Mid America Cup
2024 — Online, IA/US
Policy Paradigm List
All Paradigms: Show Hidekbarnstein@alumni.depaul.edu
My background: I'm currently serving as the head coach at Maine East, after many years of serving as an assistant. For much of the past 7 years, I judge an average of 15-20 rounds on the topic. I debated at Maine East HS back in the late 90s & early 00s for four seasons under the tutelage of Wayne Tang. As such, I tend to lean towards a policy making approach that seeks the best policy option. I tend to view topicaliy/theory through a prism of fairness and education. I don't mind listening to debates about what debate should be. I default to viewing the plan as the focus of the debate.
If you are running a K, I like the links to be as specific to the affirmative's advocacy as possible. If your alternative doesn't make sense, that means that the affirmative must be worse than the status quo for you to win your K.
I strongly dislike reading your evidence after the round- I expect the debaters to do that work in the round. If I call for a card, it will typically be to verify that it says what you say it says. I will not give you the benefit of warrants you did not explain, however I may give the other team the benefit of the card not saying what you said it did.
Katie Baxter-Kauf (she/her pronouns)
2024-2025 Notes
St. Paul Central / Minnesota Urban Debate League
Chain emails: katebaxterkauf@gmail.com, stpaulcentralcxdebate@gmail.com
Past useful info: I debated in high school in Kansas (Shawnee Mission East, 1995-1998), and in college for Macalester (1998-2001) (all policy plus a semester of HS LD and rogue college parli tournaments). I coached at Blaine High School (2000-2002), then the Blake School (2002-2003), some freelancing for Mankato West, Shawnee Mission East, and others (2003-2007), then for Como Park briefly when I came back to work for the UDL (2007-2008) and some side helping as needed at St. Paul Central. I coached college at the University at Buffalo and the University of Rochester (2003-2007). I ran logistics for the MNUDL from 2007-2011, when I graduated from law school and became a lawyer. I have judged 5-10 middle school or high school debates a year since 2011, and judged 25 policy debates in 2022-2023, and 50+ rounds in 2023-2024. I also serve as the Vice Chair of the Minnesota Urban Debate League Advisory Board.
General notes and TLDR version: (1) don't be a jerk; (2) I don't care about tag-team cross-ex, just don't yell at each other; (3) don't steal prep; (4) debates are public and that means that everyone is welcome, I will always defend what I do, people should feel safe, and I'll answer whatever questions anyone has afterwards; (5) fundamentally do what you want and I'll follow along; and (6) debate is fun and I'm so glad you get to experience doing it, and I'm honored to get to participate with you.
Argument notes after a couple years judging/coaching policy debate after a dozen years off: Debates are fundamentally the same as the way they were when I last coached and if anything I am surprised at how little argument and structure have evolved. I have no problem keeping up with you all and I have an exceptionally good memory. I at least sort of read along with speech docs and that seems to make it so that I filter my fundamental feeling that tech comes before truth through a lens of the quality of your evidence. I find the practice of interspersing theory arguments with substantive arguments a little hard to follow at times, especially when you put the substance parts in your speech docs but not the fast theory parts. If you want me to actually vote on these arguments or use them as direction on how to evaluate other arguments, like a permutation or a CP (instead of just using them for the time tradeoff or to make sure you don't drop something) you would be well served to make sure I can understand you. I have a fairly expressive face and am fairly chatty.
If someone who knew me a long time ago is giving you advice on how to debate in front of me, I will say that I am fundamentally the same person I have been since my very first day of debate practice but that the main way I have probably changed is that I have a higher voting threshold on arguments that are either blippy theory or fundamentally stupid (and recognized by all parties as such). I am a hard sell, for example, on the concept that the cap kritik that people read when I was in high school is still cheating 25+ years later, or that dumb unexplained voters mean that teams should lose absent some compelling justification. I also think that framework and conditionality debates are, at their core, boring, though I understand both the necessity and utility. If push comes to shove, I would always rather people talk about substance.
2024-2025 Topic Notes: I am a practicing litigator, primarily doing plaintiffs' side complex class action work (mostly data breach/cybersecurity/privacy, antitrust, and consumer protection). I am not an IP lawyer. What this means for you: I understand legal concepts and especially the process of litigation exceptionally well and I will know if you describe it incorrectly (and will probably tell you). This should not affect whether I vote for your incorrect argument, and I know more than anyone that a lot of these concepts are pretty esoteric, but accuracy will certainly get you higher points.
BUT, and MOST CRITICALLY: Fundamentally, I don't care what arguments you read. I want you to do what you think you do best and have a good time doing it. I would DRAMATICALLY prefer to watch a good debate on your preferred argument than a bad one on stuff you think I'd like. I am generally very well read and aware of stuff going on in the world, but have a humanities/literature/law school and not a realist foreign policy/science/economics background. I am fine in a heg/DA/CP debate. I have read a lot more of the critical literature than you think I have. I have general proclivities and stuff I know better than other stuff or literature I've actually read (and I have a fairly low threshold for gendered/racist/hate-filled/exclusionary behavior and/or language), but it's your debate, and I will do my absolute best only to evaluate the arguments that get made in the debate round. If you have questions about specific arguments, I'm happy to answer them.
POINTS: SORRY, I KNOW MY POINTS ARE TOO LOW. Am going to try adjusting up the half point I seem to be behind at circuit tournaments for the rest of the year and see how it goes. I follow instructions from Jake Swede at UDL tournaments. PLEASE don't take this personally - I think you're all great. Edit 1/6/25: this seems to have worked? Will keep doing it.
yes email chain - elizabethb1880@gmail.com
I tend to only now judge the occasional tournament, so topic knowledge will be lower.
Insert generic tech over truth statement. I am pretty apathetic about what I'll vote on. I tend to not read a ton of cards after the round. I love cross-x, and will always flow it.
I find it highly unlikely I will vote on arguments attacking the characters of the opponents for out of round behavior, and for high schoolers it won't ever happen. I also similarly dislike arguments that make out of round spillover claims.
I'm pretty strict about checking for new 2ar arguments that couldn't have been reasonably extrapolated from the 1ar.
I’m pretty lenient with what negative teams can fiat, though the less specific the CP solvency advocates are the less specific the aff cards need to be to answer the CP.
I default to judge kick unless otherwise instructed.
In framework debates, I tend to think the best negative impact is fairness.
I debated for four years at niles west high school. I then debated for four years at the university of Iowa. I then coached for a couple year at Iowa while getting my MPH degree in biostatistics. I almost always read policy arguments, though coached a primarily K squad at Iowa. The Iowa debaters I used to coach at Iowa said I tend to think about debate in a "quantitative manner" whatever that means. Three debaters who influenced the way I think about debate and the world in general are Ethan Muse, Spencer Roetlin, and Ryan Cavanaugh. Despite nearly doing exclusively policy stuff, I have no clue at all how the judicial branch works. My baseline emotion is something close to boredom. My astrological sun sign is a Capricorn. My ssn begins with a 3.
UPDATE FOR GBX 2024
We should be using share.tabroom.com-- if that doesn't work ask for my email before the round and make sure to throw a coach on the chain as well.
Aasiyah (ah-see-yuh) Bhaiji (by-jee)
she/they
Conflicts: GBS, The Avery Coonley School
I am going to try and flow on paper this tournament to prove a point to my debaters, so if you have legal paper available, that would be much appreciated.
SHORT VERSION
"Do your thing, so long as you enjoy the thing you do. My favorite debates to watch are between debaters who demonstrate a nuanced understanding of their literature bases and seem to enjoy the scholarship they choose to engage in...I think judging is a privilege."-Maddie Pieropan.
I flow as much as my fingers will allow me. Slow down on the important parts and always remember clarity should be prioritized over speed.
LONG VERSION--Policy
Debate as an activity loses all value when debaters do not consider that there has to be a reason why a team deserves the ballot. I try my hardest to stick to my flow and rely heavily on judge instruction as to how I will write my ballot. YOU DO NOT WANT ME TO CONNECT THE DOTS FOR YOU.
I appreciate debaters who are passionate, excited, and well-prepared. The best debaters I’ve witnessed throughout the years have been the ones who show kindness and respect towards their partners and opponents. I am not a fan of teams that openly mock, belittle, and disrespect the people they are debating.
I'd prefer you talk about the topic and that your affirmative be in the direction of the topic. I could not possibly care less if that is via policy debate or K debate.
Planless Affirmatives
I like planless affirmatives, but you absolutely need to defend the choices and explanations you give in early cross-exes. I need to know what your version of debate looks like, and I am finding that most teams aren’t willing to defend a solid interpretation, which makes it hard for me to vote for them.
Please stick to an interpretation once you’ve read it. Clash debates with affs that are centered around the resolution are fun, and I find myself in the back of those debates most of the time.
I am not comfortable judging rounds with affs that rely on "survival strategies" or rounds that force debaters to out themselves/explain their identity for an argument.
I have less thoughts on policy rounds, not because I don't enjoy them, but because they are a lot more clear cut for me.
CPs
I do not default to judge kick; you have to give me instructions. What does it mean to sufficiently frame something? I am so serious. I have been asking this question for what seems like forever now.
I miss advantage counterplans, and I am a less-than-ideal judge for Process CPs (I'm not saying I won’t vote for them, it might do you well to spend a couple more seconds on process cps good in the block).
Solvency advocates are good but not necessary for me as a judge.
DAs
DAs as case turns will inevitably end up on the same flow, so please just tell me where to flow things earlier on in the debate.
Please don't read any terror disads/impacts in front of me, I will not be a happy camper. If you have to read them, fine. But I do hope that you have an in-depth explanation of your impact scenarios and understand the nuances of WHY terrorism occurs.
Ks
“Kritiks that rely entirely on winning through framework tricks are miserable. If I am not skeptical of the aff's ability to solve their internal links or the alt's ability to solve them, then I am unlikely to vote negative.”-AJ Byrne
If you cannot explain your alternative using a vocabulary a 7th grader can understand, you are likely using language and debate jargon that I find counterintuitive and, quite frankly, boring.
Most teams are very bad at sticking to their framework, unfortunately for you all, I DO care about framework and will hold you accountable.
T
Why are we putting this as the first off? I will most likely miss the interpretation if you are speeding through it.
Also, can we please explain our impacts earlier on in the debate? Thank you in advance :)
FW
I am not good for “our interpretation is better for small schools"
Defend your interpretation early on and throughout the debate. I need to be able to know how to evaluate the debate by the time I start writing my ballot.
Also I do think that "roll of the judge" and "roll of the ballot" are different (roj is the mindset in which I should evaluate the debate and rob is what my ballot signifies). Define one, define both, but please try to do at least one of those things.
Other things:
- If I could implement the no more than 5 off rule, I would. Obviously, against new affirmatives, the circumstances are different, but I firmly believe that everything in the 1NC should be a viable option for the 2NR.
- DISCLOSURE IS GOOD!I will try my hardest to be in the room for when it happens and I am not afraid to check teams wikis to see their disclosure practices. If you post round docs and show before I give you my decision, you will be rewarded.
- I am super expressive, and you will be able to tell if I am vibing with whatever you are saying. I do have a very prominent RBF. Don’t take it personally; it means I am trying to get everything down.
- Fine with tag-team but have found myself becoming frustrated when one debater from a team dominates all of cx. I do think that all debaters should speak at some point during cross-ex.
- CX as prep is only justified when there is a new aff or if you are maverick.
- The 1AC should be sent out at the scheduled round start time, the only exception is if the tournament is behind schedule and Tab has alerted everyone of the timing change.
More things I have thought about in regards to debate but aren’t wholly necessary to pre-round prep.
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There is a difference between speaking up and yelling, I do not do well with debaters talking over their partners.
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Please give me time to get settled before you start your speech.
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I LOVE good case debating, and I get sad when the block treats it as an afterthought.
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I had no idea teams gained the ability to remember every single thing their opponent said. FLOW! PLEASE!
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Why are we reading the tier 3 argument against planless affirmatives.... let's start using our critical thinking skills
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Rehighlighting evidence is a lost art. Bring it back for 2024
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Clipping is bad, don't do it. I will clear you twice, and after that, I will stop flowing. If there is a recording of you clipping, it's an auto loss and a talk with your coach
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I flow straight down (primarily because of sloppy line-by-line); the more organized your speeches are, the happier I am.
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DRINK WATER
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I do not care if you put a single card in the body of the email chain.
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I apologize for any typos or run on sentences in my published RFDs (I recommend taking notes from verbal feedback that I give after the round, it is way more detailed and I can answer any questions in real time as opposed to you trying to decipher my initial two-lined decision.
- Let's treat the rooms we debate in with respect and care, it takes a lot for a school to host a tournament and it isn't fair that people leave garbage behind after round.
- Have fun and let the games begin :)
Congress--
Not entirely sure if you all read these because I am supposed to explain my ethos rules at the beginning of the session. You all should be clear, concise and kind in your speeches. Have fun and good luck!
Mamaroneck '24 Emory '28
Please put me on the chain: blechmanbilly@gmail.com
Tech > truth
Slow down for analytics. I'm just okay at flowing.
I vote off the flow. The team that sounds better will not win by default but will be rewarded with higher speaks.
Reading arguments you understand well > Reading arguments you think I will like.
I won't catch specific terms or buzzwords I am unfamiliar with, so err on the side of over-explanation.I won't pretend to know what things mean to make myself seem more competent, and I will blatantly tell you I didn't understand what you were saying as a reason for not voting on an argument.
My IP topic knowledge is minimal (dare I say none).
K teams, I'll try my best, but I'm worse than average for these debates, especially KvK. I also think fairness is true and an impact.
I am a debater for Weber State University and I have done debate for Four years and counting.
Historically I have voted tech over truth, and good T and Politics DA's are my guilty pleasure. However, that was only because either the Framework team was really good or the K team was really bad. I have always been under the presumption of judge instruction over strict morals, so if you tell me how and why I should vote a certain way in a round I'll buy that more that education claims to the academia.
I'm OK with tag team cross-ex and I don't care about heated debates. it's a moot point to try and police those who have historically struggled in obtaining and securing their voices in this space because: A. they will always say want they are gonna say, and B. doing so creates more harm then good. it's a debate, not a dialogue, I don't care that their interrupting you just like I won't care when you call them out for their own agreeegisnes.
I don't consider sending files as part of prep, just don't be egregious. I doubt that will be a problem sense most tournaments including this one is online. but, I digress.
I dictate points on speaker presentation, argumentation, and not everything has a third point. so IF you loose the round but get a thirty. reevaluate your strategy.
Fiat/Presumption: All my understanding of debate comes from the core concept that the AFF has the burden of proof and the NEG has the burden of rejoinder. I believe that presumption comes from the burden of rejoinder and is not an inherent fact of the negatives tool belt. thats why AFF teams can win on a "try or die" claims or turns to T or Framework. this also extends to Fiat, as if the NEG team goes for a CP or an Alternative, switch side arguments dictate that presumption flips AFF, because the negative team has encroached of the burden of proof (Specifically solvency). but negative teams don't get fiat, that just doesn't make sense. so instead they get alt benefit claims like education, structural fairness, and so on. So to counteract this, AFF teams should in theory get both Fiat and Presumption. This Checks and abuse claims to perms from the negative team because AFF teams don't need to go for it to win, it's merely to test the legitimacy of the CP or alterative to just as if the NEG team would run T or Case turns to test the legitimacy of the AFF. thats why you hear the phrase, the perm is a test of mutual exclusivity. it's this understanding that I believe AFF teams inherently start the round with Fiat, as an extension of the burden of proof. the same as I view presumption as an extension of the burden of rejoinder. However, sense I understand this framing to be just that, a theory. I highly prefer that in round you tell me exactly what I just said, the opposite, or something entirely different depending on your strategy. remember, judge instruction above all else.
AFF: Don't drop case, it's literally your only weapon in this debate that you have, it should be at the top of your speech dock before anything else and you should use in to frame the rest of your arguments on any other flow.
K AFF: Same as above, don't forget to extend your ROB in the 1AC on Framework, pro tip.
T: the interpretation is (at least as I feel) one of the strongest arguments on the T flow, it's essentially the uniqueness to any other argument. it's the inherent truth to the round. if you don't have a counter interp or maintain the one you already placed by dumb shadow extension, it's going to be nigh impossible to win the round.
K: if your going to run a K of any kind, make sure it has an alternative, if not, it's just a case turn and a reason to not vote AFF over a reason to vote NEG.
CP: Look above, only this time, if you don't have a DA or case turn attached to it, I might as well vote AFF because "solving Better" doesn't make sense to me because the AFF is the one with the burden of proof, not the negative.
DA: Link, Impact, Implication. The core to any argument, focus on fundamentals over high theory that half of all debaters, including those at the NDT or CEDA couldn't even articulate well.
REMEMBER - JUDGE INSTRUCTION ABOVE ALL ELSE, HOW THE HECK AM I SUPPOSED TO VOTE FOR YOU IF YOU DON'T TELL ME HOW!!!!
David Coates
Chicago '05; Minnesota Law '14
For e-mail chains (which you should always use to accelerate evidence sharing): coatesdj@gmail.com
2024-5 rounds (as of 1/11): 43
Aff winning percentage: .535
("David" or "Mr. Coates" to you. I'll know you haven't bothered to read my paradigm if you call me "judge," which isn't my name)
I will not vote on disclosure theory. I will consider RVIs on disclosure theory based solely on the fact that you introduced it in the first place.
I will not vote on claims predicated on your opponents' rate of delivery and will probably nuke your speaker points if all you can come up with is "fast debate is bad" in response to faster opponents. Explain why their arguments are wrong, but don't waste my time complaining about how you didn't have enough time to answer bad arguments because...oh, wait, you wasted two minutes of a constructive griping about how you didn't like your opponents' speed.
