USC Trojan Invitational
2024 — Los Angeles, CA/US
VLD Paradigm List
All Paradigms: Show HidePronouns: she/her ♀️
Email: nalan0815@gmail.com,
Please also include: damiendebate47@gmail.com
I debated policy debate for 3 years in high school 2008-2011 and have judged for 10+ years now.
I REALLY like to see impact calculus - "Even if..." statements are excellent! Remember: magitude⚠️, timeframe⏳️, probability ⚖️. I only ever give high speaker points to those that remember to do this. This should also help you remember to extend your impacts, and compare them with your opponent's as reasons for a judge to prefer your side.
- However, I don't like when both sides keep extending arguments/cards that say opposite things without also giving reasons to prefer one over the other. Tell me how the arguments interact, how they're talking about something different, etc.
- Be sure to extend arguments (especially your T voters) even if they're uncontested - because that gives me material for the reason for decision. If it's going to be in your last speech, it better be in the speech before it (tech > truth here). Otherwise, I give weight to the debater that points it out and runs theory to block it from coming up again or applying.
------------------------- Miscellaneous ----------------------------
Prep and CX: I do not count emailing /flashdriving as prep time unless it takes ~2+ minutes. Tag-team cross-ex is ok as long as both teams agree to it and you're not talking over your partner. Please keep track of your speech and prep time.
Full disclosure: Beyond the basic K's like Cap, Security, Biopow, Fem, etc., I'm not familiar with unique K's, and especially where FrameWork tends to be a mess, you might need a little more explanation on K solvency for me or I might get lost.
I often read along to the 1AC and 1NC to catch card-clipping, even checking the marked copies.
Hi, Im America Ayala (She/Her/Ella)!
america.ayala4647@gmail.com: please add me to the email chain and feel free to reach out to me to ask me any questions.
About me: I recently graduated from Elizabeth Learning Center after debating for the school's policy team for 4 and a half years as a varsity. I started very policy-oriented but later moved on to find my favorite style of debate which was performance. I am now debating a sophomore at CSUN, with my high school debate partner.
OV:
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Read anything as long as you can explain it/justify it.
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I was a K debater (set col, fem, gender, rage, psychoanalysis, trans, and queer, I read a lot of other lit as well.) Don't assume that I will understand the literature you read and explain it to me as you would to any other judge.
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Tag teaming is cool just don't speak over your partner!
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I debated my entire high school career as varsity (except for two tourneys as JV) and was captain of our team at ELC.
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I do not tolerate verbal abuse, belittlement, or anything homophobic, sexist, racist, or that would make someone feel unsafe in the debate space, especially against your own partner! I will lower your speaker points.
- A dropped argument is a dropped argument, prove to me why it matters tho.
Affirmatives: Read any type of aff you want in front of me but do keep in mind these few things:
1.) Impact out your stuff: Make sure that by the end of the debate, I know what the impact is and how and if it gets solved.
2.) Non-topical affs: I am 100% your judge for this but I do hold the FW debate to a higher standard if there is no plain text.
3.) Clash: Make sure there is equal engagement from both the neg and the aff on the case debate because I feel like a lot of teams just lose it. If you don't have evidence to answer arguments just do line by line, that is far more acceptable than 0 engagement. If there is going to be 0 engagement then make sure it is justified by the end of the debate.
4.) Presumption: Don't just say presumption, tell me why this is a voter.
Negatives:
DA:These are cool just make sure you have a uniqueness claim, a link, and an impact or else it is not a DA to me and shouldn't be judged as one. If it is gonna serve as a net benefit make sure to tell me how the CP solves it.
CP:I love counterplans that are explained and contextualized to the affirmative but if its not that's okay so as long as you solve for some net benefits. If you are aff make sure to tell me why the CP doesn't solve the case that will definitely sway my ballot your way.
Procedural/ Voters/Theory :I love when these are actually debated properly make sure you have standards when reading these don't just make a claim to it if you plan to center the rebuttals on it.
1.) Condo: I am pretty neutral, just make sure to justify to me why it is a voter.
2.) Vagueness args: Please, make them only if something is actually vague, and you can prove it to be vague. Have a bright line if you want this to actually be a voter or else I'll just default to my own interp of vagueness.
3. ) Ethic voters:if you make these please make sure that you make it clear to me where specifically it is that there is an ethics violation. If you can quote, or refer back to a specific comment or remark made please make it clear. I think debate should be a safe space but it is also an educational one. People can make mistakes, but remember to be mindful and apologetic if someone has educated you on something that is morally or ethically incorrect.
T:I am not that good of a judge for T debates only because a lot of people default to using jargon as extensions and explanations. Make sure that you are impacting out this stuff and explaining to me why every one of your standards is fair game or is important. Debate to me is not just a game so keep that in mind, but if you do good at debating then I'll vote for it. I love a damm good TVA, win this, and ill fs vote for your T.
K:I love a good K.
- I am knowledgeable in set col, fem, pessimism, gender, rage, psychoanalysis, trans, and queer theory. I've also read a lot of other lit as well. Don't assume that I will understand the literature you read.
- Make sure there are contextual links and that there is at least one link being explained to me in the block that is explicitly related to the aff.
- If you are going to be doing a lot of FW debates, make sure to let me know when you are giving me a roadmap. Don't assume I am just gonna default to FW.
- Alternatives can be dropped but if you want to win the debate explain to me why there is still a link and why the K itself still matters. If you are going for the alternative then make sure that I am aware of what the alt does and what that looks like/ how to engage.
LD section:
1. Im sorry, I have judged LD but I am familiar with the topic and have watched and judged a few rounds. Everything in the policy section should mostly apply, ill update this section more as I get more comfortable creating preferences for this category.
2. Please do not try to spread if you know it will cost you your clarity, focus on extending your arguments instead of trying to make a multitude of them.
Affiliations:
I am currently coaching teams at lamdl and have picked up an ld student or 2.
I do have a hearing problem in my right ear. If I've never heard you b4 or it's the first round of the day. PLEASE go about 80% of your normal spread for about 20 seconds so I can get acclimated to your voice. If you don't, I'm going to miss a good chunk of your first minute or so. I know people pref partly through speaker points. My default starts at 28.5 and goes up from there. If i think you get to an elim round, you'll prob get 29.0+
Evidence sharing: use speechdrop or something of that nature. If you prefer to use the email chain and need my email, please ask me before the round.
What will I vote for? I'm mostly down for whatever you all wanna run. That being said no person is perfect and we all have our inherent biases. What are mine?
I think teams should be centered around the resolution. While I'll vote on completely non T aff's it's a much easier time for a neg to go for a middle of the road T/framework argument to get my ballot. I lean slightly neg on t/fw debates and that's it's mostly due to having to judge LD recently and the annoying 1ar time skew that makes it difficult to beat out a good t/fw shell. The more I judge debates the less I am convinced that procedural fairness is anything but people whining about why the way they play the game is okay even if there are effects on the people involved within said activity. I'm more inclined to vote for affs and negs that tell me things that debate fairness and education (including access) does for people in the long term and why it's important. Yes, debate is a game. But who, why, and how said game is played is also an important thing to consider.
As for K's you do you. the main one I have difficulty conceptualizing in round are pomo k vs pomo k. No one unpacks these rounds for me so all I usually have at the end of the round is word gibberish from both sides and me totally and utterly confused. If I can't give a team an rfd centered around a literature base I can process, I will likely not vote for it. update: I'm noticing a lack of plan action centric links to critiques. I'm going to be honest, if I can't find a link to the plan and the link is to the general idea of the resolution, I'm probably going to err on the side of the perm especially if the aff has specific method arguments why doing the aff would be able to challenge notions of whatever it is they want to spill over into.
I lean neg on condo. Counterplans are fun. Disads are fun. Perms are fun. clear net benefit story is great. The sept/oct topic really made me realize I never dabbled in cp competition theory (on process cps). I've tried to fix that but clear judge instruction is going to be very important for me if this is going to be the vast majority of the 2nr/2ar.
If you're in LD, don't worry about 1ar theory and no rvis in your 1ac. That is a given for me. If it's in your 1ac, that tops your speaks at 29.2 because it means you didn't read my paradigm.
Now are there any arguments I won't vote for? Sure. I think saying ethically questionable statements that make the debate space unsafe is grounds for me to end a round. I don't see many of these but it has happened and I want students and their coaches to know that the safety of the individuals in my rounds will always be paramount to anything else that goes on. I also won't vote for spark, trix, punch theory, wipeout, nebel t, and death good stuff. ^_^ good luck and have fun debating
Email me docs at mkb AT debatematters.org
Head of Debate Program, Harvard-Westlake School 2007-2024
Head LD Coach, Edina High School 1999-2005
Head Policy Coach, Apple Valley High School 1998-1999
I am diagnosed (and am on medication) with severe ADD. This means my ability to listen carefully and pick up everything you say will wane during the round. I would strongly suggest you have vocal variety and slow down, especially for what you want to make sure I get.
Argument preferences. I've found myself being less concerned about argument advocacy than I am about hearing smart, well-constructed arguments. Whether the substance of your arguments are policy, philosophical, or critical-based, I don't really care - just put in the work.
Given this, I don't view myself as an argument counter. I want to be told why your arguments are better, not only that you have more of them. This should free you up to focus on quality over saying more stuff.
Random stuff:
Don't play games with disclosure. Affirmatives should disclose at least 30 minutes before the round. Both sides should have their arguments on their wiki.
The affirmative probably should be topical.
I think that I'm one of the few circuit LD judges who votes affirmative more than I vote negative. I prefer an affirmative that provides a problem and then a solution/alternative to the problem. Negatives must engage. Being independently right isn't enough.
Cross-x cannot be transferred to prep time.
shawnee mission south '23, university of southern california ‘27
if you ask for a marked copy when less than 3 cards were marked and/ or have to clarify what ev was read without taking cx or prep, your speaks ceiling is a 27.
the round should start on time. the amount of stalling and general lack of timeliness has become egregious recently.
all you need to know:
if tricks/ phil - no.
if anything else - yes.
clarity is key. flowing is fundamental.
misc:
judge instruction wins debates. evidence quality matters. smart analytics can beat bad cards.
