Maine East Regatta
2024 — Park Ridge, IL/US
Varsity Policy Paradigm List
All Paradigms: Show HideDONT RUN ENACT EXCLUDES courts in front of me. It’s wrong and absurd. What would a topic excluding the Supreme Court look like on criminal justice topic. The resolution says USFG. Supreme Court part of USFG.
put me on the Email chain. Silvermdc1@gmail.com
IN MOST ROunds I’m not reading every card on the doc because it’s a communicative activity. I’ve learned that often some peoples explanation of their evidence doesn’t line up with what the text says. In a situation where I’m on a panel where the other judges are reading the cards I too will as well.
while you’re speaking I prefer you turn your camera on. Understand if you don’t have bandwidth to support it.
I evaluate disease based/ pandemic based impacts much more seriously now due to ongoing effects of COVID 19. I still believe that debate is a game, educational one however I want to fully acknowledge the serious situation of where we are in our country with policing. I’m sure we can have debates while being tactful and understanding for some folks the issue can be personal.
I'll shake your hand if it's like your last round of high school debate and I so happen to judge it. It's weird to me when a kid tries to shake my hand after a round though. I did it when I was debating and didn't realize how odd it was. Oops.
It's likely that I'll laugh some don't take it personally I laugh all the time and I'm not making fun of you. I'm a human being and have lots of beliefs and feelings about debate but I'm persuadable. I don't flow Cross X obviously but sometimes questions and or answers end up impacting my perception of the round.
Arguments that I like hearing
I love the politics disadvantage, I like strategic counterplans. relevant case arguments, specfic d/as to plans.
Non-traditional AFFs or teams.
I'll listen to K affs or teams that don't affirm the resolution. Honestly though it's not my cup of tea. Over the years debate has been changing and I guess I've changed in some ways with it.
Other stuff
NEW Counterplans in the 2NC I'm not cool with unless the 2AC reads an add on.
SPeaker points
I evaluate how well you answered your opponents arguments, ETHOs, persuasiveness, Humor, STRATEGIC DECISIONS. There are times when one team is clearly more dominant or one student is a superior speaker. That's GREAT!! I'm not going to reward you with speaker points for walloping a weaker team. You're not going to be penalized either but it's clear when you have a challenge and when you just get an easy draw in round.
IF I HAVE NEVER MET YOU BEFORE DON'T EMAIL ME ASKING FOR EVIDENCE FROM ROUNDS I JUDGED
ARGUMENTs I'd rather not hear.
SPARK
WIPEOUT
SCHLAG
Schopenhauer
Arguments I find offensive and refuse to flow
RACISM GOOD
PATRIARCHY GOOD
If we're talking about paradigm I view debate as a game. It's an educational game but a game still. I think most rules are debateable. I think speech times are consistent and not a breakable rule, ad-hominem attacks are not acceptable.
Even if your're not friends with your debate partner treat them respect and please no bickering with them.
I'd prefer if people do an e-mail stream instead of flashing or other methods of sharing evidence.
KRITIKS
I'll listen to your criticism. Few things. I think there needs to be a coherent link story with the affirmative, words or scholarship the affirtmative said in cross-x. Your K will not be a viable strategy in front of me without a link story. It's a very tough hill to win a K in front of me without an Alternative. Debaters have done it before but it's been less than 5 times.
- Explain and analyze what the alternative does.
- Who does it
How does a world compare post alternative to pre-alternative?
NEgative Framework - Should interpt various words in the resolution
- Have clear brightline about why your view of debate is best for education
Address proper forums for critical arguments people make - Have voting issues that explain why your vision of debate is desirable.
- I prioritize role of the ballot issues.
PERFORMANCE/POEMS/ Interpretive - I'll entertain it I guess, I'm probaly not the most recceptive though. Explain how you want me to fairly evaluate these concerns. Also consider what type of ground you're leaving your opponent without making them go for reprehensible args like: Patriarchy Good or racism good.
Counterplans - Need to have a solvency advocate
- A text
- Literature
Can be topical in my mind - Net benefit or D/A to prefer CP to aff
Needs to be some breathing room between Counterplan and plan. PICS are fine however I don't think it's legit to jack someone elses aff and making a minute difference there isn't lit for.
Legitimate Competition
A reason the permutation can't work besides theory arguments.
Theory
DON'T JUST READ THEORY BLOCKS AGAINST Each other. Respond in a line by line fashion to opponents theory args. Dropped arguments are conceded arguments obviously. In a close debate don't assume because you have a blippy quick theory argument it's neccessarily going to win you a debate in front of me if you didn't invest much time in it.
Rebuttals
1. Engage with opponents evidence and arguments.
2. Make contextual differences.
3. Humor is fine but don't try to be funny if you're not.
4. Clarity is preferred over speed. Not telling you to go slow but if I can't coherently understand what you're saying we have a problem. Like if you're unclear or slurr a bunch of words while you're spreading.
5. HAVE FUN! Getting trophies and winning tournaments is cool but I'm more concerned what kind of person you're in the process of becoming. Winning isn't everything.
Topicality
Don't trivialize T. Burden is on the affirmative to prove they are topical. I'll listen to reasonablity or competing Interpretations framework. I don't believe in one more than other and can be persuaded either way. Standards by which to evaluate and voting issues are nice things to have in addition to an Interpretation.
Arguments I like on T that I find have been lost to the wayside.
Reasons to prefer source of dictionary, information about changing language norms and meaning, the usage of the word in soceity currently.
Grammar analysis pertaining to the resolution.
Framers Intent/ Resolution planning arguments
Voting issues you think someone who thinks debate is an educational game would like to hear.
Disadvantages
Link Story that is specific to AFFIRMATIVE.
Impacts that would make a worse world than aff.
Author qualifications matter to me, Sources of your evidence matter to me. How well you're able to explain your claims matter to me. Evidentiary comparison to your opponents authors are saying.
General stylistics things
Some kind of labelling for arguments like numbers or letters before the tags is preferrable. If you have questions feel free to e-mail me. silvermdc1@gmail.com
email chains: aadit.agrahara@gmail.com
A little about me:
I debated pf in high school qualifying to the TOC 2x.
I currently am a policy debater at MSU.
I think that debate is a game and that debaters should control the direction of the activity.
In short you as the debater will shape my paradigm. In other words, move me and i shall be moved.-might have to trademark this.
However here are somethings to make my judging experience and your round as enjoyable as possible.(these are things that you must do irrespective of what you read)
- Everything you do in debate must be backed with a warrant
- Sign post and interact with the line by line. Frontlining, back lining, etc.
- Give me solid weighing arguments. I think weighing is underrated and really good comparative analysis often elevates debates.
- Give clear link extensions.
- Don't assume im familiar with lit. K or policy explain the warrants of your author dont leave me to figure it out by myself. You should be able to explain the argument without using the words of the author. Judge instruction in the 2ar/2nr are important.
- Reading cards is half the battle, telling how this ev interacts with an argument is what matters.
- Cross is never that serious R E L A X.
- Don't run from the grind: Spamming procedural theory arguments, ballot PIC, etc. I will vote on these but be fr for one second.
I hate it when judges arbitrarily give me speaks so im going to be very nice and give y'all good speaks unless y'all make me do otherwise
For more of the specifics
Framework/K affs.
I think that debaters must have their offense and defense that is specifically contextualized to the aff. This is really important when it comes to the impact explanation of fairness. "the aff wants follows Speech times, prep times," an example of not contextual articulations of fairness especially if the aff is critiquing content not procedural aspects of debate (which is like 9/10 times). Winning limits and ground are cool, but I need this to be explored further and impacting this out— how does the aff explode limits and shrink ground and how would that look like it a debate. This doesn't mean that I have a higher threshold for framework, rather teams have a lower threshold of what it takes to win framework debates.
Conversely, I think that Kaff teams just be spamming DAs that aren't really as fleshed out or contextual to the neg standards/impact characterizations. I think the bulk of the work in the 1AR/2AR should be capitalizing on the impact level to get ahead on the debate. I also think that attempting to create a robust counter interpretation and interacting with negative definitions is like icing on the cake, not required but makes it really hard for negatives to overcome.
Also when going to case if you are neg and spam the no subject formation/presumption/no ballot spill out claims, please please please make sure the aff actually a) makes these claims in the 1AC or requires these things to be true for the aff to win. I have been aff in these debates when the neg continues to spam these arguments and expect them to work.
Also Ballot PIC— BOOOOOOO. Don't run from the grind. I think affs that do something make this impossible to vote for and the threshold by the nature of this argument is hard to vote for. The ballot PIC isn't a tie breaker argument or a little add in to your speech, please sit on this page and really explain these the components of the PIC.
K v K
I love these debates, but these debates can become very messy and extremely hard for me to evaluate as a consequence.
Both sides should engage in a lot more story telling engaging in a top level analysis of the debate and its win conditions.
I think link work is very important here if you are neg. There is a high threshold for links here , "vertical vs horizontal organization" is not a link nor prove exclusivity unless you are saying something like "the aff prevents the formation of a vanguard party". These terms have distinct meanings with important implications. This means that just pulling from generics from your massive files aren't really
I also think that the ALT is just never expanded on in these debates. Get in the weeds of the ALT whether you are aff or neg. This is what can inform the perm debate and just never happens.
I hate when the aff just spams the perms with little contextualization, really provide depth at the link and alt levels to explain the perms.
Policy things:
I have the most experience with this area.
The most important thing that I believe should be happening in these debates that I feel is lacking is impact calc, and leveraging uniqueness link and internal link stories to do proper comparative impact calc.
Another thing is evidence specificity. I like good evidence that says what your trying to say whether this is a topicality debate or a uniqueness card. This doesn't mean that I am a precision > debatability guy but quality evidence is really key.
Other than that refer to the stuff above.
Conditionality and its friends:
I will vote on these types of arguments but I believe that you are running from the grind. Don't run from the grind and just answer the arguments.
Update for 2025
We should be using share.tabroom.com-- if that doesn't work ask for my email before the round and make sure to throw a coach on the chain as well.
Aasiyah (ah-see-yuh) Bhaiji (by-jee)
she/they
Conflicts: GBS, The Avery Coonley School
SHORT VERSION
"Do your thing, so long as you enjoy the thing you do. My favorite debates to watch are between debaters who demonstrate a nuanced understanding of their literature bases and seem to enjoy the scholarship they choose to engage in...I think judging is a privilege."-Maddie Pieropan.
I flow as much as my fingers will allow me. Slow down on the important parts and always remember clarity should be prioritized over speed.
For online debates: If my camera is on, assume I am not ready for the debate, I will always give either a visual or vocal confirmation that I am ready to start your speech.
LONG VERSION--Policy
Debate as an activity loses all value when debaters do not consider that there has to be a reason why a team deserves the ballot. I try my hardest to stick to my flow and rely heavily on judge instruction as to how I will write my ballot. YOU DO NOT WANT ME TO CONNECT THE DOTS FOR YOU.
I appreciate debaters who are passionate, excited, and well-prepared. The best debaters I’ve witnessed throughout the years have been the ones who show kindness and respect towards their partners and opponents. I am not a fan of teams that openly mock, belittle, and disrespect the people they are debating.
I'd prefer you talk about the topic and that your affirmative be in the direction of the topic. I could not possibly care less if that is via policy debate or K debate.
Planless Affirmatives
I like planless affirmatives, but you absolutely need to defend the choices and explanations you give in early cross-exes. I need to know what your version of debate looks like, and I am finding that most teams aren’t willing to defend a solid interpretation, which makes it hard for me to vote for them.
Please stick to an interpretation once you’ve read it. Clash debates with affs that are centered around the resolution are fun, and I find myself in the back of those debates most of the time.
I am not comfortable judging rounds with affs that rely on "survival strategies" or rounds that force debaters to out themselves/explain their identity for an argument.
I have less thoughts on policy rounds, not because I don't enjoy them, but because they are a lot more clear cut for me.
CPs
I do not default to judge kick; you have to give me instructions. What does it mean to sufficiently frame something? I am so serious. I have been asking this question for what seems like forever now.
I miss advantage counterplans, and I am a less-than-ideal judge for Process CPs (I'm not saying I won’t vote for them, it might do you well to spend a couple more seconds on process cps good in the block).
Solvency advocates are good but not necessary for me as a judge.
DAs
DAs as case turns will inevitably end up on the same flow, so please just tell me where to flow things earlier on in the debate.
Please don't read any terror disads/impacts in front of me, I will not be a happy camper. If you have to read them, fine. But I do hope that you have an in-depth explanation of your impact scenarios and understand the nuances of WHY terrorism occurs.
Ks
“Kritiks that rely entirely on winning through framework tricks are miserable. If I am not skeptical of the aff's ability to solve their internal links or the alt's ability to solve them, then I am unlikely to vote negative.”-AJ Byrne
If you cannot explain your alternative using a vocabulary a 7th grader can understand, you are likely using language and debate jargon that I find counterintuitive and, quite frankly, boring.
Most teams are very bad at sticking to their framework, unfortunately for you all, I DO care about framework and will hold you accountable.
T
Why are we putting this as the first off? I will most likely miss the interpretation if you are speeding through it.
I am not familiar with indepth topic discussions and have been out of the loop for a while when it comes to the literature, so I don't think I am a great judge for most topicality arguments.
Also, can we please explain our impacts earlier on in the debate? I also don't know when this became normalized, but we need to be putting standards in full text in the 1NC speech doc. Thank you in advance :)
FW
I am not good for “our interpretation is better for small schools"
Defend your interpretation early on and throughout the debate. I need to be able to know how to evaluate the debate by the time I start writing my ballot.
Also I do think that "roll of the judge" and "roll of the ballot" are different (roj is the mindset in which I should evaluate the debate and rob is what my ballot signifies). Define one, define both, but please try to do at least one of those things.
Other things:
- If I could implement the no more than 5 off rule, I would. Obviously, against new affirmatives, the circumstances are different, but I firmly believe that everything in the 1NC should be a viable option for the 2NR.
- DISCLOSURE IS GOOD!I will try my hardest to be in the room for when it happens and I am not afraid to check teams wikis to see their disclosure practices. If you post round docs and show before I give you my decision, you will be rewarded.
- I am super expressive, and you will be able to tell if I am vibing with whatever you are saying. I do have a very prominent RBF. Don’t take it personally; it means I am trying to get everything down.
- Fine with tag-team but have found myself becoming frustrated when one debater from a team dominates all of cx. I do think that all debaters should speak at some point during cross-ex.
- CX as prep is only justified when there is a new aff or if you are maverick.
- The 1AC should be sent out at the scheduled round start time, the only exception is if the tournament is behind schedule and Tab has alerted everyone of the timing change.
More things I have thought about in regards to debate but aren’t wholly necessary to pre-round prep.
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There is a difference between speaking up and yelling, I do not do well with debaters talking over their partners.
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Please give me time to get settled before you start your speech.
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I LOVE good case debating, and I get sad when the block treats it as an afterthought.
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I had no idea teams gained the ability to remember every single thing their opponent said. FLOW! PLEASE!
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Why are we reading the tier 3 argument against planless affirmatives.... let's start using our critical thinking skills
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Rehighlighting evidence is a lost art. Bring it back for 2025
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Clipping is bad, don't do it. I will clear you twice, and after that, I will stop flowing. If there is a recording of you clipping, it's an auto loss and a talk with your coach
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I flow straight down (primarily because of sloppy line-by-line); the more organized your speeches are, the happier I am.
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DRINK WATER
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I do not care if you put a single card in the body of the email chain.
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I apologize for any typos or run on sentences in my published RFDs (I recommend taking notes from verbal feedback that I give after the round, it is way more detailed and I can answer any questions in real time as opposed to you trying to decipher my initial two-lined decision).
- Let's treat the rooms we debate in with respect and care, it takes a lot for a school to host a tournament and it isn't fair that people leave garbage behind after round.
- Have fun and let the games begin :)
Congress--
Not entirely sure if you all read these because I am supposed to explain my ethos rules at the beginning of the session. You all should be clear, concise and kind in your speeches. Have fun and good luck!
niles north 23, kentucky 27
general
--technical execution and preventing judge intervention should be at the forefront of whatever approach you take. this means that concessions (with warrants) matter and there should be lots of judge instruction.
--topic research is good, backfile slop is not. research is my favorite part of the activity and I will always appreciate and reward a well-researched and thoughtful strategy, whatever that be. (but, I am also not qualified to mediate interpersonal problems between debaters!)
--organization is extremely important. you should number arguments, sign post, and slow down at times.
--please use email chains, not speech drop. have proper subject lines with the tournament, round, and teams.
LD
--everything above applies. I do not like tricks, I do not like phil, and I do not like RVIs. (and whatever else elizabeth elliott thinks)
if you are interested in debating in college and want to know more about kentucky, feel free to reach out!
Please Note: ADD me to the Email Chain [dbraswell@chicagodebates.org]
My Paradigm is as follows,
I am a stickler for structured organized debate. As a previous high school and college debater; I stress the importance of the AFF team hitting all stock issues (Inherency, Harms, Solvency, Plan, and T), signposting, line by line clash, Impact Cal, poise during cross ex, and leaving no argument unaddressed. For the NEG Team, I welcome off case and on case arguments, they must be clearly signposted (If DA- Uniqueness, Link, Internal Link, Impact. ETC for T/K/CP/Theory arguments), use line by line, Impact Cal, and politeness as well during cross ex (Keep It Cute). I am a firm believer of strategy as well, so go for whatever strategy you feel works best for you IN the debate round. I can flow spreading however IF you are spreading, IT MUST BE CLEAR AND CONCISE. Actual spreading doesn't sound like gibberish and run-on sentences. If it is a digital debate with files online, PLEASE set up Email Chains and Flash Drives before the round, it takes away from actual debate time. I do signal how much time you have as time goes down and you can finish your sentence when the timer goes off. In the event someone has to go to the restroom, it would be counted as prep time [depending on the situation]. I have judged the following debate/speech events: CX, PF, LD, Congress, College Parli, OO, and other speech events and I am stickler for organization of arguments, persuasion methods used, and being passionate (but not aggressive) in the cross. As I have been a debater, debate team captain, coach, and program assistant; My goal is to educate and build upon your knowledge of debate as well as help you grow as an aware and autonomous being. Debate has played a tremendous role in my growth and development; I hope it does the same for you. I do not disclose unless instructed to by the league however I do believe in giving meaningful feedback at the end of the round.
Respectfully,
Derrick Braswell
Updated 2 September 2024
Debated Maine East H.S. 2009 -2012, Coach/Judge 2012 -
I have not done any research on this topic so do not assume I understand your terms, ideas, and or acronyms.
Debate is an educational game where everything in debate is debatable i.e. should I prefer tech over truth, do I need a plan text. Be nice to each other, try your best and have fun. Prefer debates were debaters are challenged to think in new ways. Do not be deterred from going for any argument because of what you read here. (Do not read Death Good in front of me.)
I’m open to listening to and voting for any argument even debates about what debate should be i.e. k of debate. Just because I stated that I will listen to / vote on / prefer something does not mean that it is an automatic win. If I do not understand something I will not vote on it.
Has been said in many different ways by many different individuals: debating / coaching for a school without many resources and understanding the experiences of similar schools competing against schools who are well resourced,I am not unsympathetic to arguments based on inequities in policy debates
I will default to a policy maker but am open to other ways of deciding the ballot. I will go off the flow and will try not to intervene, however I might default to my opinions below (which are not concrete).
I will vote for the least complex way to sign the ballot. Explaining your arguments / ideas and keeping the debate organized by road mapping, sign posting, and line by line are key and will help your speaker points. Other things that are key and help to explain / frame the debate are: overviews with impact clac, turns case/da arguments, framing of arguments and the debate, impacting out arguments, and in-depth analysis of arguments. Likewise, overall analysis and framing of evidence / arguments / warrants / qualifications / the round, is key. “Even if” statements will help with speaker points and to frame an argument. Do not assume that I know an argument, author, or specific terms. Analytics, defensive arguments (even without your own evidence) are able to reduce any argument/evidence to zero risk or close to it. If I do not understand a part of the argument or it is not explained/major gaps in your logic I will be less likely to vote on it, even if it is dropped. Explain to me why you should win the round and what this means for both you and your opponent’s arguments. Speed is ok but need to clear. Do not sacrifice clarity for speed. Emailing speeches does not count as prep time as long as it is reasonable and send it all in one doc. Have cites available after the round. I will vote down teams/dock speaker points for rudeness, racist, sexism, unethical, offensive and unacceptable arguments / behavior.
Look at / debate / answer the actual warrants (or lack thereof) in the cards not what the card is tagged as. Comparing evidence / qualifications with explanations as to whose is better helps me to evaluate an argument (even just reading evidence and pointing out its inconsistency is great (will help your speaker points)) and is something that I find is missing in a lot of debates. If their evidence is bad point it out. I will read evidence if call for or if I believe there is an issue with it.
Cross x – Tag Team is fine if both teams are ok with it. Overtaking your partner’s cross-x might result in lower speaker points. Be sure to carry cross-x into the rest of the debate. If you indicted a piece of evidence or proved that an argument does not work, say so in your speech.
Theory – Just like any other argument dropping theory is not an auto-win. If a part of the theory is not explained well enough or the other team points out that it is not explained or missing, I will be less inclined to vote for it. Will vote on all types of theory, but need to explain the theory, in-round abuse (why what they did was bad), voters, fairness, education, impacts and why I should either reject the argument or the other team. Do not just re-read your blocks. The more specific the theory is to the argument / abuse / voters / round, the better.
Topicality – Overviews help. Tend to lean affirmative (Neg has the burden) unless there is a clear: violation / definition, bright line between topical and untopical, impacts for allowing the affirmative and others like it to be topical and in-round / potential (prefer in-round) abuse. Will default to competing interpretations. Explanation on all parts of the flow are key i.e. definition, bright line, topical version of the affirmative, case lists, reasons to reject the team (in-round and potential abuse), standards, ground, limits, voters, fairness, education, and impacts. Reasonability, clash / lit checks, race to bottom, etc. are able to reduce the chance of voting on topically. Will vote on aspec / other spec arguments however, need to show abuse in-round.
Speaker points – My range is 27.8- 28.5, this does not mean that I will not go above a 28.5. The road to better speaker points is in this philosophy i.e. know your arguments, be clear, do line by line, point out inconsistency in arguments and evidence, extend / explain / compare warrants and or qualifications (or lack thereof), road map, sign post, impact clac, frame the debate and the other things that are listed in the various sections.
Plan text / Counterplan text – Should be written down. Check how they are written. Will vote on plan flaws and counterplans that change the plan text with a net benefit.
Affirmative – Two things are key: good overviews with impact clac and in-depth case analysis.
Counterplan – Use overviews. Make sure that there is a clear net benefit and/or solvency deficit.
Disads/advantages – Good overviews with turns case /da along with impact analysis/clac where opponent’s impacts/arguments are considered. Disad links should be clear and specific to the case. All types of turns (link, impact and straight) are also a good idea.
K–Explain. Have a general idea on the basic k, not a k hack, but will vote on them (including k of debate arguments / debates about what debate should be). The k needs to be specifically explained not just in terms of what the idea of the k is, but what is the framework, link (the more specific and clearer the better), impact and alterative (not only what the alterative does but how its solves the k and plan’s impact (i.e. root cause) and what does the world of the alterative looks like). A good overview of the k and framework helps a lot. The affirmative should always question the alterative.
K affirmatives and framework -
Last year, many framework debates were not organized, explained or impacted out. You will need those three if you want to win.Will vote on k affirmative and k of debate arguments / debates about what debate should be. Needs to be a clear role of the ballot and clear reason why your version of debate is better. Totally fine with looking at images, listening to music, narratives, stories and other things. Debates are more interesting when: the neg does not just read framework / k but engages with the affirmative and the affirmative k the negative positions through the lens of the affirmative. Framework and disads to framework have to be explained, show how your interpretation of debate solve or root causes the other side’s impacts, impacted out fairness and education, have analysis to show which style of debate is the best and show why the affirmative or argument should be or not be in debate.
Updated Jan 24: Tabroom nuked my old paradigm and I didn't have a backup so this is now (hopefully) a lot shorter
ajbyrne1018(at)gmail.com -please put me on the chain.
I coach for New Trier and Northwestern.
I judged 80+ debates last year and am on track this year to judge even more this year. I like judging a lot and take it very seriously. The only things I love more than debate are my cat and the game Bloodborne for the Playstation 4®
I am far more truth oriented than other judges, I like evaluating the big picture and the interaction between arguments rather than reassembling the technical minutiae of the flow. Debate is a game of voting thresholds and virtually no argument exists in a vacuum.
I reserve all rights to not vote for an argument if I don't understand it and you have to pinky-promise to not yell at me if that happens to you.
Args that I will never consider good enough to vote on: ASPEC, Conditions CPs (unless the plan specifies unconditional action), Animal Wipeout, T-Subsets on this year's high school topic, Any of the "edgy" impact turns,
Furthermore, the cynical weaponization of microaggression language in pursuit of the ballot is a tragedy and therefore I will never vote for these arguments.
Flowing/Clarity: I do not flow off of the speech doc and will likely not have it open during speeches. Please do not read your blocks at top speed in front of me. I will greatly reward debaters who are putting in effort in the clarity, flowing, and organization aspects of their game. If you are standing up for a speech 2AC-onwards without your flows you are not debating the right way.
T vs K: I do not like judging big framework debates, not because I think that K teams are all cheaters but because these are debates where teams just brow-beat each other with their blocks they wrote in August and somehow expect the judge to come up with a satisfying RFD. I heavily rely on offense-defense while deciding these debates and will likely be more deferential to whichever team that kept the debate more organized. Reading T-USFG is not a violent speech act. I find most fairness pushes outside of the most basic establishment of procedural fairness pretty whiny. I am far more interested in clash and the vision each team has for how debate around the resolution should operate.
T vs Policy: I am not very good for the negative in this area. I find reasonability/predictability pushes very persuasive. I am not a member of the cult of limits, Literature limits almost certainly check and high schoolers should be encouraged to cut more cards. I will happily join the cult if I am presented with some good evidence though. I have no idea what Plan Text in a Vacuum means.
CP Theory: I don't vote for Conditions CPs. I think the aff's ability to go for theory is pretty dependent on the germaneness of the CP to the topic. Example: Consult Japan on a Nukes topic is probably pretty good! International Actor CPs on a Domestic topic seem pretty bad! The NGA CP is pretty bad.
My default is not kicking the CP for the neg in the 2NR - That being said you were probably in elementary school the last time I judged a debate that hinged on the CP linking to the net benefit.
I don't know what "non-resolutional theory" means.
Kritiks: I am not voting for the Framework Process CP. Framework is a defensive argument for the negative and I am easily persuaded that "you link you lose" is anti-educational. If the negative wins framework but fails to make inroads on other parts of the K I will vote aff on presumption. However, I am a total sucker for good alt explanation or a link analysis that puts a lot of doubt on the aff's ability to solve their internal links. I will give extremely high points for debaters that are able to use real world/historical examples to effectively bolster their arguments. I find a lot of 2ACs that attempt to answer the K absolutely dreadful.
DAs: Zero-risk is a thing. Plan Popular is not an argument that link turns an agenda DA.
I will look very grumpy during your debate - I am still very likely having a very enjoyable time, I just look like that most times.
Please refrain from talking to the other team when they are preparing for rebuttals
If you are rude to your partner I will call you out on it and give you a 26 - please be normal.
If you are not an active questioner/responder in your designated CXs I will be pretty punishing towards your points.
I miss the Security K :(
Conor Cameron
ccameron3@cps.edu
he/him/his
Coach, Solorio, 2012 - present
TLDR: Better for CP / DA / impact turn debates
I'll do my best to evaluate arguments as made. When the way I make sense of a debate differs from the way debaters make sense of a debate, here seem to be some common sources of the disparity:
1) I'm pretty ingrained in the offense defense model. This means that even if the NB is substantially unpersuasive, if the aff cannot generate a solvency deficit against the CP, and the aff has no offense against the DA, I am highly likely to vote negative.
Some notes: a) I do not think a solvency deficit needs to be carded; b) more difficult, but I could envision voting on analytic offense against a DA, c) I'm willing to vote on zero risk of the DA, but we'd both benefit from you taking a moment to explain why the offense-defense model is inapplicable in the debate at hand
2) I still think I have a relatively high bar for voting negative on topicality; however, I've tried to begin evaluating this debate more from an offense-defense perspective. In my mind, this means that if the affirmative does not meet the negative's interpretation, and does not have its own counterinterpretation, it is essentially arguing that any affirmative is topical and is conceding a 100% link to the limits disadvantage. I'm highly likely to vote negative in such a debate.
