I have over 5 years of experience in Public Forum debate. I have judged over 7 tournaments and multiple mock debates in the past. All in all, I am a flow judge, I am ok with relatively fast speaking speed. Here’re some suggestions for you:

1. DON’T bring up new points in final focus...I WON’T give you any credit for that as it will not appear on my flow sheet.
2. Weigh your impacts!
3. If your opp. Drops a point/impact/link that you think is important, you should call it out.
4. Extend your arguments through out the whole debate to ensure full credit from me.
5. If I think a card is too good to be true, I might call for the card. (DON’T fake your cards)
6. I am fine with speed once again, but please make sure your clarity is the priority, I will STOP flowing as soon as you start spreading.
7. Simply don’t interrupt your opponents during cross...give them a chance to finish their question before you insert another follow-up or response
8. I won’t necessarily flow crossfire so if you think anything occurred that’s important during the cross, you need to state it in your next immediate speech.
9. If you want my vote, the links should be clear.

At the end of each round, I will provide a short round analysis and personal feedbacks if any debaters want any. Do understand that I make my decisions on a very serious basis, so please bare with me if I need few minutes to make my decisions up.

Edward Luo

2nd Place Team at the 2020 TOC

Speed Preferences: Talking fast is acceptable, but I may not catch everything so I recommend slowing down to emphasize your key points (or use tone and volume/other methods to emphasize).

I like to see debaters weigh during Summary and Final Focus. I will ultimately make my decision based on whichever side successfully convinces me that their impacts have better links and outweigh the other team's impacts.

I will never make arguments for either side (or assume you imply certain meanings), so even if you think that the opponent has said a ridiculous argument that is obviously wrong, you should still make a brief effort to rebut it.

I generally favor teams with strong evidence. If one side logically or anecdotally explains how A leads to B, but the other team provides statistics showing the opposite, I will usually side with the team with the statistics (Unless the first team can prove to me how those statistics do not contradict their claim).

If your opponent gives evidence that seems false, ask for an evidence check or provide evidence that shows the opposite.

I debated public forum for 3.5 years and have participated in regional and national-level PF tournaments in both China and the US. I also have 1 year of judging experience. I have taken the NFHS Cultural Competency Judge Training course. 

Things to know about how I judge before the round:

-Delivery speed is up to you. I flow, but make sure to convey your arguments clearly.

-I prefer DAs that don’t cause nuclear war(unless you have a specific probability and outweigh).

-I view narrative building as the main component in debate. If you just exclusively spew strings of cards I will likely find you a weaker advocate.

- I don’t like new cards in the summary. It’s somewhat unfair considering PF debate rounds are short and unlike CX. If you think you have good arguments that are hard to defend, please bring them up in the first half of the debate. If they don’t look good under more scrutiny of your opponents, avoid bringing them up altogether.

Avoid new arguments/new evidence in the final focus. They will not be factored in my decision.

-In summaries and final focuses (foci?), make sure to tell me how I should view the various positions in the round. If you use frameworks, make sure your arguments comply. Weigh impacts, compare evidence, compare frameworks. Please make you summaries and final focuses consistant. If they are, I will bump up your speaker points as you have good cooperation.

-Please weigh in the summary. Very important.

-I appreciate jokes to lighten up the atmosphere in debate.

Best of luck!

MSU ’26
Debated pf for 1 year during high school (China & US circuits), 2nd year doing policy debate (2a)
Please add me to the chain: zmmdb8@gmail.com
Pronouns: she/her/hers

- Zero tolerance for anything ethically or morally horrible (racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, death good, any form of discrimination or harmful rhetoric, etc. directly lost you the debate)
- As an ESL I appreciate clarity over speed, go slightly slower on analytics please
- Extra speaks for pronouncing last names of Chinese authors correctly