Evan Baines (he/they) 1/2022

please include me in email chains bainesevan1227@gmail.com

about me:

-judged high school policy debate at central high school from 2017-2021 on the topics of education, immigration reform, arms sales, and criminal justice reform.

-ran soft-left affs and k affs throughout most of hs. i am familiar with most k lit, but that doesn't mean you get to be lazy. please thoroughly explain your arguments on each flow.

general:

i am not picky about specific arguments. run what you're comfortable with and what you can win a debate with.

truth > tech. you will not win arguments such as "climate change isn't real" no matter how badly the other team drops that ball. i cannot in good faith endorse a such arguments, and i believe they are harmful to debate. that being said, you can still win that climate change doesn't cause extinction, etc.

i tend to default to the framing that debate is primarily an educational activity if no other framing arguments are read.

i like to see lots of clash on the flow! your evidence and warrants are vert important particularly on the solvency flow and disads

t:

i am not a huge fan of t arguments, but will certainly still vote for them. because i view debate as primarily an educational activity, the aff should tell me why even if their plan is untopical they should still be able to read it because of how it accesses education. the neg should be able to tell me why everything else in the round is moot because of the untopicality. if you would rather defer to a different framing on t by all means go ahead! i am not a fan of arguments like "the aff is untopical which is unfair because we weren't able to prep" particularly when y'all go on to read blocked out answers to their 2AC on the case.

k:

alt explanation and solvency is key to winning the k flow for me. if you don't have adequate solvency or explanation, i am left to a non-unique da to the case which makes it hard for me to vote on the k flow. i would still vote on presumption if the k impact and links are adequately explained.

in-round decorum:

please refrain from personal attacks on the other team, talking over each other, or other rude behavior. please remember that the people you are debating against are human beings and treat them with kindness and respect :)

About me: I debated policy at Reagan HS for four years. Yes, put me on the email chain, my email is joaquindehaan@gmail.com

Speed: Speed is fine just make sure that I can understand you.

Tech v. Truth: I will try my best to be a blank state tech judge throughout the round but there are some arguments that I do not prefer which I will go through. I will not tolerate any type of discrimination (sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.). I will report teams to the equity committee and tank speaks if it is directed towards the other team.

DAs: I will be fine with just about any DA presented to me, just make sure to thoroughly explain your link chain.

K’s: I love and respect Ks. Please do not present me a K that you do not understand the literature of.

Topicality: I am fine with topicality but look down on it as a time skew. If you are going for T your 2nr should be a full 5 min of it.

Counterplans: No strong feelings one way or the other just make sure to have a net ben

LD: I am new to this style of debate so I am open to hearing and voting on any type of argument.

I think making sure you present a strong framework is one of the most important things you can do. Just make sure that my framework flow is clean and not a wash.

I debated for Mukwonago High School from 2011-2014

Debate was my favorite part of high school. This activity is something I truly enjoy, so even if I am not super familiar with the topic, I'm here for the spirit of the sport.

When I'm judging, I am most concerned about what is the most logical. (I was a 2A and one of my favorite phrases was "try or die for the aff") Please don't make me make connections or draw conclusions because certain cards were dropped or you just didn't flow the argument all the way through. I think of myself as defaulting to a "policymaker" paradigm a lot because I like arguments that are logical and consistent.

I will time you and I also hope you're timing yourself because there is nothing like not knowing how much time you've got left in the 1AR.

Things I enjoy (policy):

- Politics DAs(when I was in high school I struggled with these DAs but now they make so much more sense because of how little our government has accomplished in the past 10 years since I started debating)

-Topicality (I think this is a particularly important issue if you are dealing with an unfamiliar aff and can provide examples of which plans would actually work under your interpretation- fair warning, I enjoy the technicality of this argument but I will not vote solely on it) *usually.

-Counterplans (sometimes it hurts me to vote for essentially a different aff, but if your counterplan addresses solvency deficits better than the aff and is actually catered to the specific aff you're facing, you're going to get my vote. But please please please don't do a PIC- I will be annoyed and triggered.)

