she/her

email - niki.adma@barstowschool.org

Hi, I'm Niki Adma :) I'm a freshman in college, and I was on the Barstow School's policy debate team for 4 years. 

I have experience running both policy and planless affs, so I can evaluate either. I also have no real preferences in terms of offcase positions - just go for what you would normally go for. The k-lit bases I have the most experience in, though, are cap, set col, security, queer theory, general managerialism, and some anti-blackness.

Also - tech > truth, warranted explanations/answers > reading more cards, clarity > speed, impact calc + direct clash is the best, and please don't read new offcase positions in the block

Speaker Points - average for me is 28.5; if I want you to clear, I'll give 29+

**Anything blatantly problematic or offensive that's said or done during a round will result in an automatic loss and docked speaks***

Procedurals/Theory -

Most theory args usually end up being reasons to reject the argument and not the team. Condo is probably the theory argument I'm most likely to vote on. Also - I think aspec is dumb, but I will still vote on it if mishandled (like anything else).

For T, specific impacts/standards are just as important (if not more) than the interp/violation - especially for framework, since you not only have to win that the aff isn't topical but that topicality is good.

Case -

I think case debate is underrated/underused - a well-argued case can really helpful with cross-applications on other flows. However, I like 1AC's with better warrants than those with more cards - but in these situations the neg team has to point out why the aff cards suck/what that means for the debate. Impact d will mean I can vote on a low risk of the aff vs some other offcase, but it's not enough to win presumption (without other case turns).

DA's -

You need a solid link-I/L story. Other than that, da's are pretty straightforward.

CP's -

Multiplank cp's are confusing to me unless I understand what each one specifically does. CP's need a net benefit - can't win on solving the aff alone. And the more obscure the CP is, the more solvency ev you need.

K's/K Affs -

Lit I have experience with is at the top. For me, the fw and impact debate is really important. Extinction outweighs is usually the aff's best argument against a k. And I love specific links - I'm fine with reps links, but the more specific the better. I lean towards judgekick on the alt, but it's nice to have one.

For k-aff's specifically, you need to prove that your theory of power is correct and that your method solves. The TVA and SSD are probably the neg's best answers on framework.

Notre Dame '21

University of Southern California (USC) '25

I have ran plenty of different things from reading the Horse-trading PTX DA and the Courts CP to a Moten K aff throughout my competitive career. (Notre Dame AK, Notre Dame AY). That being said the way I develop arguments has been heavily influenced by my coaches/judges that I have received feedback from, which includes Christina Phillips (Tallungan), Joshua Michael, Aron Berger, Raam Tambe, Nate Graziano, Maddie Pieropan, and many more.

I was a 2A

I prefer the pronouns: he/him/his

My email is: luka.debate@gmail.com

Online stuff

My internet is not the best so my camera may be off. That means it is your responsibility to ask for verbal confirmation that I can hear you and that I am ready to flow before you start speaking. This is good practice anyways.

Speak slower online. You already know this.

I will clear you twice, and if you still are mumbling at 67230864 words/min, I probably will not flow anything substantive and give a lot of leeway to the other teams answer.

T

I don't know the topic! At all.

Never my strong suit,

This is a huge topic that makes me very sympathetic to innovative T violations. This doesn't mean you can get away with reading bad definitions.

Caselists are important.

CP

Yes.

I like specifc/adv CPs.

If you know Brian Snitman you know how process CPs have been an essential part of my learning of debate. With that being said process counterplans are most likely cheating, you just have to do the work. 90% of teams don't do line by line on the theory debate which is frustrating for me to sort out, most of the time resulting in a negative ballot.

I will not judge kick unless instructed to do so.

DA

Also yes.

Specific links > Generic links -- sometimes that's not possible when politics sucks, but I will be more happy when your link is specific to algorithmic assessments of race or how Joe Manchin perceives native policy.

K

Lots of my neg rounds sophomore, junior, and the last half of senior year were critical arguments. A few that I have gone for are Settler Colonialism, Security, Marx, Agamben, Conquest (Tiffany King). That being said, don't presume I know what your specific theory of power means and how you articulate your specific kritik.

Explain your alt. If it changes too much I will be unhappy.

A dropped floating pik is game over, but I lean towards f-piks are bad.

I will not judge kick the alt unless instructed to.

K-Affs

I read one for a little bit. I feel they can be very strategic as long as you have robust defense to topicality. Again, don't assume I am versed in your lit-base.

FW vs K-Affs

Not my cup of tea. That being said read FW if you wanna read FW

Debate is a competitive activity in which teams strategically research and strategize in order to perform well in a competitive sense.

I presume fairness is an internal link unless and until you explain it as an impact -- what that means is it should be impacted out in a thorough enough way to where I feel comfortable feeling that the affirmative reading a non-topical aff is bad.

Do line by line always, but especially on FW -- If you lose me because you are jumping all over the place I most likely will not catch everything you say.

Theory/Procedurals

Condo is a debate to be had. Don't make your interp arbitrary, but I'm open to anything.

If ASPEC/whatever SPEC arg is an incomprehensible blur in the 1NC and/or you didn't ask for the actor in cross-x this is not a voter. If you have a shell with impacts and warrants, then I will be more sympathetic.

Most other theory arguments are reasons to reject the arg, not the team, but you can convince me of cross applications and what these theoretical violations justify for other aspects of the debate.

If you make an RVI (IDC what activity) I will be extremely unhappy.

Misc.

Be respectful of people's preferences in terms of gender/sexuality/identity/etc. If not your speaks will suffer.

Don't clip. Cheating is bad and makes debate worse for everyone. If you have evidence of clipping/if I catch it, I will take appropriate action.

Make fun/reference my friends if you know them. I will be disappointed if you try and fail. If you do a good job I will be happy.

2AR/2NR judge instruction is paramount. It makes the decision faster and I have to do way less work finding ways out for both teams, and will noticeably improve your speaks.

Events other than Policy:

*Clearly not my cup of tea, so do not expect me to know all of the niche protocol of your event. That being said, I feel a lot of my experience from Policy can transfer towards a fair adjudication of LD, PF, etc. My request is focus on the big picture and good debating, and not the technical nitty gritty stuff.

*To clarify, for Policy, do whatever you literally want

Ansel Ang-Olson

CK McClatchy 2023

4 Years in Policy - Sacramento Urban Debate League (SUDL)

anselgangolson@gmail.com

Top Level

One. Tech > Truth to a logical and reasonable extent. What I mean by that is that the two aren’t completely separate things and influence each other. From an technical aspect, you’re going to have do a lot more work to make me vote against something I believe to be true. For example, I’ll vote on suffering good, but the threshold but will be extremely high. Additionally, if an argument is dropped it needs to be an actual winning argument for me to auto vote on it. The 2AC will often have other answers on different flows that can be cross applied against a hidden theory argument or something. The final rebuttals should frame my ballot. You should explain what parts the other team is lacking in and WHY it matters. The top of these two speeches should be the top of my RFD.

Two. I’ve spent the vast majority of time in high school reading a planless aff, and going for the K on the neg. I consider myself to be very familiar with many bodies of critical literature but I still need thorough explanation in a coherent and specific way. You do not want me in the back of a debate that comes down to theory. Policy v policy will not be an issue. If you are a policy team in a K v Policy or Policy v K round, I am extremely confident in my ability to accurately judge your debates and will not hack for the K in any of those situations – more below.

Three. As of the time of my writing of this, I am still a senior in high school, and have lots of topic knowledge (about the high school NATO/Tech topic). Some people who have coached me/influenced my views on debate are – Jasmine Stidham, Stephen Goldberg, Dustin Meyers-Levy, Brian Rubaie, Kate Tully, Nick Fleming, Allyson Spurlock, James Mollison, and Everett Roe

The Kritik vs The Policy Affirmative

While I’ve spent most of my time in high school in “K” areas of debate, I will not hack for them, and feel that I have a possibly higher threshold for voting on arguments that I am very familiar with. Because of this, if you are a policy team in a policy v K debate, you are in a good position, and I am very confident that I can render the correct decision. I am well versed in the areas of Settler Colonialism, Psychoanalysis, Baudrillard, Marxism, 'Cybernetics,' and most of the communities appropriations of Heidegger. I have read/researched but am not as fluent in areas such as Afropessimism, Deleuze and Guattari, Biopower, Semiocapitalism, and MnH. I'm less familiar with writers such as Bataille, Derrida, Edelman, or Puar. None of this is an excuse to not explain, flesh out, or specifically apply your theory of power to the aff. For the neg, I don’t particularly mind how you go for the K, whether it’s a huge framework push or a kicking framework and applying the theory of the K to the affs solvency mechanism. After the 2NR I should clearly either be given a metric to decide the debate that favors you, have an external impact that outweighs the aff, or an alternative that solves a large portion of the affs impacts. Links should obviously be specified to the aff. Impact framing is important. Long overviews are annoying but I get it sometimes.

If you are aff, defending your aff is really not that difficult. Many times the link is really stretched or a link of omission and link defense is very easy. You should have robust knowledge and defenses of your ethical or theoretical frames such as utilitarianism, realism, etc, and should use them to impact turn the K. I don’t think I have an innate preference in terms of framework vs perm for aff strategies, but unless you are winning substantial other parts of the debate the permutation just doesn’t make any sense from a technical level. Because of this, and because of the strange (and frankly perverse) obsession with extinction scenarios in recent years framework has become the most important part of the K debate for the aff.

Being Negative vs The Critical Affirmative

Framework

I feel like this deserves its own section. I don’t have any huge preferences on what impact you go for, but the block/2NR debating needs to be specific and contextualized to the aff. Reading solely prewritten blocks will not do you any good. Going for skills or testing is great but should be paired with a large TVA or Switch Side push. The 2NR should spend more time sitting on one of those two things and getting into the nitty gritty details of how it implicates the aff. There are often cases where the K aff simply isn’t solved whatsoever by a TVA or SSD. If this is the case, don’t waste time a whole lot of time on it. Fairness as a standalone impact needs to be more than prewritten blocks or vague lines. Please don’t say the phrase “procedural fairness is the only thing your ballot can remedy” at me without any explanation. It doesn’t make any sense. Framework should often be paired with a substantial case push. I will vote on presumption alone. I will also not sometimes.

Non-framework Strategies

Pleeeeeaaaase. I would love nothing more than to watch a great KvK debate. What usually gets lost a little bit in KvK is the technical line by line, but if you do that well and know your stuff, you will be rewarded. The Cap K should be more than you aren’t material, we are. If debated well enough, psychoanalysis should beat every single K aff. Most of my 2NRs vs K affs have been Settler Colonialism. 1AC cx is very important in these debates. K affs are usually pretty shifty, and if you are reading a K aff and doing this I will notice that you are being shifty and be annoyed. But, if you stick to your stuff and defend it and clash well, “I will consider you strong-willed, brave, and smart.” – Nick Fleming

I think PICs and DAs are really really good against most K affs and very underutilized.

The Critical Affirmative

Go for it! I have not read a policy aff since freshman year. They need to have a tether to the topic, and a coherent and well fleshed out reason why you have deliberately not chosen to not follow the procedural norm of resolutional debate. If your K aff is NATO is bad, and lets think really hard about that, vote aff, you are fighting an uphill battle (SSD, presumption, tons of K links).

I am more sympathetic towards arguments about school size, resource disparity, and its implications on the debate space than most other judges are. I've seen many people point out that they hate arguments about this. F--- those people.

You don’t have to go for the counterinterpretation, but a substantive push should be made on the power of the 1AC and an aff ballot to remedy your impact turns. Alternatively, going for the counterinterpretation means that you need to have a robust explanation of the debates that you create and do in depth comparison with their model, and why yours is better or outweighs or whatever. Also, it would be tragic if you linked to your impact turns too.

You should defend an actual method.

DA/CP

I think the better strategies have more nuanced and developed 1NCs rather than 11 off at top speed.

Rebuttals need to narrow the debate to a couple key important parts, whether it be a key solvency deficit or a DA link.

Evidence quality matters a lot.

Don't go for CP theory.

Theory

I said this earlier, I am a BAD JUDGE for theory debates.

Miscellaneous

Speaker Points

I will reward ethos and pathos, as well as impressive technical debating skill. I think I’m probably on the higher side in terms of giving speaks. They’ll usually vary from 27.9 – 29.6 ish.

Non Negotiables

Speech times and things are obviously non negotiable

I will stop the round if asked or if something egregiously problematic occurs. Any racism, sexism, homophobia, or anything of the sort will result in an immediate L and stopping the debate. I think debate is one of the most wonderful activities there is but it has some glaring issues regarding these things and as a judge I will do my best to ensure that the round is a safe and healthy space for all participants involved.

Annoyances

Poorly written plan texts, cowardly debating, being mean to younger debaters, misrepresenting your authors intentions, nick land

Random Things About Me

I love classical music.

Make jokes about my friends and you get higher points.

Enjoy yourself

I love chess.

I’m a warriors fan.

The horrible affs policy teams read specifically for K teams are way easier to beat than the affs they would be reading otherwise. (shh)

Hi! I’m Nathaniel Ashley (he/him)

Please put me on the email chain :) nathanielashley58@gmail.com

I have about 4 years of policy debate experience with the Bay Area Urban Debate League, and about 3 years now of judging experience

Run what you’re most comfortable with - I’m open to vote on anything as long as it’s proven in round why I should be voting on it (which of course comes with a bit of bias which is outlined down there)

• However, this does mean that you need to stay organized while debating, disorganization will make it a lot harder for me to judge your round

• ALSO disclaimer: I have a full-on hearing loss in my left ear and I’m slightly deaf in my good ear - my hearing is fine and I’m fine with spreading, but disorganization/unclear speaking will make it a lot harder for me to get everything you say down on the flow

Here’s some things I usually look for in rounds:

1. Outline your voters - tell me everything I need to know to vote for you in a round - why you get the vote, why the other team doesn’t, etc. Write the ballot for me in the round as much as you possibly can :)

1. This means develop your arguments - explicitly explain why all your arguments are better than the other side’s proposal

2. Don’t make me connect all the dots post round

2. Fully formed arguments are a big one - With vague alts/advocacies/plans, if I don’t know what I’m voting for, it’s a lot harder to vote on it (be specific!!!)

1. Jargon - It’s great but know how to explain what you actually mean, don't make debate words the full explanation of your argument

3. Impact calc is GREAT, why do you outweigh and why is it necessary that I vote for you?

4. Also, this should be a given, but be kind to one another

1. Don’t be unnecessarily rude

2. NO homophobia, racism, sexism, ableism, or just generally being discriminatory, since that’s a pretty good way to get me to potentially write a ballot against you or at least lower your speaker points as much as I can possibly justify, especially if the other team calls you out (know I will definitely call you out in RFDs post round, regardless of whether or not your opponents do)

My specific feelings on arguments:

Kritiks:

These are great, I love them, I understand a majority, but don’t assume I, or your opponents, will fully understand yours. Make sure it’s well explained and if your alt is incredibly vague, changes, or is not extended throughout the round, I’ll just be sad.

• For K Affs, I don’t have a lot of experience so while I’ll definitely vote for you if it’s done well, make sure to explain well why I should be voting for you and why the discussion that your aff brings up is so important. I like to also hear about how your advocacy holds the potential to actually affect the real world - I care a LOT about education in these types of debates - how do you spill out? what does the ballot mean for you, and everyone in this room and activity?

• Ofc, not doing these things won't mean that I write a ballot against you; however, it might make it a bit harder for me to vote for you if your advocacy is egregiously vague or hard to understand
• TLDR - explain your whole process thoroughly!

T and Framework:

Good Fwk/T arguments are great. However, bad/unreasonable T and FWK usage/abuse is bad for debate - don’t do that. This means don't run like 5 T blocks for no reason - remember to value the education of the actual round as well outside of just the ballot. If you do this, I will just be judgemental from my little desk in the back of the room haha

Please put the whole T shell in the email chain if you can. Also, please give me impacts to your theory, fwk, and T blocks. Theory is cool and all but I won't vote on it if there's not a reason for me to. Impact out your procedural arguments in the round!!! Don't make me connect the pieces for you.

CP:

CPs are fun, tell me why the inevitable perm doesn’t work, and why your CP solves better than the Aff and is competitive. I’m open to Condo but more than like 8 off is pushing it

• Condo note: Be sure to make it absolutely clear what you’re going for, what you're kicking, and signpost as clearly as possible since disorganized condo rounds can become messes and frankly just be extremely difficult to evaluate as a result

DA:

Specific links. Line by line which highlights those specific links. Explanation of why they lead to your impact. Extension of all this through the round. Impact calc.

Lastly, have a good time debating :) Thanks to my coaches for HEAVILY inspiring this paradigm (lmao, there was definitely no plagiarism here), and good luck in all your rounds!!! Don't forget to breathe while spreading!

Pronouns: He/Him/His

Email: tjbdebate@gmail.com

I'd really appreciate a card doc at the end of the round.

About me

Debated in policy for four years at Damien High School in La Verne, CA. I placed pretty well at some national tournaments and received some speaker awards along the way. I have worked as a judge and staff member at the Cal National Debate Institute. I was a consultant/judge for College Prep, and this is my first year as an assistant coach for College Prep.

I mostly think about debate like her. If you like the way she thinks then I probably think the same way.

Top Level

**** I will try my hardest to flow without looking at my computer so I suggest debating as if I have no reference to what is being read. Clarity is much more important than unchecked speed ****

Debate is a competition, but education seems to be the most intrinsic benefit to the round taking place. I believe that debates centered around the resolution are the best, but that can mean many different things. Debate is also a communicative activity so the first thing that should be prioritized by all the substance is the ability to clearly convey an argument instead of relying on the structure and tricky nature of policy debate.

The most important thing for me as a judge is seeing line-by-line debating instead of relying upon pre-written blocks. Drops happen and that is debate, but what I most hate to see are students reading off their laptops instead of making compelling indicts of their opponents' arguments off the top of their heads. Debate requires some reaction to unexpected things but I think that it enhances critical thinking and research skills.

When it comes to content, I sincerely do not have any big leans toward any type of argument. Just come to the round with a well-researched strategy and I will be happy to hear it. My only non-starters are arguments that promote interpersonal violence, prejudice toward any group of people, or danger toward anyone in the round. If those arguments are made, the offending team will lose, receive a 0 for speaker points, and I will speak with their coach. The safety of students is the number one priority in an academic space such as debate.

Thoughts on Specific Arguments Below:

Disadvantages: Impact calculus and Turns case/Turns the DA at the top, please. These debates are won and lost with who is doing the most comparison. Don't just extend arguments and expect me to just clean it up for you. I like politics DAs, but I want more comparisons of whose evidence is better and more predictive instead of just dumping cards without any framing arguments. Go for the straight turn. I love bold decisions that are backed up by good cards.

Counter plans: I am all about good counterplan strategies that have great solvency evidence and finesse. I have grown tired of all the nonsense process, agent, and consult counter plans, and while I will vote for them, I prefer to hear one that is well-researched and actually has a solvency advocate for the aff. Regarding theory, most violations are reasons to justify a permutation or to lower thresholds for solvency deficits, not voters. Consult CPs are however the most sketchy for me, and I can be convinced to vote against them given good debating.

Topicality: Love these debates, but sometimes people get bogged down by the minutiae of the flow that they forget to extend an impact. Treating T like a disad is the best way to describe how I like teams to go for it. Please give a case list and/or examples of ground loss. Comparison of interpretations is important. I think that the intent to exclude is more important than the intent to define, but this is only marginal.

Kritiks: Over time I have become more understanding of critical arguments and I enjoy these debates a lot. The alternative is the hardest thing to wrap my head around, but I have voted for undercovered alternatives many times. I think that the more specific link should always be extended over something generic. Extending links is not enough in high-level rounds, you have to impact out the link in the context of the aff and why each piece of link offense outweighs the risk of the aff internal link. I prefer that the negative answer the aff in these rounds, but I do not think it is impossible to win without case defense. The only thing that matters is winning the right framework offense.

Planless Affs: Performance 1ACs are great but there has to be an offensive reason for the performance. I won't vote on a dropped performance if there is no reason why it mattered in the first place. I prefer that these affs are in the direction of the topic, but if there is a reason why only being responsive to the resolution matters, then I am fine with it not being so. Framework is a good strategy, but I don't like voting on fairness, because I don't believe that it is a terminal impact. I believe that having a fair division of labor is important, but not because debate is a game. Debate has intrinsic educational value and both teams should be debating over how they access a better model of the activity. For the negative, I like it when teams just answer the aff method and clash over the effectiveness of the 1AC.

Conditionality: I think that up to 3 advocacies are fine for me. Anything more and I am more sympathetic to the aff. Don't get it twisted, if the neg screws up debating condo, I will vote aff.

Feel free to ask me anything before the round. Most importantly compete, respect each other, and have fun.

Hey yall - You found my paradigm, congrats!

Nuriel Cahigas (they/them)

Add me to your email chain: nuriel.cahigas@gmail.com

Oakland Tech '22 || who knows what college... manifest for me '26

Background: I'm an senior high school debater at BAUDL. Love debate! Debate = life babey! I've done multiple flavours (LD, policy, PF) of debate throughout my *4 year - short* career but primarily am based in policy. If you are from a UDL, special kudos to you. I love my UDL folks the most :)

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Prefs -

general

1. Be nice. If you dont want to be kind to others (opponents, your partner, me, the novice flowing the debate in the back of the room), please don't prefer me. Anything remotely racism, homophobic, abelist, etc etc will mean I will give you the lowest speaker points possible. Don't try me.

