enjoy T debates with concise impacts that actually attempt to exclude affs that shouldn't be a part of the topic. For this reason, T-Substantial is extremely persuasive to me given how well it limited the immigration and arms sales topic. As such, giving me a case list of not only what you include but also what you exclude is going to be extremely persuasive. But, I'm probably not going to vote on an interpretation that excludes a core of the topic aff.

'Planicality' is a non-starter for me. It's silly to think that adding the word substantial (or any other words in the resolution) all of a sudden makes your plan topical. It encourages poorly written plan texts that are incredibly vague so the aff can spike out of DAs while also doing all kinds of things that have no relation to the topic. It also poses an unfair burden on the neg as they now not only have to defend T to limit the scope of the plan, but also win substance as well.

Theory

I generally believe that the only voter is conditionality(No, {insert letter here}SPEC is not a voter), but I can be persuaded that some other theory violation is a voter especially if the theory violation is egregious.

Hiding ASPEC (not putting it on a separate flow) is a great way to lose speaker points for both negative debaters. Calling out your opponents and making hidden ASPEC an RVI is a great way to add to your speaker points.

Impact debating matters just as much in theory debates as it does in any other debate. If you don't have an impact and articulate why it matters more than your opponent's, I will likely not vote for you.

I will not judge kick unless the neg explicitly asks me to and the aff doesn't provide a theoretical reason not to. Keep in mind that if the neg has "dropped" the aff's advantages, a judge kick only benefits the aff.

Counterplans that compete off of certainty or immediacy are likely not competitive. Permutations, even perm: do the counterplan, do not have to be topical, as in they only have to meet definitions of the words in the plan. Similarly, I don't think Agent CPs are competitive unless the aff has specified their agent or read an advantage to their agent.

Disclaimer

While these are my general opinions of debate, I am by no means a norm setter or emotionally attached to them. I can always be persuaded by what happens in a debate round.

Jack Hightower Woodward Academy 5 rounds

Last changed on Wed April 24, 2024 at 8:17 PM EDT

Jack Hightower

Coach at Mamaroneck (2023-Present)

Assistant at Georgetown (2022-Present)

Assistant at Woodward Academy (2022-2023)

Georgetown Student (2022-2026)

Woodward Academy Debater (2017-2022)

He/Him

Email Chains: jch334@georgetown.edu

Emails That Aren't Chains: jack@thehightowers.com

Last Updated 04/21/2024

Fiscal Redistribution Topic Knowledge: somewhat familiar with the topic and its mechanisms - I've produced a few files for the topic and am helping coach a team. I also have a decent understanding of core macroeconomic concepts. If you want to have a super in-depth debate about economics, you probably should still explain things.

People that have influenced parts of my debate philosophy: Bill Batterman, Maggie Berthiaume, Ashna Ghanate, Nico Juarez, Brandon Kelley, Elizabeth Li, Ben Sayers, Tyler Thur, Cole Weese, Kieran Lawless, Zidao Wang, Adam White, Connelly Cowan, Zachary Zinober, Kumail Zaidi. This list is meant more as a tribute than an explanation of how I judge, but use it how you want.

TLDR

Respect your opponents.

Debate what you enjoy and have fun.

Learn something from each debate.

Ask me any questions you have.

Feel free to email me after the round.

Clash > Tricks

All biases are subject to change through debate.

If I cannot flow you, it does not count as an argument.

If something does not have a warrant, it does not count as an argument.

I will read evidence that I deem important. If there are certain cards that you want me to read, you should point me towards them in your speech.

Longer Explanation

Biases

Good debating will always be able to change my mind about issues.

Any argumentative preferences I list below speak to which arguments I find more true/intuitively persuasive than others, but they are certainly not set in stone.

Clash

I reward good clash with speaker points and will most likely punish obvious attempts to evade clash with less speaker points. Making an effort to actively engage with your opponents’ arguments and doing detailed impact and evidence comparison will be a good way to increase your speaker points.

I wish people would flow better and/or at least stop putting "did you read this card" and "reasons to reject the team" as the very first questions in CX.

Super vague plan texts make me sad.

Theory

I don't think I am particularly good at adjudicating theory debates, and I also don't really enjoy them (the same extends to competition). That is not to say that I have strong aff or neg biases on theory/won't vote for certain arguments, but it is meant as a warning about the fact that there is some risk that you will get a decision that you don't like in these types of debates.

I default to conditionality being the only reason to reject the team, but I could be convinced by a few other arguments.

Good theory debating requires in-depth line by line. If one team just reads blocks and the other team does line by line, I will almost always vote for the team who did the line by line.

Topicality

If you think that the other team is clearly pushing the resolution and you have good evidence to support it, consider going for T.

Plan Text in a Vacuum has never made sense to me, but you are welcome to try to change my mind.

T is not a reverse voting issue.

CPs

CPs should have a solvency advocate. If the first time a solvency advocate is read is in the block, the affirmative gets new answers in the 1AR.

Unless you have a very good solvency advocate, CPs need to compete off of more than definitions of words like “should.”

CPs should fiat a specific policy.

The Ks that I have the most experience and knowledge of are settler colonialism and abolition. If your strategy is a more common K like capitalism or security, then I should be a good judge for you; however, as you move beyond those, there is a risk you might start to lose me some background knowledge wise.

I am a much larger fan of link/alternative debates than framework debates. Links to individual words in individual cards = generally bad. Links to broad premises or claims in the 1AC = generally good.

If you’re reliant on winning fiat bad/debate bad style arguments, I’m probably not a great judge for you.

You should have a clear vision of what the alternative looks like going into the round. Many teams lose credibility during cross-ex when they are unable to successfully explain what the solution is to the problem they have identified.

K Affs

I'll vote for anything, but I don't think I'm a particularly great judge for K affs (though I do think they might have a winning record in front of me).

I will do my best to fairly evaluate the debate, but I do only have experience being negative vs critical affirmatives. I have, however, done some work at Georgetown helping teams read K affs.

If you choose not to defend the resolution, you should probably defend the entirety of your 1AC, including your authors and concepts forwarded in evidence, since there's no solid stasis point for competition otherwise. Because of that, I might have a higher threshold for the perm when a negative team has specific links for a critique to the affirmative.

Fairness might or might not be an impact depending on how you explain it, but even if it's not, it's most likely an internal link to a bunch of other things that definitely are impacts.

DAs

The link is usually the most important part of disadvantage debating. Winning a high risk of a link gives you a lot of leeway with the uniqueness and impact.

Most politics DAs are really bad, but teams get away with them because people don’t point out simple flaws in them (even analytically).

If a 1NC DA is not complete (missing uniqueness, internal link, etc.), the 1AR gets new answers when those parts are added.

Turns case can be very useful, but it needs to be well-developed.

Impact Turns

I am a large fan of them, as long as they are not offensive. My most consistent 2NR in high school might have been degrowth.

Speaker Points

I'm known for giving out higher than average speaker points. I'll try my best to stick roughly to this scale:

29.5-30.0: should win the tournament or gave one of the best speeches I have heard in a long time.

29.2-29.5: top 10% of teams in the pool.

28.9-29.2: top 33% of teams in the pool.

28.6-28.9: middle 14% of the pool.

28.3-28.5: bottom 33% of teams the pool

28.0-28.3: bottom 10% of teams in the pool.

0-27.5: did something offensive.

If you ask for a 30, I'll lower your points.

Random

Limited tag-teaming is fine.

Prep time ends when the speech doc is saved or you stop writing on your flow.

Using legal language or abbreviations is fine with me, but you should explain unfamiliar terms at least once before repeatedly employing them.

Case debating is underutilized. I believe you can beat some affirmatives with only analytical arguments on case.

There’s usually always a risk of something, but that does not mean that the risk is not insanely low.

Caleb Holley Langston Hughes High School 3 rounds

Lianna Homrich Marist School 2 rounds

Pranay Ippagunta Northview High School

Last changed on Thu April 18, 2024 at 11:53 PM EDT

Pranay Ippagunta

Northview AI, IS

presumptionflipsneg@gmail.com

Thoughts

addendum before TOC: I am extremely bad for teams that rely on mainly ethos and are averse to LBL

Top

1—Tech over truth to its logical extent. Debate is not about solely the truth level of your arguments but

your ability to substantially defeat the other team’s claims with your technical ability.

2—I valued agnostic judging when I was a debater so I will do my best to replicate that when I judge you.

My favorite judges when I debated in high school: Kevin Hirn, Kevin Sun, and Gio.

3—When debating ask the question of Why? Technical debating is not just realizing WHAT was dropped

but WHY what was dropped matters and how important it is in the context of the rest of the debate. “If

you start thinking in these terms and can explain each level of this analysis to me, then you will get

closer to winning the round. In general, the more often this happens and the earlier this happens it will

be easier for me to understand where you are going with certain arguments. This type of analysis

definitely warrants higher speaker points from me and it helps you as a debater eliminate my

predispositions from the debate."- Matt Cekanor

4—Biggest influences: Matt Cekanor, Arnav Kashyap, Kevin Hirn, Giorgio Rabbini, Rafael Pierry, Josh

Harrington, David McDermott, Conner Shih.

Deciding Rounds

"I will follow something resembling the following structure to make my decision:
A List the- arguments extended into the 2NR and the 2AR

B) Ask myself what, as per the 2NR and 2AR, winning these arguments will get for either the affirmative

or the negative. The answer to this question will sometimes be “absolutely nothing” at which point I will

strike these arguments off my flow.

