Kaitlin Algeo

4th year debater at Marist School

she/her

yes, add me to email chains - kaitlinalgeo25@marist.com

Turn on your camera.

You need to read and defend a plan in front of me.

Impact your arguments, impact them against your opponent's arguments

Limited K knowledge - prefer CP/DA debates.

dartmouth '26, debated for 4 years at westminster in hs

yes, add me to the email chain: cnbaugher22@gmail.com

things I like: well organized speeches, reading rehighlightings of the other team's evidence, starting the round on time, big picture argument framing in the rebuttals

here are some of my thoughts on specific arguments, but judge ideology rarely plays a role in novice debates

disads: love a good disad and case debate. specific links and link turns the case analysis is key.

topicality vs affs with plans: i default to competing interpretations, but maybe that's just because people don't usually explain reasonability very well.

topicality vs planless affs: I think debate is a competitive game and I’m good for clash and fairness impacts. as with any t debate, specific contextualization of why your model produces better debates is key.

kritiks: it’s unlikely that your framework interp will convince me not to weigh the consequences of the aff. It’s also unlikely your framework interp will convince me the neg doesn’t get links to the aff’s representations. i'm not super familiar with K lit besides neolib, security, afro-pessimism, settler colonialism, etc so Ks far outside that scope will require an extra level of explanation.

condo is probably good but i can can be convinced otherwise; most other theory is a reason to reject the argument not the team

if you have any questions, just ask!

Casey Czerniawski

3rd-year debater at Marist School

she/her

Yes, add me to email chains - caseyczerniawski25@marist.com

You need to read and defend a plan in front of me.

Impact your arguments, impact them against your opponent's arguments (magnitude/probability/timeframe.)

Limited K knowledge - prefer CP/DA debates.

Please do a road map so I can follow on my flow and label your arguments.

Don't ask loaded (rhetorical) questions in CX, it's pretty much pointless, don't be that person-just rephrase the question.

Don't clip cards or steal prep - I understand accidents happen, but I (usually) time your prep and speeches, so please be aware.

This should be implied, but PLEASE time your own speeches.

Flowing is advised-you can extend your arguments better for later speeches.

Give roadmaps and signpost for good speaks (tell me the order of your arguments/when you're moving to a new tagline say AND)

Please refer toAbby Schirmer's Paradigm if you have any more questions.

Procedural Stuff

Call me Blake or BD instead of Judge, I don't like feeling old

Email chain: blako925@gmail.com

Please also add: jchsdebatedocs@gmail.com

Add both emails, title the chain Tournament Rd # Your Team vs. Other Team ex) Harvard Round 4 Johns Creek XY vs. Northview AM.

1AC should be sent at round start or if I'm late (sorry in advance), as soon as I walk in the room

If you go to the bathroom or fill your waterbottle before your own speech, I'll dock 1 speaker point

Stealing prep = heavily docked speaks. If you want to engage your partner in small talk, just speak normally so everyone knows you're not stealing prep, don't whisper. Eyes should not be wandering on your laptop and hands should not be typing/writing. You can be on your phone.

Clipping is auto-loss and I assign lowest possible speaks. Ethics violation claims = round stoppage, I will decide round on the spot using provided evidence of said violation

Topic Knowledge

I HAVE ZERO TOPIC KNOWLEDGE.

I HAVE ZERO TOPIC KNOWLEDGE

I HAVE ZERO TOPIC KNOWLEDGE

I HAVE ZERO TOPIC KNOWLEDGE

I HAVE ZERO TOPIC KNOWLEDGE

I debated in high school, didn’t debate in college, have never worked at any camp. I currently work an office job. Any and all acronyms should be explained to me. Specific solvency mechanisms should be explained to me. Tricky process CPs should be explained to me. Many K jargon words that I have heard such as ressentiment, fugitivity, or subjectivity should be explained to me.