2. Be Clear. I will call "clear" if I can't understand you, but debate is primarily a communication activity. Connect on meaningful arguments. I am fine with spreading but if you arent clear I will stop listening and flowing.

3. Don't clip. Don't steal prep. Emailing isn't prep UNLESS it's unreasonable/I see you prepping (you disappoint me).

4. Have fun! I want to see yall be creative -- I'm down for any argumentation style.

Online Debating

If you are being unclear, I will ask you to repeat the unclear section. Your partner should also message you if you are kicked out of the room.

All debaters should try to have their cameras on during their speech. I'd like to know that yall are human, but totally understand if you can't due to wifi.

TD;LR -

-Really tell me your story. I want a fully formed argument goddamit! Don't just run 30 arguments and call it a day. IT'S ABOUT CONTENT YALL NOT AMOUNT. Please fully develop your arguments for both sides. That being said, it still is important for you to tell me as the judge where is the most impact this round. Tell me what is the most important thing to think about during this debate.

-Weave an argument that makes sense. Be logical in the ways that you go through this debate and argue your argument. Make sure your arguments don't contradict each other! IF I DO NOT UNDERSTAND YOUR ARGUMENT I WILL NOT VOTE FOR IT. BE EXPLICIT.

- Presentation is v important to me! Speaks will get bumped up if done strategically. Also please be as clean as possible extending all your arguments (will be v nice for me as your judge). :)

- Throwing around random debate terms w/o actually understanding what they mean will not make me vote for you. Understand what you are saying. Simply saying "YES BECAUSE IMPACT A, B, AND C.... INSERT RANDOM EVIDENCE BLAH BLAH BLAH". Buzzwords are cool but explaining what you are saying is cooler.

- Write the ballot for me. I don't want to have to do TOO much work framing or doing impact calc, that's on you. Its all part of building and telling your story. If you fail to do that, I will be less inclined to vote for you.

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More Specific To Argumentation

T - T and FWK abuse is BAD FOR DEBATE. Pls don't do it. Good T debates need voters/impacts, which most people seem to have forgotten about. I'd prefer you to put the whole t shell in the doc ty <3

Kritiks -

On Neg: I understand that it could be complex BUT I think we can all recognize when the strat is to make it too confusing for the opponent to follow. I need to be able to understand your alt and what you are trying to accomplish. I say this again, PAINT YOUR WORLD AND PAINT YOUR WORLD WELL. You need to understand what you are advocating for. I prefer to weigh the K impacts against the aff plan. Also, I don't think links on K's always needs to be hyper specific but I swear links of omissions are not it.

On aff (planless affs): WOWOW LOVE K DEBATE, LOVE WATCHING IT, LOVED RUNNING THEM. Legit do whatever you want, be creative! I am not the best at judging k affs though, so just make it make sense (esp if you are doing some high lvl pommo stuff... i am but a newbie to some of that and will need you to make it palatable for both my and your opponent's sake). Please keep your aff alive and central in t/framing debates, extend your performance, explain why your FORM matters and why that warrants a ballot, etc. Please explain the world of the perm if you want me to vote for it. As for neg - i may be a more k leaning judge, but that also means i’m just as happy to reward well explained and framed arguments against them. Innovative strategies + warranted responses usually results in a win or at the very least much higher speaks! If they are unpredictable then you have a lil flexibility to be unpredictable too.
** just bc you run a k aff doesn't mean i will automatically vote for you and just bc i am more of a k leaning debater doesn't mean that i don't vote policy

CPs - Justify your perm, don’t just say it. I tend to be fine with Condo unless there’s clear abuse, but I do think spreading 8 off CPs is that (which damn ouch). I am open to fiat theory arguments more so than condo.

DA - DA with specific link evidence is great. DA with mostly just spin are cool. DA with evidence AND spin are *chefs kiss* amazing. Turns case and solves the case are really important on DAs, ESPECIALLY if they are dropped (straight up if you don't take advantage of this you are disappointing me and your coach - love myself a good turn). Impact comparison W I N S debates. Like what I said before, don't just say "magnitude - extinction, timeframe - now, probability likely"... explain PLEASE.

Last Updated - 03/06/2022

if you made it all the way to the end, wow congrats. heavily inspired by my coaches and other judges that i would have loved when i was debating.

Just saying ahead of time - proud of y'all and continue debating.
- Nuriel <3

Debated at Missouri State and graduated in 2004

Executive Director of DEBATE-Kansas City until 2017

Assistant Coach and then Head Coach at Barstow starting in 2018

Online update - I have done little online judging, so I don't know how it may alter my ability to understand top-end speed. Based on the other judges, it seems going a touch slower and focusing on clarity helps judges get more on the flow.

Yes, I want to be on the chain, and please be as efficient as possible with the emailing. Email: gabe.cook@barstowschool.org.

I am open to almost any argument, but I defer policy. I like a compelling narrative, especially in the link debate. I value both technical skills and argumentative truth. Clarity and flowability will increase speaker points and chances of winning.

T - I defer to reasonability on T and I do not mind larger topics. That doesn’t mean I won’t vote on T if you win the argument. Limits can be the cleanest standard for the neg to win but I also find ground loss important to provide context. I want both sides to explain the model of debate your interp creates and impact why it’s comparatively better.

K-AFF/Framework - I am fine with kritik affs, but I will also vote neg on framework. TVAs can be persuasive for the neg, and both sides should focus on what their model means for debate. I believe k affs need a topic link and a clear method for the negative engage. I lean towards believing you do not get a perm in a method vs. method debate.

Case - Here is where I copy and paste from every judge paradigm and say I want more case debate. I dislike AFFs with lousy internal links, and I will reward NEGs that take the time to point out flaws in AFF ev.

K - You need a specific link, and I appreciate it when debaters use lines from the 1AC to get a link. I am open to voting on presumption/turns case. But you need to explain how the K actually eliminates solvency and/or turns the case, and contextual examples help.

By default, I evaluate ontology, epistemology, discourse, and AFF consequences through the lens of link and impact rather than as something resolved or excluded by debate theory.

NEG FLEX - I generally believe the negative should have the flexibility to run a K and disads as long as they don't try to create and go for double turns.

DA - The starting place is to be on the right side uniqueness. Then I need a compelling link story contextualized to the AFF. Impact comparison is obviously essential. I will vote on effective AFF criticism and/or takeouts of low probability disads.

When I debated I went for politics often, and I still cut a lot of politics cards. For me, uniqueness research determines the viability of any politics DA. I don’t like forcing a story because of the links or impacts. I appreciate nuanced and clever link stories, and I will reward NEG teams that have a compelling link story.

CP - I like core of the topic CPs and smart PICs. I dislike process CPs with little topic literature that compete only at a textual level. I also dislike consultation CPs. This doesn't mean I refuse to vote for them, but that I am receptive to theoretical objections and solvency arguments.

Condo/Advocacy Theory - I believe the fairest standard is to give the NEG one conditional CP and one conditional K. Or I think you can have unlimited dispositional advocacies. The more advocacies the neg runs, the more grounds the aff has for a condo argument.

Points

29.6 – 30 – Approaching perfection to perfect.

29.1-29.5 – Excellent

28.5 – 29 – Above average to very good.

28.4 – Average

28.3– 27.7 – Slightly below average to below average

27.6 – 27 – Below average to well below average.

26.9 and below – Bad to potentially offensive.

baylor’26

from the river to the sea...

tldr - i am a sophomore at baylor university studying data science and computational biology -- second round qualified to the NDT -- my senior year of high school, i had 5 bids to the tournament of champions, was consistently a top 10 speaker as well as consistent appearances in late elims of national circuit tournaments if background/success matters at all to yall.

email chain -- odarwish22@damien-hs.edu

- Tech > truth, BUT my inclination to vote on certain positions will increase/decrease depending on the level of extrapolation present i.e. arguments must be fully flushed out in order to be given any semblance of weight in my decision.

- The first 30 seconds of your rebuttal speeches should crystalize the debate and ideally mirror my potential RFD.

- My decision calculus first and foremost usually comes down to what arguments are tailored to the casting of my ballot.

- Presumption goes to the team that deviates from the squo the least.

- I am a performance debater -- I like cx sass and assertiveness but just make sure you dont confuse those things with disrespect and aggressiveness

- I default to judge kick absent being instructed no judge kick

- Link specificity is very important to me.

- Do not insert evidence.

- Speaker points rate individual performance, strategic/bold pivots, general rhetorical appeal etc. because of this I generally give out a lot of low point wins.

- My camera is usually on, if its off seek confirmation prior to starting your speech.

Arguments --- I am accustomed to and have taken exclusively left leaning critical positions throughout the second half of my career, despite this I have no biases and will strictly defer to my flow for any argumentative inconsistencies. I will not fill in holes for you and you should act as if I don't know what the literature says while showcasing a superior explanation of your arguments.

- Theory --- Condo is generally good but I've voted otherwise in the past. Dropping utopian alts bad isnt an auto dub same goes for most theory arguments. Rejecting the arg generally remedies any harms created, you're going to have to do some work to make me vote otherwise.

- Framework --- I have no biases here. Procedural fairness is both an internal link and an impact just depends on how you deploy it in round. Things you should do that should seem obvious but dont happen: Go for only one impact in the 2nr, do impact calculus/comparison, articulate solvency deficits to their model of debate, explain how your model solves and interacts with said deficits visa vie tva/ssd, link analysis (most of their offense probably just assumes debate or the state), actually answering the 2ac and getting off your blocks, predict/preempt 2ar shifts and compensate by doing judge instruction, ballot framing, and model comparison, answering the affirmative in the 2nr. I think that debate is a game but I also think it has the potential to influence different material outcomes. I view Tvas as impact filters that don't need to solve the affirmative but should include aff literature. SSD becomes very convincing to me if the affirmative answers to T devolve into state/state education bad. I am a sucker for smart presumption arguments and have a higher threshold for aff solvency explanation. Although I do not go for framework in college, as a 2a, I am constantly responding to the argument as well as coaching my debaters to go for it. I really enjoy good framework debates but the opposite is true as well. If the level of framework debating described above seems synonymous with your style of debating you should probs prefer me highly.

- The K --- Try not to go for a k that you are unfamiliar with; not to say I wont vote for you if you win, but rounds where you constantly evade questions during cx and provide me with shoddy explanations that dont do your literature base justice are agonizing. I strongly prefer substantive critical debating and am not a fan of spamming contradictory critical positions derived from different schools of thought. I don't care about how you go for the k or what you read just make sure you are telling me a story that I can retell to the affirmative in the rfd. I dont like implicit clash, you should be doing the line by line on the k proper. Link contextualization and drawing aff/topic specific historical examples separate good and great k debaters. I think framework is the most important part of the K but it can become ultimately irrelevant if the rest of the critique is winning that either the plan exacerbates the harms you've impacted out or the critique is winning an impact turn to the aff. I will default to judge kicking the alt if it was conditional but you need a reason why I should if the other team makes a judge kick argument. I am most comfortable with language/post-structuralist criticisms but am still somewhat knowledgeable when it comes to identity critiques.

- K Affs --- I have experience defending and debating these types of affs and I think that the closer you are to answering the resolutional question, the better. I think that uniqueness is extremely underutilized in these debates and usually helps me weigh a lot of these ballot and impact comparison questions in your favor. When answering topicality YOU WILL LOSE if you dont have a competing interpretation of debate that you can solve your impact turns through because then they're just non-unique. Thats why I stress the importance of ballot and impact uniqueness in these debates. You should probably have some sort of advocacy text/statement or at least make the solvency portion of the 1ac clear. If I am left without understanding what the role of the negative is under your model thats probably a disad to it. When debating framework leverage your case as much as possible - I see a lot of teams struggling to decide on whether to defend a middle ground or the impact turn, just make sure you pick one so that the story of the affirmative remains constant, inconsistency in the different affirmative speeches both argumentatively and strategically warrant my neg ballot a lot of the time. I think explaining how the affirmative solves the individual pieces of offense you are going for not only clarifies the messy portions of the round but also just makes it easier for you to cross apply/group arguments in the rebuttals. I also won’t vote on an impact turn your model can't resolve so you need to explain how you solve the offense you consolidated down to. The best 2a's pick and choose a few things to go for in the final speech and talk about how these arguments interact with both what the 2nr is going for and most importantly how that influences the casting of my ballot. I default to giving the affirmative the permutation but I can be convinced otherwise.

If you have any questions about anything that was/wasn’t mentioned above you can email me.

@dylan barsoumian -- my guy

email - nolanrenedejesus@berkeley.edu

Damien '21

UC Berkeley Haas '25

TOC '20 '21

he/him/his

I haven't been active in debate for a min, so I'm not too familiar with the topic

Affs: read a plan

Negs: fine with anything, but be cognizant of my limited understanding of the topic and various literature bases

people whose views on debate are most like mine:

Chris Paredes, Donny Peters, Tim Lewis, Brendan Tremblay, Noah Bartholio, Joe Barragan

email: eforslund@gmail.com

Copied and Pasted from my judge philosophy wiki page.

Recent Bio:

Director of Debate at Pace Academy

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

Zero rounds on the current college topic in 2020.

Coached at the University of Wyoming 2004-2005.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hi!

My name in Matheno. I have been a participant of this activity for about over 17 years. I started to debate in High School out of the DKC Urban Debate League. I emerged onto the national circuit my novice year in 2004. I have attended debate camps at University of Iowa, University of Missouri Kansas City as well as the University of Louisville. "Performance" debate is mostly how I approached debate as a framework. Do not call it Performance debate. Debate itself is a performance. I do understand what many call "traditional debate." It's how I got introduce to this activity. I just felt better equipped as a debater dozing into what felt more authentic for me. I judge my debates on what is on the flow sheets. If its not on the flow then I cannot evaluate it. Speed does not mean to forfeit persuasion. I will listen to mostly everything. I like new and different arguments. I was a big fan of K arguments and of course ran many Kritiks. I am now a staff member at the Bay Area Urban Debate League as a Program Manager. I have been a judge every single year since I left debate as a competitor. I love this activity! I have assisted BUDL, DKC and also Atlanta Urban Debate League. Write the ballot for me. If I have to do a lot of framing and impact calculus myself then I don't think you did much coverage of handling the flow. Write the RFD for the judge. Who knows what may happen if you leave it in my hands. I have a very queer mind.

Email thread: bfandbo@gmail.com

Hello my name is Axel Garcia

I'm currently attending GCU (Phoenix, Arizona) and Majoring in Forensic Psychology. I debated in high school for 3 1/2 years as a debater/competitor. I am a debate Coach/Judge (3 years now) for Damien High School if they need help. I debated in public forums and policy debates in high school. I mostly Judge Policy.

Please add both emails

damiendebate47@gmail.com

and

aagarcia22@damien-hs.edu

Please add to the email chain. Thank you

--

I am 100% honest, really don't know a lot about the topic this year, focused on school. What you can do is this, Explain... ---> https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/71257ee5-18d7-461e-b39b-3277361953dc

-- I am a policy judge

Policy

- I prefer Policy

- I allow tag team CX

-I like any type of argument you run!

- I Love and huge fan of Spreading as long as you articulate and are clear.

- Don't like K's, I will try my best to flow it.

- Everything else I'm good with.

LD

- I rarely do LD debate, Spend a lot of time contextualizing your card/s if you're relying on it to win the round. Even if it was already constructive, it's a good habit to cover it thoroughly a 2nd time just in case I missed something.

PF

- Sometimes I would do PF but not always. I prefer PF

- Remember to Spread as long as you articulate and are clear.

- I rebuttal speeches show me the most important issues and why they favor your side, we already had rebuttal speeches and 2 crossfires (PF).

- I appreciate puns in rounds.

- Tag team cx is allowed

Big Question

Big questions once during high school don't know much about it. Except to do your best and I value one overarching argument that's successfully upheld throughout the round over winning on the flow. Big picture analysis

Random bonuses like things that would boost your points

- Using your time wisely. ( not just sit there and do nothing. Think about what you are going to do next )

- Try to act confident, even if you're not, by making eye contact with your opponent and standing up straight, which can make your argument appear more believable.

- Remain calm at all times, and never shout or get angry since it will only make your argument seem weak.

- Always have your camera on when speaking and stand up when speaking

What not to do:

- If you intentionally make any racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory comments, I will give you extremely low-speak and notify your coach.

- Try not to clip, if you do and other teams catch it. you lost the ballot, if you are wrong another team loses. But the debate will keep on going.

- Don't play games when you are done speaking or when your opponent is speaking

- Don't go on your phone, to call, chat, or play games, ( you can use your phone to be in call your partner and or if you are using prep time ) <--- on only zoom

-Have Fun!!!

https://www.tabroom.com/index/paradigm.mhtml?judge_person_id=171692 Other Profile can see my record and past judging if needed

I debated high school debate in Virginia / Washington DC for Potomac Falls '03 to '07 and college for USF '07 to '11. I am currently the debate coach for Oakland Technical High School.

add me to email chain please: aegorell@gmail.com

I am generally pretty open to vote on anything if you tell me to, I do my best to minimize judge intervention and base my decisions heavily on the flow. I love judge instruction. I err tech over truth.

However, everyone has biases so here are mine.

General - Removing analytics is coward behavior. Okay, after I put this in everyone seems to think I mean I need to see all your analytics ever. I’m saying if you have prewritten analytics you should not remove those (coward behavior) especially in the early constructive speeches. Removing analytics and trying to get dropped args from spreading poorly is bad for debate and if it’s not on my flow it didn’t happen. Analytics off the dome from your flow are great and not what I’m talking about.I'm fine with tag team / open cross-x unless you're going to use it to completely dominate your partners CX time. I'll dock speaker points if you don't let your partner talk / interrupt them a bunch. Respect each other. I'm good with spreading but you need to enunciate words. If you mumble spread or stop speaking a human language I'll lower your speaker points. Please signpost theory shells. I will evaluate your evidence quality if it is challenged or competing evidence effects the decision, but generally I think if a judge is pouring through your warrants thats probably not a good sign, you should have been extending those yourself I shouldn't have to hunt them down. Don’t cheat, don’t do clipping, don’t be rude. Obviously don’t be racist, sexist, homophobic, etc, in life in general but also definitely not in front of me. This is a competitive and adversarial activity but it should also be fun. Don’t try to make others miserable on purpose.

Topicality/Theory - Hiding stuff in the T shell is bad and I'll probably disregard it if Aff tells me to. Good T and theory debates need voters/impacts, which a lot of people seem to have forgotten about. I think for theory to be compelling in round abuse is supreme. If you're complaining you had no time to prep and then have 15 hyper specific link cards....come on. Disclosure theory is basically never viable independent offense but I think it can be a strong argument to disregard theory arguments run against you since they refused disclosure norms.

Framework - I'll follow the framework I'm given but I prefer a framework that ensures equitable clash. Clash is the heart and soul of this activity.

Kritiks - You need to understand what you are advocating for. If you just keep repeating the words of your tags without contextualizing or explaining anything, you don't understand your Kritik. I prefer to weigh the K impacts against the aff plan but I can be convinced otherwise. My threshold is high and it’s easier to access if you can prove in round abuse / actually tailored links. Also, I don't think links on K's always need to be hyper specific but I do not want links of omission. I like fiat debates. I think a lot of kritiks are very vulnerable to vagueness procedurals.

K-Affs - Good K-Affs are amazing, but I almost never see them. I used to say I tend to err neg but I actually end up voting aff more often than not mostly because negs don’t seem to know how to engage. Vagueness seems to be most egregious with k affs. Don’t be vague about what you’re trying to do or what my vote does and you’ll have a much better chance with me. I like debate, which is why I am here, so if your whole argument is debate bad you'll have an uphill battle unless you have a specific positive change I can get behind. Just because I like debate doesn’t mean it can’t also be better. I can recognize its problematic elements too. Reject the topic ain't it. I need to know what my ballot will functionally do under your framework. If you can't articulate what your advocacy does I can't vote for it. I think fairness can be a terminal impact. Negs should try to engage the 1AC, not even trying is lazy. Really listen to what the K aff is saying because often you can catch them contradicting themselves in their own 1AC, or even providing offense for perf cons.

CPs - I'll judge kick unless Aff tells me not to and why. Justify your perm, don’t just say it. You need to explain it not just yell the word perm at me 5 times in a row. I tend to be fine with Condo unless there’s clear abuse. I think I start being open to condo bad around 3 or 4? But if you want me to vote on condo you better GO for it. 15 seconds is not enough. I think fiat theory arguments are good offense against many CPs. Consult, condition or delay CP's without a really good and case specific warrant are lame and I lean aff on theory there. Advantage CPs rule, but more than 5 planks is crazy. By advantage CPs I mean like...actually thought out a targeted ones that exploit weaknesses in plans.

DAs - I evaluate based on risk and impact calc. More than 3 cards in the block saying the same thing is too many. Quality over quantity.