C) Trace whether these points of disagreement were present previously in the debate. This will only

include substantive argumentation but will not include framing devices introduced in the 2NR and the

2AR."

D) Compare the negative and affirmative’s central issues by asking myself if losing a certain argument

for a certain team will still allow for that team to win the debate.” – Vikas Burugu

Framework

Update: I'm getting increasingly good for fairness. Lowers the burden on the negative team to win case

defense. I hold the line from the 1AR to the 2AR. When 2NCs extend fairness, 1AR drops most tricks like

fairness paradox, ballot PIC, subpoints on debate doesn't impact subjectivites. Very good for holding the

line.

Old:

1. No preference on what impact you go for. Some impacts require more case debating than others. For

example, if going for fairness, you need to spend more time winning the ballot portion of your offense

and defense against the other team’s theory of how debate operates. If going for clash, you need to

spend more time winning how your model over a year’s worth of debates can solve their offense and

spend more time with defense to the affirmative.

2. I have spent a large part of my high school career thinking about arguments for the negative and the

affirmative in these debates. To put it into perspective, almost 90% of my debates over a given season

are framework debates, on the neg and the aff. For a large amount of framework debates, the better-

practiced team always wins.
3. Use defense to your advantage. Nebulous claims of inserting the affirmative can be read on the

negative with no specific internal link or impact debating will largely not factor in my decision. However,

there are fantastic ways to use defense like switch side debate and the TVA. "Most 2NRs assert TVA and

SSD with no connection to the rest of the arguments. The 2NC and 2NR should spend time applying their

impact filters to specific parts of aff offense. This can be made most effective by explaining your switch

side argument on the impact turn you believe it resolves the best."- Arnav Kashyap

4. Very specific TVA’s can work against very specific types of framework arguments. If the affirmative

has forwarded a critique of debating the topic then TVA’s can mitigate the affirmative’s DAs. However, if

the affirmative team has forwarded an impact turn to the imposition of framework in the round, they

are less useful.

A)Finding a middle ground

While this approach will be significantly harder to assemble / formulate, it gives affirmative teams the

ability to impact turn both the content of debate’s that would occur under the negative’s interpretation

AND the reading of framework with significantly less drawbacks than the impact turn approach. It will,

however, require affirmative’s to wade through the traditional components of a topicality debate and

will be subject to good negative teams closely scrutinizing affirmative counterinterpretations. An

important question that not enough negative teams ask is how the aff’s counter-interpretation solves

their impact turns. “Aff odds of winning are substantially higher if you persuade me that the negative

can debate the aff over the course of a season with a relatively even win-percentage. Advance impact-

turns boldly, but do not forget defense” – Rafael Pierry.

B) Impact turning topicality

"This argument is only particularly persuasive if you win an argument aside from competing

interpretations for how a debate should be evaluated. Unless your argument is debate bad, I will

struggle to find a way to vote for no topic at all against a competent negative team. However, if you do

win an argument that reduces the question of my ballot to an individual debate, the impact-turn only

approach becomes much more viable. Aff offense here should focus on why the 1NC’s reading of

framework is violent."- Arnav Kashyap.

6. Often times when starting out, 2AR's go for too much in the 2AR. If you are impact turning T, go for

one DA's and do sufficient impact comparison. Your 2AR should answer the questions of how T is particularly violent or links to your theory of power and most importantly HOW MY BALLOT CAN

RESOLVE THOSE THINGS. Your impact only matters as much as its scope of solvency. You must also do

risk comparison. Most neg framework teams are better at this. The way the aff loses these debates is

when there's a DA with substantive impact turn and there's a negative impact that is explained less but

is paired with substantively more internal link work and solvency comparison.

If going for a CI, focus on one impact turn and focus on how the CI solves it and how the DA links to their

interp. Think of it like CP, your CI should include some aspects of their interpretation but avoids the risk

of your DAs.

Misc: live list

1--- Saying you're "X" identity position really loud does not constitute an argument.\

2---What is up with people saying impact turns to topicality means people will weaponize "title 9"

violations against framework tf.

K v Policy AFF

Ks do not disprove the desirability of plan action, those are DAs

I am finding this trend of the middle ground framework interpretation increasingly difficult to

comprehend. If the aff gets the plan, it is an auto aff win, if the neg wins framework, it’s usually a

negative win. Ks that go for links to the plan even with case turns are unstrategic because usually there’s

an uncontested affirmative. After reading this if you are like okay, we’ll read impact defense to, then

why are you even going for the K at that point, read a DA.

As you can tell, I will start my decision in these rounds on framework.

2ARs that don’t pick between clash and fairness and go for both usually fail
K v K Debates
1. Technical Debating is often lost in these debates but this necessarily happens due to the nature of K v

K debates as theory of power debating is often the most important part. That being said, vague link

debating will mitigate you winning your theory of power. 2. You need to pick something and defend it.

The neg team will ask about the affirmative in 1AC CX, that explanation should stay consistent

throughout the round. Lack of a consistent explanation will lower my threshold for buying a risk of a link

and higher the burden for you to win the permutation.

3. Use links to implicate solvency. Often times its hard to make a K aff stick to in round or out of round

solvency. Use links in the 2NC and 2NR to mitigate parts of both so even if the 2AR consolidates to one,

you still have defensive arguments.

4. "This might sound terrible for the neg, but if the neg does not refute aff shifts with specific link

explanation, I’m likely quite a good judge for the aff. Kritikal affirmatives have easy angles to exploit vs

substantive negative strategies. Neg teams are often awful at contesting the aff, so applying your theory

and solvency explanation to different pages effectively should be an easy route to victory."- Arnav. K affs

have built in theory of power and solvency that's inherently offensive. I'll be grumpy if you jettison the

aff but will not if you provide extrapolated offensive explanations in the 2AR using your affirmative and

pieces of offense that they dropped. 2AR's that do this will be rewarded with higher speaks.

Ryan James Hire 5 rounds

Last changed on Sat January 16, 2021 at 3:02 AM EDT

Ryan James

Email: ryanjames0116@gmail.com - add me to the email chain

Emory University '21

Debated 4 years at McDonogh ('17)

Top Level:

Do you, I will equally evaluate any argument (unless clearly, intentionally, and/or inherently unethical) as long are you are willing to defend the argument in a passionate and respectful way. I will try to be as objective as possible. My history in non-traditional/performative debate does not mean that I default to these arguments or prefer them over any other type of argument - if you win the debate, you win the debate. I am still familiar with traditional forms of debate but err to the side of more explanation for topic DA contextualization. I love seeing smart/new/strategic arguments. The best way to get a ballot in front of me is for the 2NR/2AR to tell a story stitching together all of the previous moving parts of the debate and paint a picture of what voting for you would look like. This may include a role of the ballot/debate/judge, but not necessary.

K/Performance/Non-traditional Affs & T/Framework:

- I am flexible with alternative ways of viewing the topic. What I have read/believe is true however does not necessarily matter in these debates though because (like I said above) if you win you win. An aff that's not T can still win against T/FW and a T aff can lose on T/FW. It all depends on the debate and what your arguments are.

- I will not prescribe to you how you should read your args - as long as you believe you are making a smart/well-explained/strategic argument, do you and I'll evaluate it.

- FW: Actually talk about the specific aff/and what they do wrong instead of making a generic/uncontextualized "no-plan bad" argument. You can still win these debates but usually not at high-level competition. (T you won't have to worry about this as much)

Kritiks:

- Familiar with race-based Ks (STILL give me the story/theory of the K especially in the context of the aff - not everyone reads the same Ks the same way).

- High-theory Ks will need to include explanation that isn't full of jargon (even if it makes sense to you).

DA/CP:

- DA: Solid link contextualization and impact work (assuming you are winning the basic stuff i.e. uq, i/l chains, etc.) and you'll be good.

- CP: Open to them all, no matter how small/picky or big if you win the flow you win the CP

Speaker Points:

- I evaluate based on what I have seen at your level of debate.

- Generally 28.5 - 29.5 but you will be below or above if you need to learn/practice a lot more and practice or did exceptionally well and made very smart arguments that stitched the debate together, respectively.

CX:

- Open, cool with using prep to prolong CX

- Of course reference if necessary in speech

Misc:

- Speed isn't everything - slower + clear > faster + hear every 5th word; I will also listen and usually flow the parts of the evidence you read/have highlighted

- Clipping: You and partner get L + 0 speaks, W + 30s for opponents, taken up with tab

- Saving the doc, emailing, flashing, that whole process is not prep

Manu John Alpharetta HS 3 rounds

Aratrika Kar Alpharetta HS 4 rounds

Last changed on Fri February 5, 2021 at 5:35 AM EDT

2N for 2 years at Alpharetta High School

Alpharetta '21

Put me on the email chain: aratrika.kar32300@gmail.com.

-I won't vote on anything unethical. Don't be racist or sexist. Don't clip or steal prep. Most importantly, just be polite.

-Speed is fine, but if you're unclear, I'll probably lower your speaks.

I will usually vote tech over truth, but for other cases, you really have to explain your arguments. If you make me laugh, I'll boost your speaks :).

Be nice to me and the other team, and everything will go smoothly.

2020-2021 Criminal Justice Topic: I haven't debated on this topic, so fully explain any technical terms/acronyms during the debate for me to understand. You should keep on your cameras on during the entire debate. At least, keep them on while you are talking.