Things I enjoy (PF):

-Evidence: quality over quantity and demonstrate an understanding of your evidence; basically, it is important to explain why this piece of evidence is important and why it is better than your opponents. Please also understand where a statistic comes from and the context behind it.

-Weighing is SUPER important in the round. In your final focus, I really like it when debaters tell me where I should be voting and why.

-When extending an argument, please articulate why I should be pulling it through, not just "pull this through, they didn't address it."

-During crossfire, I will listen, but if there is something brought up you want me to pay attention to, you need to mention it during your speech.

-Framework can become a voting issue for me. I have definitely voted on it before, but it has to relate to the arguments.

Please please please give me a road map before you start your speech. I also appreciate sign-posting during your speech.

Thing(s) I am sometimes skeptical of:

-K's (I have trouble grasping the higher level because I think it distracts from what I think the main purpose of the debate is which is passing a policy or not passing a policy based on it's effectiveness and likelihood, for me. BUT I will enjoy a K debate if you actually understand what you're saying and not just reading cards without any analysis.)

Some decorum:

-Please be respectful and courteous people

-On CX please try not to interrupt one another between the question and answer

-Don't steal prep time

-If possible, please have your camera on when you're speaking (I understand if it is not possible)

Tldr:

Yes, put me on the email chain! (daisy.jagoditsh@gmail.com)

Run whatever as long as it’s not racist/sexist/ableist/homophobic/transphobic/death good. I evaluate the round how you tell me to evaluate it

About me

I'm a judge for SPASH

SPASH 2021, UW Madison 2025

I have debated every position in my lifetime and I was double ones my junior year so... judge me I guess.

I would consider myself a tabs judge, I think it is kind of violent when judges refuse to vote on things "because they default to a policy lens." run a K or run a DA, I don't really care just frame the debate for me so that I am not forced to choose between two paradigms?

honestly, as long as you aren't running any of the things I specified above, you shouldn't feel the need to judge-adjust for me.

I read a solid amount of K stuff on the aff and the neg, but I wouldn't consider myself a K judge. Either way, I’ve run and won with policy affs throughout my debate career, and I’ve been known to go for DAs/CPs/Topicality in the 2NR.

In terms of facial expressions, I think it's generally important for debaters to be able to see the judge during a round, which is why I try to keep my camera on during speeches and cross-ex at least. That said, I don't tend to be very expressive until the RFD, so don't interpret my lack of reaction as a lack of attention.

I don’t tolerate rudeness/disrespect to your opponents, your partner, or myself. I’ll let you know right away if you’re being rude or disrespectful, and if the behavior is egregious enough or continues after I warn you your speaks will suffer.

If you need to stop or pause the round for any reason, please let me know. Debate should be a safe space for everyone and I understand that there is often quite a bit of pressure to put up with absolutely unacceptable behavior on the part of opponents/coaches/judges/tournament officials, especially for those of us who are already marginalized within the space. You are not obligated to endure hate or disrespect. You are not obligated to be silent while your opponent speaks over you in cross-ex. You are not obligated to read what you are told to read if you know that it is wrong. The only way that we can improve the systemic issues which we all know are present within debate is by confronting them head-on. Ultimately, this is y'all's space. The line between "in-round abuse" as a reason to reject the team and give the other the ballot and in-round violence as a reason to stop the round immediately and DQ one team can be very thin, which is why I'm inclined to listen to the debaters. If you tell me in your speech that something is a violation of debate rules/norms and a reason to vote, I'll evaluate it as a debate argument. If you express to me in or outside of a speech or cross-ex that you don't feel the round can continue, I'll honor that. Because of this, I think that some rounds require a more participatory group discussion in lieu of or following the RFD-- feel free to let me and your opponents know if you'd like to dissect the round as a group and/or have a conversation about something specific that happened.

Please time your own speeches and prep—I’ll record how much prep YOU tell me you’ve taken and remind you of how much you have left, but in general I trust you to have integrity and behave like an adult. Feel free to time your opponents’ speeches as well.

