Hi! My name is Caroline Hsu and I've participated in speech and debate for 3 years now. I'm a junior in high school and compete in interpretation and public address events. I've dabbled in debate (BQ and have judged LD + PF) and have way too many congress friends, so I do understand those in an extremely flay judge manner!

Introductions for IE's: Intros are one of the most important parts of a speech. Make sure to explain your topic well and draw me into your piece and connect it with your story. Be influential.

Interpretation Events: Blocking is always an important addition to your work, but don't compromise the story with extra blocking if it's not necessary. Make me laugh or cry and make me remember your piece.

Public Address Events: Topics are the most important thing. Make sure they pertain to the general public and affect many people while being a niche idea. Really enunciate but don't yell at me. Have fun with your topic: humor goes a long way, and remember to really advocate for what your speech is about. If you believe it, convince me I should too.

Lip Sync/Vocal Events: Read the rules and be dramatic! Make sure to lip-sync and sing to the best of your abilities! As a theatre kid and someone who won a tournament in vocal solo, I believe you all have the talent :)

Extemp: Be creative with your intro! Be funny, smart, or impactful! Give me good points and substantiate them clearly. Make sure to have a clear link chain. Use rhetoric as well!

Congress: Speakers - With content, I expect to see good arguments with strong links (strong warrants and impacts). Don't repeat arguments others have brought up before, aka no rehash. I expect to see refutation and clash. With delivery, please don't yell at me or the chamber. Be passionate, have tonal variation, and use pauses to your benefit. Use rhetoric to make your arguments stronger and make sure your questioning is clear and attacks specific arguments or flawed link chains.

POs - Please keep the round running smoothly while adhering to parliamentary procedure. Due to online, time cards are preferred. Your job is to moderate debate seamlessly, while still being the leader of the chamber. Likewise, if you know the answer to a question posed by the chamber, try to answer it yourself before involving the judge. They should not have to get involved in the round unless absolutely necessary.

LD/PF/Policy: For all intents and purposes, consider me a flay judge. I understand argumentation to a good extent and I try my best to flow your arguments!!! Overall, I want you to explain everything clearly and walk through everything clearly. The clearer you make the reason to vote AFF/NEG the clearer my ballot will be. I should not have to do the work for you to cross-apply your contentions and refutations to your opponent's case. Please do not try to run theory, tricks, or K's, I don't understand them.

Speed: We are online. Adjust accordingly. I can tolerate fast speaking but remember your computer microphone may not be able to. At the start of the round, please ask me for my email and add me to your email chain with your case. This will make the round clearer.

CX: This is the only time you get to directly interact with your opponent. Make the most of it. Don't spend the entire time clarifying something they said.

Prep time: Prep time starts when you start prepping. I don't count emailing docs as prep time.

Novices: Please don't be afraid to ask me any questions about debate or my paradigm before the round starts! I promise I don't bite. I'm a firm believer that while speech and debate is a competition, it should still be an educational experience for everyone.

Lastly, speech and debate should be a safe space for everyone. Respect pronouns, be kind, and be conscious of social and economic positions. Don't be rude or disrespectful. I take this very seriously. If the tournament does not provide this, ask your opponent before round.

Overall, I know you all can do your best! Good luck in rounds!

Hello!
Thank you for competing!

I judge under the notion that you debate as the best debater you are, and I will evaluate you on that metric. Please engage with each other's arguments, and be intentional in both cross and speeches.

Don't overcomplicate points that should be simple, and don't drop arguments, and have refutations that logically link. As a congress debater and competitor I do value a good presentation and speaking, if that helps.

Please don't go too fast as in spreading if it harms your delivery. I appreciate a good framework and roadmaps.

Have fun! Be nice!

For Congress:

Speakers-

I will judge you fairly for wherever you speak in the round; I don’t want to give privilege to the person who comes up at the end of the round to crystallize the debate as I feel that just slows down the round’s progress by disincentivizing sponsorships and such.

Other than the sponsorship, where I want to see you present the problem in the status quo and how your legislation specifically solves it, I want to see constant analysis of other speakers in your speeches. How you push the debate forward in your speech is really important. Make sure your cards are logical and support your side’s argument. Weighing impacts is also necessary; we need to know what’s so good/bad about your contention. Remember speech structure and delivery too, Congress should incorporate both speech and debate.

POs-

I give high praise to POs who know proper procedure and pretty much just run the round smoothly. It isn’t an easy job, despite seeming so. If you’re running the round properly and in a sense, I “don’t notice you,” you’re doing the job and will receive my high praise.

Content and speaking both matter to me.