I will not vote on frivolous "arguments" criticizing your opponent's sartorial choices (think "shoe theory" or "formal clothes theory" or "skirt length," which still comes up sometimes), and I will likely catapult your points into the sun for wasting my time and insulting your opponents with such nonsense.
You will probably receive a lecture if you highlight down your evidence to such an extent that it no longer contains grammatical sentences.
Allegations of ethical violations I determine not to have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt will result in an automatic loss with the minimum allowable speaker points for the team introducing them.
Allegations of rule violations not supported by the plain text of a rule will make me seriously consider awarding you a loss with no speaker points.
I will actively intervene against new arguments in the last speech of the round, no matter what the debate format. New arguments in the 2AR are the work of the devil and I will not reward you for saving your best arguments for a speech after which they can't be answered. I will entertain claims that new arguments in the 2AR are automatic voting issues for the negative or that they justify a verbal 3NR. Turnabout is fair play.
I will not entertain claims that your opponents should not be allowed to answer your arguments because of personal circumstances beyond their control. Personally abusive language about, or directed at, your opponents will have me looking for reasons to vote against you.
Someone I know has reminded me of this: I will not evaluate any argument suggesting that I must "evaluate the debate after X speech" unless "X speech" is the 2AR. Where do you get off thinking that you can deprive your opponent of speaking time?
I'm okay with slow-walking you through how my decision process works or how I think you can improve your strategic decision making or get better speaker points, but I've no interest, at this point in my career, in relitigating a round I've already decided you've lost. "What would be a better way to make this argument?" will get me actively trying to help you. "Why didn't you vote on this (vague claim)?" will just make me annoyed.
OVERVIEW
I have been an active coach, primarily of policy debate (though I'm now doing active work only on the LD side), since the 2000-01 season (the year of the privacy topic). Across divisions and events, I generally judge between 100 and 120 rounds a year.
My overall approach to debate is extremely substance dominant. I don't really care what substantive arguments you make as long as you clash with your opponents and fulfill your burdens vis-à-vis the resolution. I will not import my own understanding of argumentative substance to bail you out when you're confronting bad substance--if the content of your opponents' arguments is fundamentally false, they should be especially easy for you to answer without any help from me. (Contrary to what some debaters have mistakenly believed in the past, this does not mean that I want to listen to you run wipeout or spark--I'd actually rather hear you throw down on inherency or defend "the value is justice and the criterion is justice"--but merely that I think that debaters who can't think their way through incredibly stupid arguments are ineffective advocates who don't deserve to win).
My general default (and the box I've consistently checked on paradigm forms) is that of a fairly conventional policymaker. Absent other guidance from the teams involved, I will weigh the substantive advantages and disadvantages of a topical plan against those of the status quo or a competitive counterplan. I'm amenable to alternative evaluative frameworks but generally require these to be developed with more depth and clarity than most telegraphic "role of the ballot" claims usually provide.
THOUGHTS APPLICABLE TO ALL DEBATE FORMATS
That said, I do have certain predispositions and opinions about debate practice that may affect how you choose to execute your preferred strategy:
1. I am skeptical to the point of fairly overt hostility toward most non-resolutional theory claims emanating from either side. Aff-initiated debates about counterplan and kritik theory are usually vague, devoid of clash, and nearly impossible to flow. Neg-initiated "framework" "arguments" usually rest on claims that are either unwarranted or totally implicit. I understand that the affirmative should defend a topical plan, but what I don't understand after "A. Our interpretation is that the aff must run a topical plan; B. Standards" is why the aff's plan isn't topical. My voting on either sort of "argument" has historically been quite rare. It's always better for the neg to run T than "framework," and it's usually better for the aff to use theory claims to justify their own creatively abusive practices ("conditional negative fiat justifies intrinsicness permutations, so here are ten intrinsicness permutations") than to "argue" that they're independent voting issues.
1a. That said, I can be merciless toward negatives who choose to advance contradictory conditional "advocacies" in the 1NC should the affirmative choose to call them out. The modern-day tendency to advance a kritik with a categorical link claim together with one or more counterplans which link to the kritik is not one which meets with my approval. There was a time when deliberately double-turning yourself in the 1NC amounted to an automatic loss, but the re-advent of what my late friend Ross Smith would have characterized as "unlimited, illogical conditionality" has unfortunately put an end to this and caused negative win percentages to swell--not because negatives are doing anything intelligent, but because affirmatives aren't calling them out on it. I'll put it this way--I have awarded someone a 30 for going for "contradictory conditional 'advocacies' are illegitimate" in the 2AR.
2. Offensive arguments should have offensive links and impacts. "The 1AC didn't talk about something we think is important, therefore it doesn't solve the root cause of every problem in the world" wouldn't be considered a reason to vote negative if it were presented on the solvency flow, where it belongs, and I fail to understand why you should get extra credit for wasting time developing your partial case defense with less clarity and specificity than an arch-traditional stock issue debater would have. Generic "state bad" links on a negative state action topic are just as bad as straightforward "links" of omission in this respect.
3. Kritik arguments should NOT depend on my importing special understandings of common terms from your authors, with whose viewpoints I am invariably unfamiliar or in disagreement. For example, the OED defines "problematic" as "presenting a problem or difficulty," so while you may think you're presenting round-winning impact analysis when you say "the affirmative is problematic," all I hear is a non-unique observation about how the aff, like everything else in life, involves difficulties of some kind. I am not hostile to critical debates--some of the best debates I've heard involved K on K violence, as it were--but I don't think it's my job to backfill terms of art for you, and I don't think it's fair to your opponents for me to base my decision in these rounds on my understanding of arguments which have been inadequately explained.
3a. I guess we're doing this now...most of the critical literature with which I'm most familiar involves pretty radical anti-statism. You might start by reading "No Treason" and then proceeding to authors like Hayek, Hazlitt, Mises, and Rothbard. I know these are arguments a lot of my colleagues really don't like, but they're internally consistent, so they have that advantage.
3a(1). Section six of "No Treason," the one with which you should really start, is available at the following link: https://oll-resources.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/oll3/store/titles/2194/Spooner_1485_Bk.pdf so get off your cans and read it already. It will greatly help you answer arguments based on, inter alia, "the social contract."
3a(2). If you genuinely think that something at the tournament is making you unsafe, you may talk to me about it and I will see if there is a solution. Far be it from me to try to make you unable to compete.
4. The following solely self-referential "defenses" of your deliberate choice to run an aggressively non-topical affirmative are singularly unpersuasive:
a. "Topicality excludes our aff and that's bad because it excludes our aff." This is not an argument. This is just a definition of "topicality." I won't cross-apply your case and then fill in argumentative gaps for you.
b. "There is no topical version of our aff." This is not an answer. This is a performative concession of the violation.
c. "The topic forces us to defend the state and the state is racist/sexist/imperialist/settler colonial/oppressive toward 'bodies in the debate space.'" I'm quite sure that most of your authors would advocate, at least in the interim, reducing fossil fuel consumption, and debates about how that might occur are really interesting to all of us, or at least to me. (You might take a look at this intriguing article about a moratorium on extraction on federal lands: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-oil-industrys-grip-on-public-lands-and-waters-may-be-slowing-progress-toward-energy-independence/
d. "Killing debate is good." Leaving aside the incredible "intellectual" arrogance of this statement, what are you doing here if you believe this to be true? You could overtly "kill debate" more effectively were you to withhold your "contributions" and depress participation numbers, which would have the added benefit of sparing us from having to listen to you.
e. "This is just a wrong forum argument." And? There is, in fact, a FORUM expressly designed to allow you to subject your audience to one-sided speeches about any topic under the sun you "feel" important without having to worry about either making an argument or engaging with an opponent. Last I checked, that FORUM was called "oratory." Try it next time.
f. "The topic selection process is unfair/disenfranchises 'bodies in the debate space.'" In what universe is it more fair for you to get to impose a debate topic on your opponents without consulting them in advance than for you to abide by the results of a topic selection process to which all students were invited to contribute and in which all students were invited to vote?
g. "Fairness is bad." Don't tempt me to vote against you for no reason to show you why fairness is, in fact, good.
5. Many of you are genuinely bad at organizing your speeches. Fix that problem by keeping the following in mind:
a. Off-case flows should be clearly labeled the first time they're introduced. It's needlessly difficult to keep track of what you're trying to do when you expect me to invent names for your arguments for you. I know that some hipster kid "at" some "online debate institute" taught you that it was "cool" to introduce arguments in the 1N with nothing more than "next off" to confuse your opponents, but remember that you're also confusing your audience when you do that, and I, unlike your opponents, have the power to deduct speaker points for poor organization if "next off--Biden disadvantage" is too hard for you to spit out. I'm serious about this.
b. Transitions between individual arguments should be audible. It's not that difficult to throw a "next" in there and it keeps you from sounding like this: "...wreck their economies and set the stage for an era of international confrontation that would make the Cold War look like Woodstock extinction Mead 92 what if the global economy stagnates...." The latter, because it fails to distinguish between the preceding card and subsequent tag, is impossible to flow, and it's not my job to look at your speech document to impose organization with which you couldn't be bothered.
c. Your arguments should line up with those of your opponents. "Embedded clash" flows extremely poorly for me. I will not automatically pluck warrants out of your four-minute-long scripted kritik overview and then apply them for you, nor will I try to figure out what, exactly, a fragment like "yes, link" followed by a minute of unintelligible, undifferentiated boilerplate is supposed to answer.
6. I don't mind speed as long as it's clear and purposeful:
a. Many of you don't project your voices enough to compensate for the poor acoustics of the rooms where debates often take place. I'll help you out by yelling "clearer" or "louder" at you no more than twice if I can't make out what you're saying, but after that you're on your own.
b. There are only two legitimate reasons for speed: Presenting more arguments and presenting more argumentative development. Fast delivery should not be used as a crutch for inefficiency. If you're using speed merely to "signpost" by repeating vast swaths of your opponents' speeches or to read repetitive cards tagged "more evidence," I reserve the right to consider persuasive delivery in how I assign points, meaning that you will suffer deductions you otherwise would not have had you merely trimmed the fat and maintained your maximum sustainable rate.
7: I have a notoriously low tolerance for profanity and will not hesitate to severely dock your points for language I couldn't justify to the host school's teachers, parents, or administrators, any of whom might actually overhear you. When in doubt, keep it clean. Don't jeopardize the activity's image any further by failing to control your language when you have ample alternative fora for profane forms of self-expression.
8: For crying out loud, it is not too hard to respect your opponents' preferred pronouns (and "they" is always okay in policy debate because it's presumed that your opponents agree about their arguments), but I will start vocally correcting you if you start engaging in behavior I've determined is meant to be offensive in this context. You don't have to do that to gain some sort of perceived competitive advantage and being that intentionally alienating doesn't gain you any friends.
9. I guess that younger judges engage in more paradigmatic speaker point disclosure than I have in the past, so here are my thoughts: Historically, the arithmetic mean of my speaker points any given season has averaged out to about 27.9. I think that you merit a 27 if you've successfully used all of your speech time without committing round-losing tactical errors, and your points can move up from there by making gutsy strategic decisions, reading creative arguments, and using your best public speaking skills. Of course, your points can decline for, inter alia, wasting time, insulting your opponents, or using offensive language. I've "awarded" a loss-15 for a false allegation of an ethics violation and a loss-18 for a constructive full of seriously inappropriate invective. Don't make me go there...tackle the arguments in front of you head-on and without fear or favor and I can at least guarantee you that I'll evaluate the content you've presented fairly.
NOTES FOR LINCOLN-DOUGLAS!
PREF SHORTCUT: stock ≈ policy > K > framework > Tricks > Theory
I have historically spent much more time judging policy than LD and my specific topic knowledge is generally restricted to arguments I've helped my LD debaters prepare. In the context of most contemporary LD topics, which mostly encourage recycling arguments which have been floating around in policy debate for decades, this shouldn't affect you very much. With more traditionally phrased LD resolutions ("A just society ought to value X over Y"), this might direct your strategy more toward straight impact comparison than traditional V/C debating.
Also, my specific preferences about how _substantive_ argumentation should be conducted are far less set in stone than they would be in a policy debate. I've voted for everything from traditional value/criterion ACs to policy-style ACs with plan texts to fairly outright critical approaches...and, ab initio, I'm fine with more or less any substantive attempt by the negative to engage whatever form the AC takes, subject to the warnings about what constitutes a link outlined above. (Not talking about something is not a link). Engage your opponent's advocacy and engage the topic and you should be okay.
N.B.: All of the above comments apply only to _substantive_ argumentation. See the section on "theory" in in the overview above if you want to understand what I think about those "arguments," and square it. If winning that something your opponent said is "abusive" is a major part of your strategy, you're going to have to make some adjustments if you want to win in front of me. I can't guarantee that I'll fully understand the basis for your theory claims, and I tend to find theory responses with any degree of articulation more persuasive than the claim that your opponent should lose because of some arguably questionable practice, especially if whatever your opponent said was otherwise substantively responsive. I also tend to find "self-help checks abuse" responses issue-dispositive more often than not. That is to say, if there is something you could have done to prevent the impact to the alleged "abuse," and you failed to do it, any resulting "time skew," "strat skew," or adverse impact on your education is your own fault, and I don't think you should be rewarded with a ballot for helping to create the very condition you're complaining about.
I have voted on theory "arguments" unrelated to topicality in Lincoln-Douglas debates precisely zero times. Do you really think you're going to be the first to persuade me to pull the trigger?
Addendum: To quote my colleague Anthony Berryhill, with whom I paneled the final round of the Isidore Newman Round Robin: " "Tricks debate" isn't debate. Deliberate attempts to hide arguments, mislead your opponent, be unethical, lie...etc. to screw your opponent will be received very poorly. If you need tricks and lying to win, either "git' good" (as the gamers say) or prefer a different judge." I say: I would rather hear you go all-in on spark or counterintuitive internal link turns than be subjected to grandstanding about how your opponent "dropped" some "tricky" half-sentence theory or burden spike. If you think top-loading these sorts of "tricks" in lieu of properly developing substance in the first constructive is a good idea, you will be sorely disappointed with your speaker points and you will probably receive a helpful refresher on how I absolutely will not tolerate aggressive post-rounding. Everyone's value to life increases when you fill the room with your intelligence instead of filling it with your trickery.
AND SPECIFIC NOTES FOR PUBLIC FORUM
NB: After the latest timing disaster, in which a public forum round which was supposed to take 40 minutes took over two hours and wasted the valuable time of the panel, I am seriously considering imposing penalties on teams who make "off-time" requests for evidence or needless requests for original articles or who can't locate a piece of evidence requested by their opponents during crossfire. This type of behavior--which completely disregards the timing norms found in every other debate format--is going to kill this activity because no member of the "public" who has other places to be is interested in judging an event where this type of temporal elongation of rounds takes place.
NB: I actually don't know what "we outweigh on scope" is supposed to mean. I've had drilled into my head that there are four elements to impact calculus: timeframe, probability, magnitude, and hierarchy of values. I'd rather hear developed magnitude comparison (is it worse to cause a lot of damage to very few people or very little damage to a lot of people? This comes up most often in debates about agricultural subsidies of all things) than to hear offsetting, poorly warranted claims about "scope."
NB: In addition to my reflections about improper citation practices infra, I think that evidence should have proper tags. It's really difficult to flow you, or even to follow the travel of your constructive, when you have a bunch of two-sentence cards bleeding into each other without any transitions other than "Larry '21," "Jones '21," and "Anderson '21." I really would rather hear tag-cite-text than whatever you're doing. Thus: "Further, economic decline causes nuclear war. Mead '92" rather than "Mead '92 furthers...".
That said:
1. You should remember that, notwithstanding its pretensions to being for the "public," this is a debate event. Allowing it to degenerate into talking past each other with dueling oratories past the first pro and first con makes it more like a speech event than I would like, and practically forces me to inject my own thoughts on the merits of substantive arguments into my evaluative process. I can't guarantee that you'll like the results of that, so:
2. Ideally, the second pro/second con/summary stage of the debate will be devoted to engaging in substantive clash (per the activity guidelines, whether on the line-by-line or through introduction of competing principles, which one can envision as being somewhat similar to value clash in a traditional LD round if one wants an analogy) and the final foci will be devoted to resolving the substantive clash.
3. Please review the sections on "theory" in the policy and LD philosophies above. I'm not interested in listening to rule-lawyering about how fast your opponents are/whether or not it's "fair"/whether or not it's "public" for them to phrase an argument a certain way. I'm doubly unenthused about listening to theory "debates" where the team advancing the theory claim doesn't understand the basis for it.* These "debates" are painful enough to listen to in policy and LD, but they're even worse to suffer through in PF because there's less speech time during which to resolve them. Unless there's a written rule prohibiting them (e.g., actually advocating specific plan/counterplan texts), I presume that all arguments are theoretically legitimate, and you will be fighting an uphill battle you won't like trying to persuade me otherwise. You're better off sticking to substance (or, better yet, using your opposition's supposedly dubious stance to justify meting out some "abuse" of your own) than getting into a theoretical "debate" you simply won't have enough time to win, especially given my strong presumption against this style of "argumentation."
*I've heard this misunderstanding multiple times from PF debaters who should have known better: "The resolution isn't justified because some policy in the status quo will solve the 'pro' harms" is not, in fact, a counterplan. It's an inherency argument. There is no rule saying the "con" can't redeploy policy stock issues in an appropriately "public" fashion and I know with absolute metaphysical certitude that many of the initial framers of the public forum rules are big fans of this general school of argumentation.