I DO NOT count flashing/emailing time as prep… however, if the time it takes to put together the flashing document/save to the flashdrive/attach to the email chain becomes excessive or involves a lot of typing (as if you were… maybe… writing your speech?), this could be subject to change.

(Not really relevant at the moment but) Paper teams: I expect you to hand any evidence you read to your opponents as you read it. If your evidence is stapled and for some reason you can’t unstaple it, or if you accidentally put your cards on the wrong side of your stand (it’s been known to happen) arrangements will be made to provide the other team with some reading time (depending on the amount of evidence) before cross-ex/prep begins. If one team is paperless and the other team does not have any kind of computer to view speechdocs, a viewer laptop must be provided.

Speed

On the body of cards, go as fast as you want, but PLEASE read tags and analytics a little bit more slowly than you read cards. Clarity is key! I’ll tell you “clear” twice if I genuinely can’t understand you before I stop flowing. If you’re going to spread your blocks as if they’re cards please at least include them in your speech docs.

T/THEORY/FRAMEWORK/ANALITCAL STUFF IS NOT THE PLACE TO BE SPREADING AT TOP SPEED! I’ll be a lot more sympathetic to the other team if you end up going for subpoint d of your 7th 10-second theory block from the 2AC. Again, if you send it out on the email chain, we can flow it, but otherwise I don’t think I can ethically vote on something I didn’t catch.

Topicality

I love a good T debate! I went for it a lot my senior year, and I think I’m very tech-over truth on topicality arguments… that said, I think that if you genuinely meet the other team’s interpretation and you want to take the risk the 2AR can go for “we meet.”

You definitely need to impact out your violation…. Why does it matter that you don’t have ground against this aff? If YOU IN THIS SPECIFIC DEBATE do have ground, what precedent is the affirmative team setting? Please actually give WARRANTS and EXAMPLES.

Impact calc on the T flow can actually be really helpful for both teams… how do I weigh Aff Choice Vs. Education? Reasonability vs. Fairness?

TVA: I think that in the case of straight topicality a case list might be a better way to go but it’s up to you if you want to go for the TVA instead. I think that on this topic, there are several T violations that are very strategic against K-affs, in which case you should DEFINITELY be reading me a TVA.

Framework

also, FRAMEWORK! IS! NOT! T!

Too often, teams run a “T USFG” violation and try to act like it’s framework. If you’re going to make the argument that affirmative teams must defend FIATED government action, then there should probably be a definition of “should” in your 1NC or some other indication of how FIAT is intrinsic to the resolution. Your violation should be supported by definitions.

The best way to win a framework debate in front of me (whether you’re aff or neg) is by CLASHING WITH THE OTHER TEAM’S ARGUMENTS. If they read me a specific indict of your definition or a DA to your interpretation and all you do in response is read a six-minute overview, I’m not going to be super persuaded. Obviously teams that read kritikal affirmatives are usually very prepared to hit framework, and teams that read framework probably had to dig it up from some decades-old backfile, but you need to do more than just read me your blocks.

TVA: I think that if the negatives prove that their interpretation is good, a TVA can be fatal for the affirmative case. That said, I don’t think that the TVA is a voter if you’re not winning the violation or interpretation.

Theory

Go for it! If your theory violation is explained well/debated well/impacted out/not violent and you legitimately beat the other team in the theory debate then I’ll vote on even the whack stuff regardless of my personal feelings on whether or not something should be allowed in debate.

See “speed” for more advice on how to run theory in front of me.

Aff advantages/Solvency

This might be revolutionary but I don’t think that “They didn’t contest the internal link chain so give us full weight of a nuclear war vote aff automatically” is an extension of your case. PLEASE give a quick overview of your actual advantage scenario… it doesn’t have to be long, but if it’s being weighed against a DA/CP/K that’s explained well I’ll have a really hard time voting aff.