-Content:
*clarity - easy to follow

*ref - no drive by refs; your refs need to hold significance and the other competitors arguments actually need to be addressed

*intros - pick a style that works for you, I am not the biggest fan of generic intros that work for any bill

*impacts - weighing is appreciated, consider other arguments when making your impacts, make sure they are meaningful in the context of the round!!

I want to see adaptation and integration to whatever is happening in the round. No rehash!!!! Your speech should work for where it is given - this is very important to me

-Speaking/round presence:

*tonal variation - not every part of your speech should sound the same

*Hand gestures - use them to your advantage

I want to hear you asking questions, making motions, and engaging with the round outside of your speeches. BE MEMORABLE.

Most importantly, don't be disrespectful, racist, misogynistic, homophobic, or anything of that sort. It goes without saying.

Hi I’m Steven!

I competed in congress during high school so I’m incredibly familiar with the event. I am the former Captain and novice director of Bronx Science

Few things about what I'm looking for:

Sound logic about how the bill and your argument interacts with the squo and the rest of the round

Evidence that I can look up (Say actual citations I need a date and source)

Rhetorical appeal (I competed a lot and for a long time so I’ve heard every intro you can imagine. Dont use anything canned - def don't use an intro you heard from a recording) - honestly if you have a really good narrative that's delivered well throughout your speech I will probably pick you up even if your content isn't super strong

Refutation and weighing (You need this in any speech cycle even if you’re the spons, I expect pre-ref (in a spons) so I know how you think your speech will interact with the round)

Speaking (Im going to flow speeches and questions, but an important aspect for this event, to me, is the presentation of your arguments) However, I will say that generally I am much more of a flow judge by all accounts, but if I'm blown away, an excellent speaker might end up being my 1

Lastly for pos, I personally loved poing when I was a competitor so I totally respect it. You’re going to be ranked well (t4) if you do a good job. If you really want to win my ballot here (or potentially avoid losing my ballot), if you do use an algorithm to track speaker order you should also be keeping track on paper.

I realize all of this sounds super nit picky but trust me my judging is gonna to be really chill

Last note: Have fun :D

Welcome to my debate dissertation.

John Paul Stevens '23 + UT Austin '27 (Math)

I mostly did congress during high school but find myself usually judging circuit(ish) LD. I now occasionally do APDA (college debate) and run a debate camp.

I believe debate is a game with educational implications. The purpose of this paradigm is not to tell you how to debate, it is simply a way for me to communicate my argumentative bias and broader debate philosophy to competitors. You choose what you do with the information in this paradigm. With that being said, if you think my decision is incorrect, you are welcome to post round me. As long as you remain respectful, I am always willing to have an educational discussion that can improve both my judging skills and your debating. However, if the tournament directors get upset, that's on you.

I'd prefer speech drop, but if not, put me on the email chain: ethanjwilkes@gmail.com

Now for the fun stuff. Buckle up cause I'm a yapper.

Congress:

The round starts in 5 minutes and you’re asking “is the judge flow?”: The easiest path to my 1 is for you to stop making arguments that you think are decent or good and start making arguments that you think will WIN the debate. There is a very key difference. Answer that argument nobody else will and defend your side's winning condition if you want my 1.

The long version:

Zach Wu once said, "[Congress] is neither a debate nor speech event. It is a game of raw persuasion: however you choose to win that game is totally up to you." I find this is to be the perception of the event I align most closely to.

Controversially, I am fine with you speaking with an ipad or laptop for accessibility purposes. I believe that being discreetly anti-technology in congress is inequitable, so if this is an accommodation you need it will not harm your ranking. With that being said, you should still not be reliant on reading off of whatever it is you bring up with you to speak.

Just like everyone else, I don’t like rehash, I don’t think you should give a constructive last cycle, I like refutation, etc etc. The remainder of this paradigm will be directed towards less obvious and more specific parts of congress.

I keep a scale in my head of which side I believe is winning the debate. At the end of the debate, I will rank the debaters by how much I believe they changed my scale of who is winning.

Here is an explanation of how I determine who I think is winning the debate/my general thoughts on congress:

• I seriously dislike when debaters rely on evidence without providing the logical warrant for their argument. It’s like when your math teacher tells you to show your work, if you just read a piece of evidence without explaining why your argument is true, I have no idea what you’re thinking. If you want to be most persuasive to me, make sure you explain the warrant for your argument. Evidence is supplementary.

• I also seriously dislike when debaters do a poor job of impacting. I would like a very in depth explanation as to why I should care about your argument both in the real world and in the context of the debate.