4. If it's in the final focus, it should have been in the summary. I will patrol the second focus for new arguments. If it's in the summary and you want me to consider it in my decision, you'd better mention it in the final focus. It is definitely not my job to draw lines back to arguments for you. Your defense on the case flow is not "sticky," as some of my PF colleagues put it, as far as I'm concerned.
5. While I pay attention to crossfire, I don't flow it. It's not intended to be a period for initiating arguments, so if you want me to consider something that happened in crossfire in my decision, you have to mention it in your side's first subsequent speech.
6. You should cite authors by name. "Stanford," as an institution, doesn't conduct studies of issues that aren't solely internal Stanford matters, so you sound awful when you attribute your study about border security to "Stanford." "According to Professor Dirzo of Stanford" (yes, he is THE expert on how border controls affect wildlife) doesn't take much longer to say than "according to Stanford" and has the considerable advantage of accuracy. Also, I have no idea why you restrict this type of "citation" to Ivy League or equivalent scholars. I've never heard an "according to the University of Arizona" citation from any of you even though that's the institution doing the most work on this issue, suggesting that you're only doing research you can use to lend nonexistent institutional credibility to your cases.Seriously, start citing evidence properly.
7. You all need to improve your time management skills and stop proliferating dead time if you'd like rounds to end at a civilized hour.
a. The extent to which PF debaters talk over the buzzer is unfortunate. When the speech time stops, that means that you stop speaking. "Finishing [your] sentence" does not mean going 45 seconds over time, which happens a lot. I will not flow anything you say after my timer goes off.
b. You people really need to streamline your "off-time" evidence exchanges. These are getting ridiculous and seem mostly like excuses for stealing prep time. I recently had to sit through a pre-crossfire set of requests for evidence which lasted for seven minutes. This is simply unacceptable. If you have your laptops with you, why not borrow a round-acceleration tactic from your sister formats and e-mail your speech documents to one another? Even doing this immediately after a speech would be much more efficient than the awkward fumbling around in which you usually engage.
c. This means that you should card evidence properly and not force your opponents to dig around a 25-page document for the section you've just summarized during unnecessary dead time. Your sister debate formats have had the "directly quoting sources" thing nailed dead to rights for decades. Why can't you do the same? Minimally, you should be able to produce the sections of articles you're purporting to summarize immediately when asked.
d. You don't need to negotiate who gets to question first in crossfire. I shouldn't have to waste precious seconds listening to you ask your opponents' permission to ask a question. It's simple to understand that the first-speaking team should always ask, and the second-speaking team always answer, the first question...and after that, you may dialogue.
e. If you're going to insist on giving an "off-time road map," it should take you no more than five seconds and be repeated no more than zero times. This is PF...do you seriously believe we can't keep track of TWO flows?
Was sich überhaupt sagen lässt, lässt sich klar sagen; und wovon man nicht reden kann, darüber muss man schweigen.
Prefer you use the tabroom docshare thingy if it's set up at the tournament. If not, use shrutikde93@gmail.com and direct complaints to WayneTang@aol.com and kaylanfdebate@gmail.com
If the tournament has no rules on the usage of generative AI, I consider it fair game as long as the resource is accessible by both teams.
- All except one of my partner and I's 2NRs my senior year was the Cap K (the one being a process CP and disclosure theory). The amount of policy-kritikal Affs I debated was split roughly 60-40 respectively.
- Every affirmative I read was topical. Aside from novice year, every impact I've tried to win a round on has been based on extinction being bad. I've argued everything from small-scale nuclear war to death-star rays exploding the universe (this wasn't a one-off thing a lot of 2ARs were on this).
- I'm studying Statistics and Computer Science, not IP law. I know nothing about existing rules and regulations about IP. Explain to me the acronyms of IP acts and laws; if you don't I'll try and figure it out myself and you will likely despise my decision.
- I think life has value and don't really want to hear arguments contrary to it. If you think your argument is more nuanced than a vanilla nihilist perspective, make sure it's clear by at least the second time the argument is debated. If you really feel passionate about winning this argument and feel I've evaluated it unfairly after the round, I'd be happy to discuss my perspective with you afterward.
- I don't keep up with debate rankings/new meta strategies anymore, so I'm probably out of the loop on whatever Michigan's hivemind thought up this summer.
- I'm not here to judge debaters as people; if you think someone presents an active harm to this community, I'm not the person who's likely to be able to do anything about it. Please talk to the coaches, speak with the person if you feel comfortable, or find an alternative. Ad hominem arguments don't disprove the arguments introduced (if you think they do, please explain). Many of these things (at least in high school) stray far, far, away from keeping the community safe and devolve into debate gossip/rumors for the sake of it.
Non-RFD/Ballot Stuff:
- Debate is very stressful and time-consuming; remember to be happy you're even here. I took this activity too seriously until it was too late, so don't make the same mistake.
- No one's born a great debater; it's just exposure. I'd suggest spending less time comparing your statistics to those on the coaches poll or whoever Reddit decides is this century's newest great debater.
- Resource disparities are huge in debate; don't ignore your privilege.
Jeffrey Dixon
“Paradigm”
Experience: I debated in high school for three years and at Concordia College for four more (1990-1994). I’ve done some coaching and judging at both levels since then, especially when the Concordia College Summer Debate Institute was still active. I am currently Associate Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M University – Central Texas.
Axiology (Values): Debate is about more than Ws and Ls. It is about learning. We learn about argumentation, about the topic, about the intricacies of political life, about philosophies, about audience adaptation, and so forth. The goal of academic debate is to produce more informed and ethical communicators, not mere Sophists and manipulators.
Approach: Debate is a very, very complex academic game (in the sense that all strategic interaction can be represented as mathematical games, not in the sense of frivolity or triviality). To win this game ethically:
1. Be strategic in your choices. Argue what matters, and use as much of your opponents’ evidence against them as you can.
2. When there is clash, provide me with a standard of evidence which I should use to resolve the clash of evidence and/or argument.
3. Unless you are indicting scientific approaches (which is fine – we need to learn about the philosophy of science, too), think of how you might appeal to a social scientist, i.e. what evidence carries the most weight when evaluating the underlying theories behind the aff and neg positions.
4. Be explicit. Don’t rely on the judge to read evidence after the round unless there is an ethical challenge to the evidence. If it’s important, build it into your speeches. I am always looking for ways to resolve and weigh issues as instructed by the debaters. I don’t substitute my own preferences over issues unless I have to (because the debaters have failed to provide me with some framework or metaphor/paradigm to use when resolving the round).
5. Have fun. Debate something that interests you. I lost rounds I should have won when I got bored with the arguments, so make sure you do something that excites you and hopefully it will excite your audience as well.
Issues: I'm unaware of any issue preferences that I have. Whether it's theory, topicality, policy, counterplans, critiques/kritiks, etc -- just be sure to make it clear why it matters in the round and how I should evaluate it against other positions.
Yes email chain: Averyadover@gmail.com
Please label your email chains; team names, tournament, round
Prep time ends when the email was sent
Debate History
I have debated 4 Years in High school (LD and Policy), 4 years for the University of Mary Washington (Policy), and I am now the LD coach for Millburn High School
WACFL 2025 Update
I have not judged many debates on this topic at all so I will not be familiar with acronyms or what DA's/ Solvency advocates are supposed to mean, so explain things.
Clarity - Especially in online debate
If I cannot understand you, im not just going to look to your doc, I think debate is a communication activity and will judge it as such.
Evidence Quality
Adrienne Brovero said this well in her paradigm, highlighting has become pretty bad. I think evidence quality matters way more than quantity. I am very receptive to pointing out flaws in arguments and bad highlighting. If you highlight word salad, I will judge the argument based on the word salad you read, and I obviously didn't understand.
The Debate stuff
Tech>Truth
I will vote for anything you want to read, if you are technically winning it on the flow. I have read a lot of weird arguments throughout my career, meaning that I am totally down to listen to whatever you want as long as it is not harming people in round.
Cross Ex: Im not strict do whatever you want as long as you are the "Asking team"
Ill go into specifics now
Topicality:
Its a voting issue, and I dont think RVI's are a thing.
I default to competing interpretations, but like everything else, you can persuade me otherwise. If you are going for T I need analysis on why this is important for my ballot. All to often I see debaters undercover or dont provide enough offense of topicality.
Kritiks: I will listen to them but do not expect me to know the nuances of how your K works, you are going to have to explain that to me. Planless affs need to tell me what my position in the debate round is along which how I resolve the problems.
Theory: More likely than not I wont vote for stand alone theory arguments, I think debaters should frame theory as a threshold or mitigation question.
FW: I lean towards resolutional action being good but I can be convinced otherwise.
I will vote on presumption
I love a good case debate.
I think circumvention is underrated, if deployed well, it can highly mitigate the case and provide offense on each advantage.
My favorite arguments in debate are case arguments and impact turns, and I have empirically been known to go for them. If the aff can clearly articulate how their aff interacts with the off case, it can mitigate the offense on the off case.
Counterplans:
They are fine, read what you want, but I can be persuaded on theory arguments. The aff should be able to prove why the counterplan cannot solve the aff, and or why the perm is best.
Conditionality:
This might sounds old school, but I think rampant conditionality, especially when contradicting is hurting debate. This is not me saying you can't read them, just a heads up that if deployed well, I will vote on conditionality is bad.
Impact Calc: This is incredibly important
You can't just tell me you are winning the debate, tell me why you are winning specific arguments and what it means to the debate if you win them.
If you have any other questions feel free to email me or ask me before the round.
Logan Fang
Rowland Hall '24 (4 years policy)
- Tech>truth. Every argument should have a claim, warrant, impact.
- Clarity>speed
- Conditionality is probably good and the status quo is always an option. That said, I am not the best for condo debates.
- Fairness is an impact and internal link
- Disclosure and open sourcing is a uniformly good practice
- Rehilightings must be read and cannot be inserted
- Debate is a game
- 24-25 CX Topic knowledge: Minimal if not none--explain jargon and key terms
Do what you do best. I'll vote for anything if you win it, but bad arguments should be easy to beat. Do whatever to win. Counterplan competition debates are cool
I have ******judged ONE varsity-level tournament.****** I do not keep up with high school meta-strategies or the ridiculous amount of ways the community has found to rank one another. I am majoring in International Studies and Chinese, and thus my knowledge of this year’s topic is very limited—keep that in mind when using acronyms/highly specific jargon otherwise you will probably not like my decision.
Put me on the email chain—kaylanfdebate@gmail.com and northsidedebatedocs@gmail.com—you should send the 1AC the moment you get the pairing unless you’re breaking new, even if I’m not physically in the room. Always be ready to give the 1AC by start time if possible. My name is pronounced "K-lyn," please don't call me "judge"
TL;DR: I will flow and evaluate all arguments except out-of-round conduct accusations and actions that constitute a team officially seeking to stop the round and involve tab. I am heavily biased against arguments that eschew line-by-line debating and/or clash. I have never read a planless aff and have not read de-ontology since 2020; I have read extinction impacts (ranging from likely to nearly impossible in probability) every year since then. 100% of my (non-theory) 2NRs my senior year were the Cap K.
DAs
Despite spending much of my senior year reading critical arguments, I spent a significant amount of time researching the nuances of various DAs (econ, rate hikes, international modeling/fragmentation, etc). ~50% of my 2NRs on the 2022-23 NATO topic were going for Turkish Politics, which I extensively researched throughout the year. I appreciate teams that leverage evidence quality & warrants to win/beat back various aspects of DAs—teams that can not only explain a cohesive story, but also contextualize scenarios, links, and UQ to affirmative answers will earn my ballot.
CPs
I enjoy counterplans with crafty texts or functions specific to the affirmative. I generally find little reason to consider most counterplans outright abusive & most theoretical reasons to reject types of counterplans (PICs, process, etc. etc.) are personally not too convincing to me (dropped/mishandled theory, of course, is still an easy path to a ballot). Theory, however, is a great tool to justify sneaky permutations or affirmative terror against counterplans.
NOTE: Please DO NOT read all of your permutations at once at the top of your 2AC. This is impossible to flow and I will not be afraid to vote negative on “I did not hear the permutation in the 2AC.” I will judge kick unless told otherwise.
Kritiks
100% of my 2NRs my senior year were the cap K. I also did a lot of research/lab work on IR and identity Ks. These work best with coherent links to the function, consequences, or the core assumptions of the aff. If you can read your 1NC against a completely different aff or if the 2NR is going to be 4m30s of framework and 30s on the link, I’m much more amenable to voting aff. A surprising number of “K teams” cannot answer core objections to their theory such as “realism true/progress possible/stopping extinction good” which you should try and exploit. There is also an inverse correlation between the arrogance/rudeness of a team and their skill level which particularly applies to K teams and especially to high-theory/pomo goop teams.
Planless Affs
Not the best judge though about 40% of my negative rounds were against them. The affs that make the most sense to me are the ones that aren’t random atopical assertions (i.e. postmodern nonsense) but anti-topical arguments–i.e. a reason why debates over the resolution/the resolution itself is violent. My senior year, I went exclusively 1-off cap against these affs, and often found that most affs lack a good defense to impact turns regarding political engagement. That being said, I have shown up to tournaments after two hours on the city bus to face opponents with three monitors and $27k+ invested into workshops so I’m not unsympathetic to arguments about the inequality inherent to the activity.
Misc.
- I don’t time prep & I do not care about teams going a couple seconds over/having trouble sending out documents. There’s no need to stress because you’re combing through your files to attach the doc to the chain–it’s very clear when someone is being genuine.
- That being said, I will call out teams who are stealing prep (it’s obvious) and their speaks will reflect that. Also, please do not make the debate longer than need be. This mitigates the amount of time I have to give written feedback and makes judging very frustrating.
- There is no such thing as “inserting” a card unless you have already read every highlighted word verbatim. Debate is a communicative activity and inserting a card does not communicate anything.
- I think research is debate’s largest portable skill–I love to read evidence and reward debaters who have clearly done their homework on their arguments.
- Unlike some judges on the Illinois circuit—many of whom are adults/grad students who should know better—I am genuinely interested to hear debaters give their best arguments and will not make fun of you mid-round about prep/cross-x/your debating. Everyone in the room has put in countless hours pouring over journals that most other high school students wouldn’t—I’m here to evaluate the round with as little bias as possible and not devalue the work that y’all have done.
- Belittling your opponents (different from being sassy/assertive), randomly swearing, calling cross-x "cross," and starting your speeches at max speed are all things to avoid.
- Do yourself a favor and ignore the Coaches Poll, debate ranking websites, and arguments about the "best debater/2N/team." You're better than that.
He/Him
Minneapolis South
My email is izakgm [at] gmail.com, add me to the email chain before the round, please and thank you.
Significant rework: summer 2024. I’m old now. I've judged policy debate at the middle school and high school levels, and a few college rounds.
If you think the New York Liberty beat the Minnesota Lynx in the 2024 WNBA finals, you should strike me.
General Debate Philosophy:
Debate is for the debaters. Do what you are best at. You have worked hard on your arguments – don’t over adapt to me, just execute as well as you can. You could skip the rest of the paradigm and go back to cutting updates.
Ideological flexibility. No argument is presumptively out of bounds. If you said something is good, the other team can say it's bad. If the argument is horrible, it should be easy to answer. I have coached and judged teams that made a wide variety of arguments and voted for many arguments I disagree with. I refuse to draw lines like “I won’t vote on death good or racism good, but I will vote on first strike China”.
Make choices. Time limits mean that adding one argument means you spend less time on developing others. Sometimes I have under 15 minutes to decide your round. Instruct and simplify whenever possible. If an argument is incomplete when it is introduced and the other team flags it as such, I struggle to imagine a situation where I will limit new responses after the argument is completed.
Holistic evaluation. Where you start your final rebuttal is very important to me – more than other judges. I am less likely to decide a round on standalone issues and more likely to look at how those smaller issues spill up to create an overall vision of the debate. This doesn't mean you have to list 4 reasons you win at the beginning of the debate and then list them again later.
Pure technical evaluation of debates is impossible. Style and presentation are relevant. Conduct in round is relevant. Cross-x is relevant. The flow does not exist in a vacuum - I am a human being. Those factors affect what I write down, what I’m thinking about/how I feel when I write it down, and how I understand what I wrote down when I look at it later. You as a debater are relying on my knowledge of debate concepts when you communicate your speech, and in close rounds you don't have time to reinvent the wheel.
Topic research defines arguments. Any argument is fair game – but debate is a research game so arguments about the topic that are backed by timely, qualified, and innovative research are more likely to succeed. Analytic arguments can take out poorly constructed arguments or egregiously highlighted evidence. Arguments that are entirely recycled from previous years are boring. Critical knowledge is a part of the topic, if you were wondering.
Debate is an educational activity. Try your best and give your full effort towards winning. Be scrappy and creative. Every loss is an opportunity to learn and improve. “if you cannot make peace with results in a subjective activity, you are simply not an elite debater, imho” – Martin Osborn
Judging Process:
During the debate:
I will attempt to flow your speech, even if you ask me not to. On a computer if I have one, because my handwriting is poor. During your roadmap, please let me know if there’s an overview so I can insert cells. If you do not declare your overview and make more than 3 arguments, I will miss something while I make more space.
I am not the best flow on the circuit. This often stems from attempting to write too much of what you say or not knowing what I can skip. Having good labels at the beginning of your argument stem will ensure I am able to identify arguments later.
I will not open the speech doc during the debate unless I think you are clipping or cross-reading. The burden of communication is on you.
If I can understand what you are saying while you read card text, I will try to write down warrants or words you emphasize in the card, especially for longer cards. If I cannot understand what you are saying while you read card text, I will not look at the text of that evidence during the round or decision time, until I’ve submitted my RFD.