Other Things:

Condo: I probably won't ever vote aff for condo. I think it's fair for the neg to both challenge and defend the status quo, especially if not a lot of conditional arguments are read.

Topicality: I'm not a fan of T debates and I probably won't vote on T unless it's dropped. If you go for T, give me a thorough explanation as to what your plan would look like under your interpretation. T substantial is something I see myself voting for.

DA: The more specific, the better. Fully explain each component of the DA. If you can turn case using the DA, do it. Turns can usually be answered by smart analytics by the aff team, so the aff team shouldn't try to answer every single part of the turn & instead should point out the turn's weak points.

CP: Love them. Go for CPs. Make sure you have good defense since I think many CPs can easily be pushed to the side by the aff's solvency deficits.

Case: If you can turn case, do it. I find debates where the neg is arguing whether the solvency was explicitly extended/dropped boring, so don't do it. I probably won't vote for "presumption" unless you clearly explain why. I also love impact turns- they're probably my favorite type of debate.

K: They're great. For me to vote on the K, explain the purpose of the alt. If the alt is vague or doesn't have a proper way of mobilization, I won't vote on it. If you're going for high theory Ks that are not usually read (i.e. Antiblackness, Security, etc.), you must explain the literature base, especially the link-level. Things I see myself voting for include whether or not the alt actually solves the case or if the link turns case.

If you have any comments or questions about my RFD or my paradigm, please email me.

Jack Kast Henry W Grady High School 4 rounds

Senadzi Kpeglo Alpharetta HS 3 rounds

Dorien Laurens Henry W Grady High School 4 rounds

Last changed on Sat March 16, 2024 at 2:36 PM EDT

hey! dorien here. midtown (née grady) '22.

put me on the email chain at laurens.debate@gmail.com

any questions, please ask

quick thing abt this topic - i haven't debated on it/followed any arg evolution so assume i know little to nothing

here's some pretty basic things that matter to me:

- be nice, especially in cx. spluttering about "your cx" or shouting over another person won't get you anywhere. just be polite.

- don't make me judge a death good debate. there's a high chance that i'll straight up refuse to judge the round - if you feel like you just *have* to read that argument, strike me.

- clash is good. two ships passing in the night is not. please try to adequately respond to your opponent's arguments, & explain why your arg is good w/ context.

- line by line is great. do it w/ signposting & it'll make me very happy

- please don't abuse zoom debate for prep. i'll be lenient on crashes, etc but debate is a game that is best played when it's fair

- write my ballot for me! i'm the most indecisive person ever, but you can change that. giving me some judge instruction will go far.

- send analytics, esp theory violations. if you don't, i Will mark your speaks down (for theory violations). in general, zoom debate can be faulty and it'll help you if i can catch all of what you say. if you send all analytics from your speech, it'll help your speaks.

- evidence is good. i'll try and read cards during prep/after the debate. tell me what cards matter - if i don't think an issue has been clearly resolved in the debate, i'll resolve based on who has the better evidence. however, even if your ev is better on the question, if it wasn't impacted out in the debate i won't vote on it.

- some argument preferences: da/cp debates are fun. i love a good case debate, it's v underrated. i'm not the best for k debates, esp k affs, but i'll try my best there (still think plans are good though).

- (apparently i have to say this) if you're going for the k, make sure that you extend the link beyond the tags - i want warrants. also, you should extend an impact, and if applicable, the alt. basically, just make sure to extend the full arg, although this should apply for any off.
(the following was swiped from maddock thomas) i probably won't vote on the k if
a) you cannot explain your alt well
b) you clearly don't understand your literature and are just reading blocks.
c) you have not impacted out why the k means you win the debate - it means nothing to me if you just tell me the 'aff is securitising' in the 2nr.

finally, novice debates aren't going to affect your future; there's no pressure here. the best debates are the ones where you have fun.

put a good pun in your speech & i'll boost your speaks

for ld, bc i guess I'm judging this now:
- if you couldn't already tell, i'm a policy person which will influence how i evaluate debates, so i would also read the above

- phil/trad fwks are fine, but be sure to signpost as i'm not accustomed to flowing those kinds of speeches - i'll probably be best for larp debates

- im not super well versed in the lit of different fwks (aside from util; that's a given) so if you have cards and send them, i will most definitely be reading them (make sure they say what you want them to say)

- the way i evaluate rounds is fwk then contention level - please make sure you engage with your opponents framework, explaining why theirs is bad and why i should prefer yours. if there's no clash on the fwk, i default aff.

Claire Lauterbach Marist School 3 rounds None

Mona Mahadevan Woodward Academy 3 rounds

Last changed on Sat September 26, 2020 at 10:43 AM EDT

@New Haven UDL Parliamentary debaters: Please ignore this paradigm.

I was a policy debater at Woodward Academy for four years, and I'm a second-year parliamentary debater at Yale. This paradigm is for policy debate with an LD note at the bottom.

I’d like to be on the email chain: monapm19@gmail.com

General —

I care most about respect for your opponents and your partner. Don’t hide ASPEC, delete analytics, be mean in CX, destroy classrooms, or troll. Please be kind. Disclose (unless the 1AC is new).

Good for “aff must have a solvency advocate” or “neg only gets 5-off” theory.

T —

A clear vision of your interpretation and specific case lists are crucial. Semantic distinctions are irrelevant. I generally lean aff because I find “substance crowd-out” persuasive, but T-Substantial is a (substantial) exception.

DA’s —

There is often no relevant risk of a DA: “always a risk” is silly because the burden of proof is a burden. I consequently find “turns case” as an answer to well-deployed framing contentions unpersuasive absent a high risk of the DA.

CP’s —

My assessment of competition and theory rests on relative specificity of aff and neg solvency advocates but also what makes the most educational debate.

F/W —

I lean neg. However, “we meet” arguments based on creative, evidenced readings of the resolution; limited counter-interps that impact turn state-centric education; and, more generally, a defense of a model that generates substantial, fair neg ground are all potentially persuasive.

Fairness is the most persuasive negative impact.

K’s —

I’ll listen to anything. Both teams should aim for specificity and clear explanation. Include impacts to each link.

I really, really like the dialectical materialism/Marx K.

LD Note —

Explain how the affirmative/resolution/alt solves your impacts and wins within your ethical framework.

Role of the ballots should be grounded in the burden of rejoinder. The negative must prove that the affirmative/resolution produces a harm, not just that it maintains one.

Beth McMahon Decatur High School 2 rounds

Last changed on Mon April 8, 2024 at 2:31 PM EDT

Atlanta Urban Debate League (UDL). Decatur, Ga. Currently I teach AP Lang and direct a small AUDL program without a ton of institutional support but in a previous life I coached mostly policy on the national circuit. In fact, I've been around long enough to see the activity go from notecards in ox boxes to xeroxed briefs to some computerized debates to having everything online. I prefer to flow on paper because that's how I learned back in the dark ages.

You can put me on the E mail chain: mcmahon.beth@gmail.com.

For UDL tournaments:

I am an old school policy coach and do not love the K (even though my teams do run it) because teams just read their blocks and don't evaluate the round. That said, if you run the K, awesome -- be ready to debate the line by line and go for something other than framework. See my note below about having an advocacy of some sort.

For the Barkley Forum: If you are in speech events, know that my background is in policy. If you are a policy debater, know that I haven't judged a lot of varsity debates this year so watch the topic specific acronyms. From what I've seen it will be fine but just wanted you to be aware.

Old stuff:

Current Urban Debate League coach (Atlanta/AUDL) but a long time ago (when we carried tubs, no one had a cell phone, and the K was still kinda new) I used to coach and judge on the national circuit. I took a sabbatical from coaching (had kids, came back, things have changed, no more tubs). I still flow on paper and probably always will. FYI -- I have not judged national circuit varsity debates consistently since 2008 when I worked at a now-defunct national circuit program that had some money for travel. I've been told I'm more tech over truth and although I enjoy listening to K debates I don't have a K background (my national circuit experience has all been old school policy so like DA plus case plus CP). If you are a K team I expect some sort of ADVOCACY not just a bunch of block reading and a framework dump. If you don't have a plan you still need to advocate FOR something. Theory dumps are very frustrating to me because I don't know how to evaluate the round.

Crystalizing the round in rebuttals is an important skill - especially in front of a judge like me that did not spend 8 weeks at camp nor has read all of the lit. Or maybe any of the lit. You absolutely will be more familiar with your evidence than I will so please don't expect that kind of deep dive into the post round discussion. There was a point in my life when I could have those discussions, but I'm not there anymore. I am however more likely to buy your case attacks or a topicality argument so there's that.

Notes for IE/LD -- I judge more policy debate than LD/IE/PF/Congress but at some point this year have judged all of the above. I tend to be more tech over truth with LD and am looking for some sort of impact analysis of the values presented. My policy team does not run the K and debates more traditionally -- one of the most underutilized strategies in LD is to debate the other team's case.

Chad Meadows Marist School 3 rounds

Last changed on Tue January 2, 2024 at 2:52 PM CDT

Chad Meadows (he/him)

chadwickmeadows@gmail.com

If you have interest in college debate, and would be interested in hearing about very expansive scholarship opportunities please contact me. Our program competes in two policy formats and travels to at least 4 tournaments a semester. Most of our nationally competitive students have close to zero cost of attendance because of debate specific financial support.

