I work in the investment sphere, and had a legal career in global finance prior to transitioning to the business side. I taught International Negotiations at George Washington National Law Center, to a mixed class of law, business and government students. In my work I spend a lot of time on strategy and persuasion in relation to making investments, which always have many sides: founders, management, investors, buyers, sellers and clients/customers, as well as regulators sometimes. I have one year of experience judging PF debate at local tournaments, live and on Zoom.

PF Debate: I vote for the advocates who formulate a robust, convincing framework for their arguments, who prepare well and know a wide range of aspects related to the topic, and who speak clearly. Arguments should be logical, based on a comprehensive paradigm, well supported by evidence, and responsive to the opponent’s arguments. I tend not to favor debate gimmicks, rapid-fire speaking, or snarky approaches. I tend to give some weight to showing respect to the opponent where principled. I am not looking for a team looking just to "win", but one that will sway me and an audience, as ultimately the purpose of the debate is to influence a broader society. Civility and professionalism are important.

General Approach to Judging:

I really enjoy good clash in the round. I like it when debaters directly engage with each other's arguments (with politeness and respect). From there you need to make your case to me. What arguments stand and what am I really voting on. If at the end of the round I'm looking at a mess of untouched abandoned arguments I'm going to be disappointed.

Organization is very important to me. Please road-map (OFF TIME) and tell me where you are going. I can deal with you bouncing around if necessary but please let me know where we are headed and where we are at. Unique tag-lines help too. As a rule I do not time road maps.

I like to see humor and wit in rounds. This does not mean you can/should be nasty or mean to each other. Avoid personal attacks unless there is clearly a spirit of joking goodwill surrounding them. If someone gets nasty with you, stay classy and trust me to punish them for it with speaks.

If the tournament prefers that we not give oral critiques before the ballot has been turned in I won't. If that is not the case I will as long as we are running on schedule. I'm always happy to discuss the round at some other time during the tournament.

Weighing:

Please tell me why you are winning. Point to the impact level of the debate. Tell me where to look on my flow. I like overviews and clear voters in the rebuttals. The ink on my flow (or pixels if I'm in a laptop mood) is your evidence. Why did you debate better in this round? Do some impact calculus and show me why you won.

Online Tournaments: Speed and web based debate does not work. Slow down or everyone will miss stuff.

Safety:

I believe that debate is an important educational activity. I think it teaches folks to speak truth to power and trains folks to be good citizens and advocates for change. As a judge I never want to be a limiting factor on your speech. That said the classroom and state / federal laws put some requirements on us in terms of making sure that the educational space is safe. If I ever feel the physical well-being of the people in the round are being threatened, I am inclined to stop the round and bring it to the tournament director.

"I am a parent judge, which means however i have been recently started judging a lot of tournaments. My primary concern is to evaluate each team's argument based on its clarity, persuasiveness, and relevance to the topic. I value clear and concise communication and will reward debaters who present their arguments in a way that is easy to understand and follow.

In addition to the content of the argument, I will also pay attention to the delivery and demeanor of each debater. I expect debaters to be respectful, engaging, and confident in their presentations.

While I will be objective in my evaluation of each team's argument, I also believe that debates should be accessible and engaging to a wider audience. Therefore, I appreciate when debaters use real-world examples and avoid overly technical jargon. Overall, I am looking for a compelling argument that is presented in a clear and accessible manner."

Hi, my name is Austin Kelachukwu. I am a debater, public speaker, adjudicator and a seasoned coach.

Within a large time frame, i have gathered eclectic experience in different styles and formats of debating, which includes; British Parliamentary (BP), Asian Parliamentary (AP), Australs, Canadian National Debate Format (CNDF), World School Debate Championship(WSDC), Public Forum(PF), amongst others.

As a judge, I like when speakers understand the format of the particular tournament they’re debating, as it helps speakers choose their style of speech or debating. Speakers should choose to attack only arguments, and not the opponent. I do take equity serious, so I expect the same from speakers. When speakers understand the tournament’s format, it makes things like speaker roles, creating good and solid arguments easy, so they can act accordingly, and through that understand how the judge understands the room as well.

I suppose that speakers are to understand the types of arguments that should run in the different types of motion, their burden fulfillment and other techniques used in debate.

I take note of both key arguments, and the flow at which such argument is built, so speakers shouldn’t just have the idea, but should be able to build that idea also to create easy understanding of the argument. On understanding also, i prefer when speakers speak at a conventional rate, to aid easy understanding of what the speaker says.

I appreciate when speakers keep to their roles, i.e when a summary or whip speaker knows one’s job is not to bring new arguments but to rebut, build partner’s case, and explain why they won.

I value when speakers keep to time, as arguments made after stipulated time wouldn’t be acknowledged.