For LD - I try to be as tab as I can but in order to do that you need to give me some kind of weighing mechanism to determine whose voting issues I prefer. If you both just list some voting issues with absolutely no clash it forces me to make arbitrary decisions and I hate that. Give me the mechanism / reason to prefer and you'll probably win if your opponent does not. So like, do I prefer for evidence quality or relevance? Probability? Give me something. I'm probably more open to prog arguments because I come from policy debate but if someone runs a Kritik and you do a decent job on kritiks bad in LD theory against it I'll vote on that.

important: please do not read arguments pertaining to human trafficking/sexual violence in front of me. by that, i mean don't dehighlight the cards and replace sexual violence with gendered violence. i cannot hear these arguments. read an alternate.

add me to the email chain - 19sabrina.huang@gmail.com

i debated under cps hp. currently i coach/judge for american heritage broward. i don't think i'm super picky but heres some basic stuff:

you have to send a marked version of the speech doc if you did not get through your whole doc. you must delete the cards you did not read and visibly mark cards that you did not complete reading.

postrounding for clarification questions/feedback is fine. postrounding bc u think u won and ur tryna convince me u shoulda is not. just try to keep it short - i will cut you off at a certain point

william and i were really techy so that's the kind of debate i'm best at judging. but if both teams wanna have a lay round, that's fine too. i'll give feedback based off of how convincing you sound or sum

in general don't be a jerk, esp in cx/crossfire. it's fine to be witty, but if you're being rude your speaks will get tanked. my bar for being a jerk is pretty high tho. either way, cross isn't binding.

generally please dont yell that much, calm down it aint that deep ????

first and foremost, i prioritize the safety of debaters. that means: don't trigger people, use correct pronouns, etc.

that also means i wont evaluate any arguments rooted in bigotry. i will also not evaluate death good. be mature, and good people. also idt u can run pess if both of u arent black. i cannot believe i have to say this, but dont

to quote miguel harvey: "DO NOT PERPETUATE THE TOXIC, PRIVILEGED MALE PF ARCHETYPE. You know *exactly* what I’m talking about, or should. Call that stuff out, and your speaks will automatically go up. If you make the PF space unwelcoming to women or gender minorities, expect L25 and don’t expect me to feel bad about it." i don't think i can word it better.

send all cards before speeches so we reduce prep steal. i do not want evidence sharing to take up 16 minutes of a round (i have seen this happen irl) please spare me

i always presume neg on cx and almost always on pf - but if it's on balance res, i'll presume first bc first summary is hard

we can skip grand if both teams want to idrc about it tbh

if both teams want a lay round thats fine j lmk

on evidence:

i wont drop u if i notice an egregious evidence ethics violation myself but i will do smth if other team points it out/asks me to call for the card at the end of the rd. i will point it out and tank speaks if it is not against official rules usually (unless its rly bad, case by case basis) but if it is against NSDA rules i will auto drop

generally - i dont like para bc i have to comb through ALL ur ev. if you do not know what para means, ask.

i think bracketing can be a slippery slope - id rather u read something that sounds grammatically weird out loud than bracket, bc if you bracket a lot i have to check all ur ev for misconstruction and i dont want to do that.

if you notice clipping and u want to pursue it dont just read a shell - again, it's against nsda rules and needs to be evaluated per the handbook. just stop the round. it would be helpful if you have a recording of the clipping too.

speaks

20 = you did something racist/sexist etc and i'm gonna call tab

25 = minimum baseline for explicit, egregious evidence ethics violations or u were a big jerk

27-27.5 = you did smth horrible (debate wise)

27.6-27.9 = decent amount of stuff to work on

28-28.2 = you're getting there

28.3-28.5 = avg

28.6-28.9 = nice

29-29.3 = good. you might break to elims

29.4-29.7 = i think you should be top speaker

29.8-30 = ur better than me congrats

you start at a 25 if i notice ev that is explicitly against nsda rules - this is not just creative highlighting, this is stuff like added ellipses

+.3 for OS disclo

+.1 round reports

-0.5 for improperly cut cards (no context, no citation, no highlighting, etc)

-1 para or bracketing (-2 if u have both bc addition)

-1 if u have no cards and u j send me a link

also,

defense is not sticky

frontline everything in second rebuttal. do not be blippy and say "group responses 2-5 no warrant" and then move on. ACTUALLY WARRANT EVERYTHING OUT. if you are blippy, i will be very lenient towards the other teams responses.

analytics r cool if u have warrants.

i dont think theres an inherent problem with theory, but theres this trend where teams make hella responses and nobody collapses and it makes the round super messy so that makes me pissed like i dont think we have time to cover every single possible voting issue in 2 mins yk what i mean

anyways if it's frivolous i'll probably give u the stink eye. u can read friv if u reallyyyyy want but depending on how funny/boring it is ill get upset/be less upset. RVIs are silly, i prob won't vote on no RVIs. i don't think you should lose for trying to be fair.

call me interventionist but i think disclo is good and para is bad and i dont see myself voting on the opposite. sorry

i think ks are generally educational and i know how to judge them but i genuinely believe they don't belong in pf j bc the timings weird. if you read one, i won't immediately vote you down. either way aff gets to perm the k. also read an alt. and actual fw. do this well and u wont make me upset

CPs are fine on fiat resolutions (usfg should __) but idrk how this would work on an on balance res. but since these are technically not allowed per nsda rules i will also evaluate CP bad theory or whatever arg u can come up with

no tricks please i dont think i can evaluate them well and ill probs drop you bc idk how they work - run them in front of someone else

go as fast as u want as long as you enunciate. i will yell clear 3x before i stop flowing, dont make me do this

signpost. if you want to spread, you must slow down on tags/cites and then you may speed up on the body of the card. then, when you move onto another contention/card, let me know in some way. pause. say and. i dont care as long as u do smth

stop extending everything through ink, makes the debate really hard to eval and leads to intervention

no new weighing in 2ff. new 1ff weighing will make me upset but idt its the end of the world.

also, time yourselves. if u go too overtime in a speech/start new sentences i will straight up stop flowing

in general, i would rather have a slower round with more warrants than a faster paced round where everything is blippy and messy. make my job easy. do not make me sigh when i am making a decision bc i have to choose between a bunch of unwarranted weighing mechanisms extended through ink. most of you all are trying to be too techy because you think that gives you clout. in order to be techy, you need to know how to debate, otherwise a fast and unwarranted round just leaves me unimpressed, frustrated, and you will not get much out of the round. if u are techy and u do it well thats fine - there is most certainly a difference between a messy good tech round and a messy bad one.

he/him—yes, add me to the email chain jackrjacobs2004[at]gmail.com

Debated four years at Sonoma Academy under Lani Frazer and debated with Mateo Mijares—my views on debate are very similar to theirs.

Do what you want to do and what you feel comfortable with—I will try and adjudicate the debate the best I can. For background, freshman year I ran hard right arguments, sophomore year soft left, and junior and senior year I ran kritikal arguments on both aff and neg. if you want to see arguments I ran, check Sonoma JM wiki for 2021 or 2022. Do with that information what you will.

As far as general arguments go,

Case—I love a good case debate. if the 1NR on case is super good I will boost your speaks. negative, you need to destroy the aff.

CP—it is probably good to have a solvency advocate. 50 states is probably bad. condo is probably good. I can be persuaded otherwise. just make sure your CP solves a good amount of the aff. I love advantage counterplans that recut 1AC cards. Make sure the counterplan is competitive and makes sense. if there is a bunch of complicated lingo in it that you don't explain it is harder to vote for it.

DA—"throw em at me". just make sure the link is good and not generic (I hate this) and try to have new uq (if you don't, it shows). make sure you are good on the internal link level. if you read a politics da that with a topic generic link what are you doing. get specific link ev. 

T—aff, as long as you can provide a reasonable caselist and answer the right T violation you are probably good. I like t debates, but in more often than not they are throw aways. don't hide ASPEC in your shell I will not vote on hiding violations. neg, if you think you are winning T, go for it, but do a great job on explaining WHY it matters, not just "t means you vote neg". 

K—I have 2n'd a K and 2A'd a k aff. i am most comfortable with set col and cap and mildly with afropess, and ir. theory like baudrillard, cybernetics, etc go ahead but make sure you contextualize it. Make sure you have specific links, make sure you are not just block reading, and make sure your alt makes sense. refusal alts are not a bad thing. if you read a k make sure you know what it is actually saying, be prepared for cross.

K-affs—I am conflicted on these, I run them but I get the fw element. what I would say is make it tied to the resolution, but I am definitely not a "MUST READ PLAN" judge. Try to impact turn framework, have a good counterinterp, and make sure your aff tells a story. Negative, I don't really like fairness as an impact but I would vote on it if persuaded well enough. I like clash and education better. a TVA and SSD are good, a TVA with a solvency advocate is REALLY good. 

Theory—not the best judge for theory debates.

I think unique impact and case turns are interesting, have fun, be funny (but don't force it). be easygoing. don't be mean. any racist/homophobic/xenophobic arguments mean auto loss, you get a 0, and I will contact your coach.

NOTE: COPYING CARDS INTO A SEPARATE DOCUMENT TO SEND IS PREP. YOU ARE STEALING PREP TO CUT ANALYTICS

spreading is good, being unclear is not. clarity >>> speed. any arguments I don't get because you are unclear I will not evaluate it, and if you post round me I will point to this point in my paradigm. 

speaks boosters:

-confidence

-you make me laugh

-being on time/not stealing prep (it is obvious, we can all tell)

Add me to the email chain: maddy.jannes@sonomaacademy.org

Pronouns: She/Her

Email subject should have the the tournament name and the round

TLDR: I’m down to listen to whatever, just make sure you explain your arguments. Tech > Truth

About Me: I am a senior policy debater at Sonoma Academy and have debated for 3 years under Lani Frazer. I was a 2N my first year then switched to a 2A. My partner and I are a pretty flex team reading anything from 1 off K to 7 off policy, and we also read both kritical and policy affs. You don’t need to say judge, you can call me Maddy.

GGSA NOTE: If one team advocates wanting to do a lay round, we will have a lay round. If both teams ask for a circuit round, we can do that too.

General: This is your debate, I am down to watch whatever so long as you explain it. I am not going to do the work for you, make sure you are explaining your warrants and ideas, don’t just throw around buzzwords.

If you make racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, classist, ableist etc. comments, I will nuke your speaks and contact your coach.

Speed: I’m fine with speed, but don’t sacrifice clarity; I will say clear twice. If we are online go at about 85% speed.

Theory: I’m happy to listen to a theory debate, but make sure you actually debate it, don't just have the debate turn into “yes, no, yes, no, yes, no”. In order for me to vote on theory you have to prove in round abuse and impact out your arguments.

Run T, Theory, K’s, DA’s, CPs, FW -- I don’t care as long as you provide warrants and good analysis of your arguments. Good evidence is only good if you explain why it is.

K affs and FW: I think K affs should be in the direction of the topic, but I am happy to listen to any K aff. The further away from the topic, the more likely I will vote on FW. FW has to be in context of the aff, generic FW blocks don’t mean anything if you don’t explain them in relation to affirmative.

Have fun! Feel free to contact me before the round as well.

danielkatari1@gmail.com

I debated at College Prep for four years. I've been a 2n all four years, going for fairly techy arguments (T, dubious politics disads, abusive counterplans, impact turns). Ian Beier taught me how to debate, so I probably think about debate pretty similarly to him.

First, I believe the debate is a game about framing the ballot. Whichever final rebuttal has a more persuasive explanation for why they win the round will get my ballot. Whatever arguments you're winning, explain not just why they matter, but why they matter more than your opponent's.

Second, do your thing. While there are some strategies I am more familiar with, I will try my best not to come in with preconceived notions about the arguments presented.

Third, in college, I stopped doing Policy and started doing APDA, a format with a lot more emphasis on warrant comparison. This probably means I value in-depth warrant comparison more than I used to.

Lastly, it's worth noting that I have basically no topic knowledge.

Some specifics:

T

- I went for it all the time. Do impact calc and do it as early as possible. Why should I prioritize over limiting vs ground vs whatever other impacts are in the debate?

- I am more familiar with what the world of competing interpretations looks like than the world of reasonability. If you're going for reasonability, I need to know how I should evaluate if the affirmative is reasonable.

- I'm fine with bad interps so long as you can defend them. I have won rounds on T-substantial against the biggest aff on the arms sale topic and similarly absurd violations.

DA's

- Not much to say here. Do impact calc and do it early.

- You should probably read a complete disad in the 1nc.

- Absent a technical concession (or winning link offense), there is probably a risk of a disad. Even then, I doubt the conceded evidence says 0% risk. If this is your strategy, convince me why rounding down to zero is theoretically good.

CP's

- Having cheated in all the ways possible, I probably lean aff more than most in CP theory debates. I think that on a truth level, 50 state uniform fiat is bad.

- That being said, negative, just cheat and then win the theory debate on a technical level. You have time in the block.

- I have literally never been in a debate where judge kick was relevant. If you think it will be let me know.

K's

- I am not familiar with the lit base or strategies that K teams go for, beyond having given the 1ar to a lot of them.

- I think debate is a game. This probably implicates the way I think about framework debates. Fairness and resolutional predictability both seem like reasonable impacts to me, although people are bad at articulating why that outweighs the K.

- On the affirmative, I am most persuaded by defenses of the assumptions in the 1ac. Against an IR K, be prepared to defend your model of IR. If your aff is capitalist, defend capitalism. Even when you're going for the permutation, you need an offensive reason why the inclusion of some part of the affirmative is good.

- I have also only read policy affirmatives. If the thing I am judging is not going to be a debate about the truth of the resolution, I should know how I should decide which side gets the ballot.

Theory

- I spend a lot of time thinking and talking about debate theory. If the theory debate is good, I will like it.

- Don't just read blocks and then make the debate entirely new in the final rebuttals. Extend your arguments like it's any other debate.

- Do impact calc as soon as possible. A lot of theory debates are super late-breaking.

- Slow down. If I cannot flow the theory block, you are facing an uphill battle extending it.

Case

- Everything I said about DA's applies here. Do impact calc, there's probably a 1% risk etc.

- Most affs I have seen on this topic are not good. The evidence does not say the things that people want it to say and the advantages are kind of nonsensical. Point this out and the DA probably outweighs.

- Impact turns! Do them all. Impact turn everything. Democracy bad. Warming good. PFA's good. I'm here for it.

add me to the chain - stephenlewisdebate@gmail.com

damien '23, msu '27

whether new arguments are allowed in the last rebuttals is for the debaters to point out and decide. unless its the 2AR. then you get no new arguments.

tag team cx is fine for answering but not for asking - more geared towards novices, if you're varsity do what you want (if you are constantly talking over your partner/opponent and being rude your speaks will suffer dramatically.) be aware that the less able you are to ask/answer cx questions will impact my ability to give you speaker points.

tech > truth

generally feel comfortable evaluating and keeping up with any style of debate whether it be a KvK debate or a very detailed and probably monotonous counterplan competition debate. obviously i have argumentative preferences, but i would never insert those into a debate i was judging and would consider myself incredibly flow centric which means if you think there is an argument that you think will win you the debate, you should ensure i have it on my flow by balancing clarity with speed.

i don't really feel the need to give some long explanation about how I feel about every little thing in debate, simply because I feel debates should purely be judged and decided by what was communicated to me. chances are i understand what's going on, and if you have sufficiently explained why you should win in the context of most debate arguments, you will win. so, if you're trying to pref me and decide not to because I didn't give you a paragraph explanation about whether or not i think fairness is an impact, sorry I guess.

LD addendum

not familiar with anything in LD that doesn't resemble policy debate. this includes tricks, phil, or whatever. i'll evaluate anything, but the likelihood i give a decision that makes sense starts to severely decline the farther away you go from traditional policy/k debate.

don't be annoying. that includes being overly aggressive/rude (there's a pretty clear bright line between being assertive/confident and being annoying), racist, sexist, or what have you. in the event that something of this nature occurs, i will nuke your speaks or intervene with tab if i feel it's necessary.

above all else, have fun. making me laugh will help your speaks.

+0.1 points if you make fun of omar darwish in an actually funny way

feel free to post round

Affiliations and History:
Please email (damiendebate47@gmail.com and tjlewis1919@gmail.com) me all of the speeches before you begin.
I am the Director of Debate at Damien High School in La Verne, CA.
I was the Director of Debate for Hebron High School in Carrollton, TX from 2020-2021.
I was an Assistant Coach at Damien from 2017-2020.
I debated on the national circuit for Damien from 2009-2013.
I graduated from Occidental College in Los Angeles with a BA in Critical Theory and Social Justice.
I completed my Master's degree in Social Justice in Higher Education Administration at The University of La Verne.
My academic work involves critical university studies, Georges Bataille, poetics, and post-colonialism.
Author of Suburba(in)e Surrealism (2021).

Yearly Round Numbers:
I try to judge a fair bit each year.
Fiscal Redistribution Round Count: About 40 rounds
I judged 75 rounds or more on the NATO Topic.
I judged over 50 rounds on the Water Topic.
I judged around 40 rounds on the CJR topic.
I judged 30 rounds on the Arms topic (2019-2020)
I judged a bit of LD (32 debates) on the Jan-Feb Topic (nuke disarm) in '19/'20.
I judged around 25 debates on the Immigration topic (2018-2019) on the national circuit.
I judged around 50 rounds on the Education topic (2017-2018) on the national circuit.
LD Protocol:I have a 100% record voting against teams that only read Phil args/Phil v. Policy debates. Adapt or lose.
NDT Protocol: I will rarely have any familiarity with the current college topic and will usually only judge 12-15 rounds pre-NDT.
Please make your T and CP acronyms understandable.

Front Matter Elements:
If you need an accommodation of any kind, please email me before the round starts.
I want everyone to feel safe and able to debate- this is my number one priority as a judge.
I don't run prep time while you email the speech doc. Put the whole speech into one speech doc.
I flow 1AC impact framing, inherency, and solvency straight down on the same page nowadays.
Speed is not an issue for me, but I will ask you to slow down (CLEAR) if you are needlessly sacrificing clarity for quantity--especially if you are reading T or theory arguments.

I will not evaluate evidence identifiable as being produced by software, bots, algorithms etc. Human involvement in the card’s production must be evident unique to the team, individual, and card. This means that evidence you directly take from open source must be re-highlighted at a minimum. You should change the tags and underlining anyways to better fit with your argument’s coherency.

Decision-making:
I privilege technical debating and the flow. I try to get as much down as I possibly can and the little that I miss usually is a result of a lack of clarity on the part of the speaker or because the actual causal chain of the idea does not make consistent sense for me (I usually express this on my face). Your technical skill should make me believe/be able to determine that your argument is the truth. That means warrants. Explain them, impact them, and don't make me fish for them in the un-underlined portion of the six paragraph card that your coach cut for you at a camp you weren't attending. I find myself more and more dissatisfied with debating that operates only on the link claim level. I tend to take a formal, academic approach to the evaluation of ideas, so discussions of source, author intentions and 'true' meaning, and citation are both important to me and something that I hope to see in more debates.

The best debates for me to judge are ones where the last few rebuttals focus on giving me instructions on what the core controversies of the round are, how to evaluate them, and what mode of thinking I should apply to the flow as a history of the round. This means that I'm not going to do things unless you tell me to do them on the flow (judge kick, theory 'traps' etc.). When instructions are not provided or articulated, I will tend to use (what I consider to be) basic, causal logic (i.e. judicial notice) to find connections, contradictions, and gaps/absences. Sometimes this happens on my face--you should be paying attention to the physical impact of the content of your speech act.

I believe in the importance of topicality and theory. No affs are topical until proven otherwise.
Non-impacted theory arguments don't go a long way for me; establish a warranted theory argument that when dropped will make me auto-vote for you. This is not an invitation for arbitrary and non-educational theory arguments being read in front of me, but if you are going to read no neg fiat (for example), then you better understand (and be able to explain to me) the history of the argument and why it is important for the debate and the community.

Reading evidence only happens if you do not make the debate legible and winnable at the level of argument (which is the only reason I would have to defer to evidentiary details).

I find framework to be a boring/unhelpful/poorly debated style of argument on both sides. I want to hear about the ballot-- what is it, what is its role, and what are your warrants for it (especially why your warrants matter!). I want to know what kind of individual you think the judge is (academic, analyst, intellectual etc.). I want to hear about the debate community and the round's relationship within it. These are the most salient questions in a framework debate for me. If you are conducting a performance in the round and/or debate space, you need to have specific, solvable, and demonstrable actions, results, and evidences of success. These are the questions we have to be thinking about in substantial and concrete terms if we are really thinking about them with any authenticity/honesty/care (sorge). I do not think the act of reading FW is necessarily constitutive of a violent act. You can try to convince me of this, but I do start from the position that FW is an argument about what the affirmative should do in the 1AC.

If you are going to go for Fairness, then you need a metric. Not just a caselist, not just a hypothetical ground dispensation, but a functional method to measure the idea of fairness in the round/outside the round i.e. why are the internal components (ground, caselist, etc.) a good representation of a team's burden and what do these components do for individuals/why does that matter. I am not sure what that metric/method is, but my job is not to create it for you. A framework debate that talks about competing theories for how fairness/education should be structured and analyzed will make me very happy i.e. engaging the warrants that constitute ideas of procedural/structural fairness and critical education. Subject formation has really come into vogue as a key element for teams and honestly rare is the debate where people engage the questions meaningfully--keep that in mind if you go for subject formation args in front of me.