We stan a solvency takeout... but we also stan an impact turn. I think that if the off case/on case arguments prove that the aff is either a) a bad idea or b) no real change from the status quo I'll have a really hard team voting aff.

K affs

Here it is, the moment you’ve all been waiting for—yes, please run your k aff in front of me! I don’t think you *need* to have in-round solvency, but if you do, tell me about it! I don’t think your overview on case *has* to be super long but I’m also not against long overviews… if you want to offer a role of the ballot specific to your aff, that’s fine. If the role of the ballot is just “vote for the best idea,” that’s fine too. If your aff does not defend a reduction in foreign military sales and/or direct commercial sales of arms from the United States, then you should explain why your lack of topicality is necessary—feel free to be creative with your explanations.

Definitely see the Ks section for more info on debating your advocacy/ROB/impacts

DAs

I mean… it’s a DA. I’ll be really annoyed if I have to vote on a nonsensical link but I do vote on the flow so… if you’re negative, read a good link card and if you’re affirmative and their link card is bad, PLEASE attack it. I’m fine w/ new link scenarios in the 2NC to an extent… I think there’s an unfair burden on the 1AR if you’re basically running a new DA, but if you win the theory debate I won’t intervene.

I’m not super persuaded by 6 different marginally different DAs with the same nuclear war impact in the same 1NC… I’ll be much more sympathetic in that case to the aff cross-applying answers.

CPs

Fairly self-explanatory… I don’t think that CPS nEED to be topical or nEEd to be non-topical either way. I think that the goal of the counterplan is probably to solve the impacts of the aff, but if the net benefit is strong enough and the only aff argument on the CP flow is a solvency deficit, I could vote for the CP anyway.

I think the CP flow is where the most theory pops out so please, feel free to go off!

Ks

I don’t think you need to read a super-long overview at the top but you can if you want… I also *HATE* that I have to say this but the 1nr/2nc does NOT have to follow the order of the 2AC. The 2AC should try to follow the order of the 1NC but with perms and maybe framing at the top. Please rest assured that I AM FLOWING YOU. Whether you’re reading psychoanalysis/nationalism/colonialism/queerness lit or something that I’ve never heard of before, I’ll listen to your speeches and use what you tell me to make my decision. I know that a lot of debaters are voted down too often because the judge either thinks that they understand the theory of power and doesn’t flow OR the judge is convinced that they are incapable of understanding the theory of power and refuses to flow it.

On the link level, I think that your link should be to the 1AC or Cross-ex in some way… but what part of the 1AC/cross ex (plantext, advantages, framing, fiat, problematic language, etc) is up to you. I don’t tend to buy arguments from the affirmative that “this is how debate has always been so we should keep debating the same way” just because that’s not… a warrant.

I think that negative framing can be new in the 2 because you’re really answering the 2AC framing argument. If the 1AC didn’t explicitly say “We get to weigh our impacts bc fiat good” I don’t think the 1NC should be forced into spending time on trying to guess how the aff wants to frame the round. That said, I give the 1AR a little bit of leeway for tagline framing arguments.

Go for whatever impact you want… pre-fiat, post fiat, whatever. I’d like to see either framing or some kind of calculus with the aff’s impacts, although, as always, this depends on the specific round.

As far as the alt goes… I’m cool with refusal alts if you explain what I’m refusing and why. I’m also cool with fiated/hypothetical alts like “embrace the communist party” or whatever. For the aff, I’m much more persuaded by arguments about how the negatives’ arguments are wrong than I am by backfiles cards indicting the theory of power as it was 20 years ago.

About me:

-I use He/Him pronouns

-I debated for 3 years at La Crosse Central High school in Wisconsin on the Surveillance, China, and Education topics. All three of them were in Policy although I did do a bit of PF my first year.