Austin Kelachukwu.

email: austinkelachukwu@gmail.com

Yes email chain:kiharakimani61@gmail.com

About me:

I am a proud Kenyan who grew up arguing over anything and everything until I discovered debate and the amazing and diverse individuals within it. I have been participating in, judging, and training debates for the last 3 years. Away from that, I alongside my debate club committee have organized a number of tournaments over the years. I am widely experienced in different formats of debates across different circuits in the world. I enjoy free thinkers, adaptable minds, and a keen sense of detail, and all this for me is part of the characteristics needed to be a good debater. Finally, I love dogs, and that about sums it up.

Judging Rubric :

1. Clarity: At this point what I want you to tell me is what the debate is about, and in doing so provide strong reasons and evidence as well as what your claim should be evaluated on. For example, it would help a lot if you could compile a short history of facts, characteristics, and effects of the subject in matter or create a probable future in regards to calculated eventualities from your claims.

2. Mechanization: This for me is how well you arrange your points to fully bring out your case with enough matter to stand against the opponent's case as well as proving a good basis as to why your case stands out over all others. I consider team dynamic as part of this in that, a well-worked-out presentation from you and your partner should incorporate a united front with no contradiction, as well as strong supportive extensions that solidify your case in addition to tearing down your opponents.

3. Weighing: The most important thing at this point is to completely prove the other team wrong, most responses in debates only mitigate the other team's arguments rather than prove their whole case wrong. This can be avoided by simply taking down your opponent's case through either doing of the two. First, supporting your own case, or secondly, exposing the opponents' case or claim. Both of these factors share similar metrics in regards to how you present the case. For example, If You can show how the opponent's best-case scenario is flawed through metrics (such as a case of urgency, what affects more people etc.) and provide reasonable evidence as to why there is a high likelihood of conviction from me. You can as well defend your own claim by showing how your average to the worst point is better than the opponent's best point and with proper metrics with evidence solidify your cases (Remember you can you two or more metrics co-dependently to enforce your case that be careful to emphasize on the correlation).

4. Engagement: At this point, I will be looking out for how well you are able to respond and object to your opponent, I want to see a clear confrontation between both sides. That said, no watering down of opponent points without reasonable claims or completely assuming the other side, in short, I want you to address the other team's case wholesomely.

5. Structure: I honestly think that if the first 4 criteria are met the structure naturally follows, in light of this just make sure to keep it simple but detailed, make sure that all participants can clearly understand you and you'd be in my good books. If you had an outline of your presentation that would definitely bump it up a notch.

6. Conduct: Simply put, we are all here to learn, grow and empower each other, and with that said I will not be taking any slander at all in regards to ethnicity, culture, sexuality, or stereotypes. You shall respect your fellow participants and any violation of this will result in repercussions and a report to the organizers. With that cleared up, my number 1 rule is, 'Take a breathe and let's have fun with it.'

Background:I am from Africa.Currently residing in Seattle and i have been judging and training for the past one and a half years .I have debated and judged multiple debate tournaments across continents. I studied Economics and Finance as my university degree and spend most of my free time judging, debating ,eating and traveling.

Judging criteria.
1.Clarity: The claim must be proven with strong reasoning and evidence. The second level of proving the truth of your claim is by responding to rebuttals of your proof of claim from the opposing team. This is important because the other team can attack a logical gap in the truth of your argument and without sufficient response, the likelihood of your claim being true is diminished. This means that your impacts are unlikely to occur because the claim has been proven to be false which , in turn, reduces your chances to win the debate
2.Mechanizations. It's also important to give reasons why your claim or counter-claim is true. This is done by showing why your claim is the most important in the debate, So don't just state claims and rebuttals by explaining what's important. This will improve the quality of the debate by having you claim tag along with mechanization.
3.Weighing: This means one should take the best-case scenario of the opposing side and give a comparative analysis with the case provided. Most responses in debates only tackle the other team's arguments and do not necessarily prove them to be completely false. The importance of weighing you can use different metrics to weigh in your arguments such as which one has a higher sense of urgency, affects more people ,long-term impacts, and many others to prove your arguments is more important.
4.Structure.It is important to present your speeches in a clear and simple way. Having clear and simple structure helps your case. Note that this also entails having a detailed analysis. This makes us easier for panelists and the team to understand your arguments. This is done by having a linear flow( carefully explaining your arguments in a systematic manner from point A to B to C) and having clear comparatives in your speech.
5.Synergy:How you and your partner build your case is important. This is dine by having solid support and extensions to support arguments mentioned by your partner. Ensure you do not sound contradictory or have a different speech from your partner.Ensure you have a coherent and supporting speeches.

Hello! I am so glad that you're here!

I competed in some combination of congress, PF, parli, and extemp for 8 years. I appreciate line-by-line rebuttals, and I will take note if you drop subpoint rebuttals, so don't just carry taglines and unwarranted rebuttals. I don't usually flow cross but I will take note if something particularly important occurs. Since I don't typically flow cross, if you want to make sure that I count a concession, omission, or other notable point during cross towards your side, you should incorporate it into your speeches and weigh. Debate is an opportunity to employ logic and reasoning, not just repetition and intuition. Make your evidence make sense- it won't do that for you. PF speaking times are not optimal for discussing critical theory but I'm willing to evaluate theory if you have a strong grasp on what you're talking about. If you run a K, please don't assume that it will automatically win you the round- really think deeply about what you're trying to accomplish. Often a K is just a framework or an argument, so think about the intended outcome of your approach. Similarly, I am comfortable with PF cases that prioritize non-traditional values or ethical principles. There are always many good ways to analyze a resolution.