Debate Experience

College: I’ve been the head argument coach and/or Director of Debate for Western Kentucky University for a little over a decade. WKU primarily competes in NFA-LD, a shorter policy format. This season (2023) we are adding CEDA/NDT tournaments to our schedule.

High School: I’ve been an Assistant Coach, and primarily judge, for the Marist School in Atlanta, Georgia for several years. In this capacity I’ve judged at high school tournaments in both Policy Debate and Public Forum.

Argument Experience/Preferences

I feel comfortable evaluating the range of debates in modern policy debate (no plan affirmatives, policy, and kritik) though I am the most confident in policy rounds. My research interests tend toward more political science/international affairs/economics, though I’ve become well read in some critical areas in tandem with my students’ interests (anti-blackness/afropessimism in particular) in addition I have some cursory knowledge of the standard kritik arguments in debate, but no one would mistake me for a philosophy enthusiast. On the nuclear weapons topic, almost all of my research has been on the policy side.

I have few preferences with regard to content, but view some argumentative trends with skepticism: Counterplans that result in the plan (consult and many process counterplans), Agent counterplans, voting negative any procedural concern that isn’t topicality, reject the team counterplan theory that isn’t conditionality, some versions of politics DAs that rely on defining the process of fiat, arguments that rely on voting against the representations of the affirmative without voting against the result of the plan.

I feel very uncomfortable evaluating events that have happened outside of the debate round, especially in the CEDA/NDT community where I have limited knowledge of the context regarding community trends.

I have little experience evaluating debates with some strategies that would only be acceptable in a 2-person policy debate context - 2ac add-ons, 2nc counterplanning, 2ac intrinsicness tests on DA, etc. I’m not opposed to these strategies, and understand their strategic purpose, but I have limited exposure.

Decision Process

I tend to read more cards following the debate than most. That’s both because I’m curious, and I tend to find that debaters are informing their discussion given the evidence cited in the round, and I understand their arguments better having read the cards myself.

I give less credibility to arguments that appear unsupported by academic literature, even if the in round execution on those arguments is solid. I certainly support creativity and am open to a wide variety of arguments, but my natural disposition sides with excellent debate on arguments that are well represented in the topic literature.

To decide challenging debates I generally use two strategies: 1) write a decision for both sides and determine which reflects the in-round debating as opposed to my own intuition, and 2) list the relevant meta-issues in the round (realism vs liberal internationalism, debate is a game vs. debate should spill out, etc.) and list the supporting arguments each side highlighted for each argument and attempt to make sense of who debated the best on the issues that appear to matter most for resolving the decision.

I try to explain why I sided with the winner on each important issue, and go through each argument extended in the final rebuttal for the losing team and explain why I wasn’t persuaded by that argument.

Public Forum

Baseline expectations: introduce evidence using directly quoted sections of articles not paraphrasing, disclose arguments you plan to read in debates.

Argument preferences: no hard and fast rules, but I prefer debates that most closely resemble the academic and professional controversy posed by the topic. Debate about debate, while important in many contexts, is not the argument I'm most interested in adjudicating.

Style preferences: Argumentation not speaking style will make up the bulk of my decision making and feedback, my reflections on debate are informed by detailed note taking of the speeches, speeches should focus their time on clashing with their opponents' arguments.

Rose Pelham Druid Hills High School 5 rounds

Last changed on Sat January 6, 2024 at 4:53 AM EDT

Last edited on 5/27/23 to rewrite the sections on experience, Statement on Racism, and K Affirmatives.

Pronouns: she/they

Experience: I have spent my entire life in the debate community one way or another. That said, I spent five years debating middle school/high school, took a break from debating in undergrad, then came back to judge and coach for a variety of schools.

Statement on Racism (& other Prejudices) in Debate

Debate should encourage students to see themselves as agents capable of acting to create a better world. We will not achieve this vision for our activity so long as we pretend it is in a realm separate from reality. Judges have an ethical obligation to oppose prejudice in round including but by no means limited to: racism, queerphobia, antisemitism, sexism, Islamophobia, ableism, and classism, among others. Debate, as an activity, has its fair share of structural inequities. We, as coaches and judges, need to address these and be congnizant of them in our decisions.

General Philosophy

I see the role of the judge as that of an educator concerned primarily with what teams learn from the experience. Therefore, the most important aspect of being a judge, to me, is to provide good constructive criticism to teams about their arguments and performance, and to promote the educational qualities of debate. When teams are using prep time, I am usually writing speech by speech feedback for my ballots––which I very much hope teams and their judges will read. As a judge, I want you to come out of the round, win or lose, feeling like you learned something worthwhile.

As an educator concerned with what can be learned from the round, I think the quality of arguments are much more important than their quantity, and whenever possible prefer to reward well researched and articulated arguments more than arguments will few warrants that might be read in the hopes of their being dropped. I prefer to decide rounds based upon the meaning of the arguments presented and their clash rather than by concession.

I flow the round based on what I hear, preferring not to use speech documents. For this reason, clarity is more important than speed. For an argument to exist in the round, it needs to be spoken intelligibly. Rounds that are slower typically offer better quality arguments and fewer mistakes.

Argument Specific preferences:

Plan-less critical affirmatives: I am happy to judge and vote on them. K affs are a useful tool for contesting the norms of debate, including those which are the most problematic in the activity. Over time, I have changed my threshold on their topicality. These days, my position is that so long as they are clearly related to the topic, I am happy to consider them topical. When aff teams argue critical affirmatives, I strongly prefer there be a specific solvency mechanism for their interpretation of the role of the ballot. For negative teams arguing against K affs, I have a strong preference for specific case answers. Given that K affs are a fixture of debate and are generally available to find on open evidence and the caselist wiki, prepping to specifically answer them should be possible. While I am unlikely to vote in favor of arguments that would outright eliminate K affs in debate, counter kritiks are a strategy I am amenable to.

Kritiks: At its most fundamental level, a kritik is a critical argument that examines the consequences of the assumptions made in another argument. I love well run kritiks, but for me to decide in favor of a kritik it needs a specific link to the assumptions in the 1AC and a clearly articulated alternative that involves a specific action (as opposed to a vague alt). Experience informs me that K's with generic links and vague alternatives make for bad debate.

Framework: Lately this term seems to have become a synonym for a kind of impact calculus that instead of focusing on magnitude, risk, and time-frame attempts to convince me to discard all impacts but those of the team running this argument. Framework, as I understand it, is a synonym to theory and is about what the rules of debate should be. Why should it be a rule of debate that we should only consider one type of impact? It seems all impacts in debate have already boiled themselves down to extinction.

Topicality: Please slow down so that I can hear all your arguments and flow all their warrants. The quality of your T arguments is much more important to me––especially if you argue about the precedent the round sets––than how many stock voters you can read. I may prefer teams that offer a clear argument on topicality to those that rely on spreading, however tactically advantages the quickly read arguments may be.

Counter plans: The burden of demonstrating solvency is on the negative, especially with PICs. PICs are probably bad for debate. Most of the time they are just a proposal to do the plan but in a more ridiculous way that would likely never happen. So if you are going to run a PIC, make sure to argue that changing whatever aspect of the plan your PIC hinges on is realistically feasible and reasonably advantageous. Otherwise, I will do everything I can to avoid deciding the round on them.

Conditionality: I have no problem with the negative making a couple conditional arguments. That said, I think relying on a large number of conditional arguments to skew the aff typically backfires with the neg being unable to devote enough time to create a strong argument. So, I typically decide conditionality debates with a large number of conditional arguments in favor of the aff, not because they make debate too hard for the aff, but because they make debating well hard for everyone in the round.

For rookie/novice debaters:

If you're reading this, then you're already a step ahead and thinking about the skills you will need to be building for JV and varsity debate. What I want to see most in rookie/novice debates is that teams are flowing and clearly responding to each other.

Sukriti Rawal Hire 5 rounds

Sachi Reddy Woodward Academy 5 rounds

Last changed on Tue January 9, 2024 at 7:10 PM EDT

Sachi Reddy

NYU '25

Woodward Academy '21

Last Updated: 09/30/2023

Note for 23-24 Season

I have little topic knowledge, so make sure to explain any topic-specific acronyms.

Short Version

I have found debate to be an incredibly valuable activity, and I hope everyone makes the most of it.

Be respectful to others in the round. Debate should be fun!

Be clear, both when speaking and in communicating your overall position.

Logistics

I would like to be on the email chain: please add reddysachi@gmail.com

Send analytics.

Thoughts on online debate —

1. I will give a thumbs up or verbally communicate when I am ready for you to begin your speech.

2. Flowability is especially important now. That requires clarity and organized line-by-line.

3. During cross-ex, try to minimize talking over each other.

General

Demonstrate that you understand the arguments you have presented in the round and that you can clearly explain them. That is far more important to me than individual argumentative preferences.

Excluding morally reprehensible positions (like “death good”), I generally believe that most arguments are winnable if debated well. However, there are a few general principles that guide how I evaluate virtually any position.

1. Know your evidence. I like arguments that are well-supported by research. Be able to explain not only what your evidence says, but how it further proves your position. I will read cards after the round, especially ones that are emphasized in speeches. Evidence comparison is an essential part of argument comparison.

2. Be specific. Contextualize your offense and defense to the affirmative or negative team’s particular scenario. Specific, detailed explanation is far better than making sweeping, unwarranted claims.

3. Connect on important arguments. Do not forget line-by-line, but also remember to explain the implication of each argument, especially in the later speeches. Ballot framing is just as important as argument resolution. What does winning an individual argument mean for the other components of the debate?