In-round Performance and Speaker Points:
An easy way to get better speaker points in front of me is by showing me that you actually understand how the debate is going, the arguments involved, and the path to victory. Every debater has their own style of doing this (humor, time allocation, etc.), but I will not compromise detailed, content-based analysis for the ballot.

I believe that there is a case for in-round violence/damage winning the ballot. Folks need to be considerate of their behavior and language. You should be doing this all of the time anyways.

While I believe that high school students should not be held to a standard of intellectual purity with critical literature, I do expect you to know the body of scholarship that your K revolves around: For example, if you are reading a capitalism K, you should know who Marx, Engels, and Gramsci are; if you are reading a feminism k, you should know what school of feminism (second wave, psychoanalytic, WOC, etc.) your author belongs to. If you try and make things up about the historical aspects/philosophical links of your K, I will reflect my unhappiness in your speaker points and probably not give you much leeway on your link/alt analysis. I will often have a more in-depth discussion with you about the K after the round, so please understand that my post-round comments are designed to be educational and informative, instead of determining your quality/capability as a debater.

I am 100% DONE with teams not showing up on time to disclose. A handful of minutes or so late is different than showing up 3-5 min before the round begins. Punish these folks with disclosure theory and my ears will be open.

CX ends when the timer rings. I will put my fingers in my ears if you do not understand this. I deeply dislike the trend of debaters asking questions about 'did you read X card etc.' in cross-x and I believe this contributes to the decline of flowing skills in debate. While I have not established a metric for how many speaker points an individual will lose each time they say that phrase, know that it is something on my mind. I will not allow questions outside of cross-x outside of core procedural things ('can you give the order again?,' 'everyone ready?' etc.). Asking 'did you read X card' or 'theoretical reasons to reject the team' outside of CX are NOT 'core procedural things.'

Do not read these types of arguments in front of me:
Arguments that directly call an individual's humanity into account
Arguments based in directly insulting your opponents
Arguments that you do not understand

Please add me to the email chain: shiandrew2004@gmail.com

I'm a second-year at the University of Chicago currently debating on the parliamentary debate team. I debated 3 years of high school policy for College Prep under Ian Beier both as a 1A and 2A, having gone exclusively for policy plans on the aff and a wide array of arguments on the neg. I can be convinced of anything with a claim, warrant, and impact. I believe my APDA experience has implicitly skewed my analysis of debate to be more warrant-heavy. Make of this information what you will.

- Tech > Truth. ("Truth" exists only in-so-far as the technical warrants presented in the debate)

- Dropped arguments are true arguments

- I try my best to have no preconceived notions of truth

Keep track of your own time.

Debate can be frustrating, but please don't be irrationally mean.

Below are my personal opinions, and is the framework I will use unless either team establishes their own:

Evaluating Clash

I think that in most cases the purpose of evidence should be 1. to establish truth claims for the round or 2. to read warrants at high density through spreading, in support of a contested truth claim. If a piece of evidence is uncontested, it falls under the first, and once contested, it becomes the second.

When resolving clash in close arguments, I prefer judge instructions that describe the interactions between competing pieces evidence and warrants. Thus, evidence that just says "X will happen" will always lose to one that provides a reason for their truth claim. Absent technical concessions, warrantless evidence is close to meaningless to me. Moreover, every piece of weighing must be impacted to reasons why your truth claim is preferable. "Their ev isn't specific to our aff" is insufficient absent a line about why that specificity matters. "Our ev is more recent" is insufficient absent analysis of why that recency matters. etc. If you don't give me a way to reconcile two competing claims, I will read evidence to make my own judgment.

K

O/V: I find that I end up resolving the K debate through two paths to victory for the negative. Winning framework and the risk of a link or the link and the alternative.

On the first path to victory, when going for framework I'm looking for not only a reason why the K's education is valuable but also a warrant for how that should frame the ballot, presumably turning fairness in the process. In most cases winning framework implies I understand the 1AC as a piece of research. At this point, the affirmative either defends the 1AC's theory of understanding or engaged in the link turn debate. This implies that the negative should have some mechanism for resolving the offense of the 1AC. I will only give the negative epistemology links to the extent by which they are winning a criticism to that specific epistemology, in that critiques of one theory of power morph into another must provide carded evidence or warrant analysis to generate new links to the aff.

Absent a coherent or meaningful resolution to framework I default to competing political imaginaries, evaluating Ks similar to a counterplan DA debate. This means there's a high threshold for a specific link contexualized to the aff. I'm relatively persuaded by offense against implementations of the alternative and neg epistemology fiat probably justifies epistemology perms. Thus, I am probably more willing to give the aff the perm double bind than most judges. Links of omission are non-uq DAs (unless that UQ is created through the alt), and it becomes the burden of the neg to prove that the world of the aff/perm is net worse than the status quo or whatever implementation of the alt survives into the 2NR.

T

Fairness is probably an external impact, but I will not vote on the word alone. It is useful to warrant out why in order to generate tangible clash with other standards, this probably looks like a defense of the integrity of debate as an activity, especially in a K vs T-USFG debate.

I'm more familiar with competing interpretations with links (limits, grounds, etc.) that translate to impacts (fairness, education), but am happy to hear reasonability debates. When going for reasonability, please articulate why the counter-interp is reasonable and establish a brightline.

Case

I think case debate is underutilized. If an internal link sounds suspicious it probably is and do point this out in the evidence. I can be persuaded of 0% risk of the aff.

Do impact calc, magnitude, timeframe, probabilty etc. early and contexulize it to the specific defense/impact scenario of the specific round.

CP

A counterplan isn't cheating until the aff identifies why. Some counterplans are easier to defend than others, but negs should be able to say whatever they want and the aff has theory to keep them honest.

I will not vote on just the words "permutation do X" alone unless they are mechanized before the 2AR.

I evaluate counterplans and net benefits together, so I'm relatively persuaded by sufficiency framing when evaluating CP solvency.

Any extrapolations of the counterplan's mechanism should be based in the counterplan text and the solvency advocate. New articulations of mechanism justify new aff arguments (theory in particular) and make me more sympathetic to 2AR extrapolations.

DA

Similar to my opinions on case debate, have a coherent link story, the more specific the better, do impact calc, in specific instances I will assign 0% risk of an impact.

My email is qldebate@gmail.com

If you are debating online please turn your camera on, it's respectful and ensures you are not stealing prep. If you have valid reason to not have it on you're good.

My Background - My argumentative history mostly consists of kritiks and planless affs, but I dabble in policy affs and am capable of evaluating debates on both sides. I have the most experience in cap ks (Marx), set-col, security, and some queer theory. I have some understanding of anti-blackness and post-modernist Ks. Anything else I'll probably be able hold my own.

Evaluating Debates - First and foremost if I find your speech/evidence blatantly problematic, violent, or otherwise harmful to marginalized individuals I will either stop the debate or vote you down and doc your speaks. There aren't any arguments that I have an extreme bias for/against.

Stuff You Might Want to Know - These aren't indications of my inability as a judge, just my biases that should be accounted for.

MISC.

Impact calculus is a must even in K debates, and impact framing is probably important in policy debates, I find it harder to evaluate debates without these things and easier to vote for you with it.

I will rarely evaluate new 2ar arguments even if the neg doesn't say I shouldn't.

Just because you said it doesn't mean I flowed it. Don't spread your blocks at full speed and expect me to effectively evaluate them. Be clear and signpost.

I think overviews are good on the case flow (excluding the 1AR)

Starting your speech by screaming something along the lines of "THEY MASSIVELY MISHANDLED THIS" needs to stop. They probably didn't drop what you say they did and just stop screaming. To me, stuff like this just undermines your credibility as a debater.

FW

When it comes to framework (T-USfg), I equitably evaluate the arguments presented to me to the best of my ability, TLDR I can be persuaded either way. The only exception is that I do not think fairness is an independent impact and it would be difficult to convince me otherwise. I like K affs that rely more on their counter interpretation than the aff itself for FW offense solvency because after all FW debates are about competing models of the activity.

K

I will judge kick an alt

PIKs are fine but I will hold you to a higher standard of explanation.

CPs

I have comparatively less experience with counter-plans.

Uniform fiat, multi-actor fiat, and international fiat are probably bad for debate but ultimately I think literature determines what fiat the neg should get.

DAs

The Politics DA is usually bad but since it's pretty much the only topic DA on the water topic I will cut the neg some slack.

T

Love a good T debate. Fairness is probably the best impact. I don't think ground is a strong internal link to any impact. I will vote on reasonability. I like teams that have a good explanation of what debate materially changes/looks like under their interp.

Theory

I will vote aff condo. A clear extended interp on condo is ideal throughout the debate. 1 condo is cool 2 is fine 3 is borderline 4 is just messed up.

Determining Speaks - I allocate points based on my understanding of your skill combined with your performance in the round. I will not give you a good score if you are rude or dismissive to your opponents, even if you are the best debater in the country. I believe there's a way to effectively garner ethos in cx without being a nuisance. This is especially true if you are a man and your opponent is a woman.

Debated for UWG ’15 – ’17; Coaching: Notre Dame – ’19 – Present; Baylor – ’17 – ’19

email: joshuamichael59@gmail.com

Online Annoyance

"Can I get a marked doc?" / "Can you list the cards you didn't read?" when one card was marked or just because some cards were skipped on case. Flow or take CX time for it.

Policy

I prefer K v K rounds, but I generally wind up in FW rounds.

K aff’s – 1) Generally have a high threshold for 1ar/2ar consistency. 2) Stop trying to solve stuff you could reasonably never affect. Often, teams want the entirety of X structure’s violence weighed yet resolve only a minimal portion of that violence. 3) v K’s, you are rarely always already a criticism of that same thing. Your articulation of the perm/link defense needs to demonstrate true interaction between literature bases. 4) Stop running from stuff. If you didn’t read the line/word in question, okay. But indicts of the author should be answered with more than “not our Baudrillard.”

K’s – 1) rarely win without substantial case debate. 2) ROJ arguments are generally underutilized. 3) I’m generally persuaded by aff answers that demonstrate certain people shouldn’t read certain lit bases, if warranted by that literature. 4) I have a higher threshold for generic “debate is bad, vote neg.” If debate is bad, how do you change those aspects of debate? 5) 2nr needs to make consistent choices re: FW + Link/Alt combinations. Find myself voting aff frequently, because the 2nr goes for two different strats/too much.

Special Note for Settler Colonialism: I simultaneously love these rounds and experience a lot of frustration when judging this argument. Often, debaters haven’t actually read the full text from which they are cutting cards and lack most of the historical knowledge to responsibly go for this argument. List of annoyances: there are 6 settler moves to innocence – you should know the differences/specifics rather than just reading pages 1-3 of Decol not a Metaphor; la paperson’s A Third University is Possible does not say “State reform good”; Reading “give back land” as an alt and then not defending against the impact turn is just lazy. Additionally, claiming “we don’t have to specify how this happens,” is only a viable answer for Indigenous debaters (the literature makes this fairly clear); Making a land acknowledgement in the first 5 seconds of the speech and then never mentioning it again is essentially worthless; Ethic of Incommensurability is not an alt, it’s an ideological frame for future alternative work (fight me JKS).

FW

General: 1) Fairness is either an impact or an internal link 2) the TVA doesn’t have to solve the entirety of the aff. 3) Your Interp + our aff is just bad.

Aff v FW: 1) can win with just impact turns, though the threshold is higher than when winning a CI with viable NB’s. 2) More persuaded by defenses of education/advocacy skills/movement building. 3) Less random DA’s that are basically the same, and more internal links to fully developed DA’s. Most of the time your DA’s to the TVA are the same offense you’ve already read elsewhere.

Reading FW: 1) Respect teams that demonstrate why state engagement is better in terms of movement building. 2) “If we can’t test the aff, presume it’s false” – no 3) Have to answer case at some point (more than the 10 seconds after the timer has already gone off) 4) You almost never have time to fully develop the sabotage tva (UGA RS deserves more respect than that). 5) Impact turns to the CI are generally underutilized. You’ll almost always win the internal link to limits, so spending all your time here is a waste. 6) Should defend the TVA in 1nc cx if asked. You don’t have a right to hide it until the block.

Theory - 1) I generally lean neg on questions of Conditionality/Random CP theory. 2) No one ever explains why dispo solves their interp. 3) Won’t judge kick unless instructed to.

T – 1) I’m not your best judge. 2) Seems like no matter how much debating is done over CI v Reasonability, I still have to evaluate most of the offense based on CI’s.

DA/CP – 1) Prefer smart indicts of evidence as opposed to walls of cards (especially on ptx/agenda da's). Neg teams get away with murder re: "dropped ev" that says very little/creatively highlighted. 2) I'm probably more lenient with aff responses (solvency deficits/aff solves impact/intrinsic perm) to Process Cp's/Internal NB's that don't have solvency ev/any relation to aff.

Case - I miss in depth case debates. Re-highlightings don't have to be read. The worse your re-highlighting the lower the threshold for aff to ignore it.

LD

All of my thoughts on policy apply, except for theory. More than 2 condo (or CP’s with different plank combinations) is probably abusive, but I can be convinced otherwise on a technical level.

Not voting on an RVI. I don’t care if it’s dropped.

Most LD theory is terrible Ex: Have to spec a ROB or I don’t know what I can read in the 1nc --- dumb argument.

Phil or Tricks (sp?) debating – I’m not your judge.

—College debater & policy debate captain @ Davis

—NDT Qualifier 2024

—Former Assistant Coach @ Sonoma Academy, graduated '22.

—Add me to the email chain: mateodebates@gmail.com

Background:

Did 4 years of debate at Sonoma, mostly went for Ks, qualled to TOC, coached for a year and coached mostly policy stuff, now lead UC Davis policy team.

General:

—Do whatever you're good at; I enjoy and am willing to judge nearly any type of round. I will likely vote for the team who is best able to isolate the central question of the round and explain why the arguments in the round mean they’ve won.

K + FW stuff:

—I have gone for the K in most of my debates. Specific Ks are always best, but read whatever you want.

—Link specificity is important, and will often win you the debate. My favorite K strategies are highly organized, structured, and specific.

—You can read K Affs in front of me. I ran K Affs throughout high school and now in college and wrote several dozen of them. Do whatever you want.

—I believe debate is a game with unique pedagogical values.

—Procedural fairness can be convincing to me if explained well with terminal impact calculus in the 2NR; however, I am more likely to vote on a model with limits and clash as the impacts

Hello! I'm currently a senior at the Barstow School and just completed my debate career of six years.

Please add me on the email chain: avisha.pandey@barstowschool.org

Affs:

Plan or no plan, I must understand how you solve your impacts. Other than that, you do you.

Theory:

I'll vote on it, but high threshold for explanation – more likely if there's in-round abuse or well-explained potential abuse.

Ts:

T debates bore me a bit unless there's a good violation and clash from both sides.

DAs:

Go for it, but make sure to explain the story and links.

CPs:

Articulate a net benny and method of solvency.

Ks:

This past year, I read a whole bunch of set-col, but chill with cap, security, afropess, and anthro ks. Feel free to go for anything else, but focus on link explanation, why I should prefer your framework, and (if you're going for an alt) how the alt resolves the aff's impacts.

Other thoughts:

Spread as much as you'd like, but be clear when switching between cards.

Judge instruction is beneficial in the 2NR/2AR

Quality > quantity

Face me while speaking and during cx.

Warrant your ev, don't just say the author tag and expect me to follow the argument.

Keep a good attitude, be confident, and have fun!

Updated for Economic Inequality Topic

Overview

E-Mail Chain: Yes, add me (chris.paredes@gmail.com) & my school mail (damiendebate47@gmail.com). I do not distribute docs to third party requests unless a team has failed to update their wiki.

Experience: Damien 05, Amherst College 09, Emory Law 13L. This will be my seventh year as the Assistant Director at Damien (part-time), and my second year as Director at St. Lucy's Priory (full-time). I consider myself fluent in debate, but my debate preferences (both ideology and mechanics) are influenced by debating in the 00s.

This Year's Topic: I believe that the point of the resolution is to force debaters to learn about a different topic each year. So I think that debaters who develop good topic knowledge -- i.e., debaters who understand economics as a complex field of academic study and can analyze how different policies would affect the economy at different levels -- will have a massive advantage on internal link debating and are better equipped to win my ballot.

Debate: I am open to voting for almost any argument or style so long as I have an idea of how it functions within the round and it is appropriately impacted. Debate is a game. Rules of the game (the length of speeches, the order of the speeches, which side the teams are on, clipping, etc.) are set by the tournament and left to me (and other judges) to enforce. Comparatively, standards of the game (condo, competition, limits of fiat) are determined in round by the debaters. Framework is a debate about whether the resolution should be a rule and/or what that rule looks like. Persuading me to favor your view/interpretation of debate is accomplished by convincing me that it is the method that promotes better debate, either more fair or more pedagogically valuable, compared to your opponent's. My ballot always is awarded to whoever debated better; I will not adjudicate a round based on any issues external to the round, whether that was at camp or a previous round.

I run a planess aff; should I strike you?: As a matter of truth I am predisposed to the neg, but I try to leave bias at the door. I do end up voting aff about half the time. I will hold a planless aff to the same standard as a K alt; I absolutely must have an idea of what the aff (and my ballot) does and how/why that solves for an impact. If you do not explain this to me, I will "hack" out on presumption. Performances (music, poetry, narratives) are non-factors until you contextualize and justify why they are solvency mechanisms for the aff in the debate space.

Evidence and Argumentative Weight: Tech over truth, but it is easier to debate well when using true arguments and better cards. In-speech analysis goes a long way with me; I am much more likely to side with a team that develops and compares warrants vs. a team that extends by tagline/author only. I will read cards as necessary, including explicit prompting, however I read critically. Cards are meaningless without highlighted warrants; you are better off fewer painted cards than multiple under-highlighted cards. Well-explained logical analytics, especially if developed in CX, can beat bad/under-highlighted cards.

Debate Ideologies: I think that judges should reward good debating over ideology, so almost all of my personal preferences can be overcome if you debate better than your opponents. You can limit the chance that I intervene by 1) providing clear judge instruction and 2) justifications for those judge instructions; the 2NR and 2AR are competing pitches trying to sell me a ballot.

Accommodations: Please email me ahead of time if you believe you will need an accommodation that cannot be facilitated in round so that I can work with tab on your issue. Any accommodation that has any potential competitive implications (limiting content or speed, etc.) should be requested either with me CC'd or in my presence so that tournament ombuds mediation can be requested if necessary.

Argument by argument breakdown below.

Topicality

Debating T well is a question of engaging in responsive impact debate. You win my ballot when you are the team that proves their interpretation is best for debate -- usually by proving that you have the best internal links (ground, predictability, legal precision, research burden, etc.) to a terminal impact (fairness and/or education). I love judging a good T round and I will reward teams with the ballot and with good speaker points for well thought-out interpretations (or counter-interps) with nuanced defenses. I would much rather hear a well-articulated 2NR on why I need to enforce a limited vision of the topic than a K with state/omission links or a Frankenstein process CP that results in the aff.

I default to competing interpretations, but reasonability can be compelling to me if properly contextualized. I am more receptive when affs can articulate why their specific counter-interp is reasonable (e.g., "The aff interp only imposes a reasonable additional research burden of two more cases") versus vague generalities ("Good is good enough").

I believe that many resolutions (especially domestic topics) are sufficiently aff-biased or poorly worded that preserving topicality as a viable generic negative strategy is important. I have no problem voting for the neg if I believe that they have done the better debating, even if I think that the aff is/should be topical in a truth sense. I am also a judge who will actually vote on T-Substantial (substantial as in size, not subsets) because I think there should be a mechanism to check small affs.

Fx/Xtra Topicality: I will vote on them independently if they are impacted as independent voters. However, I believe they are internal links to the original violation and standards (i.e. you don't meet if you only meet effectually). The neg is best off introducing Fx/Xtra early with me in the back; I give the 1ARs more leeway to answer new Fx/Xtra extrapolations than I will give the 2AC for undercovering Fx/Xtra.

Framework / T-USFG

For an aff to win framework they must articulate and defend specific reasons why they cannot and do not embed their advocacy into a topical policy as well as reasons why resolutional debate is a bad model. Procedural fairness starts as an impact by default and the aff must prove why it should not be. I can and will vote on education outweighs fairness, or that substantive fairness outweighs procedural fairness, but the aff must win these arguments. The TVA is an education argument and not a fairness argument; affs are not entitled to the best version of the case (policy affs do not get extra-topical solvency mechanisms), so I don't care if the TVA is worse than the planless version from a competitive standpoint.

For the neg, you have the burden of proving either that fairness outweighs the aff's education or that policy-centric debate has better access to education (or a better type of education). I am neutral regarding which impact to go for -- I firmly believe the negative is on the truth side on both -- it will be your execution of these arguments that decides the round. Contextualization and specificity are your friends. If you go with fairness, you should not only articulate specific ground loss in the round, but why neg ground loss under the aff's model is inevitable and uniquely worse. When going for education, deploy arguments for why plan-based debate is a better internal link to positive real world change: debate provides valuable portable skills, debate is training for advocacy outside of debate, etc. Empirical examples of how reform ameliorates harm for the most vulnerable, or how policy-focused debate scales up better than planless debate, are extremely persuasive in front of me.