General argument notes:
3) I'm probably more sympathetic to cheaty process counterplans than most.
4) While I may complain, I do vote on the standard canon of negative kritiks. Things like cap, security, standard topic kritiks, etc. are fine. Extra explanation (examples, stories, analogies, etc.) is always appreciated, all the more so the further from my comfort zone you venture.
5) FW vs K Affs: I lean negative. However, I judge few of these debates. Both teams would benefit from accepting that I know very little here, slowing down, speaking clearly, and over-explaining (depth, not repetition) things you assume most judges know.
Other notes
6) I judge because:
a) I still really enjoy debate.
b) Judging is an opportunity to continue to develop my understanding of debate.
c) I am covering my students' judge commitment so that they too can benefit from this activity.
7) Quick reference
Policy---X------------------------------------------K
Tech-----------------------------X-----------------Truth
Read no cards-------X----------------------------Read all the cards
Conditionality good--X----------------------------Conditionality bad
States CP good----X------------------------------States CP bad
Politics DA is a thing-----X------------------------Politics DA not a thing
UQ matters most----------------------X----------Link matters most
Limits----------------------------------X------------Aff ground
Presumption---------------------------------X-----Never votes on presumption
Longer ev--------X---------------------------------More ev
CX about impacts----------------------------X----CX about links and solvency
Den (She/They) - dnisecarmna@gmail.com
AmeriCorps Member for Chicago Debates
Coach at Thomas Kelly
Work in debate full-time coaching policy debate (CX) and teaching public forum (PF) to middle schoolers in the Chicagoland area. Routinely, I have topic knowledge working at debate camp(s) throughout the summer. During the season, I accumulate over 60+ rounds judged on the urban debate and national circuit. I do not coach any high school program besides my alma mater, which means I have no conflicts with any other CD/UDL school.
Default towards a tech over truth style of judging unless stated otherwise in-round. I will operate on the parameters the debaters assign to me. Good practices in the debate space such as disclosure are non-voting issues. However, if your arguments are descriptive in its explicit/graphic content, please provide a trigger warning pre-round. This includes death good. Let's avoid going to tab at all costs. I will stop the round if the other team deems the environment as uncomfortable.
The non-negotiables
[1] adherence of resolutional discussion either by an advocacy or policy implementation
[2] order of speeches given (1 constructive, 1 rebuttal)
[3] speech and prep times allocated by the tournament
My broader thoughts on debate
Counterplans
Affirmative teams should be able to defend against process counterplans. If your solvency mechanism is strong, you should be able to beat them. Multiplank counterplans and if the negative gets to kick out of individual planks is up for debate. Affirmative teams should be prepared to answer counterplans based on the proposals their 1AC authors write out that's distinct from the plan.
I will need hand-holding on the competition debate. Questions of severance and/or Intrinsicness permutations should not be glossed over. Especially, if the affirmative wants to win perm do the counterplan.
Disadvantages
My only thought is that 'fiat' does not solve the link of the disadvantage, unless it's a rider DA. Explain why links based on trade-offs are theoretically illegitimate.
Kritiks
This is the type of argumentation I spend the most time thinking about. Be consistent on your framework throughout the debate. You must answer the line of thinking "If we win framework, that means..." and how that affects the state of the flow. On the kritik proper, reading long overviews hurts you more than helps you. Hate it when teams respond to an argument and say "that's from the overview above". Make sure to establish the role of the alternative, is it meant to solve material conditions and/or changing the way we think about things is a prerequisite. I will reward teams for early-on link work in the 1NC extrapolating lines from the 1st aff constructive.
Topicality
For the negative to win Topicality, they must [1] provide a model that best adheres to the topic, [2] exclaim why the affirmative fails to meet that model, [3] flesh out why the negative's model of debate is preferable, [4] evaluating the flow through competing interpretations is best. For the affirmative to beat Topicality, they must [1] explain why they meet the negative's model and/or [2] provide a counter-model that's better for the topic, which leads to [3] more educational and fair debates moving forward. [4] Frame the debate through reasonability.
T-USFG
Prefer the debate to be framed similar to topicality (better model of debate). However, teams going for the impact turn(s) are welcome to do so. Affirmative teams running an advocacy statement tend to go for "the negative's model of debate is inherently worse, therefore by default the judge should vote for the affirmative's model". Definitely, the best approach when 1ACs are built to counter FW by embedding claims on the game of debate and how to best approach the topic. However, I have seen my fair share of critical affirmative's that.. could be read on any other topic. Negative teams should emphasize switch side debate. Provide TVA(s) under your model of debate. Explain the affirmative's burden and the negative's role in this game. Convince me that the negative should be the one reading all these different theory of powers against teams defending a policy. If they break structural rules such as going over speech time, call it out. Procedural fairness leads to better education. Don't rely too heavily on portable skills.
K-Affs
If your affirmative is not structured as an impact turn to framework, you're not going to have a fun time. It's not a question of the literature base, it's more so your ability to explain the jargon within it. Make sure to do impact framing work to not lose to the impact turn (cap good, heg good). Lastly, please continue the act of the performance. Teams should *probably* weigh their performance more past the 1AC.
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Hall of Famers / Ppl I Interact with the most...
Kelly Lin, Lisa Gao, Ramon Rodriguez, Jocelyn Aguirre, Juan Chavez, Victoria Yonter, Aasiyah Bhaiji, Abigail Spencer, Jairo
Background:
- I debated for Niles West in high school and West Georgia in college.
- BA in Philosophy.
Email:
- For all UMich camp debates: cgershom@umich.edu
- Personal email: gershom000@gmail.com
Top level things:
- If you engage in offensive acts (think racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.), you will lose automatically and will be awarded whatever the minimum speaker points offered at that particular tournament is.
- If you make it so that the tags in your document maps are not navigable by taking the "tag" format off of them, I will actively dock your speaker points.
- Quality of argument means a lot to me. I am willing to hold my nose and vote for bad arguments if they're better debated but my threshold for answering those bad arguments is pretty low.
- I’m extremely hesitant to vote on arguments about things that have happened outside of a debate or in previous debates. I can only be sure of what has happened in this particular debate and anything else is non-falsifiable.
- Absolutely no ties and the first team that asks for one will lose my ballot.
- Soliciting any outside assistance during a round will lose my ballot.
Pet peeves:
- Lack of clarity. Clarity > speed 100% of the time.
- The 1AC not being sent out by the time the debate is supposed to start.
- Email-sending related failures.
- Dead time.
- Stealing prep.
- Answering arguments in an order other than the one presented by the other team.
- Asserting things are dropped when they aren't.
- Asking the other team to send you a marked doc when they marked 1-3 cards.
- Marking almost every card in the doc.
- Disappearing after the round.
- Quoting my paradigm in your speeches.
- Sending PDFs instead of Word Docs.
Ethics:
- If you are caught clipping you will receive a loss and the lowest possible points.
- If you make an ethics challenge in a debate in front of me, you must stake the debate on it. If you make that challenge and are incorrect or cannot prove your claim, you will lose and be granted the lowest possible points. If you are proven to have committed an ethics violation, you will lose and be granted the lowest possible points.
- If you use sexually explicit language or engage in sexually explicit performances in high school debates, you should strike me.
Cross-x:
- Yes, I’m fine with tag-team cx. But dominating your partner’s cx will result in lower points for both of you.
- Questions like "what cards did you read?" are cross-x questions, and I will run the timer accordingly.
- If you fail to ask the status of the off, I will be less inclined to vote for condo.
- If the 1NC responds that "every DA is a NB to every CP" when asked about net benefits in the 1NC even if it makes no sense, I think the 1AR gets a lot of leeway to explain a 2AC "links to the net benefit argument" on any CP as it relates to the DAs.
Inserting evidence or rehighlightings into the debate:
- I won't evaluate it unless you actually read the parts that you are inserting into the debate. If it's like a chart or a map or something like that, that's fine, I don't expect you to literally read that, but if you're rehighlighting some of the other team's evidence, you need to actually read the rehighlighting.
Affirmatives:
- I’m fine with plan or planless affirmatives. However, I believe all affirmatives should advocate for/defend something. What that something entails is up for debate, but I’m hesitant to vote for affirmatives that defend absolutely nothing.
Topicality:
- I default to competing interpretations unless told otherwise.
- The most important thing for me in T debates is an in-depth explanation of the types of affs your interp would include/exclude and the impact that the inclusion/exclusion would have on debate.
- 5 second ASPEC shells/the like have become nonstarters for me. If I reasonably think the other team could have missed the argument because I didn't think it was a clear argument, I think they probably get new answers. If you drop it twice, that's on you.
Counterplans:
- For me counterplans are more about competition than theory. While I tend to lean more neg on questions of CP theory, I lean aff on a lot of questions of competition, especially in the cases of CPs that compete on the certainty of the plan, normal means cps, and agent cps.
Disads:
- If you're reading a DA that isn't just a case turn, it should go on its own sheet. Failure to do so is super annoying because people end up extending/answering arguments on flows in different orders.
Kritiks:
- The more specific the link the better. Even if your cards aren’t that specific, applying your evidence to the specifics of the affirmative through nuanced analysis is always preferable to a generic link extension.
- ‘You link you lose’ strategies are not my favorite. I’m willing to vote on them if the other team fails to respond properly, but I’m very sympathetic to aff arguments about it being a bad model for debate.
- I find many framework debates end up being two ships passing in the night. Line by line answers to the other team's framework standards goes a long way in helping win framework in front of me.
Theory:
- Almost all theory arguments are reasons to reject the argument, condo is usually the only exception.
- Conditionality is often good. It can be not. I have found myself to be increasingly aff leaning on extreme conditionality (think many plank cps where all of the planks are conditional + 4-5 more conditional options).
- Tell me what my role is on the theory debate - am I determining in-round abuse or am I setting a precedent for the community?
Framework/T-USfg:
- I find impacts about debatability, clash, and iterative testing to be very persuasive.
- I am not really persuaded by fairness impacts, but will vote on it if mishandled.
- I am not really persuaded by impacts about skills/the ability for debate to change the world if we read plans - I think these are not very strategic and easily impact turned by the aff.
- I am pretty sympathetic to negative presumption arguments because I often think the aff has not forwarded an explanation for what the aff does to resolve the impacts they've described.
- I don't think debate is role-playing.
- If the aff drops SSD or the TVA and the 2NR extends it, I will most likely vote neg.
1/15/2025 update...please read - i am now several years removed from the point when i was actively involved in debate and kept up with the topic. i judge a combined total of around 20 policy/ld debates per season. i only coach a handful of times per season, with my coaching usually being for our first/second year teams. my exposure to the topic starts and ends with each debate that i judge. my knowledge of the topic on any given season is essentially nonexistent, and my knowledge of post-2018 debate in general is probably diminishing with time (especially online debates since that wasn't a thing at the time. i took a hiatus from judging during the height of covid). i wouldn't call myself a lay judge by any means, but a few steps above. the safest way to win a debate in front of me is to slow down (not to the point where you aren’t spreading at all, but still a bit more slow than you’d normally speak), and focus on the quality of arguments over quantity. pick a few arguments to explain in depth as opposed to having lots that aren't explained well. line-by-line in the style of "they say...but we say..." will also get you a long way with me...overviews/"embedded clash"...not so much...you can feel free to scrap your pre-written overviews entirely with me. also answer the other side's arguments in the order that they're made. if you want the decision in a debate to come down to the quality of evidence, please make that clear in your speeches because i won't do that on my own (i usually don't open the speech docs anymore, nor do i ever flow author names/card dates. keeping that in mind, statements like “extend the chikko evidence” with little to no elaboration are meaningless to me, as i won’t have any idea what that specific evidence says without an explanation). i won't vote on arguments that i don't understand, miss because of speed/lack of clarity, and so on. i have voted against teams in the past because they went for arguments that i either couldn’t flow or couldn’t understand, even if they may have “won” those arguments if i’d had them on my flows. attached below is my old paradigm, last updated around january 2019. it is all still applicable…
my old paradigm from january 2019:
Happy new year.
Add me to the email chain: dylanchikko@gmail.com
I don't time anything. Not prep time, not speeches, nothing. If no one is timing your speech and I notice in the middle of it, I'll make you stop whenever I think the right amount of time has passed. The same is true for prep time.
I have no opinions on arguments. I know nothing about the topic whatsoever outside of the rounds I judge. I don't do research and don't cut cards. I'll vote for anything as long as it's grounded in basic reality and not blatantly offensive. Speak slightly less quick with me than you usually would. I'm 60/40 better for policy-oriented debating (just because of my background knowledge, not ideological preference). But I'll vote for anything if it's done well. My biggest pet peeve is inefficiency/wasting time. Please direct all complaints to nathanglancy124@gmail.com. I’m sure he’d love to hear them. Have fun and be nice to your opponents/partner/me.
I'm an Assyrian. A big portion of my life/career as an educator consists of addressing and supporting Assyrian student needs. That influences my thoughts on a lot of real-life topics that regularly end up in debates. That's especially true for debates about foreign policy and equity. So do your research and be mindful of that.
Don't say/do anything in front of me that you wouldn't say/do in front of your teacher.
Feel free to ask me before the round if you have questions about anything.
please put me on the chain! - amcalden@gmail.com
Assistant Coach at Niles West
5 years at Baylor
4 years at Caddo Magnet
prep ends when document sent
In general i'm fine for you to do whatever you want to do. I've read and coached both policy and K things from variety of literature basis so do what you do best and I'm sure to enjoy it! Please don't be overly aggressive, rude, or dismissive of your opponents or speaker points will reflect it
if a timer isn't running you should not be prepping.
if the aff isn't clearly extended in the 1AR i will not give you the 2AR case rants
Framework v K affs: More of an uphill battle given the arguments i predominately read and coached but fairness is an internal link to the integrity of debate which still requires you to win the value of maintaining debate as it currently exists. Clash is by far the most persuasive standard, TVA's don't need to solve the entire aff if there are framing arguments in place or additional tools such as switch side debate to deal with what it doesn't solve, examples of ground, either lost or enabled is helpful on both sides!
K: Links to the plan are nice but not necessary, Alts don't have to solve the link if they are able to avoid them and solve the aff. I do not think you need an alt to win a debate if you have the appropriate framing tools however I need instruction on what to do with offense related to the alternative in a world you are not extending it.
CPs: Comparison between deficits/net benefits is key, can be persuaded for or against "cheating" counterplans, solvency advocates are preferred but not needed if pulling lines from the aff.
DAs: Nothing incredibly innovative to say here! I enjoy internal link comparison, and speaker points will reflect great impact debateing
Theory: Condo is fine, argumentative tension is okay but can be convinced on contradictions being bad.
Pronouns - him/he\they
Email(s) - abraham.corrigan@gmail.com, catspathat@gmail.com
Hello!
Thank you for considering me for your debate adjudication needs! Judging is one of my favorite things & I aspire to be the judge I wanted when I debated, namely one who was flexible and would judge the debate based on arguments made by debaters. To do that, I seek to be familiar with all debate arguments and literature bases such that my own ignorance will not be a barrier to judging the arguments you want to go for. This is an ongoing process and aspiration for me rather than an end point, but in general I would say you should probably pref me.
I'm fun!
Sometimes I even have snacks.
<*Judging Quirks*>
- I have absolutely zero poker face and will make a lot of non verbals. Please do not interpret these as concrete/100% definitive opinions of mine but rather as an expression of my initial attempts to place your argument within the particular context of the other arguments advanced in a debate.
- All arguments are evaluated within their particular context - Especially on the negative, as a debater in high school and college I went for and won a lot of debates on arguments which would be described, in a vacuum, as 'bad.' Sometimes, all you have to say is a turd and your rebuttal speeches will largely be what some of my judges described as 'turd-shinning.' This means (unless something extreme is happening which is unethical or triggering my mandatory reporter status as a public school employee) I generally prefer to let the arguments advanced in the debate dictate my view of what is and what isn't a 'good' argument.
- I am not a 'k' or 'policy' judge. I just like debate.
<*My Debate History*>
I am a 2a. This means, if left to my own devices and not instructed not to look for this, the thing that I will implicitly try to do is identify a way to leave stuff better than we found it.
High School
- I debated at H-F HS, in Illinois, for my first two years of debate where I was coached by creeps.
- My junior & senior year in HS I transfered to Glenbrook South where I was coached most by Tara Tate (now retired from debate), Calum Matheson (now at Pitt), & Ravi Shankar (former NU debater).
My partner and I largely went for agenda politics da & process cps or impact turns. We were a bit k curious, but mostly read what would be described as 'policy' arguments.
College
- I debated in college for 4 years at Gonzaga where I was coached by Glen Frappier (still DoF at GU), Steve Pointer (now [mostly] retired from debate), Jeff Buntin (current DoD at NU), Iz-ak Dunn (currently at ASU), & Charles Olney (now [mostly] retired from debate).
My partner and I largely went for what is now be described as 'soft left' arguments on the affirmative and impact turns and unusual counterplans when we were negative.
Coaching
- After graduating, I coached at Northwestern University for a year. My assignments were largely 2ac answers & stuff related to translating high theory arguments made by other teams into things our less k debaters could understand.
- I then moved to Lexington, Kentucky and coached at the University of Kentucky for two years. My assignments were largely aff & all things 2a & answering k stuff on the negative.
- I then coached/did comm graduate work at Wake Forest for two years.
- I then took a break from debate and worked as a paralegal at a law firm which was focused on civil lawsuits against police, prisons, whistleblower protections as well as doing FOIA requests for Buzzfeed.
- I then came back to debate, did some logistics for UK, then worked as an in building assistant coach at GBS.
- I am currently seeking my Masters Degree in teaching.
Hey y'all
I debated for Lane Tech and am now finishing up college. If you have the best framing and the best world to vote for with reasonable impact, whether that be your policy, K, etc.- That's where the vote goes. I advise you see the ballot as a moment in time signature.
Please tell me how many off you have before initially starting and I see no reason to censor yourselves within the round as long as the level of respect is maintained between competitors. Will vote on in-round DA's (our plan enacts real change through the discussion being held right now etc. etc.) and press your perms, they'll save you in the end.
Yes, email chain. debateoprf@gmail.com
ME:
Debater--The University of Michigan '91-'95
Head Coach--Oak Park and River Forest HS '15-'20
Assistant Coach--New Trier Township High School '20-
POLICY DEBATE:
Top Level
--Old School Policy.
--Like the K on the Neg. Harder sell on the Aff.
--Quality of Evidence Counts. Massive disparities warrant intervention on my part. You can insert rehighlightings. There should not be a time punishment for the tean NOT reading weak evidence.
--Not great with theory debates.
--I value Research and Strategic Thinking (both in round and prep) as paramount when evaluating procedural impacts.
--Utter disdain for trolly Theory args, Death Good, Wipeout and Spark. Respect the game, win classy.
Advantage vs Disadvantage
More often than not, I tend to gravitate towards the team that wins probability. The more coherent and plausible the internal link chain is, the better.
Zero risk is a thing.
I can and will vote against an argument if cards are poor exclusive of counter evidence being read.
Not a big fan of Pre-Fiat DA's: Spending, Must Pass Legislation, Riders, etc. I will err Aff on theory unless the Neg has some really good evidence as to why not.
I love nuanced defense and case turns. Conversely, I love link and impact turns. Please run lots of them.
Counterplans
Short answer to every question is "Having a solvency advocate solves all neg problems."
Conditionality—
I am largely okay with a fair amount of condo. i.e. 4-5 not a big deal for me. I will become sympathetic to Aff Theory ONLY if the Neg starts kicking straight turned arguments. On the other hand, if you go for Condo Bad and can't answer Strat Skew Inevitable, Idea Testing Good and Hard Debate is Good Debate then don't go for Condo Bad. I have voted Aff on Conditionality Theory, but rarely.
Competition—
1. I have grown weary of vague plan writing. To that end, I tend think that the Neg need only win that the CP is functionally competitive. The Plan is about advocacy and cannot be a moving target.
2. Perm do the CP? Intrinsic Perms? I am flexible to Neg if they have a solvency advocate or the Aff is new. Otherwise, I lean Aff.
(2025 ADDENDUM: I feel like this needs to be clearer because it has become an issue. I like Process CP’s when they are relevant to the topic. I give the Aff a fair amount of leeway re: limited intrinsic perms when they are run against a Process CP that has zero topic relevance. This is because I value topic research and will reward the team that accesses an impact that incentivizes hard work and discourages file recycling. You have been warned.)
Other Stuff—
PIC’s and Agent CP’s are part of our game. I err Neg on theory. Ditto 50 State Fiat.
No object Fiat, please. Or International Fiat on a Domestic Topic.
Otherwise, International Fiat is a gray area for me. The Neg needs a good Interp that excludes abusive versions. Its winnable.
Solvency advocates and New Affs make me lean Neg on theory.
If you don't have one, it is acceptable in cases where CP's just ban something detrimental to impact. That just shows good strategic thinking.
I will judge kick automatically unless given a decent reason why not in the 1AR.
K-Affs
If you lean on K Affs, just do yourself a favor and put me low or strike me. I am not unsympathetic to your argument per se, I just vote on Framework 60-70% of the time and it rarely has anything to do with your Aff.
That said, if you can effectively impact turn Framework, beat back a TVA and Switch Side Debate, you can get my ballot.
Topic relevance is important.
If your goal is to make blanket statements about why certain people are good or bad or should be excluded from valuable discussions then I am not your judge. We are all flawed.
I do not like “debate is bad” arguments. I don't think that being a "small school" is a reason why I should vote for you.
Kritiks vs Policy Affs
Truth be told, I vote Neg on Kritiks vs Policy Affs A LOT.
I am prone to voting Aff on Perms, so be advised College Debaters. I have no take on "philosophical competition" but it does seem like a thing.
I am not up on the Lit AT ALL, so the polysyllabic word stews you so love to concoct are going to make my ears bleed.
I like reading cards after the debate and find myself understanding nuance better when I can. If you don’t then you leave me with only the bad handwriting on my flow to decipher what you said an hour later and that’s not good for anybody.
When I usually vote Neg its because the Aff has not done a sufficient job in engaging with core elements of the K, such as Ontology, Root Cause Claims, etc.
I am not a great evaluator of Framework debates and will usually err for the team that accesses Education Impacts the best.
Topicality
Because it theoretically serves an external function that affects other rounds, I do give the Aff a fair amount of leeway when the arguments start to wander into a gray area. The requirement for Offense on the part of the Affirmative is something on which I place little value. Put another way, the Aff need only prove that they are within the predictable confines of research and present a plan that offers enough ground on which to run generic arguments. The Negative must prove that the Affirmative skews research burdens to a point in which the topic is unlimited to a point beyond 20-30 possible cases and/or renders the heart of the topic moot.
Plan Text in a Vacuum is a silly defense. In very few instances have I found it defensible. If you choose to defend it, you had better be ready to defend the solvency implications.
Limits and Fairness are not in and of themselves an impact. Take it to the next level.
Why I vote Aff a lot:
--Bad/Incoherent link mechanics on DA’s
--Perm do the CP
--CP Solvency Deficits
--Framework/Scholarship is defensible
--T can be won defensively
Why I vote Neg a lot:
--Condo Bad is silly
--Weakness of aff internal links/solvency
--Offense that turns the case
--Sufficiency Framing
--You actually had a strategy
PUBLIC FORUM SUPPLEMENT:
I judge about 1 PF Round for every 50 Policy Rounds so bear with me here.
I have NOT judged the PF national circuit pretty much ever. The good news is that I am not biased against or unwilling to vote on any particular style. Chances are I have heard some version of your meta level of argumentation and know how it interacts with the round. The bad news is if you want to complain about a style of debate in which you are unfamiliar, you had better convince me why with, you know, impacts and stuff. Do not try and cite an unspoken rule about debate in your part of the country.
Because of my background in Policy, I tend to look at things from a cost benefit perspective. Even though the Pro is not advocating a Plan and the Con is not reading Disadvantages, to me the round comes down to whether the Pro has a greater possible benefit than the potential implications it might cause. Both sides should frame the round in terms impact calculus and or feasibility. Impacts need to be tangible.
Evidence quality is very important.
I will vote on what is on the flow (yes, I flow) and keep my personal opinions of arguments in check as much as possible. I may mock you for it, but I won’t vote against you for it. No paraphrasing. Quote the author, date and the exact words. Quals are even better but you don’t have to read them unless pressed. Have the website handy. Research is critical.
Speed? Meh. You cannot possibly go fast enough for me to not be able to follow you. However, that does not mean I want to hear you go fast. You can be quick and very persuasive. You don't need to spread.
Defense is nice but is not enough. You must create offense in order to win. There is no “presumption” on the Con.
While I am not a fan of formal “Kritik” arguments in PF, I do think that Philosophical Debates have a place. Using your Framework as a reason to defend your scholarship is a wise move. Racism and Sexism will not be tolerated. You can attack your opponents scholarship.
I reward debaters who think outside the box.
I do not reward debaters who cry foul when hearing an argument that falls outside traditional parameters of PF Debate. Again, I am not a fan of the Kritik, but if its abusive, tell me why instead of just saying “not fair.”
Statistics are nice, to a point. But I feel that judges/debaters overvalue them. Often the best impacts involve higher values that cannot be quantified. A good example would be something like Structural Violence.
While Truth outweighs, technical concessions on key arguments can and will be evaluated. Dropping offense means the argument gets 100% weight.
The goal of the Con is to disprove the value of the Resolution. If the Pro cannot defend the whole resolution (agent, totality, etc.) then the Con gets some leeway.
I care about substance and not style. It never fails that I give 1-2 low point wins at a tournament. Just because your tie is nice and you sound pretty, doesn’t mean you win. I vote on argument quality and technical debating. The rest is for lay judging.
Relax. Have fun.
PLEASE USE SPEECHDROP OR TABROOM SHARE.
TL;DR:
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Josh, Friess, whatever, but ideally not "judge" (he/him)
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Coach at Avery Coonley, a Chicago-area K-8 school with a middle school program (our more experienced kids often compete in HS JV-ish) and a start-up high school club
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Former national circuit high school policy debater from the mid-1990's, ~20 year break, getting close to fully back up to speed now. I've worked to ensure my speaks are very close to modern national norms despite my age.
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Good for policy args, T, theory, CP's, all that
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That said, less jargon, more explanation on theory is helpful
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I've been told by “K debaters” that I am "not good for the K". (You know who you are… :-) ). I think this approximately half-correct, with some key nuance attached:
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I’m actually quite willing to vote for your arguments, on either side, which is heavily supported by my actual voting record. The primary issue is that I often don’t understand your arguments.
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You can help this dramatically and therefore substantially enhance your odds of winning by:
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Slowing down – like, maybe even way down.
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Using less jargon and instead explaining your arguments in as simple of terms as possible.
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Offering more thorough explanations than you might otherwise.
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Having arguments that are well-organized -- signposted and responsive to the other side.
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Creating and explaining a linear path / logic chain to the ballot that is supported by the flow.
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If you’re unable or unwilling to do the above, while I will do my best to be objective, there’s a reasonable chance my RFD is “I didn’t understand your argument, I’m voting for the other side.” This is true even if you clearly "sound" better.
With all that said, my general approach is to assess the round based solely on the arguments presented by the debaters, with as little intervention by me as possible, and where tech dominates truth. The remainder of this paradigm should be viewed in that light -- that is, it's a heads up on my general perspectives on debate that may or may not be helpful to you, but if we're all doing our jobs well, my perspectives shouldn't really matter and shouldn't enter into the RFD.
The specifics below are really intended to highlight a handful of areas where my own views or capabilities may differ from other judges.
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Flowing / speed / clarity: I flow on paper. Please don't start your speech until you've given a roadmap, and until it's clear that I'm ready.
If you're an experienced high school debater, please know that my ear for speed is maybe only 90% of what it once was. I would suggest going a little bit slower everywhere except the body of cards. (That said, I do pay attention to what is read in the body of cards, and only consider a card to be evidenced to the extent that it is actually read in the round.) You certainly don't need to be at normal-person conversational speed, but taking 10-20% of your speed off may be helpful to you.
It is extremely helpful when debaters include some sort of unambiguous verbal indicator at the end of a card and before the following tag. A very brief pause is a start. A simple and clear "Next" is better. While it may be old-school, and very slightly inefficient, I'm still partial to some sort of number or letter in early constructives, particularly because numbers and letters allow for easier signposting in the line-by-line in later speeches. (Though, I also tend to hate 1-a-b-c, 2-a-b-c, etc., unless the sub-structure is highly related to itself, e.g., CP theory.)