• Don’t just refute arguments willy nilly, refute the BEST arguments on the other side of the debate. It’s really obvious when debaters try to take the easy way out by refuting the arguments at the bottom of the barrel or making arguments that are not well thought out. Responding to the best ground of the other side is the best thing you can do to make your side win the debate.

• I hear a lot of arguments that are exclusively defensive (constitutionality, enforcement, etc.). I also hear a lot of arguments that don't follow the laws of uniqueness (not being dependent on a change in the status quo). So simply put, I believe that the affirmative’s job is to prove the bill is better than the status quo (and nothing else) and the negation's job is to prove the bill creates a worse world than the status quo. (this also means I will not evaluate your counter plan)

• Weighing is important, but not as important as the congress community likes to pretend it is. Yes, I need a reason to prioritize your argument over someone else's but since there are so many arguments in a CD round, it is not easy to individually weigh your argument against everyone else. So, whenever you decide to weigh, my advice would be to treat it like comparing worlds more than it is actual weighing. This also means that uniqueness is very important in my eyes because that's what characterizes each world in the debate. Remember, weighing must also serve a strategic purpose in the round. Weighing for the sake of weighing will not really give you many brownie points on my ballot.

• Have fun with structure -- Run one point and I'll think you're cool. Drop 5 warrants with no claims and I'll probably think you're even cooler. Forcing yourself to a rigid structure can seriously limit the potential of your argumentation so get creative!!!!

• It is rare that a PO will be deserving of my 1. It takes an incredible PO and a really rough chamber for me to even consider it. POs usually sit between my 3-6, but I may adjust it depending on what the break is for the round. It is also pretty rare that a PO will get my 9, but if I feel like the round was a total mess, I will consider the drop. But I generally just believe a PO should be in the background and do their best to make the judge and debaters job easier. I’m also not a big fan of flexing your accomplishments in your PO speech.

• I will always be in favor of stretching the norms of congress. What this means is up to you, but by no means do I believe that congress should be done in a specific way or that our norms are stagnant. Do things that have not been done before and make me rethink the way I view this event. I'm worried that competitors, coaches, and judges are getting bored of congress so any attempt to be interesting will be fairly evaluated.

LD (and policy):

I like good arguments and dislike bad ones...

Just kidding.

I vote for bad arguments all the time.

I'm willing to vote on anything with a warrant, tech>truth, speed is cool as long as you slow down on anything that isn't on the doc

I’m trying to become a fully tab judge robot that evaluates debates with no intervention or bias. I know I am delusional.

For your prefs:

T/Theory - 1

I am willing to vote on RVIs more than most judges but I still default to competing interps

The more friv the shell, the lower the bar for answering it is. To be clear, I will still evaluate any shell with the single exception that it is not about the appearance of your opponent.

I default DTA for T violations (but can be convinced otherwise). I am otherwise impartial on DTA or DTD

It can be really difficult to keep track of the line by line on these analytic heavy theory debates so please either slow down or put the analytics on the doc :)

K - 1

If the aff is non-T, be prepared to answer the T-Fwk, cap k, presumption, case pushback from the 1N. I truly dislike poorly prepped K debates but truly love in-depth, prepped K debates.

I really don’t like vague alts: I think you should be able to defend the alt as some action that someone can take -- even for all my set col debaters out there, you should be able to defend the pragmatic implementation of your land back alt, almost as if it was a plan. I especially dislike 2NRs that can't explain the alt or explain why it's contextual to the aff/what it does for the purpose of the debate

I view Ks as DAs with a CP, if you want to strategically kick the CP (alt) and go for the K as a disad of the aff, I’m here for it

I think teams going against the K should go for framework + extinction outweighs more often

I am willing to vote for cap good, heg good, spark, dedev, etc. However, I am NOT willing to vote for death good.

(goes with phil) Literature base I'm very familiar with: set col, marxism, security, mollow/crip pess/disabilities, afropess, baurdillard, deleuze, queer pess

Assume I know nothing about anything else

There is a serious issue with neg K teams making an argument that nobody understands then clarifying it in the 2NR and saying the 1AR mishandled. Please just be a good sport and don’t do this, explain the argument honestly if you are asked during cross.

Trad - 3

I'll judge this as tabula rasa as I can. Do not feel the need to debate "progressively" because you think that will be the most conducive to me. I will adapt myself to the round. I will say though, framework is often extremely silly in these trad debates because they are usually comparing something very similar (util vs. maximizing expected well being) or it is never implicated into the debate (framework is a lens I use to evaluate debates, not a voter in and of itself).