I give strong non-verbal feedback when I can’t understand you. I will verbally clear you twice if needed, even on a panel in egregious instances.
I regularly look at the speaker and each team during speeches. Speakers that connect with the judge and teams that observe how I am reacting will benefit from this.
I often take notes on Cross-x. I will verbally intervene in cross-x if there is a miscommunication that is easily resolved, or if there is excessive filibustering/question dodging.
If the debate is online, I would prefer your camera to be on, if possible. Also, please slow down a bit more. I will be more lenient about checking the doc if arguments are missed due to internet quality.
How I decide the debate:
My role is to decide who won (within time constraints given by the tournament), so I will try to follow a team down their shortest path to victory. Your shortest path to victory will include “even if” statements, which is an acknowledgement that you don’t need to win every argument to win the debate.
During the final rebuttals, I am considering the round framing given to me by each team and how much it reflects my flow of the debate. By the time most rounds (90%) end I have an initial idea of who won. I will double check that the core arguments are consistently extended and explained across speeches and cross-x.
If a round ends and is very close (maybe 10%), I will quickly write a ballot for each side to help organize the key issues, attempt to resolve those issues until one of the ballots separates itself from the other.
The rest of my decision time will be spent running through the arguments and evidence for the team I provisionally believe is losing to see if I’ve missed anything. If I find something interesting that could change the decision, I'll look at both sides in more depth. This means most of the time my feedback about evidence and strategy will be targeted towards the team that lost.
I strive to only intervene (insert my own thinking) in a few situations (don't make me do these):
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New 2ar arguments: since there is no 3nr, I will be careful that 2ar arguments can be traced backwards in the debate and strike them if necessary. I will strictly follow 2nr instruction, but I’ll try my best to protect the 2nr regardless. New arguments in earlier speeches need to be identified as new for me to strike them.
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Ships passing in the night: If both teams have plausible frames for understanding the debate, but do not make explicit arguments comparing those ideas, I will have to decide where to start. I will dig through my flows to find implicit framing questions.
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Both teams missed something big: the only way in my mind for something to become 100% true in a debate is a strategic concession – taking an argument presented by the other team and agreeing with it. If this happens early in the debate and implicates what you are talking about later and neither team talks about it, it's up to me to figure out what to do with it.
If you want me to read evidence during the part of the decision time where it's still up in the air which team won the debate:
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Please read in a way where I could understand it
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Please highlight what is good about the evidence, compare it to the other teams, etc.
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If there is a lot of evidence that you think qualifies for me to read, and it was referenced in the final rebuttal, you can send a card doc.
I will not reconstruct the round based on the docs if I’m confused. If the above standards aren’t met, I’ll stumble my way to a decision based on the explanations I was given, then look back through the evidence afterwards to see what SHOULD have been said by the debaters.
The rest of it:
Ask me about my judging record:
Debate rounds can’t be summarized by the round report. Style and execution matter more. If both teams are in the room, feel free to ask me about what happened in or how I decided any round I judged, my abstract thoughts about topic arguments, how I would have voted in nearly any debate that is on youtube (I’ve watched many – nerd alert).
I am not a member of any of the following cults (you will have to convince me to join over the course of the debate):
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Offense/Defense (I am certainly a top percentile judge for zero risk strategies, whether its presumption, links to the net benefit, zero risk of net benefit, etc)
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Debate is only a game because it’s a game
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Procedural arguments are exclusion
What are your argument preferences?
I like openness/honesty, respect for opponent and inclusivity. In my professional life I must "meet people where they are at". I believe that would be a healthy approach to debate and accordingly I am interested most in "middle ground" approaches in situations where teams fundamentally disagree about what the debate should be about. For example, k affs that have an interesting spin on what it means to be topical, or a critique that is primarily about the core assumptions of the aff. However, I am not naïve and understand that this style is rarely considered the most strategic, so I will not punish you for doing what you believe will "win" you the debate.
Feel free to post round or email me for feedback:
But if your approach in the post round is "what about this argument, what about this argument?" and you are listing one liners from the last minute of the speech, consider spending the time on a rebuttal redo where you make those arguments matter more, rather than convincing yourself that you've never lost a debate.
Minnesota Teams/regional teams without much national circuit exposure:
Use the wiki! (https://opencaselist.com/). I will boost your points (you might have to remind me but I'll try to remember). If everyone posts on the wiki, we can all save a lot of time tracking down what arguments everyone reads and spend more time preparing for better debates. If you need help setting up a wiki or navigating it, send me an email or catch me at a tournament and I’ll be happy to help. This is important for local tournaments because you get so little time to prep before the round.
Good disclosure at the tournament is also helpful. If you have a wiki that is updated, it’s easier during the preround to let folks know that your past 2nrs are on the wiki, but that only works if that is up to date. Honest and quick disclosure = more time to prep = better debates!
Think through your theory arguments if you are going for them. Not every bad or unfamiliar argument is unfair. Reading theory is also part of a broader strategy to constrain the other team's options and force responses. It still requires you to respond to opposing counter arguments – there is no one set agreed upon list of rules, so you’ll need to debate it out!
let's not use email chains! Please use tabroom share or speech drop
if you have questions for me post round, you can reach me at gartner.drew@iowacityschools.org
Debate background:
Iowa City High: '11-'15
University of Iowa: '15
Coaching: Iowa City High '15-'18. '21- present
Important disclaimer: I have done nearly 0 research on this topic, and will likely not understand your acronyms without explanation. Please do not assume that I have a shared knowledge of the topic, and take time to explain things.
Important Disclaimer Addendum: I find myself not enjoying the insane speed and time skew of current policy debate. I would much rather have a slower, well developed round. I find it frustrating when a team reads 7 off and it's obvious that only 3 positions are remotely viable to make it into the block. My primary job is being an educator, not a debate coach. I love techy, interesting rounds with well-developed positions. I don't love when I can't understand a debate because everyone is going too fast.
I debated Policy all through high school and did some college policy as well. I mainly work with novices, now. Topic specific acronyms, let me know what they mean I won't know. Don't start your speeches full speed, start at 80% and work up to full speed.
I think most debates can/should be decided without reading evidence. This means it is the debaters' burden to tell me what the evidence says, and the implication of the evidence. This also means that I reward story telling/writing my ballot. I have no sympathy for debaters who ask about "well, what about this evidence that says x" after I give a decision. I will not be embarrassed to vote against an argument that I feel i do not understand. It is your job to tell me about that evidence and why it matters, not my job to read it and implicate it on the debate.
General Philosophy: I come from a team where our primary focus was "traditional policy debate" meaning we liked to read heg, environment affs, et.c. Our main neg strat was the DA and a CP, and that is the type of debate I prefer. I did do a lot of cap debating, and a fair amount of security debating, too. My knowledge of critical theory is very limited and I probably require a huge amount of work on the more "out there" ks to vote for you. That being said, I do believe a dropped argument is a true argument. I will vote on dropped arguments if they are dropped and explained. As a caveat, debaters tend to have bad flows and claim everything was dropped, when the reality is that they probably did not. Please do not use the term "functionally conceded" in front of me, that term makes no sense. Either they have dropped something or they have not.
Specifics:
Disadvantages- Probably my favorite part of debate is the top level interactions with case and good DA O/Ws and Case O/Ws and turns debates. These are probably where the majority of my decision calculus comes from. Obviously, you need to win risk/chance of your disadvantage being true, but good impact calc and turns debates are very convincing.
Counter Plans- there tend to be a lot of cheating counter plans, and as a 2a I am probably sympathetic to reasonable theory arguments and perm do the counterplan. That being said, most counter plan theory should be a reason to reject the argument, it will be extremely difficult to win that it should be a reason to reject the team
Ks- like I said above, i am mostly versed in cap and security. If you want to read too much beyond basic Ks, I am most likely not your type of judge. Floating PIKs are probably bad, don't let the negative get away with them.
"non traditional debate/ performance"- also not very versed in it. I am more than likely not the type of judge for this, but i will not reject any arguments out right. I am pretty sympathetic to FW arguments. However, if you are a "non traditional team" and you get stuck with me as a judge, don't lose faith, I can be persuaded. I enjoy critical affirmatives that actually engage the topic, not just reject debate outright, and plan texts are preferable.
T- I don't know much about this topic, so all the topic specifics should be slower and well explained. I think that most debaters try to go too fast in their final rebuttals on T, which leads to a lot of judgement calls. To remedy this, go slower in your final rebuttal, and you will be rewarded.
Theory- Most things are reasons to reject the argument not the team. I will probably not vote on dropped perm theory, even if you claimed it was a reason to reject the team.
Speech Docs/ Email chains
I like speech drop!
I can tell when you are wasting time and/or stealing prep. DON'T. it's annoying, wastes everybody's time, and will undoubtedly lose you speaker points. technical issues do happen, yes, but they should be resolved quickly and efficiently. I would prefer every speech to start as nearly as immediately after prep or CX as possible. We don't want to be the last round done.
Speaker Points
It's very easy to impress me, using technical skill and clarity.
I am okay with speed, but will yell clear once or twice before the speaks begin to get docked. Nobody likes kids who are fast but incoherent, going slower is in your best interest.
Being nice/reducing all hostility is very preferable.
Updated (significantly shortened) for the 2024-25 debate season. If you want to read my longer paradigm and my thoughts on debate in general, you can find that at this link. If you have additional questions please feel free to ask before your round!
Email chains (add me): hunterharwoods@gmail.com
Pronouns: He/him/his
I have been involved in debate for 13 years - I love this activity and it has helped me immeasurably in life. I did LD in high school on the TFA state and nat circuits, and policy at UNT in college. I also coached some nationally successful students from 2015-17 before taking a break from the activity until 2020. I no longer actively coach but I judge as often as my schedule allows. Valley MAC will be my first tournament on the IPR topic.
I have run, coached, and judged virtually every type of argument. My interpretation of "debate" is broad and ever-changing. The affirmative's burden is to tell me how to evaluate the round and generate offense in the manner they outline. The negative must convince me voting affirmative is not a good idea. Outside of that, please use your time in the round how you see fit.
Please run arguments you fully understand and are comfortable with instead of trying to adapt to my perceived preferences. I prefer fast-paced, highly technical rounds with deep argument interaction. I prefer you use your speed to increase depth of coverage instead of breadth of coverage. I may not be up-to-date on the most recent topic slang so err on the side of not being super jargon-heavy in your pursuit of being technical.
Evidence ethics violations will lose you the round - please be careful not to clip cards when assembling your speech doc.
I don't like it when I have to weigh for debaters, and debaters don't like it when I weigh for them - please weigh to avoid this fiasco. I don't want to intervene in your round.
I used to be well-read in critical literature of all flavors but can't honestly say that's the case anymore. Please don't assume I understand what your authors are talking about just because you heard I am a good judge for the K.
The older I get the less happy I am when someone tells me it'll be 7 off then case. Engage with the material presented by the affirmative to the best of your ability and you will be rewarded with great speaker points and a happy judge.
I want each round to be a fun, engaging, safe, and educational experience for everyone involved. Please show respect to each other and treat each other with kindness! Good luck and have fun!
Email: Mahnoor.jamal.0@gmail.com
Previous experience: Policy debater for Maine East High School for two years.
Current speech, IPDA, Public Forum, and BP/Worlds debater
Currently a Speech and debate coach for Oakton Community College.
Heavily policy-oriented— if you’re going to do any type of K work please speak to me as if I don’t know what’s going on. Avoid buzzwords and jargon unless you will give a proper explanation and the framework/role of the ballot should be clearly defined giving me valid explanations as to why I should prefer your interpretation. Please have developed SPECIFIC links to the plan if you’re running a K on the Neg and your overviews for Ks (be it an affirmative or negative position) should be talked through not spread through. Make me understand—don’t just throw words at me.
TLDR; if it’s a K talk to me like I’m lay. (If you’re novice going for the K you need to properly show you UNDERSTAND the K don’t just read varsity blocks)
Counterplans and Disads are my cup of tea. I will vote aff on theory if it’s against a shifty process or conditions counterplan (I absolutely despise conditions CP). Also, don’t go for condo unless there are specific instances of abuse (like 3 conditional advocacies) and you plan on speaking a whole 5min is your 2AR about it I don’t wanna hear that speech, you don’t wanna give that speech, and your opponent probably will think you're not cool by the end of it.
I value clarity over speed—if you have clear arguments with an in-depth explanation I’ll lean towards you (at least in terms of speaker points) rather than having an abundance of unclear arguments. I also am adjusting to spreading! If you are spreading your analytics, and overviews there is a 99% chance I won't flow them properly.
Please be flowing, try line by line the best you can, avoid card clipping, and just be a decent human being in terms of interactions with one another.
Edit: if you’re varsity and are unclear or spreading EVERYTHING without proper explanation or analysis in your rebuttal Speeches I’m not here for it :))))
If you’re not telling me to switch flows there’s a higher chance (due to my misflowing) the argument will be up in the air I probably won’t evaluate it.
if you’re actually reading this: show me a meme, a cute animal picture, or something weeb related by the end of the round or before it I’ll give you an extra 0.1 speaker point (add it to the email chain!!)
I have no preference for email chains over other file sharing methods. Use whatever is easiest, I don't like to pay strict attention to the document.
Do whatever you feel is best. I have a much better understanding of the 'policy' camp of arguments. This doesn't mean I'm 'anti kritik'; it does mean that my ability to evaluate kritikal debates is limited, and you may find my feedback unsatisfactory.
I don't have many big takes, just random thoughts about the current meta of debate. This means I don't really care what you decide to say. I do care that you understand how to make your arguments and that you think strategically within debates. Debates are enjoyable to adjudicate when you have an in-depth understanding of the core controversy for a given argument; they are not interesting when you are spamming recycled evidence and blocks that do not meet the threshold for 'clash'. Bad arguments will always necessitate bad answer sets. If you have spent extensive time thinking through fundamentals, you will likely be rewarded. Not because I am a stylistic hack, but because that process tends to lead to smarter arguments.
I have two 'procedural items' that debaters should be aware of in front of me:
1. Clarity has been severely lacking; I will only register and evaluate what I can hear you say. I have no problem staring you in the eye and saying that I did not understand your argument or could not comprehend what was being said as a reason for why you did not receive the ballot. Debate is a communication activity. If you decide to sacrifice clarity in favor of spamming underdeveloped arguments, you should not be surprised when only half of those arguments are recorded on my flow.
2. There's been a noticeable abundance of time-wasting/lack of flowing in debates recently; please minimize these instances. "Clarification questions" are part of cross-examination, making things take longer than they should will be punished with lower speaker points, asking for a 'marked document' is only necessary when a team has marked a piece of evidence. If you want a comprehensive decision, you should give your judge as much time as possible.
Finally, my only argumentative absolute is that I will not vote for arguments pertaining to actions or events occurring outside of the given debate. To attempt to adjudicate these issues without the necessary context would be a shameful use of my ballot and a disservice to the community. Introducing these arguments and making it a focal point of the debate is guaranteed to be met with a loss, no exceptions. Please engage with each other if you have a problem, do not 'resolve' issues in debate rounds.
1. Conflicts [as of 10/04/2020]
- No Univ of Chicago Lab
- No Iowa City
2. Short Version
- tech over truth
- strong analytics/analysis can beat carded evidence
- prioritize your impacts
- have fun!
3. Pandemic Social Distancing Related Technology Notes
- Please slow down 5-10%. Emphasize your warrants. Without a microphone stem, your quality fluctuates. Keep in mind that I still flow on paper.
- Please get explicit visual or audio confirmation from everyone in the debate before beginning your speech. I may use a thumbs up to indicate I am ready.
- If my camera is off, unless I explicitly have told you otherwise, assume I'm not at the computer.
- If the current speaker has significant tech problems, I'll try to interrupt your speech and mark the last argument and timestamp.
4. Some Detail
I've been meaning to do this for a while, but have not really had the time. My hope is that I end up judging better debates as a result of this updated philosophy. I am now changing to a more linear philosophy, it is my hope that you read this in its entirety before choosing where to place me on the pref sheet. I debated for four years at Homewood-Flossmoor High School in the south Chicago suburbs from 2007-2011. During that time I debated, Sub-Saharan Africa, Alternative Energy, Social services and substantial reductions in Military presence.
Nearing a decade ago, during would would have been the h.s. space topic. I started at the University of Northern Iowa, Where I debated NDT/CEDA Middle East/North Africa while judging a few debate rounds across the midwest. After my freshman year I transferred to the University of Iowa, where I started coaching at Iowa City High School. This year, I will continue to coach the City High Debate team.
Framing, Issue choice and impact calculus are in my opinion the most important aspects of argumentation, and you should make sure they are components in your speeches. Late rebuttals that lack this analysis are severely.
I preference tech over truth. Your in round performance is far more important to me, as it is what I hear. I greatly attempt to preference the speaking portion of the debate. Increasingly, I've found that my reading evidence is not necessarily an aspect of close debates, but rather results from poor argument explanation and clarification. The majority of 'close rounds' that I've judged fall into the category of closeness by lack of explanation. In some limited instances, I may call for evidence in order to satisfy my intellectual fascination with the activity. Anything other than that--which I will usually express during the RFD--probably falls upon inadequate explanation and should be treated as such.
I feel my role as a judge is split evenly between policymaker and 'referee' in that when called to resolve an issue of fairness. I will prioritize that first. Addressing inequities in side balance, ability to prepare and generate offense is something may at times find slightly more important than substance. In short, I consider myself a good judge for theory, THAT BEING SAID, rarely do I find theory debates resolved in a manner that satisfies my liking - I feel theoretical arguments should be challenged tantamount to their substance based counterparts. Simply reading the block isn't enough. Though I was a 2A[≈ High power LED current, peak 2.7 A] in high school I have since found myself sliding towards the negative on theoretical questions. I can be convinced, however, to limit the scope of negative offense quite easily, so long as the arguments are well explained and adjudicated.