There's an extent to which line-by-line seems to be a lost art, as does flowing. To an extent, I'll try to do the work for you and see if a given argument has in fact been dropped, but the best way to ensure that my flow has you covering everything is to signpost everything, and respond / extend in the order of the original line-by-line, i.e., the 1NC on-case and the 2AC off-case.
Please send speech docs. Ideally, we should be using share.tabroom.com, speechdrop.net, or similar. If for some reason that is not possible, I will provide my email address before the round. In middle school and high school novice, my standard policy is to *not* follow along in the file, and I won't read cards unless I need to do so at the end of the round in order to assess some question of evidence. At the high school JV and Varsity levels, I'm more willing to follow along in the speech doc in order to do my part to adapt to you. But, I still expect clarity, signposting, and modulating speed on tags and cites.
Also, particularly at the high school JV / Varsity levels, I would strongly advise against reeling off multiple blippy analytics in the course of several seconds. If you do so, then if you're lucky, I will get one out of every four arguments on my flow, and it may not be the one you want the most. If there's a round-winning argument that you need me to understand, best to explain it thoroughly rather than assume I will understand the argument based on just a handful of words. This is all the more true if your delivery relies excessively on debate jargon, the more modern forms of which I may not yet be familiar. Please trust that I'm doing my level best, and that I'll be able to follow you when you're explaining things reasonably well.
In the end, if it's not on my flow, I can't assess it as part of the round, even if it's in your doc.
Kritiks: I have no principled opposition to voting on kritiks. This includes kritiks on the Aff. I do think Aff has the burden of proof to win definitively that they do not or should not need to have a topical plan. That is a burden that I have seen overcome, though the more of these rounds I see, the tougher this sell becomes for me. Regardless, in the end this is a question that I'll resolve based on the flow.
I'm arguably not clever enough to understand many kritiks -- I dropped the philosophy major because I couldn't hack it, and became a physics/math major instead -- so persuading me to vote on the basis of a kritik may require a fair bit more explanation than you would typically offer. I will take no shame in telling you that I straight up didn't understand your argument and couldn't vote on it as a result. This most likely occurs if you overly rely on philosophical jargon. If anything, my lack of experience relative to other judges in this particular debate subspace probably provides a natural check on teams reading arguments that they don't understand themselves. I'll posit that if you can't explain your argument in reasonably simple terms, then you probably don't understand it, and shouldn't win on it.
I'll say as well that I've judged a number of K teams that seem to rely heavily on blocks that have been prepared fully in advance, or maybe very slightly tweaked from what's been prepared in advance, with little attempt to actually engage with the other side. First, I find these speeches pretty tough to flow, since they're often extremely dense in content with little attempt to engage with their audience. Second, I happen to think this over-reliance on advance-prepared speeches is rather horrible for the educational value of the activity. It pretty severely undermines the "K debates are better for education" argument, and it also acts as a fairly real-time demonstration of the "link" on "K debates are bad for clash". I'm likely to be highly sympathetic to an opposing side that has any reasonable degree of superior technical execution when K teams engage in this practice.
It might be worth you knowing that K's were not really a thing yet back when I was debating. Or rather, they were just in their infancy (particularly in high school), rarely run, and/or they were uniformly terrible arguments that I don't think are run much anymore (e.g., Normativity, Objectivism, Foucault, Heidegger). Teams argued the theoretical legitimacy of the Kritik, and whether or not they should be evaluated as part of the ballot, but these arguments weren't unified under a notion of "Framework". Alt's definitely weren't a thing, nor were Kritiks on the Aff at the high school level.
Disads: I've quickly grown wary of Neg's erroneously claiming that their disad "turns case". There's a crucial difference between a disad "turning case" (i.e., your disad somehow results in the Aff no longer accessing their own impact, and in fact, causing their own impact) and "outweighing case" (i.e., your disad simply has a shorter timeframe, higher probability, or greater magnitude than the case). I've become increasingly convinced that Neg's are simply asserting -- unwarranted both in fact and in claim -- that their disad "turns case" in the hopes of duping the judge into essentially making the disad a litmus test for the ballot. If your disad legitimately turns the case, then that's awesome -- make the argument. However I think bona fide claims of "turning case" occur far less often than Neg's want us to believe. In the end, this is not much more than a pet peeve, but a pet peeve nonetheless.
Stolen from Yao Yao: "Uniqueness only 'controls the direction of the link' if uniqueness can be determined with certainty (e.g. whip count on a bill, a specific interest rate level). On most disads where uniqueness is a probabilistic forecast (e.g. future recession, relations, elections), the uniqueness and link are equally important, which means I won't compartmentalize and decide them separately." -- Yes, exactly this. I'd go a step further and claim that on certain disads where uniqueness is probabilistically bound to a range that is far from both zero and 100% (e.g., elections, which is usually at best 70% unique and at worst 30% non-unique) then uniqueness is effectively irrelevant, and only the direction of the link matters. At the end of the day, I'm trying to evaluate net risk.
CP's: Counterplans need a solvency claim/warrant, but not necessarily a solvency advocate, per se. That is, if the CP's solvency is a logical extension of the Aff's solvency mechanism, no solvency evidence should be required.
Rehighlightings: I am perfectly fine with you summarizing why the other side's evidence doesn't say what they say it says. I do not see a need for rehighlightings to be explicitly "read into the round". Why not? Well, if Side A is reading evidence that is mishighlighted, taken out of context, etc., Side B should have to do as little in-speech work as possible to make the argument. Side B shouldn't need to waste their speech time reading the correct parts of Side A's poorly highlighted evidence. Side B still needs to explain what Side A's evidence actually says, and tell me what I should be looking for in reading the card. In other words, it's insufficient to simply state "their card is mistagged". But, "their card is mistagged; the author is actually saying X,Y,Z; here's why that matters" is generally sufficient. Of course, if Side B is the one who's actually misunderstanding the evidence, or worse, intentionally mischaracterizing it, that's not a great look and is likely to result in lower speaks.
Theory / Ethics / General Behavior: I tend to be more sympathetic to teams launching legitimate, well-reasoned, and thoroughly-explained theory arguments than it seems many more modern judges may be, up to and including "reject the team, not the argument".
When it comes to ethics and general in-round behavior, it seems that many paradigms contain a whole host of info on what judges think debate “should” be, how debaters “should” act, and/or the judge’s perceived level of fairness of certain tactics.
My own paradigm used to contain similar info, but I’ve since removed it. Why? Because I think including such info creates a moral hazard of sorts. Debaters that are predisposed to behave in certain ways or deploy certain tactics will simply not do those things in front of judges that call them out in their paradigms, and then go right back to engaging in those behaviors or deploying those tactics in front of judges that don’t. To the extent that judges view themselves at least in part as guardrails on acceptable behavior and/or tactics, it seems to me that a better approach to rooting out negativity might be to put the onus on debaters to be considerate, ethical, and reasonable in deployment of their strategies and tactics – and then, if they aren’t, to mete out appropriate consequences. I do not feel obligated to state ex-ante that “X behavior is an auto-loss” if reasonable judges would conclude similarly and respond accordingly.
Don't worry: I'm not looking to be arbitrary and unreasonable in exercising judicial discretion, nor am I looking to insert my own opinions when teams engage in behavior that's debatably unfair, but goes uncontested by the other side. Just be thoughtful. It’s great to play hard. But if your tactics are questionably fair or bad for debate, be prepared to defend them, or reconsider their use. If the other side is deploying tactics that are questionably fair or bad for debate, make the argument, up to and including “reject the team”. I will evaluate such arguments and their implications based on the flow.
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With all of that said, I consider myself to be in the midst of getting back up to speed in the modern norms and conventions of our activity, particularly at the high school Varsity level. I'm more than willing to be convinced that I should rethink any and all of the above, whether as part of an in-round debate or out-of-round conversation.
In accordance with guidance from my employer, please upload docs to the file share on Tabroom instead of emailing them to me.
I debated at KU and Blue Valley Southwest, I am currently coaching at Glenbrook North
FW
I am heavily persuaded by arguments about why the affirmative should read a topical plan. One of the main reasons for this is that I am persuaded by a lot of framing arguments which nullify aff offense. The best way to deal with these things is to more directly impact turn common impacts like procedural fairness. Counter interpretations can be useful, but the goal of establishing a new model sometimes exacerbates core neg offense (limits).
K
I'm not great for the K. In most instances this is because I believe the alternative solves the links to the aff or can't solve it's own impacts. This can be resolved by narrowing the scope of the K or strengthening the link explanation (too often negative teams do not explain the links in the context of the permutation). The simpler solution to this is a robust framework press.
T
I really enjoy good T debates. Fairness is the best (and maybe the only) impact. Education is very easily turned by fairness. Evidence quality is important, but only in so far as it improves the predictability/reduces the arbitrariness of the interpretation.
CP
CPs are fun. I generally think that the negative doing non-plan action with the USfg is justified. Everything else is up for debate, but well developed aff arguments are dangerous on other questions.
I generally think conditionality is good. I think the best example of my hesitation with conditionality is multi-plank counter plans which combine later in the debate to become something else entirely.
If in cross x you say the status quo is always an option I will kick the counter plan if no further argumentation is made (you can also obviously just say conditional and clarify that judge kick is an option). If you say conditional and then tell me to kick in the 2NR and there is a 2AR press on the question I will be very uncomfortable and try to resolve the debate some other way. To resolve this, the 2AC should make an argument about judge kick.
Avy Gaytan-Aranda
Solorio Academy HS '19
UIUC '23
Short Version
-Tech over truth
-No judge kick
-quality over quantity of evidence
-default my paradigm as a policymaker but open to all arguments
-clash is key to any good debate
-Neg gets presumption
-email chain: amoravyg@gmail.com
Long Version
Short background about me: I debated for Solorio academy(Chicago) for four years. I debated in both the UDL and national circuit. I ran mostly policy through the first half of my career, however my junior and senior year my partner and I became more flex. With that being said, I have debated the most sketchy counterplans all the way to postmodern Ks. I am not familiar with the new topic, my knowledge solely comes from judging so you must provide substance in your debates rather than just jargon.
Affs- K affs: Although I always liked and read Ks, I find it really hard to read K Affs. Not about understating, rather how they are used. Hence, when you read a K AFF do not just stand up and explain what is that you are criticizing but also explain the utility of the aff itself. Make sure to implicitly describe the need to not use a plan, and the need to have the discussions that are being had, because otherwise i will likely lean neg on framework. I genuinely don't have a preference for any form of affirmation of the resolution, you can do any form of performance in front of me.
-By any means feel free to run any aff that you want in front of me.
Ks- I want to hear a good explanation of it, defended well, also explain why it matters more than any other arguments in the round. How the alt solves better ..how the K fw suits best for the round...how it outweighs the aff..how it is a issue in the world of the debate round and the real world, etc. Neg, in order to have weight of the K trough the round, articulate a link, wait, articulate MULTIPLE links on the K, without a link you can't win K. Go beyond the techy sutff and K jargin and go further on, expand on the literature authors and their ideas, and connect them to the debate round, to engage not only with the people in the round, but to orient yourself as debater. In other words have a cohesive understanding of the K. The evidence of the kritik should be pretty extensive and well Also, I encourage to defends a solid solvency mechanism aka a strong alt, otherwise, I view myself judging a non-unique disad. Having a solid alternative is literally the most compelling thing when leveraging a framework and the impacts of a link because it makes it easy for me as a judge to prefer it over any fiated plan. With that being said I don't like voting for kritiks with weak alternatives, because I view it as a burden of the neg to prove how the alt overcomes the link story and the premise highlighted in the kritik, well at least explain how they substantially change the sqou described in the world of the K. Overviews are nice when making the extension of the K in the later speeches of the debate, however be aware of how long it's going to be, should be no more than 45 seconds.
- If you go one off K, do your thing, but a major thing! Learn how to split the block please.
- Any death drive, death good stuff is probably not good in front of me (not with that, nor I like that).
- I probably wont vote for you regardless of how well you defend if you read the following: Time Cube, death good, shreck.
Theory, theory is awesome, theory is the most amazing thing in debate. In my opinion theory debate is underrated and underused in modern debate. However if you are reading theory make it interesting. That being that I love theory on CP debates.
Regarding T, CPs, DAs, etc make sure no nonsense argument to waste time. By that I refer to, run an argument you are comfortable with and don't run random arguments just to catch the other team off guard ,be very strategic.....
- I am very sympathetic towards condo, because I believe in teams reading plus 6 off just to catch other teams not responding to args. However going for condo just because it was dropped is not enough to win my ballot, there has to be substance regarding as to why condo matters specifically in the context of the round and why it matter overall.
Be strategic...
For example....Don't run Baudrillard and a heg DA with a war impact, c'mon, it's pretty self explanatory why not.
CPs- Big fan of consults CPs, Not voting for a counter plan without a net benefit...Also, a MUST when reading a CP, don't just prove how phenomenal a CP is independently, but prove to why the CP is specifically competitive with the Solvency of the Plan. Consider not getting too caught up in the explanation of how the CP works, but rather include comparative analysis to the 1ac, and distinction to the net benefit. Also, yes counterplans could get messy and stuff but overviews are helpful in later speeches in the debate if you want to make the CP a possible 2NR strategy. For AFF teams, theory is phenomenal against counterplans in front of me, I tend to believe that just like the 1ac, the counterplan should be questioned and attacked as much as possible the 1ac. That being by either perms, CP specific DAs, theory, etc.
Multi-plank counterplans are really tricky and fun, however, they could get sketchy, I don't think plank kicking is a thing, you either defend the full counterplan or none of it.
- Functionally competitive CP's are better in my opinion; easier to defend and to debate thoroughly.
Theory on CP's such as agent, delay, or int. fiat probably have some truth value considering how abusive CP's could get, however I don't think that 5-20 second extensions are enough for me to vote for any of the theory arguments on CPs
DAs- Even if I believe your DA is bad/ or non uq, I will still give your 100% risk until proven otherwise.
-Not a fan of the courts DAs, because most of them a false and exaggerated. If you read these, please give me a good link story that is coherent to the aff, thus multiple links make it strong for not only picking fewer in the debate, but using them as case turns if mishandled by the affirmative. Impact analysis along with a strong internal link story will probably be the most important when trying to get my vote because it is up to the aff or neg to either prove why such impacts matter more or less than the others.
-Politics are nice.
T- if you are going for T in the 2NR, you better go for it all 5 minutes, I expect some serious analysis on T if you end up going for it in the 2NR. Definitely a winnable argument considering it is the negatives job to prove that the aff doesn't work/ is not topical to begin with.
- consider having a debate past the interpretation and the "they say-we say" stuff, but prove your voters as being true.
- By default I think reasonability is good, so it's your job to convince me otherwise.
- Set the bar as to why T is an independent reason to not evaluate anything but the argument in the round.
Framework- Awesome!!When reading/going for framework, please have a solid interpretation. Having a vague interpretation makes it hard for me as the judge to validate arguments you claim to solve for. Moreover, when going to framework please engage into a line by line, nonetheless I won't feel convinced that your idea of what debate should be is true or convincing. Why is voting the other team bad for debate? what are the impacts of not having your framework? what makes your framework best for the debate? Please answer these questions when articulating the argument in your speech. Additionally, I don't really buy the "screw debate", "f debate" "debate is bad" framings of debates and rounds. However I do like when frameworks present a challenging paradigm for the round such as "Debate should be a sight of x or y" or "engaging in this form of debate is key because..."
- I also think fairness is not an impact; coming from a small school, it is pretty evident that there is things outside the round that make debate pretty unfair.
Moreover, I find that now days framework debates are very reciprocal..either "aff should defend a hypothetical USFG plan", or "we should test the aff's orientation before anything". Those debates can get boring, try to expand and have creative interpretations, to have clashful and more concise debates. Which overall are way better than having broad big impact debates.
-impact wise...explain how procedural impacts outweigh pre-fiated impacts
Moreover, clash is always the key to a good debate round, thus making it not just educational to you as a debater but to me as a judge too.
In round stuff/Random
- PICs are fine with me but don't be abusive.
-Jokes are nice
-Never make fun of opponent
-Never card clip (although there is some leeway for novices)
-If I suspect any stealing of prep during flashing or w.e, I will be Conor Cameron with time through the rest of the round.
- Remember that debate is not a reading game, it's a thinking game. Thus, warrants win you debates not cards.
-AFF: always disclose affirmative case before the round if asked by the negative team.
Name Chris Gentry
Previous institutional affiliations and role
Appalachian State Debator 4 years, double member parli, experience coaching and judging PF. Policy, Parli
Add me to your email chain chris.gentry.e@Gmail.com
Former Coach Hubbard High School
Former Coach Harker Middle School
Current Chicago Debates Program Manager - 2 years
High school and college debater – graduated college in last 5 years
1.Clarity > speed:Clarity helps everyone, I am happy to listen to you spreading and will happily get most of it, just slow down on the tags so I know where we are if I get lost.
2.Neg positions: Overwhelmingly the biggest issue I see in debate is students poorly linking neg positions. cool your impact scenario is great but your link is weak so I struggle to care.
3. Cross x Don't be rude in cross-x. If your opponent is not answering your questions well in cross-x either they are trying to be obnoxious or you are not asking good questions. Too often, it's the latter.
What is your normal range for speaker points and why? What can earn extra speaker points for a debater? What can cost speaker points for a debater, even if they win the debate?
I give 27.5-30 points, 27.5 being for poor speech, less than 27.5 for abuse. You can lose points for demonstrated abuse in round or poor treatment of partner or opposition. You can gain points through good responses and effective response strategy
Do you say clearer out loud if a debater is unclear? Is there a limit to the number of times you will say clearer if you do? Do you use other non-verbal cues to signal a lack of clarity?
I will say clearer or louder 3 times.
Do you find yourself reading a lot of evidence after the debate?
Not a ton, mostly to confirm accuracy and understanding
Do you evaluate the un-underlined parts of the evidence even if the debaters do not make that an argument?
No, I need the argument to be made for why a thing matters, how it matters, and what it is that matters. I will only read the underlined parts of the evidence if I doubt validity
If you read evidence after a debate, why do you tend to find yourself reading the evidence?
To ensure proper decisions and to confirm accuracy if any cards feel like they are incredible.
What are your predispositions or views on the following:
Topicality.
As long as it is clear and warranted especially on ground loss. I need the impacts to be fully leveled out, and I need there to be solid arguments for fairness impacts.
Theory for the aff versus counterplans and/or kritiks
I definitely prefer critical arguments that are resolution specific versus the generic kritik, however I am fine with the generic kritik as long as you tie it well to your argument and the resolution being debated. I will vote on perm and theory if presented well. That said, I really like critical arguments when they’re not generic and the ideas are clearly articulated. Explain your ideas instead of just throwing terms around. Sure, I may know what the terms mean, but I need to know how you are using them to determine the functionality of the argument. I also think it’s important to not only tell me the importance of (or need for) the interrogation or deconstruction the criticism engages in, but also why should we engage with THIS specific interrogation/deconstruction and what, if anything, it seeks to solve, resolve, change, etc. In other words, don’t drop or omit solvency of the criticism.
Affirmative’s need to read a plan in order to win on the aff:
They don’t need to read a plan but they do need an advocacy that is different than the SQ
Performance teams that use elements other than spoken word (such as songs, dance, poetry, silence) to support their arguments
I find performance-based arguments to struggle on solvency. I find the nature of debate to sometimes be constricting to performance. I am not saying I won't vote for it, I just need you to explain why your performance produces in-round solvency in opposition to the performance of debating/criticizing or advocating for policies
I do think "performance" as critical metaphor can have access to rhetorical solvency, but it's harder for me to access literal solvency. So while I am not biased towards projects or performances so long as they are grounded in some context that is in round, I think they can still be interesting and get a ballot.
What types of debates do you enjoy the most and why?
I enjoy good K v K debates
I enjoy unique critical debates
I also have a large background in policy both in real life and in deate and am happy to handle policy args too
Last Updated: January, 2025. Please put me on the chain: nathanglancy124@gmail.com
***Background***
Debated at:
Niles West High School (2014-2018)
Trinity University (2018-2020)
Michigan State University (2020-2023)
Coached for:
Winston Churchill (2018-19)
Niles West High School (2020-2023)
Niles North HS (2023-2024)
University of Wyoming (2023-2024)
Glenbrook South (2024-now)
I debated for 9 years, all the way from Oceans to Personhood. I've been a 2n for longer than I've been a 2a, but at heart I am a 2a. I currently coach at Niles North High School in northwest Chicagoland and do remote coaching for the University of Wyoming. I went for policy-style arguments throughout my debate career and relied on debate to help realize/finance my college education. Debate's done a lot for me and I'd like to think I'm doing what I can for debate. If you already know me, say hi!! If you don't know me yet, don't mind the fact that I have a grumpy resting face! I'm not shy and would love to show you pictures of my dog.
***TL;DR***
I really want to ensure you all have a satisfying judging experience. I think this means it is my role as a judge to try my best to render a decision based on the arguments made in the debate. I care about debate's existence and success. I hope that is reflected in my feedback and my efforts as a judge.
High school debaters will do well in front of me if they keep the round organized and moving, show their motivation to improve/learn/win, and maintain a positive approach to the round despite the competitive nature of debate. They'll do even better if this is coupled with good, SPECIFIC arguments :)
College Debaters should consider me capable of judging whatever you need me to. I don't have any large predispositions and therefore I would consider myself quite impressionable if faced with good judge instruction and application of arguments at the end of the debate.
I have comparatively lower amounts of topic knowledge - fair word of warning for acronyms
*Non-argument Things*
CLIPPING: I am soooooo done with people getting away with murder clipping everywhere. In that light, I will now start dropping non-novice teams that meet my minimum standard for clipping. Triggering any one of these conditions will result in an immediate loss after the speech, with minimum speaks to the individual who does it...
1. Speaker skips a paragraph of a card in a speech
2. Speaker skips a sentence that is 10 or more words in a speech
3. Speakers skips 3-5 words 5 times within a speech
4. Speaker systematically skips 1-2 words throughout a speech
Speaks: I will reward speaks mostly on the following criteria...
1. How did you impact your team's ability to win?
2. How did you impact my judging? Did something impress me?
3. Mastery of Material - "knowing what's going on" at the highest level
4. Mastery of Tech/Organization - did you cause/fix any unnecessary/avoidable decision time hurdles?
Clarity: I'm starting to care way way more about the clarity of argument communicated earlier for how I assess risk later in the debate. I really feel like rewarding good packaging of arguments, labeling, and organization that guides the judge through what you're saying AND why that matters. I will try and highly prioritize this analysis over reading every card and seeing who did the better research project. However, instructing me to read a portion of a card obviously constitutes a form of argument that I will take into account.
Conduct: The more we have good vibes in the round, the better the experience will be for everyone. Feel free to have competitive spirit, but don't let that turn you into an unlikeable person!! That's not a winning recipe. Also I am a fan of corny humor, often to a fault. I have given one 30 in my lifetime, and it was to someone who's joke made me uncontrollably laugh during the 2ar (they lost). Don't reach for a bad joke though that's never funny.
Online Debate: Before EVERY speech and EVERY CX, please confirm that everyone is here AND that the sound is clear! Feel free to do camera on or off, I understand everyone has their reasons. Please be understanding of the different complications of online debate and let's do everything we can to keep online accessible and effective. Oh and I HATE prep stealing and doing it while online doesn't excuse it.
Inserting Evidence: If you plan to "insert evidence re-highlighting" it should only come after a clear, comprehensive analytical argument. Re-highlighting can be referred to, but not inserted. If you want to say "their ev goes neg" then you're gonna read the re-highlighting.
***Argument Things***
Case:
I should understand a consistent explanation of the 1ac and its advantages throughout the debate. Changing this narrative or being dodgy/vague is easily subject to punishment by a good neg team. AFF teams should punish teams that are light on case using clear 2ac articulations of dropped arguments instead of being equally as vague. 2NRs on case should focus on identifying what AFF impacts your case defense is responding to.
I am starting to get really tired of bad highlighting here and teams that point this out can mitigate offense here.
DAs:
They're cool, but oh my gosh do teams double, triple, quadruple turn themselves with these so often! I don't care about spamming DAs, but I wish more AFF teams would exploit contradictions in "neg flex". Neg teams can best win their DAs by getting impact framing out early and being clear about 1ar concessions to establish a high risk of your offense.
I am starting to get really tired of bad highlighting here and teams that point this out can mitigate offense here.
T:
I think explaining your vision of the topic is one of the most underrated and underutilized ways to win a T debate. Please just explain to me why in your squad room you decided that T made sense? What's the "core thing" that the AFF did that is the controversy being debated?
Things that help a lot: TVA, case-list of good AFFs under your interpretation, case-list of bad AFFs under their interpretation, definition comparison, explanation of neg ground under your interpretation AND the other teams'.
Theory:
I HATE bad theory arguments and don't want to vote on them, but I hate teams that don't flow slightly more so I will vote on that stuff (and if I miss one line ASPEC that's on you, debate's a communication activity!). Bad theory debating is a one way ticket to low speaks, but good theory debating can drastically alter how rounds go down.
I'm pretty good for theory all things considered. I went for states CP theory a lot on the education topic and am a 2a at heart, but as someone who was a 2n I understand the deep, deep love we share for condo. I feel like the best theory debaters are FLOWABLE while doing their theory debating, SPECIFIC in their impact articulation beyond just talking about clashing and doing some fair education, and INSTRUCTIVE to the judge on questions of impact comparison and justifying new arguments.
CPs:
CPs are defense and should be explained in the context of what it is defending against (the 1ac's mandate, evidence, and how the advantages are explained). This is how I often think about deficits and how a CP implicates my ballot. Re-cutting the 1ac/AFF evidence is usually the gold standard for proving a CP sufficiently solves. I feel like fore-fronting how you explain a CP early and not deviating from that is the best way to ensure you don't bring in new explanations so I don't let the AFF get new answers. I lowkey hate process CPs but sometimes it must be done.
Ks:
I'm better for the K than you think, but likely need more judge instruction about how to apply X argument. Better for evidence-heavy OR depth-focused debate. Any amount of generic evidence is best addressed through specific analysis.
"Exceeds expectations"/I've gone for: Cap, Security, Biopolitics/Agamben
"Meeting expectations"/I feel fine judging: Set Col, Anti-blackness (Nihilism, Pessimism, to name a few), Orientalism/Colonialism, Imperialism, Queer pessimism, Trans pessimism, Ableism
"Needs improvement"/err towards over-explaining: Psychoanalysis, Bataille, Heideggerian stuff, Baudrillard, Deleuze
I have not judged a KvK debate yet.
Framework:
I almost exclusively went for t-usfg/framework in HS and college, but that doesn't make me care about dropping a policy team. Impact articulation matters for me but far too often I find teams blending concepts such as fairness and clash in incoherent ways. I don't care about the label, but rather the underling explanation and how it is being applied in the debate. If you have any other questions look at Josh Harrington's philosophy on K AFFs, that'll reflect roughly how I feel.
Nate's sliding scales about debate:
Tech/Truth----------------------------X-Facts are Facts & Dropped args are as true as the warrants conceded
Condo-------X----------------------Respect the Aff Peasant (have and will vote on it, clear args in the 1ar key)
Process CP/Normal Means Competition----------------------------X- 100 plank case-specific advantage CP
Super Big CP-----------------X------------Deep Case Debating
Simply saying "Sufficiency Framing"-----------------------------X-Explain why CP solves sufficiently
Zero Risk Framing----------X-------------------Any Risk Framing
Perm Double Bind--------------X---------------Haha Silly Policy Hacks
Deb8=Karl Rove----------------------------X-That was one dude
Salad K----------------------------X-Single K Thesis
Economic Growth----------------------------X-( Í¡° ͜ʖ Í¡°)
***Miscellaneous***
Email chain is always preferable to anything else barring tech issues
I don't like cards in the body of the email... but nobody seems to care... oh well...
I am fine with open cx. All people should be.
The Prep Rule: I will increase speaks from what I would have given by .1 for every minute of prep not used - speaks can be earned by specifically telling me the balance of prep your team had remaining before their last rebuttal. Capped at .5 boosted speaks.