"if i win ontology i auto win a link" thats not how that works.
affs should respond to the resolution. what that looks like is up for debate, and i am truly impartial about whether or not it entails reading a plan text.
you will lose for clipping. the other team does not need to call it out. #communicationactivity.
Please refer to everyone involved in the round gender-neutrally unless otherwise stated by a participant or judge.
CX Teams: Aff starts the email chain ASAP.
Yes, include me. My email is: amber@lamdl.org
high school debate: crenshaw high school ( policy )
college debate: st. john's university ( BP )
currently: i'm usually running tournaments, as such, i'm not really keeping up with current arguments, authors, strats etc. anymore. assume i'm used to your evidence at your own risk.
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hi i'm amber (they/them) and i want you to have fun and learn new things. debates are for learning, not for whoever gets to nuclear war fastest. tech issues aren't considered prep,
I HAVE TINNITUS AND CANNOT UNDERSTAND MONOTONE READERS.if you're spreading you need to enunciate the tags at least. please ask for clarification on this.
general stuff:
- you as the debater have 1 job: tell me, the judge, how to vote. i value impact calcs, world comparisons, and depth over breadth on all flows. if you're running framework, keep it alive till the end of the debate because i love an easy vote. keep your args and flows organized so that by the 2AR/2NR you have a clear flight path for your future ballot.
- if you're non-black and running black args as gotchas, i'm going to break tabroom giving you extremely low speaks.
- nearly all spreading speeds are fine, but i will always value clarity over reading a bunch of stuff, especially if you're unable to speak clearly, or get quieter as you spread.
- on that, neg teams that read 17 half assed args (CP with no plan text, K with no alt, DA with no impacts etc) are wasting their time, the other team's time, and most importantly, my time. don't do it, you will not get my ballot.
- i dock speaks for being rude to your partner or opponents. the competition is never serious enough to warrant actual malice or bad vibes in or out of a round.
- i'm not a very technical judge. the last thing i want to do at the end of a round is pull evidence and spend 10 minutes going back and forth with myself. to coaches: if you have novice or jv debaters who are on the cusp of transition into a higher division, i'm the judge for them.
If you have any more questions for me that I may have not answered on this page, please ask me before the round starts.
For email link chains: albertcardenas17@gmail.com
I'm a product of LAMDL - shout out to urban debate leagues
Philosophy BA
General
- Post rounding = lowered speaks. I'm open to talking about the deep cuts in the round, just please don't come for me like that.
- I prefer substance debates over those reduced to sound bites of theory analytics. This doesn't mean I won't evaluate arguments like T or FW, there's substance debates to be had there. I like heavy link analysis and impact comparison + weighing.
- Speaker point inflation is real and I'm pretty generous with awarding speaker points. But, that doesn't mean you don't have to earn them.
- If I am compelled to evaluate a specific piece of evidence, I'll read and interpret it after the round.
- I don't count sending speech docs as prep time. if You run into any tech. issues just let me know so we can pause the round and get it fixed.
- I'm not typically persuaded by critical language critiques unless there's a sufficient amount of impact analysis done. Blatant violations will probably result in ending the debate and auto loss.
For LD: I have a policy background, but these days I judge more LD rounds than I do policy. I'll pretty much treat your round as I would a policy round. The only thing I'll say is
1. Be clear - really slow your spreading down, especially your analytics
2. I don't like cheap tricks, but they do often win rounds if it is not contested by the opponent. However, just because I don't like it, this doesn't mean I won't vote for it.
3. I'm not the best judge for Kant strats - my policy background informs my exposure to Kant as that usually looks like Deontology vs Util framing debates.
Aff/Case Stuff
Whether you're a 'traditional' or 'critical' debater, the 1AC should always be strategically used as an answer to off-cases. I have to know what the aff does if I'm gonna presume it's at least a good idea.
DAs
Even generic DAs can be pretty damaging, but the better the link story and impact calculus is the more consideration I may give to disads.
CPs
If there's a risk that it solves better than the aff and it has a net benefit, I'll consider weighing it. I'm also sympathetic to CP theory.
T
What I'm most concerned with in evaluating these arguments in you answering this question: Why is your model of debate better? If you're reading T, things that will work in your favor is providing a TVA (if possible), contextualizing your standards as it relates to the broader debate space against the affirmative's, and getting ahead of the substance debate on case.
Presumption
Yeah, I'll consider it.
FW
I'm down for a FW round. I like seeing a lot of clash between the typical standards offered by the neg vs those of critical affirmatives. So, do some comparison and impact analysis like what fairness means for the neg and what the terminal impact is for them and what fairness means for the affirmative and what the terminal impact might be for them. Compare impacts, weigh them against each other and convince me who has the better interpretation of debate. Also, if you're running FW don't just rely on overwhelming the affirmative with evidence. Remember, quality outweighs quantity and at the end of the round and that's what gets my ballot. Take the time to explain your evidence.
K
This is more my wheel-house, so feel free to deploy critical arguments in front of me. I'm pretty comfortable with a variety of critical literature bases, just don't rely on that fact to circumvent any in-depth analysis. Don't rob yourself of doing the work that's only going to help you improve - you'll not only help yourself, but everyone else in the debate have a more productive round.
***Author indicts - kinda like impromptu language critiques - aren't as persuasive to me unless they're thoroughly impacted out.
Performance
I dig performance debate. Whatever it is (i.e. poetry, narrative, music incorporation, etc.), just tell me what the function of the performance is and how I should evaluate it or weigh it against any opposing off-cases.
Let's have a good round.
USC '25 (Debating)
DVHS '21
he/him
Use speechdrop or whatever file sharing platform the tourney offers - it usually avoids the delays associated with email sending.
If not, add me to the email chain: channa.dhruv@gmail.com
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TLDR - most of the stuff remains true, but I've realized more and more that leaving my preferences at the door is probably best. I've done and read almost everything, so do what you do. I was a more K leaning individual on a very policy HS team, and in college I've continued to enjoy debating both sides of the spectrum. I still think that K affs should be topic-centered, and those that will win in front of me will often redefine words rather than solely relying on impact turns vs T, esp generic ones.
Fun debates/Debates where the atmosphere isn't hostile will receive high speaks: Innovative, fun, complicated, etc strategies that are executed well will be rewarded. That isn't to say you will be penalized for going for a "generic" strategy - if you can execute your strategy well, do it because I will enjoy that just the same.
LD -
Tricks - Strike me, don't really care to judge those debates because they're used in a way that's meant for the other team to drop them for you to win. It's the only predisposition I have vs any argument.
Phil - Pref me low, don't have the will to parse through these debates
1 - Policy, T, Impact Turn debates, Topic/Generic/Innovative Ks, Resolutional K affs, K v K
2 - K Affs(non resolutional), T-FW vs K affs
3 - High theory K/K-affs(i.e. Pomo)
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I'm a current debater at USC and competed in LD and Policy throughout high school, I've been a 2N throughout my career, but have switched to being a 2A as of late.
I'm pretty comfortable for whatever you want to do(some exceptions)... I've run most arguments on the spectrum, from being solely straight-up my sophomore year, to practically one-tricking the Security K my junior year, and ending up debating flex my senior year.
I'm not fond of the "1- ... 2- ... 3-" stuff, but I guess it can be helpful so:
1- Policy(DA, CP), T, T-Fw vs K Affs, Generic Ks or Topic Ks(things like Security, Cap, Berlant, etc)
2- Theory, K Affs, K v K
3- High theory Ks, Pomo Ks, Identity Ks
(IF LD)
4- Generic Phil(like Kant)
5- Phil other than Kant
STRIKE ME if your main strategy relies on making arguments that you can only go for if dropped(i.e. blippy theory arguments like Shoes theory, indexicals, and other tricks). Arguments must have a claim, warrant, and impact, I will not vote on anything that falls short of this threshold.
ONLINE
Please record your speeches and if the call drops, keep going and send the recording at the end of the speech. Also, please go 75-80% speed max, thanks :)
Policy
DAs -
I love them, straight turns are amazing, impact calculus is a must, Ptx DAs are good, Turns case with impact calc is great(especially when there's timeframe contextualization with these).
CPs -
I love a good counterplan debate.
CPs MUST have some mechanism of solving the aff in the 1NC itself, preferably a solvency advocate(card) but a simple line explaining how it would solve (if it's intuitive) works.
PICs do not need to have a specific advocate that advocates for the entirety of the plan excluding the thing being PICd out of.
Cheaty CPs are fine: process, advantage, etc are all good and valid.
T/Theory -
I default to competing interps, DTA on everything but condo and T, Condo good. That said, those are just my defaults, I can very easily be persuaded the other way via good debating. Fairness is an impact, so is education.
SLOW DOWN on theory, please. If I don't catch something and it becomes the entire 2NR/AR, I will not feel too bad not voting on it... don't tell me I didn't warn you.
Err neg and DTA are really persuasive arguments in my opinion, unless there's some real reason for DTD.
Pragmatics>>>Semantics - Semantics don't matter to me unless it's setting up an argument for predictability or precision or something like that.
Ks (on the neg) -
Love 'em.
I really love good K debates with nuanced link works and the sauce. A lot of my 2NRs my junior year was the K, and the K was often present in the 1NC my senior year as well. That said, don't take it as an excuse to just throw out buzzwords or expect me to know what you are talking about. I will not do work for you.
I'm very comfortable with the generics or with topic-specific Ks, anything else must be explained to me(little more so than the generics). I'll really like it if your OV explicitly states your theory of power, and that will make the rest of your work on the K proper much cleaner and it will make much more sense to me. I think I catch onto the thesis of Ks pretty quickly, so if I'm not making any sense in the RFD as to why I voted against you, it's probably because your explanation was incoherent.
Speaking of OVs, please keep them on the shorter side... If you say "new page for the OV", I will not be happy... and neither will you with your speaks.
Default to Affs should get to weigh the case, can be persuaded otherwise.
Make FW arguments explicit and do weighing as if it is any other arg. I find that the best debaters often resolve the differences between the models provided and help me identify what exactly makes one interp better than the other.
Perfcon is an issue of condo UNLESS you are using the aff's responses to one position to garner offense for the other. It's not usually the most persuasive
PIKs and FPIKs are prob illegitimate, but you gotta do the work to prove that.