Procedurals/Theory

I think that debate's largest educational impact is training students in real world advocacy, therefore I believe that the best iteration of debate is one that teaches people in the room something about the topic, including minutiae about process. I have MUCH less aversion to voting on procedurals and theory than most judges. I think the aff has a burden as advocates to defend a specific and coherent implementation strategy of their case and the negative is entitled to test that implementation strategy. I will absolutely pull the trigger on vagueness, plan flaws, or spec arguments as long as there is a coherent story about why the aff is bad for debate and a good answer to why cross doesn't check. Conversely, I will hold negatives to equally high standards to defend why their counterplans make sense and why they should be considered competitive with the aff.

That said, you should treat theory like topicality; there is a bare amount of time and development necessary to make it a viable choice in your last speech. Outside of cold concessions, you are probably not going to persuade me to vote for you absent actual line-by-line refutation that includes a coherent abuse story which would be solved by your interpretation.

Also, if you go for theory... SLOW. DOWN. You have to account for pen/keyboard time; you cannot spread a block of analytics at me like they were a card and expect me to catch everything. I will be very unapologetic in saying I didn't catch parts of the theory debate on my flow because you were spreading too fast.

My defaults that CAN be changed by better debating:

- Condo is good (but should have limitations, esp. to check perf cons and skew).

- PICs, Actor, and Process CPs are all legitimate if they prove competition; a specific solvency advocate proves competitiveness but the lack of specific solvency evidence indicates high risk of a solvency deficit and/or no competition.

- The aff gets normal means or whatever they specify; they are not entitled to all theoretical implementations of the plan (i.e. perm do the CP) due to the lack of specificity.

- The neg is not entitled to intrinsic processes that result in the aff (i.e. ConCon, NGA, League of Democracies).

- Consult CPs and Floating PIKs are bad.

My defaults that are UNLIKELY to change or CANNOT be changed:

- CX is binding.

- Lit checks/justifies (debate is primarily a research and strategic activity).

- OSPEC is never a voter (except fiating something contradictory to ev or a contradiction between different authors).

- "Cheating" is reciprocal (utopian alts justify utopian perms, intrinsic CPs justify intrinsic perms, and so forth).

- Real instances of abuse justify rejecting the team and not just the arg.

- Teams should disclose previously run arguments; breaking new doesn't require disclosure.

- Real world impacts exist (i.e. setting precedents/norms), but specific instances of behavior outside the room/round that are not verifiable are not relevant in this round.

- Condo is not the same thing as severance of the discourse/rhetoric. You can win severance of your reps, but it is not a default entitlement from condo.

- ASPEC is checked by cross. The neg should ask and if the aff answers and doesn't spike, I will not vote on ASPEC. If the aff does not answer, the neg can win by proving abuse. Potential ground loss is abuse.

Kritiks

TL;DR: I would much rather hear a good K than a bad politics disad, so if you have a coherent and contextualized argument for why critical academic scholarship is relevant to the aff, I am fine for you. If you run Ks to avoid doing specific case research and brute force ballots with links of omission or reusing generic criticisms about the state/fiat, I am a bad judge for you. If I'm in the back for a planless aff vs. a K, reconsider your prefs/strategy.

A kritik must be presented as a comprehensible argument in round. To me, that means that a K must not only explain the scholarship and its relevance (links and impacts), but it must function as a coherent call for the ballot (through the alt). A link alone is insufficient without a reason to reject the aff and/or prefer the alt. I do not have any biases or predispositions about what my ballot does or should do, but if you cannot explain your alt and/or how my ballot interacts with the alt then I will have an extremely low threshold for treating the K as a non-unique disad. Alts like "Reject the aff" and "Vote neg" are fine so long as there is a coherent explanation for why I should do that beyond the mere fact the aff links (for example, if the K turns case). If the alt solves back for the implications of the K, whether it is a material alt or a debate space alt, the solvency process should be explained and contrasted with the plan/perm. Links of omission are very uncompelling. Links are not disads to the perm unless you have a (re-)contextualization to why the link implicates perm solvency. Ks can solve the aff, but the mechanism shouldn't be that the world of the alt results in the plan (i.e. floating PIK).

Affs should not be afraid of going for straight impact turns behind a robust framework press to evaluate the aff. I'm more willing than most judges to weigh the impacts vs. labeling your discourse as a link. Being extremely good at historical analysis is the best way to win a link turn or impact turn. I am also particularly receptive to arguments about pragmatism on the perm, especially if you have empirical examples of progress through state reform that relates directly to the impacts.

Against K affs, you should leverage fairness and education offensive as a way to shape the process by which I should evaluate the kritik. I'm more likely to give you "No perms without a plan text" because cheating should be mutual than I am to give it to you because epistemology and pedagogy is important.

Counterplans

I think that research is a core part of debate as an activity, and good counterplan strategy goes hand-in-hand with that. The risk of your net benefit is evaluated inversely proportional to the quality of the counterplan is. Generic PICs are more vulnerable to perms and solvency deficits and carry much higher threshold burden on the net benefit. PICs with specific solvency advocates or highly specific net benefits are devastating and one of the ways that debate rewards research and how debate equalizes aff side bias by rewarding negs who who diligent in research. Agent and process counterplans are similarly better when the neg has a nuanced argument for why one agent/process is better than the aff's for a specific plan.

- Process CPs: I am extremely unfriendly to process counterplans where the process is entirely intrinsic; I have a very low threshold for rejecting them theoretically or granting the aff an intrinsic perm to test opportunity cost. I am extremely friendly to process counterplans that test a distinct implementation method compared to the aff. Intentionally vague plan texts do not give the aff access to all theoretical implementations of the plan (Perm Do the CP). The neg can define normal means for the aff if the aff refuses to, but the neg has an equally high burden to defend the competitiveness of the CP process vs. normal means. There are differences in form and content between legislative statutes, administrative regulations, executive orders, and court cases; I will vote aff on CP flaws if the neg's attempt to hot-swap between these processes produces a structural defect.

I do not judge kick by default, but 2NRs can easily convince me to do so as an extension of condo. Superior solvency for the aff case alone is sufficient reason to vote for the CP in a debate that is purely between hypothetical policies (i.e. the aff has no competition arguments in the 2AR).

I am very likely to err neg on sufficiency framing; the aff absolutely needs either a solvency deficit or arguments about why an appeal to sufficiency framing itself means that the neg cannot capture the ethic of the affirmative (and why that outweighs).

Disadvantages

I value defense more than most judges and am willing to assign minimal ("virtually zero") risk based on defense, especially when quality difference in evidence is high or the disad scenario is painfully artificial. Nuclear war probably outweighs the soft left impact in a vacuum, but not when you are relying on "infinite impact times small risk is still infinity" to mathematically brute force past near zero risk. I can be convinced by good analysis that there is always a risk of a DA in spite of defense.

Misc.

Speaker Point Scale: I feel speaker points are arbitrary and the only way to fix this is standardization. Consequently I will try to follow any provided tournament scale very closely. In the event that there is no tournament scale, I grade speaks on bell curve with 30 being the 99th percentile, 27.5 being as the median 50th percentile, and 25 being the 1st percentile. I'm aggressive at BOTH addition and subtraction from this baseline since bell curves are distributed around the average. Elim teams should be scoring above average by definition. The scale is standardized; national circuit tournaments will have higher averages than local tournaments. Points are rewarded for both style (entertaining, organized, strong ethos) and substance (strategic decisions, quality analysis, obvious mastery of nuance/details). I listen closely to CX and include CX performance in my assessment. Well contextualized humor is the quickest way to get higher speaks in front of me, e.g. make a Thanos snap joke on the Malthus flow.

Delivery and Organization: Your speed should be limited by clarity. I reference the speech doc during the debate to check clipping, not to flow. You should be clear enough that I can flow without needing your speech doc. Additionally, even if I can hear and understand you, I am not going to flow your twenty point theory block perfectly if you spit it out in ten seconds. Proper sign-posted line by line is the bare minimum to get over a 28.5 in speaks. I will only flow straight down as a last resort, so it is important to sign-post the line-by-line, otherwise I will lose some of your arguments while I jump around on my flow and I will dock your speaks. If online please keep in mind that you will, by default, be less clear through Zoom than in person.

Cross-X, Prep, and Tech: Tag-team CX is fine but it's part of your speaker point rating to give and answer most of your own cross. I think that finishing the answer to a final question during prep is fine and simple clarification and non-substantive questions during prep is fine, but prep should not be used as an eight minute time bank of extra cross-ex. I don't charge prep for tech time, but tech is limited to just the emailing or flashing of docs. When you end prep, you should be ready to distribute.

Strategy Points: I will reward good practices in research and preparation. On the aff, plan texts that have specific mandates backed by solvency authors get bonus speaks. I will also reward affs for running disads to negative advocacies (real disads, not solvency deficits masquerading as disads -- Hollow Hope or Court Capital on a courts counterplan is a disad but CP gets circumvented is not). Negative teams with case negs (i.e. hyper-specific counterplans or a nuanced T or procedural objection to the specific aff plan text) will get bonus speaks.

top level:

-i did four years of policy at notre dame high school. i was a 2A

-washu 26

-pls explain terms especially on the econ topic!

-if im less familiar with an argument that doesn't mean you should stray away from the obvious strategy. you just need to give me lots of judge instruction and explanation

general things:

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

-time ur own speeches

-give me judge instruction

-tech > truth

-im policy leaning, but im receptive to ks on the neg because my partner exclusively went for set col for 2 years

-u must be clear. i will not flow what i can't understand

soft left affs:

-i prefer extinction level impacts

-id rather you answer the disad than do a bunch of framing. that being said securitization framing is more convincing to me

impact turns:

-limited experience: in the debates i was in impact turns never made it to the 2NR

topicality:

-TVAs and case lists are good

-fairness is the best impact

-competing interps > reasonability

disads:

-do impact calc please

-turns case is good

-on a truth level courts don't link to politics but i can be persuaded otherwise

counterplans:

-50 state fiat and PICs are good

-new 2NC planks are a voter

-i default to judge kick unless instructed not to

Ks:

-i'm familiar with set col, cap, security, gender, etc. anything else you should explain more

-i learned what i know from joshua michael

-i'll let the aff weigh their aff and i'll let the neg weigh links not to the plan unless given a convincing argument as to why not to

-links should (ideally) be to the plan, rehighlighted 1AC ev/lines from 1AC >

-long overviews are bad

-perf con means you get to sever your reps

-floating PIKs are a voter, and vague alts usually aren't (aff should use vagueness to claim no alt solvency)

K affs:

-im neg biased, but i will vote for you

-im skeptical of out-of-round solvency claims but they aren't impossible to win

-i don't get why u should get perms (plan is not topical, so ks and cps dont have to be competitive) but ill give them to u if the other team doesn't explain this or u out debated them

framework:

-i lean neg on framework, but i can be convinced otherwise

-not best for these debates bc limited framework knowledge: i took it in the 1NR a few times

-TVAs are good

if this a K vs K debate i'll probs be confused unless its cap v. something else. explain your theories

theory:

-if u read ur theory blocks at 100% speed i will lower ur speaks

-around 3 condo is probably good

-i'll vote on dropped aspec, but 1ar gets new answers if the block says something completely new

-i'll vote on death good, spark, etc.

+ .1 speaks if you mention club penguin

speech:

-anything you've heard about debaters judging speech is probably also true for me (ie i might place more of a value on your arguments than presentation compared to other judges)

Email: jessiesatovskydebate(at)gmail(dot)com

Note for 2024 topic: I have 0 topic knowledge and very little experience judging on this topic, so keep that in mind when debating in front of me and make sure to explain topic acronyms, etc.

I have 6 years' debating experience and currently debate at Emory.

My preference is toward policy arguments since I have a better understanding of them, but I have a pretty good grasp of just about any argument. Bottom line: read what you want, explain it well, and be respectful to your opponents!

----Policy:

K arguments:

I have a bias against random K arguments so unless you can explain them to me well, probably don't go for it (ie: ontology-esque, Baudrillard/Post-modernist critiques, and things that don't seem to be an opportunity cost to the aff, etc.).

Framework almost always decides this debate. Middle-ground frameworks are confusing---the affirmative saying that I should "weigh the links against the plan" provides no instruction regarding the central question: how does the judge compare the educational implications of the 1AC's representations to the consequences of plan implementation? "Hard-line" frameworks that exclude the case or the kritik are much clearer.

I will decide the framework debate in favor of one side's interpretation. I will not resolve some arbitrary middle road that neither side presented.

If the k is causal to the plan, a well-executing affirmative should almost always win my ballot. The permutation double-bind, uniqueness presses on the link and impact, and a solvency deficit to the alternative will be more than sufficient for the affirmative. The neg will have to win significant turns case arguments, an external impact, and amazing case debating if framework is lost. At this point, you are better served going for a proper counterplan and disadvantage.

Topicality

T-USFG --

I'm pretty neg-leaning here, and generally believe that topical plans are the best route to fair and predictable engagementToto win as a K-aff on framework, you will need to either impact turn framework or provide a counter-model and a good description as to why your model best solves your framework and makes sense in a space like debate, which relies upon rules and predictability for both teams to be adequately prepared to debate one another. Doing impact calculus with your offense and explaining why the debates under your model are good and why debates under their model are net worse is important and helpful for me when resolving your debate.

Other T -- make sure to do good impact calculus and contrast models (see above for T-USFG).

Policy arguments

Disadvantages -- you need to be thorough in your explanation and point out why the aff specifically triggers the link, otherwise it's low-risk and I'll probably defer aff.

Counterplans -- point out why it solves the aff specifically, and affs should focus on quantifying the solvency deficit, otherwise a risk of the net benefit probably outweighs.

Dropped arguments

Make sure to point out they're dropped, and in the rebuttals explain why that's important so I know how to evaluate it. Please don't excessively say arguments are dropped if they're not, it's redundant and wastes your speech time.

Lay Debate

Generally, please go slower, I'll judge like a lay round unless specifically instructed that y'all want it to be a circuit round. You don't have to go as slow as you would with a parent but slow the debate down and spend more time explaining your arguments than spreading through cards.

----LD:

I've never competed in the activity so I'm not familiar with the specific theory/tricks and will view the debate similarly to how I'd view a policy debate. Explicit judge instruction and impact calc will go a long way for me, especially in the final rebuttals.

Things that will lower your speaks: stopping prep time before you start creating your speech doc, egregiously asking your opponent what was marked/not read, and going for an RVI.

Misc

- Online debate = it's harder to hear, so please try to be extra clear, and slow down so that you can be even clearer if needed.

- Time yourself, and please don't steal prep. It makes you look bad and I'll dock your points.

- Please keep your camera on if possible; looks less shady and lets me connect with y'all.

- *Make sure to check that I (in addition to everyone else in the round) am ready before you start, or I'll probably miss something.

Most of all, do your best and have fun!

My name is pronounced loo-CHI-uh. They/ them

Email chains > speech drop. lucia.scott at barstowschool.org

Previous debating: K-State (2013-2016), Kapaun Mt. Carmel (2009-2013)

Coaching: Barstow (2018-Present), Baylor (2017-2018), Kapaun Mt. Carmel (2013-2017)

Meta things

Speaks start at 28.5 and move up or down from there. If I think you should clear, I'll give you at least a 29. 27.9 cap on speaks if any of your docs are PDFs. Like, stop. Just stop.

I have almost certainly voted on everything I say I don't like in my paradigm at some point. At the end of the day, my goal is to intervene as little as possible. Might I be grumpy if I have to judge a 10 off debate with Deleuze, a Gregorian calendar procedural, an anarchy counterplan, and whatever that omnipotent AI that's going to kill us all is called? Yes. So grumpy. Will I vote on these arguments if you win the debate? Also yes. Will it affect your speaks? No. Grumpy adults shouldn't get to determine what debaters do.

I appreciate scrappy debate. If you like to use tricks to win, fine by me. If you think an argument is silly, it shouldn't be too hard to beat.

What I don't appreciate is cowardly debate. I don't love watching rounds where the core strat seems to be defending nothing. Debate is about arguments and controversy. Embrace it. It's awesome.

Tech over truth, but the less true an argument is, the less tech you need to beat it. This is particularly true of 1NC strats the just shove a bunch of garbage non-arguments in to try to freak out the 2A.

My threshold for explanation on un-answered arguments is incredibly low. I don't think the 2A should have to spend time explaining the internal links of an advantage that has one impact d card on it, or the 2N should have to spend time explaining a dropped alt. You do, however, need to tell me what the IMPLICATION of those dropped or mostly dropped arguments is in order for me to know how to evaluate them and how they interact with other flows.

Quality over quantity; what constitutes quality is, of course, up for debate.

Questions are not arguments. I see way too many 2NRs/2ARs that say, "What does the alt/aff even do?" instead of just explaining why it wouldn't do anything.

I read cards to make sure you aren't clipping, but what they actually say doesn't factor into my decision unless there's some contestation by the debaters about the content of the evidence. Don't let a team get away with reading garbage cards that don't say anything; I'm not going to make that argument for you.

Procedurals/ Theory

I get grumpy about arbitrary interps of theoretical arguments (conditionality, ROB's, really anything). This means I do think "conditionality bad" is a better interp than "they get three conditional advocacies." Relax, I don't actually think conditionality is bad, but I also don't think there's really a difference between three vs four or four vs five or five vs six conditional advocacies.

With the exception of conditionality, I default to theoretical objections are reasons to reject the argument or reasons that justify you also doing some theoretically illegit thing, like "perm do the counterplan." This includes perf con; I don't think perf con is a reason to reject the team, I just think it's a reason they don't get links off 2AC/1AR answers to the contradictory position in question. Pef con is distinct from an actual double turn; double turns are not theory arguments y'all.

For topicality, you need impacts. You're saying this team should lose the debate. That's a pretty steep punishment. You need to win more than just a violation here. What affs would be allowed under their interp that you shouldn't have to prepare for? What off case positions do you lose access to? Why does that matter?

I think "lit checks abuse" solves 90% of policy-based limits arguments. Aff teams should also make more arguments about why whatever ground the neg loses isn't ground they should have had in the first place. I think big topics are better than small topics provided those big topics have good neg generics. Politics and the states counterplan are not good neg generics.

Reasonability, to me, means that the neg had a reasonable amount of predictable ground, not that the aff is "reasonably topical," whatever that means. I don't think that means the aff's counter interp has to be "reasonable."

Case Debate

My favorite part of debate. I frankly like to vote neg on presumption, but the work done needs to be specific. I'm more likely to assign a low or no risk of the aff if there's a compelling internal link debate than if the 1AR dropped the third impact D card that's non-specific and two lines long.

I also think a well-leveraged aff can do a lot on other sheets of paper, especially when comparative work with the neg's offense is done.

Big pet peeve of mine is treating the aff like it's just one big page if it isn't. E.g. the 1AC had an advantage and a solvency contention, but the 1N just says "case" in their roadmap. Where on case? If it doesn't matter, you're not doing very good case debate. Same thing with the 2AC order. Why did you make the 1AC more than one page if you're not going to treat the pages as separate???

Your 2AC and 1AR advantage overviews are probably a waste of time in front of me. Overviews should frame, not merely explain.

DA's

This is where "quality over quantity" and "the less true and argument is, the less tech you need to beat it" become really important. Affs can beat bad disads on defense if affs explain why that defense is more important than everything the neg is saying (same goes for the neg with bad aff advantages). In terms of impact calc, I think probability is generally the most important. Zero risk is a thing. I default to uniqueness determines the direction of the link.

CP's

On balance, I think counterplans should be functionally and textually competitive. A 2A who's good at theory can win process counterplans just go away with enough work.

I think counterplans should have solvency advocates, especially if you've added seven planks just designed to fiat out of solvency deficits.

I will not kick the counterplan unless the neg makes an actual judge kick argument.

I am willing to vote aff on zero risk of a net benefit even if the counterplan solves 100% of the aff. In that scenario, the counterplan is no longer disproves the aff.

K's

I don't have any preferences about lit bases; I'm not afraid of the big bad Baudrillard.

My threshold for a link is comparatively low. I think reps links are probably good if the aff gets to weigh their impacts.

My threshold for the alt is relatively high. Examples are good. Structural analysis with examples is better. Under no circumstances should the aff let the neg get away with fiating the alt. That's absurd.

Framework strats are also viable in front of me, e.g. I will vote on "any risk the 1AC is a settler project means you vote neg" assuming you are, in fact, winning the framework debate. I can be persuaded not to weigh the aff, but you really have to commit to this strategy.

I think most affs are best off going for extinction outweighs and the state is good; I think you're more likely to win that than a perm or link turn strategy.

The floating pik you didn't catch in the block will lose you the debate.

Aff framework arguments that compare world-views (i.e. "extinction outweighs epistemology") are far more compelling than framework arguments about procedural fairness (i.e. "the K is cheating").