-I'm have a B.S. from UW-Madison in Econ, Environmental Studies, Mathematics, and Stats and a MA in Economics from the University of Chicago

-Email: jerimiah.koll@gmail.com

-put me on the email chain, it saves time so in the situation I need to look at a card at the end of the round I don't need to steal one of your laptops to get it. (especially if its remote)

General:

Tell me how to vote and why and I'll do it as long as you do a good job explaining. That being said there are some things that require a little more work than others so take note of them below. When you extend cards/args you need to actually explain the thesis of the card and show you understand the arguments you're making, reading another card really doesn't do you any favors, pulling out warrants from your first card does much better.

If your making a fairness arg I like actual examples, hypothetical abuse or potential abuse aren't great arguments to make. That being said I generally prefer the educational value to the debate above fairness.

The more realistic your scenario is the more likely I am to vote for it. Your impacts don't have to be nuclear war causing mass extinction and I'd prefer if they weren't. Instead of nuclear war impacts use real world impacts because nuclear war isn't going to happen, if it does you can tell me "I told you so".

I'm good with speed, just try to be clear, I can't flow stuff I didn't hear. If you drop 10 perms in 30 seconds there's a good chance I miss 8 of them just like the other team. You gotta slow down for tags, perms, and the like. Also make sure you signpost so I know what flow I'm putting stuff on, if you leave it up to me there's a chance it ends up on the wrong flow. In general, going about 10% slower than your top speed is a great way to get amazing speaks and have me actually flow what you're saying. This is especially important for when you're debating online.

I didn't judge at all last year so do with that info what you will

Just because I'm on the email chain doesn't mean I'm gonna comb through your cards looking for warrants, its your job to tell me the warrants from your cards.

Random Preferences:

Topicality: I rarely ran or enjoyed T when I was debating which is a shame because I think T has the potential to be a really interesting debate but it just hasn't in my experience. You'll need to go all in on T in the 2NR to win on it, and it really helps to cite actual abuse that destroys neg ground. I'll be much more sympathetic to a team running T against a clearly untopical plan than if you're just running T as another arg. If you say "we didn't have prep on this aff" and then have case args blocked out anyway its unlikely I'm gonna vote for you. I really don't like super nitpicky T, so substantial T is unlikely to get my vote.

Ks: I really like when I have a clear picture of what the alt is and it makes it much easier for me to vote on Ks when you do that work instead of expecting me to decipher what the alt is. I ran a lot of Cap, Bio-power, Militarism, and Fem Theory and have a fair amount of experience with Enviro and Set Col lit. I have some experience with more obscure/esoteric Ks but if you have to ask if I know the lit, I probably don't. In order to win on the K you have to show me you understand what exactly the K is doing and explain the theory behind it, if you can't you're gonna lose.

Framework: I really like framework debates and its probably the most important flow in the round. If you win the framework flow there's a good chance you win the round because you just told me to prioritize your impacts. You need to show a clear understanding of both frameworks and do a good job explaining why yours is the best/leads to the best outcome to win framework. I generally default to some sort of utilitarianism, not because I'm particularly utilitarian, but its the framework that most teams implicitly use.

"Climate change isn't real/not a threat/not anthropogenic": So this isn't a great arg in the first place so I'm not sure why people like to run it but I've seen far more of it than I care for. Its highly unlikely I vote for this, the other team would have to drop the ball completely for me to say climate change isn't real. If the other team runs this arg, you should use it as an independent voter, so running climate change isn't real is a reason that team should lose.

CX: Open but its still their speech, asking all the questions for your partner will get both of you poor speaks.

Paper 1ACs: if y'all are gonna spend the rest of the round on your laptops you're wasting paper and time as a fun little strat. Don't. If you don't email it out at the end of the 1AC I will drop you.

PF:

I have much less experience with PF than Policy but don't let that stop you from running what you want to. I may have been unlucky but I've noticed a lot of teams in PF adopting speed. I understand the strategic implications of speed and all that but everything I said about speed in Policy applies doubly so in PF, you should speak 10-20% slower than your top speed given how heavy on analytics PF is.

Please keep cross civil, also remember that cross is still a speech so keep the first two (mostly) closed.

I am so very sorry but I am a Mom judge....but it might not be that bad. I did debate policy in High school and coached for Brookfield Central. However, I haven't been around debate for 15 years.