I consider reasonability better than competing interpretations, with the caveat that I will vote on the best interpretation presented. But topicality questions shouldn't be a major concern if the team has answered.
I have a long and complicated relationship with the K. I have a level of familiarity with the mainstream literature, so go ahead and read Capitalism or Neolib. Less familiar arguments will require more depth/better explanation.
Last Updated: 10/22/2024
Email: patricia.l.leon27@gmail.com
Name: You can call me Pat or Trish :)
Pronouns: They/Them or She/Her
I carry tampons, pads and Band-Aids on me at all times, if you need any just ask!
About Me: I am an alum and assistant debate coach for Maine East high school. I debated policy in high school ('15), received my B.S. in Environmental Sciences from Northeastern Illinois University ('20), and then received my M.S. in Crop Sciences ('22) from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The research I have been doing since grad school is related to agricultural soil science and environmental best management practices in the Midwestern US.
General summary of my judging:
-I prefer big picture framing that helps guide my ballot across the flows. I can't stress this enough: framing (top level especially) is super important to me and provides more concrete reasons for me to vote for you. This is especially important for me in rebuttals. Key questions you should ask yourself and explain to win me over: What arguments are you winning? How does this help you win the debate? What does this mean for your opponent's arguments(that is, why should I prefer them less and why are their arguments insufficient)? Please also try to slow down a bit in rebuttals so I can flow these crucial moments properly.
-I generally believe that debate is an educational activity and should be valued as such. If you are going for arguments that frame fairness as a prior question, please try to have a coherent explanation as to why this is net better role for my ballot and why this subsumes their educational/indicts to your educational model claims. Going for other impacts would also be a good move if FW is truly your only option.
-I enjoy all kinds of arguments, but for more complex ones I will need more explanation before I can feel comfortable voting for you. I am familiar with the topic, so I know the common terms and court cases. If you are running an uncommon aff, just don't act like I automatically understand your specific terms and acronyms.
-Related to above, I am also a scientist. If you are reading stuff that requires a deeper scientific knowledge, I will be able to follow along and will know when you don't understand the science behind it. I may also correct you on/yap about the scientific concepts if I don't think your explanation is accurate, so be aware of that at least. :)
-I am actively trying my best to understand your arguments and strategy, and to accurately determine who won the round. By the end of the round, you should have really made it clear to me why I should vote for you. If I am still left confused once the round ends, it will be harder to do so.
-Evidence comparison. Please do this! Absent comparison, I'm left to make these decisions myself, which can end up hurting you in the end. See a flaw in their evidence? Point it out, and explain why your evidence is better.
Cross-ex: Cross-ex should be where you poke holes in the other team's arguments, not for asking pointless questions because you are forced to. If you are the one asking the questions in cross-x, you should have taken at least 3 minutes before the speech ends to prepare your questions. Being prepared in cross-ex will not only clarify issues in the round you did not understand, but will(or should) signal to me, the judge, where you are going with your strategy. And for what it's worth, I do flow cx.
Kritikal debate: I enjoy K arguments a lot. I have decent knowledge of generics(cap, security), Feminism kritiks(K's of western/white fem), Queer Theory (Edelman, Halberstam, Puar), and general understanding kritiks relating Race, Ableism, etc. BUT- I have found that when debaters go for arguments under the spheres of postmodernism, poststructuralism, and existentialism (think Nietzsche, Deleuze, Bataille, Baudrillard, etc.), their speeches are filled with incoherent arguments. If these are your preferred K stuff, then I may not the best judge for y'all. If you wish to go for these arguments in front of me,PLEASE go in depth on explanation and go beyond unnecessary jargon. Buzz words or excessive jargon are annoying and should not be used in place of actually explaining your argument. So please- explain your argument concisely and precisely. This makes it significantly easier for all of us to be on the same page and avoid confusing cross-ex.
Policy debate: Be sure to have proper overviews that explain them more clearly to me. The 1ac tags should be coherent enough to help me understand your aff, especially if it has a complicated i/l chain. I find it more compelling when counterplans/disad's are specific to the affirmative and are explained in depth. Impact defense is good for case, but internal link turns also make for great case arguments. Impact turns are interesting, but usually have low-quality evidence/warrants (don't go for those terrible warming good cards in front of a scientist unless you want to hear me yap about why its terrible :) ).
Framework vs K aff's: I'd rather the neg engage with the substance of the affirmative, but big picture framing, impacting out arguments, and overall in depth explanations from either side will help me the most in any of these scenarios.
Topicality: I have a high standard for this, and that applies to both sides. You absolutely need standards or reasons to prefer your interpretation. Focusing on even one standard like limits or ground could help you out. Affirmatives should focus on impacting their offense. If your argument has multiple interpretations, be sure to make clear what you are going for (all or some of the interpretations). Re-reading your 2AC block will not help you get my ballot.
General theory stuff and what I tend to lean towards: Topicality comes before condo. 50 state uniform fiat, multiplank are probably good. 1 or 2 condo is fine, 3 condo is probably pushing it, 4+ is probably bad. Clipping cards is bad and an auto-lose, evidence is super helpful when calling this out and I also try to follow every speech to make sure this is not happening.
Any other questions: just ask me in round!
If you ever want to email me any questions or need access to resources (I'm a college student so I have access to various sites and articles that you may not), send me an email at patricia.l.leon27@gmail.com !
McQueen High School ’21
Emory University ’25
Email chain: miarleutzinger@gmail.com
I have floated over to the educational side of debate, I find it more rewarding than competing. Still, I have done a lot of debate so do whatever you want, just do it well. I love framework and T debates. Fairness is an impact. I have a lower tolerance for K affs that just summarize or describe a theory without any sort of normative approach. K affs are better when they can explain/solve something larger than just “framework bad.”
Most importantly, have fun and learn something!
lex '23
send docs to: acm2168@gmail.com
i'll judge any type of rd/args that are properly justified and extended
+ dont forget to weigh, and organized speeches will boost your speaks a lot
Whitney Young MM (2016-2020), Michigan MM (2020-2022)
Email: jsmargolin1@gmail.com
Top
- Tech over Truth -- say whatever you want
- Interesting debates => higher speaks
- I tend to give quick and blunt decisions
Policy
Pretty normal for most of this -- better than average for impact turns, process CPs, borderline topical affs, and weird stuff -- worse than average for soft left affs.
K
Significantly worse than average for most Ks, but still tech over truth. Best way to win these in front of me is with clear arguments that can be stated in plain language instead of buzzword soup.
FW is still important in KvK rounds (am I evaluating whether the advocacy’s consequences are good, the 1AC’s reps are good, aff’s vs neg’s, etc).
St. Paul Central '23
Macalester '27
Currently coaching for St. Paul Central, MN.
Hi! I’m Cayden, I use they/them pronouns, please use them! I’m generally quite a neutral judge however I think that making debate an inclusive and fun space outweighs all else.
I have bad hearing so please speak extra loud.This is mostly just that I struggle to hear a speaker if there are other noises going on so please be very quiet when speaking to your partner during a speech.
For email chains: stpaulcentralcxdebate@gmail.com
For questions/comments/concerns (i.e. anything not during a tournament): cayd3nhock3y12@gmail.com
Top Level: Please just run whatever you feel best running. I would rather have you run something well that I’m generally not partial to than something I like badly. The best debates come from people running what they know best, so do that!
Some notes:
If your args have TW/CW, let me know before the round starts please, not before the speech. I also just generally am not a good judge for death/sexism/racism/etc. good. Your speaks will thank you for not reading those in front of me.
Judge Instruction:
I'm a big fan of judge instruction (who isn't?). I will figure it out if you don't tell me but I will be happier if you tell me :)
Spreading:
See hearing note at the top. Go fast if you want just be clear. Less a question of speed, more reliant upon a breath in between points so I can physically move down the flow in time. I'm not someone who flows off the speech doc as much as possible. Yes, card doc at the end.
In round non debate stuff:
I will not tolerate being explicitly rude in round. Be respectful, that's it.
Ks:
I'm here for it. I've ran them on both sides and really like watching them. I'm also not someone who will pretend to know your k lit and i want to learn! so explain it to me! Not super huge fan of links of omission without very specific lit to back it. Down for most K args, not a fan of baudy or psycho but I'll judge em fairly, I just won't be the happiest camper. I've found myself judging an increasing number of k v k debates and enjoying them heavily.
PTX DAs:
I just want to PSA that i generally try to keep up with elections things happening IRL but sometimes fall behind so give me context for your uq claims.
Weird CPs:
Creative debate=good debate. I might fall behind on your techy strat with it but just give me like 15 secs of explanation in an ovw and we are chilling.
K Affs:
I ran one, go crazy, love a good planless debate, love a good framework debate. Some of my favorite rounds have been performance style but also some of my least favorite have been bad K affs. I am probably not your best judge for a fairness bad round w/o lit to back it, 100% if you have the lit. Also, I have only ever heard one good death of debate argument and I think nearly all of the rest are not worth it in front of me.
FWK: I go through this first if its present and it will never be a "wash" for me. I default to a policy maker but also ran basically every fw under the sun so I am happy to be convinced otherwise. Please slow down on this once you get to the rebuttals and I love techy cross applications of other flows to fw.
T:
I am down for T however my standards on T impacts are higher than the average natcir and lower than localcir. I default to models but am also more likely to happily pull the trigger on in round abuse.
Theory!:
Generally neutral on condo? I don't super care and I will just vote on the tech tbh.
I also just simply prefer a substance debate over a theory debate, i've voted on it all and so don't particularly care, I just am generally more interested in what you actually think about the question than if they dropped your defense on floating piks bad.
Also, unless the tournament rulebook specifies disclosure, please don't run disclosure theory in front of me, I believe that if you can win on disclosure theory, you can win on something else.
Anyways! feel free to ask me any questions you have before or after the round.
I was a 4-year state debater and then was an assistant debate coach for 3 years, I am now just judge. I default as a policy maker judge but if you provide good enough reason I can vote Tabula Rasa. I prefer realistic impacts for both advantages and disadvantages. I do care about how well thought out a plan is done.
Topicality: A voting issue but I rarely vote on it. If it is blatant enough then I will.
Kritik: I dislike kritiks. They should be very rarely used.
Counterplans: Completely reasonable to use.
If you have any further questions about how I vote, then please feel free to ask.
A few things about me (TLDR version):
Former policy debater at University of Georgia ('20), Syracuse Law ('23)
Plans are good
Impact calculus is important. Tell me how to write my ballot.
Clarity > Speed
Cross-ex is binding
Have fun and don't be rude!
Long version:
Framework - I'm a good judge for framework. Debate is a game and framework is procedural question. I’m persuaded by negative appeals to limits and I think fairness is an impact in and of itself. I don’t think the topical version of the aff needs to “solve” in the same way the aff does. If there are DA's to the topical version of the aff, that seems to prove neg ground under the negative’s vision of debate. Tell me what your model of debate looks like, what negative positions does it justify, and what is the value of those positions.
Kritiks - I think it's really hard for the neg to win that the aff shouldn't get to weigh the plan provided the aff answers framework well. I've got a decent grasp on the literature surrounding critical security studies, critiques of capitalism, and settler colonialism. The aff should focus on attacking the alternative both at a substance and theoretical level. It's critical that the 2AR defines the solvency deficits to the alternative and weigh that against the case. Negative debaters should spend more time talking about the case in the context of the kritik. A good warranted link and turns the case debates are the best way for negative teams to get my ballot. Tell me how the links to the aff uniquely lead to the impacts.
Counterplans - They don't have to be topical. Whether you have a specific solvency advocate will determine if your counterplan is legitimate or not. There's nothing better than a well-researched mechanism counterplan and there's nothing worse than a hyper-generic process counterplan that you recycle for every negative debate on the topic. I generally think that 2 conditional options are good, but I can be persuaded by 3 condo is okay. PICs are probably good. Consult/Conditioning/delay counterplans, international fiat, and 50 state fiat are bad. Typically, if you win theory I reject the argument not the team unless told otherwise.
Disads- I love a good DA and case debate. I've gone for the politics DA a lot in my college career. Normally uniqueness controls the link, but I can persuaded otherwise. Impact calc and good turns cases analysis is the best!
Add me onto the e-mail chain, my email is miriam.mokhemar@gmail.com. If your computer crashes, stop the timer until you can get your doc back up.
Put ryanpmorgan1@gmail.com on the email chain.
In accordance with this article - https://debate-decoded.ghost.io/judges-should-disclose-if-they-are-flowing-the-doc/
- I flow on excel.
- I try to flow everything in traditional line-by-line, but if you give up on it, I may too and just flow your speech straight down. I will not be happy about this.
- I will have the speech doc open. I will look at it. I will use it to error-correct my flow if I can't keep up with you, but I try really really really hard to only use it as a last resort.
- I usually flow the 1AC and 1NC positions, and I try to flow CP and perm texts well enough that I can know what is going on without looking at a doc
- I highly advise not stripping analytics out of the doc, unless you are in the top 1% of most clear debaters.
_____________________________________________________
Policy paradigm
Especially for online debate, slow down a little, particularly from the 2NC on.
Please include Ryanpmorgan1@gmail.com and interlakescouting@googlegroups.com for the email chain. Please use subject lines that make clear what round it is.
I wrote a veritable novel below. I think its mostly useless. I'm largely fine with whatever you want to do.
Top level:
- I am older (36) and this definitely influences how I judge debates.
- Yes, I did policy debate in high school and college. I was mediocre at it.
- Normal nat circuit norms apply to me. Speed is fine, offense/defense calc reigns, some condo is probably good but infinite condo is probably bad, etc.
- I have a harder time keeping up with very dense/confusing debates than a lot of judges. Simplifying things with me is always your best bet.
Areas where I diverge from some nat circuit judges:
- I am more likely to call "nonsense" on your bewildering process CP or Franken K. If the arg doesn't make any sense, you should just tell me that.
- Aff vagueness (and in effect, conditionality) is out of control in modern debate. I will vote on procedural arguments to rectify this trend.
- Bad process CPs are bad and shouldn't be a substitute for cutting cards or developing a real strategy. Obviously, I'll vote on them, but the 2AR that marries perm + theory into a comprehensive model for debate is usually a winner.
- I'm less likely to "rep" out teams or schools. I don't keep track of bid leaders and what not. Related: I forget about most rounds 20 minutes after I turn in my ballot.
Stats:
- Overall Aff win rate: 48.7%
- Elim aff win rate: 42.3%
- I have sat 6 times in 53 elims
Core controversies - I'm pretty open so take these with a grain of salt.
- Unlimited condo | -----X-------- | 2-worlds, maybe
- Affs should be T | ---X----------- | T isn't a voter
- Judge kick | ----X--------- | No judge kick
- "Meme" arguments | --------X- | You better be amazing at "meme" debate
- Research = better speaks | --X--------- | Tech = better speaks
- Speed | -------X---- | Slow down a little
- Inherency is case D | -X--------- | Inherency is a DA thumper
My Knowledge:
- I went for politics DA a lot. Its the only debate thing I'm a genuine expert in, at least in debate terms.
- I do not "get" the topic (IPR) yet. I did not go to camp.
- I have some familiarity with the following K lit - cap, Foucault/Agamben, Lacan/psychoanalysis, security, nuclear rhetoric, nihilism, non-violence, and gendered language.
- I'm basically clueless RE: set col / Afropess / Baudrillard / Bataille. I have voted on all of them, though, in the past..
K affs
I prefer topical affs, and I like plan-focused debates. I'm neg-leaning on T-framework in the sense that I think reality leans neg if you actually play out the rationale behind most K affs that are being run in modern debate. But I vote aff about 50% of the time in those debates, so if that's your thing, go for it.
T/cap K/ ballot PIK and the like are boring to me, though. I think that unless the K aff is pure intellectual cowardice, and refuses to take a stand on anything debatable, there are usually better approaches for the neg to take.
I'm a great judge for impact turning K affs - e.g., cap good, state reform good.
Word PIKs are a good way to turn the aff's rejection of T/theory against them.
Or, you could simply, you know, engage the aff's lit base and cut some solvency turns / make a strong presumption argument that engages with the aff's method.
Some other advice:
- "Bad things are bad" is not a very interesting argument. You should have a solvency mechanism.
- Affs should have a "debate key" warrant. That warrant can involve changing the nature of debate, but you should have some reason you are presenting your argument in the context of a debate round.
- I think fairness matters, but its obviously possible to win that other things matter more depending on the circumstances.
- Traditional approaches to T-FW is best with me - very complicated 5th-level args on T are less persuasive to me than a simple and unabashed defense of topicality + switch-side debate = fairness + education. "We can't debate you, and that makes this activity pointless" is usually a win condition for the neg, in my book. St. Marks teams always do a really good job on this in front of me, so idk, emulate them I guess, or steal their blocks.
Topicality against policy affs
I have not read enough into this topic's literature to have a strong opinion on the core controversies.
I think I tend to lean into bigger topics than most modern judges do. That a topic might have dozens of viable affs is not a sign of a bad topic, so long as it incents good scholarship and the neg has ways to win debates if they put in the work.
Speaker points
When deciding speaks, I tend to reward research over technical prowess.
If you are clobbering the other team, slow down and make the debate accessible to them. Running up the score will run down your speaks.
I frequently check my speaker points post-tournament to make sure I'm not an outlier. I am not, as near as I can tell. I probably have a smaller range than average. It takes a LOT to get a 29.3 or above from me, but it also takes a lot for me to go below 28.2 or so.