Massive pet peeve: if you call a CP a "see-pee" I will think about it so much that it might disrupt my flowing and you might instantly lose (I am being sarcastic).
here's a photo collage about debate that I made in high school:
Former UC Lab debater and current Kenwood Academy coach (16-present)
jharduvel [at] cps [dot] edu
The most important things that you can do to get my ballot are:
- Strategic overviews with judge instruction that explains how to resolve the key issue(s) of the debate
- Comparative warrant analysis throughout
- Well-impacted arguments that collapse down to the essentials by the end of the debate
I will do everything I can to resolve the debate based off of my flow rather than by following along with your speech doc or reading evidence.
I will vote on whatever arguments that you wish to make. I'm more familiar with critical literature so if you're planning for a tech-y policy debate, be ready to explain your arguments thoroughly and do some storytelling in your overview.
Slow down enough on analytics that they are clearly flowable. I flow what you say not the speech doc so you need to be intelligible. I believe that there is a threshold you need to meet for me to vote for any given argument. Blippy extensions are going to give me significant pause and even if something is conceded, I need more than "They dropped condo and it's a voting issue for fairness and education!" to vote on it.
Topicality and theory: These debates should include clash, comparative analysis, and impacts just like any other part of the debate. I don't understand how one would evaluate a plan text in a vacuum.
Kritiks: I prefer when debaters are specific on the link and alternative debates, and when they go for arguments like the K turns case or is a DA to case instead of vague impacts. I tend to err that the aff gets to weigh their impacts under most frameworks even if they also have a burden to (for example) justify their methodology to access them.
Counterplans: I am sympathetic to aff theory arguments against PICs, consult CPs, and process CPs. On the permutation debate, I tend to lean neg and assume risk of a link to the net benefit (unless I am told otherwise, of course).
K v. K: Try to keep it as organized as possible and don't skip a strategic overview that explains the interaction of arguments. Links should be specific and contextual to aff. I like these debates the most when warrants are fleshed out, nuanced, and (I'll say it again!) specific with minimal cards.
Clash debates: You don't have to be topical or defend government action but you probably need a link to the topic. Whether you are aff or neg, give me a clear role of the ballot and explanation of your model and its advantages. I evaluate tech over truth but I do believe that debate has significant disparities and that conversations that seek to confront and address that are important.
Speaker Points: I reward judge instruction, line-by-line, comparative impact calculus, clash, creative argumentation, explanation of warrants, and smart analytics. I prefer fewer cards, fewer blocks, and more debating off your flow. I will deduct speaker points for oppressive language or arguments, rudeness, being purposefully evasive or deceitful, excessive interruptions of your partner, and ethical violations. Clipping cards or refusing to provide the other team with access to your cards are serious violations, and I will deduct speaker points accordingly whether the other team points these issues out or not.
Email: michaeldavidh5@gmail.com
Current Affiliation: None
Conflicts (Please list any past associations you’ve had with a school/organization in the last 3 years--i.e coaching, debating and/or attending): I’ve judged for several different schools. I coached and debated for Lincoln Park HS.
Debate Experience: Three years high school debate experience, attended summer institutes at Emory, Northwestern and Dartmouth. I have been a debate coach for one year. I currently judge tournaments off and on and won’t know topic intimately.
DISADVANTAGES: I enjoy politics DA. Every DA needs to tell a solid link story (incl. Internal Link), generic links being less convincing.
TOPICALITY and THEORY: More persuaded by arguments of education than fairness. Team usually needs to prove in-round abuse or loss ground for me to vote on fairness. I find reasonability counter-standards to often be convincing. Teams must commit significant time to T or theory arguments in rebuttals for it to become a voting issue.
COUNTER PLANS: If decent theory arguments are made, I inclined to vote down PICs and Consult CPs. I’m not a fan of Conditional/Dispositional debates and rarely vote down a team because of it. I tend to find CPs without a spelled out plan text abusive.
KRITQUES: Links and internal links need to be clear. I prefer the alternatives to be thoroughly discussed. If K lacks an alternative then I need to know the role of the ballot. Framework and “Role of the Ballot” needs to always be competitive (e.g., should not simply be “vote against the plan”).
KRITICAL AFFIRMATIVES: I am open to K Affirmitives, but the more radical they are, the more Affirmitive must define their interpretation of policy debate. Affirmitive must have prepared response for what the Negative can potentially run against the case.
MISCELLENEOUS: I’m a bit old-school in preferring to see debaters standing up, and looking at the judge during cross-x. Tag team is allowed, but partner of debater being questioned should not dominant the responses. Please be nice and respectful in asking/giving evidence, referring to the other team and conducting C-X, otherwise I can deduct speaker points. If I need to read cards/evidence as a judge then the debaters are doing something wrong.
Email: khirn10@gmail.com --- of course I want to be on the chain
Program Manager and Debate Coach, University of Michigan (2015-)
Debate Coach, Westwood HS (2024-)
Previously a coach at Whitney Young High School (2010-20), Caddo Magnet (2020-21), Walter Payton (2018, 2021-23), University of Chicago Lab Schools (2023-24).
Last updated: August, 2024
Philosophy: I attempt to judge rounds with the minimum amount of intervention required to answer the question, "Who has done the better debating?", using whatever rubrics for evaluating that question that debaters set up.
I work in debate full-time. I attend a billion tournaments and judge a ton of debates, lead a seven week lab every summer, talk about debate virtually every day, and research fairly extensively. As a result, I'm familiar with the policy and critical literature bases on both the college energy topic and the HS intellectual property rights topic. For intellectual property rights, I wrote the topicality file and delivered the topic lecture for the Michigan debate camp.
I’ve coached my teams to deploy a diverse array of argument types and styles. Currently, I coach teams that primarily read policy arguments. But I was also the primary argument coach for Michigan KM from 2014-16. I’ve coached many successful teams in both high school and college that primarily read arguments influenced by "high theory", postmodernist thought, and/or critical race literature. I'm always excited to see debaters deploy new or innovative strategies across the argumentative spectrum.
Impact turns have a special place in my heart. There are few venues in academia or life where you will be as encouraged to challenge conventional wisdom as you are in policy debate, so please take this rare opportunity to persuasively defend the most counter-intuitive positions conceivable. I enjoy judging debaters with a sense of humor, and I hope to reward teams who make their debates fun and exciting (through engaging personalities and argument selection).
My philosophy is very long. I make no apology for it. In fact, I wish most philosophies were longer and more substantive, and I still believe mine to be insufficiently comprehensive. Frequently, judges espouse a series of predictable platitudes, but I have no idea why they believe whatever it is they've said (which can frequently leave me confused, frustrated, and little closer to understanding how debaters could better persuade them). I attempt to counter this practice with detailed disclosure of the various predispositions, biases, and judgment canons that may be outcome-determinative for how I decide your debate. Maybe you don't want to know all of those, but nobody's making you read this paradigm. Having the option to know as many of those as possible for any given judge seems preferable to having only the options of surprise and speculation.
What follows is a series of thoughts that mediate my process for making decisions, both in general and in specific contexts likely to emerge in debates. I've tried to be as honest as possible, and I frequently update my philosophy to reflect perceived trends in my judging. That being said, self-disclosure is inevitably incomplete or misleading; if you're curious about whether or not I'd be good for you, feel free to look at my voting record or email me a specific question (reach me via email, although you may want to try in person because I'm not the greatest with quick responses).
0) Online debate
Online debate is a depressing travesty, although it's plainly much better than the alternative of no debate at all. I miss tournaments intensely and can't wait until this era is over and we can attend tournaments in-person once again. Do your best not to remind us constantly of what we're missing: please keep your camera on throughout the whole debate unless you have a pressing and genuine technical reason not to. I don't have meaningful preferences beyond that. Feel free to record me---IMO all debates should be public and free to record by all parties, especially in college.
1) Tech v. Truth
I attempt to be an extremely "technical" judge, although I am not sure that everyone means what everyone else means when they describe debating or judging as "technical." Here's what I mean by that: outside of card text, I attempt to flow every argument that every speaker expresses in a speech. Even in extremely quick debates, I generally achieve this goal or come close to it. In some cases, like when very fast debaters debate at max speed in a final rebuttal, it may be virtually impossible for me to to organize all of the words said by the rebuttalist into the argumentative structure they were intending. But overall I feel very confident in my flow).
In addition, being "technical" means that I line up arguments on my flow, and expect debaters to, in general, organize their speeches by answering the other team's arguments in the order they were presented. All other things being equal, I will prioritize an argument presented such that it maximizes clear and direct engagement with its counter-argument over an argument that floats in space unmoored to an adversarial argument structure.
I do have one caveat that pertains to what I'll term "standalone" voting issues. I'm not likely to decide an entire debate based on standalone issues explained or extended in five seconds or less. For example, If you have a standard on conditionality that asserts "also, men with curly unkempt hair are underrepresented in debate, vote neg to incentivize our participation," and the 1ar drops it, you're not going to win the debate on that argument (although you will win my sympathies, fellow comb dissident). I'm willing to vote on basically anything that's well-developed, but if your strategy relies on tricking the other team into dropping random nonsense unrelated to the rest of the debate entirely, I'm not really about that. This caveat only pertains to standalone arguments that are dropped once: if you've dropped a standalone voting issue presented as such in two speeches, you've lost all my sympathies to your claim to a ballot.
In most debates, so many arguments are made that obvious cross-applications ensure few allegedly "dropped" arguments can accurately be described as such. Dropped arguments most frequently win debates in the form of little subpoints making granular distinctions on important arguments that both final rebuttals exert time and energy trying to win. Further murkiness emerges when one realizes that all thresholds for what constitutes a "warrant" (and subsequently an "argument") are somewhat arbitrary and interventionist. Hence the mantra: Dropped arguments are true, but they're only as true as the dropped argument. "Argument" means claim, warrant, and implication. "Severance is a voting issue" lacks a warrant. "Severance is a voting issue - neg ground" also arguably lacks a warrant, since it hasn't been explained how or why severance destroys negative ground or why neg ground is worth caring about.
That might sound interventionist, but consider: we would clearly assess the statement "Severance is a voting issue -- purple sideways" as a claim lacking a warrant. So why does "severence is a voting issue - neg ground" constitute a warranted claim? Some people would say that the former is valid but not sound while the latter is neither valid nor sound, but both fail a formal test of validity. In my assessment, any distinction is somewhat interventionist. In the interest of minimizing intervention, here is what that means for your debating: If the 1ar drops a blippy theory argument and the 2nr explains it further, the 2nr is likely making new arguments... which then justifies 2ar answers to those arguments. In general, justify why you get to say what you're saying, and you'll probably be in good shape. By the 2nr or 2ar, I would much rather that you acknowledge previously dropped arguments and suggest reasonable workaround solutions than continue to pretend they don't exist or lie about previous answers.
Arguments aren't presumptively offensive or too stupid to require an answer. Genocide good, OSPEC, rocks are people, etc. are all terribly stupid, but if you can't explain why they're wrong, you don't deserve to win. If an argument is really stupid or really bad, don't complain about how wrong they are. After all, if the argument's as bad as you say it is, it should be easy. And if you can't deconstruct a stupid argument, either 1) the argument may not be as stupid as you say it is, or 2) it may be worthwhile for you to develop a more efficient and effective way of responding to that argument.
If both sides seem to assume that an impact is desirable/undesirable, and frame their rebuttals exclusively toward avoiding/causing that impact, I will work under that assumption. If a team read a 1AC saying that they had several ways their plan caused extinction, and the 1NC responded with solvency defense and alternative ways the plan prevented extincton, I would vote neg if I thought the plan was more likely to avoid extinction than cause it.
I'll read and evaluate Team A's rehighlightings of evidence "inserted" into the debate if Team B doesn't object to it, but when debated evenly this practice seems indefensible. An important part of debate is choosing how to use your valuable speech time, which entails selecting which pieces of your opponent's ev most clearly bolster your position(s).
2) General Philosophical Disposition
It is somewhat easy to persuade me that life is good, suffering is bad, and we should care about the consequences of our political strategies and advocacies. I would prefer that arguments to the contrary be grounded in specific articulations of alternative models of decision-making, not generalities, rhetoric, or metaphor. It's hard to convince me that extinction = nbd, and arguments like "the hypothetical consequences of your advocacy matter, and they would likely produce more suffering than our advocacy" are far more persuasive than "take a leap of faith" or "roll the dice" or "burn it down", because I can at least know what I'd be aligning myself with and why.
Important clarification: pragmatism is not synonymous with policymaking. On the contrary, one may argue that there is a more pragmatic way to frame judge decision-making in debates than traditional policymaking paradigms. Perhaps assessing debates about the outcome of hypothetical policies is useless, or worse, dangerous. Regardless of how you debate or what you debate about, you should be willing and able to mount a strong defense of why you're doing those things (which perhaps requires some thought about the overall purpose of this activity).
The brilliance and joy of policy debate is most found in its intellectual freedom. What makes it so unlike other venues in academia is that, in theory, debaters are free to argue for unpopular, overlooked, or scorned positions and ill-considered points of view. Conversely, they will be required to defend EVERY component of your argument, even ones that would be taken for granted in most other settings. Just so there's no confusion here: all arguments are on the table for me. Any line drawn on argumentative content is obviously arbitrary and is likely unpredictable, especially for judges whose philosophies aren't as long as mine! But more importantly, drawing that line does profound disservice to debaters by instructing them not to bother thinking about how to defend a position. If you can't defend the desirability of avoiding your advantage's extinction impact against a wipeout or "death good" position, why are you trying to persuade me to vote for a policy to save the human race? Groupthink and collective prejudices against creative ideas or disruptive thoughts are an ubiquitous feature of human societies, but that makes it all the more important to encourage free speech and free thought in one of the few institutions where overcoming those biases is possible.
3) Topicality and Specification
Overall, I'm a decent judge for the neg, provided that they have solid evidence supporting their interpretation.
Limits are probably desirable in the abstract, but if your interpretation is composed of contrived stupidity, it will be hard to convince me that affs should have predicted it. Conversely, affs that are debating solid topicality evidence without well-researched evidence of their own are gonna have a bad time. Naturally, of these issues are up for debate, but I think it's relatively easy to win that research/literature guides preparation, and the chips frequently fall into place for the team accessing that argument.
Competing interpretations is potentially less subjective and arbitrary than a reasonability standard, although reasonability isn't as meaningless as many believe. Reasonability seems to be modeled after the "reasonable doubt" burden required to prove guilt in a criminal case (as opposed to the "preponderence of evidence" standard used in civil cases, which seems similar to competing interps as a model). Reasonability basically is the same as saying "to win the debate, the neg needs to win an 80% risk of their DA instead of a 50% risk." The percentages are arbitrary, but what makes determining that a disad's risk is higher or lower than the risk of an aff advantage (i.e. the model used to decide the majority of debates) any less arbitrary or subjective? It's all ballpark estimation determined by how persuaded judges were by competing presentations of analysis and evidence. With reasonability-style arguments, aff teams can certainly win that they don't need to meet the best of all possible interpretations of the topic, and instead that they should win if their plan meets an interpretation capable of providing a sufficient baseline of neg ground/research parity/quality debate. Describing what threshold of desirability their interpretation should meet, and then describing why that threshold is a better model for deciding topicality debates, is typically necessary to make this argument persuasive.
Answering "plan text in a vacuum" requires presenting an alternative standard by which to interpret the meaning and scope of the words in the plan. Such seems so self-evident that it seems banal to include it in a paradigm, but I have seen many debates this year in which teams did not grasp this fact. If the neg doesn't establish some method for determining what the plan means, voting against "the plan text in a vacuum defines the words in the plan" is indistinguishable from voting for "the eighty-third unhighlighted word in the fifth 1ac preempt defines the words in the plan." I do think setting some limiting standard is potentially quite defensible, especially in debates where large swaths of the 1ac would be completely irrelevent if the aff's plan were to meet the neg's interp. For example: if an aff with a court advantage and a USFG agent says their plan meets "enact = Congress only", the neg could say "interpret the words USFG in the plan to include the Courts when context dictates it---even if 'USFG' doesn't always mean "Courts," you should assume it does for debates in which one or more contentions/advantages are both impertinent and insoluable absent a plan that advocates judicial action." But you will likely need to be both explicit and reasonable about the standard you use if you are to successfully counter charges of infinite regress/arbitrariness.
4) Risk Assessment
In front of me, teams would be well-served to explain their impact scenarios less in terms of brinks, and more in terms of probabilistic truth claims. When pressed with robust case defense, "Our aff is the only potential solution to a US-China war that's coming in a few months, which is the only scenario for a nuclear war that causes extinction" is far less winnable than "our aff meaningfully improves the East Asian security environment through building trust between the two great military powers in the region, which statistically decreases the propensity for inevitable miscalculations or standoffs to escalate to armed conflict." It may not be as fun, but that framing can allow you to generate persuasive solvency deficits that aren't grounded in empty rhetoric and cliche, or to persuasively defeat typical alt cause arguments, etc. Given that you decrease the initial "risk" (i.e. probability times magnitude) of your impact with this framing, this approach obviously requires winning substantial defense against whatever DA the neg goes for, but when most DA's have outlandishly silly brink arguments themselves, this shouldn't be too taxing.
There are times where investing lots of time in impact calculus is worthwhile (for example, if winning your impact means that none of the aff's impact claims reach extinction, or that any of the actors in the aff's miscalc/brinkmanship scenarios will be deterred from escalating a crisis to nuclear use). Most of the time, however, teams waste precious minutes of their final rebuttal on mediocre impact calculus. The cult of "turns case" has much to do with this. It's worth remembering that accessing an extinction impact is far more important than whether or not your extinction impact happens three months faster than theirs (particularly when both sides' warrant for their timeframe claim is baseless conjecture and ad hoc assertion), and that, in most cases, you need to win the substance of your DA/advantage to win that it turns the case.
Incidentally, phrasing arguments more moderately and conditionally is helpful for every argument genre: "all predictions fail" is not persuasive; "some specific type of prediction relying on their model of IR forecasting has little to no practical utility" can be. The only person who's VTL is killed when I hear someone say "there is no value to life in the world of the plan" is mine.
At least for me, try-or-die is extremely intuitive based on argument selection (i.e. if the neg spots the aff that "extinction is inevitable if the judge votes neg, even if it's questionable whether or not the aff solves it", rationalizing an aff ballot becomes rather alluring and shockingly persuasive). You should combat this innate intuition by ensuring that you either have impact defense of some sort (anything from DA solves the case to a counterplan/alt solves the case argument to status quo checks resolve the terminal impact to actual impact defense can work) or by investing time in arguing against try-or-die decision-making.
5) Counterplans
Counterplan theory/competition debating is a lost art. Affirmatives let negative teams get away with murder. Investing time in theory is daunting... it requires answering lots of blippy arguments with substance and depth and speaking clearly, and probably more slowly than you're used to. But, if you invest time, effort, and thought in a well-grounded theoretical objection, I'll be a receptive critic.
The best theory interpretations are clear, elegant, and minimally arbitrary. Here are some examples of args that I would not anticipate many contemporary 2N's defeating:
--counterplans should be policies. Perhaps executive orders, perhaps guidence memos, perhaps lower court decisions, perhaps Congressional resolutions. But this would exclude such travesties as "The Executive Branch should always take international law into account when making their decisions. Such is closer to a counterplan that says "The Executive Branch should make good decisions forever" than it is to a useful policy recommendation. It's relatively easy for CPs to be written in a way that meets this design constraint, but that makes it all the easier to dispose of the CPs that don't.
--counterplans should not be able to fiat both the federal government and additional actors outside of the federal government. It's utopian enough to fiat that Courts, the President, and Congress all act in concert in perpetuity on a given subject. It's absurd to fiat additional actors as well.
Admittedly, these don't exclude a ton of counterplans, but they're extremely powerful when they apply. There are other theoretical objections that I might take more seriously than other judges, although I recognize them as arguments on which reasonable minds may disagree. For example, I am somewhat partial to the argument that solvency advocates for counterplans should have a level of specificity that matches the aff. I feel like that standard would reward aff specificity and incentivize debates that reflect the literature base, while punishing affs that are contrived nonsense by making them debate contrived process nonsense. This certainly seems debateable, and if I had to pick a side, I'd certainly go neg, but it seems like a workable debate relative to alternatives.
Competition debates are a particularly lost art. Generally, I prefer competition debates to theoretical ones, although I think both are basically normative questions (i.e. the whole point of either is to design an ideal, minimally arbitrary model to produce the debates we most desire). I'm not a great judge for counterplans that compete off of certainty or immediacy based on "should"/"resolved" definitions. I'm somewhat easily persuaded that these interpretations lower the bar for how difficult it is to win a negative ballot to an undesirable degree. That being said, affs lose these debates all the time by failing to counter-define words or dropping stupid tricks, so make sure you invest the time you need in these debates to win them.
"CPs should be textually and functionally competitive" seems to me like a logical and defensible standard. Some don't realize that if CPs must be both functionally and textually competitive, permutations may be either. I like the "textual/functional" model of competition BECAUSE it incentives creative counterplan and permutation construction, and because it requires careful text-writing. There are obvious and reasonable disadvantages to textual competition, and there is something inelegant about combining two models together, but I don't think there's a clear and preferable alterantive template when it comes to affs going for competition/theory against new or random process CPs.
And to be clear about my views: "functional-only" is an extremely defensible model, although I think the arguments to prefer it over functional/textual hinge on the implication of the word being defined. If you say that "should is immediate" or "resolved is certain," you've introduced a model of competition that makes "delay a couple weeks" or "consult anyone re: plan" competitive. If your CP competes in a way that introduces fewer CPs (e.g. "job guarantees are admininstered by the states", or "NFUs mean no-first-use under any circumstance/possibility"), I think the neg's odds of winning are fairly likely.
Offense-defense is extremely intuitive to me, and so teams should always be advised to have offense even if their defense is very strong. If the aff says that the counterplan links to the net benefit but doesn't advance a solvency deficit or disadvantage to the CP, and the neg argues that the counterplan at least links less, I am not very likely to vote affirmative absent strong affirmative framing on this question (often the judge is left to their own devices on this question, or only given instruction in the 2AR, which is admittedly better than never but still often too late). At the end of the day I must reconcile these opposing claims, and if it's closely contested and at least somewhat logical, it's very difficult to win 100% of an argument. Even if I think the aff is generally correct, in a world where I have literally any iota of doubt surrounding the aff position or am even remotely persuaded by the the negative's position, why would I remotely risk triggering the net benefit for the aff instead of just opting for the guaranteed safe choice of the counterplan?
Offense, in this context, can come in multiple flavors: you can argue that the affirmative or perm is less likely to link to the net benefit than the counterplan, for example. You can also argue that the risk of a net benefit below a certain threshold is indistinguishable from statistical noise, and that the judge should reject to affirm a difference between the two options because it would encourage undesirable research practices and general decision-making. Perhaps you can advance an analytic solvency deficit somewhat supported by one logical conjecture, and if you are generally winning the argument, have the risk of the impact to that outweigh the unique risk of aff triggering the DA relative to the counterplan. But absent any offensive argument of any sort, the aff is facing an uphill battle. I have voted on "CP links to politics before" but generally that only happens if there is a severe flaw in negative execution (i.e. the neg drops it), a significant skill discrepancy between teams, or a truly ill-conceived counterplan.
I'm a somewhat easy sell on conditionality good (at least 1 CP / 1 K is defensible), but I've probably voted aff slightly more frequently than not in conditionality debates. That's partly because of selection bias (affs go for it when they're winning it), but mainly because neg teams have gotten very sloppy in their defenses of conditionality, particularly in the 2NR. That being said, I've been growing more and more amenable to "conditionality bad" arguments over time.
However, large advantage counterplans with multiple planks, all of which can be kicked, are fairly difficult to defend. Negative teams can fiat as many policies as it takes to solve whatever problems the aff has sought to tackle. It is unreasonable to the point of stupidity to expect the aff to contrive solvency deficits: the plan would literally have to be the only idea in the history of thought capable of solving a given problem. Every additional proposal introduced in the 1nc (in order to increase the chance of solving) can only be discouraged through the potential cost of a disad being read against it. In the old days, this is why counterplan files were hundreds of pages long and had answers to a wide variety of disads. But if you can kick the plank, what incentive does the aff have to even bother researching if the CP is a good idea? If they read a 2AC add-on, the neg gets as many no-risk 2NC counterplans to add to the fray as well (of course, they can also add unrelated 2nc counterplans for fun and profit). If you think you can defend the merit of that strategy vs. a "1 condo cp / 1 condo k" interp, your creative acumen may be too advanced for interscholastic debate; consider more challenging puzzles in emerging fields, as they urgently need your input.
I don't think I'm "biased" against infinite conditionality; if you think you have the answers and technical acuity to defend infinite conditionality against the above argumentation, I'd happily vote for you. I generally coach my teams to 2NC CP out of straight turned DAs, read 5+ conditional advocacies in the 1NC, etc.
I don't default to the status quo ("judge kick") if there's zero judge instruction to that effect, but I default to the least interventionist approach possible. If the neg says the CP is conditional, never qualifies that "2nr checks: we'll only go for one world," and aff accedes, I will default to judge kick. One side dropping "yes/no judge kick" at some point in the debate obviously wins the issue for their opponent.
I've led a strong group of debaters in a summer institute lab every year for over a decade, and I think some of the lectures or discussions I've led on various theoretical subjects (in which I often express very strong or exaggerated defenses of one or more of the above arguments, for educational purposes), have influenced some to interpret my views on some aspect of competition as extremely strongly-held. In truth, I don't have terribly strong convictions about any of these issues, and any theoretical predisposition is easily overcame by outdebating another team on the subject at hand.
6) Politics
Most theoretical objections to (and much sanctimonious indignation toward) the politics disadvantage have never made sense to me. Fiat is a convention about what it should be appropriate to assume for the sake of discussion, but there's no "logical" or "true" interpretation of what fiat descriptively means. It would be ludicrously unrealistic for basically any 1ac plan to pass immediately, with no prior discussion, in the contemporary political world. Any form of argument in which we imagine the consequences of passage is a fictive constraint on process argumentation. As a result, any normative justification for including the political process within the contours of permissible argument is a rational justification for a model of fiat that involves the politics DA (and a DA to a model of fiat that doesn't). Political salience is the reason most good ideas don't become policy, and it seems illogical for the negative to be robbed of this ground. The politics DA, then, represents the most pressing political cost caused by doing the plan in the contemporary political environment, which seems like a very reasonable for affs to have to defend against.
Obviously many politics DAs are contrived nonsense (especially during political periods during which there is no clear, top-level presidential priority). However, the reason that these DAs are bad isn't because they're theoretically illegitimate, and politics theory's blippiness and general underdevelopment further aggravate me (see the tech vs truth section).
Finally, re: intrinsicness, I don't understand why the judge should be the USFG. I typically assume the judge is just me, deciding which policy/proposal is the most desirable. I don't have control over the federal government, and no single entity does or ever will (barring that rights malthus transition). Maybe I'm missing something. If you think I am, feel free to try and be the first to show me the light...
7) Framework/Non-Traditional Affs
Despite some of the arguments I've read and coached, I'm sympathetic to the framework argument and fairness concerns. I don't think that topicality arguments are presumptively violent, and I think it's generally rather reasonable (and often strategic) to question the aff's relationship to the resolution. Although framework is probably always the best option, I would generally also enjoy seeing a well-executed substantive strategy if one's available. This is simply because I have literally judged hundreds of framework debates and it has gotten mildly repetitive, to say the least (just scroll down if you think that I'm being remotely hyperbolic). But please don't sacrifice your likelihood of winning the debate.
My voting record on framework is relatively even. In nearly every debate, I voted for the team I assessed as demonstrating superior technical debating in the final rebuttals.
I typically think winning unique offense, in the rare scenario where a team invests substantial time in poking defensive holes in the other team's standards, is difficult for both sides in a framework debate. I think affs should think more about their answers to "switch side solves your offense" and "sufficient neg engagement key to meaningfully test the aff", while neg's should generally work harder to prepare persuasive and consistent impact explanations. The argument that "debate doesn't shape subjectivity" takes out clash/education offense, for example, is a reasonable and even threatening one.
I'm typically more persuaded by affirmative teams that answer framework by saying that the skills/methods inculcated by the 1ac produce more effective/ethical interactions with institutions than by teams that argue "all institutions are bad."
Fairness is an impact, though like any impact its magnitude and meaning is subject to debate. Like any abstract value, it can be difficult explain beyond a certain point, and it can't be proven or disproven via observation or testing. In other words, it's sometimes hard to answer the question "why is fairness good?" for the same reason it's hard to answer the question "why is justice good?" Nonetheless, it's pretty easy to persuade me that I should care about fairness in a debate context, given that everyone relies on essential fairness expectations in order to participate in the activity, such as expecting that I flow and give their arguments a fair hearing rather than voting against them because I don't like their choice in clothing.