4. Cross-ex should have a strategic purpose. Determine how you can use this time to further your position in the debate. I like when an argument traces from one speech to cross-ex to another speech.

Keon Sanavandi Decatur High School 2 rounds

Last changed on Sat December 4, 2021 at 3:54 AM EDT

Keon Sanavandi (they/them)
keonsanavandijoon@gmail.com - add me to the chain
I haven't judged outside of the Atlanta urban debate league. I'm a 2a currently debating at Decatur High School.

Firstly, some general points

I'll do my best to listen to most debates, but you're really liable to lose me if you use big K words or go for KvK. I'm just not well versed in that lit.

Don't be rude, duh. I will drop speaks for being rude, I will drop teams for being bigoted, and I will listen to things like misgendering theory.

[insert all the generic "be clear" stuff that people usually put in paradigms]

Thoughts on debate topics generally

I respect a good analytic - that includes common knowledge. I'll listen to smart analytics, which can often be more valuable than cards. That means you should also answer analytics

Please debate out fairness as an impact, I'm divided on it - I usually prefer to go for fairness as an IL but that's just me

Ev comparison and stuff is super important - please do it. I love really detailed discussion of how warrants interact, beyond just "our author is more qualified". Think: "Their impact D card is about stealing nukes but our impact card is super specific about Pakistan selling nukes" versus "their card is from a JD candidate, ours is from a PhD". Obviously I'll listen to the latter, but the former is just better. (note: please do author quals, just don't say it and move on - explain why it matters)

The case debate

As a debater on this topic, I think case is terminally underutilized. Most affs suck. Just suck. If you point that out, I'll be open to listen.
T
I'm a fan of reasonability - I can be convinced otherwise but I inevitably am gonna lean towards it - better to disclose it now then to make a decision on it

Impact out your impacts - don't just say limits, impact it out. Same with precision. Precision is not an impact, what it causes, like fairness and education, are the impacts

On this topic, I don't have great opinions on T - I haven't debated as much. T-Cessation is kinda dumb. But I think a lot of T vios about protection mechanisms are super interesting

DA
What's not to like. Have a good story and I'll like the DA.

Try to have a specific link story - I much prefer an oil DA vs like, a renewables aff, then generic politics - or even politics with contextual cards than with generic links

I think I care about turns case less than most judges - especially when it's framed as "my impact causes your impact", any defense on the DA mitigates it anyways so like... who cares? It'll only help you vs like, a soft left aff. What I think is MUCH stronger is link level turns - the link triggers the impact. They're also just more interesting.

I'm a sucker for a good impact turn debate
CPs
Condo goodish. I think being able to run multiple advocacies is good but I think I can be easily convinced otherwise especially depending on what happens in the round.

I don't like process CPs generally. Be honest, you don't need them on water like you did on CJR. Run an actual CP, please and thank you. I'll vote for them if you win but I won't like it.

I'm generally not a fan of judge kick - the aff should answer it though.
K:
I understand the standard one like cap and abolition and a bit of setcol and afropess. I think authors endorsing the plan is pretty damning for the K on the perm. I also think links of omission are bad and solved by the perm. Lastly, if your opponent doesn't understand the link I probably don't either so be very clear in cross ex.

I also think winning "we're the root cause" alone isn't good enough to win - you should win either that the alt solves the impact, or that the aff doesn't because the structures still exist. Pick one or both.

Fwk:
Coming from running a soft left aff, I think the aff gets to weigh the aff. That means, for example, that the reduced deportations from defunding ICE are net benefits to the perm if the aff wins the K doesn't solve them, and I'll weigh those deporations vs the K impact. I have 0 experience judging framework though, so take that as you will.

Hargunn Sandhu Alpharetta HS 5 rounds

Last changed on Sun January 28, 2024 at 12:24 PM EDT

Alpharetta 21. Emory 25.

Email chain: hargunn.sandhu03@gmail.com

Note:

I have ZERO TOPIC KNOWLEDGE. Explain acronyms and don't assume I know the limits/consensus on T.

General:

1. Tech > Truth. Better debating can easily overcome any of the preferences I have below. Judge instruction is key, especially in the final rebuttals.

2. Good debating requires quality evidence; strong logical explanation, and contextualization.

3. Online debate: please slow down and enunciate more than you normally would. Clarity should not be sacrificed for speed. Sending analytics might be useful in case internet cuts out. Try to keep your camera on at least during speeches and CX.

4. Racism, sexism, discrimination, or any other problematic actions will result in an L and the lowest speaks.

5. Clipping = L and lowest speaks. If you accuse someone of clipping you must have evidence, if you fail to prove they clipped then you get an L.

Specifics:

1. K:

a. K Affs: Clash > Fairness > Education/Skills. I'm more inclined to vote on t usfg/framework since I have mostly been on this side of the debate. Heg good, cap good, etc are all good 2nr options. However, I do think the aff can win with impact turns to the negative's model. Good K affs have a connection to the topic and a clear offense/defense mechanism in the 1AC.

b. Ks: Leaning towards aff gets to weigh the plan. Who cares if fiat isn't real. Specific links, pulling quotes from the 1AC, and in-depth explanation at every level are very important. Avoid large overviews. Turns case/root cause/alt solves > fw 2nrs. Extinction ow/impact turn > permutation 2ars.

2. CPs/DAs:

a. CPs: Cool. If undebated, I'll judge kick the CP. I might be a little more receptive to intrinsic perms than most.

b. DAs: Turns case is crucial. Politics DAs are good, spin is important. 0% risk is a thing, but hard to get to.

3. Theory:

a. Conditionality: Good. Worth noting that I think aff teams rarely capitalize on neg teams' poor defense of condo.

b. International CP and Ctrl + f word PICs are bad assuming even debating. Neg leaning on most other theory.

4. T - Assuming even debating, competing interps > reasonability. Precise, contextual evidence is key to winning these debates, for both the aff and the neg, but especially the aff if there's a substantial limits differential. Read cards. Both sides should be clashing over their visions of the topic and the impacts to it.

5. Case: Not a fan of framing pages. Impact Turns are fantastic. Good case debating is underutilized. Presumption is possible.

6. Misc:

- Speaks: I'm prolly a little above average giving them out. Specific strategies are good. It always helps to make the round fun. Quality evidence is good. If you opensource, let me know, + .1

- Insert perm texts

- I'm usually not expressive, and anything I do express is usually not your fault.

- Things I prolly won't vote on: ASPEC, death good, and out of round issues

Anna Stockstill Cambridge High School Debate 5 rounds

Sechan Tak Henry W Grady High School 5 rounds

Maddock Thomas Decatur High School 2 rounds

Last changed on Sun February 11, 2024 at 4:49 PM EDT

Welcome!

Brown '26, Decatur '22

Please add me to the email chain - maddockpublic@gmail.com

Also add:

(debatedecatur@gmail.com)

Any questions, please ask.

~~Water~~ ~~(NATO) (~~Economic Inequality) Thoughts:

I have judged rather little on this topic. I have a pretty good understanding of the general topic though as a reader of much about economic redistribution.

Some first things first:

I'll judge pretty much any debate. Anything about specific args below shouldn't weigh too heavily on your in-round strats. The most important thing is that you make your best decisions and have fun.

If anyone during the round is being rude or disrespectful to anyone else or being discriminatory then your speaks will drop like the Nasdaq and I'll probably find it harder for myself to be persuaded by your args.

If I can't understand you, I won't flow you. If you're in Novice, don't be pretending you're Maddox Gates. I'll probably yell clear a few times before I stop flowing. (But not online - it's too disruptive)

A few of my general thoughts on things:

I don't think you need a card for everything - a well-warranted and thoughtful analytic can be just as useful as cards in many cases.

I'm not terribly decided on whether fairness is or is not an impact - you can argue either side, from my view this has to be debated within round if it comes to it. (Edit: Fairness is an Impact)

If you're going for 'fairness' on a theory flow, make sure your impact calculus is more robust than just saying the word fairness, it has to be contextualized to the debate space (or outside of).

Of course I'm happy to judge another topic if both teams agree ;)

On Case:

It's good, the neg should contest it.

For the aff, please leverage it against negative positions.

Turns are great, double turns aren't.

On T:

I drink it.

Topicality can be one of the best and worst 2nr/2ar debates. I default to competing interpretations like anyone else, but you can win reasonability under the right circumstances. Creative T interps with good definitions are fun.

On the K™:

You need to defend why your approach is better.

Saying large words fast does not make you the smartest person in round.

I am very unlikely to vote on a K if:

1. You cannot explain your alt well.

2. You clearly do not understand your literature and are just reading from blocks.

3. You have not impacted out why the K means you win the debate - It means nothing to me if you just tell me the 'aff is securitising' in the 2nr.

K affs:

I think the neg underestimates the power of presumption against a lot to these affs. T-USfg is fine, but like, there are other topicality arguments out there. Much rather hear a 2NR on something I haven't heard before.

On CPs:

CPs are cool.

Please kick your own CPs. If you must - tell me I should kick yours.

I will not vote for you if the only thing you do is "solve better". Have a net benefit.

On DAs:

At this point my objection to the politics DA is mostly joking; I don't love it but it's ingrained at this point.

The more case-specific your links or the story you can tell, the better.

2As can and should meme on bad DAs by pointing out failures in the internal link chains. Smart args will be rewarded.