Spreading

I WRITE SLOW AND MY HAND CRAMPS EASILY. PLEASE SLOW DOWN DURING REBUTTALS

My ears have become un-attuned to debate spreading. Please go 50% speed at the start of your speech before ramping up. I don’t care how fast or unclear you are on the body of cards b/c it is my belief that you will extend that body text in an intelligent manner later on. However, if you spread tags as if you are spreading the body of a card, I will not flow them. If you read analytics as if you are spreading the body of a card, I will not flow them. If I do not flow an argument, you’re not going to win on it. If you are in novice this probably doesn't apply to you.

While judges must do their best to flow debates and adjudicate in an objective matter that rewards the better debater, there is a certain level of debater responsibility to spread at a reasonable speed and clear manner. Judge adaptation is an inevitable skill debaters must learn.

In front of me, adaption should be spreading speed. If you are saying words faster than how fast I can move my pen, I will say SLOW DOWN. If you do not comply, it is your prerogative, and you can roll the dice on whether or not I will write your argument down. I get that your current speed may be OK with NDT finalists or coaches with 20+ years of experience, but I am not those people. Adapt or lose.

No Plan Text & Framework

I am OK with any affirmative whether it be policy, critical, or performance. The problem is that the 2AC often has huge case overviews that are sped through that do not explain to me very well what the aff harms are and how the advocacy statement (or whatever mechanism) solves them. Furthermore, here are some facts about my experience in framework:

• I was the 1N in high school, so I never had to take framework other than reading the 1NC shell since my partner took in the 2NC and 2NR.
• I can count the number of times I debated plan-less affs on one hand.
• As of me updating this paradigm on 01/28/2023 I have judged roughly 15 framework rounds (maybe less).

All the above make framework functionally a coin toss for either side. My understanding of framework is predicated off of what standards you access and if the terminal impacts to those standards prove if your model of debate is better for the world. If you win impact turns against the neg FW interpretation, then you don't need a C/I, but you have to win that the debate is about potential ballot solvency or some other evaluation method. If the neg wins that the round is about proving a better model of debate, then an inherent lack of a C/I means I vote for the better interp no matter how terrible it is. The comparison in my mind is that a teacher asked to choose the better essay submitted by two students must choose Student A if Student B doesn't turn in anything no matter how terrible or offensive Student A's essay is.

Tech vs. Truth

I used to like arguments such as “F & G in federal government aren't capitalized T” or “Period at the end of the plan text or the sentence keeps going T” b/c I felt like these arguments were objectively true. As I continue to judge I think I have moved into a state where I will allow pretty much any argument no matter how much “truth” there is backing it especially since some truth arguments such as the aforementioned ones are pretty troll themselves. There is still my job to provide a safe space for the activity which means I am obligated to vote down morally offensive arguments such as racism good or sexism good. However, I am now more inclined to vote on things like “Warming isn’t real” or “The Earth is flat” with enough warrants. After all, who am I to say that status quo warming isn’t just attributable to heating and cooling cycles of the Earth, and that all satellite imagery of the Earth is faked and that strong gravitational pulls cause us to be redirected back onto flat Earth when we attempt to circle the “globe”. If these arguments are so terrible and untrue, then it really shouldn’t take much effort to disprove them.

Reading Evidence

I err on the side of intervening as little as possible, so I don’t read usually read evidence. Don't ask me for a doc or send me anything afterwards. The only time I ever look at ev is if I am prompted to do so during speech time.

This will reward teams that do the better technical debating on dropped/poorly answered scenarios even if they are substantiated by terrible evidence. So if you read a poorly written federalism DA that has no real uniqueness or even specific link to the aff, but is dropped and extended competently, yes, I will vote for without even glancing at your ev.

That being said, this will also reward teams that realize your ADV/DA/Whatever ev is terrible and point it out. If your T interp is from No Quals Alex, blog writer for ChristianMingle.com, and the other team points it out, you're probably not winning the bigger internal link to legal precision.

Case

I love case debate. Negatives who actually read all of the aff evidence in order to create a heavy case press with rehighlightings, indicts, CX applications, and well backed UQ/Link/Impact frontlines are always refreshing watch. Do this well in front of me and you will for sure be rewarded.