I highly value strong and unique speakers. I will evaluate speaking style in your points, and I do not preference cookie cutter speaking styles. Creative and dynamic speakers are often more convincing, so use this to your advantage. I can also see through convincing speaking styles and gesticulation to evaluate the content, so you need to be strong in both.

You should provide a weighing mechanism and framework, and this should be carried through the round. If you want to win, please don't forget to tell me how to evaluate the round. If your opponent offers a weighing mechanism and you provide no reason for me to doubt its validity, that will be the the way that I evaluate the round. If neither team tells me how to evaluate the round, I will run down my flow for dropped arguments, then evaluate winners in clash, then look at the strength of the original arguments.

Brief roadmaps are okay if necessary but should either be at the beginning of your speech (after time has started) or no more than 5 seconds off time. I will keep time, but please keep your own time so that I don't have to interrupt you. I also understand the need to call for cards, but it should be within reason. If your opponent asks for a card and it is revealed that your framing was blatantly misleading or the evidence just does not exist, that will reflect very negatively on your speaker points and potentially my overall ballot. Be honest! It doesn't serve you to lie.

Most importantly- I'm excited that you've chosen to participate in debate. It is non-negotiable to me that you are reasonably courteous to one another and take seriously the opportunity and responsibility to discuss issues that impact real people every day.

I am lay judge who has recently started judging PF , LD debates.

I will be taking quite a bit of notes and trying to follow your arguments. I am learning that I am more tech over truth. That being said, I am still am a lay judge - so don't go full blown tech! If you speak quickly, please speak clearly so that I can understand what you are saying. Your arguments should be clearly connected throughout the round.

Speech clarity is very important, use signposting. Please state your claims clearly, provide evidence and highlight the impact(s). Don't use too much technical stuff - if you do, please explain it in short otherwise the argument will be lost on me. I award speaker points based on how clearly you lay out your case. It helps if you provide a good summary of your case in the final focus.

Lastly please be respectful to your competitors and everyone else in the room.

Tobi is a student sometimes, a part-time oceanographer and an amazing adjudicator every day. If there is anyone to be referred to as one of the faces of adjudication in Africa, Tobi is one of your go-to people. With over 60+ breaks in tournaments, you can think about, Grand-Final and Semi Judge at about 25 including, PAUDC 21, Western IV 2022, and IIT Bombay 22. He has served as Language Officer at Campbelltown Australs, NEADC 22, SANUDC 22, and was on Appeal for Madrid WUDC 2023. He is the absolute definition of excellence meets hardwork. He is also the first West African to judge the Quarter-finals of the World Universities Debating Championship, Belgrade 22, talk about awesomeness. He was on CAP over 10+ tournament including, RRAC 23, Kampala Open 23, Debate A+ 23, Uganda National Team trials, Zimbabwe National Team trials and, Jozi Open, others. Outside of the debate room, Tobi is that sweet and soft guy you want on your corner everyday of the week. Always willing to help however he can.

I am an enthusiastic and open-minded individual who has been judging the past two years and I love debating. I studied Economics and Finance for my undergraduate and spend most of my time reading novels, debating, writing and traveling. The metrics I mostly use when judging are:

Truth Assertion:

The claim a team provides must contain strong evidence and should explain what the debate is about. The second proof of claim is responding to the rebuttals provided by your opponents. This is important since they can argue a link of truth that might discredit the points given. In the end, it can cause your impacts to be disregarded and reduce your chances of winning the debate.

Classification:

It is important for you to give good reasoning on why your claim is true. This is done by showing why or how your claim is true and important in the debate. The more well-proofed the evidence is, the higher chances of you have winning the argument. The claim should also within reasoning and proven.

Weighing:

Take your opponent's best case and make a comparison to the case provided from your bench. You'll have earned a solid win if you can show me that even if your side's best case fails, your average or worst case scenario is still much better than your opponent's case. This is also done through providing strong reasons supported by clear pieces of evidence. Prove to us why you believe the arguments provided by your opponents is unlikely the case and why its also false.

Framework:

It is important to lay out a structure in a simple and direct format that is easy for me to understand. You can also do this by showing me your breakdown before you begin your speech. Having a simple structure with in-depth analysis makes it easy for me to judge and helps your opponents understand your arguments. Having a coherent speech with logical flow makes it easy for me to understand your speech word for word.

Team Chemistry:

How you and your partner present yourself is also quite important. I will need strong well-structured points to strengthen the cases presented. Having your teammate support your arguments or defend the points initially made is very important and it will be an add-on during weigh-in.

Lastly, it is very important to respect your opponents during debates. Avoid using obscene or rude remarks during the debate. I encourage you to have fun and be as creative as you can when interacting with different people in the debate forums.

I am a parent judge