About Theory and so on:

I think theory args are excellent, but, especially in novice, I need your args clearly impacted and extended throughout the debate in order for me to vote on them.

Why is condo a reason to reject the team and all others a reason to reject the arg? (Just something that has become a norm and is worth thinking about for both aff and neg before you get into a theory round)

If they drop your theory argument and it was just a blippy 1nc or 2ac line, I will likely allow for a response later in the round. But if it's a decent shell and extended - don't be afraid to extend.

If your opponent drops your theory argument, you need to tell me why that matters - don't just say 'they dropped X' and move on. Extensions include warrants!!!

Some stuff generally and also from people who have influenced my debate philosophy:

If you can go the whole debate without saying something ending in ology or ism you get all of the speaks.

Jokes are great and encouraged if done correctly.

Showing me you have a great knowledge of your case or off-case position will boost your speaks

Make the top pocket purple and/or in a foreign language and I'll boost your speaks by +.2

Joseph Tierney Northview High School 5 rounds

Last changed on Thu November 3, 2022 at 4:14 AM CDT

Hello! I am a second-year out from Marquette University High School currently studying real estate and business economics at Marquette University. I debated at the ToC my senior year with Bernard Medeiros and coached by Matt Cekanor, with assistance from the brilliant Josh Miller. I currently am a de facto assistant for Northview High School out of GA. Add me on the email chain at jtierneyv@protonmail.com.

To keep it short for if you're rushing for pref sheets:

T vs. K Aff - 9/10

T vs. Policy - 3/10

K - 9/10

CP - 9.5/10

DA - 10/10

Topic knowledge - did a lot of work on water, a lot less on NATO AI/CS/Biotech--other career pursuits have come calling!

Water Record: Aff 28 - 22 Neg (2-6 K Aff vs. T -- 0-1 K aff vs. K)

Zero risk exists and is a viable strategy in front of me. I have voted for terminal defense and will again.

Influences: Matt Cekanor, Joseph Tierney IV, Josh Miller, Will Deverey, Bernard Medeiros, Anders Sundheim, Harry Lucas, David Griffith

Big Picture

1. I was a 2A/1N in high school and primarily went for primarily policy arguments but overall was on a very flex team. I am a very flexible judge ideologically, you can run and say pretty much anything in front of me.

2. I think debate is a game but if there are structural problems they can be pointed out and discussed. I am best at evaluating policy debates but I'm also your judge for pretty much any critique you want to run.

3. If you have a framing page and don't read impact defense it's going to be difficult for you to win. I don't care about your theories on "cognitive bias" if there's no evidence my bias is wrong to begin with.

4. What is conceded is true but only has the implications you say it has. I evaluate what's on my flow and nothing more.

5. Conditionality is good but I've been changing my mind slowly. I find that teams use counterplans to replace substantive case debate. I've noticed that 2Ns blow off conditionality a lot. You'll lose if you do this.

6. I attempt to write the least interventionary ballot. This means you should be articulating your arguments. Leaving things up to my interpretation is risky - I am a dissident on many questions.

7. Assumption-centered debate is bad. Do not assume I know or understand your argument. Do not assume I know or understand how your argument interacts with other arguments in the debate. Explain, substantiate, defend. I hate hearing "This was answered in the overview." I flow well and it's extremely annoying.

8. Most people already don't think this but, just to be sure, these are not rules for debating with me in the back. I am very candid and open about how I think about debate because it may help you cohere your approach and make it convincing--this all exists to help you help me.

K Affs

My philosophy on these isn't actually that complicated. My beef with K affs is that they either defend nothing, their offense isn't tied to debating, or both. I'd prefer if you defend spillover but if there's a disadvantage to policy debates on this topic that you think outweighs topicality, go for it. Generally though I lean toward T being good but I have no problem evaluating these debates.

1. I like well-developed, clear link stories that clash with the affirmative and turn the case. You won't have to explain your theory of power to me so much as you have to explain how it applies to the affirmative specifically. Thus, if I don't understand your theory of power at the end of the debate you've done something wrong.

2. I'm not a huge fan of critical debaters who attempt to garner non-unique links to the affirmative but I'm not gonna throw them out either. If that's your strat, go for it.

3. If you have a K you want to run, run it. I am well-versed in just about any critical literature. Most of my time has been spent in Settler Colonialism and Capitalism, while I've spent the least amount of time with Queer Theory.

4. Affs: Extinction first is easier to win than the perm but I'm good with either.

5. If you don't have an alt at the end of the debate and I don't have a reason the aff makes the world worse, you're probably going to lose.

Overall, I'm good for good K debaters, bad for anything less.

Addendum: I enjoy Security Ks but Fem IR is an offensively bad subgenre of critical security studies. Please avoid reading this argument when I'm in the back. You can ask me why I'm right if you want after the round. Pt 9 on the overview still applies, just be warned that you're barking up the wrong tree.

Update 9/13/21: I have voted for Ks 3 times this year where the negative goes for FW/epistemology first and no affirmative team has told me that the perm solves epistemic deficits and that epistemic links are still links to the epistemic status quo and the K's notion of changing debate subjectivity is just as illusory as fiat. Why. I know they're the big CRT K and it's scary to call it dumb but just say they're wrong lol, they absolutely are.

T and Theory

1. I think that winning complete or nearly complete defense on T is sufficient for the aff even in a world of competing interpretations. If the aff meets, they meet. I'm unlikely to give the following RFD: "I think the aff meets, but the negative interpretation is better, even if marginally, so any risk you don't meet, etc." These RFDs are bad and given by people who do not think about debate.

2. Your probably sub-par T cards are not predictive of the consequences of voting negative. Topicality cards (especially in the last 4 years) are bastardizations of the topic literature base designed to arbitrarily and artificially limit the topic. Basically, I don't care about camp, camp is wrong (thus, I am ambivalent about "precision" and "predictability". This will change when the community does). This all goes away if your evidence is good.

3. I think most policy affirmatives are topical. I used to love techy, small-word T arguments but now I find them absurd and pointless. Ironically, I think T-substantial actually has a place, but your evidence should actually be good.

4. I am predisposed to default to reasonability even in a world of competing interpretations. You think reasonability is "nebulous" because you can't gauge what is and isn't a common use of a term of art on a topic, because you haven't researched it.

5. You think "competing interpretations" means "small topics good" and assume that just "makes sense", usually failing to elaborate--I don't care what your coach thinks--if you can't tell me in detail why small topics are good, you will lose.

6. T isn't a debate about how words should limit the resolution but how they already do.

7. You should not go for "plan text in a vacuum" but "the plan text cannot be deconstructed word by word."

8. I vote on solvency advocate theory both as a theoretical argument and terminal case defense very hastily if you prove the abuse.

9. [Update 11/23/21] I'm very much open to hearing about plan flaws, and I vote for terminal solvency deficits, zero risk is real and you should go for it more against the aff. I'm not an offense-defense first guy (it's a useful heuristic sometimes but, if it's your only heuristic, it's bad. See: all of the above on T.

1. Condo is good (but, word to the wise, you're more likely to win spending 4 quality minutes on case). I think it's necessary to test affirmatives but I get a lot more sympathetic the more you abuse it.

2. All CP styles are theoretically legitimate.

3. You must have a 1NC solvency advocate for each plank of your counterplan. I am very kind to 2As and will grant the 1ARs new arguments at worst and at best I will reject the team (Cekanor got this from me, not the other way around).

4. Conditionality means I will judge kick the CP. Presumption doesn't flip any direction. If the CP solves nothing but there's still a disadvantage to the affirmative that outweighs and/or turns the case, there's no reason to do the aff just because the other proposed method was bad. I'm open to a debate about this but I've never seen it happen, probably because I'm right.

1. I'm a bit of an oldhead on DAs. I very much appreciate DAs with specific links to the case. If your 1NC is just DAs and case you will get +.5 speaks and +1 if you win.

2. Your 1NC DA should have uniqueness, link, internal link, and impact all in the 1NC. You have not made an argument if the 1NC lacks any of these components, and I will let the 2A do whatever he wants with it long as he says anything at all and the 1AR will get new answers.

3. My threshold for understanding how a DA functions is pretty low. It's not rocket science. But, you will have to explain the ways it turns the case, because I look at disads and see multiple case turns, so if you're super general I'm not going to do the work for you.

4. Don't be afraid to sit teams down on DA+Case in the 2NR. I love these strats and if you're losing the CP don't feel obligated to go for it.

5. I'm predisposed to extinction first and consequentialism but I've voted for soft left affs and will do so again.

6. Fiat absolutely solves all politics links--but do the debating.

Housekeeping

1. I'm very kind to teams in this year (ok i guess 2 years hmm, this is fine, get in the pod, eat the bugs etc. etc.) of online debate. If you ask, I will 99.9999% of the time give you grace on tech issues. If you don't ask I will be suspicious.

2. Please tell me your preferred pronouns if tab doesn't do it for you. Help me help you.

3. Don't stick me up - you're not a G, you go to punk bars and listen to indie music, and you live in a gated community.

4. Instrinsicness on the DA - yes.

5. My role as a judge precedes anything else. I will err on the side of letting stuff play out. For example, if someone used gendered language and that gets brought up I will probably let the round happen and correct any ignorance after the fact. This ends when it begins to threaten the safety of round participants. Where that line is is entirely up to me. Any disagreement with way I handle things should be taken up with coaches who fail to develop a team culture that precludes nasty behavior.