By the 2AR I should know what exactly the plan does and how it can solve the advantages. This obviously doesn't have to be a major component of the 1AR given time constraint, but I think there should at least some explanation in the 2AR. If I don't have at least some idea of what the plan text does and what it does to access the 1AC impacts, then I honestly have no problem voting on presumption that doing nothing is better than doing the aff.

Disads

Similar to above, I think that DA's have to be fully explained with uniqueness, link, and impact. Absent any of these things I will often have serious doubts regarding the cohesive stance that the DA is taking.

Topicality

Don't make debate meta-arguments like "Peninsula XY read this at Glenbrooks so obviously its core of the topic" or "every camp put out this aff so it's predictable". These types of arguments mean nothing to me since I don't know any teams, any camp activities, any tournaments, any coaches, performance of teams at X tournament, etc.

One small annoyance I have at teams that debate in front of me is that they don't debate T like a DA. You need to win what standards you access, how they link into your terminal impacts like education or fairness, and why your chosen impact outweighs the opposing teams.

Counterplan

I have no inherent bias against any counterplan. If a CP has a mechanism that is potentially abusive (international fiat, 50 state fiat, PICs bad) then I just see this as offense for the aff, not an inherent reason why the team or CP should immediately be voted down.

I heavily detest this new meta of "perm shotgunning" at the top of each CP in the 2AC. It is basically unflowable. See "Spreading" above. Do this and I will unironically give you a 28 maximum. Spread the perms between cards or other longer analytical arguments. That or actually include substance behind the perm such as an explanation of the function of the permutation, how it dodges the net benefit, if it has any additional NB, etc.

I think 2NR explanation of what exactly the CP does is important. A good 2N will explain why their CP accesses the internal links or solvency mechanisms of the 1AC, or if you don't, why the CP is able to access the advantages better than the original 1AC methods. Absent that I am highly skeptical of broad "CP solves 100% of case" claims and the aff should punish with specific solvency deficits.

A problem I have been seeing is that affirmatives will read solvency deficits against CP's but not impacting the solvency deficits vs. the net benefit. If the CP doesn't solve ADV 1 then you need to win that ADV 1 outweighs the net benefit.

Judge kick is not my default mindset, neg has say I have to judge kick and also justify why this is OK.

Kritiks

I don't know any K literature other than maybe some security or capitalism stuff. I feel a lot of K overviews include fancy schmancy words that mean nothing to me. If you're gonna go for a K with some nuance, then you're going to need to spend the effort explaining it to me like I am 10 years old.

Theory

If the neg reads more than 1 CP + 1 K you should consider pulling the trigger on conditionality.

I default to competing interpretations unless otherwise told.

Define dispositionality for me if this is going to be part of the interp.

Extra Points

To promote flowing, you can show me your flows at the end of a round and earn up to 1.0 speaker points if they are good. To discourage everyone bombarding me with flows, you can also lose up to a full speaker point if your flows suck.

If you're running an email chain, please add me: Andrewgollner@gmail.com

he/him

About me: I debated one year of PF and three years of policy at Sequoyah High, and I debated three year of college policy at the University of Georgia. I was a 2N that generally runs policy offcase positions but, especially earlier in my debate career, I ran many critical positions. I'll try to be expressive during the round so that you can discern how I am receiving your arguments.

Judge Preferences: On a personal level, please be kind to your opponents. I dislike it when a team is unnecessarily rude or unsportsmanlike. I am completely willing to discuss my decision about a round in between rounds, so please ask me if you want me to clarify my decision or would like advice. You can email me any questions you have.

FOR PF/LD:

I am primarily a policy judge. This means

1. I am more comfortable with a faster pace. While I don't like the idea of spreading in PF and LD I can handle a faster pace.

2. I am decently technical. If an argument is dropped point it out, make sure I can draw a clean line through your speeches.

3. I am less used to theory backgrounds in your form of debate, slow down and explain these.

4. Ask me any specific questions you have.

FOR POLICY:

I recognize that my role is to serve as a neutral arbiter without predispositions towards certain arguments, but as this goal is elusive the following are my gut reactions to positions. I strive to ensure that any position (within reason, obviously not obscene or offensive) is a possible path to victory in front of myself.