LARP - 3

I feel like CPs should be competitive with the plan, i guess it's fine if they are not but I find myself just buying the perm against these uncompetitive CPs the majority of the time

Mostly impartial on whether or not PICs, consult CPs, process CPs, etc are good/bad, can be convinced either way

Pls tell me what your permutation looks like "perm do both" and nothing else will leave me clueless with what to do on my flow, but I generally treat perms like a test of competition rather than an advocacy itself

I appreciate good impact turns, reading your generic spark or dedev backfile is cool, but creativity is even cooler

Pre requisite > Probability > Scope/Magnitude > Time frame

Phil - 3

Here’s how phil debates work: the AC riffs off 8 warrants for the cateogorical imperative (they are all one line and have no warrant), the 1N does not line by line them but the 1AR doesn’t extend them? the strategy in these debates never makes sense to me

I've become increasingly more tolerant of phil debates, I think you should engage more on the contention level debate rather than banking these rounds on framework. Of course you should put ink on both, but generally contention level debates are much less of a crap shoot. I would hate for you to lose the entire debate because you didn't respond to subpoint F of warrant 6 for induction fails.

My defaults:

Comparative world > truth testing

• Presumption affirms < presumption negates

• Permissibility affirms > permissibility negates

PF:

I will still probably evaluate about anything but I tend to prefer a good, fundamentally sound and traditional PF round. My other thoughts include:

• The main exception to the rule above is that I believe theory should be used as a tool in PF to set better norms. Theory by far is the non-traditional argument I am most susceptible to voting for in PF.

• PF K debates are a little silly in my eyes -- most teams are either reading surface level literature just so they can say they're reading a K or they're under-explaining more complicated literature so the debate usually becomes uneducational either way. However, if you take the risk and run the K but manage to change my perception, I will give you 30 speaks (you'll likely win the round too lol).

• Collapse in summary!

• A lot of judges want you to weigh early but I actually don't really care, as long as you weigh at some point.

• The team second speaking should frontline in rebuttal.

• I will not read evidence unless you tell me to in summary/final focus.

• Good framing arguments make me happy but don't feel the need to make any just because you think I'll like it

Worlds:

I competed pretty extensively on the international circuit. I mainly gave the 2/4, but spoke everywhere at some point. I sometimes compete in APDA in college which is basically worlds but a lot quicker and more technical.

I'd like to say I'm as tech as they come, but it truly is very difficult to evaluate these debates with 0 intervention. This is mostly because it's against the norm for you to kick arguments which makes my job a bit difficult. With that being said, I try and be as tab as I can, but forgive me if I make mistakes. My other thoughts are listed below:

• I find myself really confused with what I'm supposed to do with principled arguments on my flow. Maybe I'll evaluate it if I think the practical debate is a wash? Maybe it's how I'm supposed to weigh practical offense? Maybe it functions as a priori offense? I'm not really sure. So, if you decide to go for a principled argument, please tell me what I'm supposed to do with it on my flow and why.

• Rhetoric is SUPER cool and fun as long as it is good. This will probably not help you win the round but it will make me happy and boost your speaks.

• I think the opp block should coordinate on what they go for. Depending on what is more important in the round, one should probably dedicate a lot of time to defense, the other should be much more offensive. An 8 minute opp whip followed by a 4 minute opp reply that just summarizes the opp whip is a missed opportunity to say the least.

• Third subs are not required but can be very strategic. I usually found that when I went for them, it would rarely ever be brought up in the OA/RFD, even if it was basically cold dropped. I find many third subs to be very good if they are independent offense from the central clash of the debate. They will absolutely weigh on my ballot just like any other argument would.

• Structure speeches however you would like. Don't feel binded to some two/three question speech, I will just flow what I hear.

• Focus on the line-by-line! Win individual links and then implicate them as a larger voting issue in the round/run me through the strategic implications of the argument. This will make the round easiest for me to evaluate and will give you the best chance of winning my ballot.

• Do not be afraid to kick arguments/collapse! Very much against the norm in worlds but I would rather you do all the frontlining/extension/link work necessary for one argument than to poorly cover 3 arguments.

Extemp:

I throw away most technical argumentation factors for this event and will judge it like your AP Lang teacher. Logically sound arguments will be more important than speaking/rhetoric/jokes, but that doesn't mean they'll completely determine my ranks. Evidence is important, but not as important as people like to pretend it is. I would rather you give me no evidence but your argument makes logical sense than dump fake evidence. Also, unconventional structure is awesome and I will probably heavily reward it.

I have SO much respect for people that can do this as their main event for a long time. This is one of the most, if not the most, mentally draining events...so PLEASE take care of yourself. Drink water, eat good meals, and take breaks. This is true for every event but especially this one.

Good luck and fun debating!