6. Disclosure - yes, I always disclose my decision. No tournament rules will stop me from doing so. Ask me questions after the round. Don't post-round like a punk though. There are certain post-round behaviors I do not tolerate. You know who you are. Disclose your aff. I gladly vote on misdisclosure--it's a tough issue so be prepped with receipts. Always a good idea to get disclosure in writing.

7. Trash talk - fine by me, I don't care.

8. A sense of humor is refreshing. Make quips! I used to love cartoon Spiderman as a kid.

William Wainwright Druid Hills High School 5 rounds

Robert Whitaker Westminster 5 rounds

Last changed on Mon September 7, 2020 at 8:40 PM EDT

whitakerdebates@gmail.com

Currently working with Alpharetta, previously worked with Chattahoochee. I debated throughout high school, then at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Central Oklahoma, and am now a member of U of West Georgia debate.

I’m comfortable with all speeds and styles, especially those regarding the k – I’m most familiar with poststructural + positional criticisms, though you should do whatever it is you do best – you can just as easily win with a plan, theory, framework, etc. If you want to test a sneaky new framework strategy, I'll happily adjudicate your chess match; if you're all about the Death K, well, I've done my fair share of that stuff too. Give me your best args and write my ballot. I privilege tech over truth and frequently vote for arguments that contravene my personal beliefs. I judge k affs frequently but this only thickens my belief that they need some relation to the resolution, even if only neg-neg. I thus also believe that the neg, in turn, needs to prove why either A) the aff links to harder to the k than squo does, or B) why that distinction doesn't matter - i.e. how I can vote without presumption and/or L/UQ or why presumption still goes neg, does not exist, sucks, whatever. I am not, personally, keen on the notion that presumption can flip aff, but am willing to entertain the argument and have voted on it when used to exploit a neg weakness.

I flow on paper, if you care. I'll say clear twice and then stop flowing anything incomprehensible. If you begin a speech in unsettling fashion (e.g. giving an inaccurate roadmap or jumping the gun with 400+wpm), I'll act flustered and require a few effervescently dramatic seconds to get my affairs in order. If I'm otherwise not flowing or I'm on the wrong sheet, it's because either you've created a mental backlog of arguments that I'm flowing in retrospect or I'm repackaging your arguments to make them more palatable to my flow, or both.

Some things that frustrate me: excessive rudeness (toward opponents or judges), offensive strategies (racism inevitable/good, for instance), and clipping (zeroes + L = bad time for you). The advent of digital debate brings with it a new and widespread sense of suspicion, and though I will do my best to catch any and all forms of cheating, I ask that debaters remain vigilant for it as well. Also, and I can’t believe I need to write this, please don’t engage in acts of self-harm to win my ballot (you know who you are). Instead, please demonstrate mastery of persuasion, word economy, and 2nr/2ar prescience – teams that reverse-engineer strategies and execute them methodically speech-by-speech impress me the most – a searing cross-ex is, of course, welcome – entertaining and innovative teams will be rewarded with speaker points.

A few final notes: not a huge fan of process counterplans (but I’ll still vote for them), conditionality is pretty good (as is neg fiat), link uniqueness wins k rounds, and maybe, just maybe, go for presumption.

Whit Whitmore Pace Academy 4 rounds

Last changed on Thu January 4, 2024 at 3:39 AM EDT

add me to the email chain: whit211@gmail.com

Do not utter the phrase "plan text in a vacuum" or any other clever euphemism for it. It's not an argument, I won't vote on it, and you'll lose speaker points for advancing it. You should defend your plan, and I should be able to tell what the plan does by reading it.

Inserting things into the debate isn't a thing. If you want me to evaluate evidence, you should read it in the debate.

Cross-ex time is cross-ex time, not prep time. Ask questions or use your prep time, unless the tournament has an official "alt use" time rule.

You should debate line by line. That means case arguments should be responded to in the 1NC order and off case arguments should be responded to in the 2AC order. I continue to grow frustrated with teams that do not flow. If I suspect you are not flowing (I visibly see you not doing it; you answer arguments that were not made in the previous speech but were in the speech doc; you answer arguments in speech doc order instead of speech order), you will receive no higher than a 28. This includes teams that like to "group" the 2ac into sections and just read blocks in the 2NC/1NR. Also, read cards. I don't want to hear a block with no cards. This is a research activity.

Debate the round in a manner that you would like and defend it. I consistently vote for arguments that I don’t agree with and positions that I don’t necessarily think are good for debate. I have some pretty deeply held beliefs about debate, but I’m not so conceited that I think I have it all figured out. I still try to be as objective as possible in deciding rounds. All that being said, the following can be used to determine what I will most likely be persuaded by in close calls:

If I had my druthers, every 2nr would be a counterplan/disad or disad/case.

In the battle between truth and tech, I think I fall slightly on side of truth. That doesn’t mean that you can go around dropping arguments and then point out some fatal flaw in their logic in the 2AR. It does mean that some arguments are so poor as to necessitate only one response, and, as long as we are on the same page about what that argument is, it is ok if the explanation of that argument is shallow for most of the debate. True arguments aren’t always supported by evidence, but it certainly helps.

I think research is the most important aspect of debate. I make an effort to reward teams that work hard and do quality research on the topic, and arguments about preserving and improving topic specific education carry a lot of weight with me. However, it is not enough to read a wreck of good cards and tell me to read them. Teams that have actually worked hard tend to not only read quality evidence, but also execute and explain the arguments in the evidence well. I think there is an under-highlighting epidemic in debates, but I am willing to give debaters who know their evidence well enough to reference unhighlighted portions in the debate some leeway when comparing evidence after the round.

I think the affirmative should have a plan. I think the plan should be topical. I think topicality is a voting issue. I think teams that make a choice to not be topical are actively attempting to exclude the negative team from the debate (not the other way around). If you are not going to read a plan or be topical, you are more likely to persuade me that what you are doing is ‘ok’ if you at least attempt to relate to or talk about the topic. Being a close parallel (advocating something that would result in something similar to the resolution) is much better than being tangentially related or directly opposed to the resolution. I don’t think negative teams go for framework enough. Fairness is an impact, not a internal link. Procedural fairness is a thing and the only real impact to framework. If you go for "policy debate is key to skills and education," you are likely to lose. Winning that procedural fairness outweighs is not a given. You still need to defend against the other team's skills, education and exclusion arguments.

I don’t think making a permutation is ever a reason to reject the affirmative. I don’t believe the affirmative should be allowed to sever any part of the plan, but I believe the affirmative is only responsible for the mandates of the plan. Other extraneous questions, like immediacy and certainty, can be assumed only in the absence of a counterplan that manipulates the answers to those questions. I think there are limited instances when intrinsicness perms can be justified. This usually happens when the perm is technically intrinsic, but is in the same spirit as an action the CP takes This obviously has implications for whether or not I feel some counterplans are ultimately competitive.

Because I think topic literature should drive debates (see above), I feel that both plans and counterplans should have solvency advocates. There is some gray area about what constitutes a solvency advocate, but I don’t think it is an arbitrary issue. Two cards about some obscure aspect of the plan that might not be the most desirable does not a pic make. Also, it doesn’t sit well with me when negative teams manipulate the unlimited power of negative fiat to get around literature based arguments against their counterplan (i.e. – there is a healthy debate about federal uniformity vs state innovation that you should engage if you are reading the states cp). Because I see this action as comparable to an affirmative intrinsicness answer, I am more likely to give the affirmative leeway on those arguments if the negative has a counterplan that fiats out of the best responses.

My personal belief is probably slightly affirmative on many theory questions, but I don’t think I have voted affirmative on a (non-dropped) theory argument in years. Most affirmatives are awful at debating theory. Conditionality is conditionality is conditionality. If you have won that conditionality is good, there is no need make some arbitrary interpretation that what you did in the 1NC is the upper limit of what should be allowed. On a related note, I think affirmatives that make interpretations like ‘one conditional cp is ok’ have not staked out a very strategic position in the debate and have instead ceded their best offense. Appeals to reciprocity make a lot sense to me. ‘Argument, not team’ makes sense for most theory arguments that are unrelated to the disposition of a counterplan or kritik, but I can be persuaded that time investment required for an affirmative team to win theory necessitates that it be a voting issue.

Critical teams that make arguments that are grounded in and specific to the topic are more successful in front of me than those that do not. It is even better if your arguments are highly specific to the affirmative in question. I enjoy it when you paint a picture for me with stories about why the plans harms wouldn’t actually happen or why the plan wouldn’t solve. I like to see critical teams make link arguments based on claims or evidence read by the affirmative. These link arguments don’t always have to be made with evidence, but it is beneficial if you can tie the specific analytical link to an evidence based claim. I think alternative solvency is usually the weakest aspect of the kritik. Affirmatives would be well served to spend cross-x and speech time addressing this issue. ‘Our authors have degrees/work at a think tank’ is not a response to an epistemological indict of your affirmative. Intelligent, well-articulated analytic arguments are often the most persuasive answers to a kritik. 'Fiat' isn't a link. If your only links are 'you read a plan' or 'you use the state,' or if your block consistently has zero cards (or so few that find yourself regularly sending out the 2nc in the body rather than speech doc) then you shouldn't be preffing me.