Ethical violations
I am pretty hands off and usually not paying close enough attention to catch clipping unless it is blatant.
Prep stealing largely comes out of your speaks, unless the other team makes an appeal.
Hey, please add me to the email chain crownmonthly@gmail.com.If you really don't want to read this I'm tech > truth, Warranted Card Extension > Card Spam and really only dislike hearing meme arguments which are not intended to win the round.
PF and LD specific stuff at the bottom. All the argument specific stuff still applies to both activities.
How to win in front of me:
Explain to me why I should vote for you and don't make me do work. I've noticed that I take "the path of least resistance" when voting; this means I will make the decision that requires no work from me unless neither team has a ballot which requires zero work from me. You can do this by signposting and roadmapping so that my flow stays as clean as possible. You can also do this by actually flowing the other team and not just their speech doc. Too often debaters will scream for 5 minutes about a dropped perm when the other team answered it with analytics and those were not flown. Please don't be this team.
Flowing Practices
I flow 1AC and 1NC cross-x just in case it becomes important to the debate. For 2AC and 2NC cross-x I am mostly listening and writing feedback about the constructive. I will flow 1AC & 1NC with the speech doc open next to the flow. I am reading along with the speech and will catch if you do things like hide aspec so don't worry about that. For the other 6 speeches I am probably not looking at the speech doc. and just flowing what I hear. Don't read into it if I close my eyes or look up and away; I'm just trying to increase my focus to flow better.
Online Debate Update
If you know you have connection/tech problems, then please record your speeches so that if you disconnect or experience poor internet the speech does not need to be stopped. Also please go a bit slower than your max speed on analytics because between mic quality and internet quality it can be tough to hear+flow everything if you go the same speed as cards on analytics.
Argumentation...
Theory/Topicality:
By default theory and topicality are voters and come aprior unless there is no offense on the flow. Should be clear what the interpretation, violation, voter, and impact are. I generally love theory debates but like with any judge you have to dedicate the time into it if you would like to win. "Reject the argument solves all their offense" is an unwarranted claim and teams should capitalize on this more. Lastly you don't need to prove in round abuse to win but it REALLY helps and you probably won't win unless you can do this.
Framework:
I feel framework should be argued in almost any debate as I will not do work for a team. Unless the debate is policy aff v da+cp then you should probably be reading framework. I default to utilitarianism and will view myself as a policy maker unless told otherwise. This is not to say I lean toward these arguments (in fact I think util is weak and policy maker framing is weaker than that) but unless I explicitly hear "interpretation", "role of the judge", or "role of the ballot," I have to default to something. Now here I would like to note that Theory, Topicality, and Framework all interact with each other and you as the debater should see these interactions and use them to win. Please view these flows holistically.
DA:
I am comfortable voting on these as I believe every judge is but I beg you (unless it's a politics debate) please do not just read more cards but explain why you're authors disprove thier's. Not much else to say here besides impact calc please.
CP:
For the neg I prefer that you have a solvency advocate. For the aff I think solvency deficits to the CP probably win most in front of me. I'm alright for competition debates if you are good at them. Spreading one liner standards in the 1ar and then exploding on them in the 2ar will make me have a very low threshold for 2nr answers look like. Similar for the 2nr, but I think the 2nr needs to flag the analysis as new and tell me it justifies new 2ar answers.
K:
I am a philosophy and political science major graduate so please read whatever you would like as far as literature goes; I have probably read it or debated it at some point so seriously don't be afraid. Please leave the cards in the file and explain the thought process, while I have voted on poorly run K's before those teams never do get high speaker points. For aff v K perm is probably your best weapon, answer the theory of power especially if there is an ontology claim, and FW which outright excludes the K is probably weaker than a FW which just says the aff gets to weigh their impacts.
K Affs:
Look above for maybe a bit more, but I will always be open to voting and have voted on K affs of all kinds. I tend to think the neg has a difficult time winning policy framework against K affs for two reasons; first they debate framework/topicality most every round and will be better versed, and second framework/topicality tends to get turned rather heavily and costs teams rounds. I'll vote on framework/topicality, for negs running it I think the "role of negation" is particular convincing and I need an offensive reason to vote, but defense on each aff standard/impact is just as important.
Perms:
Perms are a test of competition unless I am told otherwise. Perms test mutual exclusivity and I normally think they do this by resolving links through the perm. Multiple perms good/bad is a question to be debated on theory.
Judge Intervention:
So I will only intervene if the 2AR makes new arguments I will ignore them as there is no 3NR. Ethics and evidence violations should be handled by tab or tournament procedures.
Speaks:
- What gets you good speaks:
- Making it easier for me to flow
- Demonstrate that you are flowing by ear and not off the doc.
- Making things interesting
- Clear spreading
- Complete line by line in the order that the opponents made the arguments
- Productive CX
- What hurts your speaks:
- Wasting CX, Speech or Prep Time
- Showing up later than check-in time (I would even vote on a well run theory argument - timeless is important)
- Being really boring
- Being rude
PF Specific
- I am much more lenient about dropped arguments than in any other form of debate. Rebuttals should acknowledge each link chain if they want to have answers in the summary. By the end of summary no new arguments should made. 1st and 2nd crossfire are binding speeches, but grand crossfire cannot be used to make new arguments. *these are just my defaults and in round you can argue to have me evaluate differently
- If you want me to vote on theory I need a Voting Issue and Impact - also probably best you spend the full of Final Focus on it.
- Make clear in final focus which authors have made the arguments you expect me to vote on - not necessary, but will help you win more rounds in front of me.
- In out-rounds where you have me and 2 lay judges on the panel I understand you will adapt down. To still be able to judge fairly I will resolve disputes still being had in final focus and assume impacts exist even where there are only internal links if both teams are debating like the impacts exist.
- Please share all evidence you plan to read in a speech with me your opponents before you give the speech. I understand it is not the norm in PF, but teams who do this will receive bonus speaker points from me for reading this far and making my life easier.
LD Specific
- 2AR should extend anything from the 1AR that they want me to vote on. I will try and make decisions using only the content extended into or made in the NR and 2AR.
- Don't just read theory because you think I want to hear it. Do read theory because your opponent has done or could do something that triggers in round abuse.
- Dropped arguments are true arguments, but my flow dictates what true means for my ballot - say things more than once if you think they could win/lose you the round if they are not flown.
Quick Bio
I did 3 years of policy debate in the RI Urban Debate League. Been judging since 2014. As a debater I typically ran policy affs and went for K's on the neg (Cap and Nietzsche mostly) but I also really enjoyed splitting the block CP/DA for the 2NC and K/Case for the 1NR. Despite all of this I had to have gone for theory in 40% of my rounds, mostly condo bad.
Hi!
Before I start this paradigm special shoutouts to the contributions to my love for debate:
Delaney Hellman (first ever coach)
Aubrey Semple (first high school coach)
Cyd-Marie Minierciriaco (second high school coach)
Micheal Pulver (first sassy coach)
Daryll Burch (DB) -- (debate dad? idk how to describe lol)
Tay (fav wake forest teacher, wrote my rec letter for a scholarship <3)
TC (fav wake forest RA)
Eli T. Louis (my fav judge)
If you know them we should bond over that lol, and if you went to rks lmk so we can bond on that also.
My name is Joanne Opoku (you can call me Joanne, Jo, Judge, idrc)
Add me to email chains - joanneopokudebate@gmail.com
I always ask both teams what color they want to be on my flow (i flow on computer), so don't be a loser just answer
ALSO CAN YALL NAME YOUR OFF PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEE IT MAKES IT EASIER TO FLOW OMLLLLLLLLLL
I also flow CX, but I don't include them in my decision it's usually because debaters bring up what might have been said in CX in their speeches and I evaluate then, but overall you should not worry.
I have been debating since fifth grade and started going to tournaments in seventh grade, but I don't think I got good until I attended RKS the summer of my junior year. But now that I graduated I will be attending Amherst College in the fall.
Speed is fine but don't do that mumbling nonsense, if I can't understand you I will say "clear" bc I still want to hear those arguments
As for speaks, I usually give relatively high speaks because as a former debater I've def seen myself and peers GET ROBBED and don't plan on doing that to yall :) -- but remember speed does not equal better debater, the arguments determine that
I am familiar with policy, ks/ k affs, performance so run what ever idrc, the round is yours to do whatever you want
Here are some different scenarios I think of:
Policy vs T
Unless the the aff is very untopical/ t gets dropped I usually lean towards reasonability tbh
Policy vs Da & CPs
I think cps are stronger when supported by net benefits (dis ads) but if you go for the CP alone I'm fine with that if you defend it well. Permutation debates are usually what it comes down to so aff make sure the defend the lack of the link story to the net benefits/ dis ads, and for neg just defend your stuff tbh
Policy vs the K
These debates are either really good or really bad. In my experience I think framework on both sides needs to be really strong. For the neg I think the link story needs to be strong here, generics are fine, but specifics are even better. Love these debates though, I had my fair share of time in these debates.
K v FW/ T
I have DEF had my fair share of these debates as I became a k debater my last years as a debater. This debate comes down to competing interpretations and impacts. That's all I really have to say here. I like when the neg makes their fw/ t shell interesting beyond just the fairness mumbo jumbo lol -- but its def up to you, no preference.
K v K
These debates can get messy, especially when the the aff can just no link out of everything, but honestly the debate comes down to materiality of the alt and links on part of the neg.
idrk where piks fall tbh -- but those are interesting, run them if you please
I think I covered everything there
I'm fine with questions before and after the round, but if after the round the "post-rounding" turns into disrespect and trying to get me to change my ballot, I will laugh in your face, say "you're just mad you lost" and walk out the room.
But have fun yall, remember debate is suppose to be a educational space so I will tolerate no discrimination <3
Also I've always hated judge intervention, so I will try my best to NEVER do that
Not actively coaching anywhere at this time. I typically judge a couple tournaments a year split between LD and Policy.
I have 2 years of high school LD debate, 2 years of high school policy, and 2 years of college parli & LD experience. I coached every debate event in Nebraska over the course of 10 years in various Nebraska high schools. I'm comfortable judging all events, but the paradigm is oriented towards LD and Policy debaters. Absolutely feel free to ask me questions before the rounds about my judging practices. I spend most tournaments behind the scenes these days in the tab room.
Speed - This will be challenging in the digital debate era. I would recommend starting at 75% of your top speed and working your way up. I will call clear if I can't hear you (either due to speed or due to technical issues). The most important thing if you want to speed read in front of me is that you MUST be organized. Number or label your arguments, clearly indicate when you are moving to the next flow/case, etc. and use those references as the debate continues.
Fiat - I handle this different in LD and Policy. I will evaluate arguments about how fiat isn't real or doesn't matter in policy debate, but my default paradigm is that fiat exists in every policy round. The opposite is true of Lincoln Douglas debate where I do not believe that fiat exists by default. If you choose to, for example, read a counter plan in LD against a traditional values case, the burden will be on you to bridge the theory gap and prove that fiat should exist in LD.
Truth matters and I will not tolerate racism, sexism, etc.
ADD FOR COLLEGE: debatedocs@googlegroups.com
Non-negotiables
--I will not vote for K-affs. Strike me. If your 1AC lacks a plan I am not the judge for you. If your coach messed up strikes, download a policy aff off the wiki.
--I will not vote on "new sheet" or out-of-round procedurals. I am not here to judge intersquad bickering or broader philosophical questions about debate or life other than the ones posed by the resolution.
--CX is binding.
Biases
--The threshold for a good aff/neg argument is the sufficiency with which it proves a topical implementation of the resolution desireable/undesireable. Arguments others find reprehensible (death good, opop, etc.) are fine by me to the extent they are germane to the topic and rebut the 1AC. However, I am still very bad for backfile check strategies non-germane to the topic. My threshold for what constitutes a "sufficient" answer to wipeout, the cap K, and the consult NATO CP is much lower than many of my peers.
--Evidence quality matters more to me than to many other judges. Well highlighted and clearly read cards that contain warrant depth will win you more debates in front of me more than spreading more analytics. A lot of meh cards almost never equals one really good card, but don't expect a single card to carry you through an entire debate.
--I am not great for the AFF on condo (and non-resolutional procedurals generally). If the neg spends 30+ seconds in the 2NC and 20+ in the 2NR explaining neg flex and why that time spent answering condo solves the AFFs skew arguments I am extremely unlikely to vote on condo.
--I am equally as bad for negative topicality interpretations that lack solid evidentiary support. I am generally favorable to aff claims of "substance crowdout" but am extremely favorable for neg interpretations grounded in a well-researched and academically-popular (in the real academic world) interpretation. "Frankensteined" neg interps are unlikely to win in front of me.
--Impact cards have gotten worse and worse. I am plenty ready for a resurgence of "soft-left" AFFs and DAs with far more coherent explanation of non-extinction harms than "try or die to attain Industry 2.0 to solve meta-extinction from a litany of S-risks." Extinction is not infinite suffering and its probability is vanishingly small (even smaller given smart debating). I am much more likely to vote for non-extinction impacts than my peers. Sadly, many "soft-left" impacts merely suggest that some nebulous "structural violence" gets worse and move on with even less explanation or quantification than most extinction cards.
--Try-or-die before voting on presumption. If the AFF lacks a plan or simply doesn't give a 2AR I can vote on presumption, but at least a smidge of neg offense is required for my vote in any other scenario.
--Theory is almost always reject the arg not the team (exception is condo) and you can ignore it by saying "reject the arg not the team" in front of me. Plenty of theory args answer useful questions about the debate itself (does presumption flip aff with counteprlans, should the NEG be allowed to fiat the states AND the fed, etc.) but are not in and of themselves round winners.
--Counterplan competition might as well be a topicality debate. If you want to win a perm do the counterplan debate do not assume that I will simply turn off the part of my brain that thinks about topicality and address logical concerns about your interp for topical limits. As with topicality (and everything else) evidence quality is extremely important. If the NEG lacks cards that clearly differentiate the CP from the AFF and instead rely on generic should/resolved/etc. definitions I am very favorable to the AFF. However, if the NEG has cards that clearly differentiate the CP and competes off of words unique to the topic then the AFF faces a large uphill battle and should focus their effort on solvency/other perms.
--Textually and functionally competitive seems like a pretty good standard for counterplans.
--Politics and states is a great strategy. Politics ev is bad and the impacts suspicious, but often 1AC ev is even worse so don't discount it as a good strategy in many situations.
--Teams keep reading Ks with a vague 1NC shell and zero cards in the block and I am not sure why. Debate math means I am almost never going to vote for a K. If links are to the plan then the AFF almost always outweighs. If links are not to the plan then certainly the perm solves them. If the NEG turns case they never have any defense so the AFF always wins a try or die claim. I am wholly unconvinced that the immaterial "epistemology" of a hypothetical plan can be evaluated divorced from its equally immaterial and hypothetical consequences. You might as well try and convince me the sky is red. If the alt undeniably solves the Ks impacts then surely the perm solves. Since everyone agrees the AFF and NEG get durable fiat, so the only question for a perm should be severance and if it solves the links. These challenges are easily surmountable but it involves reading AFF specific causal link ev with directly related impacts and a specific targeted alternative that competes with the plan off more than just "the capitalist mirage DA."
Randoms/Peeves
--You really only need 3-4 perms against a counterplan. Perm do both. Perm do the counterplan. A limited intrinsic perm. Your perms will fall into one of these three categories and explaining the same perm 3 separate ways gets old really fast.
--Not answering questions in CX. I get it can sometimes be strategic but it definitely is not strategic as often as people do it. You might win but accept that your speaks will be lower than they likely should be. Be comfortable saying "I don't know" it will affect your speaks substantially less than being belligerent will.
If you want any feedback in addition to the RFD please feel comfortable asking or emailing. Debate is hard and my paradigm curmudgeonly, but I still hope the round I judge will be fun and enjoyable for all who participate.
Gregory Quick: ggquick@gmail.com | He/They
TLDR: Debate should be about having fun and learning. Debate what you want but nothing matters to me until you explain why it should.
Round Framing:
"My ideal round is one where both teams are cordial and having fun. I think too often we attach our self-worth to the activity. My favorite thing about debate is the people I've met along the way. I hope that the trophies and placements at the end of the tournaments don't hurt our ability to appreciate the genius of ourselves and the people next to us. If any part of my paradigm limits your ability to enjoy the round, please let me know." - Melekh Akintola
My Weird Judge Things:
- Tag Team Cross Ex means you have to tag your teammate in. I think it increases camaraderie and decreases teammates fighting for speaking in CX. Do this to increase your team's speaker points by +.5 pts.
- If you ask for a marked copy of the opponent's speech before CX, and DO NOT reference it throughout the rest of the debate I will be sad. This should not discourage you from asking, but instead I hope it forces you to consider what they highlighted before the round, but were not able to read.
- Banter is allowed/encouraged, we are all humans (I hope), and being able to make me relate to you is a key networking skill that is underdeveloped. When you are meeting debaters and judges from across the country, finding common ground or small jokes before speeches is a good way to build rapport. Do not be disrespectful to anyone but yourself. If you cannot have non-elicitory small talk then it would be better to focus on the round and being respectful.
Speaker Point Scale: (What does the # speaker points actually mean):
25 - I physically cringed at something you said. Not sure I've given this out.
26 - I don't want you to do something you did in the round again. IE: Giving up large (Vibe check @20%) amounts of speaking time, being rude to the other team.
27 - You are a decent speaker, but you can improve on your persuasiveness. You need to make "The Point" of your speech more apparent, and specifically highlight why you believe that I should vote for you.
28 - I think you clearly explained to me your position and were a good participant in the round. You have some areas to improve on to become the best debater you can be, such as; signposting within arguments, fully warranting out your arguments, and explaining how the the points you are winning affect the rest of the position and round.