CP: I love a well written CP which is tailored to your opponent's solvency advocate and that can be clearly explained and is substantiated by credible evidence. If your CP is supported by 1AC solvency evidence, I will be very impressed. Generic CPs are fine, I've read a ton of them, but the more you can at least explain your CP in the context of the affirmative's advantages the more likely you are to solve for their impact scenarios.

DA: Make sure to give a quick overview of the story during the neg block to clarify the intricacies of your position. If, instead of vaguely tagline making a turns case arg like "climate turns econ, resource shortages", you either read and later extend a piece of evidence or spend 10 to 15 seconds analytically creating a story of how climate change exasperates resource shortages and causes mass migrations which strain nation's financial systems, then I will lend far more risk to the disadvantage turning the case. Obviously the same goes for Aff turns the DA. I will also weigh smart analytical arguments on the disad if the negative fails to contest it properly. I'm also very persuaded when teams contest the warrants of their opponents evidence or point out flaws within their opponents evidence, whether it's a hidden contradiction or an unqualified author.

T: I've rarely gone for topicality but I have become increasingly cognizant of incidents in which I likely should have. My gut reaction is that competing interpretations can be a race to the bottom, but I have personally seen many affirmatives which stray far enough from the topic to warrant a debate centered over the resolution in that instance.

K: I used to run Ks pretty frequently in high school but I run them far less frequently now. I'm likely not deep in your literature base so be sure to explain your position and your link story clearly.

FW: My gut feeling is that debate is a game and that it should be fair, but I have seen many rounds where the affirmative team has done an excellent job of comparing the pedagogy of both models and won that their model is key for X type of education or accessibility there of. However, I am persuaded that a TVA only needs to provide reasonable inroads to the affirmatives research without necessarily having to actually solve for all of the affirmative. I do find the response that negs would only read DAs and ignore/"outweigh" the case to be effective - try to add some nuance to this question of why negs would or wouldn't still need to grapple with the case.

Non-traditional Aff: I've always run affs with USFG plan texts, but that doesn't mean that these positions are non-starters. I will be much more receptive to your affirmative if it is intricately tied to the topic area, even if it does refuse to engage the resolution itself for whichever reasons you provide.

Theory: I generally think 2 condo is good, more than that and things start to get a bit iffy.

Most importantly, please be kind to your opponents and have a good time.

Sophia Hurst

Greenhill '20

University of Pennsylvania '24

Email chain: sophiarose2002@gmail.com

I debated all throughout high school and don't have particularly strong ideological orientations towards debate.

Some general thoughts:

Tech > truth

K affs: I tend to believe that teams should read plans that defend hypothetical USfg action. That being said, I prefer impact turns to contrived W/M and counter-interp debates.

T-USFG: I believe that there is an intrinsic value to fairness.

Ks: I'm much more well-versed in structural criticisms than high-theory. I do not like K debates that devolve to whether or not the aff should get the plan - I generally think teams get to weigh the aff. Links must be contextualized not only to the topic, but the specific form of action the plan takes.

T: Keep in mind I know almost nothing about the topic.

Case: I love a 2NR that spends a lot of time on case.

CPs: I like all counterplans, maybe with the exception of word PIKs. Process counterplans can be good - I would prefer competition based on something more than certainty and immediacy. Then again, my preferences aren't too strong here.

Theory: Surprisingly, I have no strong opinions about this. I think it's pretty standard to read multiple condo and generally think that's okay, but can be persuaded otherwise. Most other arguments aren't reasons to reject the team. But in this area, my tech > truth preference is extremely amplified.

Feel free to email me with questions about decisions or my paradigm!

