Mount Pleasant Fall Tiger UIL Invitational
2022 — Mount Pleasant High School, TX/US
Lincoln Douglas Paradigm List
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I am a former assistant debate coach from Texas. I debated in Lincoln-Douglas for four years in High School, and I did four years of both NFA LD and Parliamentary Debate in college.
Email: Mroets@princetonisd.net
Judging Philosophy
I'll vote off of pretty much anything as long as it's weighed.
I will judge traditional rounds, I will judge progressive rounds. I've debated in both worlds and have little preference.
Speed
Speed is fine. I will say "clear" or put down my pen if I can't keep up.
Kritiks
Kritiks are fine
Please explain the literature you read. If you name-drop authors and don't clearly explain through evidence/analytics what their theory entails, the argument is tough to land. Assume I am not familiar with the author you're reading.
I care about the alt. Make it make sense, please.
If you tell me in the first speech that some major real-world abuse is happening to a marginalized group in the aff advocacy and then abandon it a speech later for strategy, I will take speaker points.
Topicality
Full disclosure: I love good T debates.
The preference is for in-round abuse to be demonstrated.
Theoretical abuse is sufficient for a ballot if properly demonstrated in the shell.
I want the violation to be as specific as possible.
Standards and voters are essential.
All other arguments
Generally, I am okay with any argument. Give me impacts, an explanation of the literature, and a reason why it warrants a ballot.
Cross-Examination
I don't flow it, but I pay attention.
If you want points for C-X on the flow, put it on the flow during your speech, please.
Be respectful and polite where possible. Rudeness will lose you speaker points.
Ask specific questions in-round and you shall receive specific answers in-round!
I've done competitive debate for 7 years and currently do NPDA style of debate with UTTyler. I did 4 years of policy in High School 2018-2022. I will say my view of debate has changed a lot since debating policy in high school, so if you have any specific questions revolving my paradigm feel free to ask questions before the round. Other than that I'm pretty tab, just don't be racist, sexist, homophobic, or just outright derogatory to your opponents.
Policy - General Notes, please tell me how I'm voting in the 2NR/2AR, and tell me why I'm voting that way. I like to see ya'll pull your best piece of offense and collapse to that in these speeches, I think we've become to comfortable going for multiple positions, but if you think a simple Advantage outweighs the DA/CP then go for it, or if you're the neg and think Theory is the best out then I want to see you go for it for 5 mins. I think you should always being pulling your best peice of offense and telling me why it comes first, why it outweighs, and why the other potential win conditions by your opponents fall short. Also, I'm fine with speed, I just think that you should be willing to sign post- and I don't think you should be spreading all the time, I think it's beneficial when getting the initial arguments down, but If you're going to spread through cards and not even engage in the clash of the warrants I don't think spreading is doing you any favors. It's ok to slow down and make common sense arguments, and I don't see enough of them in policy so please just make them.
- Topicality/Theory - Idefault to topicality/theory being apriori even if not articulated, I think this comes from the view that topicality is a procedural. However, if you can articulate to me why topicality/theory are not a voting issue then I can buy that too. I will vote on a risk of abuse if it's articulated well by the negative, however, the aff can also win that potential abuse is not a voter in the round. I think a lot of times, especially in high-school policy, we aren't terminalizing impacts on topicality. (What I mean by this, high-schoolers often group fairness/education as a standard when I think they are more of the impact of topicality - i.e., if we can't test the aff then we don't know why the aff is true, or If we can't engage in clash that means we don't get the educational benefits of weighing and portable skills because we can't access the aff solvency method). Theory is a friend, if you think the other team is being abusive I don't mind hearing your articulation, but my threshold for voting on 2NC/1NR theory is higher then 2AC theory if there is no direct proven abuse.
- Framework - Often times I don't see framework debates in high-school policy, so I feel like I should clarify how I will evaluate the round if there is no articulation of my duty as a judge. I feel as though debate is a game and I default tech>truth (i.e., I will vote for an impact that is terminalized with a clear articulation of either magnitude/timeframe/probability over the risk of an impact that is not sufficiently weighed, however true it may be). But just because this is how I default doesn't mean I don't want to hear your framing shells, If I'm told to evaluate utilitarian impacts over structural impacts or vice versa, I will evaluate that level of the debate before I go through the rest of the sheets.
- K's - Ok so I only every ran Cap and Set Col in high school, however, being in college my partner (Leilani Hurtado) and I have read a wide variety of K's. So I will say I'm pretty comfortable with them, however, that doesn't mean I will know the literature you're pulling from, so explanations are always good. I also think that alternatives should be labeled clearly when running k's, I think the framework of the K should make implications about either how I evaluate debate or how I evaluate the topic and the alternative should be the best way to resolve your mpx.
- Everything Else - I'm cool with anything, if you have any questions about how I evaluate certain arguments, my default answer is I'm going to be cool with anything, just make sure you're collapsing to a piece of offense and not going for pure defense, otherwise I'm mostly to outweigh a risk of an mpx vs. that mpx being improbable.