K Affs

I think it's reasonable for K affs to say that all they have to do is prove their method is good; if the method is good, I should vote for the aff. I don't think they need to "spill out" or whatever. I am generally not persuaded by "winning is key to our method" arguments. Probably means you've got a bad method. Similarly, not of fan of consciousness-raising arguments. I don't know why that means I should vote for you.

I think T violations that deal with substantive parts of the resolution are better than violations about the fg. I think affs should be making the argument that any education claims about the fg are non-unique; it's part of the topic every year. I think the neg should make arguments about why policy education on this specific topic is good and explain how the aff bypasses that.

Anything can be an impact if you tell me it's an impact and explain why it outweighs your opponent's impacts. I generally think, for the neg, fairness-based impacts provide the best external offense, and education-based impacts provide the best in-roads to the aff. Both the aff and the neg should be doing some comparative work about how education, fairness, and ethics implicate one another.

On balance, I think impact turn strats are better than counter interp strats for the aff in these debates. I think ethics arguments are the best offense for the aff. Affs can also internal link turn the majority of the neg's standards if they spend the time doing it instead of extending a wreck of random disads that are all basically the same.

I think the TVA and switch side are the best defense to the aff's impacts. I conceptualize TVAs as counterplans (an alternate mechanism to solve the same impacts while avoiding the net benefit, e.g. under limiting). That means I hold a TVA to similar standards; I think it should have to solve all or most of the aff and that the TVA should have a solvency advocate. Half the TVAs I hear aren't topical; not enough aff teams make this argument.

Other things:

New word Ks in the 2AR - okay, so this is tricky. I think if you do this, I think it needs to be the whole 2AR, and I think you should be held to an exceptionally high explanation standard. I think you should have to pre-empt the 3NR the neg doesn't get.

Arguments about micro-aggressions - Fine as long as you explain the implication for this debate/ perhaps the community as a whole. Tell me what you want me to do about it and what that does about the problem. You still have to answer the trivializing arguments, but they are not an auto-loss.

Arguments that compare conditionality to structural privilege - Fine as long as you warrant them. Just saying, "This is the logic of..." isn't enough; tell me why and how the reproduces that logic in debate and what the impact to that is for debaters.

So clipping. If you have somehow misrepresented what you have read/ if there is not a way to tell from the speech doc what was read, you have clipped. If I catch clipping, I will make sure I'm sure (usually during prep time), and then stop the debate. If a debater accuses someone of clipping, the debate stops right then. If the challenger is correct, they win. If they are not correct, they lose. I will give the person who clipped a 0, but everyone else is probably going to get somewhere between a 28.5 and a 29.5 depending on how much of the debate happened.

I've had some recent judging experiences that are moving me toward clarity being a clipping issue. If I can't understand any of the words in your cards, and it seems like this is to get in more cards, that's probably clipping. I've decided this means I'll never stop clearing you no matter how tired I get of it.

Top Level:

Head-Royce '22, WFU '26

Topics I debated: Immigration, Arms Sales, Criminal Justice Reform, Water Resources, Legal Rights, Nukes

Add me to the chain, ask me before round

I debate on the college circuit and have been both a 2A and 2N at various times throughout my years of debate. I've read both policy affs and kritikal affs. On the neg, in high school, my partner and I primarily went for T or some other theory/the K vs policy affs and Cap/some theory argument vs K affs. In college, my partner and I primarily read a plan on the aff and k's on the neg.

Debate should be a safe activity for everyone. If you say or do anything offensive, I'll stop the round and give you a loss and zeros.

Short Version:

Do what you do best. I would much rather see teams who know what they are reading and talking about than teams who are trying to adapt to me but lack nuance. My knowledge is pretty flex, but more centered around kritiks. I will still vote for your CP/DA strategies though. I love a good T/Theory debate so if thats your jam, go for it. Writing my ballot for me at the top of the 2NR/2AR is key to get my vote.

Argument Specific:

FW: Can go either way, but I probably err aff. I have a much higher standard for fairness as an impact compared to clash. This doesn't mean I won't vote on it, it just means I prefer clash. The aff team has to clearly explain their interp and the world of the interp. Redefining words of the resolution is key for teams that want to go for the w/m. Implicating the framework DA's to the TVA and SSD is important and I will unlikely do that work for you.

K's: I am versed and experienced in most k lit, but that doesn't mean I'll hack for you. I love specific links to the aff and I like pushes on framework as well. In high school, the K was our go to, so take that info how you will. For aff teams, making sure that your 2AC blocks are responsive to the correct theory of K is a must. I don't have a preference between a case o/w strat and perm/link turn strat, just make sure you articulate and flag the args you want me to vote on in the 2AR.

K Aff's: I love kritikal affs and think they are really interesting and a great part of debate. I read a K aff my junior and senior year. Please clearly explain what your method/solvency does. I should be able to explain it back to you at the end of the debate, and if I can't, you probably don't have my ballot. K aff's get perms.

DA's: You have to have a clear link to the aff, and there has to be impact comparison. A good turns case analysis versus aff impact will make my ballot a lot easier to get.

CP's: I like a good counterplan debate, but I think that advantage cps with a ton of planks can be abusive. I am not the best in a competition debate. There has to be a net benefit to the permutation.

T/Theory: I love T and theory, so please read it. There needs to be a specific violation and impacts explained and warranted through the 2NR for me to vote for you. Plans should be clear and explain what the aff does, I will not be happy with vague plan texts and opens the door for potential theory arguments.

Case: This is the most underutilized part of debate. A good case debate can dismantle an aff, so please spend time on it.

Other things:

Disclosure: It should be 100% correct, and I am not afraid to drop a team for bad disclosure. This includes disclosing the wrong plan text or changing something without alerting the other team.

If you bring an ethics challenge, the round stops.

Please, please, please be nice to each other.

You have to read the card/rehighlight, not insert it.

Lowell '23

Emory '27

(she/her)

Please add lowelldebatedocs@gmail.com to the email chain for policy, and eloiseso@gmail.com for LD

It's helpful if chains are titled: Tournament Round # --- Team Code [AFF] v Team Code [NEG]

2023-24 Econ Topic: I have next to zero topic knowledge --- please err on the side of over explanation, I have judged a couple rounds here and there on the topic.

LD: I have learned I am not good for tricks, philosophy or theory. Chan Park has told me all I know about this activity (note: we have none of the same argumentative predispositions). I did policy in high school, and now do policy in college, and have only judged a couple rounds of this event.

TLDR: I debated at Lowell for 4 years as a 2N/1A , was partners with Winthrop Neubarth, and was coached under the watchful eye of Mr. Debnil Sur. During this time, I debated on the national circuit as well as our local circuit (which was much more lay).

Any confusion about my paradigm or how I judge can be resolved by reading Debnil Sur's, Jessie Satovsky's, or Taylor Tsan's, as all of my thoughts about debate are the shoplifted, trickle-downed version of theirs.

• Conditionality is most probably good, sometimes went for the K on the neg, went for the states CP on an international topic, so pretty much cool to judge everything (absent pomo-esque, niche Ks, and a KvK debate, in all of which I will probably be very confused)
• Getting called judge icks me out — Eloise is fine!
• I really dislike debaters being condescending in round — I don’t think it makes you seem smarter, and it makes the round unbearable to debate in and judge. That being said, I understand that it’s a competitive activity and emotions can run high, but for everyone’s sake, please be respectful. What you take away from debate will not be crushing freshman with 10 off, but your teammate ditching you at NSDA for a week to go home early, or your friends getting roasted in an RFD and laughing about it for months after.

GGSA/Lay

I am totally down for a fast circuit style round, BUT if both teams do not want a fast round that's totally fine — lay debate is a good skill to cultivate and learn. I think judge adaptation and learning to read panels is good, so adapt however YOU think is best. I will most likely decide the debate on a technical level, because I don't think there's any more objective way for myself to evaluate a round with the background I have. At the end of the day, it is an activity in convincing a judge (or winning the panel), and this is the best way that I think you can get my ballot.

Other Stuff if You've Made it this Far

Read anything you want. If an argument is truly bad, do not instruct me to reject it, but instead just beat it.

I flow on computer. That being said, I am not the fastest typer, and have found that speeding through theory blocks, or having no distinction between pages will not be in your favor.

Justin Stanley - Johnson County Community College

I debated at Missouri State and have been coaching for about 10 years.  I would like you to debate using the arguments that you feel will win you the debate without putting too much stock in my own personal preferences.  I try to eliminate those preferences when judging and evaluate each argument outside of any feelings I have towards particular arguments.  With that being said,

I am a better counterplan/disad/Case judge than kritik judge because I have more experience debating, coaching, and researching these positions.  I certainly understand kritik literature more than I used to, but I am still probably not as well read on these issues as other judges. 

I have a strong preference that the affirmative have a topical plan and defend its passage.  However, I can be persuaded otherwise.  This is an issue in which I try to eliminate my preferences and judge the debate based on what I see in the round. I often find that your defense of why you have chosen to be anti-topical is not as persuasive to me as it is to you.  I haven't ever thought that topicality was genocidal.  If there is a topical version of your affirmative that solves all of your "impact" turns then you are likely in a bad position.  If there is not a topical version of your affirmative then that is likely more of a reason to vote against you then to vote for you.

I don't think conditionality is always the best approach for debate.  This is especially true in rounds in which multiple conditional options are used to try and "Spread out" the IIAC and not necessarily to test the merits of the affirmative.  I have not voted on conditionality bad very often, but I often find that has more to do with the debates then my own personal preferences. 

I think PICs are often very good strategies, but I am not the best judge for obscure word PICs that claim a minute net-beneft.

A few other things...

1) Clarity - go as fast as you would like, but don't underestimate the importance of clarity in my decision.  If I can't understand your argument then I am highly unlikely to vote for it.

2) Strong cross-examination will earn you additional speaker points.  Being humorous and kind will also help you with speaker points.  If you are a team that ranks based on speaker points then I am probably average to slightly below average in the speaker points that I give.  I rarely give a 29+.  Most debaters will fall in the 27 - 28.7 range for me.

3) Paperless debate is a great thing and I am relatively patient with tech problems.  However, at some point my patience runs out and I get frustrated.  Please do your best to eliminate delays between speeches. 

4) One person should not ask and answer all of the cross-examination questions. 

5)  If you want me to call for a card then you should extend author, claim and warrant for the piece of evidence.  Listing 20 authors in a row with no real explanation will likely result in not calling for any cards.

6)  If I catch you clipping cards then you will automatically lose with zero peaker points.  This is true even if the other team did not make a complaint about it.

he/him/his

Pronounced phonetically as DEB-nil. Not pronounced "judge", "Mister Sur", or "deb-NEIL".

Policy Coach at Lowell High School, San Francisco

Email: lowelldebatedocs [at] gmail.com for email chains. If you have my personal email, don't put it on the email chain. Sensible subject please.

Lay Debate: I care deeply about adaptation and accessibility. I find "medium" debates (splits of lay and circuit judges) incredibly valuable for students' skills. I don't think I'd ever be in a setting where I'm the sole lay judge. In a split setting, please adapt to the most lay judge in your speed and explanation. I won't penalize you for making debate accessible. Some degree of technical evaluation is inevitable, but please don't spread.

Resolving Debates: Above all, tech substantially outweighs truth. The below are preferences, not rules, and will easily be overturned by good debating. But, since nobody's a blank slate, treat the below as heuristics I use in thinking about debate. Incorporating some can explain my decision and help render one in your favor.

I believe debate is a strategy game, in which debaters must communicate research to persuade judges. I'll almost certainly endorse better judge instruction over higher quality yet under-explained evidence. I flow on my laptop, but I only look at the speech doc when online. I will only read a card in deciding if that card was contested by both teams or I was told explicitly to and the evidence was actually explained in debate.

I take an above-average time to decide debates. My decision time has little relationship with the debate's closeness, and more with the time of day and my sleep deprivation. I usually start 5-10 minutes after the 2AR, so I can stretch my legs and let the debate marinate in my head. Debaters work hard, and I reciprocate that effort in making decisions. My decisions themselves are quite short. Most debates come down to 2-4 arguments, and I will identify those and explain my resolution. You're welcome to post-round. It can't change my decision, but I want to learn and improve as a judge and thinker too.

General Background: I work full-time in tech as a software engineer. In my spare time, I have coached policy debate at Lowell in San Francisco since 2018. I am involved in strategy and research and have coached both policy and K debaters to the TOC. I am, quite literally, a "framer", as a member of the national topic wording committee. Before that, I read policy arguments as a 2N at Bellarmine and did youth debate outreach (e.g., SVUDL) as a student at Stanford.

I've judged many excellent debates. Ideologically, I would say I'm 60/40 policy-leaning. I think my voting records don't reflect this, because K debaters tend to see the bigger picture in clash rounds.

Topic Background: I judge and coach regularly and am fully aware of national circuit trends. I'm less in the weeds as many other coaches. I don't cut as many cards as I did in the pandemic years, and I don't work at debate camp.

If you're reading the web3 UBI affirmative, I implemented one of the first CBDC pilots back in 2018/19. If you know what you're talking about, I'm the best possible judge. But if you don't, I'll be much more easily persuaded by the negative, especially on the case debate.

Voting Splits: As of the end of the water topic, I have judged 304 rounds of VCX at invitationals over 9 years. 75 of these were during college; 74 during immigration and arms sales at West Coast invitationals; and 155 on CJR and water, predominantly at octafinals bid tournaments.

Below are my voting splits across the (synthetic) policy-K divide, where the left team represents the affirmative, as best as I could classify debates. Paradigm text can be inaccurate self-psychoanalysis, so I hope the data helps.

I became an aff hack on water. Far too often, the 2AR was the first speech doing comparative analysis instead of reading blocks. I hope this changes as we return to in-person debate.

Water

Policy v. Policy - 18-13: 58% aff over 31 rounds

Policy v. K - 20-18: 56% aff over 38 rounds

K v. Policy - 13-8: 62% aff over 21 rounds

K v. K - 1-1, 50% aff over 2 rounds

Lifetime

Policy v. Policy - 67-56: 55% for the aff over 123 rounds

Policy v. K - 47-52: 47% for the aff over 99 rounds

K v. Policy - 36-34: 51% for the aff over 70 rounds

K v. K - 4-4: 50% for the aff over 8 rounds

Online Debate:

1. I'd prefer your camera on, but won't make a fuss.

2. Please check verbally and/or visually with all judges and debaters before starting your speech.

3. If my camera's off, I'm away, unless I told you otherwise.

Speaker Points: I flow on my computer, but I do not use the speech doc. I want every word said, even in card text and especially in your 2NC topicality blocks, to be clear. I will shout clear twice in a speech. After that, it's your problem.

Note that this assessment is done per-tournament: for calibration, I think a 29.3-29.4 at a finals bid is roughly equivalent to a 28.8-28.9 at an octos bid.

29.5+ — the top speaker at the tournament.

29.3-29.4 — one of the five or ten best speakers at the tournament.

29.1-29.2 — one of the twenty best speakers at the tournament.

28.9-29 — a 75th percentile speaker at the tournament; with a winning record, would barely clear on points.

28.7-28.8 — a 50th percentile speaker at the tournament; with a winning record, would not clear on points.

28.3-28.6 — a 25th percentile speaker at the tournament.

28-28.2 — a 10th percentile speaker at the tournament.

K Affs and Framework:

1. I have coached all sides of this debate.

2. I will vote for the team whose impact comparison most clearly answers the debate's central question. This typically comes down to the affirmative making negative engagement more difficult versus the neg forcing problematic affirmative positions. You are best served developing 1-2 pieces of offense well, playing defense to the other team's, and telling a condensed story in the final rebuttals.

3. Anything can be an impact---do what you do best. My teams typically read a limits/fairness impact and a procedural clash impact. From Dhruv Sudesh: "I don't have a preference for hearing a skills or fairness argument, but I think the latter requires you to win a higher level of defense to aff arguments."

4. Each team should discuss what a year of debate looks like under their models in concrete terms. Arguments like "TVA", "switch-side debate", and "some neg ground exists" are just subsets of this discussion. It is easy to be hyperbolic and discuss the plethora of random affirmatives, but realistic examples are especially persuasive and important. What would your favorite policy demon (MBA, GBN, etc.) do without an agential constraint? How does critiquing specific policy reforms in a debate improve critical education? Why does negative policy ground not center the affirmative's substantive conversation?

5. As the negative, recognize if this is an impact turn debate or one of competing models early on (as in, during the 2AC). When the negative sees where the 2AR will go and adjusts accordingly, I have found that I am very good for the negative. But when they fail to understand the debate's strategic direction, I almost always vote affirmative. This especially happens when impact turning topicality---negatives do not seem to catch on yet.

6. I quite enjoy leveraging normative positions from 1AC cards for substantive disadvantages or impact turns. This requires careful link explanation by the negative but can be incredibly strategic. Critical affirmatives claim to access broad impacts based on shaky normative claims and the broad endorsement of a worldview, rather than a causal method; they should incur the strategic cost.

7. I am a better judge for presumption and case defense than most. It is often unclear to me how affirmatives solve their impacts or access their impact turns on topicality. The negative should leverage this more.

8. I occasionally judge K v K debates. I do not have especially developed opinions on these debates. Debate math often relies on causality, opportunity cost, and similar concepts rooted in policymaking analysis. These do not translate well to K v K debates, and the team that does the clearest link explanation and impact calculus typically wins. While the notion of "opportunity cost" to a method is still mostly nonsensical to me, I can be convinced either way on permutations' legitimacy.

Kritiks:

1. I do not often coach K teams but have familiarity with basically all critical arguments.

2. Framework almost always decides this debate. While I have voted for many middle-ground frameworks, they make very little strategic sense to me. The affirmative saying that I should "weigh the links against the plan" provides no instruction regarding the central question: how does the judge actually compare the educational implications of the 1AC's representations to the consequences of plan implementation? As a result, I am much better for "hard-line" frameworks that exclude the case or the kritik.

3. I will decide the framework debate in favor of one side's interpretation. I will not resolve some arbitrary middle road that neither side presented.

4. If the kritik is causal to the plan, a well-executing affirmative should almost always win my ballot. The permutation double-bind, uniqueness presses on the link and impact, and a solvency deficit to the alternative will be more than sufficient for the affirmative. The neg will have to win significant turns case arguments, an external impact, and amazing case debating if framework is lost. At this point, you are better served going for a proper counterplan and disadvantage.

5. I will not evaluate non-falsifiable statements about events outside the current debate. Such an evaluation of minors grossly misuses the ballot. Strike me if this is a core part of your strategy.

Topicality:

1. This is about the plan text, not other parts of the 1AC. If you think the plan text is contrived to be topical, beat them on the PIC out of the topic and your topic DA of choice.

2. This is a question of which team's vision of the topic maximizes its benefits for debaters. I compare each team's interpretation of the topic through an offense/defense lens.

3. Reasonability is about the affirmative interpretation, not the affirmative case itself. In its most persuasive form, this means that the substance crowdout caused by topicality debates plus the affirmative's offense on topicality outweighs the offense claimed by the negative. This is an especially useful frame in debates that discuss topic education, precision, and similar arguments.

4. Any standards are fine. I used to be a precision stickler. This changed after attending topic meetings and realizing how arbitrarily wording is chosen.

5. From Anirudh Prabhu: "T is a negative burden which means it is the neg’s job to prove that a violation exists. In a T debate where the 2AR extends we meet, every RFD should start by stating clearly what word or phrase in the resolution the aff violated and why. If you don’t give me the language to do that in your 2NR, I will vote aff on we meet." Topicality 101---the violation is a negative burden. If there's some uncertainty, I almost certainly vote aff with a decent "we meet" explanation.

Theory:

1. As with other arguments, I will resolve this fully technically. Unlike many judges, my argumentative preferences will not implicate how I vote. I will gladly vote on a dropped theory argument---if it was clearly extended as a reason to reject the team---with no regrets.

2. I'm generally in favor of limitless conditionality. But because I adjudicate these debates fully technically, I think I vote affirmative on "conditionality bad" more than most.

3. From Rafael Pierry: "most theoretical objections to CPs are better expressed through competition. ... Against these and similar interpretations, I find neg appeals to arbitrariness difficult to overcome." For me, this is especially true with counterplans that compete on certainty or immediacy. While I do not love the delay counterplan, I think it is much more easily beaten through competition arguments than theoretical ones.

4. If a counterplan has specific literature to the affirmative plan, I will be extremely receptive to its theoretical legitimacy and want to grant competition. But of course, the counterplan text must be written strategically, and the negative must still win competition.

Counterplans:

1. I'm better for strategies that depend on process and competition than most. These represent one of my favorite aspects of debate---they combine theory and substance in fun and creative ways---and I've found that researching and strategizing against them generates huge educational benefits for debaters, certainly on par with more conventionally popular political process arguments like politics and case.

2. I have no disposition between "textual and functional competition" and "only functional competition". Textual alone is pretty bad. Positional competition is similarly tough, unless the affirmative grants it. Think about how a model of competition justifies certain permutations---drawing these connections intelligently helps resolve the theoretical portion of permutations.