But as soon as neg teams start introducing additional standards to their framework argument that raise education concerns, they have said that the choice of framework has both fairness and education implications, and if it could change our educational experience, could the choice of framework change our social or intellectual experience in debate in other ways as well? Maybe not (I certainly think it's easy to win that an individual round's decision certainly couldn't be expected to) but if you said your FW is key to education it's easy to see how those kinds of questions come into play and now can potentially militate against fairness concerns.
I think it's perfectly reasonable to question the desirability of the activity: we should all ideally be self-reflexive and be able to articulate why it is we participate in the activities on which we choose to dedicate our time. Nearly everybody in the world does utterly indefensible things from time to time, and many people (billions of them, probably) make completely indefensible decisions all the time. The reason why these arguments can be unpersuasive is typically because saying that debate is bad may just link to the team saying "debate bad" because they're, you know... debating, and no credible solvency mechanism for altering the activity has been presented.
So, I am a good judge for the fairness approach. It's not without its risk: a small risk of a large-magnitude impact to the ballot (e.g. solving an instance of racism in this round) could easily outweigh. But strong defense to the ballot can make it difficult for affs to overcome.
Still, it's nice to hear a defense of debate if you choose to go that route as well. I do like FWs that emphasize the benefits of the particular fairness norms established by a topicality interpretation ("models" debates). These can be enjoyable to watch, and some debaters are very good at this approach. In the aggregate, however, this route tends to be more difficult than the 'fairness' strategy.
If you're looking for an external impact, there are two impacts to framework that I have consistently found more persuasive than others, and they're related to why I value the debate activity. First, "switch-side debate good" (forcing people to defend things they don't believe is the only vehicle for truly shattering dogmatic ideological predispositions and fostering a skeptical worldview capable of ensuring that its participants, over time, develop more ethical and effective ideas than they otherwise would). Second, "agonism" (making debaters defend stuff that the other side is prepared to attack rewards debaters for pursuing clash; running from engagement by lecturing the neg and judge on a random topic of your choosing is a cowardly flight from battle; instead, the affirmative team with a strong will to power should actively strive to beat the best, most well-prepared negative teams from the biggest schools on their terms, which in turn provides the ultimate triumph; the life-affirming worldview facilitated by this disposition is ultimately necessary for personal fulfillment, and also provides a more effective strategy with which to confront the inevitable hardships of life).
Many aff "impact turns" to topicality are often rendered incoherent when met with gentle pushback. It's difficult to say "predictability bad" if you have a model of debate that makes debate more predictable from the perspective of the affirmative team. Exclusion and judgment are inevitable structural components of any debate activity that I can conceive of: any DA excludes affs that link to it and don't have an advantage that outweighs it. The act of reading that DA can be understood as judging the debaters who proposed that aff as too dull to think of a better idea. Both teams are bound to say the other is wrong and only one can win. Many aff teams may protest that their impact turns are much more sophisticated than this, and are more specific to some element of the topicality/FW structure that wouldn't apply to other types of debate arguments. Whatever explanation you have for why that above sentence true should be emphasized throughout the debate if you want your impact turns or DA's to T to be persuasive. In other words, set up your explanation of impact turns/disads to T in a way that makes clear why they are specific to something about T and wouldn't apply to basic structural requirements of debate from the outset of the debate.
I'm a fairly good judge for the capitalism kritik against K affs. Among my most prized possessions are signed copies of Jodi Dean books that I received as a gift from my debaters. Capitalism is persuasive for two reasons, both of which can be defeated, and both of which can be applied to other kritiks. First, having solutions (even ones that seem impractical or radical) entails position-taking, with clear political objectives and blueprints, and I often find myself more persuaded by a presentation of macro-political problems when coupled with corresponding presentation of macro-political solutions. Communism, or another alternative to capitalism, frequently ends up being the only solution of that type in the room. Second, analytic salience: The materialist and class interest theories often relatively more explanatory power for oppression than any other individual factor because they entail a robust and logically consistent analysis of the incentives behind various actors committing various actions over time. I'm certainly not unwinnable for the aff in these debates, particularly if they strongly press the alt's feasibility and explain what they are able to solve in the context of the neg's turns case arguments, and I obviously will try my hardest to avoid letting any predisposition overwhelm my assessment of the debating.
8) Kritiks (vs policy affs)
I'm okay for 'old-school' kritik's (security/cap/etc), but I'm also okay for the aff. When I vote for kritiks, most of my RFD's look like one of the following:
1) The neg has won that the implementation of the plan is undesirable relative to the status quo;
2) The neg has explicitly argued (and won) that the framework of the debate should be something other than "weigh the plan vs squo/alt" and won within that framework.
If you don't do either of those things while going for a kritik, I am likely to be persuaded by traditional aff presses (case outweighs, try-or-die, perm double-bind, alt fails etc). Further, despite sympathies for and familiarity with much poststructural thought, I'm nevertheless quite easily persuaded to use utilitarian cost-benefit analysis to make difficult decisions, and I have usually found alternative methods of making decisions lacking and counter-intuitive by comparison.
Kritik alternatives typically make no sense. They often have no way to meaningfully compete with the plan, frequently because of a scale problem. Either they are comparing what one person/a small group should do to what the government should do, or what massive and sweeping international movements should do vs what a government should do. Both comparisons seem like futile exercises for reasons I hope are glaringly obvious.
There are theory arguments that affs could introduce against alternatives that exploit common design flaws in critical arguments. "Vague alts" is not really one of them (ironically because the argument itself is too vague). Some examples: "Alternatives should have texts; otherwise the alternative could shift into an unpredictable series of actions throughout the debate we can't develop reasonable responses against." "Alternatives should have actors; otherwise there is no difference between this and fiating 'everyone should be really nice to each other'." Permutations are easy to justify: the plan would have to be the best idea in the history of thought if all the neg had to do was think of something better.
Most kritik frameworks presented to respond to plan focus are not really even frameworks, but a series of vague assertions that the 2N is hoping that the judge will interpret in a way that's favorable for them (because they certainly don't know exactly what they're arguing for). Many judges continually interpret these confusing framework debates by settling on some middle-ground compromise that neither team actually presented. I prefer to choose between options that debaters actually present.
My ideal critical arguments would negate the aff. For example, against a heg aff, I could be persuaded by security K alts that advocate for a strategy of unilateral miltary withdrawal. Perhaps the permutation severs rhetoric and argumentation in the 1ac that, while not in the plan text, is both central enough to their advocacy and important enough (from a pedagogical perspective) that we should have the opportunity to focus the debate around the geopolitical position taken by the 1ac. The only implication to to a "framework" argument like this would be that, assuming the neg wins a link to something beyond the plan text, the judge should reject, on severence grounds, permutations against alts that actually make radical proposals. In the old days, this was called philosophical competition. How else could we have genuine debates about how to change society or grand strategy? There are good aff defenses of the plan focus model from a fairness and education perspective with which to respond to this, but this very much seems like a debate worth having.
All this might sound pretty harsh for neg's, but affs should be warned that I think I'm more willing than most judges to abandon policymaking paradigms based on technical debating. If the negative successfully presents and defends an alternative model of decisionmaking, I will decide the debate from within it. The ballot is clay; mold it for me and I'll do whatever you win I should.
9) Kritiks (vs K affs)
Anything goes!
Seriously, I don't have strong presuppositions about what "new debate" is supposed to look like. For the most part, I'm happy to see any strategy that's well researched or well thought-out. Try something new! Even if it doesn't work out, it may lead to something that can radically innovate debate.
Most permutation/framework debates are really asking the question: "Is the part of the aff that the neg disagreed with important enough to decide an entire debate about?" (this is true in CP competition debates too, for what it's worth). Much of the substantive debating elsewhere subsequently determines the outcome of these sub-debates far more than debaters seem to assume.
Role of the ballot/judge claims are obviously somewhat self-serving, but in debates in which they're well-explained (or repeatedly dropped), they can be useful guidelines for crafting a reasonable decision (especially when the ballot theorizes a reasonable way for both teams to win if they successfully defend core thesis positions).
Yes, I am one of those people who reads critical theory for fun, although I also read about domestic politics, theoretical and applied IR, and economics for fun. Yes, I am a huge nerd, but who's the nerd that that just read the end of a far-too-long judge philosophy in preparation for a debate tournament? Thought so.
10) Procedural Norms
Evidence ethics, card clipping, and other cheating accusations supercede the debate at hand and ask for judge intervention to protect debaters from egregious violations of shared norms. Those challenges are win/loss, yes/no referendums that end the debate. If you levy an accusation, the round will be determined based on whether or not I find in your favor. If I can't establish a violation of sufficient magnitude was more likely than not, I will immediately vote against the accusing team. If left to my own discretion, I would tend not to find the following acts egregious enough to merit a loss on cheating grounds: mis-typing the date for a card, omitting a sentence that doesn't drastically undermine the card accidentally. The following acts clearly meet the bar for cheating: clipping/cross-reading multiple cards, fabricating evidence. Everything in between is hard to predict out of context. I would err on the side of caution, and not ending the round.
'Ad hominem' attacks, ethical appeals to out-of-round behavior, and the like: I differ from some judges in that, being committed to minimal intervention, I will technically assess these. I find it almost trivially obvious that introducing these creates a perverse incentive to stockpile bad-faith accusations and turns debate into a toxic sludgefest, and would caution that these are likely not a particularly strategic approach in front of me.
11) Addendum: Random Thoughts from Random Topics
In the spirit of Bill Batterman, I thought to myself: How could I make this philosophy even longer and less useable than it already was? So instead of deleting topic-relevent material from previous years that no longer really fit into the above sections, I decided to archive all of that at the bottom of the paradigm if I still agreed with what I said. Bad takes were thrown into the memory hole.
Topicality for Fiscal Redistribution:
I'm probably more open to subsets than most judges if the weight of predictable evidence supports it. The neg is maybe slightly favored in a perfect debate, but I think there is better aff evidence to be read. I generally think the topic is extremely overlimited. Both the JG and BI are poorly supported by the literature, and there are not a panoply of viable SS affs.
Social Security and programs created by the Social Security Act are not same thing. The best evidence I've seen clearly excludes welfare and health programs, although expanding SS enables affs to morph the program into almost anything topically (good luck with a "SS-key" warrant vs the PIC, though). SSI is debateable, though admittedly not an extreme limits explosion.
Topicality arguments excluding plans with court actors are weaker than each of the above arguments. Still tenable.
Topicality arguments excluding cutting programs to fund plans are reasonable edge cases. I can see the evidence or balance of debating going either way on this question.
Evenly debated, "T-Must Include Taxes" is unwinnable for the negative. Perhaps you will convince me otherwise, but keep in mind I did quite a bit of research on this subject before camps even started,so if you think you have a credible case then you're likely in need of new evidence. I really dislike being dogmatic on something like this. I began the summer trying todevelop a case for why affs must tax, but I ran into a basic logical problem and have not seen evidence that establishes the bare minimum of a topicality interpretation. Consider the definition of "net worth." Let's assume that all the definitions of net worth state it means "(financial assets like savings, real estate, and investments) - (debts and liabilities)." "T-FR must include tax" is the logical equivalent of "well, because net worth means assets AND liabilities, cashing a giant check doesn't increase your net worth because you don't ALSO decrease your debts owed elsewhere." For this to be a topicality argument, you'd need to find a card that says "Individual policy interventions aren't fiscal redistribution if they merely adjust spending without tax policy." Such a card likely doesn't exist, because it's self-evidently nonsense.
Of course, I'll certainly evaluate arguments on this subject as fairly as possible, and if you technically out-execute the opposing team, I'll vote against them remorselessly. But you should know my opinion regardless.
Topicality on NATO emerging tech: Security cooperation almost certainly involves the DOD. Even if new forms of security cooperation could theoretically exclude the DOD, there's not a lot of definitional support and minimal normative justification for that interpretation. Most of the important definition debates resolve substantive issues about what DA and impact turn links are granted and what counterplans are competitive rather than creating useful T definitions. Creative use of 'substantially = in the main' or 'increase = pre-existing' could elevate completely unworkable definitions into ones that are viable at the fringes.
Topicality on Legal Personhood: Conferring rights and/or duties doesn't presumptively confer legal personhood. Don't get me wrong: with evidence and normative definition debating, it very well may, but it doesn't seem like something to be taken for granted. There is a case for "US = federal only" but it's very weak. Overall this is a very weak topic for T args.
Topicality on water: There aren't very many good limiting devices on this topic. Obviously the states CP is an excellent functional limit; "protection requires regulation" is useful as well, at least insofar as it establishes competition for counterplans that avoid regulations (e.g. incentives). Beyond that, the neg is in a rough spot.
I am more open to "US water resources include oceans" than most judges; see the compiled evidence set I released in the Michigan camp file MPAs Aff 2 (should be available via openevidence). After you read that and the sum total of all neg cards released/read thus far, the reasoning for why I believe this should be self-evident. Ironically, I don't think there are very many good oceans affs (this isn't a development topic, it's a protection topic). This further hinders the neg from persuasively going for the this T argument, but if you want to really exploit this belief, you'll find writing a strategic aff is tougher than you may imagine.
Topicality on antitrust: Was adding 'core' to this topic a mistake? I can see either side of this playing out at Northwestern: while affs that haven't thought about the variants of the 'core' or 'antitrust' pics are setting themselves up for failure, I think the aff has such an expansive range of options that they should be fine. There aren't a ton of generic T threats on this topic. There are some iterations of subsets that seem viable, if not truly threatening, and there there is a meaningful debate on whether or not the aff can fiat court action. The latter is an important question that both evidence and normative desirability will play a role in determining. Beyond that, I don't think there's much of a limit on this topic.
ESR debates on the executive powers topic: I think the best theory arguments against ESR are probably just solvency advocate arguments. Seems like a tough sell to tell the neg there’s no executive CP at all. I've heard varied definitions of “object fiat” over the years: fiating an actor that's a direct object/recipient of the plan/resolution; fiating an enduring negative action (i.e. The President should not use designated trade authority, The US should not retaliate to terrorist attacks with nukes etc); fiating an actor whose behavior is affected by a 1ac internal link chain. But none of these definitions seem particularly clear nor any of these objections particularly persuasive.
States CP on the education and health insurance topics: States-and-politics debates are not the most meaningful reflection of the topic literature, especially given that the nature of 50 state fiat distorts the arguments of most state action advocates, and they can be stale (although honestly anything that isn't a K debate will not feel stale to me these days). But I'm sympathetic to the neg on these questions, especially if they have good solvency evidence. There are a slew of policy analysts that have recommended as-uniform-as-possible state action in the wake of federal dysfunction. With a Trump administration and a Republican Congress, is the prospect of uniform state action on an education or healthcare policy really that much more unrealistic than a massive liberal policy? There are literally dozens of uniform policies that have been independently adopted by all or nearly all states. I'm open to counter-arguments, but they should all be as contextualized to the specific evidence and counter-interpretation presented by the negative as they would be in a topicality debate (the same goes for the neg in terms of answering aff theory pushes). It's hard to defend a states CP without meaningful evidentiary support against general aff predictability pushes, but if the evidence is there, it doesn't seem to unreasonable to require affs to debate it. Additionally, there does seem to be a persuasive case for the limiting condition that a "federal-key warrant" places on affirmatives.
Topicality on executive power: This topic is so strangely worded and verbose that it is difficult to win almost any topicality argument against strong affirmative answers, as powerful as the limits case may be. ESR makes being aff hard enough that I’m not sure how necessary the negative needs assistance in limiting down the scope of viable affs, but I suppose we shall see as the year moves forward. I’m certainly open to voting on topicality violations that are supported by quality evidence. “Restrictions in the area of” = all of that area (despite the fact that two of the areas have “all or nearly all” in their wordings, which would seem to imply the other three are NOT “all or nearly all”) does not seem to meet that standard.
Topicality on immigration: This is one of the best topics for neg teams trying to go for topicality in a long time... maybe since alternative energy in 2008-9. “Legal immigration” clearly means LPR – affs will have a tough time winning otherwise against competent negative teams. I can’t get over my feeling that the “Passel and Fix” / “Murphy 91” “humanitarian” violations that exclude refugee, asylums, etc, are somewhat arbitrary, but the evidence is extremely good for the negative (probably slightly better than it is for the affirmative, but it’s close), and the limits case for excluding these affs is extremely persuasive. Affs debating this argument in front of me should make their case that legal immigration includes asylum, refugees, etc by reading similarly high-quality evidence that says as much.
Topicality on arms sales: T - subs is persuasive if your argument is that "substantially" has to mean something, and the most reasonable assessment of what it should mean is the lowest contextual bound that either team can discover and use as a bulwark for guiding their preparation. If the aff can't produce a reasonably well-sourced card that says substantially = X amount of arms sales that their plan can feasibly meet, I think neg teams can win that it's more arbitrary to assume that substantially is in the topic for literally no reason than it is to assume the lowest plausible reading of what substantially could mean (especially given that every definition of substantially as a higher quantity would lead one to agree that substantially is at least as large as that lowest reading). If the aff can, however, produce this card, it will take a 2N's most stalwart defense of any one particular interpretation to push back against the most basic and intuitive accusations of arbitrariness/goalpost-shifting.
T - reduce seems conceptually fraught in almost every iteration. Every Saudi aff conditions its cessation of arms sales on the continued existence of Saudi Arabia. If the Saudi military was so inept that the Houthis suddenly not only won the war against Saleh but actually captured Saudi Arabia and annexed it as part of a new Houthi Empire, the plan would not prevent the US from selling all sorts of exciting PGMs to Saudi Arabia's new Houthi overlords. Other than hard capping the overall quantity of arms sales and saying every aff that doesn't do that isn't topical, (which incidentally is not in any plausible reading a clearly forwarded interpretation of the topic in that poorly-written Pearson chapter), it's not clear to me what the distinction is between affs that condition and affs that don't are for the purposes of T - Reduce
Topicality on CJR: T - enact is persuasive. The ev is close, but in an evenly debated and closely contested round where both sides read all of the evidence I've seen this year, I'd be worried if I were aff. The debateability case is strong for the neg, given how unlimited the topic is, but there's a case to be made that courts affs aren't so bad and that ESR/politics is a strong enough generic to counter both agents.
Other T arguments are, generally speaking, uphill battles. Unless a plan text is extremely poorly written, most "T-Criminal" arguments are likely solvency takeouts, though depending on advantage construction they may be extremely strong and relevant solvency takeouts. Most (well, all) subsets arguments, regardless of which word they define, have no real answer to "we make some new rule apply throughout the entire area, e.g. all police are prohibitied from enforcing XYZ criminal law." Admittedly, there are better and worse variations for all of these violations. For example, Title 18 is a decent way to set up "T - criminal justice excludes civil / decrim" types of interpretations, despite the fact it's surprisingly easy for affs to win they meet it. And of course, aff teams often screw these up answering bad and mediocre T args in ways that make them completely viable. But none of these would be my preferred strategy, unless of course you're deploying new cards or improved arguments at the TOC. If that's the case, nicely done! If you think your evidence is objectively better than the aff cards, and that you can win the plan clearly violates a cogent interpretation, topicality is always a reasonable option in front of me.
Topicality on space cooperation: Topicality is making a big comeback in college policy debates this year. Kiinda overdue. But also kinda surprising because the T evidence isn't that high quality relative to its outsized presence in 2NRs, but hey, we all make choices.
STM T debates have been underwhelming in my assessment. T - No ADR... well at least is a valid argument consisting of a clear interp and a clear violation. It goes downhill from there. It's by no means unwinnable, but not a great bet in an evenly matched ebate. But you can't even say that for most of the other STM interps I've seen so far. Interps that are like "STM are these 9 things" are not only silly, they frequently have no clear way of clearly excluding their hypothesized limits explosion... or the plan. And I get it - STM affs are the worst (and we're only at the tip of the iceberg for zany STM aff prolif). Because STM proposals are confusing, different advocates use the terms in wildly different ways, the proposals are all in the direction of uniqueness and are difficult to distinguish from similar policy structures presently in place, and the area lacks comprehensive neg ground outside of "screw those satellites, let em crash," STM affs producing annoying debates (which is why so many teams read STM). But find better and clearer T interps if you want to turn those complaints about topical affs into topicality arguments that exclude those affs. And I encourage you to do so quickly, as I will be the first to shamelessly steal them for my teams.
Ironically, the area of the topic that produces what seem to me the best debates (in terms of varied, high-quality, and evenly-matched argumentation) probably has the single highest-quality T angle for the neg to deploy against it. And that T angle just so happens to exclude nearly every arms control aff actually being ran. In my assessment, both the interp that "arms control = quantitative limit" and the interp that "arms control = militaries just like chilling with each other, hanging out, doing some casual TCBMs" are plausible readings of the resolution. The best aff predictability argument is clearly that arms control definitions established before the space age have some obvious difficulties remaining relevant in space. But it seems plausible that that's a reason the resolution should have been written differently, not that it should be read in an alternate way. That being said, the limits case seems weaker than usual for the neg (though not terrible) and in terms of defending an interp likely to result in high-quality debates, the aff has a better set of ground arguments at their disposal than usual.
Trump-era politics DAs: Most political capital DAs are self-evidently nonsense in the Trump era. We no longer have a president that expends or exerts political capital as described by any of the canonical sources that theorized that term. Affs should be better at laundry listing thumpers and examples that empirically prove Trump's ability to shamelessly lie about whatever the aff does or why he supports the aff and have a conservative media environment that tirelessly promotes that lie as the new truth, but it's not hard to argue this point well. Sometimes, when there's an agenda (even if that agenda is just impeachment), focus links can be persuasive. I actually like the internal agency politics DA's more than others do, because they do seem to better analyze the present political situation. Our political agenda at the national level does seem driven at least as much by personality-driven palace intrigue as anything else; if we're going to assess the political consequences of our proposed policies, that seems as good a proxy for what's likely to happen as anything else.
About me
Mj (she/her). Please do not call me "judge"
I debated for four years (2018-2022) at New Trier High School (NT JW <3). I don't debate in college, but I judge pretty frequently.
Please add me to the email chain: mj.debate13@gmail.com. If the tournament is asking to use speech drop, please use that.
I have led a classic lab at umich for the last three years. I would describe my topic knowledge on IPR as medium.
About my judging
Most of these opinions reflect how I felt about certain arguments when I debated. As a judge, I will try to decide everything as it goes down on the flow, irrespective of any personal biases. Please do not let my paradigm overdetermine what you want to go for!!
Please read rehighlightings - not reading them seems kind of indefensible to me (you have to point this out!!!)
If you have any questions about my paradigm, just ask. I loved debating, I love judging, and I'm always down to talk about either.
Case
Framing should be line-by-lined
If you read spark with wipeout impacts, THIS IS A DOUBLE TURN!!! I keep watching this happen and its driving me insane. I am fine voting on spark or wipeout if they are technically won. I am putting this on my paradigm in the hope that debaters will notice when people blatantly double turn themselves while reading spark with wipeout impacts.
Theory
Condo is a reason to reject the team, everything else is probably a reason to reject an argument
You need to impact theory out in the final rebuttals, and it needs to be very present in previous speeches if you go for it in the 2ar
I default to kicking the CP for the neg if it's never brought up, so please bring it up early (2nc/1ar).
The neg should take advantage of poorly-worded aff theory violations, most people don't think enough about how they word their 2ac theory interp
Topicality
Fwiw, everything else equal, I really enjoy T debates. The caveat to this is ASPEC. I don't like ASPEC. I would obviously vote on it if technically won, but it would hurt my heart. I also believe that ASPEC is rarely ever truly dropped -- most of the time, the 1ar can cross apply something to get out of it. The more ASPEC was hidden, the more I will generally be okay with 1ar cross-aps to get out of it. All of this, of course, is up to debate.
I debated on three aff biased topics (Immigration, CJR, and Water) and thus may be a lot more amenable to a limited topic than the average judge. That being said, I have zero strong feelings about T on this topic.
Say what your alternative to plan text in a vacuum is.
I think reasonability can be good in specific circumstances but I usually don't find myself persuaded by it unless the aff is already basically winning the flow.
Ks
My experience running Ks is pretty limited (security, neolib, settler colonialism, death cult) so I'll need you to spend a little time going over the thesis of your K if it's more complex.
I think both teams should be explicit about what I weigh if they win framework.
K Affs
I'm happy to judge anything, although I only ever read policy affs, so there may be a slightly higher burden of explanation for me compared to the average judge.
Aff offense on FW needs to be clear before the 2ar.
I have no preference between clash and fairness. I have voted for and against both.
CPs
I know a lot of basic perm arguments, and went for limited intrensic perms a lot, but I'm admittedly not great at abjudicating really complex textual/functional competition debates. This just means spending more time explaining them in the 2nr/2ar.
DAs
Zero risk is real.
1ar needs to respond to block "DA turns Case" arguments.
Northside '21
Northwestern '25
0 time TOC qualifier, 4 years of debate for Northside College Prep
He/Him
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If I am judging a virtual debate and you send documents with analytics omitted, you will be docked speaker points. Your mic quality is not nearly as good as you think it is, so why would you voluntarily make it harder for the person who's deciding which team wins (me) to understand what you're saying by omitting a useful visual supplement? Act like I'm half-deaf.
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Pay attention to where you use jargon and explain or contextualize where you can. This topic has lots of acronyms so it would help to say full phrases and what they actually mean at least once in-round.
If you can't explain an argument you plan to read in front of me at a conversational speed, there are very good odds that you won't win me over when trying to spread it. Debate what you're comfortable with, not what you think I'll like the most.
I avoid reading speech docs where possible. I will read a card if it is referenced during cross-ex, as well as if specific warrants are called to my attention during speeches. However, I will not give the full robustness of a card's argument to you if all you are doing is repeating the author's name and the claim.
Primarily debated soft left affs in high school, but have also read traditional policy. I have read every kind of argument on the neg. Increasingly sympathetic to traditional big stick affs as a judge, just because soft left debaters have a structurally harder time winning the debate.
Thoughts on arguments:
- Both aff and neg teams severely underfocus on case. This is almost universal. For the neg, aff evidence is never as good as it's made out to be and should be called out in the 1NC. If you're an aff team and truly believe your case is good, then actually spend time talking about why your warrants respond to the neg's on- and off-case arguments (which it should if it's good) beyond just saying that you are extending X card.
- Disads reach zero risk very easily. Although framing debates tend to be ineffective and misfocused, my general perspective is that low probability likely negates high magnitude at the point that a layman would consider your DA contrived. I like politics DAs but they tend to be really bad, and case-specific DAs are often the most interesting but always harder to develop. In general, if you think your DA is good, I'll probably think it's okay; if you think your DA is bad, I'll probably think it's terrible. A good internal link makes everything I said above moot.
- Counterplans have been massacred without forgiveness and it makes me sad. I strongly dislike the current norm of going for the most abusive counterplan that can still be voted for, but a won argument is a won argument. Still, I tend to bias aff theory against CPs even if it's not a reason to reject the team. (advantage cps > pics/agent cps > process cps > cps that compete off of a single word). As far as complicated mechanisms go, go nuts, I'll be able to grasp it.
- Not sure what this topic holds, but I imagine lots of the research will be focused on security and reps-based kritiks. One characteristic of Ks which somehow appears all the time in K Aff debates but never gets drawn own on the neg side is the role of Ks in shaping how the round is argued. If you treat your K like a counterplan, you're fighting a losing battle. I'm not necessarily pro "framework K," but ultimately the alternative is just a digestible manifestation of the epistemology/pedagogy/whatever that you claim the aff is undermining.
- Topicality debates tend to be dependent on a lot of factors external to the resolution - mainly how late into the year it is and how many affs have already been generated on the topic. A small topic tends to lean aff on allowing innovative (to an extent) plans, but large topics justify limiting what affs are acceptable more stringently. In a given round, this is largely irrelevant, but good debaters draw these characteristics in as warrants on the standards debate. These claims provide rhetorical strength and can help the persuasiveness of the line-by-line on interpretations/standards substantially.
- K Affs are interesting and I'll happily vote on them, but I am, personally, reasonably persuaded by aff arguments favoring predictability and the benefits of switch-side debate. A good kritikal aff is not one which critiques the resolution, but critiques the way that we debate the resolution. If your aff does the latter, most framework arguments go out the window. I will deduct speaker points for 2ACs that have a massive overview but doesn't include it in the doc.