K affs -
I'm down to listen to a good K aff. Affs must be in the direction of the topic somewhat, not saying "no K affs" but rather I'm saying that there must be some connection between the aff and the topic that is made in the 1AC. A really good example of this was this one aff that St Francis read on the arms sales topic about Queer Militarism with definitions of munitions being related to queer bodies... not saying that's true, rather that I love clever strategies.
T-Fw is very persuasive vs K affs - movements, fairness, education, whatever you want to read. Tbh I have yet to see a good answer to movements.
PIKs vs K affs are strategic, probably won't vote for PIKs bad
K affs get perms
K vs K affs are interesting, so if that's your strat, go for it.
LD
- I default Comp Worlds(tough to convince me otherwise), no RVIs(though that doesn't mean I won't vote on one).
- Condo is probably good, but it becomes somewhat abusive past 2
- Ks on the neg in LD: I am fine with new Link extrapolation in the 2NR(i.e. recuttings of the aff), esp if its breaking new. That said, you need to have some card in the 1NC that provides the thesis of those links
Phil/Trix
Try just to not read it lol.
Good phil = read it, but err on over-explaining because Im not familiar w most of the lit.
Trix = L 27(not actually, but if you make me suffer i'll return the favor)
default modesty
Good extensions of your Moen and/or Pummer evidence vs Phil should get you out of a lot of trouble
A lot of the paradoxes are terrible arguments, try to make intuitive responses to them
Theory vs trix is a very good strat in front of me
T-implementation vs "General principle" affs was my go-to strat, and I think that it is a good one
Grouping args(like calc indicts) is good and doing that little overview-y grouping work can help you in a lot of places, especially when going against blippy analytical walls.
I will not give you good speaks if you go for trix and will try to not vote on it in any and every way possible, so please just do not include it in the round itself, thank you.
The rest of the LD section should be the same as Policy
Misc
1. Please disclose on the wiki(open source w/ highlighting is best practice) if you are in Varsity unless you have some issues(either school-related or wiki troubles). Sending docs when requested is fine too.
2. Prep time is whatever has been determined by the tourney, prep stops when you have finished saving your doc. If <= 3 cards, body is cool, anything more please send a doc.
3. I have absolutely no qualms about giving the "I don't get it" RFD
4. I don't judge kick unless instructed to, and justifying should(if contested) go past "it's a logical extension of conditionality"
5. Ev ethics challenge ends the round there, I will evaluate and the winner of the challenge gets a W30, loser gets an L27 (if it was a false claim) or L and lowest speaks possible if the challenge was true.
6. Clipping challenges needs evidence(recordings, unless I notice it - then i'm your witness), but it's also the same as an ev ethics challenge. If I notice it and the opp doesn't, your speaks won't look so hot.
7. I will read your ev, so good quality prep gets high speaks in front of me.
8. If it's a lay tournament but both debaters want a flow round, go ahead and have fun!
9. If it's a bid tournament, I don't think you have to adapt to novices or non-circuit debaters. If theory was dropped, just extend it for a quick sec or two and continue the debate for educational purposes, that will earn you a ton of respect and good speaks.
10. If theory/T is dropped in a circuit round, I will be very unhappy if the next speech(if rebuttals) isn't that argument or if that speech is longer than 30 seconds tops...
11. Tech>Truth, except for things like racism good or the like. I will not tolerate any instances of racism, sexism, etc in round.
12. Sending a marked copy does not constitute prep, but requesting a doc where "unread cards are deleted" constitutes prep
Ultimately, just have fun and do you! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at my email above!
(recently updated)
Email: danidosch@gmail.com
I am an assistant coach for Immaculate Heart High School. I debated for Immaculate Heart for four years. I am now a 4th year philosophy student at UC Berkeley.
Most important stuff:
I try my best to not let my argument preferences influence my decision in a debate; I have no problem voting for arguments that I disagree with. That said, I will only vote on arguments — that is, claims with warrants — and I have no problem not voting for an "argument" because it is not properly warranted.
I will not vote on arguments that I don't understand or didn't have flowed. I do not flow from the doc; I think the increasing tendency of judges to do this is abetting the issue of students being literally incomprehensible. I will occasionally say clear, but I think the onus is on you to be comprehensible.
You must send to your opponent whatever evidence you plan to read before you begin your speech; you do not need to send analytics. If you mark cards during a speech — that is, if you begin reading a card but do not finish reading that card — then you must indicate where in the card you stopped, and you should send a marked doc immediately after your speech. You do not need to send a document excluding cards that were not at all read.
If you want to ask your opponent what was read/not read, or what arguments were made on a certain page, you of course may, but you must do it in CX or prep. There is no flow clarification time slot in a debate!
The upshot of the last few comments is that I think flowing is a very important skill, and we should endorse practices that cultivate that skill.
You will auto-lose the debate if you clip cards. Prep ends once the speech doc has been sent. If you want to advance an evidence ethics violation, you must stake the debate on it.
Be respectful to your opponent. This is a community.
Other stuff:
Above all, I like clash-heavy debates between well-researched positions.
My favorite negative strategies include impact turns, counterplans, and NCs. My favorite affirmative strategies are plans with “big-stick” or “soft-left” advantages.
I don't really like "tricks" of any genre because I think overwhelmingly they simply lack warrants.
I don't like strategies that depend entirely on framework or framing arguments to exclude your opponent's offense. You should always answer the case even if you are reading a framework/impact framing argument that explains why I should prioritize your offense over your opponent's.
As I said, I will never not vote on an argument simply because I disagree with it. I will, however, ignore arguments that are not warranted, and I think certain claims are very difficult, if not impossible, to provide a warrant for.
Here are some examples of claims that I think are very difficult to provide a warrant for:
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It would be better if debates lacked a point of stasis.
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The outcome of a given debate is capable of changing people's minds/preferences.
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It would be better if the negative could not read advocacies conditionally.
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I should win the debate solely because I, in fact, did not do anything that was unfair or uneducational.
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There is a time skew between the aff and neg in a debate.
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A 100% risk of extinction does not matter under my non-utilitarian/non-consequentialist framework.
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My 1ar theory argument should come procedurally prior to the negative's topicality argument.
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There is something paradoxical about our understanding of space/time, so you should vote for me.
Here are some claims that I will never vote on, whether you try to warrant them or not:
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That which is morally repugnant
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This debate should be about the moral character of my opponent
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X is a voting issue simply because I labeled it as such.
I am the Director of Debate at Immaculate Heart High School.
daviddosch@gmail.com
General:
1. I will vote on nearly any argument that is well explained and compared to the arguments your opponent has made.
2. Accusing your opponent of an evidence ethics or clipping violation requires you to stake the debate on said allegation. If such an allegation is made, I will stop the debate, determine who I think is in the wrong, and vote against that person and give them the lowest speaker points allowed by the tournament.
3. I won’t vote on arguments that I don’t understand or that I don’t have flowed. I have been involved in circuit LD for almost ten years now and consider myself very good at flowing, so if I missed an argument it is likely because you were incomprehensible.
4. I am a strong proponent of disclosure, and I consider failing to disclose/incorrect disclosure a voting issue, though I am growing weary of nit-picky disclosure arguments that I don’t think are being read in good faith.
5. For online debate, please keep a local recording of your speech so that you can continue your speech and share it with your opponent and me in the event of a disconnect.
6. Weighing arguments are not new even if introduced in the final rebuttal speech. The Affirmative should not be expected to weigh their advantage against five DAs before the Negative has collapsed.
7. You need to use CX to ask which cards were read and which were skipped.
Some thoughts of mine:
1. I dislike arguments about individual debaters' personal identities. Though I have voted for these arguments plenty of times, I think I would vote against them the majority of the time in an evenly matched debate.
2. I am increasingly disinterested in voting for topicality arguments about bare plurals or theory arguments suggesting that either debater should take a stance on some random thing. No topic is infinitely large and voting for these arguments discourages topic research. I do however enjoy substantive topicality debates about meaningful interpretive disagreements regarding terms of art used in the resolution.
3. “Jurisdiction” and “resolvability” standards for theory arguments make little sense to me. Unless you can point out a debate from 2013 that is still in progress because somebody read a case that lacked an explicit weighing mechanism, I will have a very low threshold for responses to these arguments.
4. I dislike critiques that rely exclusively on framework arguments to make the Aff irrelevant. The critique alternative is one of the debate arguments I'm most skeptical of. I think it is best understood as a “counter-idea” that avoids the problematic assumptions identified by the link arguments, but this also means that “alt solves” the case arguments are misguided because the alternative is not something that the Negative typically claims is fiated. If the Negative does claim that the alternative is fiated, then I think they should lose to perm do both shields the link. With that said, I still vote on critiques plenty and will evaluate these debates as per your instructions.
5. Despite what you may have heard, I enjoy philosophy arguments quite a bit and have grown nostalgic for them as LD increasingly becomes indistinct from policy. What I dislike is when debaters try to fashion non-normative philosophy arguments about epistemology, metaphysics, or aesthetics into NCs that purport to justify a prescriptive standard. I find philosophy heavy strategies that concede the entirety of the opposing side’s contention or advantage to be unpersuasive.
6. “Negate” is not a word that has been used in any resolution to date so frameworks that rely on a definition of this word will have close to no impact on my assessment of the debate.
LAMDL Program Director (2015 - Present)
UC Berkeley Undergrad (non-debating) & BAUDL Policy Debate Coach (2011-2015)
LAMDL Policy Debater (2008 - 2011)
Speech Docs: Include me on the email chain: jfloresdebate@gmail.com*
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*I only check the above email during tournaments, if you're trying to get in touch with me for anything outside of speech doc email chains, my main work email is joseph@lamdl.org.
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TL;DR Do what you do best. I evaluate you on how well you execute your arguments, not on your choice of argument. Judge instruction goes a long way for me. Err on the side of over explaining/contextualizing.
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I believe debate is a space that is shaped and defined by the debaters, and as a judge my only role to evaluate what you put in front of me. There is generally no argument I won't consider, with the exception of arguments that are intentionally educationally bankrupt. I generally lean in favor of more inclusive frameworks, but at the same time still believe the debate should be focused on debatable issues, some limits are probably good. Where I draw the line on those limits depends on who does the better job articulating it in the debate.Regardless of the framework you provide, I need offensive reasons to vote for you under that framework.
Most of my work nowadays is in the back end of tournaments, and this implicates how I judge somewhat. I might not be privy to your trickier strategies. Feel free to use them, but know if I do not catch it on my flow, it will not count.