ABOUT ME

Cambridge '23

he/him

Add me to the email chain: trendanlindebate@gmail.com

You can call me Trendan, Trendo, Trendy, Chicken Trenders, honestly anything except for "judge" pls (this is not a joke)

"Hit me with your best shot, Baldy. But my mind's been gone for thirty-odd years. You can't break what's already broken!"
-Old Man McGucket

TL;DR

Do whatever you want, I'll do my best to adjust - just don't be a meanie bo beanie

Spreading is a-ok

Tag-teaming is a-ok

Tech over truth unless arguments are flat-out untrue or offensive

I don't flow cross-ex but if you refer to a particular question/answer, I'll know what you're talking about

Have fun, be nice, and weigh your arguments as much as humanly possible!

TOP LEVEL

Hey you! Yes, you! Have you ever wanted to hack your judge's laptop and give yourself the W? Well now you can! WRITE MY BALLOT FOR ME! Your final speeches should straight-up tell me what you think my ballot should say if/when I vote for you. Clash is obviously important, but don't overlook the bigger picture.

Be good people. Debate should be fun! Don't be that jerk that's rude to their opponents and/or their own partner (or me, but my feelings matter less). No matter how much you think you're winning, you should act as if the other team is going to give the best 2NR/2AR ever, and you should therefore keep it classy. If your arguments are low, your speaks will be, too. If you or your arguments are racist, sexist, queerphobic, etc etc, I will give you the L and the lowest speaks possible.

+0.1 speaks for roasting Cambridge/Georgia debaters, namely Alayna Hashmi, Ambuja Sharma, Anna Stockstill, Anvika Menon, Anvitha Suram, Clay Spencer, Emma Dewey, Mary Sippel, and/or Pace Gibbs.

Other ways to boost speaks include:
-Not just winning an argument, but telling me why that argument matters
-But also winning arguments is pretty neat too
-Weighing your impacts whenever possible
-Making me laugh
-Clear speech organization

ARGUMENT-SPECIFICS

I'd like to think I'm a decently flex debater, but here are some of my feelings that may or may not be helpful to you:

Case: Super under-utilized in a lot of debates, on both sides. I'm willing to vote on absolute defense. "smart analytics win rounds, yall" - Max van Kruijssen

Case Turns: Cool! And I know impact turns get wild but they're definitely still winnable in front of me, just don't be offensive please.

Framing: I'm probably more open to soft-left affs and framing pages than a lot of judges, but winning the flow is make-or-break. Both sides should do their best to contextualize their framing to the other side's arguments - an offcase-specific 2ar push on framing is very compelling, but generic 1nc framing blocks are far less persuasive.

T: I don't expect to see T rounds very much, but I'll absolutely vote on it if you clearly lay out your impacts and you're winning the flow. I default towards competing interps, but I'll give you a lot of leeway if you win that your aff is a big part of the topic. If your argument contains SPEC in the name, I'll give it zero re-SPEC-t.

K: Dope! I'm very familiar with common Ks, as well as some high theory literature, but that doesn't mean you can get by without backing up your buzzwords. Not a fan of 1-card Ks. I'm pretty sure debate is good, but I encourage you to clash over what makes it so valuable. If the framework debate gets messy, I'll default to weighing the aff against the K.

K affs: I'll do my best to be fair, but it's worth mentioning that I've never debated on the side of a K aff. Fairness is an impact.

CP: Great. I'm alright with process CPs, but only when you're clear on what the process actually is. I find advantage CPs to be very strategic, and they make for interesting rounds. No, you don't need 10 planks to solve the aff. I'm down to judge kick unless I am told otherwise.

DA: Do your thing, try to turn case in every way possible. If you forget to kick things, I'm most likely to 1) decide your T violation is bad, 2) judge kick the CP, and then 3) weigh the DA against case.

Theory: Condo is probably the only reason to reject the team (sorry but reading politics definitely isn't cheating). Condo is probably good objectively, but that doesn't justify overloaded 1ncs. Spamming as many offcase as possible will probably just make me think that you're not actually that confident with any of them.

ONLINE

I'll try to have my camera on whenever possible. If it's off, I'm probably not ready

I'd prefer if your camera was on while speaking, but I'm not pushy about this

Be extra mindful of your clarity, especially if you're not sending out analytics

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.