- K v K debates are the debates I have debated and certainly judged the least. I think it's the burden of the aff to prove that perms are allowed in a method debate since the aff has already gone so far as to reject the resolution to justify reading their advocacy, but it is up for discussion. Cap links to just about everything but that doesn't always means it's good. The Parenti and Emanuele card is not nearly good enough for the amount it gets read by neg teams. Most of what I said in my thoughts on Ks extends here too.
Two separate instances of clipping will result in an auto-loss and zero speaker points for both debaters. To be clear, clipping is intentionally skipping highlighted parts of a card while acting as though it was still read. To not clip, explicitly state when you stop reading a card before fully finishing ("cut the card at [x]"), keep track of where you stopped reading that card, and after your speech ask if anyone in the round wants a marked copy of your document where the highlighting you didn't read in the card is omitted.
***FOR NOVICES: HOW TO WIN***
Flowing is the most important (and underutilized) skill in debate. Write down your opponent's arguments. All of them.
Do line-by-line - Read and answer everything you just wrote down. Answer your opponent's arguments. All of them.
Novices that learn how to do both of these semi-competently will win the vast majority of their rounds.
Name: Sarah Lasken
Experience: I was not a debater in high school or college, but I have been the coach for the Lincoln Park debate team for the past 2.5 school years.
Email: slasken1@cps.edu
General Thoughts:
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Clarity: Clear communication is essential. I understand the drive to spread as fast as possible, however if I can’t hear your arguments or warrants I can’t vote on them. Also, consider that I am not a trained debater myself, so I wasn't trained through that experience to process a vast amount of information at a rapid pace. Please speak very clearly. Furthermore, please provide clear signposting to help me follow your arguments. Number your contentions and make it evident when you're moving between them or responding to your opponent's points. Speak slowly and clearly when you are providing your tags/citing the source.
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Neg positions: Whether you use a DA, CP, or K my top priority is you must explain HOW your argument links to the Aff/Resolution. Explain how the plan causes the DA, HOW EXACTLY the CP solves the problems of the resolution better than the aff, and how the K links to the aff. If you don't explain the link to the case and how you get to the impact, it doesn't matter if you're winning impact calculus.
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Framework/Topicality: I appreciate a well-argued topicality Neg because I do fundamentally believe that debate should relate to the resolution; however this is NOT a hard fast rule. I can definitely be persuaded by a strong K Aff that presents warrants for why there are fundamental flaws in the philosophy presumed under the resolution. I just need those flaws to be very clear.
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K affs: The relevance of the K Aff must be clear and the team must present the real-world implications of the aff. How does it address significant societal issues and why is it relevant in the context of this debate and this resolution?
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Performance affs: I often do not find performance affs persuasive because I find them to be outside the bounds and purpose of debate. That doesn’t mean I have never been persuaded by a strong performance aff, however it required clear verbal explanation of the relevancy of the performance
Other Considerations:
-I expect debaters to keep track of their own prep time.
-I may ask you to slow down (multiple times) if I am unable to parse your words/argument.
Kevin Le -- Lay Judge (at this point in time)
Debated @ Maine East 2014-2018
Assistant Coach @ Maine East 2021-2022, 2023-2024
OTHER STUFF: TSMDebateKL@gmail.com --> ALWAYS include me on the email chain
Note: I have not debated nor researched the current high-school topic; keep this in mind when you're explaining and contextualizing your arguments.
-- I am ESPECIALLY unfamiliar with the virtual debate; please be patient with me.
-- I HATE it when teams don't flash analytics. Debate isn't about outspreading the opponent and hoping that they drop something. You should be able to out-debate them even when they have all your arguments. It also helps me flow when you're going 100000000 mph during your speech.
-- Tag team is fine if you don’t start taking over your partner's cross-ex.
-- I do not count flashing time (or general tech screw-ups) as prep time; just don’t abuse my leniency on this.
-- If you are running more than 5 off-case positions, you need to rethink your strategy. Run it at your discretion, but know that I will be more likely to evaluate in-round abuse (on theory debates) as legitimate and a reason as you why your model of debate is bad.
-- You should err on the side of clarity over speed (this usually means slowing down). You will debate better. I will understand your argument better. Judges who understand your argument with more clarity than your opponent's argument are likely to side with you. If you are going too fast or are unclear, I will let you know. Ignore such warnings at your peril (especially with Kritiks), as I am singularly unafraid to admit I didn’t get an answer and will not vote on it. I'm average at flowing but may miss tricks/theory if you don't make them especially clear. If I can't understand your argument -- either due to your lack of clarity or your argument's lack of coherence, I will not vote for it. I'm a 4/10 for speed and maybe even a 5 if I'm fully awake.
-- I will read evidence if it is challenged by a team. Otherwise, if you say a piece of evidence says X and the other team doesn’t say anything, I probably won’t call for it and assume it says X. However, in the unfortunate (but fairly frequent) occurrence where both teams just read cards, I will call for cards and use my arbitrary analytical skills to piece them together.
-- I will not hesitate to vote against teams and award zero points for socially unacceptable behavior (evidence fabrication, threats of violence, racist or sexist slurs, etc.)
-- You can't clip cards. This is non-negotiable. If I catch it, I'll happily ring you up and spend the next hour of my life doing literally anything else with that time. If you're accusing a team of it, you need to be able to present me with a quality recording to review. The burden of proof lies with the accusing team.
-- If you're referring to me, please call me Kevin.
TOPICALITY: Enjoy. I believe it is NEG's burden to prove the plan is not topical. Case lists and arguments on what various interpretations would allow/not allow are very important. I have found that the limits/predictability/ground debate has been more persuasive to me, although I will consider other standards debates.
DISADVANTAGES AND ADVANTAGES: Mostly fine with most DAs, but not a big fan of politics DAs.
COUNTERPLANS: Okay. Case-specific CP's are preferable and do not flatly contradict) with other NEG positions. The AFF has the burden of telling me how a permutation proves the CP is non-competitive.
KRITIKS: Not a fan. I will never be better than below mediocre (3/10) at evaluating these arguments because I don’t read philosophy for entertainment. To win, the NEG must establish a clear story about 1) what the K is, 2) how it links, 3) what the impact is at the policy level, or 4) pre-fiat (to the extent it exists) outweighs policy arguments or other AFF impacts. I won't just vote to reject their evil discourse, advocacy, lack of ontology, support of biopolitics, etc. You must be able to distill long philosophical cards that are read at hyper-speed into an explanation that I can comprehend. I have no fear of saying I don’t understand what the hell you are saying, and I will not vote for issues I don’t understand. I don’t have to impress anyone with my intelligence or lack thereof. If you make me read said cards without explanation, I can guarantee that I will not understand the five-syllable (often foreign) philosophical words in the card, and you will go down in flames. I do require a specific analysis of the link and its impact on the AFF. State-bad arguments are not convincing without specific applications to the AFF. Without an explanation, I will assume a K is a very bad non-unique DA. As such, it will probably receive very little weight if challenged by the AFF.
PERFORMANCE-BASED ARGUMENTS AND KRITIK AFFIRMATIVES: No topical plan that starts with "The United States federal government should..." No win. This is non-negotiable. If your AFF does not contain a topical plan and the NEG raises even a minimal framework objection, I will vote for NEG. Especially on a topic where the AFF can critique some vestige of US [INSERT TOPIC HERE] policy and then read a plan to increase/ban that thing, it is a LOW requirement.
Overview:
I debated at Thomas Kelly College Preparatory High School for three years (2016, 2017, and 2019). I ran mainly policy arguments with the occasional K Aff. I later did Model Illinois Government in College (2019-2023) in which the debate style simulated the Illinois General Assembly. I like POLICY and POLICY DRIVEN SOLUTIONS. Debate tests your argumentative skills and ability to understand complex solutions while providing some sort of conclusion at the end, whether that is maintaining the status quo or creating a new system. I am not the biggest fan of K Affs, but run what you want and explain both how and why this approach is better than the status quo.
My email for the chain:francisco.lopez.4419@gmail.com
Specifics:
Affs:
I prefer a policy-driven approach for the conclusion of a debate. I like seeing the different arguments being made as to the downsides and benefits of various literature-based solutions to the various complex issues facing society. There is NO ONE SIZE FITS ALL solution to even the smallest of impacts, but explain to me why your approach is better than the rest. If you want to change my ROB from a policy-focused one to anything else, then make it an issue and explain why this is necessary for the debate round. If you running a K AFF then just walk me through it, make it simple, and seem realistic as a solution.
Neg:
DA:
Prove the link, make it as strong as steel. Impact CALC it to outweigh the AFF and I'm sold.
T:
Not a huge fan of this but will vote on it if all other arguments are even or stale. Explain why their interpretation is bad and why this is as important as a voting issue for it to be the deciding factor of deciding who wins/loses the round. Being on topic matters, but walk me through how they are untopical and why this is so important to the debate round. If you can't prove the Violation then I'm not sold.
CP's:
I enjoy policy driven CPs. Different actors, funding mechanisms, etc. But focus on SOLVENCY MECHANISM and OUTCOMES. What is the net benefit, why does this matter enough to go with the CP instead of the original AFF, why is PERM good/bad/impossible, and how do you solve better?
K's:
Not the biggest fan of K debates but I can be convinced.
Most familiar with Capitalism, Neo-Liberalism, and Antiblackness K's. PERFORMANCE K's are great, but make the SOLVENCY MECHANISM shine. Make the K seem more realistic, more desirable, and more effective in addressing the real-world issues under the year's topic/AFF.
Other Thoughts:
- Impact calc is very important, but tie this with the solvency mechanism. Why is your important more than your opponents, and why is the solvency mechanism good/bad?
- I'll vote on anything just walk me through it and get me across that finish line.
- Be respectful of time, each other, and the literature. You all know your stuff, show it while recognizing we're all human debate machines.
I think running 10 cards can be better than 1000, explain the arguments and walk me through the issue and solution the whole round. Make me care about the debate round and want to come running 999 miles to deliver my ballot in your favor.
Jasmine K. Mendez
Former Debater (2019)
Current Sarah E. Goode Debate Coach
@RCC/NatCir:I will not vote on something I do not understand by the end of the round. If you are going for an argument, you should be able to explain it adequetly. This goes for K's, CP's, Da's, and Affirmatives. Tell the story.
@k-aff teams:I have a very low threshold for the negative framework debate against a K-Aff. It is your responsibility as the team that chose to read a K-Aff to prove why this round is key, what my role as the judge is in your literature, and (especially) what your mechanism is. If you do not do that work and expect me to do it for you then I will err the side of the neg on framework.
** Forewarning: RUN K'S AT YOUR OWN RISK* My understanding of K's isn't the best and my understanding of framework is just as great which means that you need to be able to make a lot of things both clear for me and structured--> being able to have great clash on specific arguments in the K and being able to explain why it means that I prefer your arguments or vote for you or evaluate your arguments first is much appreciated.
Generally: Truth over tech. I am good with speed but prefer articulation and analysis of arguments more than I prefer a card dump in speeches. In terms of arguments, DA's and CP are probably the best things in front of me; however, I was once a Fem debater for 2 years and dabble in the Cap K. That said, make sure that you are able to explain the link and alternative to me! T should be 5 minutes in the last rebuttal if you're going for it and must be articulated well, give me a clear reason as to why allowing this specific aff is dangerous to debate as a whole.
Affirmatives: Saying that I am not great with planless affirmatives would be an understatement. I usually will vote for topicality against such affirmatives than I would vote against it.
Disadvantages: I tend to understand politics DA's well. DA's with weak or ridiculous I/L can be hard for me to evaluate but I will tend to gravitate more towards the link debate. It is your burden to prove the magnitude and likeliness of the DA, "I will not assign zero OR 100% weight to an advantage or a disadvantage" (CBC, 19)
CP: It is your burden to prove that a CP is theoretically illegitimate. When debating counterplan theory, both sides must have an interpretation of what a negative can and can't do. Conditionality is also difficult to win unless in round abuse can be proven.
Topicality: If the negative is able to effectively construct a strong limits story with a specific caselist and terminal impact work. I'm less inclined to vote on aff "education" standards because I do believe that simply reading the aff as a counterplan or some topical version of the aff can resolve that. In the final rebuttals (specifically the 2AR) I will never be persuaded by the "come on judge" but rather prefer a substantiated explanation as to why their counter-interp is good for debate.
Kritiks: I will vote on the K when the neg wins that the impact to the k outweighs and/or turns the case or when the neg wins some framework interp that mitigates aff offense. I will lean towards the aff on framework unless a neg framework standard that isn't solved by weighing the impacts to the links vs. plan.
Misc procedural things:
1. He/him/his; "DML">"Dustin">>>"judge">>>>>>>>>>"Mr. Meyers-Levy"
2. Debated at Edina HS in Minnesota from 2008-2012, at the University of Michigan from 2012-2017, and currently coach at Michigan and Glenbrook North
3. Evidence sharing procedures:
High school: Speechdrop or the tabroom fileshare are preferred due to the requirements of my employer.
College: Email preferred; please add dustml[at]umich[dot]edu and debatedocs[at]umich[dot]edu (note that this is not the same as the community debatedocs listerv).
4. Nothing here set in stone debate is up to the debaters go for what you want to blah blah blah an argument is a claim and a warrant don't clip cards
5. Speaks usually range from 28.5-29.5. Below 28.5 and there are some notable deficiencies, above 29.5 you're one of the best debaters I've seen all year. I don't really try to compare different debaters across different rounds to give points; I assign them based on a round-by-round basis. I wish I could give ties more often and will do so if the tournament allows. If you ask me for a 30 you'll probably get a 27.
6. If you're breaking something new, you'll send it out before your speech, not after the speech ends or as it's read or whatever. If you don't want to comply with that, your points are capped at 27. If you're so worried that giving the neg team 8/9 extra minutes to look at your new aff will tip the odds against you, it's probably not good enough to win anyway.
7.Each person gives one constructive and one rebuttal. The first person who speaks is the only person I flow (I can make an exception for performances in 1ACs/1NCs). I don’t flow prompting until and unless the assigned speaker says the words that their partner is prompting. Absolutely no audience participation. No touching your opponents or their property without consent. If you need some part of this clarified, I’m probably not the judge for you.
8. I am a mandatory reporter and an employee of both a public university and a public high school. I am not interested in judging debates that may make either of those facts relevant.
9. If you would enthusiastically describe your strategy as "memes" or "trolling," you should strike me.
10. Online debates: If my camera's off, I'm not listening. Get active confirmation before you start speaking, don't ask "is anyone not ready" or say "stop me if you're not ready," especially if you aren't actually listening to/looking at the other participants before you check. If you start speaking and I'm not ready or there, expect abysmal speaker points.
11. I am trying to be more militant about timing, because decision times are getting shorter and shorter and people are getting worse and worse about it. I expect a degree of promptness and put-togetherness from you, and if you can't maintain that, it will likely cut into your speaker points. Conversely, if you are timing yourself (and your opponents) and are respectful of my time, I will bump your points. Here are a few things that I am going to try to enforce more diligently than I have in the past:
a. Prep ends when the speech doc has been emailed or uploaded to speechdrop/the fileshare.
b. A "marked document" only involves cards that were marked, not cards that were skipped. If you aren't sure whether or not the other team read a card, or an entire off-case argument, you can use your cross-x or prep time to ask about that. Unless you intend to ask cross-x questions about cards that were marked, you may not ask for a marked document before cross-x starts, and you may not delay the start of prep until the document is sent. I am willing to make exceptions for this when a speech is egregious in a way that seems like it might be trying to confuse the other team (e.g. dozens of marked cards, many more cards in the document than were read, etc), but you should ask me if that's okay.
c. I would prefer no bathroom breaks before your speech unless it's an emergency.
d. There is no reason that you should be typing or whispering to your partner while prep is not running or a speech is not happening. If you do, I'll ask one time if you need prep; if you do it again, I'll start docking prep time for you.
e. Time yourself and your opponents and write your prep time down. I don't keep a timer on me and I like to stretch my legs/get snacks during prep. If I have to guess how much time you have left, I will round down.
Top-level:
When making my decisions, I seek to answer four questions:
1. At what scale should I evaluate impacts, or how do I determine which impact outweighs the others?
2. What is necessary to address those impacts?
3. At what point have those impacts been sufficiently addressed?
4. How certain am I about either side’s answers to the previous three questions?
I don’t expect debaters to answer these questions explicitly or in order, but I do find myself voting for debaters who use that phrasing and these concepts (necessity, sufficiency, certainty, etc) as part of their judge instruction a disproportionate amount. I try to start every RFD with a sentence-ish-long summary of my decision (e.g. "I voted affirmative because I am certain that their impacts are likely without the plan and unlikely with it, which outweighs an uncertain risk of the impacts to the DA even if I am certain about the link"); you may benefit from setting up a sentence or two along those lines for me.
Intervention on my part is inevitable, but I’d like to minimize it if possible and equalize it if not. The way I try to do so is by making an effort to quote or paraphrase the 1AR, 2NR, and 2AR in my RFD as much as possible. This means I find myself often voting for teams who a) minimize the amount of debate jargon they use, b) explicitly instruct me what I need in order to be certain that an argument is true, and c) don’t repeat themselves or reread parts of earlier speeches. (The notable exception to c) is quoting your evidence—I appreciate teams who tell me what to look for in their cards, as I’d rather not read evidence if I don’t have to.) I would rather default to new 2AR contextualization of arguments than reject new 2AR explanation and figure out how to evaluate/compare arguments on my own, especially if the 2AR contextualization lines up with how I understand the debate otherwise.
I flow on my computer and I flow straight down. I appreciate debaters who debate in a way that makes that easy to do (clean line-by-line, numbering/subpointing, etc). I’ll make as much room as you want me to for an overview, but I won’t flow it on a separate sheet unless you say pretty please. If it’s not obvious to me at that point why it’s on a separate sheet, you’ll probably lose points.
Consider going a little bit slower. I prefer voting on arguments that I am certain about, and it is much easier to be certain about an argument when I know that I have written down everything that you’ve said.
Presumption always initially goes negative because the affirmative always has the burden of proof. If the affirmative has met their burden of proof against the status quo, and the negative has not met their burden of rejoinder, I vote affirmative.
I am "truth over tech," in the sense that I must always vote for who did the better debating, and I tend to think that a team who drops "grass is green, voting issue" can still have done the better debating despite that concession (and, indeed, may have done the better debating because they did not waste time answering that). I will not vote for something if I cannot explain why it is a reason that one side or the other has done the better debating, even if it is technically conceded by the other team. Obviously, this is not to say that technical concessions do not matter--they're probably the most important part of my decisionmaking process! However, not all technical concessions matter, and the reasons that some technical concessions matter might not be apparent to me. A dropped argument is true, but non-dropped arguments can also be true, and I need you to contextualize how to evaluate and compare those truths.
I appreciate well-thought-out perms with a brief summary of its function/net beneficiality in the 2AC. I get frustrated by teams who shotgun the same four perms on every page, especially when those perms are essentially the same argument (e.g. “perm do both” and “perm do the plan and non-mutually exclusive parts of the alt”) or when the perm is obviously nonsensical (e.g. “perm do the counterplan” against an advantage counterplan that doesn’t try to fiat the aff or against a uniqueness counterplan that bans the plan).
I appreciate when teams read rehighlightings and not insert them, unless you’re rehighlighting a couple words. You will lose speaker points for inserting a bunch of rehighlightings, and I’ll happily ignore them if instructed to by the other team.
I prefer to judge engagement over avoidance. I would rather you beat your opponent at their best than trick them into dropping something. If your plan for victory involves hiding ASPEC in a T shell, or deleting your conditionality block from the 2AC in hopes that they miss it, or using a bunch of buzzwords that you think the other team won't understand but I will, I will be hard-pressed to conclude that you did the “better debating.”
I generally assume good faith on the part of debaters and I'm very reticent to ignore the rest of the debate/arguments being made (especially when not explicitly and extensively instructed to) in order to punish a team for what's often an honest mistake. I am much more willing to vote on these arguments as links/examples of links. Obviously, there are exceptions to this for egregious and/or intentionally problematic behavior, but if your strategy revolves around asking me to vote against a team based on unhighlighted/un-underlined parts of cards, out-of-round "receipts," or "gotcha" moments in cross-x, you may want to change your strategy for me.
K affs:
1. Debate is indisputably a game to some degree or another, and it can be other things besides that. It indisputably influences debaters' thought processes and subjectivities to some extent; it is also indisputably not the only influence on those things. I like when teams split the difference and account for debate’s inevitably competitive features rather than asserting it is only one thing or another.
2. I think I am better for K affs than I have been in the past. I am not worse for framework, but I am worse for the amount of work that people seem to do when preparing to go for framework. I am getting really bored by neg teams who recycle blocks without updating them in the context of the round and don’t make an effort to talk about the aff. I think the neg needs to say more than just “the aff’s method is better with a well-prepared opponent” or “non-competitive venues solve the aff’s offense” to meaningfully mitigate the aff's offense. If you are going for framework in front of me, you may want to replace those kinds of quotes in your blocks with specific explanations that reference what the aff says in speeches and cards.
3. I prefer clash impacts to fairness impacts. I differ from many other judges in that I actually prefer when the neg goes for framework as a straight turn to the aff without an external impact that "outweighs" (though they can help as tiebreakers). I vote negative often when aff teams lack explanation for why someone should say "no" to the aff. I find that fairness strategies suffer when the aff pushes on the ballot’s ability to “solve” them; I would rather use my ballot to encourage the aff to argue differently rather than to punish them retroactively. I think fairness-centric framework strategies are vulnerable to aff teams impact turning the neg’s interpretation (conversely, I think counter-interpretation strategies are weak against fairness impacts).
4. I don't think I've ever voted on "if the 1AC couldn't be tested you should presume everything they've said is false"/"don't weigh the aff because we couldn't answer it," and I don't think I ever will.
5. I think non-framework strategies live and die at the level of competition and solvency. When aff teams invest time in unpacking permutations and solvency deficits, and the neg doesn’t advance a theory of competition beyond “no perms in a method debate” (whatever that means), I usually vote aff. When the aff undercovers the perm and/or the alt, I have a high threshold for new explanation and usually think that the 2NR should be the non-framework strategy.
6. I do not care whether or not fiat has a resolutional basis.
Ks on the neg/being aff vs the K:
I am getting really bored by "stat check" affs that respond to every K by brute-forcing a heg or econ impact and reading the same "extinction outweighs, util, consequentialism, nuke war hurts marginalized people too" blocks/cards every debate. That's not to say that these affs are non-viable in front of me, but it is to say that I've often seen teams reading these big-stick affs in ways that seem designed to avoid engaging the substance of the K. If this is your strategy, you should talk about the alternative more, and have a defense of fiat that is not just theoretical.
I care most about link uniqueness and alt solvency. When I vote aff, it's because a) the aff gets access to their impacts, b) those impacts outweigh/turn the K, c) the K links are largely non-unique, and/or d) the neg doesn't have a well-developed alt push. Neg teams that push back on these issues--by a) having well-developed and unique links and impacts with substantive impact calculus in the block and 2NR, including unique turns case args (not just that the plan doesn't solve, but that it actually makes the aff's own impacts more likely), b) having a vision for what the world of the alt looks like that's defensible and ostensibly solves their impacts even if the aff wins a risk of theirs (case defense that's congruent with the K helps), and/or c) has a heavy push on framework that tells me what the alt does/doesn't need to solve--have a higher chance of getting my ballot. Some more specific notes:
1. Upfront, I'm not a huge fan of "post-/non-/more-than/humanism"-style Ks. I find myself more persuaded by most defenses/critical rehabilitations of humanism than I do by critiques of humanism that attempt to reject the category altogether. You can try your best to change my mind, but it may be an uphill battle; this applies far more to high theory/postmodern Ks of humanism (which, full disclosure, I would really rather not hear) than it does to structuralist/identity-based Ks of humanism, though I find myself more persuaded by "new humanist" style arguments a la Fanon, Wynter, etc than full-on rejections of humanism.
2. I think that others should not suffer, that biological death is bad, and that meaning-making and contingent agreement on contextual truths are possible, inevitable, and desirable. If your K disagrees with any of these fundamental premises, I am a bad judge for it.
3. I don't get Ks of linear time. I get Ks of whitewashing, progress narratives, etc. I get the argument that historical events influence the present, and that events in the present can reshape our understanding of the past. I get that some causes have complex effects that aren't immediately recognizable to us and may not be recognizable on any human scale. I just don't get how any of those things are mutually exclusive with, and indeed how they don't also rely on, some understanding of linear time/causality. I think this is because I have a very particular understanding of what "linear time" means/refers to, which is to say that it's hard for me to disassociate that phrase with the basic concept of cause/effect and the progression of time in a measurable, linear fashion. This isn't as firm of a belief as #2; I can certainly imagine one of these args clicking with me eventually. This is just to say that the burden of explanation is much higher and you would likely be better served going for more plan-specific link arguments or maybe just using different terminology/including a brief explanation as to why you're not disagreeing with the basic premise that causes have effects, even if those effects aren't immediately apparent. If you are disagreeing with that premise, you should probably strike me, as it will require far longer than two hours for me to comprehend your argument, let alone agree with it.
4. "Philosophical competition" is not a winning interpretation in front of me. I don't know what it means and no one has ever explained it to me in a coherent and non-arbitrary way.
5. There's a difference between utilitarianism and consequentialism. I'm open to critiques of the former; I have an extremely high burden for critiques of the latter. I'm not sure I can think of a K of consequentialism that I've judged that didn't seem to link to itself to some degree or another.
6. I am a bad judge for Kant. I just don't get it. I have voted for it, but I have also voted against it more than once because I simply did not understand many of the arguments being made.
7. Would really rather not vote for "you-link-you-lose," "mooting the 1AC=good" approaches to K debating. If your strategy is to swamp the 1AR with backfile check fiat Ks that have little to do with the 1NC, I will suspect that you have a weak will-to-power and I'll be very sympathetic towards the aff.
Policy debates:
1. 95% of my work in college is K-focused, and the other 5% is mostly spot updates. I have done very little policy-focused research so far this season.
For high school, I led a lab this summer, but didn't retain a ton of topic info and have done largely K-focused work since the camp ended. I probably know less than you do about economics.
2. “Link controls uniqueness”/“uniqueness controls the link” arguments will get you far with me. I often find myself wishing that one side or the other had made that argument, because my RFDs often include some variant of it regardless.
3. Apparently T against policy affs is no longer in style. Fortunately, I have a terrible sense of style. In general, I think I'm better for the neg for T than (I guess) a lot of judges; reading through some judge philosophies I find a lot of people who say they don't like judging T or don't think T debates are good, and I strongly disagree with that claim. I'm a 2N at heart, so when it comes down to brass tacks I really don't care about many T impacts/standards except for neg ground (though I can obviously be persuaded otherwise). I care far more about the debates that an interpretation facilitates than I do about the interpretation's source in the abstract--do explanation as to why source quality/predictability influences the quality of debates under the relevant interpretation.
4. I think judge kick makes intuitive sense, but I won't do it unless I'm told to. That said, I also think I have a lower threshold for what constitutes the neg "telling me to" than most. There are some phrases that signify to me that I can default to the status quo by my own choosing; these include, but aren't necessarily limited to, "the status quo is always a logical policy option" and/or "counter-interp: the neg gets X conditional options and the status quo."
5. I enjoy counterplans that compete on resolutional terms quite a bit; I'd rather judge those than counterplans that compete on "should," "substantial," etc.
6. If you think that the affirmative should specify which branch of the United States federal government the plan goes through, you should make that argument as its own separate offcase position. Hiding ASPEC as part of a different T violation is -.1, hiding it on a non-T offcase or case flow is -.3.
7. I would rather judge substance over theory in basically every situation. That said, here are some aff theory arguments that I could be persuaded on pretty easily given a substantive time investment:
--Counterplans should have a solvency advocate ideally matching the specificity of the aff's, but at least with a normative claim about what should happen.
--Multi-actor fiat bad--you can fiat different parts of the USFG do things, and international fiat is defensible, but fiating the federal government and the states, or the US and other countries, is a no-no. (Fiating all fifty states is debatably acceptable, but fiating some permutation of states seems iffy to me.)
--No negative fiat, but not the meme--counterplans should take a positive action, and shouldn't fiat a negative action. It's the distinction between "the USFG should not start a war against Russia" and "the USFG should ban initiation of war against Russia."