I am familiar with most debate lit, but you should still err on the side of over-explaining/contextualizing to the debate at hand. I try to intervene as little as possible and rely only on what you say. I do not like to go back and read cards at the end of the debate, if I don't need to.
I'm a better judge for rounds with fewer and more in-depth arguments compared to rounds where you throw out a lot of small blippy arguments that you blow up late in the debate. My issue with the latter isn't the speed (speed is fine), rather I'm less likely to vote for underdeveloped arguments. Generally, the team that takes the time to provide better explanations, internal link work, and warrants will win the debate for me as long as you also instruct me on the significance of those arguments to the round overall. This includes dropped arguments. I still need these to be explained, applied, and weighed for you to get anything out of it.
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Feel free to read your non traditional Aff, but be prepared to defend why it is relevant to the topic (either in the direction of it or in response/criticism of it), and why it is a debatable issue. Feel free to read your procedurals, but be prepared to weigh and sequence your standards against the specifics of the case in the round. Either way, I'll evaluate it and whether or not I vote in your direction will come down to execution in the round. I've voted for and against both K Affs and Framework. Articulate the internal links to your impacts for them to be weighed as heavily as you want. Make sure the impacts you extend make sense under your framework/RoB/RoJ.
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Speaker Points: I don't disclose speaker points. I don't give 30s because you tell me to for an argument.
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Engage your opponents. Avoid being rude and/or disrespectful.
If you have specific questions about specific arguments let me know.
The bold is the rules/must read info--everything else is mostly just defaults, or my background in a certain type of argumentation.
Updated for Loyola 2024
SLOW DOWN AT THE TOP OF YOUR 2NR. Your T/disad/counterplan/case overview should be delivered much slower than your 1NC. I cannot understand an overview delivered at the same speed as 1NC evidence. My being able to understand what ballot story you are extending is more important than blitzing through 3 more reasons your uniqueness evidence is the greatest evidence in the history of evidence, possibly ever.
4 years VLD experience at Loyola in LA; 2x TOC qual, went to TDI, very familiar with west coast style args. I read policy arguments exclusively. Go for what you want, and if I understand why you won the round, I will vote for you. Balance clarity, persuasiveness, charisma, logical soundness, and humor to earn the highest possible points. Low points for unclear and monotonous debaters who read a 6 minute prewritten 2NR with a lot of cards. Dropped arguments are true; however, an argument must have a claim, warrant, and impact. Please go for dropped insta-win arguments over your favorite disad that they read 10 responses to. No reverse voting issue (RVI) will be considered under any circumstances. Do not provide trigger warnings for anything.
You get exactly what the tournament specified as your number of minutes of preparation time. You must upload your speech doc and take your hands off your computer before pausing your prep. The tournament must run on time.
Use the tabroom speech sharing link instead of email. Email is too slow.
Disads
- Intrinsicness is legit. Politics is winnable though.
- Zero risk exists, and is quite common in probability
- Open to arguments that extinction does not have infinite magnitude
Counterplans
- I will default to judge kick (though the neg should remind me of its existence), unless the aff tells me otherwise or the counterplan is unconditional
- More people should read this article, but I will still easily vote on these counterplans if the negative wins it on the flow
- Dispositionality should mean that if the aff challenges the link of competition (i.e., makes a permutation) the negative can kick the counterplan, regardless of what else the affirmative reads. This is because a counterplan is functionally a disadvantage where the link is competition, so conceding this no link argument should get the neg out of the offense the aff reads. Other "dispositions" are effectively condo and should be pointed out as such.
- Add-ons are not legitimate
- I am fine voting on all counterplan theory and am not biased against arguments other judges find frivolous, such as 1 condo bad or PICs bad
T
- Always a solid 2NR choice. Equally persuaded by [aff interpretation] allows "n-factorial affs" and [these specific unfair affs].
Theory
- If you would read it in front of Andrew Overing, you can read it in front of me--We agree on more than would be apparent in this paradigm. Counterplan theory is usually a decent 2AR when the 2NR undercovers. Spec is winnable.
- The only out of round theory violations considered shall concern the disclosure of arguments. You can read disclosure against people not on the wiki.
K
- If it's the only 2NR, go for it: I will try my best to evaluate objectively, but know that in most cases, I either think your critique is wrong, or I do not understand it. My only exposure to anything in this area has been a Black history course, TA'd by the legendary Julian Kuffour, so I might be decent for some antiblackness ks if you are good.Not a fan of society/objective truth bad Ks. I think many of these Ks can be dismantled by smart common sense aff analytics.
- Many alts can become a floating PIK, so go for it if they forgot to read floating PIKs bad. This is your easiest route to the ballot when reading a K.
- I haven't thought about K tech in a long time. If you are giving a K 2NR, slow down and walk me through exactly what I am voting on.
- Role of the ballot = roll of the eyes.
- Framework is a true argument. But do true arguments always win?
Ev Ethics
- If you stake the round on it--29.5 for whoever wins the challenge, lowest possible for the loser.
Misc
- I have never seen an independent voting issue that I actually believed was a reason to vote against someone. Please stop making these arguments, unless your opponent actually does something bad. Independent voter wall of shame: "Saying we should keep bases in Korea and Okinawa to entice military recruits is a voting issue", "Saying 'blind' is ableist and a voting issue", "saying [this everyday word I put on my wiki] in round is a voting issue", "not providing a trigger warning is a voting issue", "reading T is a voting issue because grammar is racist", "specifying what side of the US-China war you're on is a voting issue", "failing to specify what side of the race war you are on is a voting issue"
- I have no problem with wacky arguments--spark, wipeout, death good, etc.--as long as they are researched and argued well. I probably went for spark more than anyone else in the 2020-21 season because I believe it is a highly strategic argument in LD. Indopak and US-Russia war good were other favorites.
- Reading "prefer realism" followed by justifications for classical, as well as structural, realism is incoherent. Pick a single theory of IR if you must. I will be very impressed if you articulate a coherent view of IR in your case.
Email: gordondkrauss@gmail.com
Claremont, UCLA, Peninsula
1. Offense-defense. Every argument will be evaluated probabilistically, except for ‘we meet’. I do not vote on presumption or permissibility.
2. Technical debating matters most. I prefer judging debates with arguments that are well-researched and specific to the topic. I still vote for arguments that have nothing to do with the topic, usually because the team answering them makes an error.
3. Arguments must make sense. I could not explain why the possibility that an evil demon exists is a reason to vote for either side. Similarly, I could not explain why it's good to require the Aff to provide a solvency advocate for the neg in the 1ac.
My name is Xinhui Lin, but I prefer to be called Vicky or V. I have debated for around 5 years in different formats of debate including Public Forum, Policy, World Schools, and British Parliamentary. I have also competed in various tournaments ranging from regional to global scales.
Style preference: I do not have any preference in terms of the structure of debate cases, but all debate cases should be structured in a way that is easy to follow, and lines between lines should make logical sense.
Speed preference: Speaking fast does not mean you are ultimately better at debate. I usually prefer a clear, slow-paced delivery of debate speeches in which points and arguments are getting across clearly.
Email: linxinhui117@gmail.com
I would like to be on the email chain please! Email is amy.lopez1354@gmail.com
Pronouns are she/her!
I'm Amy Lopez! Debated at LAMDL for 3 years (took a break junior year). Now I attend USC, am part of their debate team, and get to judge.
I'm not too familiar with the high school topic so bear with me
I believe the debaters should frame the debate, tell me how to judge! Do what you're most comfortable with. I'm fine with anything, just make sure to be clear, make sure to explain/weigh your arguments, and have fun! :) Also don't be homophobic/transphobic/racist/ableist, will dock speaker points or interrupt you.
other/general:
- pls don't be rude, attitude is fine but there is a very fine line
- be respectful during cx!
Debated for Downtown Magnets High School 2019-2023
Currently debate for Cal State Fullerton
NAUDL Quarters
LAMDL 2022-23 City Champion
Add to email chain: Davidm57358@gmail.com
Coached by: THE GOAT VONTREZ WHITE, Jared Burke, DSRB, Toya, Anthony Joseph, Travis, Yardley Rosas, Elvis Pineda, Chris Enriquez
Any questions you have regarding my paradigm or way of thinking in debate please refer to vontrez white at wvontrez@gmail.com
Tech > Truth
For the larger part of high school I strictly ran big stick affs and strict policy strategies. I almost always run the K in college now.
Read whatever you feel most comfortable with I will vote on almost any argument. No tricks.
Specifics:
Case:
Love a good case debate extend warrants. Don't card dump if you don't need to good warrant extensions far o/w me having to flow all your cards. Not too versed in the policy side of the world so I may not fully understand your aff until way later in the debate which means either sit on the ov explanation or use key words in the 1ac to answer your opponents arguments. Good rehighlighting will get extra speaks I think debaters often get away with pretty bad evidence and you should def take a moment to call it out.
T:
Policy: I am not your judge for this debate. I usually buy reasonability over competitive interpretations but I can also be swayed the other way. If your strat is T and I'm in the back spend a good amount of time on the explanation of the topic and why they dont meet I'm not versed at all in high school topics so dont expect me to just know what your talking about.
T/FW: I'm good with these debates. While I would not rather hear these debates in my rounds I'm more than willing to vote on them. I'm often persuaded by subjectivity shifts and don't think debate is a competitive activity is persuasive but if you have warrants I'm more than willing to hear it out.
CP:
CP are fun. Don't make me flow a 1nc cp that just has a plan text. Utilize severence and intrisic theories on the permutations although reject the argument is more convincing than reject the team. I will vote on reject the team but if not impacted out well enough I'll throw it away. ADV CP are fine although explaining mechanisms again is a must for me.
DA:
Pretty ok with these types of debates. Be creative with your DA's will definitely give great speaker points for a unique DA.
K:
K debates are amazing. I'm more than likely to evaluate K debates as truer than other debates which is from my personal bias but this does not mean I'll do the work for you. Assume I know nothing and explain the arguments to me. I'm familiar with abolition, set col, cap, and racial cap but if you get more into the pomo debates I am not your judge for them. Don't overcomplicate it and keep it simple.