3. Similarly, I am agnostic regarding limited intrinsicness, either functional or textual. While it helps check against the truly artificial CPs, it justifies bad practices that hurt the negative. It's certainly a debate that you should take on. That said, if everyone is just spreading blocks, I usually end up negative on the ink. Block to 2NR is easier to trace than 1AR to 2AR.

4. People need to think about deficits to counterplans. If you can't impact deficits to said counterplans, write better advantages. The negative almost definitely does not have evidence contextualizing their solvency mechanism to your internal links---explain why that matters!

5. Presumption goes to less change---debate what this means in round. Absent this instruction, if there is an advocacy in the 2NR and I do not judge kick it when deciding, I'm probably not voting on presumption.

6. Decide in-round if I should kick the CP. I'll likely kick it if left to my own devices. The affirmative should be better than the status quo. (To be honest, this has never mattered in a debate I've judged, and it amuses me that judge kick is such a common paradigm section.)

Disadvantages:

1. There is not always a risk. A small enough signal is overwhelmed by noise, and we cannot determine its sign or magnitude.

2. I do not think you need evidence to make an argument. Many bad advantages can be reduced to noise through smart analytics. Doing so will improve your speaker points. Better evidence will require your own.

3. Shorten overviews, and make sure turns case arguments actually implicate the aff's internal links.

4. Will vote on any and all theoretical arguments---intrinsicness, politics theory, etc. Again, arguments are arguments, debate them out.

Ethics:

1. Cheating means you will get the lowest possible points.

2. You need a recording to prove the other team is clipping. If I am judging and think you are clipping, I will record it and check the recording before I stop the debate. Any other method deprives you of proof.

3. If you mark a card, say where you’re marking it, actually mark it, and offer a marked copy before CX in constructives or the other's team prep time in a rebuttal. You do not need to remove cards you did not read in the marked copy, unless you skipped a truly ridiculous amount. This practice is inane and justifies debaters doc-flowing.

4. Emailing isn’t prep. If you take too long, I'll tell you I'm starting your prep again.

5. If there is a different alleged ethics violation, I will ask the team alleging the violation if they want to stop the debate. If so, I will ask the accused team to provide written defense; check the tournament's citation rules; and decide. I will then decide the debate based on that violation and the tournament policy---I will not restart the debate---this makes cite-checking a no-risk option as a negative strategy, which seems really bad.

IMPORTANT: I will only vote on an ethics violation about previously-read evidence (missing an author, missing a year, paragraph missing but no distortion, etc) if the team alleging the violation has evidence that they contacted the other team and told them about the issue. Clearly, you had the time to look up the article. As a community, we should assume good faith in citation, and let the other team know. And people should not be punished for cards they did not cut. But if they still are reading faulty evidence, even after being told, that's certainly academic malpractice.

Note that if the ethics violation is made as an argument during the debate and advanced in multiple speeches as a theoretical argument, you cannot just decide it is a separate ethics violation later in the debate. I will NOT vote on it, I will be very annoyed with you, and you will probably lose and get 27s if you are resorting to these tactics.

6. The closer a re-highlighting comes to being a new argument, the more likely you should be reading it instead of inserting. If you are point out blatant mis-highlighting in a card, typically in a defensive fashion on case, then insertion is fine. I will readily scratch excessive insertion with clear instruction.

Miscellaneous:

1. I'll only evaluate highlighted warrants in evidence.

2. Dropped arguments should be flagged clearly. If you say that clearly answered arguments were dropped, you're hurting your own persuasion.

3. Please send cards in a Word doc. Body is fine if it's just 1-3 cards. I don't care if you send analytics, though it can help online.

4. Unless the final rebuttals are strictly theoretical, the negative should compile a card doc post 2NR and have it sent soon after the 2AR. The affirmative should start compiling their document promptly after the 2AR. Card docs should only include evidence referenced in the final rebuttals (and the 1NC shell, for the negative)---certainly NOT the entire 1AC.

5. As a judge, I can stop the debate at any point. The above should make it clear that I am very much an argumentative nihilist---in hundreds of debates, I have not come close to stopping one. So if I do, you really messed up, and you probably know it.

6. I am open to a Technical Knockout. This means that the debate is unwinnable for one team. If you think this is the case, say "TKO" (probably after your opponents' speech, not yours) and explain why it is unwinnable. If I agree, I will give you 30s and a W. If I disagree and think they can still win the debate, you'll get 25s and an L. Examples include: dropped T argument, dropped conditionality, double turn on the only relevant pieces of offense, dropped CP + DA without any theoretical out.

Be mindful of context: calling this against sophomores in presets looks worse than against an older team in a later prelim. But sometimes, debates are just slaughters, nobody is learning anything, and there will be nothing to judge. I am open to giving you some time back, and to adding a carrot to spice up debate.

7. Not about deciding debates, but a general offer to debate folk reading this. As someone who works in tech, I think it is a really enjoyable career path and quite similar to policy debate in many ways. If you would like to learn more about tech careers, please feel free to email me. As a high school student, it was very hard to learn about careers not done by my parents or their friends (part of why I'm in tech now!). I am happy to pass on what knowledge I have.

Above all, be kind to each other, and have fun!

NYU 26' and College Prep 22'

add me to the chain please, callum.theiding [at] gmail.com

I did 4 years of policy in high school and I'm currently in my second year of college policy. I'm happy to judge anything you wanna read, barring anything bigoted and harmful. I think debate is an awesome community where you can show off whatever you've been researching.

There's a fine line in cross between being confident and being rude or mean. Err on the side of being nice.

Note for PF at the bottom

LD/Policy

T

people should go for T more. I like it. good T debates are beautiful

-I think fairness is an internal link to education, more education happens pre round during prep and research

-aff creativity has always been kind of ridiculous to me, affs that say this usually do explode the neg research burden, but i will vote on it if you can effectively weigh it

-love love love when affs on the fringe of topicality have a clever c/i or w/m, its smart and strategic

Ks

-links of omission are kinda lame, find specific lines or instances where the aff actually links

-i prefer a more material and defined alt but this not all at required. that said, if you're reading a rejection/inaction alt please have a specific warrant for why inaction is key

-lowered speaks if you're reading an incommensurability alt and say the k is conditional, either stand by what your authors actually say or don't read it

-i do not want to hear your high theory buzzword soup

CPs

-love a creative adv cp

-i think more than 3 condo is pushing it but if you can win your interp, do what you want

-not a fan of the 2ac perm shot gun

-please explain your process cp, a good chunk of these are way wonkier than they need to be. theres definitely a huge advantage to confusing your opponents but a confusing cp is hard to vote for

Theory

-be clear, if i can't flow it and you try to weigh it, good luck

-please impact your arguments out early

-prefer condo or process cp bad over things like a 5 sec vague alts bad that get exploded in the 1ar

Case

-for the neg, those hard right aff link chains are often very dubious, your speaks will be rewarded if you use a badly written case to your advantage instead of just spamming CPs and DAs

-2As, I get the need for speed but gimme at least half a second between answering 1NC case args to let me move my pen

DA

-pls pls pls do your impact calc, earlier the better, give me in depth comparison of impacts, not just "it happens faster, vote neg"

-not a fan of ptx, but if you win it, ill vote for it. it's been a hot second since i've seen a decent one.

K affs

I think the best ones are related to the topic but effectively articulate what the resolution is missing/why it's bad.

I'm more familiar with the cap debate than the fw debate. If you're going for fw, don't blitz through your blocks and slow down for your standards. Actually debating on the line by line and not just reading a script is mega ethos boost.

PF

-I will flow each round. If something is new in the last two speeches, it's much better if you flag it and implicate it. The more work you do yourself, the less I have to intervene.

-You don't have to ask to take prep. It's your prep time. You decide when you want to take it.

-I think teams should probably send speech docs. It's a good norm for ev ethics. Also it wastes less time than calling for cards.

-Impact calc is what wins round, not buzzwords. However, I think more people should be doing internal link work. It seems like most people don't have great defenses of their cases besides basically saying "nuh-uh".

-I do not want to be in theory rounds in PF. PF is too short to have meaningful theory debates with depth. If you want to read theory, I'd recommend switching to policy. There probably are cases where theory is warranted but the threshold for that is so insanely high. Also, RVI is not a thing.

For PF: Speaks capped at 27.5 if you don't read cut cards (with tags) and send speech docs via email chain prior to your speech of cards to be read (in constructives, rebuttal, summary, or any speech where you have a new card to read). I'm done with paraphrasing and pf rounds taking almost as long as my policy rounds to complete. Speaks will start at 28.5 for teams that do read cut cards and do send speech docs via email chain prior to speech. In elims, since I can't give points, it will be a overall tiebreaker.

For Policy: Speaks capped at 28 if I don't understand each and every word you say while spreading (including cards read). I will not follow along on the speech doc, I will not read cards after the debate (unless contested or required to render a decision), and, thus, I will not reconstruct the debate for you but will just go off my flow. I can handle speed, but I need clarity not a speechdoc to understand warrants. Speaks will start at 28.5 for teams that are completely flowable. I'd say about 85% of debaters have been able to meet this paradigm.

I'd also mostly focus on the style section and bold parts of other sections.

---

2018 update: College policy debaters should look to who I judged at my last college judging spree (69th National Debate Tournament in Iowa) to get a feeling of who will and will not pref me. I also like Buntin's new judge philosophy (agree roughly 90%).

It's Fall 2015. I judge all types of debate, from policy-v-policy to non-policy-v-non-policy. I think what separates me as a judge is style, not substance.

I debated for Texas for 5 years (2003-2008), 4 years in Texas during high school (1999-2003). I was twice a top 20 speaker at the NDT. I've coached on and off for highschool and college teams during that time and since. I've ran or coached an extremely wide diversity of arguments. Some favorite memories include "china is evil and that outweighs the security k", to "human extinction is good", to "predictions must specify strong data", to "let's consult the chinese, china is awesome", to "housing discrimination based on race causes school segregation based on race", to "factory farms are biopolitical murder", to “free trade good performance”, to "let's reg. neg. the plan to make businesses confident", to “CO2 fertilization, SO2 Screw, or Ice Age DAs”, to "let the Makah whale", etc. Basically, I've been around.

After it was pointed out that I don't do a great job delineating debatable versus non-debatable preferences, I've decided to style-code bold all parts of my philosophy that are not up for debate. Everything else is merely a preference, and can be debated.

Style/Big Picture:

• I strongly prefer to let the debaters do the debating, and I'll reward depth (the "author+claim + warrant + data+impact" model) over breadth (the "author+claim + impact" model) any day.

• When evaluating probabilistic predictions, I start from the assumption everyone begins at 0%, and you persuade me to increase that number (w/ claims + warrants + data). Rarely do teams get me past 5%. A conceeded claim (or even claim + another claim disguised as the warrant) will not start at 100%, but remains at 0%.

• Combining those first two essential stylistic criteria means, in practice, many times I discount entirely even conceded, well impacted claims because the debaters failed to provide a warrant and/or data to support their claim. It's analogous to failing a basic "laugh" test. I may not be perfect at this rubric yet, but I still think it's better than the alternative (e.g. rebuttals filled with 20+ uses of the word “conceded” and a stack of 60 cards).

• I'll try to minimize the amount of evidence I read to only evidence that is either (A) up for dispute/interpretation between the teams or (B) required to render a decision (due to lack of clash amongst the debaters). In short: don't let the evidence do the debating for you.

• Humor is also well rewarded, and it is hard (but not impossible) to offend me.

• I'd also strongly prefer if teams would slow down 15-20% so that I can hear and understand every word you say (including cards read). While I won't explicitly punish you if you don't, it does go a mile to have me already understand the evidence while you're debating so I don't have to sort through it at the end (especially since I likely won't call for that card anyway).

• Defense can win a debate (there is such as thing as a 100% no link), but offense helps more times than not.

• I'm a big believer in open disclosure practices, and would vote on reasoned arguments about poor disclosure practices. In the perfect world, everything would be open-source (including highlighting and analytics, including 2NR/2AR blocks), and all teams would ultimately share one evidence set. You could cut new evidence, but once read, everyone would have it. We're nowhere near that world. Some performance teams think a few half-citations work when it makes up at best 45 seconds of a 9 minute speech. Some policy teams think offering cards without highlighting for only the first constructive works. I don't think either model works, and would be happy to vote to encourage more open disclosure practices. It's hard to be angry that the other side doesn't engage you when, pre-round, you didn't offer them anything to engage.

• You (or your partner) must physically mark cards if you do not finish them. Orally saying "mark here" (and expecting your opponents or the judge to do it for you) doesn't count. After your speech (and before cross-ex), you should resend a marked copy to the other team. If pointed out by the other team, failure to do means you must mark prior to cross-ex. I will count it as prep time times two to deter sloppy debate.

• By default, I will not “follow along” and read evidence during a debate. I find that it incentivizes unclear and shallow debates. However, I realize that some people are better visual than auditory learners and I would classify myself as strongly visual. If both teams would prefer and communicate to me that preference before the round, I will “follow along” and read evidence during the debate speeches, cross-exs, and maybe even prep.

Topicality:

• I like competing interpretations, the more evidence the better, and clearly delineated and impacted/weighed standards on topicality.

• Abuse makes it all the better, but is not required (doesn't unpredictability inherently abuse?).

• Treat it like a disad, and go from there. In my opinion, topicality is a dying art, so I'll be sure to reward debaters that show talent.

• For the aff – think offense/defense and weigh the standards you're winning against what you're losing rather than say "at least we're reasonable". You'll sound way better.

Framework:

• The exception to the above is the "framework debate". I find it to be an uphill battle for the neg in these debates (usually because that's the only thing the aff has blocked out for 5 minutes, and they debate it 3 out of 4 aff rounds).

• If you want to win framework in front of me, spent time delineating your interpretation of debate in a way that doesn't make it seem arbitrary. For example "they're not policy debate" begs the question what exactly policy debate is. I'm not Justice Steward, and this isn't pornography. I don't know when I've seen it. I'm old school in that I conceptualize framework along “predictability”; "topic education", “policymaking education”, and “aff education” (topical version, switch sides, etc) lines.

• “We're in the direction of the topic” or “we discuss the topic rather than a topical discussion” is a pretty laughable counter-interpretation.

• For the aff, "we agree with the neg's interp of framework but still get to weigh our case" borders on incomprehensible if the framework is the least bit not arbitrary.

Case Debate

• Depth in explanation over breadth in coverage. One well explained warrant will do more damage to the 1AR than 5 cards that say the same claim.

• Well-developed impact calculus must begin no later than the 1AR for the Aff and Negative Block for the Neg.

• I enjoy large indepth case debates. I was 2A who wrote my own community unique affs usually with only 1 advantage and no external add-ons. These type of debates, if properly researched and executed, can be quite fun for all parties.

Disads

• Intrinsic perms are silly. Normal means arguments are less so.

• From an offense/defense paradigm, conceded uniqueness can control the direction of the link. Conceded links can control the direction of uniqueness. The in round application of "why" is important.

• A story / spin is usually more important (and harder for the 1AR to deal with) than 5 cards that say the same thing.

Counterplan Competition:

• I generally prefer functionally competitive counterplans with solvency advocates delineating the counterplan versus the plan (or close) (as opposed to the counterplan versus the topic), but a good case for textual competition can be made with a language K netbenefit.

• Conditionality (1 CP, SQ, and 1 K) is a fact of life, and anything less is the negative feeling sorry for you (or themselves). However, I do not like 2NR conditionality (i.e., “judge kick”) ever. Make a decision.

• Perms and theory always remain a test of competition (and not a voter) until proven otherwise by the negative by argument (see above), a near impossible standard for arguments that don't interfere substantially with other parts of the debate (e.g. conditionality).

• Perm "do the aff" is not a perm. Debatable perms are "do both" and "do cp/alt"(and "do aff and part of the CP" for multi-plank CPs). Others are usually intrinsic.

Critiques:

• I think of the critique as a (usually linear) disad and the alt as a cp.

• Be sure to clearly impact your critique in the context of what it means/does to the aff case (does the alt solve it, does the critique turn it, make harms inevitable, does it disprove their solvency). Latch on to an external impact (be it "ethics", or biopower causes super-viruses), and weigh it against case.

• Use your alternative to either "fiat uniqueness" or create a rubric by which I don't evaluate uniqueness, and to solve case in other ways.

• I will say upfront the two types of critique routes I find least persuasive are simplistic versions of "economics", "science", and "militarism" bad (mostly because I have an econ degree and am part of an extensive military family). While good critiques exist out there of both, most of what debaters use are not that, so plan accordingly.

• For the aff, figure out how to solve your case absent fiat (education about aff good?), and weigh it against the alternative, which you should reduce to as close as the status quo as possible. Make uniqueness indicts to control the direction of link, and question the timeframe/inevitability/plausability of their impacts.

• Perms generally check clearly uncompetitive alternative jive, but don't work too well against "vote neg". A good link turn generally does way more than “perm solves the link”.

• Aff Framework doesn't ever make the critique disappear, it just changes how I evaluate/weigh the alternative.

• Role of the Ballot - I vote for the team that did the better debating. What is "better" is based on my stylistic criteria. End of story. Don't let "Role of the Ballot" be used as an excuse to avoid impact calculus.

Performance (the other critique):

• Empirically, I do judge these debate and end up about 50-50 on them. I neither bandwagon around nor discount the validity of arguments critical of the pedagogy of debate. I'll let you make the case or defense (preferably with data). The team that usually wins my ballot is the team that made an effort to intelligently clash with the other team (whether it's aff or neg) and meet my stylistic criteria. To me, it's just another form of debate.

• However, I do have some trouble in some of these debates in that I feel most of what is said is usually non-falsifiable, a little too personal for comfort, and devolves 2 out of 3 times into a chest-beating contest with competition limited to some archaic version of "plan-plan". I do recognize that this isn't always the case, but if you find yourselves banking on "the counterplan/critique doesn't solve" because "you did it first", or "it's not genuine", or "their skin is white"; you're already on the path to a loss.

• If you are debating performance teams, the two main takeaways are that you'll probably lose framework unless you win topical version, and I hate judging "X" identity outweighs "Y" identity debates. I suggest, empirically, a critique of their identity politics coupled with some specific case cards is more likely to get my ballot than a strategy based around "Framework" and the "Rev". Not saying it's the only way, just offering some empirical observations of how I vote.

Lowell '22

Cal '26

Contact Info

Policy: lowelldebatedocs [at] gmail [dot] com

LD: tsantaylor [at] gmail [dot] com

Policy

Lay Debate: I'll evaluate the debate as a slow round unless both teams agree to go fast. Adapt to the rest of the panel before me.

Topicality: It's the negative's burden to prove a violation. I think debate is both an educational space and a competitive game, so I will be more persuaded by the model that maximizes its benefits for debaters and creates the most level playing field for both sides.

Counterplans: Unlimited condo is good. Advantage CP planks should have rehighlightings or solvency advocates to be legitimate. Deficits should be clearly impacted out from the 2AC to the 2AR for me to vote on them.

Disads: Turns case arguments, aff-specific link explanations, and ev comparison matter most for me. Logical, smart analytics do just as much damage as ev.

Ks: Most familiar with cap/setcol/security/IR Ks. I evaluate framework first to frame the rest of my flow. Contextualization to the aff, turns case analysis, and pulling lines from the 1AC are really important for the link debate.

K-Affs/KvK: I have the least experience judging these debates. "As the negative, recognize if this is an impact turn debate or one of competing models early on (as in, during the 2AC). When the negative sees where the 2AR will go and adjusts accordingly, I have found that I am very good for the negative. But when they fail to understand the debate's strategic direction, I almost always vote aff." - Debnil Sur

LD

I primarily judge LD now, but I've never competed in the activity so I'm not familiar with the specific theory/tricks. Explicit judge instruction and impact calc will go a long way for me, especially in the final rebuttals.

Things that will lower your speaks: stopping prep time before you start creating your speech doc, egregiously asking your opponent what was marked/not read, going for an RVI.

Misc.

I won't read evidence at the end of the debate unless you explicitly tell me to and send a compiled card doc.

Read whatever you want - if an argument is truly so bad that it shouldn't be debated, you should be able to beat it with zero cards. With that said, there is a clear difference between going for certain args and being actively violent in round, and I have zero tolerance for the latter.

+0.1 speaks if you make fun of a current cal debater/anyone on the lowell team and i laugh

Be nice, don't cheat, and have fun!

Please add me to the email chain: mollyurfalian@gmail.com

Notre Dame '23 (2A/1N for 4 years)

UC Berkeley '27

You can just call me Molly

TL

• time your own speeches and prep
• stickler for ev quality
• judge instruction is super important to me, especially in rebuttals
• I was a 2A, however condo is probably good
• I love CP + DA debates and ptx holds a special place in my heart
• I am fairly expressive and do not hide displeasure or confusion well, so look at me
• tech > truth

Topicality

• case lists are the most effective way for me to compare visions of the topic
• competing interps > reasonability
• smaller topics are probably better for innovation

Disads

• Any debate with a disad I love to hear
• I love ptx disads but I also know a truly garbage one when I see it
• turns case and impact calc are your best friends and should start early (on both sides)

Counterplans

• Agent CPs are my favorite
• I am extremely neutral on process CPs, but not debated well I lean aff on most perms
• I dislike super contrived adv cps, but logical ones that exploit poor aff writing are amazing
• Do impact calc between the solvency deficit and disadvantage
• I default to judge kick

Kritiks

• If you go for Ks consistently, I am not the best judge for you. I don't dislike them, I simply never went for them so I will probably not default in your favor
• I prefer links to the plan, at least the topic. Does not have to be cards but lines should be taken from the 1AC
• Engaging with the aff and substantial case work gives me a much clearer path to vote neg
• Don't read a super long overview, it just sounds like words to me. Do the work on the line by line
• Alts should resolve the links and their subsequent impacts
• Floating PIKs are probably bad
• If its not cap, security, set col or fem ir, thats fine, just explain it.