--Test case fiat? Having osmosed a rudimentary bit of constitutional law via friends and family in law school, it seems like debate's conception of how the Supreme Court works is... suspect. Not really sure what the implications of that are for the aff or the neg, but I'm pretty sure that most court CPs/mechanisms would get actual lawyers disbarred.
--I think extreme conditionality is nearly indefensible, but I am also finding that I kind of hate judging conditionality debates, especially when I think that the aff has a substantive path to victory.
RETIRED FROM DEBATE COACHING/JUDGING AS OF FALL 2024. WAHOOOO!!!!
Please put me on the email chain:eriodd@d219.org.
Experience:
I'm currently an assistant debate coach for Niles North High School. I was the Head Debate Coach at Niles West High School for twelve years and an assistant debate coach at West for one year. I also work at the University of Michigan summer debate camps. I competed in policy debate at the high school level for six years at New Trier Township High School.
Education:
Master of Education in English-Language Learning & Special Education National Louis University
Master of Arts in School Leadership Concordia University-Chicago
Master of Arts in Education Wake Forest University
Juris Doctor Illinois Institute of Technology-Chicago Kent College of Law
Bachelor of Arts University of California, Santa Barbara
Debate arguments:
I will vote on any type of debate argument so long as the team extends it throughout the entire round and explains why it is a voter. Thus, I will pull the trigger on theory, agent specification, and other arguments many judges are unwilling to vote on. Even though I am considered a “politics/counter plan” debater, I will vote on kritiks, but I am told I evaluate kritik debates in a “politics/counter plan” manner (I guess this is not exactly true anymore...and I tend to judge clash debates). I try not to intervene in rounds, and all I ask is that debaters respect each other throughout the competition.
Identity v. Identity:
I enjoy judging these debates. It is important to remember that, often times, you are asking the judge to decide on subject matter he/she/they personally have not experienced (like sexism and racism for me as a white male). A successful ballot often times represents the team who has used these identity points (whether their own or others) in relationship to the resolution and the debate space. I also think if you run an exclusion DA, then you probably should not leave the room / Zoom before the other team finishes questions / feedback has concluded as that probably undermines this DA significantly (especially if you debate that team again in the future).
FW v. Identity:
I also enjoy judging these debates. I will vote for a planless Aff as well as a properly executed FW argument. Usually, the team that accesses the internal link to the impacts (discrimination, education, fairness, ground, limits, etc.) I am told to evaluate at the end of the round through an interpretation / role of the ballot / role of the judge, wins my ballot.
FW v. High Theory:
I don't mind judging these debates. The team reading high theory should do a good job at explaining the theories / thesis behind the scholars you are utilizing and applying it to a specific stasis point / resolutional praxis. In terms of how I weigh the round, the same applies from above, internal links to the terminal impacts I'm told are important in the round.
Policy v. Policy:
I debated in the late 90s / early 2000s. I think highly technical policy v. policy debate rounds with good sign posting, discussions on CP competition (when relevant), strategic turns, etc. are great. Tech > truth for me here. I like lots of evidence but please read full tags and a decent amount of the cards. Not a big fan of "yes X" as a tag. Permutations should probably have texts besides Do Both and Do CP perms. I like theory debates but quality over quantity and please think about how all of your theory / debate as a game arguments apply across all flows. Exploit the other team's errors. "We get what we get" and "we get what we did" are two separate things on the condo debate in my opinion.
Random comments:
The tournament and those judging you are not at your leisure. Please do your best to start the round promptly at the posted time on the pairing and when I'm ready to go (sometimes I do run a few minutes late to a round, not going to lie). Please do your best to: use prep ethically, attach speech documents quickly, ask to use bathroom at appropriate times (e.g. ideally not right before your or your partner's speech), and contribute to moving the debate along and help keep time. I will give grace to younger debaters on this issue, but varsity debaters should know how to do this effectively. This is an element of how I award speaker points. I'm a huge fan of efficient policy debate rounds. Thanks!
In my opinion, you cannot waive CX and bank it for prep time. Otherwise, the whole concept of cross examination in policy debate is undermined. I will not allow this unless the tournament rules explicitly tell me to do so.
If you use a poem, song, etc. in the 1AC, you should definitely talk about it after the 1AC. Especially against framework. Otherwise, what is the point? Your performative method should make sense as a praxis throughout the debate.
Final thoughts:
Do not post round me. I will lower your speaker points if you or one of your coaches acts disrespectful towards me or the opponents after the round. I have no problem answering any questions about the debate but it will be done in a respectful manner to all stakeholders in the room. If you have any issues with this, please don't pref me. I have seen, heard and experienced way too much disrespectful behavior by a few individuals in the debate community recently where, unfortunately, I feel compelled to include this in my paradigm.
UPDATED FOR THE BLAKE 2024
uclabdb8@gmail.com for speech docs
spatel@chicagodebates.org for anything else
**background**
i identify as subaltern, he/they pronouns are fine. i direct programming for Chicago's urban debate league. my academic background is medicine. you may be counseled on tobacco or marijuana cessation. relax, have fun!
***history***
- Director of Programs, Chicago Debates (Chicago's urban debate league): 2023-current
- Head Coach, Policy - University of Chicago Laboratory Schools 2015-2023
- Assistant Coach, PF - Fremd HS 2015-2022
- Tournament of Champions 2022, 2021, 2018, 2016
- Harvard Debate Council Summer Workshop - guest lecturer, lab leader
- Chicago Debates Summer Institute - lecturer
- UIowa 2002-2006
- Maine East (Wayne Tang gharana) 1999-2002
***paradigm***
- i view the speech as an act and an art. debate is foremost a communicative activity. i want to be compelled.
- i go back and forth on kritik/performance affs versus framework which is supported by my voting record
- judge instruction is great - if you put me in a box, i'll stay there
- i like k v k or policy v k debates, as i read critical lit for enjoyment. however i end up with more judge experience in policy v policy rounds as it's north shore debate
- pen time matters. slow down a tick on your scripted analytics, overviews, theory subpoints, etc. if you want me to vote on it. i flow by ear and on paper, including your cards' warrants and cites. people have told me my flows are beautiful.
- academic creativity & originality will be rewarded
- clarity matters.
- tag team cx is okay as long as its not dominating
- don't vape in my round, it makes me feel like an enabler
- i have acute hearing and want to keep it that way. kindly be considerate of your volume and your music's volume. i will ask you to turn it down if it's painful or prevents me from hearing the debate
**how to win my ballot**
*entertain me.* connect with me. teach me something. be creative. its impossible for me to be completely objective, but i try to be fair in the way i adjudicate the round.
**approach**
as tim 'the man' alderete said, "all judges lie." with that in mind...
i get bored- which is why i reward creativity in research and argumentation. if you cut something clever, you want me in the back of the room. if you spam a wipeout file, go away. i prefer debates with good clash than 2 disparate topics. while i personally believe in debate pedagogy, i'll let you convince me it's elitist, marginalizing, broken, or racist. in determining why i should value debate (intrinsically or extrinsically) i will enter the room tabula rasa. if you put me in a box, i'll stay there. i wish i could adhere to a paradigmatic mantra like 'tech over truth.' but i've noticed that i lean towards truth in debates where both teams are reading lit from same branch of theory or where the opponent has won an overarching claim on the nature of the debate. my speaker point range is 27-30. Above 28.4 being what i think is 'satisfactory' for your division (3-3), 28.8 & above means I think you belong in elims. 2ARs: do not abuse the 2NR with new arguments.
**virtual debate**
if you do not see me on camera then assume i am not there. please go a touch slower on analytics if you expect me to flow them well. if anyone's connection is shaky, please include analytics in what you send if possible.
**novices**
Congrats! you're slowly sinking into a strange yet fascinating vortex called policy debate. it will change your life, hopefully for the better. focus on the line by line and impact analysis. if you're confused, ask instead of apologize. this year is about exploring. i'm here to judge and help :)
***ARGUMENT SPECIFIC***
**topicality/framework**
i'm always up for a scrappy limits debate. debaters should be able to defend why their departure from "Classic mode" Policy is preferable. while i don't enter the round presuming plan texts are necessary for a topical discussion, i have voted several times for why that's a terrible idea. i do enjoy being swayed one way or the other on what's needed for a topical discussion (or if one is valuable at all). overall, its an interesting direction students have taken Policy. the best form of framework debate is one where both teams rise to the meta-level concerns behind our values in fairness, prepared clash, education, revolutionary potential/impotence, etc. as a debater (in the bronze age) i used to be a HUGE T & spec hack! So much love for T! nowadays though, the these debates tend to get messy. flow organization will be rewarded: number your args, sign post through the line-by-line, slow down to give me a little pen time. i tend to vote on analysis with specificity and ingenuity.
**kritiks, etc.**
i enjoy performance, original poetry & spoken word, musical, moments of sovereignty, etc. i find most "high theory," identity politics, and other social theory debates enjoyable. i dont mind how you choose to organize k speeches/overviews so long as there is some way you organize thoughts on my flow. 'long k overviews' can be (though seldom are) beautiful. i appreciate a developed analysis. more specific the better. examples and analogies go a long way in you accelerating my understanding. i default to empiricism/historical analysis as competitive warranting unless you frame the debate otherwise. i understand that the time constraint of debate can prevent debaters from fully unpacking a kritik. if i am unfamiliar with the argument you are making, i will prioritize your explanation. i may also read your evidence and google-educate myself. this is a good thing and a bad thing, and i think its important you know that asterisk. i try to live in the world of your kritik. i will get very confused if you make arguments elsewhere in the debate that contradict the principles of your criticism (eg if you are arguing a deleuzian critique of static identity and also read a misgendering/misidentifying voter).
**spec, ethics challenges, theory**
PLEASE DO NOT HIDE YOUR ASPEC VIOLATIONS. if the argument is important i prefer you invite the clash than evade it.
i have no way to fairly judge arguments that implicate your opponent's behavior before the round, unless i've witnessed it myself or you are able to provide objective evidence (eg screenshots, etc.). debate is a competitive environment so i have to take accusations with a degree of skepticism. i think the trend to turn debate into a social court, or use the ballot to ostracize members from the community speaks to the student/coach's tooling of authority at tournaments as well as the necessity for pain in their notion of justice.a really good podcast that speaks to this topic in detail isinvisibilia: the callout.
i do have an obligation to keep the round safe. my starting point (and feel free to convince me otherwise) is that it's not my job to screen entries if they should be able to participate in tournaments - that's up to their chaperone & tab. it's a prior question to the round.
i'm finally hearing more presumption debates, which i really enjoy. i more likely to vote on your theory argument if contextualized to the round. i want clash to be developed instead of vomiting blocks at each other.
**disads/cps/case**
i am not a legal scholar and the world of PICs on this topic is dizzying; and i'm here for it! >:D if you're going to make a severance perm, i want to know what is being severed and not so late breaking that the negative doesn't have a chance to refute. i like to hear story-weaving in the overview.
**work experience/education you can ask me about**
- chicago's urban debate leauge
- medical school, medicine
- hinustani classical music, flute
- clinical trial research
- biology, physiology, gross anatomy, & pathophysiology are courses i've taught
**Public Forum - (modified from Tim Freehan's poignant paradigm):**
I have NOT judged the PF national circuit pretty much ever. The good news is that I am not biased against or unwilling to vote on any particular style. Chances are I have heard some version of your meta level of argumentation and know how it interacts with the round. The bad news is if you want to complain about a style of debate in which you are unfamiliar, you had better convince me why with, you know, impacts and stuff. Do not try and cite an unspoken rule about debate in your part of the country.
Because of my background in Policy, I tend to look at debate as competitive research or full-contact social studies. Even though the Pro is not advocating a Plan and the Con is not reading Disadvantages, to me the round comes down to whether the Pro has a greater possible benefit than the potential implications it might cause. Both sides should frame the round in terms impact calculus and or feasibility. Framework, philosophical, moral arguments are great, though I need instruction in how you want me to evaluate that against tangible impacts.
Evidence quality is very important.
I will vote with what's on what is on the flow only. I enter the round tabula rasa, i try to check my personal opinions at the door as best as i can. I may mock you for it, but I won’t vote against you for it. No paraphrasing. Quote the author, date and the exact words. Quals are even better but you don’t have to read them unless pressed. Have the website handy. Research is critical.
Speed? Meh. You cannot possibly go fast enough for me to not be able to follow you. However, that does not mean I want to hear you go fast. You can be quick and very persuasive. You don't need to spread.
Defense is nice but is not enough. You must create offense in order to win. There is no “presumption” on the Con.
I am a fan of “Kritik” arguments in PF! I do think that Philosophical Debates have a place. Using your Framework as a reason to defend your scholarship is a wise move. You can attack your opponents scholarship. Racism, sexism, heterocentrism, will not be tolerated between debaters. I have heard and will tolerate some amount of racism towards me and you can be assured I'll use it as a teaching moment.
I reward debaters who think outside the box.
I do not reward debaters who cry foul when hearing an argument that falls outside traditional parameters of PF Debate. But if its abusive, tell me why instead of just saying “not fair.”
Statistics are nice, to a point. But I feel that judges/debaters overvalue them. Some of the best impacts involve higher values that cannot be quantified. A good example would be something like Structural Violence.
While Truth outweighs, technical concessions on key arguments can and will be evaluated. Dropping offense means the argument gets 100% weight.
The goal of the Con is to disprove the value of the Resolution. If the Pro cannot defend the whole resolution (agent, totality, etc.) then the Con gets some leeway.
I care about substance more than style. It never fails that I give 1-2 low point wins at a tournament. Just because your tie is nice and you sound pretty, doesn’t mean you win. I vote on argument quality and technical debating. The rest is for lay judging.
Relax. Have fun.
email: picklara4@gmail.com
- she/her
Glenbrook North '20
Northwestern University '24 (not debating)
- name chain logically (pls include name round and turney)
-- Novices/JV: if you follow my labeling advice for docs I will give you +0.1 speaks
-- if you can, pls send your analytics so I can flow better - if helps me and you, I promise
- clarity > speed (especially when online), seriously go slower or I will probably miss much of what you're saying
- impact everything out!
- no hateful language, don't clip, don't steal prep, death is not good, etc
- tech>truth (within moderation)
-- if I don't understand any part of what you said, that means you did not sufficiently explain your arguments
-- if you want me to flow every word of your analytics, send them in the chain
- Novices: don't read condo if there's only one counterplan or kritik (one advocacy)
- its probably fair to assume I'm not particularly well-versed in your kritik (especially if high theory) and need more explanation to fully understand your arguments. Be mindful of
- not read up on this topic so be sure to explain arguments fully
Dimarvin (Dah-MAR-Vin) > Judge
Email Chain: puerd20@wfu.edu and wfudbt@gmail.com
TA: Wake Forest, Assistant Coach: Niles North
Nobel '16, Lane Tech '20, Wake Forest '24, Wake Forest M.A '26, Patterns of Movement '∞∞
Forever indebted to Black and Native Debate
The Goats; Amber Kelsie, Daryl Burch, Ignacio Evans, Taylor Brough, Kenny Delph, Ari Collazo, Aysia Grey, those unnamed...and Nate Nys (honorary white man).
TLDR;
Since high school, I have been a "K debater". I focus on arguments such as Afropessimism, Black Performance, Black Baudrillard, and other forms of black studies. I think debate should be a space for critical thinking skills and the production of strategies/performances. This mostly implies K v policy debates or KvK debates. You should win that your model of debate over the other team.
FRAMING IS KEY (judge framing, impact framing, link story, etc.)!!! You should prioritize the offensive you want to go for and make sure you are implicating the other side's arguments. For example, framework and the impact debate, disproving ontology and saying progress is possible, or proving why antiblackness is the paradigm that determines everything and proves why the aff reproduces cruel optimism and how it makes your impact.
K aff vs K:
Prove to me why your model is better, whether that means framework (either), the perm (aff), or the link story and alt (Neg), etc.
FW vs K Affs:
Honestly, this can go either side. It depends on what happens in the debate. But I think the question both sides need to engage with, is how your model of debate produces the best form of education/critical thinking skills, or what (un)limitations there should be to make the best engagements in debate.
Policy:
I didn't do policy land, but I have judged them. Take that whatever way you want for prefs.
Speaker points:
I prefer clarity over speed. Ethos moments are fire too.
Theory:
I haven't been in the back for a lot of these debates.
LD:
- Every argument needs a claim, warrant, and impact. "Vote Neg after the 1nc because it's reciprocal, we both have one speech" is not a complete argument.
- Not a good judge for Phil and/or Trix - Don't pref me
- I am new to LD; however, I have extensive experience in the highest levels of high school and collegiate debate.
Even though I was debate partners with Sebastian Cho and close with Raunak Dua, I do not believe in the same argumentations that they do, but hopefully, I'll be a new judge for you. Thank you!
Misc:
Even if I have a certain style of debating, if the flow differential is mad different, then GG.
Don't be anti-black, say racism good, etc.
If you make an anime reference like One Piece, DBZ, JoJo's, Blue Lock, JJK, My Hero, Attack on Titan, HXH, Tokyo Ghoul, 7DS, etc; (Mainstream) expect a speaker point boost (.1-.3). Don't overuse them unless they fire.
Just have fun.
ashnarimal.debate@gmail.com
mehsdebate@gmail.com
Add both emails on the email chain
Assistant Coach for Maine East
Please make sure the tournament name, round number, and both team codes are in the subject of the email chain.
I am pretty familiar with the topic but that is not an excuse to leave out key information about your arguments and why they matter.
TLDR - You can run any arg in front of me, if you run it well I'll probably vote you up. Clash, line by line, and judge direction go a long way in winning my ballot. Also, send analytics. if you're good, you don't have to win because they drop things.
K Affs
I like K Affs if they are well explained.
A few things I should not be wondering about when writing my ballot:
Why is the ballot key?
Why is this round specifically key for your offense?
Do you solve for anything and how (spill up, fiat, etc.)
Neg Stuff
Counterplans
I enjoy CPs, but you have to have all the key parts (Net Benefit, Perm Answers, Solvency, etc.)
Disads
Disads are fine - I'm not particularly opinionated about them.
I think DA and Case debates are good as long as the DA scenario makes sense and the line by line is properly executed.
Please don't go for a bad ptx scenario that has no internal link.
Kritiks
If you run a K make sure you really explain it to me.
If you wanna go for the K in the 2NR you must have a strong link to the specific aff, or an alt that solves for the K and/or the impacts of the Plan.
Focus on the link debate - winning the link helps you win FW, prove why the perm won't solve, as well as support the impact.
If I don't understand your K I won't vote for it, especially if it's less commonly run. I'm familiar with most of the generic Ks, but if you pull out a more complex K, you need to understand it and explain it well. I will hold those types of Ks to a higher standard when writing my ballot.
Topicality
TOPICALITY IS A VOTER!
Contextualize your standards to the round.
Bad T debates are ones without clash.
Theory
I'm from Maine East, I like Theory debates and I'll vote on them - but I probably have higher standards for 'good theory debating'.
PICs are probably fine.
Severance Perms are probably bad, but usually not bad enough for me to write my ballot on it.
Condo is good to an extent. I probably won't vote on Condo if they run like 1-2 off, but if they run 3 or more conditional advocacies I will lean Aff.
Perf Con is bad if you can prove specific instances of in-round abuse.
Potential Abuse is not a voter. (Unless you prove to me otherwise)
In Round Abuse is a voter - If you can prove it happened.
In the end what really matters is how you extend and frame the theory debate. I will most likely vote for the team that better contextualizes their theory arg.
I'll vote on a dropped theory arg as long as it's properly extended.
Speaker Points
Under 26: you did something offensive/cheaty
27.5: Average
Above 29: Excellent - I was impressed
If you do something interesting, funny, or out of the box in the round, I'll boost your speaks.
General Comments
- I will not vote on an argument I don't understand - It's your job in the round to explain your arguments to me.
- Don't be a jerk - Respect your partner, your opponents, and the judge(s).
- Do not clip cards or cheat in any way
- I am fine with tag team CX, but don't take over you partners CX, I will dock speaks for that.
- Clarity is more important than speed - If you are spreading a huge analytics-heavy block at full speed I will not catch more than 60% of what you are saying
- Send analytics. if you're good, you don't have to win because they drop things. Plus I will be able to make sure I get all your args when you decide to spread through that 8 min K block
- Time your own Prep/CX/Speeches.
- I do not like judge intervention, I will try to avoid, or at least minimize judge intervention as much as possible. I'd much rather vote based on what you all say in the round.
- I am willing to vote for any argument as long as it is not offensive
Calling me a judge makes me feel old but I’m fine with it if that's what you prefer, you can also call me Chris.
He/Him
Add me to the chain: rchristopher1570@gmail.com
Solorio ‘23 —> UIUC ‘27
Background:
I debated at Solorio for 4 years, competing in both nat circuit and UDL. I mostly stuck to policy but did run some of the wacky counterplans (thanks Gio! :) ). I have a good exposure to traditional policy and some on Ks. I went to debate camp at Dartmouth and got taught to debate by Conor B(if you know what the B is please tell me) Cameron and Victoria Yonter. Currently not debating.
Top Level:
-
I’m not too familiar with the current high school topic so assume I don’t know any of the specifics for your aff/arguments.
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I’m better for Policy than the K, but like any other argument I’m willing to vote on it if it’s explained thoroughly
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Tech > Truth — If something is dropped don’t just say, “they dropped___” and move on. Explain the argument and make it clear how you want me to evaluate the argument.
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I’ll read evidence but it won’t weigh my decision unless you specifically tell me to look at a certain piece or if there’s a lot of evidence comparison.
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I won’t do the work for you, if you don’t contextualize an argument to the debate then I’m less likely to vote on it.
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I assign higher speaks based on how confident you are and the depth of your arguments. I doc speaks if you are rude to your opponents or partner. Being assertive is good but there’s a difference between assertiveness and rudeness.
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My ballot is submitted before I give feedback. I'm happy to walk through my ballot in a constructive manner, but aggressive post rounding is cringe.
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Should go without saying but I won't tolerate Racism, Sexism, Homophobia, Ableism, etc.
Specifics
DAs:
I think Disads are great and should be in every 1NC. Disads should tell a story of the negative consequences of passing the plan. Every part of the disad is important but I think more time should be spent on the Link and Impact.
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For the neg: If the DA is being run by itself tell me how it turns case and do impact comparison. If it's being run as a net benefit, the previous sentence applies + tell me how the CP avoids the DA. I’d be more convinced by your DA if the link is more specific to the Aff
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For the aff: I’m a fan of both offense and defense arguments when answering a DA. If you want to take the offense route you’ll need to read more cards and have a better explanation in order to execute the straight turn effectively. On the defense route make sure to focus on why case outweighs.
CTs:
I love case turns. I don’t have much to say other than more often than not, these debates get messy. Just make sure to keep everything consistent. LBL will be your best friend in these debates.
CPs:
I’m probably more open to wacky CPs than other judges, keep in mind wacky =/= abusive. Multi-plank counterplans are iffy for me, it all depends how you run them: If you go for all the planks you present then that's alright with me. If you kick out 4 of the 9 planks you presented, it’s more likely I’ll vote aff on theory. Other counterplans such as agent/process cps are fine with me.
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On the neg: Remember, the counterplan is a reason to reject the aff. ALWAYS have a net benefit; either external or internal. Make sure to explain how the CP avoids the net benefit, and how the CP access the plan and solves. Answer the perms.
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On the aff: I’m not too efficient in perm theory so if your strategy revolves around outlandish perms then I’m probably not your judge for it, but like any other argument if explained well, I’m willing to vote on them. Other than that POSTAL should be your rubric on answering CPs
Ks:
I find Ks very interesting but they’re not my strong point, far from it. You’ll have to do more work in order to get me to vote for them i.e. explaining all of it: role of the ballot, alt and impact. If you can’t tell me what any of those are, I can’t justify giving you my ballot.
I’m familiar with literature for Cap, Security, Imperialism, Set Col, etc. For high theory Ks, all of the above applies + higher expectations. Throwing buzz words will not only make your opponents confused, it’ll confuse me too.
K Affs:
Not much to say other than I’m probably not your judge for this, but if you’re willing to put in the effort and do the work, then I’m willing to do my best to judge.
I do expect you to interact and clash more with the neg.
T:
Also not much to say other that I’m less likely to vote on it if it’s super generic as in not specifying how the aff violates, also if it's against a core aff. Having a case list helps.
Theory:
I’m pretty neutral when it comes to condo and evaluate based on the round I’m judging. I’m less likely to vote on other theory arguments, unless explained well. Don’t spread through your blocks and if you do send them in the doc.
haaziya saiyed
(Haa-zee-yuh) -- i would prefer if you called me by my name instead of "judge"
LUC 2026 | MEHS 2022
Email - haaziyas@gmail.com
If you have questions feel free to ask me after the round!
Not read up on the topic this year, so be sure to explain your arguments in depth.
Top Level:
Very policy but will do my best to adjudicate the round based on the arguments presented in the speeches.
Aff:
Not the best at evaluating critical affirmatives, but explain to me why I should vote for you.
Neg:
DA - Have a link to the aff, if generic contextualize it well enough for me to vote on it. Extend all parts of the DA, uniqueness, impact(s), internal link(s), and link(s). Tell me why it outweighs the impacts on case.
CP - Explain why the counterplan solves the affirmative. Affirmative should extend perms, and negative should answer them if dropped by either side tell me why to either reject or prefer the affirmative.
K - Not the best with these, but give me a clear coherent explanation of why it links to the affirmative, (if you go for the alternative explain why it solves the affirmative impacts), and why your impacts outweigh. (Don't let this deter you from reading a K, I just need you to explain it to me)
T - Topicality is a voter! Extend standards, limits, and impacts. Tell me why the affirmative is not topical and why it's worse being negative. Please don't read blocks in the 2NR, do line-by-line, just off of the flow even.
General Comments:
Tech > Truth
Explain and extend your arguments, I can't do all the work for you.
Respect your partner and your opponents.
Tag team cross-ex is cool, just don't take over!
Time your speeches! I'll also time them but it's good practice for future rounds.
Clarity is really important, I'll say clear 2 times and if it doesn't improve I'll dock speaks.
DO NOT CLIP CARDS IN FRONT OF ME. It's an autoloss and 25 speaks.
TLDR FOR PEOPLE DOING PREFS QUICKLY
Pretty good for everything, debated the K/KvK rounds in high school, debates policy/clash in college
Intro
Stockdale '22
MSU '26
email: scully.glen.e@gmail.com please put me on the chain
pronouns - he/him/his
Notes - Policy
I know enough to get by on this topic (IP)
Speaks: I'll try to stick between 28.5-29.5 for the most part
I'll refer to you as they/them if your pronoun is not on tabroom, so please let me know before the rounds!
You can call me judge or Glen, I have no preference
I debated the K for my last two years of high school, coached by Jared Burke (who has influenced how I view debate)/other CSUF debaters, went to RKS for two years, will be pretty comfortable judging most K's.
Policy Affs - if your advantage names are funny you'll get higher speaks.
K Affs - needs a role for the negative. Please defend something material or attempt to at least result in topical action, anything else makes it difficult to win non-impact turn versions of framework.
DA's/CP's - condo is good (unless you drop it's bad), turns case is important, kicking the aff to go for the straight turn in the 1ar is fun
K's - most familiar with these, I'm very familiar with Cap, Baudrillard, and Security, and Afropessimism, everything else I still know some thing about, but will probably need a bit deeper explanation. Make sure to clearly explain your links in the 2NC. You don't need an alt, but you should have something to generate some uniqueness or else it'll be pretty difficult for me to find a reason to vote for it.
Topicality/FW - fairness is more powerful as an internal link to clash/education than just it alone. Please read a TVA, it makes it much easier to vote negative. Big fan of going for substance against K affs and will probably give higher speaks for it.
Notes - LD
Mostly same thing as policy, good for prog/trad, anything but tricks. I will not vote on a 2 second theory blurb that you put at the bottom of a sheet randomly. Don't take that as I won't vote on theory at all, but if you want me to, it should be a very clear/worthy interp + violation + a few standards that are relatively impacted out.
I'll try to protect the NR, but time-skew means I need to allow some elaboration.
Updated 01/07
Prefs TLDR---I have a lot more experience judging K rounds. I read a K aff and a policy aff as a result of being on a lot of hybrid teams. I would say I read K affs more due to coming from a small school than feeling stronger they were better for debate. I alternated KvK and framework/cap good style debates depending on the partner. You'll prob pref me for K rounds - fwiw, I have nothing against policy rounds and I'm fine to judge them.