K Affs:
Same applies to above. Go for the impact turns on T. C/I should provide some stasis point but can be convinced otherwise. Performance teams should really be extending their performance throughout the entire debate not sure why most teams end at the 1ac and you should definitely have your performance as a reason you should win the round.
Speaker Points begin at 28.5 I do not disclose speaker points.
additionally will give extra speaker points if you can add some humor to your speeches!
overall, just have fun. Debate is a space that we all engage in to learn and enjoy. That being said be respectful of the other team and be mindful of the language that you use. Any inappropriate language or behavior will not be tolerated and will be reported instantly to Tabroom and Coaches.
Add me to the email chain: Speechdrop@gmail.com
Affiliations: Harvard Westlake (2022-)
TLDR: the debate space is yours and you should debate however you want. Don’t call me judge Jonathan and/or Meza is fine.
My GOATs: Shanara Reid-Brinkley, LaToya Green, Vontrez, Scott Philips, Krizel
Shout out: CSUF Debate, CSULB Debate, LAMDL
specific thoughts:
K: Please have a link. Framework heavy strategies have value but I am more convinced by a bigger link debate than framework no plan. That being said I don’t default to weighing the aff, or plan focus. Both sides should be able to win on either framework. Good K debating is good case debating when going for the kritik make sure to include how your links turn the case. Link contextualization is not just about explaining how the affirmatives use of the state is bad but how the underlining assumptions of the affirmative uniquely make the world worst this paired up with case take outs make for a real good NR Strategy.
FW: Clash > Fairness, but you can go for any impact you want. I appreciate carded TVAs. (K v FW) should center competing models, aff teams should have a counter interp and role of the negative as defense to T even if going for the impact turns. More convinced by impact turns than we meet. K affs should be in the direction of the topic but can be persuaded otherwise.
DAs: Should be fast and turn case. Strategic straight turns in response to disads are appreciated
Counter plans: I appreciate good competition debates. Functional > textual competition. Counterplans probably should have a solvency advocate but it is what it is. Good advantage counterplans are good.
T: Aff probably needs a counter interpretation. Standards should be impacted out
Theory: I am a good judge for theory, I am a bad judge for silly theory. Explain norm setting how it happens, why your norms create a net better model of debate. if you go for theory, actually go for it do not just be like "they dropped xyz gg lol" and go on substance. Splitting isn't horrible but extend warrants and the story of abuse. Up layer arguments must be clearly warranted out.
LD Specific:
Phil: it is a valuable aspect of LD, that being said over explanation and Judge instruction is very important for me in these debates. I lean towards epistemic confidence. phil innovation is cool.
Trix: beclear on warrants in order to beat the inevitable gut check. When answering trix calling out the silliness is fine but shouldn't be the only answer.
Speaks:I give them fr.
Assistant LD Coach for Peninsula HS
Offense-defense - arguments are evaluated probabilistically.
Exclusive framework interps are unpersuasive, I generally think the aff should get the plan and the neg should get links, but I am willing to evaluate either.
I feel somewhat comfortable evaluating deontological frameworks. I have less experience with other frameworks but will do my best to assess them fairly. However, I'm not the judge for strategies that rely heavily on 'tricks' or 'a prioris.'
I think most skepticism or 'permissibility' arguments are defense. I do not vote on defense.
I’m convinced by reasonability against all 1NC theory arguments.
I try to stay non-expressive during rounds. If I show any facial expressions, it is most likely unrelated.
There is no designated time for flow clarification during a debate. If you want to ask your opponent what was or wasn't read, you must do so during cross-examination or use your prep time. If you mark cards during your speech (i.e., if you start reading a card but do not finish it), you should clearly state where you marked it and send a marked document immediately after your speech. You are not required to include cards you did not read.
I do not have a specific metric for speaker points, but demonstrating a clear understanding of the topic and minimizing dead time are effective ways to improve your score.
usc '26 (NDT/CEDA Policy)
edina '23 (HS Policy)
he/him
Hi! My name is Sabeeh and I am a second year at USC. In high school I did policy on the MN and nat circ. I worked at NSD as an LD lab leader summer of 2023 & 2024. TLDR: I flow and will judge the round in front of me, regardless of my argumentative preferences.
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Please add me to the chain -- sabeehmirza05@gmail.com
I will not vote for an argument that I do not understand or that I cannot explain at the end of the round. All of us will be unhappy with my decision.
I have no problem with speed, but you need to be clear. There should be a distinction between your card and tag voice. Give me an indicator if you are moving on to the next card (ie. AND, NEXT, etc). The round should start on time. The email chain should be sent out and you should already be in the room.
tech>truth
General Stuff
Overview
I have gone for a big stick aff, a soft left aff, and a non-T/planless aff all in the same year - don't feel like you have to adapt for me. I will vote for anything that wins the flow so long as it does not compromise the safety of anyone in round.
DA/CP
I'll judgekick unless someone tells me not to. Not a ton that needs to be said here otherwise.
Ks
My knowledge and experience is mainly in set col, militarism/imperialism, security, and cap. I can evaluate other Ks, but will just need more explanations. I won't default to a "middle of the road" framework unless a debater introduces one, or unless the framework debate is truly irresolvable.
For kaffs: I've both read a kaff and gone for T against them -- I don't think that I am particularly picky on arguments. Kaffs need to be conscious of presumption -- I need to know what voting aff does and/or what it endorses. This should be the top of the 1ar and 2ar.
T/Theory
I will vote based off of the flow -- spreading through dense analytics is a bad idea.
LD
1 - Policy
1 - Ks
2 - Trad
2 - Theory
4 - Phil and Tricks (will need HEAVY explanation and judge instruction)
*I will vote for tricks, but they need to be warranted when they are read and you need to be clear about the implication
PF
I flow, and will evaluate arguments with an offense-defense paradigm. Speed is fine, paraphrasing evidence is not. I think sharing evidence is a good practice. I'm not super familiar with PF - I'm more than capable of evaluating your debate, but I am not in the loop on PF jargon/norms. Have the debate you want, and I will adapt to the best of my abilities.
0. General:
chain for policy/general questions
chain for ld (pls add both)
Coaching: Isidore Newman, Coppell, IVA High
Conflicts:a few LAMDL teams.
Debate Shoutouts: Deven Cooper, Dayvon Love, Diego "Jay-Z" Flores, Erika Linares, Geo Liriano, Jaysyn Green, Daniel Medina, Destiny Popoca, Lauren Willard, Cameron Ward, Isai Ortega, Andres Marquez, Elvis Pineda, J-Beatz, Dorian Gurrola, Aless Escobar, Jean Kim, Gavie Torres, Clare Bradley, and all of #LAMDLGANG.
"IR topics are cool bc we learn abt the world and stuff" - E.C. Powers, Wyoming Debate 5/22/23.
1. Pref Guide:
General: Currently entering my junior year and currently debate for CSULB (2 years of NDT-CEDA debate, 3 1/2 of LAMDL Debate) and have about 2 years of circuit judging experience. I care a lot about debate. Whether or not I should can be changed by persuasive argumentation.
Judging Style: I judge based what's on the flow, and the flow only. Judge intervention is silly and I try not to do it unless I absolutely need to fill in the gaps. Offense/Defense paradigm is how I evaluate debates, and will vote for the team that did the better debating unless told otherwise. Dropped args are true args, but need to be impacted out. No judge kick, make your own decisions and for the love of god start the round on time. Speaks will reflect all of these instances.
There are little predispositions that I have about debate that cannot be changed by good debating. Any endorsement of violence/racism/homophobia/transphobia is an auto-L + nuked speaker points. Ev-ethics includes shifty citational practices/ev misconstruction or clipping. All ethics challenges stop the debate with no room for continuation. In most scenarios I'm not looking at the doc, which means you should probably have a recording of the speech as proof.
I care about evidence quality far less than most judges. In most instances, substantive debating overrides bad debating with assertion of (X) piece of evidence or (X) author, however I prefer both a good combination of both. I care more about line by line, 3rd/4th level testing, and in-depth clash as opposed to just "how good evidence is". If I wanted to read evidence, I would read a book. I judge debates to see debaters debate out arguments, and reading evidence as a starting point for an RFD when not contested seems paradoxical to the activity.
I do not yell clear during C.I.A. level ear-torturing tactics. Clarity is important, and if you are unclear, the decision and speaks will reflect such. If you ask me about an argument that you "made" that didn't have the effect on a decision you thought it did, it's because you either a. did not explain it well enough to make it that way or b. it was absolutely incoherent and I did not hear or understand it.
LD Specific: Do what you want, everything else applies from above applies.
2. Random/Misc:
Good Speaks Guide: Please do not delay the round/lallygag around, be excessively rude to your opponents, or endorses/argue for any isms. If you start the round on time, set up the email chain before I get into the room, and be generally funny/charismatic, you will get good speaks.
Song Challenge: I usually start speaks at 28.5 and move up/down depending on performance. On a softer note, I usually will listen to music while I write my RFD. Most times, I already have decided a winner after the 2AR has ended, but I always go over my flow/notes one last time before I write or submit my ballot. I love listening to new music, and I listen to every genre imaginable. That being said, I love to hear the tunes y'all have been jamming to recently. To encourage such behavior, debaters have an opportunity to garner extra speaks based on their music suggestions. Each team is allowed to give me one song to listen to while I write my RFD. It cannot be a song I've heard before. If I like the song, you will receive a +.1 to your speaker points. If I don't like it, you won't receive any extra, but I also won't redact any from your original score.
Advice/Help: If you are from LAMDL, debate for a UDL or public school without coaching, I'm willing to help with advice or questions y'all may have.
Hi!
Lamdl alumni,
Debated for bravo medical magnet high school.
The first few years I ran mainly policy affs and negs, then my last year I ran a k aff on chicana feminism, and set col/cap ks on the neg.
Disclose as soon as possible pls.
Debate should be fun so run what you like (however any hurtful arguments will not be tolerated).
slowww downnn! recently debaters have been unflowable through the analytics/blocks/standards, make sure youre very clear because if I dont hear it I cant flow it
Be respectful, nice and have fun!
add me to the email chain please: pantojaasenat@gmail.com.
Policy affs
I ran policy affs my first few years of debate. Make sure you’re winning your solvency and preferably a framing argument as to why the aff is important within this space.
For the neg, case turns ! also solvency deficits.