K affs

• If you read a K aff, I am not the best judge for you, however, I am also not the worst. You will have to do more work explaining your disads to FW than you would in front of K judges because I don't have as much background knowledge, so what is intuitive/obvious to you might not be for me.
• Consistency of explanation of aff offense is SO helpful. Super shift K affs make me upset and more importantly, I am much less likely to grant you weight of 2AR offense if it was not rooted in an explanation started in the 1AR.
• If you read a high theory K aff I am less likely to vote for you compared to an indentity aff. I understand them less and have the honest pre-disposition of thinking your offense is kinda dumb
• I really need your aff to do something. If you do nothing or want me to endorse your method that doesn't do anything I will be unhappy. Just explain to me what you solve, if you don't solve anything this round will be hard for you

Neg v K affs

• Presumption is great. I find it challenging to 0 an aff on a sentence or 2 of a 2NR. You are much more likely to win a presumption debate in front of me if the 2NR takes the extra 15 seconds to actually engage with the 1AR answers.
• Fairness is an impact as long as you tell me it is.
• TVAs and SSD are great. I find that 2Ns expect me to fill in some of the reasons as to why these would solve the aff intuitively. I am unwilling to do this work for you please explain how they solve.
• I was a 1N and took the Cap K or Cap good in every 1NR I ever gave. If you feel inclined to put me in a K v K debate, I am the most familiar with this one. I think neg team's sitting on a usually poorly answered K affs don't get perms debate is a winning debate

Theory

• Condo is good until we hit 5-6 condo. At this point the strat skew offense that the aff will go for becomes more persuasive to me.
• Dispo probably does not solve anything other than research, if you want to change my mind then explain it
• International fiat and changing the whole world fiat is bad. This includes K alt stuff.
• Limited Intrinsicness good/bad are the theory debates I had the most and judge the most. I am very neutral on the question. I find often that neg teams win on a deficit to the intrinsic perm than the theory debate.

Speaks

• If you yell at someone I will literally do everything in my power to vote against you. You can be loud and be passionate, but not mean esp at another individual.
• On a happier note I like snarky remarks and sassy answers. Just be funny with it
• If the top of the final rebuttal is why I should vote for you and has judge instruction you're doing yourself a favor

Re-highlighting

• Have the theory debate over whether it can be inserted or not, I will evaluate the debate based on the outcome
• If you choose not to have the theory debate I will default to letting ev be re-inserted. I changed my position on this issue because I want more debaters to do it, and forcing teams to read re-highlights seems to discourage quality ev idicts
• However, I will not do the debating for you, if you insert re-highlighting without explaining or implicating it in the debate I will not do the work for you. So only insert the amount of evidence you can reasonably explain

I'm not like most judges, I'm a cool judge (.5 extra speaker points if you tell me what movie I'm alluding to).

I prefer policy arguments, but honestly, anything goes. Just explain your arguments.

ASK ME QUESTIONS BEFORE ROUND!!! DON'T BE SHY :) I only bite when I'm hungry.

My email is: emnemgirl@icloud.com

top level predispositions (Update 2024 Emory):

I'd truly prefer that you don't debate if you're sick. If you must debate, I travel to every tournament with headphones and a laptop sufficient to allow you to debate from a hotel room or space separate from other judges and debaters. If you are symptomatic (nausea, persistent cough, runny nose, etc.) I will stop the debate and politely ask your coach to see if we can set up a remote debate setup for the round.

I won't be reading along with you, and won't spot either team args from pieces of evidence that weren't made in speeches. I'll resolve comparative evidentiary claims, if necessary, after the round. If you feel so compelled my team's gmail is hrsdebatedocs.

Plan texts nowadays aren't really descriptive of what the aff will defend and I think negative teams don't take advantage of that enough. I will expect aff teams not to dodge simple questions about jobs they provide, how the plan is funded, etc. I will also tend to read the debate through answers to such questions in CX. Being forthcoming and orienting your strategy around what the aff does is a much better basis for a win in front of me than trying to hide your hand.

I don't like generic neg strategies, if you're going to do this don't pref me please - - this means nonspecific process counterplans, disads, CPs with only internal net benefits, etc.

No, CX can't be used for prep lol.

I'm not going to judge kick. You make a decision about the world you'll defend in the 2nr and I'll follow accordingly.

For many of you reading this, speaker point inflation is the probably norm. I think the standard for what makes a good speech is a. too low and b. disconnected from strategy. My average speaker point range is 28.3-28.7, average meaning you're not doing any work between flows, not making the debate smaller for the sake of comparative analysis, not reading especially responsive strategies, not punishing generic strategies with pointed responses. On the other hand, I reward teams that have ostensibly done the reading and research to give me concrete analysis.

Given the above (and oodles of macrohistorical reasons), we probably are already in the world that the PRL warned us about. I'm more persuaded by empirical analysis of models of debate than the abstract nowadays.

Longer meditations below:

I've found that the integrity in which some high school debaters are interacting with evidence is declining. Two things:

1. Critical affirmatives that misrepresent critical theory literature or misrepresent their affirmative in the 1ac. I'm very inclined to vote against a team that does this on either side of the debate, with the latter only being limited to the affirmative side. Especially in terms of the affirmative side, I believe that a floor level minimum prep for critical affs should be that the affirmative clearly has a statement of what they will defend in the 1ac and also that they stick to that stasis point throughout the debate. If a critical aff shifts drastically between speeches I will be *very* inclined toward to any procedural/case neg arguments.

2. Policy affs that have weak internal links. I understand that a nuclear war scenario is the most far fetched portion of any advantage, but I've been seeing a lot of international relations scenarios that don't really take into account the politics of really any other countries. If your international conflict, spillover, modeling, etc. scenario doesn't have a semblance of the inner workings of another party to the conflict, I'll be *very* inclined to solvency presses and presumption arguments by the negative in that scenario.

I don't want to be on the email chain. If I want to, I'll ask. You should debate as if I'm not reading a speech doc.

I almost exclusively view debate as an educational / democratic training activity. I think rules are important to that end, however. This is to say that I ground much of what I think is important in debate in terms of how skills critical thinking in debate rounds adds into a larger goal of pursuing knowledge and external decisionmaking.

i've been in debate since 2008. at this point i'm simultaneously more invested and less invested in the activity. i'm more invested in what students get out of debate, and how I can be more useful in my post-round criticism. I'm less invested in personalities/teams/rep/ideological battles in debate. it's entirely possible that I have never heard of you before, and that's fine.

you should run what will win you the round. you should run what makes you happy.

Impact scenarios are where I vote - Even if you win uniqueness/link questions, if I don't know who's going to initiate a war, how an instance of oppression would occur, etc. by the end of the round, I'll probably go looking elsewhere to decide the round. The same thing goes for the aff - if I can't say what the aff solves and why that's important, I am easily persuaded by marginal negative offense.

Prep time ends when you email the file to the other team. It's 2024, you've likely got years of experience using a computer for academic/personal work, my expectations of your email prowess are very high.

Competing methods debates don't mean no permutation, for me at least. probably means that we should rethink how permutations function. people/activists/organizers combine methods all the time.

I've found myself especially unwilling to vote on theory that's on face not true - for example: if you say floating PICs bad, and the alternative isn't articulated as a floating PIC in the debate, I won't vote on it. I don't care if it's conceded.

I think fairness is an independent impact, but also that non-topical affs can be fair. A concession doesn't mean an argument is made. your only job is to make arguments, i don't care if the other team has conceded anything, you still have to make the argument in the last speech.

Affs I don't like:

I've found myself increasingly frustrated with non-topical affs that run philosophically/critically negative stances on the aff side. The same is true for non-topical affs that just say that propose a framework for analysis without praxis. I'm super open to presumption/switch-side arguments against these kinds of affs.

Affs that simply restate a portion of the resolution as their plan text.

I'm frustrated by non-topical affs that do not have any sort of advocacy statement/plan text. If you're going to read a bunch of evidence and I have to wait until CX or the 2AC to know what I'm voting for, I'll have a lower threshold to vote on fw/t/the other team.

Finally, I have limited belief in the transformative power of speech/performance. Especially beyond the round. I tend to think that power/violence is materially structured and that the best advocacies can tell me how to change the status quo in those terms.

Negs I don't like:

Framework 2nr's that act as if the affirmative isn't dynamic and did not develop between the 2ac and the 1ar. Most affs that you're inclined to run framework against will prove "abuse" for you in the course of the debate.

Stale politics disadvantages. Change your shells between tournaments if necessary, please.

Theoretically inconsistent/conflicting K strats.

I don't believe in judge kicking. Your job is to make the strategic decisions as the debate continues, not mine.

if you have questions about me or my judge philosophy, ask them before the round!

he/him/his

Debated 4 years of HS (Winfield, Kansas), 2 years in College (Los Angeles City College, CSUFullerton)

Coach for SUDL

General Thoughts (whatever "thinking" is)

I am open to anything. I am also incredibly judgmental. I would rather hear a unique, new argument with perhaps less precise execution than the tightest strategy executed in the most boring way possible. That being said, what I would rather hear and what will win a substantive debate may not be the same. Use your own discretion; you are the debater, right? Don’t be mean and overbearing. Don’t be too timid.

Policy arguments (whatever "policy" is)

Implementation and the allowed viability of current affairs are important if you're going this route. The more precise the better. I'd like to feel how far the effects of my ballot travel, gloriously stamping the world with my verdict; as a god would upon mortal puppets.

Critical Arguments (whatever "ontology" is)

These are the arguments with which I have the most familiarity. Please don't buzzword me to death here.

I am inclined to believe that permutations to “critical arguments” make little to no sense unless the aff is already winning substantive arguments on the link and impact level. Impact comparison and/or link turns will be necessary if you want me to vote for these so-called "permutations".

Topicality/Theory (whatever “is” is)

If you know what you’re talking about or have a crafty violation, I’m certainly willing to vote on topicality. That being said, I have a higher threshold on topicality than most. However, your "fairness" "education" "ground" abuses aren't worth my time. Tell me the direct violation and I'll decide how you were afflicted in the round (by watching the round). If you prove no affiliation with the resolution, or a direct connection through the resolution, I will vote on topicality first and then weigh the impacts. If the abuse warrants my ballot, then you will win my ballot.
Aff should at least discuss its pertinence to the resolution and/or debate or have a cogent defense of the presentation of your argument or a criticism of the necessity of such discussions. If someone tells me that these affs don't matter, I will listen to their arguments and remain open to persuasion on the issue. Not unexpectedly, I find that the smart cheaters are often very far ahead on these debates. Take that for what it is.

Additional Note On Topicality/Theory: I have seen T violations that had real world impacts (as opposed to in-round impacts) that link the definition of the word to impacts for a disad. This is genius, and if you can do it you should try. My favorite 2AC analysis happened when a debater showed the performative contradictions of conditional neg arguments as framing for impact calc beyond the life-or-death story run by the neg. I think there is an interconnected approach to the debate that involves holistic unity (literally, not like "you should try some lavender that burn" holistic).

“My” background (whoever “I” am)

Raised in KS, living in CA. I used to be a Nietzsche debater, then transferred to UCD and read everything he wrote, and Plato/Aristotle, most of the Modern types, did graduate work on Plato and Weber, suffered a short obsession with DuBois and Hegel, then panicked when none of it helped me study int'l econ. I am confident that most people don't debate Nietzsche right, and it doesn't matters that they can't. Something happens in there. I am a hard nerd for bureaucratic politics and regime cooption. I'm the type to get really excited about information systems or comparing organization structures. While debating I took most organization cooption examples from the fall of the USSR. I have a life outside of that stuff though, as I hope you do as well. If you can make me laugh during a debate, that will bode well for you. But don't try too hard. Trying too hard is like caring too much about not being a fascist: it only makes you a fascist.

Lastly, I plagiarized a lot of this from an old friend who's now an IP lawyer, and I think that's so funny. FYI all

Lowell '20 || UC Berkeley '24 (Studying Computer Science, not debating) || Assistant Coach @ College Prep || she/her/hers

Please add both kellyye16@gmail.com and cpsspeechdocs@gmail.com to the chain.

Please format the chain subject like this: Tournament Name - Round # - Aff Team Code [Aff] vs Neg Team Code. Please make sure the chain is set up before the start time.

Background

I debated for four years at Lowell High School. I’ve been a 2A for most of my years (2Ned as a side gig my junior year). Qualified to the TOC & placed 7th at NSDA reading arguments on both sides of the spectrum. I'd say my comfort for judging rounds is Policy vs. Policy > K vs. Policy >> K vs. K.

I learned everything I know about debate from Debnil Sur, and I think about debate in the same way as this guy.He's probably the person I talk to the most when it comes to strategies and execution, it would be fair to say that if you like the way that he judge then I am also a good judge for you.

General Things

I'll vote on anything.I think there is certainly a lot of value in ideological flexibility.

Tech >>>>>>>>> truth: I'd rather adapt to your strategies than have you adapt to what you think my preferences are. The below are simply guidelines & ways to improve speaks via tech-y things I like seeing rather than ideological stances on arguments.

Looooove judge instruction - if I hear a ballot being written in the 2NR/2AR, I will basically just go along with it and verify if what you are saying is correct. The closer my decision is to words you have said in the 2NR/2AR, the higher your speaker points will be.

I think evidence quality is important, but I value good spin more because it incentivizes smart analysis & contextualization - I think that a model of debate where rounds are adjudicated solely based on evidence quality favors truth more than technical skills. As a result, I tend not to look at evidence after the round unless it was specifically flagged during speeches. With that being said, I’ll probably default to reading evidence if there’s a lack of resolution done by teams in a round. You probably don't want this because I feel like its opens up the possibility for more intervention -- so please just help me out and debate warrants + resolve the biggest points of clash in your 2NR/2ARs.

2023-2024 Round Stats If You Care:

Policy vs. Policy (11-18): 37.93% aff over 29 rounds, 22.22% aff in a theory debate over 9 rounds

Policy vs. K (5-2): 71.43% aff over 7 rounds

K vs. Policy (2-3): 40% aff over 5 rounds

K v K (1-0): 100% aff over 1 round

Sat once out of 12 elim rounds

Disads

Not much to say here - think these debates are pretty straight forward. I start evaluation at the impact level to determine link threshold & risk of the disad. My preference for evaluation is if there is explicit ballot writing + evidence indicts + resolution done by yourself in the 2NR/2AR, I would love not to open the card document and make a more interventionist judgement.

CPs

Default to judge kick. If the affirmative team has a problem with me doing this, that words "condo bad" should have been in the 2AC and explanation for no judge kick warranted out in the 1AR/2AR.

The proliferation of 1NCs with like 10 process counterplans has been kind of wild, and probably explains my disproportionately neg leaning ballot record. Process/agent/consult CPs are kind of cheating but in the words of the wise Tristan Bato, "most violations are reasons to justify a permutation or call solvency into question and not as a voter."

I think I tend to err neg on questions of conditionality & perf con but probably aff on counterplans that garner competition off of the word “should”. Obviously this is a debate to be had but also I’m also sympathetic to a well constructed net benefit with solid evidence.

Ks

Framework is sosososo important in these debates. I don’t think I really lean either side on this question but I don’t think the neg needs to win the alt if they win framework + links based on the representational strategy of the 1AC.

Nuanced link walls based on the plan/reps + pulling evidence from their ev >>>> links based on FIATed state action and generic cards about your theory.

To quote Debnil “I'm a hard sell on sweeping ontological or metaphysical claims about society; I'll likely let the aff weigh the plan; I don't think the alt can fiat structures out of existence; and I think the alt needs to generate some solid uniqueness for the criticism.“

Bad for post-modernism, simply because I've never read them + rarely debated them in high school. If you have me in the back you need to do a LOT of explanation.

Planless Affs/Framework

Generally, I don’t think people do enough work comparing/explaining their competing models of debate and its benefits other than “they exclude critical discussions!!!!”

For the aff: Having advocacy in the direction of the topic >>>>>>>> saying anything in the 1AC. I’ll probably be a lot more sympathetic to the neg if I just have no clue what the method/praxis of the 1AC is in relation to the topic. I think the value of planless affs come from having a defensible method that can be contested, which is why I’m not a huge fan of advocacies not tied to the topic. Not sure why people don’t think perms in a method debate are not valid - with that being said, I can obviously be convinced otherwise. I prefer nuanced perm explanations rather than just “it’s not mutually exclusive”.

For the neg: I don’t really buy procedural fairness - I think to win this standard you would have to win pretty substantial defense to the aff’s standards & disprove the possibility of debate having an effect on subjectivity. I don't think I'd never vote on fairness, but I think the way that most debaters extend it just sound whiney and don't give me a reason to prefer it over everything else. Impacts like agonism, legal skills, deliberation, etc are infinitely more convincing to me. Stop with the question of "what does voting aff in round [x] of tournament [y] do for your movement", you're hardly ever going to get the gotcha moment you think you will. Absent a procedural question of framework, I am just evaluating whether or not I think the advocacy is a good idea, not that I think the reading of it in one round has to change the state of debate/the world.

Topicality / Theory

I default to competing interps. Explanations of your models/differences between your interps + caselists >>>>> “they explode limits” in 10 different places. Please please please please do impact comparison, I don’t want to hear “they’re a tiny aff and that’s unfair” a bunch.

Topic education, clash, and in-depth research are more convincing to me than generic fairness impacts.

Theory debates are usually the most difficult for me to resolve, and probably the most interventionist I would have to be in an RFD. Very explicit judge instruction and ballot writing is needed to avoid such intervention.

Ethics Violations/Procedurals

I don't flow off speech docs, but I try to follow along when you're reading evidence to ensure you're not clipping. If I catch you clipping, I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you don't know what you're doing. I will give you a warning, but drop you if it happens again. If the other team catches you and wants to stake the round on an ethics challenge, I doubt you're winning that one.

Questions of norms ≠ ethics violations. If you believe the ballot should resolve a question of norms (disclosure, open sourcing, etc), then I will evaluate it like a regular procedural. If you believe it's an ethics violation (intentionally modifying evidence, clipping, etc), then the round stops immediately. Loser of the ethics challenge receives an auto loss and 20s.

Evidence ethics can be really iffy to resolve. If you want to stake the round on an evidence distortion, you must prove: that the piece of evidence was cut by the other team (or someone affiliated with their school) AND there was clear and malicious intent to alter its meaning. If your problem isn't surrounding distortion but rather mistagging/misinterpreting the evidence, it can be solved via a rehighlighting.

Online Debate

Please don't start until you see my camera on!

If you're not wearing headphones with a microphone attached, it is REALLY hard to hear you when you turn away from your laptop. Please refrain from doing this.

I would also love if you slowed down a tiny tiny tiny tiny bit on your analytics. I will clear you at most 3 times, but I can't help it if I miss what you're saying on my flow ;(.

Lay Debate / GGSA
I actually really appreciate these rounds. I think at the higher levels, debaters tend to forget that debate is a communicative activity at its core, and rely on the judge's technical knowledge to get out of impacting out arguments themselves. If we are in a lay setting and you'd rather not have a fast round when I'm in the back, I'll be all for that. There is such a benefit in adapting to slower audiences and over-explaining implications of all parts of the debate -- it builds better technical understanding of the activity! I'll probably still evaluate the round similar to how I would a regular round, but I think the experience of you forcing yourself to over-explain each part of the flow to me is greatly beneficial.

Public Forum

I've never debated in PF, but I have judged a handful of rounds now. I will evaluate very similarly to how I evaluate policy rounds.

I despise the practice of sending snippets of evidence one at a time. I think it's a humongous waste of time and honestly would prefer (1) the email chain be started BEFORE the round and (2) all of the evidence you read in your speech sent at once. Someone was confused about this portion of my paradigm -- basically, instead of asking for "Can I get [A] card on [B] argument, [C] card on [D] arg, etc...", I think it would be faster if the team that just spoke sent all of their evidence in one doc. This is especially true if the tournament is double-flighted.

If you want me to read evidence after the round, please make sure you flag is very clearly.

I've been in theory/k rounds and I try to evaluate very close to policy. I'm not really a huge fan of k's in public forum -- I don't think there is enough speech time for you to develop such complex arguments out well. I also don't think it makes a lot of sense given the public forum structure (i.e. going for an advocacy when it's not a resolution that is set up to handle advocacies). I think there's so much value in engaging with critical literature, please consider doing another event that is set up better for it if you're really interested in the material. However, I'm still willing to vote on anything, as long as you establish a role of the ballot + frame why I'm voting.

If you delay the round to pre-flow when it's double-flighted, I will be very upset. You should know your case well enough for it to not be necessary, or do it on your own time.

Be nice & have fun.