Georgetown '26

benjamin.sayers@gmail.com

If you want to say death good, strike me (note, this doesn't include spark, wipeout, or war good, just any argument that says VTL is negative so people should die).

I'm not interested in hearing a debate about stuff that happened out of round.

Barring everything above, I try to be as ideologically neutral as possible and minimize judge intervention.

K vs Policy Aff

I don't care what the substance of the K is as long as it is explained coherently. If the Neg clearly identifies what Aff assumptions they disagree with and explains why those assumptions are wrong and bad in such a way that outweighs the other team's offense, I'll vote on anything from the Cap K to Baudrillard.

Framework: I will never say "framework was a wash". If the Aff says I should only care about the plan's direct consequences and the neg says I should only care about the 1AC's assumptions, I will do one of those things. I will not construct a middle-ground interpretation unless either side explicitly forwards one.

K Affs vs T

Less good for K Affs vs T than Ks on the neg. My main barriers to voting Affirmative are usually that I don't know what debate/the role of the neg looks like sans a topic and I struggle to understand why most 2AC DAs/Impact turns are intrinsic to topicality.

The above comment mainly applies to 2AC strategies centered on rejecting the idea of a topic altogether. I am much better for Affs that creatively define words in the resolution and find intrinsic critiques of neg assumptions (for example: criticizing the idea that legal precision should be the gold standard for definitions) and other examples of creatively topical K Affs.

Policy v Policy

2acs on case get away with murder a lot and I am very willing to punish a bad case 2ac. For example, if the 1nc reads a card tagged "No disease - burnout, modern medicine and global cooperation check disease spread," and the 2ac merely says the words "yes disease impact, disease spreads around the world and wipes out everyone" is probably at zero irrespective of what the 1AR says.

I care a lot about evidence quality but only insofar as evidence quality is contested. If the neg's politics uniqueness cards are far better than the Aff's but only the Aff is doing evidence comparison/spin, I'll probably end up Aff. This also means I will not typically read every card in the debate and will only read cards who's meaning/quality is being debated about.

The neg probably needs a counter interpretation in plan text in a vacuum debates or other debates about how the judge should evaluate what the plan requires the aff to defend.

I'll go either way on judge-kick and inserting vs reading re-highlighted evidence.

Email:

alessiotoniolo25@marist.com

Background:

Policy debater at Marist School. Former public forum debater.

Idiosyncrasies:

Please do not ask loaded questions in cx/crossfire (I might be judging pf). For example,

is killing people bad (in reference to taking one's plan or bringing a topic down on a more substantive level).

If you respond with a loaded question like this and the questioning period is already not serious, I will give

you extra speak points.

I like spreading, but I will disregard any arguments if you are speaking at a pitch above 20,000 hertz and clipping

(you know who you are).

At the barebones, do not completely change how you debate, but regard decent debating etiquette.

Policy:

T: Prefer interpretations that do not just take the meaning down to literal words, but actually relate to what

the topic/case is inferring. I like topicality with good arguments, substantial evidence, and very good standards. I like

it when you strategically go for topicality in the 2nr (as long as you sufficiently use it).

CP: Explain how it relates to case, and how the net benefits link. Please explain how the counterplan works in the

judiciary system.

DAs: Prefer disadvantages if you can link them as a net benefit to the cp.

Case: I like quantifiable and real impacts.

Case add-ons: Do not expect me to vote on them. Generally, use them as a way to burden the negative's time.

K: As long as the aff can provide great answers as to why the K would not work, I can heavily weigh. In most cases, if

the K is radical and the aff hits on this, I will prefer aff. Excellent perm arguments that are very detailed really impress

me.

General: I prefer strategy over the actual quality (in most cases). For example, if you have a meaningful no link or link

turn say on an advantage and the aff does not respond to this, I will automatically disregard that advantage, because it

does not link. Answers need to make sense. Do not repeat your original argument if the other team directly responded

to it. Debate well, and go by your own standards not mine. I am not picky.

Aff-ks: I will automatically vote negative. Sorry but not sorry.

Public forum:

Debate how you debate. Do not be racist.

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/