Ks & k affs
I like them. This however doesn’t mean I know all about them so make sure you really explain your theory of power and really flesh out your links. If you want to win the alt, make sure everyone knows what your alt actually does. Specific aff links> generic links, 1 off K with a lot of substance are probably some of the best debates. In terms of framework make sure its clear why your interp should be preferred,
CP/DA
Make sure your CP is competitive with the aff and you have a good net benefit.
I get easily persuaded by good permutations, so make them and also don't drop them (both sides).
Make sure to explain that your disads ow the aff. impact calc! On the aff, link turns!
T/Theory
education>fairness. Make sure you’re contextualizing your impacts to the round and the space.
Hi, I'm Max, I'm a third year out who did LD for 3 years. Won the TOC and a couple of other tournaments, read predominately policy arguments but dabbled a bit in critical international relations theory, settler colonialism, and ethical philosophy.
I coach withDebateDrills- the following URL has our roster, MJP conflict policy,code of conduct, relevant team policies, and harassment/bullying complaint form:https://www.debatedrills.com/club-team-policies/lincoln-douglas-team-policy
Paradigm:
Add me to the chain, maxvperin@icloud.com
-- Debate is a game (not sure why this is a controversial take in an activity with rules where we compete to win and have fun) – it’s a really fun game that can teach us lots of cool things, but don’t take it too seriously/please be nice in round/have basic human decency
Big fan of strategies that:
-- Spend most of the NC on impact turns
-- Use advantage counterplans and smart case presses to punish bad affs
-- Use long, good evidence
-- Don’t rely on the other debater dropping/mishandling arguments
Strongly dislike strategies that:
-- Are designed to avoid clash
-- Allow you to read off a script during a rebuttal
-- Try to explain all society/history/IR/etc. with a theory from the depths of god knows where in academia
Might vote you down for/won’t vote for strategies that:
-- Ad hom other debaters/force me to evaluate out of round events (exception is disclosure)
-- Say racism/sexism/other isms good (will def vote you down for this one)
Other things to know:
-- I find clash and especially fairness standards in T Framework to be extremely compelling, and if debated equally I lean heavily negative in clash debates. On a truth level, fairness is clearly an impact, though it's often a bit tricky to explain why in a manner that's not tautological, so I'll be impressed by 2nrs that give that explanation persuasively
-- That said, while I'd recommend reading a topical plan, you certainly don't have to read a big stick policy aff - I think that well constructed topical K affs that materially solve for some instance of a structural impact through a plan and leverage a critical theory of power to do impact calculus and attack the internal links of disads and counterplans are extremely cool.
-- When reading a kritik against a policy aff, case defense and predictions Ks are your friend. It's extremely difficult to win a framework argument that excludes the advantage or a reason a high probability extinction impact doesn't outweigh, and "reee ontology and the ROTB means the aff disappears" certainly won't cut it on either of those fronts. Instead, you should attack the parts of the aff that are most vulnerable, i.e. the shitty internal links.
-- Behind nuclear strategy and IR theory, I think formal logic is one of the coolest areas of study/literature that can be used in debate. However, I also hate bastardization of it. Tricks debaters, do with that information as you will.
-- I think that a lot of popular theory and non-topic specific topicality arguments (condo, nebel, etc.) are fairly obviously bad arguments, and gain strategic value almost exclusively from the fact that they exploit the time structure in LD very effectively. Because of that, I'll be very sympathetic towards the debater answering theory in most of these situations.
- On the topic of silly arguments, psychological theories that have been rejected by 99% of psychologists and readings of history that have been rejected by 99% of historians are probably silly – there’s a reason they exist in debate, English departments, and nowhere else
Scott Phillips- for email chains please use iblamebricker@gmail in policy, and ldemailchain@gmail.com for LD
Coach@ Harvard Westlake/Dartmouth
My general philosophy is tech/line by line focused- I try to intervene as little as possible in terms of rejecting arguments/interpreting evidence. As long as an argument has a claim/warrant I can explain to your opponent in the RFD I will vote for it. If only one side tries to resolve an issue I will defer to that argument even if it seems illogical/wrong to me- i.e. if you drop "warming outweighs-timeframe" and have no competing impact calc its GG even though that arg is terrible. 90% of the time I'm being postrounded it is because a debater wanted me to intervene in some way on their behalf either because that's the trend/what some people do or because they personally thought an argument was bad.
I am a good judge for you if/A bad judge for you if not
- You cut good cards and highlight them to make complete arguments in at least B- 7th grade English, which is approximately my level. Read uniqueness. If your disad is non unique, not putting a uniqueness card in the 1NC is not cute, its a waste of time. If your best answers to an IR K are Ravenhall 09 and Reiter 15 you are not meeting this criteria, ditto answering pessimism with "implicit bias is malleable".
- You debate evidence quality/qualifications and read evidence from academic sources rather than twitter/forum posts. If you are responding to a zany argument not discussed in academia, blog/forum away. If that is not the case I implore you to ask why these sources are the only ones you can find.
- You listen to what the other team is saying and give a speech that demonstrates that you did by answering all of their arguments correctly and in the order in which they were presented . Do not read a collection of non responsive blocks in random order. And then in follow up speeches you compare/resolve those arguments rather than repeating yourself.
- You make smart analytics against arguments with obvious weaknesses. Most 1NC disads and 1AC advantages in current debate are incoherent/missing several pieces. You do not have to respond to an incomplete argument, point out it is incomplete and move on. Once completed you get new answers to any part of it.
- You rely on knowing what you are talking about more than posturing/grandstanding.
- You understand your arguments/can explain things. In CX and speeches you should be able to explain words/concepts from your evidence correctly, and be able to apply them. If your link card says "the aff is not disarm" thats not a link, thats an observation
- You can cover/don't drop things. Grouping things is fine. Making a philosophical argument for why line by line debate is bad, and instead making your argument in the form of big picture conceptual analysis is fine. Randomly saying things in the wrong place, dropping 1/2 of what the other team said and then expecting me to figure out how to apply what you said there is not. I will not make "reject argument not team" for you.
I operate on a "3 strikes" rule: each side gets up to 3 nonsense arguments- a CP that is just a text, a bad disad or advantage, an unexplained perm etc. After that your points and credibility plummet precipitously. If I'm reading your card doc I will stop reading your evidence after 3 cards highlighted into nothing. If you include 3 "rehighlightings" of the other teams evidence that are obviously wrong I will ignore all your evidence/default to the other sides.
If debated by two teams of equal skill/preparation, the following arguments are IMO unwinnable but I vote for them more often than not because the above suggestions are ignored.
-please let us weigh our case or we said the word extinction so Ks don't matter
-the framework is: object of research, you link you lose, debate shapes subjectivity, ethics first without explaining what ethics are/mean
-War good, pollution good, renewables bad- it doesn't matter if these are in right wing heritage impact turn form or academic K form
-the neg needs more than 1cp and 1K for debate to be fair. Arguments like "hard debate is good debate... so make it hard for them" are so bad you should be able to figure it out/not say them
-PICS that do/result in the whole plan are legitimate. The negative can actually win without these, especially on a topic where there are 3 affs.
-counterplans that ban the plan as their only form of competition are legitimate, especially on a topic with only...
Experience: Policy Debate (2 Years, But I still made it all the way to Urban Nationals Gurl)
Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School: 2016-18
Cal State Long Beach: 2018-19
Contact Info: elvispinedaten@gmail.com
In a nutshell: I'm a pretty open debater and I love hearing all types of arguments. Policy Arguments... love them, Critical Arguments... love them, just make sure to articulate your arguments because even something as simple as a Cap K are run differently from round to round. Uniqueness questions are good, Links need to be there, Impacts are vital (You don't know how many people forget to impact out their stuff... make sure you do because I NEED TO KNOW WHAT IM VOTING FOR, I will not feel bad voting you down if you have a great link story but no impacts) and I appreciate intellectual debate jargon. All in all I will vote on anything, it just has to make sense and you have to convince me why I should vote for you and not the opposing team (Cross-Analysis). I love debate; I believe its a form of academic expression and just remember to have fun and pour your hearts out on the battlefield. I'm not a point fairy but passion, effort and craft are highly rewarded as I highly value (as we all should) seeing students actively pushing themselves for both an academic and interpersonal growth!
K's: Know the literature, it'll make your clap-backs that much stronger and makes it easier to contextualize. Throughly explain the alt, I noticed that the alternative debate is always the least covered and if I don't throughly understand what I'm voting for... then the permutation becomes an easy option for me as long as I believe it is possible. LINK ANALYSIS WILL GO A LONG WAY... Just saying. I ran Queer, Ableism, Witchcraft and several CRT K's but I understand the post-modern ones as well (please don’t run baudrillard, I’ve already had to vote it up once --> Update: Twice).
K' Affs: I ran Critical affirmatives the majority of my debate career so I might already understand or be lenient towards some of the reasons why non-traditional affirmation might be good. HOWEVER!!! This doesn't mean that if you run a K Aff I'll automatically vote for you, I find myself voting on presumption arguments or framework a lot because sometimes the literature of the affirmative is so dense and either: A) I feel like there is an articulation issue (and thus disorder on the flow) because of the density of the material or B) The internal link chain which leads me to believe that the affirmative is a good idea might be fundamentally under developed.
Da's: Uniqueness... Link.... Internal Links.... Impacts. I like disads, make sure to be strategic, make them net-benefits to the Cp otherwise I do believe that the Squo is always a viable option.
Cp's: Remember that not all Cp's are plan-inclusive and to me at least all you have to prove is that your method solves better than the aff. Have Net-benefits and show me solvency deficits (It'll make your life easier trust). No I won't judge kick the CP for you unless you explicitly tell me, i feel like it gives judge intervention way to much power.
T: Topicality is more than "aff is not topical". Tell me why that is bad? What do you lose access to? Prove to me why the aff's interpretation of debate is bad or abusive. If I can make those connections and you persuade me to prefer your model of debate, then its looking good for you and I'm very inclined to vote on it.
Framework: A lot of T applies here too, make sure to win why we need procedural fairness, why is the aff's model of debate bad for the debate community in general, Internal and External impacts are convincing, and also make sure to make those common FW arguments that prove you don't limit the aff. Framework to me also doesn't necessarily mean that "USFG means the 3 Branches of Government", even though its common and I don't mind seeing it, I feel like you can tailor so many framework arguments to work around the rhetorical offense affirmatives get with that interpretation.