29 - Great debating, might have missed some of my specific requests or I believe that there are some areas that you could improve in to make your speech smoother, more efficient, or make some better arguments.
30 - Fantastic debating, hitting major points with clarity and efficiency, requires meeting best practices listed below. I attempt to limit awarding 29.7+ to 1 debater/team in a tournament.
Best Practices:
- Explain the warrants behind the tag when you extend them.
- Use prep time until you have clicked save. If it takes >2m to attach and send the email, you should count that as prep time.
- Look at the judge during your speech, and face them during CX.
- Say "Next!" between cards.
- Also, number your arguments and use your opponents' argument's number when replying in Line-By-Line. (You should still explain what arg you are referencing ie: "They say the economy is strong in their 1st card on econ, Timothy 1820, but our williams 1821 card shows that the economy is really weak in the horse market!!!"
- I think you should send analytics to the other team in your doc. If it is typed it for your speech and you are reading it then you should give it to the opposing team. Also means you should probably fill in the "[Insert Specific]" portions of your varsity's block.
Why? See the conclusion in https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1044670.pdf.
- De-escalating CX when it gets very heated, but still pushing the opponent on key points of the debate. It is key to use CX to develop common ground assumptions that your evidence makes different conclusions on and REFERENCING those answers in the next speech.
- Be a good person outside of the competitive debate round, don't be a gremlin.
I will use these best practices as benchmarks for evaluating your speech and your speaker points. This is a non-inclusive list, but will bring up specifics through feedback told or written after the round.
Debater Experience:
I debated policy debate for 4 years at Eagan High School in Minnesota and debated 4 years in NFA-LD at UNL, and dabbled in NDT-CEDA. I was mostly a CP+DA debater, but I've gone for plenty of K's and ran a K Aff with some success.
What do you view your role as the judge in the debate?
I think that my role as a judge is to evaluate the round. In the history of judging I find policymaker/educator/games playing to be some of the best philosophical roles of the judge. Most teams don't explain how the Judge's perspective affects how I should evaluate the impacts, which would bereally good analysis to make.
Overall Practices:
- Don't take excessive time to email the documents, if emails are taking forever just make it obvious you aren't stealing prep.
- I will say clear a few times during your speech if I am not able to understand your words, but I don't want to keep interrupting you. That means it is up to you to make sure that I'm flowing your arguments, especially in the rebuttals. I will put my pen in the air to communicate that I am not following your speech, so you should take a step back and re-evaluate what you are saying.
- I will read evidence the debaters point out to read after the round, please use specifics as to how you think my evaluation of it should effect the whole position or ballot. I will not use the unhighlighted portions of your cards for your benefit, only to your detriment. If you want parts of the card to be evaluated, you should read them.
Predispositions:
Topicality:
Topical affirmatives are probably good, but see more details on untopical affs below. I like a good T flow but most debates don't access the level of depth to fully explain their interpretation of affirmative/negative ground. Compare standards, and analyze which interpretation/definition has the best access to the standards that both teams put forward.
You need to explain what im voting for, most people are shallow with their explanations. Unique but comprehensible standards that aren't just bland limits and ground would be really nice.
I default to competing interpretations (Offense > Defense), but that can be changed based on the arguments in the round.
Theory:
I do like non-abusive theoretical arguments that actually explain what debate practices should, or should not, exist. Being specific on your interpretation, violation, how you are measuring 'good' practices, and explain how meeting your 'good practice' would make debate better.
Increasing the amount of different theories perceptually decreases the persuasiveness of each theory.
Untopical Affirmative Rounds:
I find that this can be some of the most interesting rounds as it immediately gets to underlying reasons that debate is good. This is winnable by both sides, but you must outline the specific reasons that you think I should vote for you (Aff or Neg) at the end of the debate. I will be voting for teams that paint the best vision of what my vote does or what I'm voting for.
I ran Anthropocene Horror at a couple of NDT-CEDA tournaments I went to, and have even voted for a violin K aff that was beautiful. I will not be the preferred judge for K affs, as I will not be as well versed in the specific literature, but am open to new education and perspectives brought into this key space.
In these rounds, I will default to as tabula rosa as I can be, but unless teams fill in the entire line of reasoning from coming into the round to receiving the ballot, judge intervention is inevitable. My tabula rosa means that I am an empty computer that speaks English poorly, has access to Google to fact-check general knowledge and statistics, and may have a heart.
CP's:
I was mainly a CP+DA debater myself, so I have gone for quite a lot of different CPs.
In most CP rounds, it is crucial to compare your solvency vs the risk of the link. It is also beneficial to explain even if statements and explain the internal links to solving each impact.
Competition Theory is underutilized by the affirmative. Explaining your vision of what competition means and why certain actions are not a trade-off with the affirmative is an interesting argument that I have not heard much.
I find multiple plank counter plans ugly, especially when they are massive (meaning >3 planks). I have not seen theory on this, but I imagine a well-run theory on conditional planks in a CP bad would probably be pretty persuasive in front of me.
DA's:
Fully explaining the story of the DA should happen in every negative speech it is extended. Re-reading tags and author names is not "explaining the story".
Both teams should deal with the timeframe of the impacts of the DA versus the timeframe of the Aff. Lots of affirmatives solve the impacts of the DA even without a link turn. This analysis is mostly analytics but deals with the realities from cards both teams.
Other Random Thoughts (as if this isn't long enough):
Even if statements are your friend.
If you cannot defend underlying assumptions about debate. Like; why is debate good or what is debate for, don't expect to win theory or topicality arguments. Put real thought into your arguments.
I don’t consider myself an interventionist, but I think intervention when the arguments you want me to vote on have not been continued throughout the round. I probably won’t support your 5-minute 2NR from a 1-card 1NC Offcase when it's barely extended and forgotten in the 1NR. Applies to Ks, CPs, DAs, and Theory. Negatives shouldn't go for a 5 minute 2NR from one barely highlighted NC card without a lot of additional explaination. Affirmatives shouldn't go for their :10s 2AC condo bad arg without a lot of additional explaination.
Emphasize key arguments, and do good evidence comparison throughout the debate. Qualifications are important and you should back up your author's claims.
Argument Structure (For Extensions):
When extending your arguments, make sure that you fully explain:
Topicality: Interpretation of the Topic, Definition, Violation, Standards, Voters.
The A2 K Aff version of Framework/Gamework should be similar but substantially more robust on your interpretation of the Topic and your voters.
Disadvantages: Uniqueness (Inherency in MN Novice Packet????), Link, Internal Link, and Impact.
Aff's Advantages: Status quo, Impact, Solvency.
Kritik's: Link, Impact, Alt.
Counter-Plan's: Your Counter Plan text, Solvency for Aff's impacts.
Zachary Reshovsky Paradigm
Last changed 12/13 10:32P PST
About me and Overview: I have a background with 4 years as a high school debater (Lincoln Douglas) and 3 years as a collegiate debater (1 year NPDA parliamentary and 2 years NDT-CEDA Policy) at the University of Washington - Seattle. At UW, I majored in International Relations where I graduated Top 3% of class and was a Boren and Foreign Language and Area Scholar (Chinese language) and nominee for the Rhodes and Marshall Scholarship. My expertise is in China studies, US-China relations and Great Power Relations.
As an LD debater, I was (and still am) a believer in traditional LD rather than progressive LD arguments. I believe that the introduction of policy arguments to LD (in particular on resolutions that clearly resolve around moral/philosophical issues) are inappropriate. As such, I strongly prefer cases centered around a strong Value and Value/Criterion, an explanation of why that V/VC is moral, and how it links to the topic. As well, please explain to me in rebuttals why you are winning using specific articulations and spins on your/opponent's evidence. High school debaters in particular struggle with articulating why they are winning in final rebuttals, which oftentimes invites frustrating judge interventions. I will consider consider policy arguments in LD (in particular on topics that directly involve a policy proposal - e.g. "the US should implement a federal jobs guarantee" topic). However, these type of arguments will get substantial less weight than traditional LD topics. I prefer depth over breath arguments - I've noticed a lot of debaters will extend all of their offense without telling me which argument is the strongest, why I should vote on it, and how it beats out your opponents arguments. This forces me to intervene and attempt to weigh which extended arguments are strongest. In an ideal world, you'll provide me with a single argument where I can feel comfortable voting. Regarding procedurals, I have an extremely high threshold for Theory. I believe that Theory is vastly overused in LD and distracts from the substantive education that discussing the topic brings. Your opponent needs to be doing something truly abusive for me to consider it. I'm happy to consider Topicality arguments if I'm judging CX. In LD, I rarely see cases that are off-topic, but if you feel your opponent is feel free to run T.
As well, try to be creative! I come from a family of artists and always have looked at debate as equal parts rhetorical art and logic. Some of the best rebuttals and cases I have seen have had really creative spins on them and really sounded entertaining and compelling. I would encourage debaters to study examples of speeches in which the speaker has articulated not only a strong argument, but also delivered it in a way that delivered with rhythm, well apportioned arguments, was organized cleanly, and had substance that was comparable to strong prose in a novel rather than a rote response to a prompt.
Regarding my views on specific types of arguments:
- Primarily policy/on-case judge, but certainly willing to consider Kritikal and off-case arguments. DisAd/Ad impacts need to be spelled out clearly and weighed thoroughly in later rounds or else risk judge intervention. Find that debaters oftentimes do not get beyond surface-level tit-for-tat argumentation in later speeches in debate. No attempts made at crystallization of arguments, nor any attempt made to weigh why one impact (magnitude, timeframe, probability) or combination of impacts should OW other impacts and, equally importantly, why they should OW. Magnitude definitely easiest impact to evaluate, but feel free to do other impacts as well.
- For CPs, better to run 1 CP than many. Leaves more room for fleshing out that argument. I'm ok with Consult CPs.
- For Kritiks, I'm familiar with general arsenal of Kritiks, but please do not assume that I know the ideology/philosophy by heart. Explain it as if I am a 200-level undergrad student. Second, please articular impacts as you could an advantage or disadvantage. In particular, the link needs to be strong, specific, and very clearly linked to Case. Unmoored or vague links tend to be the death-knell of kritiks - debaters oftentimes just pull out the first link that they find and then proceed to force it to link to the case the AFF is reading. Make sure you make clear why the AFF is uniquely causing some ideologically-grounded harm or is buying into some existing detrimental framework.
Likewise, the impact of Kritiks tends to be highly nebulous (e.g. the plan causes more capitalism and capitalism is bad). Specific and clearly defined impacts are always good - they are particularly helpful for K debates.
Think of K Alternatives as very similar to a kritikal CounterPlan text - ideologically-driven condemnations that (e.g. "The AFF is evil in some undefined but scary sounding way") never work out well much like CounterPlans like (e.g. "Do the Plan but in a better way" never work). Would always recommend to debaters that they discuss why the Alternative solves or remedies some problem to a greater degree than the Plan.
- For Identity arguments, please lay out specifically how and why the AFF/NEG is engaging with a structure of power or dominance in a specific way that is problematic. That the AFF/NEG simply exists/reifies an existing power structure will get some traction yes. However, given that in order to make positive change in any environment one has to engage with unequitable power structures, it is important to describe precisely how the offending party has 1. in concrete terms, made the situation worse/more inequitable & 2. how this OW whatever benefits the offending party is accruing. Saying the offending party is simply working within existing inequities alone will not be sufficient to win usually, even when those inequities are a valid cause for concern. Again, specificity is important here - how many and in what ways is the offending party hurting disadvantaged communities.
- For Performance-based arguments on the NEG - I have a very high threshold for clearly non-Topical Perf arguments. Many teams seem to be running clearly non-topical arguments on AFF that do not in anyway link to the resolution and then proceed to claim some special framework that neatly fits/justifies their Performance into the resolution - this does not mean that they will get my ballot if the Neg runs Topicality in the 1NC.
- Likewise, for Performance-based arguments on the NEG - NEG needs to clearly win 1. why the Performance should be weighed in opposition to the AFF and within the AFF's FW. OR 2. Why whichever NEG FW that is put forth is clearly preferable. Again, I have a high threshold for clearly non-resolution specific neg performance arguments. So if the Neg wishes to win in this situation it needs to VERY CLEARLY win why a performative FW is the criterion on which the debate should be judged.
Speaking point scale:
- 29.9-30-near 100% perfect (flawless execution, strong elocution, high degree of erudition in arguments)
- 29.5-29.8-very strong debater, octo/elims performance (highly coherent arguments, well extended, effective execution and thoughtful usage of time, high degree of consideration to opponents)
- 28.8-29.4-average debater, perhaps 4-2/3-3 record level performance (better than average, but includes some dropped arguments, lack of coherency throughout debate but ultimately enough arguments are extended to win and/or come close in debate)
- 27.8-28.7 - un-average debater - unable to make coherent arguments, lots of drops, lack of tactical acumen or strategic skill in debate proper. Able to read first constructive, but unable to recognize with arguments are to be prioritized in final speeches. Relies too much on ASPEC/procedurals in place of on case/Kritikal arguments.
below-27.8 - very un-average debater - does not know how to debate and cannot coordinate correctly with partner. Lacking in basic etiquette towards others.
- Notes to debaters: Evaluation mostly dependent on quality of arguments - however, polish also comes into play. Clarity/clear organization and efficiency in rebuttals will increase your speaker points dramatically. Well run obscure and non-Western philosophies (Eg Baudrilliard, Taoism, Shintoism) will also garner extra speaker points on basis that they make judging more interesting and less monotonous/repetitive. Same thing goes for contentions that discuss innovative/non-talked about issues
FOR LD: I debated LD In high school and am comfortable with speed in it. I strongly prefer value/criterion based debate and will not consider policy arguments in LD. From my perspective it is important to win the VC debate, but not essential. I view the VC as something akin to goal posts in soccer (you can still score/gain offense through the oppositions goal posts, but it is harder to win because your opponent controls the scoring boundaries).
Ultimately, I will evaluate offense/impacts through a normal magnitude/probability/timeframe lens and will default to a Utilitarian calculus if nothing else is provided, but will weigh through whatever VC wins. I strongly prefer weighable impacts (Eg X number of people will be helped to Y degree), which creates clarity in judges mind. I see a lot of debaters (especially in LD) not doing ð˜¾ð™¡ð™šð™–𙧠weighing of their impacts vs opponents impacts in NR And 2NR, which is unhelpful and creates judge intervention. I would strongly recommend spending at least some time in each rebuttal evaluating your impacts as to why you are winning on probability/magnitude/timeframe/vulnerability of populations affected/permanence of your impacts. As with all debate, please crystallize in final speeches with concise underviews that explain why you are winning and how your arguments OW/eclipse/precede your opponent’s impacts.
several general thoughts on LD debates I’ve seen:
- on contention level debate, please warrant out your contentions and extend claims and evidence in whole (claim, internal warrant, and impact), in particular in the rebuttals. Greater specificity is better. I’ve noticed a lot of debaters merely extend the tag lines of their evidence without the warrants/cards behind them and, more specifically, what the evidence does in debate/how I should evaluate it relative to other positions. This is problematic in that it leads to judge intervention and forces me to evaluate evidence after round. In NR/2AR I would prefer that you tell me how to vote rather than ask me to adjudicate between/weigh in on Impacts. A good rebuttal will not just include extensions of evidence, but also point to what parts of the evidence (eg the historical example that the author references, the statistical meta study that the cards author proffered) support your claims and what impacts their ideas will lead to.
- evidence: I prefer evidence that has descriptive/historical/statistical claims rather than predictive/speculative claims due to the fact that the former is based on things that have already happened/is more scientific whereas the latter has not occurred/is based on predilections that may or may not occur. I will prefer the former over the latter absent an argument made to differentiate the two. Expert authors will be preferred to non-experts in a vacuum. Non-contextualized anecdotal evidence is the least preferred type of evidence.
- AFF strategy: I notice a lot of debaters (in particular on the affirmative) have a difficult time extending sufficient offense in the debate to stay in the running. I would strongly recommend extending your arguments/contentions first (esp in the 1AR where there is a timeskew) before moving on to opponents case. Inexperienced debaters tend to get distracted/overwhelmed by their opponents case and attempt to tackle it first, but end up running out of time to extend their own case after getting bogged down in said opponents arguments. The best offense is a good offense - you can win if you extend your claims and leave some of your opponents claims dropped, but you cannot win if you extend none of your claims but shoot down the majority of your opponents arguments. I would strongly recommend starting out with your case first in rebuttals and then moving to refute your opponents case.
The Affirmative needs to be even more strategic/efficient in the 2AR. The 2AR needs to focus down on one to two arguments they are winning and not attempt to cover the entire flow. Past losing 2ARs I have seen have spread themselves too thin and never told me where to vote. In order to ensure that you get your offense on the flow, I would recommend a 20/30 second overview at the top of the 2AR explaining why/where you are winning and where I should vote. This ensures you have a shot at winning even if you do not get to all points you wish to discuss in this short 3 minute speech.
- Timeskew: By default, I will give the affirmative somewhat more room than negative to make less well developed/consistently extended arguments due to the timeskew (The Neg won 52.37% of ballots according to a meta analysis of 17 TOC debate tournaments in 2017-18). Beyond this, if the AFF argues that their arguments should have a lower burden of proof bc of timeskew, I will give the AFF even more room to make blippy arguments.
Kritiks (General): Im a fan of Ks in LD. Unlike Policy arguments that have crept into LD (Plans/CPs/DisAds), I believe that Ks belong in LD on the basis that they are grounded in philosophy rather than practical politics.