I generally don't judge that often these days because I teach online classes on Sundays. And maybe because having a picture of a furby in your paradigm affects your prefs.
About me---
Coaching: University of Chicago Lab, South Shore, Potomac Debate Academy
Formerly: McDade Classical, Lindblom, Phillips Exeter, SWSDI, CDSI, CSSI
I also started this debate sticker shop in HS people keep buying from.
Things that I give high speaks for----
1. Argumentative and strategic consistency and awareness - in every cross or speech you give, I can identify a clear understanding of your case and strategy. You're not just reading each speech in front of you, you're thinking about the round as a whole. For Varsity, my threshold is a bit higher - I'm impressed by quick explanations in response to specific questions about your evidence/mechanics of your arguments. For Novice, I'd say I value decent topic knowledge.
2. What I consider to be good for "professionalism" is being accountable for prep time, speech times, and cross times. I won't be upset if you take a second to get ready when you are about to start your speech. But if you're consistently ending prep and speaking very promptly after, I will reward that with higher speaks since I do dislike when people "end prep" just to then very clearly continue to read through their speech and mentally prep until they start talking.
3. Be kind to your partners. Do not be overly cocky. The most confident and intelligent debaters I've ever seen didn't need to be rude to get that across.
Other things---
1. Speed's cool with me if it's cool with all debaters in the round. I'd personally send out a speech doc after 300wpm because of the likelihood of lag in online settings. In general, if you want your arguments on my flow make sure you're loud and clear. I flow everything on its own sheet, so off-time road maps are cool. Signposting is even cooler.
2. Don't use unnecessary jargon in novice. Unless this is visibly a higher level tech round, I do believe you should be doing everything in your power to make sure everyone in round has access to the same education you do.
3. Make debate educational, above all else. Accessibility is a pre-requisite to education. Exclude, you lose.
Personal Background: I debated four years in Wisconsin. I competed at NCFLs and NSDAs 4 times each. Most of my experience is in PF, Congress, and extemp but I have some experience with other events.
Include me on Email Chains please: rspors25@gmail.com
The vast majority of the rounds I have judged this year are policy rounds. That being said, don't spread in front of me. If you are spreading, share a speech doc, but just please don't, I am not going to flow off of a doc. If you are running a K, T, or CP, you better be ready to explain it well (For example if you are running a T don't just rattle off the tags Education, Time abuse etc. Explain these arguments to me well). I tend to prefer 1 or 2 well reasoned arguments over 15 tags with no links or warrants.
TLDR: Have good ethics, Trust the Flow, Don't be a jerk.
Policy:
If you have received a blast and I am your policy judge, please know my experience is in PF/LD in a very traditional district. A fairly low level of Speed is okay but if I can't hear you I can't flow you. I will keep a flow and I will vote on the flow. If you are running a K it will take work to convince me but I am not against these types of arguments. I understand post-Fiat alternatives much better than pre-fiat alternatives. Topicality or Framework arguments are things I am far more familiar with and I also tend to find them more relevant to the round than other theory arguments. In essence, convince me that your plan would work, and is the best solution. If you are the neg, Convince me they are wrong. Also, Don't just extend things with the tag. If you tell me to extend "Smith 23" That means nothing to me or to the debate. "Extend Smith 23 which says..." You aren't extending authors and years, you are extending arguments. Actually extend the argument you are making. If all you read me is an author and year, that card is dropped.
PF: Constructive: Speed is fine as long as you are clear. If you are unclear I will stop flowing and if it isn't on my flow it isn't on my ballot. I competed in a very traditional district so that is what I am most familiar with. If you are running some sort of progressive debate, make it a strong case. I think progressive arguments are overused in PF. If you are running something weird, explain it well and convince me. I think debate is ultimately an event based in convincing your opponents and judge. Convince me your argument isn't so weird.
Rebuttal: I want a line by line. 2nd rebuttal should include responses to 1st rebuttal otherwise it is dropped. That being said, don't be toxic and attempt to spread people out of rounds by arguing you should win the round based on a dropped third subpoint on your sixth response to their observation. Win the round via solid argumentation not some trick.
Summary: Summary is the hardest speech in a round. As a general rule, if something isn't in your summary it better not be in your final focus. Summary is a speech for crystalizing your arguments into something that can be used in your final focus and weighing. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WEIGH. If you don't weigh, you make me weigh. You will be sad because I may not weigh your voters favorably, I will be sad because you made me do more work. Don't make everyone sad. Weigh! Also don't just say "we win on timeframe and scope and yada yada yada" I can do that. Tell me why, under the established framework you are winning in a way that means you must win the round. If you want to use all those fancy weighing words, don't just shout the buzzwords at me. Tell me why I should be deciding the round in terms of timeframe, magnitude etc.
Final Focus: Give me the voters. Tell me why you're winning the important points of the round and tell me why that means you're winning the round. The final focus is not "Rebuttal: Reprise" (nor is the summary for that matter). Please do not just word vomit every card your side read the whole round. Tell me why you won.
LD:
Values and Criterions are important. Treat them like they are important. Whichever value wins out is how I am going to weigh the round. Make your arguments in terms of the values and weigh under the criteria.
Lincoln Douglas is a debate of values and morals. Keep that in mind.
Progressive debate is fine just make it make sense.
Everything I said above about speed, argumentation and weighing remains true for LD.
Congress:
- This event is called congressional DEBATE, not congressional speech giving. Use your speech times to advance an argument, to directly clash with other speakers, and to persuade the audience to your side. That being said while I do want a well-reasoned debate, you are also essentially cosplaying as senators so there is some room for theatrics and if done well, this can add to your speech. A boring speech is not very persuasive.
- SPEED! Speed does not belong in this event whatsoever. You are senators persuading the body to vote one way or another on a bill not policy debaters.
- I would rather you give no speech at all than a repetitive, pre-written speech that takes time from other debaters who want to bring up new points.
- Questioning periods, points, and motions weigh heavily on my ballot. Use these to your advantage. Answering questions well is HUGE for me. Effective use of parli pro is impressive to see, but incorrect use is a big disadvantage.
- I will rank the PO as we are instructed to do. If you are an excellent PO you are likely in the running for the top spot in my rankings. If you are a poor PO you will likely find yourself near the bottom. Being a good PO is about running a fair and efficient chamber. I want that chamber to run like a well oiled machine.
- Evidence, Follow the same ethics and evidence things I have stated below.
General Things for Everyone:
The Flow: In this round the flow is going to be king. If I can't understand you I can't flow you and if it isn't on my flow it isn't on my ballot.
Critique: I will disclose if they let me. I will give a oral critique if they let me. Everything will be on the ballot. I know how valuable that feedback is to coaches and competitors alike. If you are unhappy with my oral critique, look to my ballot for more information. If you have any questions, ask them. I am more than happy to give more advice/feedback. If you are just postrounding trying to argue about my decision. Don't, that's annoying.
Evidence Ethics:IMPORTANT There is nothing that irritates me more than shoddy evidence standards. This is an educational activity and if there is a card to which the content is in question it is possible I will call for said card. Be prepared. I want to be included in your email chains (rspors25@gmail.com).
Cross: Don't be abusive. Be assertive. I think cross is one of the most informative parts of a debate round. I will be actively listening but not actively flowing. If something is conceded in cross, it is conceded. That being said, it still needs to be brought up in speeches to make my ballot. If something important happens during cross, explicitly tell me "Judge write that down" I will but then I will expect you to elaborate in a speech.
Speaker points: I will probably be pretty generous with speaks. If you are racist, homophobic, sexist, Antisemitic, or anything else bad, expect the speaks to reflect that. Cross is a really good way to impress me and show me that you are a 30 pt speaker.
Nik Stamenković Diez (they/them; or any pronoun) - nikola.stamdiez@gmail.com
Debated for Northwestern (2020-2024) and John F. Kennedy HS (2016-2020) in the Chicago Debate League.
Assistant coach for Northwestern. Coach at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. MA student at UChicago.
-Top Level-
1---Flowing: I flow on computer. During the round, I will have the 1AC and 1NC speech docs open, but I will not open subsequent speech docs.If you want all your arguments flowed, your delivery should be one that reflects the intention. If I do not understand or flow an argument from your speech, your opponent is not obligated to respond to it.
2---TL;DR: I'm more familiar with the kritik. For the most part of my debate career, I read kritikal arguments. However, I debated for Northwestern and attended the Northwestern Debate Institute in high school, so I'm also fairly familiar with policy. That being said, I would not be the best judge for a hyper-technical policy vs policy debate. I am astronomically better for technical approaches to debating the kritik on the affirmative and the negative, but have a high-threshold for kritkal arguments that are presented.
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Debate, at the end of the day, is a research centric communication activity. I evaluate the line by line and the flow based on technical concessions. Debates are best when debaters feel confident researching and forwarding arguments they are interested in. Similarly, debate is a performance in which I mean the presentation of arguments, stylistic & rhetorical choices made, and relational orientation to one another in the activity is something that is always already happening.
Kritikal affirmatives should be in response to the resolution. K affs that are not about the topic are not as persuasive as a well-researched, constructed, and developed aff about the fundamental questions, assumptions, or functions of the resolution. I strongly value card quality and research that has been conducted thoughtfully and meaningfully. Argument innovation is awesome and should be the guiding light of everyone's approach to debate.
Framework is a completely fine argument to read against kritikal affirmatives. Framework must be impacted out well beyond generic readings of it. I'm more easily persuaded by arguments about clash than fairness. Fairness, to me, is not an impact in of itself, but it could be if explained well. Limits is the most persuasive internal link. Impact calculus, comparison of models, and clash are central to these debates. Framework debates can easily boil down to both sides reading pre-written blocks without clashing with the nuances of the arguments presented. This is boring. K affs can win on an impact turn alone without a model, I don't think a counter-model is required for the affirmative to win.
Kritiks on the negative should have well-developed and characterized links to the plan. Links about fiat, representations, rhetoric, and the like should be made in context of the affirmative you're negating. I truly love researching & reading a ton of academic articles, journals, books, etc, so even if I'm not familiar with your specific theory of power, I will most likely figure it out. However, it is your job as the debater to explain the nuances of your theory. Resist the temptation of K jargon. Long & obnoxious overviews are not technical and could just be integrated into the line-by-line. Framework is important if you (both the aff & the neg) make it important. Alternatives are also not a requirement if you wish to extend the K as a DA to the aff. With that, judge instruction and framing devices are ultra important.
Misc:
---Argument quality, evidence comparison, & impact calculus done at the highest level matters.
---The overly confrontational approach to debates is not as persuasive as technical argumentation.
---You should read cards. Copying & pasting excerpts from books or articles into a word doc is not a card.
---Flow. I'm indifferent to debaters sending analytics.
---Inserting rehighlightings are fine when it's not egregious.
---If you ask for a 30, you will get a 27.
---I won't vote on out of round issues.
---If you threaten other debaters or make the debate unsafe, you will lose and your speaks will be nuked.
---Start & end debates on time. As someone who frequently runs the Tab side of tournaments, delaying rounds is frustrating.
---Feel free to ask questions about anything not covered above.
Put me on the email chain (WayneTang@aol.com). (my debaters made me do this, I generally don't read evidence in round)
General Background:
Former HS debater in the stone ages (1980s) HS coach for over many years at Maine East (1992-2016) and now at Northside College Prep (2016 to present). I coach on the north shore of Chicago. I typically attend and judge around 15-18 tournaments a season and generally see a decent percentage of high level debates. However, I am not a professional teacher/debate coach, I am a patent attorney in my real (non-debate) life and thus do not learn anything about the topic (other than institutes are overpriced) over the summer. I like to think I make up for that by being a quick study and through coaching and judging past topics, knowing many recycled arguments.
DISADS AND ADVANTAGES
Intelligent story telling with good evidence and analysis is something I like to hear. I generally will vote for teams that have better comparative impact analysis (i.e. they take into account their opponents’ arguments in their analysis). It is a hard road, but I think it is possible to reduce risk to zero or close enough to it based on defensive arguments.
TOPICALITY
I vote on T relatively frequently over the years. I believe it is the negative burden to establish the plan is not topical. Case lists and arguments on what various interpretations would allow/not allow are very important. I have found that the limits/predictability/ground debate has been more persuasive to me, although I will consider other standards debates. Obviously, it is also important how such standards operate once a team convinces me of their standard. I will also look at why T should be voting issue. I will not automatically vote negative if there is no counter-interpretation extended, although usually this is a pretty deep hole for the aff. to dig out of. For example, if the aff. has no counter-interpretation but the neg interpretation is proven to be unworkable i.e. no cases are topical then I would probably vote aff. As with most issues, in depth analysis and explanation on a few arguments will outweigh many 3 word tag lines.
COUNTERPLANS
Case specific CPs are preferable that integrate well (i.e., do not flatly contradict) with other negative positions. Clever wording of CPs to solve the Aff and use Aff solvency sources are also something I give the neg. credit for. It is an uphill battle for the Aff on theory unless the CP/strategy centered around the CP does something really abusive. The aff has the burden of telling me how a permutation proves the CP non-competitive.
KRITIKS
Not a fan, but I have voted on them numerous times (despite what many in the high school community may believe). I will never be better than mediocre at evaluating these arguments because unlike law, politics, history and trashy novels, I don’t read philosophy for entertainment nor have any interest in it. Further (sorry to my past assistants who have chosen this as their academic career), I consider most of the writers in this field to be sorely needing a dose of the real world (I was an engineer in undergrad, I guess I have been brainwashed in techno-strategic discourse/liking solutions that actually accomplish something). In order to win, the negative must establish a clear story about 1) what the K is; 2) how it links; 3) what the impact is at either the policy level or: 4) pre-fiat (to the extent it exists) outweighs policy arguments or other affirmative impacts. Don’t just assume I will vote to reject their evil discourse, advocacy, lack of ontology, support of biopolitics, etc. Without an explanation I will assume a K is a very bad non-unique Disad in the policy realm. As such it will probably receive very little weight if challenged by the aff. You must be able to distill long boring philosophical cards read at hyperspeed to an explanation that I can comprehend. I have no fear of saying I don’t understand what the heck you are saying and I will absolutely not vote for issues I don’t understand. (I don’t have to impress anyone with my intelligence or lack thereof and in any case am probably incapable of it) If you make me read said cards with no explanation, I will almost guarantee that I will not understand the five syllable (often foreign) philosophical words in the card and you will go down in flames. I do appreciate, if not require specific analysis on the link and impact to either the aff. plan, rhetoric, evidence or assumptions depending on what floats your boat. In other words, if you can make specific applications (in contrast to they use the state vote negative), or better yet, read specific critical evidence to the substance of the affirmative, I will be much more likely to vote for you.
PERFORMANCE BASED ARGUMENTS
Also not a fan, but I have voted on these arguments in the past. I am generally not highly preferred by teams that run such arguments, so I don't see enough of these types of debates to be an expert. However, for whatever reason, I get to judge some high level performance teams each year and have some background in such arguments from these rounds. I will try to evaluate the arguments in such rounds and will not hesitate to vote against framework if the team advocating non-traditional debate wins sufficient warrants why I should reject the policy/topic framework. However, if a team engages the non-traditional positions, the team advocating such positions need to answer any such arguments in order to win. In other words, I will evaluate these debates like I try to evaluate any other issues, I will see what arguments clash and evaluate that clash, rewarding a team that can frame issues, compare and explain impacts. I have spent 20 plus years coaching a relatively resource deprived school trying to compete against very well resourced debate schools, so I am not unsympathetic to arguments based on inequities in policy debates. On the other hand I have also spent 20 plus years involved in non-debate activities and am not entirely convinced that the strategies urged by non-traditional debates work. Take both points for whatever you think they are worth in such debates.
POINTS
In varsity debate, I believe you have to minimally be able to clash with the other teams arguments, if you can’t do this, you won’t get over a 27.5. Anything between 28.8 and 29.2 means you are probably among the top 5% of debaters I have seen. I will check my points periodically against tournament averages and have adjusted upward in the past to stay within community norms. I think that if you are in the middle my points are pretty consistent. Unfortunately for those who are consistently in the top 5% of many tournaments, I have judged a lot of the best high school debaters over the years and it is difficult to impress me (e.g., above a 29). Michael Klinger, Stephen Weil, Ellis Allen, Matt Fisher and Stephanie Spies didn’t get 30s from me (and they were among my favorites of all time), so don’t feel bad if you don’t either.
OTHER STUFF
I dislike evaluating theory debates but if you make me I will do it and complain a lot about it later. No real predispositions on theory other than I would prefer to avoid dealing with it.
Tag team is fine as long as you don’t start taking over cross-ex.
I do not count general tech screw ups as prep time and quite frankly am not really a fascist about this kind of thing as some other judges, just don’t abuse my leniency on this.
Speed is fine (this is of course a danger sign because no one would admit that they can’t handle speed). If you are going too fast or are unclear, I will let you know. Ignore such warnings at your own peril, like with Kritiks, I am singularly unafraid to admit I didn’t get an answer and therefore will not vote on it.
I will read evidence if it is challenged by a team. Otherwise, if you say a piece of evidence says X and the other team doesn’t say anything, I probably won’t call for it and assume it says X. However, in the unfortunate (but fairly frequent) occurrence where both teams just read cards, I will call for cards and use my arbitrary and capricious analytical skills to piece together what I, in my paranoid delusional (and probably medicated) state, perceive is going on.
I generally will vote on anything that is set forth on the round. Don’t be deterred from going for an argument because I am laughing at it, reading the newspaper, checking espn.com on my laptop, throwing something at you etc. Debate is a game and judges must often vote for arguments they find ludicrous, however, I can and will still make fun of the argument. I will, and have, voted on many arguments I think are squarely in the realm of lunacy i.e. [INSERT LETTER] spec, rights malthus, Sun-Ra, the quotations and acronyms counterplan (OK I didn’t vote on either, even I have my limits), scaler collapse (twice), world government etc. (the likelihood of winning such arguments, however, is a separate matter). I will not hesitate to vote against teams for socially unacceptable behavior i.e. evidence fabrication, racist or sexist slurs etc., thankfully I have had to do that less than double digits time in my 35+ years of judging.
Email: ttate@glenbrook225.org
I am back directing after a fairly long hiatus from debate. If I had to highlight the biggest factor that means for you is I am not up on the topic literature as much as a lot of judges. I am directing a large program, judging a lot, and watching A LOT of GBS practice debates. The Tate now is not cutting cards the way the Tate then used to. I also did not teach at camp this past summer. My flow is pretty decent still and I have realized that a lot of arguments have not changed much from 6-8 years ago.
What does that mean to you?
1- I would consider myself a moderate right judge in regards to policy vs. K debates. Here is the thing - I am very liberal in my beliefs and academia, especially in regards to issues of identity. My Masters' thesis was a black women's criticism of mainstream feminist discourse. I will often understand and believe many K arguments in front of me. The question is whether the arguments presented in front of me provide an opportunity for deliberative dialogue between two opposing teams. Convince me of that in round (and many have), you will find me to be more left-leaning in regards to K arguments than people perceive.
3 - I love a good Politics debate that has super recent evidence and an interesting spin to a typical politics story. Of course, I know those are hard to get traction on with this topic and the state of being in Washington DC right now.
4 - I have a high standard for both evidence and what makes for a complete argument.
5 - Framework debates have become much more sophisticated and detailed since I last actively coached and judged. For any judge, it is hard to get down on the flow all of the arguments in a detailed Framework debate because the analytics come very quickly. For me, specifically, slowing down just a bit while reading your blocks (so I can get pen time) and then really framing key arguments in the last few rebuttals will be immensely helpful for me.
6 - I will vote on Process CPs. I do think this topic is hard for the negative - that is a persuasive argument. However, I do think CPs that are germane to the Aff are much preferable.
When it comes to K versus policy, I prefer K debates. I went to graduate school for philosophy and have coached debate in CPS for 8 years, but was never a debater. As a result I am probably considerably less technical than other judges and just want to see good argumentation. I personally think this happens when we have a clear understanding of our epistemology.
I would much prefer to judge a round where there is a lot of clash on the flow and indicts on the other team's evidence than a round in which a team overwhelms the other team with lots of advantages or CPs. K debates can be equally bad for education when they involve half-understood ideas of So, if you're running a K or K Aff, please avoid relying solely on philosophical jargon. I think the best debaters are the ones who combine their technical of knowledge of debate with common sense and some semblance of rhetorical skill.
Counterplans are fine. If you run them be sure you can clearly articulate how the plan links to the net benefit.
I'm ok with speed, but I prefer debaters who slow down on analytics and theory arguments. Getting your arguments out in the 1AC/1NC should sound different from explaining why the perm fails or explaining why topicality should be a voter.
I think storytelling is important. I want you to be able to explain to me why you are winning the debate. I have two reasons for believing this: 1. I think this is an essential thinking and communication skill, 2. If you throw spaghetti at the wall and ask me to interpret it, I'm afraid that I won't interpret it correctly. Don't leave the round up to my interpretation; write my ballot for me.
I like a nice, tight DA with a carefully explained link story. Sometimes Ptix DAs get a little wild, but as long as you can sell the story, I'm willing to go along with it as a convention of debate, but would probably be sympathetic to an aff team that highlights the probability of the link chain or the quality of the evidence.
At heart I'm just an English teacher, so I will give an extra .1 spear poi if you cite some poetry in your rebuttal speech (in context) .2 if I really like the poem.
Tag team is fine; however, I think the speaker should be the one primarily responsible for answering. I don't want to see one partner dominating.
Kjtrant@cps.edu
Name : Lauren Velazquez
Affiliated School: Niles North
Email: Laurenida@gmail.com
General Background:
I debated competitively in high school in the 1990s for Maine East. I participated on the national circuit where counterplans and theory were common.
Director of Debate at Niles North
Laurenida@gmail.com
ME
Experience:
I competed in the 90s, helped around for a few years, took a bit of a break, have been back for about 7 years. My teams compete on the national circuit, I help heavily with my teams’ strategies, and am a lab leader at a University of Michigan. In recent years I have helped coach teams that cleared at the TOC, won state titles and consistently debated in late elim rounds at national tournaments. TL/DR--I am familiar with national circuit debate but I do not closely follow college debate so do not assume that I am attuned to the arguments that are currently cutting edge/new.
What this means for you---I lean tech over truth when it comes to execution, but truth controls the direction of tech, and some debate meta-arguments matter a lot less to me.
I am not ideological towards most arguments, I believe debate structurally is a game, but there are benefits to debate outside of it being just a game, give it your best shot and I will try my best to adapt to you.
The only caveat is do not read any arguments that you think would be inappropriate for me to teach in my classroom, if you are worried it might be inappropriate, you should stop yourself right there.
DISADS AND ADVANTAGES
When deciding to vote on disadvantages and affirmative advantages, I look for a combination of good story telling and evidence analysis. Strong teams are teams that frame impact calculations for me in their rebuttals (e.g. how do I decide between preventing a war or promoting human rights?). I should hear from teams how their internal links work and how their evidence and analysis refute indictments from their opponents. Affirmatives should have offense against disads (and Negs have offense against case). It is rare, in my mind, for a solvency argument or "non unique" argument to do enough damage to make the case/disad go away completely, at best, relying only on defensive arguments will diminish impacts and risks, but t is up to the teams to conduct a risk analysis telling me how to weigh risk of one scenario versus another.
TOPICALITY
I will vote on topicality if it is given time (more than 15 seconds in the 2NR) in the debate and the negative team is able to articulate the value of topicality as a debate “rule” and demonstrate that the affirmative has violated a clear and reasonable framework set by the negative. If the affirmative offers a counter interpretation, I will need someone to explain to me why their standards and definitions are best. Providing cases that meet your framework is always a good idea. I find the limits debate to be the crux generally of why I would vote for or against T so if you are neg you 100% should be articulating the limits implications of your interpretation.
KRITIKS
Over the years, I have heard and voted on Kritiks, but I do offer a few honest caveats:
*Please dont read "death good"/nihilism/psychoanalysis in front of me. I mean honestly I will consider it but I know I am biased and I HATE nihilism, psychoanalysis debates. I will try to listen with an open mind but I really don't think these arguments are good for the activity or good for pedagogy--they alienate younger debaters who are learning the game and I don't think that genuine discussions of metaphysics lend themselves to speed reading and "voting" on right/wrong. If you run these I will listen and work actively to be open minded but know you are making an uphill battle for yourself running these. If these are your bread and butter args you should pref me low.
I read newspapers daily so I feel confident in my knowledge around global events. I do not regularly read philosophy or theory papers, there is a chance that I am unfamiliar with your argument or the underlying paradigms. I do believe that Kritik evidence is inherently dense and should be read a tad slower and have accompanying argument overviews in negative block. Impact analysis is vital. What is the role of the ballot? How do I evaluate things like discourse against policy implications (DAs etc)
Also, I’m going to need you to go a tad slower if you are busting out a new kritik, as it does take time to process philosophical writings.
If you are doing something that kritiks the overall debate round framework (like being an Aff who doesnt have a plan text), make sure you explain to me the purpose of your framework and why it is competitively fair and educationally valuable.
COUNTERPLANS
I am generally a fan of CPs as a neg strategy. I will vote for counterplans but I am open to theory arguments from the affirmative (PICs bad etc). Counterplans are most persuasive to me when the negative is able to clearly explain the net benifts and how (if at all) the counterplan captures affirmative solvency. For permutations to be convincing offense against CPs, Affs should explain how permutation works and what voting for perm means (does the DA go away, do I automatically vote against neg etc?)
RANDOM
Tag team is fine as long as you don’t start taking over cross-ex and dominating. You are part of a 2 person team for a reason.
Speed is ok as long as you are clear. If you have a ton of analytics in a row or are explaining a new/dense theory, you may want to slow down a little since processing time for flowing analytics or kritkits is a little slower than me just flowing the text of your evidence.
I listen to cross ex. I think teams come up with a lot of good arguments during this time. If you come up with an argument in cross ex-add it to the flow in your speech.
I prefer Jairo (pronounced high-roe) over judge, but im fine with either
He/They
2A/1N for Solorio 19-23
Not debating at Northwestern 23-27
Assistant Coach at Von Steuben 24-Present
I debated both in nat circ and udl (Chicago Debate League) tournaments during high school. Went to camp during my freshie and soph (virtual @ Dartmouth) years
I was taught to debate by Conor Cameron and Victoria Yonter, so the way I think about debate is very influenced by them and somewhat similar to the way they do.
Tech>Truth, but I really dont want to do the work for you --- contextualize and flesh out arguments
Better for Policy --- didn't do K debate, but run what you are most comfortable with. I will vote on it if you are winning it.
I feel like I can be a pretty visual person with my face, so if I approve or disapprove of something then you will be able to tell(nodding head for good, scrunching my face for not so good, you get the gist)
Anything that promotes violence, discrimination, or hate is an immediate L, lowest speaks possible, and a report to tab
I used to have a much longer paradigm but I realized that it was way too much yap for no reason and that I often find myself moving away from the argument specifics that I wrote down on it. You can find my old paradigm here if you are curious, but if any questions about my thoughts on a specific argument it is probably better to ask me before the round.
I like jokes --- if you make me laugh you will get +.1-.2 speaker points. If you make a joke about Victoria Yonter or Conor Cameron, then you get +.3
Please put me on the email chain: sammywinchesterwalsh@gmail.com.
I debated for Northside for four years and graduated in 2022. I am not debating in college.
I lean policy, but I will vote on anything if you are winning it.
Clash is especially important, go a level further than the tag, tell me why you are right and they are wrong.
Please do not forget about Case.
T and Theory - If you lose any T or theory arguments that are ran against you, I will usually vote against you. Though the standards of the argument need to be impacted out to be considered. For example "They lost T." is not enough for me to vote on, you need to go a level.
DAs and CPs - Very comfortable with them, go for it.
Policy Aff v. K - As I lean policy, if you are running a K, turns case arguments work best with me. On framework for both sides, make sure it is consistent. Please try not to change your interpretation or standards throughout the round. Unless it is an integral part of the K to ignore Case, don't concede or forget about case in the 2NR. I am decently comfortable with the standard Ks, but anything super specific or academic, you will need to make it make sense to me. I will not vote on something I do not understand by the end of the round. If you are going for it, you should be able to explain it adequately.
K Aff - I will not vote on something I do not understand by the end of the round. If you are going for it, you should be able to explain it adequately. Especially since academic K's are about learning. However, if you're framing is based on being confused, you're going to need to do some explanation there, but if you win it, I will vote accordingly. Arguments against K Affs that I like are other Ks and Cede the Political, though anything can work.