Aff's: PROVE TO ME WHY WE NEED THE AFF! I need to know that there is a reason why you have to affirm what you are affirming and thats why you're doing it in a nontraditional way. Also prove to me why your model of debate is preferable to the neg's arguments. Just persuade me (Make me feel like I HAVE TO DO IT). In addition, anything performative should always be used... and offensively too. Don't waste precious 1AC time without utilizing it to the best of your advantage.
Case: I LOVE CASE DEBATE <3!!! I appreciate a good neg team that directly challenges the aff's warrants and their claims. So that being said... good case debate is appreciated and will be rewarded with higher speaks. Flush out them case turns (I'll gasp if its good)
Advise for the aff: Don't forget your 1AC, YOU SPEND 8/9 Minutes on it, please utilize it and utilize it as offensively as you can!
HAVE FUN! I love debate and I'm always happy and excited to watch y'alls debates!
GOOD LUCK!
Debated at Immaculate Heart, currently an assistant coach
I much prefer Speechdrop but if you must: simone.pisarik.2023@gmail.com
I will vote on any argument as long as it is complete (i.e. it has a warrant and an impact). A dropped argument is only true if you explain why it is true in the subsequent speech
Policy
I am most confident evaluating these debates
Competition evidence should be in the 1NC
K
Links need to be ABOUT THE AFF
I am unfamiliar with k v k debate
I lean aff on fw. It is very difficult to convince me that fairness is not important
Link walls and fw interpretations should be in the 1NC
Theory/T
T-fw is probably true. Fairness is the best impact
Tricks are rarely a reason to affirm or negate, especially if you have not won truth testing. Please refrain from reading them in front of me. I will do everything in my power to find a reason not to vote on them
Default reasonability on frivolous theory, competing interps on T
Phil
Don't assume that I have prior knowledge about your position. I enjoy phil debate when frameworks are thoroughly explained and robustly justified. Buzzwords and catchlines mean nothing to me
I am not familiar with phil v. phil debate (apart from util v. phil) I am open to it
Misc
I flow cx
Judge instruction is important
Don't insert rehighlightings (especially if they're being used to make a new argument, e.g. link walls)
Don't hide arguments/put shells on random sheets, I probably won't flow it
I have become increasingly frustrated by debaters delaying/prolonging rounds. Please show up on time and ready to start. I shouldn't have to ask for the aff to be sent out. Don't steal prep, Iwill call you out and it will injure your speaks significantly
A "marked doc" indicates where cards were cut, not which cards were and were not read. Figure that out during cx/prep. Better yet, just flow.
Be clear!!
Please add me to the chain, my email is rosasyardley.a at gmail
Policy from 2014-2021 for Downtown Magnets High School/LAMDL and Cal State Fullerton.
I think I am best for k v k and k v fw/policy rounds. I lean towards truthy styles of debate but I view tech and truth as equally important. Go for less in the rebuttals. Write my ballot. Isolate key points of clash in the debate and compare warrants. You should be able to break down the debate for me to minimize the amount of thinking and work that I have to do pls.
Hi! I’m Lizzie Su (she/her). I'm currently an assistant coach for Immaculate Heart.
lizziesu425@gmail.com - reach out w/ qs
TLDR: second year out, mostly read policy but dabbled in phil. will vote on any complete argument (bar the -isms) but you should err on the side of over-explaining something if you don’t think I’m familiar
visit ld.circuitdebater.org and share with your friends
important things
--defaults/changed with a sentence: permissibility negates, policy presumption, 1ar theory is dta
--no strong argumentative preferences but I am not a fan of cop-out or cheap shot strategies designed to avoid clash and pick up an easy ballot. I will give the rfd that says "I don't know why x is true per the 2ar/2nr" or "this is not on my flow" if needed. If you would like to thoroughly explain why skep is true/a reason to negate or why disclosing round reports is a good norm then please feel free to do so, but 10 seconds of "they dropped hidden AFC now vote aff" isn't going to cut it.
--related list of non-arguments: "aspec they didnt," "no 2nr i meets" + 1ar shell they don't violate, eval after the 1ac, no aff args, no neg args. subject to change without notice!
--flow. take prep/cx for clarification (re: marked docs - minimize dead time!)
--i flow straight down in Excel by ear only. Speech docs will not be open during a speech. i shouldn't need to read evidence if you do enough comparison in round. it's on you to catch your opponent clipping with a recording.
--feel free to respectfully disagree with my decisions
argument 'preferences'
--very good for policy stuff.
--good for phil v util or phil v k
--fine for the k if you talk about the aff.
--not great for phil v phil or k v k but walk me through it and we’ll probably be fine
re: speaks
--boosted for strategic pivots and good ethos (read: smart CX, not distasteful zingers). If I enjoy watching/judging the debate, you will enjoy your speaks.
--docked for splitting the 2NR/2AR 5 different ways or otherwise making the debate irresolvable.
--docked if you ask for 30 speaks
--it has come to my attention that i was a speaks demon/goblin this past year. i'll try to be nicer.
--give me like an extra .5s to get to the counterplan flow before you say permdobothpermdothecounterplan. thanks!
--reading a 2NR off a doc you did not write yourself is probably the least persuasive thing in debate ("I am not going to assign speaks as if you were the one who came up with the arguments" -Iris Chen)
Logistics:
Please add me to the email chain: edmondywen@gmail.com
If you'd like to reach out to me for any other reason: edmond.yixiu.wen@gmail.com
Experience:
San Marino TW, Policy Debate 2017-2019 | San Marino EW, LD Debate 2019-2020
Coached by Joseph Barquin.
I have not been involved in debate for the past 3 years. Read mostly critical and performance arguments in high school.
Paradigm:
Misc
Be nice and do your best.
Please aim to have your speech docs sent out before ending your prep time.
Less is more. Slowing down to enunciate your tags/analytics/author names makes it much easier to follow your speech and piece together your argument. Spreading is fine, but my favorite speeches to listen to are the ones where debaters know when to slow down to emphasize key arguments in the debate.
Argument Preferences
Speed is fine, but accommodate for those who cannot understand spreading.
Nontraditional affs are fine, but be prepared to either defend their relevance to the topic or justify them in some other way.
I am not good for theory or tricks debates, but I will do my best to evaluate them.
I consider it a privilege to judge debate. I will return the favor and do my best to render a fair decision and provide educational feedback ^_^
he/him/they/them
For college debate, use this email: debatecsuf@gmail.com
CSUF 22
Coach @ Harvard Westlake and CSUF
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For College: My debate paradigm is tailored to LD (I judge that the most). Most of the stuff below applies, with the caveat of having philosophy at a "1/2" and trix at "2/3". I think the time structure and topic wording of LD make it more viable/interesting for that format, but in college policy, I'd probably be more inclined to vote on a utilitarian framing than a deontological one. I'll read the evidence after the round and would appreciate judge instruction. No ideological leaning for K or policy. Dropped arguments = true arguments. Explain acronyms. I'd like to intervene as little as possible and don't wanna evaluate out of round stuff
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Pref shortcut:
Policy - 1/2
K - 1
K Aff/ Performance - 2
Philosophy - 1/2
Trix - 2/3
T - 3/4
Theory - 3/4
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I did policy debate for 4 years at Downtown Magnets (shout out LAMDL) and 4 years at Cal State Fullerton. I debated mostly truthy performance debates and one-off K strats in high school and debated the K in a very technical way in college. Currently coach flex teams in LD.
I would say my debate influences are Jared Burke, Shanara Reid-Brinkley, Jonathan Meza, Anthony Joseph, Travis Cochran, Toya Green, and Scotty P.
TLDR: I will vote for anything, as long as it's impacted out. The list of preferences is based on my comfort with the argument. Fine with speech drop or email chain.
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General
I think debate is a game that can have heavy implications on life and influence a lot of things
Tech > Truth, unless the Tech is violent (racism good, sexism good, etc.)
Good for all speeds, but clarity is a must
Judging a trad debate would be pretty funny
My favorite neg strategies are "NC, AC", the 1 off critique, a good da/cp debate
Like creative affs (policy, phil, and k)
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Theory
Disclosure is good unless proven otherwise
Yes competing interps, lean no RVIs (not hard rule), DTD
Shells need an interp, violation, standards, voter
Need a good abuse story/how does my ballot set norms? Why does my ballot matter? How does this implicate future debates?
I think condo is good
1AR restarts are risky but I'd be pleasantly surprised if executed well
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Policy
Absurd internal link chains should be questioned
Default util
No zero-risk
Uniqueness controls the link
Impact turns are good
Perms are tests of competition, not new advocacies
Yes judge kick
Will read evidence if told to do so
Quality ev > Card dump of bad ev
Usually default reasonability on T
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K
I have a reading background in several critical literature bases. I am most read in anti-capitalist theory, afro pessimism, fugitive black studies, settler colonialism, and Baudrillard. For the sake of the debate, assume I know nothing and explain your K
Winning theory of power important
Perm solves the link of omission
Specific link > state bad link
Affs should weigh the aff vs. the K, negs should tell me why this isn't possible OR deal with affs impacts
Extinction outweighs debate probably good here
Soft left affs with a good link turn are persuasive for me
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K Affs
I appreciate affirmatives that are in the direction of the topic. Affs that don't defend any portion of the resolution need a heavy defense of doing so otherwise T is pretty persuasive (imapct turn it)
I try not to have a leaning into T-FW debates, but I find myself often voting negative. Similar to Theory/T, I would love to hear about the affirmative's model of debate compared to the negative's. Impact turns to their model are awesome but there is a higher bar if I don't know what your model is.
Read a TVA -- Answer the TVA
Fairness is an impact. Clash is important. Education matters
KvK debates are super interesting, but I hate when they become the Oppression Olympics. Perms are encouraged. Links of omission are not. Contextualize links to the affirmative and clearly tell me how to evaluate the round.