LD Specific Business:

I am primarily a policy coach with very little LD experience. Have a little patience with me when it comes to LD specific jargon or arguments. It would behoove you to do a little more explanation than you would give to a seasoned adjudicator in the back of the room. I will most likely judge LD rounds in the same way I judge policy rounds. Hopefully my policy philosophy below will give you some insight into how I view debate. I have little tolerance and a high threshold for voting on unwarranted theory arguments. I'm not likely to care that they dropped your 'g' subpoint, if it wasn't very good. RVI's aren't a thing, and I won't vote on them.

Lisa Willoughby Henry W Grady High School 5 rounds

Last changed on Sun February 18, 2024 at 8:30 AM EDT

Judge Philosophy

Name: Lisa Willoughby

Current Affiliation: Midtown High School formerly Henry W. Grady High School

Conflicts: AUDL teams

Debate Experience: 1 year debating High School 1978-79, Coaching High School 1984-present

How many rounds have you judged in 2012-13: 50, 2013-2014: 45, 2015-2016: 25, 2016-17 15, 2017-2018: 30, 2018-19: 30, 2019-20:10, 2020-21: 40, 2021-2022: 35, 2022-2023:6

send evidence e-mail chain to quaintt@aol.com

I still view my self as a policy maker unless the debaters specify a different role for my ballot. I love impact comparison between disadvantages and advantages, what Rich Edwards used to call Desirability. I don’t mind the politics disad, but I am open to Kritiks of Politics.

I like Counterplans, especially case specific counterplans. I certainly think that some counterplans are arguably illegitimate; for example, I think that some international counterplans are utopian, and arguably claim advantages beyond the reciprocal scope of the affirmative, and are, therefore, unfair. I think that negatives should offer a solvency advocate for all aspects of their counterplan, and that multi-plank cps are problematic. I think that there are several reasons why consultation counterplans, and the States CP could be unfair. I will not vote unilaterally on any of these theoretical objections; the debaters need to demonstrate for me why a particular counterplan would be unfair.

I have a minor in Philosophy, and love good Kritik debate. Sadly, I have seen a lot of bad Kritik debate. I think that K debaters need to have a strong understanding of the K authors that they embrace. I really want to understand the alternative or the role of my ballot. I have no problem with a K Aff, but am certainly willing to vote on Framework/T against a case that does not have at least a clear advocacy statement that I can understand. I am persuadable on "AFF must be USFG."

I like Topicality, Theory and Framework arguments when they are merited. I want to see fair division of ground or discourse that allows both teams a chance to prepare and be ready to engage the arguments.

I prefer substance to theory; go for the theoretical objections when the abuse is real.

As for style, I love good line-by-line debate. I adore evidence comparison, and argument comparison. I am fairly comfortable with speed, but I like clarity. I have discovered that as I get older, I am very comfortable asking the students to "clear." I enjoy humor; I prefer entertaining cross-examinations to belligerent CX. Warrant your claims with evidence or reasoning.

Ultimately, I demand civility: any rhetoric, language, performance or interactions that demean, dehumanize or trivialize fellow debaters, their arguments or judges would be problematic, and I believe, a voting issue.

An occasional interruption of a partner’s speech or deferring to a more expert partner to answer a CX question is not a problem in my view. Generally only one debater at a time should be speaking. Interruptions of partner speeches or CX that makes one partner merely a ventriloquist for the other are extremely problematic.

Clipping cards is cheating. Quoting authors or evidence out of context, or distorting the original meaning of a text or narrative is both intellectually bankrupt and unfair.

There is no such thing as one ideal form or type of debate. I love the clash of ideas and argumentation. That said, I prefer discourse that is educational, and substantive. I want to walk away from a round, as I often do, feeling reassured that the policy makers, educators, and citizens of the future will seek to do a reasonable and ethical job of running the world.

For Lincoln Douglas debates:

I am "old school" and feel most comfortable in a Value/Criterion Framework, but it is your debate to frame. Because I judge policy frequently, I am comfortable with speed but generally find it is needless. Clarity is paramount. Because of the limited time, I find that I typically err AFF on theoretical objections much more than I would in a policy round.

I believe that any argument that an AFF wants to weigh in the 2AR needs to be in the 1AR. I will vote against new 2AR arguments.

I believe that NEG has an obligation to clash with the AFF. For this reason, a counterplan would only be justified in a round when the AFF argues for a plan; otherwise a counterplan is an argument for the AFF. The NEG must force a decision, and for that reason, I am not fond of what used to be called a 'balance neg.'

Sam Wombough Woodward Academy 5 rounds

Last changed on Sat January 27, 2024 at 9:43 AM EDT

Email: womboughsam36@gmail.com

UGA Law '27

Georgia Tech '23 (History and Sociology)

Woodward Academy ’20

Topic Knowledge: I have judged a lot of debates and worked at ENDI this past summer.

Last Substantively Updated: 1/7/24

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Short Version + Novices (est. 45 sec. to read)

"Debate like an adult. Show me the evidence. Attend to the details. Don't dodge, clash. Great research and informed comparisons win debates." — Bill Batterman

Flow.

Be nice.

Be clear.

Have fun!

Time yourselves.

It’s probably not a voting issue.

If you read a plan, defend and clarify it.

Do not request a marked copy in lieu of flowing.

Be an evidenced, well-reasoned critic, not a cynic.

If you stop prep and then re-start prep, take off 10 seconds of prep.

If you don't have your video on in online debate, I will struggle to stay engaged.

An argument must be complete and comprehensible before there is a burden to answer it.

Focus on depth in argument. It's more engaging and is the only reliable way to beat good teams.

Write my ballot for me at the top of your late rebuttals, without using any debate jargon or hyperbole.

"Marking a card" means actually clearly marking that card on your computer (e.g. multiple Enter key pushes).

If you advocate something, at some point in the debate, you need to explain the tangible results of your advocacy without relying on any debate or philosophy jargon.

There has been a significant decline in the quality of speaking since online debate started because debaters became less familiar with speaking directly to the judge and because judges gave more leeway to the absence of clarity due to the computer instrument. Judges should never have to rely on reading along with the speech document in order to flow tags/analytics. If you have no intonation nor emphasis during tags/analytics/rebuttals, you are a bad speaker.

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More Stuff (est. 1:30 min. to read)

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Debate

I really enjoy debate. Debate is the most rewarding activity I have ever done. But debate didn't always feel rewarding while I was doing it. Accordingly, I hope that everybody prioritizes having fun, and then learning and improving.

From Johnnie Stupek's paradigm: "I encourage debaters to adopt speaking practices that make the debate easier for me to flow including: structured line-by-line, clarity when communicating plan or counterplan texts, emphasizing important lines in the body of your evidence, and descriptively labelling off-case positions in the 1NC."

Purging your speech documents of analytics and then rocking through them will be just as likely to "trick" me into not flowing an argument as it will be your opponents.

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Case

I will vote on absolute defense.

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Critiques

Explain; don’t confuse.

It is anti-black for debaters that are not black (team) to present afropessimist arguments. This practice exists because of the anti-blackness or cowardice of some non-black educators in debate. Frank Wilderson III claims that he "grieves over" debate's appropriation of his work (“Staying Ready for Black Study: A Conversation”).

Postmodernism— Debaters often mischaracterize ornamental absolutism in philosophical writings as almost-theological dogmatisms about how the world operates. This is anti-modern, not postmodern. <— I don't know if that paragraph makes any sense.

I've seen a few debates exclusively about personal identity that were extremely distressful for both sides. I think it's really weird when a high school student prompts a rejoinder from their peers to a pure affirmation of their identity. Please don't make me adjudicate it.

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Non-Topical Debates

"No" to aff conditionality. Defend your aff and comparatively weigh offense.

Please stop referencing college debate rounds that you only know about thirdhand.

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Theory

The more conditional advocacies there are in the 1NC, the worse the debate usually is.

I am sympathetic to affirmative complaints about process counterplans and agent counterplans that do nearly all of the affirmative. These counterplans, with the States-multi-plank CP in mind, tend to stagnate negative topic innovation and have single-handedly ruined some topics (Education).

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Extra

I almost always defer to technical debating, but in close debates:

I am a degrowth hack. T: Substantial against a quantifiably small aff is fun.

I am easily convinced that Bostrom-esque "extinction first" is incoherent and can justify repulsive ideologies.

I strongly believe that China is not militarily revisionist. I think Sinophobic scholarship is festering in debate.

With respect to "Catastrophe Good" arguments, "we must die to destroy a particle accelerator that will consume the universe" is less convincing to me than a nihilism or misanthropy argument. I value accurate science.

Lastly, don't purposefully try to fluster the judge if you want quality post-round answers.

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Cheating

In the instance that a team accuses the other of clipping, I will follow the NDCA clipping guidelines (2).

Strawmanning is an ethics violation as per the NSDA guidelines.

(1) https://the3nr.com/2014/08/20/how-to-never-clip-cards-a-guide-for-debaters/

(2) https://static.squarespace.com/static/53416a18e4b0aa2aaadf85e4/t/53665f81e4b03af4b79e088f/1399218049326/clipping.pdf

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More References

https://the3nr.com/2009/11/03/judging-methodologies-how-do-judges-reach-their-decisions/

https://the3nr.com/2016/04/15/an-updated-speaker-point-scale-based-on-2015-2016-results/ (I inflate this).

https://new.debateus.org/to-consult-or-not-to-consult-on-the-theoretical-legitimacy-of-the-consultation-counterplan/

Ian Yang Northview High School 2 rounds

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GFCA 1st 2nd Year State Championships

2021 — NSDA Campus, GA/US

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