To make things easy on me and you, just please make things clear and tell me how to vote.

Speed: I was never that fast but I can handle moderate speed. I give pretty clear non verbals, if you look up you can see if I am comprehending

About me: I did three years of policy debate at Reagan HS and I currently attend Marquette University. I’m open to answering questions, although, I will probably not have all of the answers.

I will not tolerate any type of discrimination (sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.); this will result in your speaker points being lowered and being reported to the tournament.

Debate is about having fun! Please be respectful towards everyone in the room and have fun. Also, yes, include me on the email chain my email is brendaeparedes@gmail.com

LD Paradigm:

I'm new to judging LD but I'm a tabs judge, I will vote on anything if it's explained well. I'm okay with speed, just keep a respectful and organized round.

Policy Paradigm:

Tech v Truth: I will try, to the best of my abilities, to be a tech tabula rasa judge. I will vote on anything, yes that includes untraditional affirmatives, as long as you thoroughly explain it to me

Speed: I’m okay with moderate speed, if it gets to the point of incomprehension I will say “clear” three times before I stop flowing. Please slow down so everyone can fully comprehend your arguments. Also, I prefer for the negative team to have 2-3 off that are fully developed and explained; rather than running an obscene amount of off-case that are going to get dropped after the 1NC.

Disadvantages: Your link chain should be thoroughly explained to me. I’m not the biggest fan of big stick impacts but I understand that this is pretty much what novices are limited to, therefore I will vote on it.

Topicality: I don’t like when topicality is used as a time skew. If you’re running topicality make sure you fully commit to it and explain it thoroughly.

Kritiks: I love kritiks and a good kritik debate. Please make sure you understand the argument though and know how to explain it to me. I will be very disappointed if the kritik flow is a wash and turns into something that is up in the air.

Counter-Plans: My flow on a CP debate shouldn’t just be the Aff stating a perm. Make sure you thoroughly explain to me why the plan, perm, or CP is the best

Impact calculus and clash do that please, I’m begging

I'm a parent judge and have little experience judging.

I will go for strong arguments that are clear to me. I will have a hard time understanding Ks and theory.

I prefer a conversational talking speed, or slightly faster. I will not provide any indication if the speech is very fast but this may result in key arguments being missed by me.

Open CX

Finally, I expect civility between debaters.

Hello Everybody!

I am a first-year judge and am brand new to structured debate as a whole! I'm looking for clear and concise arguments from both sides and use a straight policymaker paradigm. Stick to the stock issues and whatever you do, avoid speedreading! Your arguments should be about quality and not how fast you can ramble them off.

I work for MPS - Rufus King High School

I did 4 years of policy debates in high school, what is now called "traditional debate".

I've judged mostly novice debate for a few years.

Speaking

How fast can students speak during speeches? Medium Speed

If a student is speaking too fast or unclear, will you give any cues to them? Usually I will say slow/slow down or clear

List stylistic items you like debaters to do.

1. Debaters should start with a roadmap and include signposts during their speech.

2. Debaters should do a line by line refuting the opponents arguments

3. Debaters should include an impact calc in the final speeches

List stylistic items you do not like debaters to do.

1. I do not like rudeness

2. I do not like partners to talk to the speaker during their partners speech excessively

Arguments

List types of arguments you prefer to listen to/evaluate.

1. Disadvantages are important to the negative attack

2. I’m open to inherency and solvency attacks

3. I’m open to counter plans

List types of arguments that you prefer not to listen to.

1. I do not understand kritiks very well, it will probably be hard to get me to vote on this for you. I come from the more traditional debate mindset.

2. I rarely vote neg on topicality, it would need to be the full shell with voters that make sense. And the neg must give this sufficient time in the round but I will be swayed aff by them being reasonably topical.

Other Notes

I love clash, I love line by line. I really want debaters to take apart each other’s arguments. This is best accomplished by listening to each other.

I want the last speeches to include an impact analysis that shows why their position leads to be a better world.