Lean yes on perms in KvK/method debates
Performances should be used offensively. I will flow your poems/videos/whatever, just have a defense of it and utilize it to win
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Phil
I find these debates fun to judge, but debaters should still err on the side of over explanation (especially if its dense)
Epistemic confidence
I don't care what phil you read, but I would probably enjoy seeing something I've never judged before
Weighing matters here still, especially between competing frameworks and meta-ethics
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Trix
Sure, all I ask is that the trick has a warrant (even if it's hidden). If executed poorly, I will probably nuke speaks. If I miss the warrant for your trix and it's not in the doc, unlucky
I will evaluate the debate after the end of the 2AR (non-negotiable)
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Speaker Points
Pretty much summed up here
If you make a joke about Jared Burke, +.1 speaker point
Hi I'm Jalyn (she/her/hers), UCLA '24. I debated at WDM Valley in LD for ~7 years, and coached Millburn LD from 2021-2024.
I coach with DebateDrills- the following URL has our roster, MJP conflict policy,code of conduct, relevant team policies, and harassment/bullying complaint form:https://www.debatedrills.com/club-team-policies/lincoln-douglas-team-policy
____________
I honestly think that my paradigmatic preferences have gotten less and less ideological. I'll vote for anything that constitutes an argument. yes you can read policy stuff, tricks, and kritiks in front of me. i like phil but i'd rather judge anything else over bad recycled kant. I've left my old paradigm (written as a FYO) below as reference, cuz i still have the same takes, but to a lesser extent.
i give high speaks when you make me enjoy the round and drop speaks by like 0.3 every 30 seconds of a bad (read: unstrategic and not thought through) 2nr/2ar.
If there's an email chain, put me on it: wjalynu@gmail.com. In constructives, I don't flow off the doc.
TLDR - LD
Please note first and foremost that I am not that great with postrounding. To clarify, please ask questions about my decision after the round--I want to incentivize good educational practices and defend my decision. However, I really do not respond well to aggression mentally, so please don't yell at me/please treat me and everyone else in the round with basic respect and we should be good!
quick prefs (but please read the rest of the TLDR at least)
1- phil
2- theory, id pol k/performance, stock k
3- pomo k, LARP
4- tricks
for traditional/novice/jv debate: I'm good with anything!
i honestly do not care what you read as long as the arguments are well justified. less well justified arguments have a lower threshold for response.
I am fine with speed. At online tournaments, please have local recordings of your speeches ready in case there's audio issues/someone disconnects. Depending on tournament rules, I probably can't let you regive your speech if it cuts out, so be prepared. I will say clear/slow.
I rate my flowing ability a 6/10 in that messy and monotonous debates are difficult for me to flow but as long as you're clear in signposting, numbering, and collapsing, we shouldn't have any problems.
I view evaluating rounds as evaluating the highest framing layer of the round as established by the debaters, then evaluating the application of offense to it. In messy debates, i write two RFDs (one for each side) and take the path of least intervention.
i assign speaks based on strategic vision and in round presence (were you an enjoyable person to watch debate?). However, if you make arguments that are blatantly problematic, L20.
Many judges say they don't tolerate racism/sexism/homophobia/ableism/etc, but know that I take the responsibility of creating a safe debate space seriously. If something within a round makes you feel unsafe, whether it be my behavior, your opponent's behavior, or the behavior of anyone else present in that round, email me or otherwise contact me. I'll do my best to work with you to address these problems together.
LONG VERSION - LD
Ev ethics
- If a debater stops the round and says "I will stake the round on this evidence ethics challenge" I will follow tournament/NSDA rules and evaluate accordingly (generally resulting in an auto win/loss situation). However, I usually prefer ev ethics challenges are debated out like a theory debate, and I will evaluate it like I evaluate any other shell.
- I really am not a fan of debates over marginal evidence ethics violations. like i really do not care if a single period is missing from a citation.
Disclosure
- I don't hold strong opinions on disclosure norms. Disclosure to some extent is probably good, but I don't really care whether it's open sourced with green highlighting or full text with citations after the card.
- reasonability probably makes sense on a lot of interps
- I strongly dislike being sketchy about disclosure on both sides. Reading disclosure against a less experienced debater without a wiki seems suss. Misdisclosing and lying about the aff is also suss.
- disclosure functions at the same layer as other shells until proven otherwise
Theory
- I strongly dislike defaulting. If no paradigm issues or voters are read by either debater in a theory debate, this means I will literally not vote on theory. I don't think this is an unfair threshold to meet, because for any argument to be considered valid, there needs to be a claim, warrant, and impact.
- You can read frivolous stuff in front of me and I will evaluate it as I would any other shell, but more frivolous shells have a lower threshold for response. For more elaboration, see my musings on the tech/truth distinction below.
- Paragraph theory is fine, just make sure that it's clearly labeled (i flow these on separate sheets)
- Combo shells need to have unique abuse stories to the interp. generally speaking, the more planks in a combo shell, the less persuasive the abuse story, and the more persuasive the counterinterp/ i meet.
- "converse of the interp" has never made much sense to me/seems like a cop out, if you say "converse of the interp" please clarify the specific stance that you're taking because otherwise it's difficult to hold you to the text of the CI
- overemphasize the text of the interp and names of standards so i don't miss anything
- you can make implicit weighing claims in the shell, but extend explicit weighing PLEASE
T
- RVIs make less sense on T than they do on other shells, so an uphill battle
- T and theory generally function on the same layer for me but I can be persuaded otherwise
- Good/unique TVAs are underutilized, so make them. best type of terminal defense on T IMO
- altho I read a ton of K affs my jr year, I fall in the middle of the K aff/TFW divide.
- if you're going to collapse on T, please actually collapse. don't reread the shell back at me for 2 minutes.
- see above for my takes on defaults
K
- I am more familiar with asian american, fem, and cap (dean, marx, berardi), but have a decent understanding of wilderson, wynter, tuck and yang, deleuze, anthro, mollow, edelman, i'm sure theres more im forgetting, but chances are I've heard of the author you're reading. I don't vote on arguments I couldn't explain back at the end of the round. if the 1ar/2nr doesn't start off with a coherent explanation of the theory of power, I can't promise you'll like my decision.
- buzzwords in excess are filler words. they're fine, but if you can't explain your theory of power without them, I'm a lot less convinced you actually know what the K says.
- some combination of topical and generic links is probably the best
- i find material examples of the alt/method more persuasive than buzzwordy mindsets. give instances of how your theory of power explains subjectivity/violence/etc in the real world.
- floating piks need to be at least hinted at in the 1n
- idc if the k aff is topical. if it isn't, i need a good reason why it's not/a reason why your advocacy is good.
- you should understand how your lit reads in the following broad categories: theory of the subject, theory of knowledge, theory of violence, ideal/nonideal theory, whether consequences matter, and be able to interact these ideas with your opponent
Phil
- the type of debate I grew up on. NC/AC debates are criminally underrated, call me old school
- I'm probably familiar with every common phil author on the circuit, but don't assume that makes me more amenable to voting on it. if anything i have a higher threshold for well explained phil
- i default epistemic confidence and truth testing (but again. hate defaulting. don't make me do it.)
- that being said, I think that winning framework is not solely sufficient to win you the round. You need to win some offense under that framework.
- i like smart arguments like hijacks, fallacies, metaethical args, permissibility/skep, etc.
- sometimes fw arguments devolve into "my fw is a prereq because life" and "my fw is a prereq because liberty" and those debates are really boring. please avoid circular and underwarranted debates and err on the side of implicating these arguments out further/doing weighing
Policy
- Rarely did LARP in LD, but I did do policy for like a year (in 8th/9th grade, and I was really bad, so take this with a grain of salt)
- All CPs are valid, but I think process/agent ones are probably more suss
- yes you need to win a util framework to get access to your impacts
- always make perms on CPs and please isolate net benefits
- ev>analytic
- please weigh strength of link/internal links
- TLDR I'm comfortable evaluating a LARP debate/I actually enjoy judging them, just please err on overexplaining more technical terms (like I didn't know what functional/textual competition was until halfway through my senior year)
Tricks
- well explained logical syllogisms (condo logic, trivialism, indexicals, etc) (emphasis on WELL EXPLAINED AND WARRANTED) > blippy hidden aprioris and irrelevant paradoxes
- i dont like sketchiness about tricks. if you have them, delineate them clearly, and be straightforward about it in CX/when asked.
- Most tricks require winning truth testing to win. Don't assume that because i default TT, that i'll auto vote for you on the resolved apriori--I'm not doing that level of work for you.
- warrants need to be coherently explained in the speech that the trick is read. If I don't understand an argument/its implication in the 1ac, then I view the argument (if extended) as new in the 1ar and require a strong development of its claim/warrant/impact
TLDR - CX
I have a basic understanding of policy, as I dabbled in it in high school. Err on the side of overexplanation of more technical terms, and don't assume I know the topic lit (bc I don't!)
Misc. thoughts (that probably won't directly affect how I evaluate a specific round, but just explains how I view debate as a whole)
- tech/truth distinction is arbitrary. I vote on the flow, but truer arguments have a lower threshold for being technically won (ex. the earth is round) and less true arguments have a higher threshold for being technically won (ex. the earth is flat)
- I think ROB/standard function on the same layer (and I also don't think theres a distinction between ROB and ROJ), and therefore, also think that the distinctions between K and phil NCs only differ in the alternative section and the type of philosophy that generally is associated with both
- I highly highly value adapting to less experienced debaters, and will boost your speaks generously if you do. This includes speaking clearly, reading positions and explaining them well, attempting to be educational, and being generally kind in the round. To clarify, I don't think that you have to completely change your strategy against a novice or lay debater, but just that if you were planning on reading 4 shells, read 2 and explain them well. It's infinitely more impressive to me to watch a debater be flex and still win the round than to make the round exclusionary for others.
- docbots are boring to me. I just don't like flowing monotonous spreading for 6 minutes of a 2n on Nebel, and it's not educational for anyone in the round to hear the same 2n every other round. lower speaks for docbots.
- I will not evaluate arguments that ask me to vote for/against someone because they are of a certain identity group or because of their out of round performances. I feel that oversteps the authority of a judge to make decisions ad hominem about students in the activity
- pet peeve when people group permissibility/presumption warrants together. THEY'RE TWO DIFFERENT CONCEPTS.
- i'm getting tired of ppl asking "what did you read" "what didn't you read" during cx/prep but ESPECIALLY after the speech before prep. like please just flow. it's kinda silly to just ask "what were your arguments on ___" for 2 min of prep cuz like just tell me you weren't flowing then!
- this list will keep expanding as I continue to muse on my debate takes