Several observations/suggestions for Ks in LD:
- On the Link level, please make a clear link to something your opponent specifically does in her/his case. I've noticed that a lot of Kritikal debaters rely on very generic links (e.g. saying that the AFF proposes a policy, the policy involves Capitalism, and that Capitalism is bad, therefore you should reject the AFF) rather than an indictment of some aspect of the AFF's specific proposal (e.g. the AFF's plan proposes an increase in mandatory minimum sentencing, this will lead to a higher prison population, prisons disproportionately affect minority populations and are therefore structurally racist, mass incarceration is the warrant, therefore you should reject the AFF because they lead to more structural racism). The former example relies on generic appeal to a structure the AFF exists within/likely would have to exist within in order to implement policy, the latter explicitly outlines what specifically the AFF does to increase racism/violence. If and at all possible, please try to articulate what the opponent explicitly does to warrant your K.
- On the Alt, I have noticed that many people who run Ks have a very vague (and at times non sensical) Alternatives—in the past I have voted against Ks often because of their lack of Alt solvency. If you plan on running a K, please make clear what the Alt does and how the Alt can solve/lead to some substantive change better than AFF can. I have a very difficult time voting for Alts when I don't know what they do. I would recommend making specific empirical examples of movements that align with Alt’s views that have succeeded in the past (eg if you’re running an Alt that wants to deconstruct settler colonialism, point to historical examples of Native movements that dislodged colonialism or the effects of colonialism—for example protests against the DACA pipeline in S Dakota, Native Americans protests against Columbus Day + what meaningful and lasting policy/public opinion changes these movements imbued). Its my personal belief that movements that lead to most meaningful change not only indicts and identifies a policy/problem with the status quo, but is also able to engage with the political sphere and implement some meaningful change. I believe that a well-articulated K should be able to do the same.
- K Impact: If K Impact involves some degree of indictment of the AFF, please explain to me what the AFF indictment does/leads to out of round beyond merely asserting that the AFF leads to bad impacts - otherwise it is likely that I will default to voting AFF on basis that AFF does/advocates for something imperfect but net positive. Even winning that the Aff leads to bad things (eg that the AFFs deployment of military forces is imperialist/that AFFs passing of a policy leads to more capitalism) may be insufficient to win when weighed against the entirety of AC impacts — the K also needs to prove THAT they do something beneficial as well (see previous paragraph).
- Type of K you run: You are of course welcome to run any K you feel is strategically valuable in the moment. As a personal side note, I personally prefer hearing Ks that come from obscure/not-commonly-run philosophers (e.g. Foucault, Deleuze, St. Thomas Aquinas) rather than commonly-understood philosophies (e.g. Capitalism). I believe that introducing non-traditional philosophers into debate adds substance, flavor, and argumentative diversity to the debate sphere - Independent on whether they win, I will reward debaters who run these arguments with additional speaker points for the above mentioned reasons.
Race/Gender/Transphobic/Homophobic Kritikal indicts - I will consider indictments of an opponent on the basis that they have done said something racist, gendered, -phobic in their personal behavior. The indictment, however, needs to clearly documented (e.g. a screen shotted Facebook post, a accusation with references to multiple witnesses who can corroborate the incident) and the offending violation/action needs to fall into the category of commonly understood violations of norms of basic decency surrounding race/gender (eg a racist joke that would be called out at a dinner party, usage of the N word towards a debater of color, calling a female debater the B-word, usage of the six letter homophobic/anti-gay term that starts with F). Microaggressions will be considered, but will have a much higher burden of proof to overcome because they are more difficult to prove/document and have comparatively less negative impact. As well, these arguments preferable should be accompanied by an articulation of what Impact of dropping a debater will have (e.g. will it send a strong sanctioning signal to other debater generally to not make the joke in question in the future(?), will it merely deter the accused debater from another repeated violation(?)) outside of round. Without an articulation of framework, I will default to a standard VC framework in LD and Policymaking Impact calculus on basis of magnitude/probability/TF in CX - if you lose/fail to provide a non-traditional framework, this does not mean that your race/gender arguments will not be evaluated, but does mean you will have to explain how they work/function under a CXmaking/VC framework and likely means you will face a comparatively uphill battle.
Speed Ks-please do not run them - I don’t believe they are worth considering and are a waste of time. After having come across them 3-4 times this year, have not voted for a speed K. Unless opponent is literally spreading so fast no they are unintelligible, I believe that it is unwise to spend all our time and energy indicting each other for procedurals when we could be debating about the substantive of the topic.
I am not a fan of Performance/poetry in LD, but will consider it if absolutely necessary. Know that I have a high BoP to consider these types of args.
I generally have a very low bar to granting the AFF RVIs due to timeskew. I have granted AFF RVIs about 70-80% of the time when the AFF has introduced this argument.
ashnarimal.debate@gmail.com
mehsdebate@gmail.com
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Assistant Coach for Maine East
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I am pretty familiar with the topic but that is not an excuse to leave out key information about your arguments and why they matter.
TLDR - You can run any arg in front of me, if you run it well I'll probably vote you up. Clash, line by line, and judge direction go a long way in winning my ballot. Also, send analytics. if you're good, you don't have to win because they drop things.
K Affs
I like K Affs if they are well explained.
A few things I should not be wondering about when writing my ballot:
Why is the ballot key?
Why is this round specifically key for your offense?
Do you solve for anything and how (spill up, fiat, etc.)
Neg Stuff
Counterplans
I enjoy CPs, but you have to have all the key parts (Net Benefit, Perm Answers, Solvency, etc.)
Disads
Disads are fine - I'm not particularly opinionated about them.
I think DA and Case debates are good as long as the DA scenario makes sense and the line by line is properly executed.
Please don't go for a bad ptx scenario that has no internal link.
Kritiks
If you run a K make sure you really explain it to me.
If you wanna go for the K in the 2NR you must have a strong link to the specific aff, or an alt that solves for the K and/or the impacts of the Plan.
Focus on the link debate - winning the link helps you win FW, prove why the perm won't solve, as well as support the impact.
If I don't understand your K I won't vote for it, especially if it's less commonly run. I'm familiar with most of the generic Ks, but if you pull out a more complex K, you need to understand it and explain it well. I will hold those types of Ks to a higher standard when writing my ballot.
Topicality
TOPICALITY IS A VOTER!
Contextualize your standards to the round.
Bad T debates are ones without clash.
Theory
I'm from Maine East, I like Theory debates and I'll vote on them - but I probably have higher standards for 'good theory debating'.
PICs are probably fine.
Severance Perms are probably bad, but usually not bad enough for me to write my ballot on it.
Condo is good to an extent. I probably won't vote on Condo if they run like 1-2 off, but if they run 3 or more conditional advocacies I will lean Aff.
Perf Con is bad if you can prove specific instances of in-round abuse.
Potential Abuse is not a voter. (Unless you prove to me otherwise)
In Round Abuse is a voter - If you can prove it happened.
In the end what really matters is how you extend and frame the theory debate. I will most likely vote for the team that better contextualizes their theory arg.
I'll vote on a dropped theory arg as long as it's properly extended.
Speaker Points
Under 26: you did something offensive/cheaty
27.5: Average
Above 29: Excellent - I was impressed
If you do something interesting, funny, or out of the box in the round, I'll boost your speaks.
General Comments
- I will not vote on an argument I don't understand - It's your job in the round to explain your arguments to me.
- Don't be a jerk - Respect your partner, your opponents, and the judge(s).
- Do not clip cards or cheat in any way
- I am fine with tag team CX, but don't take over you partners CX, I will dock speaks for that.
- Clarity is more important than speed - If you are spreading a huge analytics-heavy block at full speed I will not catch more than 60% of what you are saying
- Send analytics. if you're good, you don't have to win because they drop things. Plus I will be able to make sure I get all your args when you decide to spread through that 8 min K block
- Time your own Prep/CX/Speeches.
- I do not like judge intervention, I will try to avoid, or at least minimize judge intervention as much as possible. I'd much rather vote based on what you all say in the round.
- I am willing to vote for any argument as long as it is not offensive
Nicholas Rosenbaum (nrose1@stanford.edu)
Stanford University '24
Lane Tech '20
[order of contents: tldr, policy by arg/debate type, LD]
tldr of a tldr: be smart, good at debate, and clear-speaking (for I will never, ever flow off the speech doc. I hate that I even have to say that). I don't have any biases (argument or otherwise) that should be of concern to you.
A 2025 addition, hopefully appropriate to say: I love judging good debates and hate judging poor ones. Thus, good, smart debaters of absolutely any style/argument type should pref me (and vice versa..). We'd be doing each other a mutual favor: you'll get, humbly, adjudication as high-quality and discerning as available in the pool, and I get to watch vitalizing debates worthy of my time. As alluded to, this also goes the other way (re speaker points, for example; ofc my adjudication remains objective and fair, it just seems I dip into 27's [as well as high 29's, for that matter] more frequently then others. I think there's real inflation on the left tail of speaks that doesn't accurately reflect the enormous chasm in quality at nat circ! tournaments, leaving mediocre speakers too close on paper to poor and very poor ones)— hopefully a disincentive where relevant.
Another 2025 addition: Unclearness is a true epidemic. Perhaps signs of a community in decline, even many good debaters are slurring through untailored blocks to the detriment of complete auditory comprehensibility. I am so frequently frustrated by this, but much to my chagrin, I don't believe it's yet resulted in a loss (as it would if I didn't flow an arg ultimately gone for in a rebuttal), so I'm just going to start taking it out even more on your speaker points. Go as fast as you like— speed is the number of complete arguments able to be flowed by a competent judge or opponent, per unit of time.
tldr:
-- The platonic ideal of a judge is a valueless, disinterested critic of argument of maximal intellectual ability and openness. Teams who agree that all debaters ought to be entitled to this type of judge and judging (or as close as is humanly possible) should pref me. Good and smart/intellectual debaters of all stripes of style and substance should pref me. I have no reason to believe my personal convictions about debate, the world, etc. should hold any significance to the round I am judging. I will vote for literally anything.
-- Unlike many in the debate community, I want to be judging you. I really enjoy judging debates and do so diligently and with critical attention. With that said, bad debates are just not where I want to be— pref accordingly.
-- I think I am very good at rendering fair, correct decisions and often get upset listening to seemingly idiosyncratic RFDs, products of laziness and/or subjectivity. Hard working debaters have their toil, deserving of reward, negated by whims they could not have possibly expected or tailored to. I know debaters deserve so much better, and I do everything in my power to provide that. The paths-(predictable according to an offense-defense paradigm, i.e. non-idiosyncratic)-of-least-resistance that I take to my decisions are visually discernible from my flow.
Clash debates:
My voting record proves that I am 100% agnostic in these debates. I am as apathetic voting on 'extinction outweighs' as I am 'extinction doesn't matter in the face of the revolution'.
Just as I can't unduly hack for classical liberalism, I also won't do for you the work against it that many these days are taking for granted. Instead, everything from first principles, acknowledging certain args are easier (requiring less work) to win, like maybe human liberty good?
I am well-versed in the k as a practice in debate, and I know quite a lot of lit quite well. I most frequently went for settler colonialism and, among debate applications, probably know the most about afropessimism, but I always enjoyed a high theory injection for what it let me do. I now study a lot of German thinkers & political philosphy at university, do scholarly work spec. on Nietzsche, etc.
Insert typical ‘my background does not mean I will hack for the k; on the contrary, I know when..’. Once again, this is good for those who want to go HAM on smart stuff (for you needn’t worry about leaving me behind) but bad for ill-concieved strategies, those hoping to gaslight judges into equating multisyllabic tropes with profundity, etc. I do actually appreciate informedly-used jargon (using one word to express an assemblage of ideas) and abstraction generally. The throughline, again: good debate is good before me, and vice versa.
My senior year at a very small program, I (2N) primarily went for kritikal arguments & t/fw on the negative and wrote kooky fringe policy affs.
---
-- how to win: win an argument (or set of arguments) and win why you winning said argument(s) means that you have won the round!
-- I conceptualize debate as a deliberation-based intellectual competition where my ballot signifies an endorsement of one team's argument as true in the sense that it is proven preeminent over the opposing team's primary argument in the larger context of said round.
-- critical intellectualism and smart decision-making above all else! A 2ar that makes risky, bold decisions to hedge their bets versus an obviously lethal, winning 2nr is my favorite thing to watch. Even if it's not enough to win, ruthless strategy is the best internal link to higher speaker points.
-- flow and base your speeches around it.
-- I'm a good flow and am very comfortable with fast debate, but remember, fast =/= clear; I will only say clear twice per speech. I do not follow along in the speech doc.
-- even-if statements>>>
Policy
K vs Policy Affs:
Yes! Probably my favorite type of debate. The neg shouldn't be lazy with their links, and the aff should be smarter debating fiat arguments. I prioritize explanation and specificity above all else.
Please clash on the level of framework. This hugely important section often becomes ships passing in the night with the neg reading some epistemology DA and the aff talking about procedural things, neither side making inroads to other team's arguments. In many of these debates, whoever wins this section of the flow wins the debate, so invest!
I have read in debate (and actively research and read for pleasure) various flavors of settler colonialism and anti-Blackness, imperialism, capitalism, semiocapitalism, IR theories, Asian and Jewish identity, militarism, queerness, Berlant/affect theory, Baudrillard, Virilio, Kroker, Nietzsche, flavors of debate pomo, and many others. I read and think about critical theory a lot, so I likely have a working literacy in whatever body of literature you want to read.
You do not need an alternative if you are winning framework OR if your links are material DA's to the aff's implementation where the squo would be preferable OR if your theory of power overdetermines the aff's potential to be desirable OR if you can think of another reason you don't need an alt. With that said, I do like when alts are coherent to the strategy of the k or heavily influence framework.
"Critiques are not counterplans, nor are they plan focused. "Links must be to the plan" "Perm double bind" and "private actor fiat is a voting issue" are not persuasive unless dropped OR if the negative reads a K that ends up being explained as the world peace CP or movements CP." - shree
"Judges who say they won’t vote on death good are anti-K liberals who don’t know what the argument says." - eugene toth
Framework vs K Affs:
TLDR: I am agnostic in evaluating these debates, and I vote SOLELY off the flow. I am great for either side in these debates, see TLDR.
I have been on both sides of this debate. Purely theoretically— that is, in an equally matched round, not any real round— I lean negative, as I probably find the perfect framework + case/presumption strategy more convincing than general answers. Nonetheless, absolutely here for aff teams that disrupt the assumed terms of the debate to such an extent that probably true negative arguments lose their compelling power. Doing less than that can still result in an aff ballot, considering many neg teams will not be close to my above-described ideal. So the aff can and will win many of these debates, but disproving the neg's claims beyond asserting that the case is good is absolutely essential.
Assuming a smart negative, affs probably will need to prove why the process of resolutional debate the negative is demanding them to adhere to is bad or why the aff's model solves the neg's offense.
I think a we-meet stemming from the debaters 'doing'/discussing something related to [resolution topic] rarely passes the smell test. The words resolved, USFG, and [topic word] deserve attention, so (in order of preference) impact turn or we meet/counter-interp, but a strategy based just on being thematically germane to the resolution is probably quite vulnerable.
I can find TVAs that capture aff literature and read it on the neg arguments very convincing.
I am very open to 'debate bad' claims. I don't agree, but who cares? Even better for the aff are 'policy-centered discussions of this resolution are bad' claims.
Related to the above point, I am most persuaded by k aff answers to framework that take an extreme and unapologetic stance. Playing the middle ground is risky, because let's be honest, you almost definitely underlimit the topic etc., so just tell me why that doesn't matter.
Fairness can be an impact if articulated as one. Yes, it is an internal link to the positive benefits of debate, but I buy it if framed as as a prerequisite to anything good coming out of the activity.
I think it's fundamental for the negative to have a role in the debate. I think this need becomes especially magnified in debates where the aff proposes a method of self-care. I believe that the aff's strategy is probably good, but if it would be inappropriate for the negative to negate the value of the method and similarly violent for them to exclude the aff from debate, I don't see how a debate can occur, and I'll be very sympathetic to negative arguments about the inhibition of clash/fairness/any good byproduct of a debate happening.
Tell me whether I should be voting for a model of debate or just acting as a referee on this round. This frame of reference is something I utilized in every fw, t, and theory debate, and I think it is super valuable for judge instruction and helps clean up messy debates.
K vs K Affs:
Can be very interesting, and I'd love to hear it if you understand and can execute your argument. I am not interested in poorly executed k strats chosen because you think I'd prefer it or because they will confuse your opponents. This applies everywhere, but strategies premised upon confusing/annoying opponents are bad for debate, and I would rather not hear them; obviously, there are a few exceptions in the lit (we’ll always have the dada aff, keryk <3).
If either team wants this to be a "method debate," clearly delineate what that means, how I decide, etc. I view debates comparing method solvency alone as often missing the central component of winning links and other forms of offense, so tell me how to navigate the decision.
Word PIKs and other shenanigans - totally justified and a smart strategy. Truly no rules in these debates; the affirmative set the anarchic precedent, so I'll buy anything from anyone (again, just means no prejudices on my end; it's all always about what y'all debate out).
DA:
I think most politics DAs are garbage from the lens of political science, but debate =/= reality, and I really enjoy listening to an expertly debated politics DA. Read lots of cards and incorporate smart analytics/logic.
Receptive to aff ptx theory
Links exist on a spectrum; the "chance of a link" has to be qualified and then incorporated into the risk assessment component of impact calculus.
Expert turns case analysis is invaluable.
CP:
So as to incentivize contextual judge instruction, I’m not going to put fourth a rule on whether or not I’ll default to judge kick. Tell me what to do or face my discretionary decision.
I think lots of counterplans that steal much of the aff (interpret that as you wish) are bad for debate and unfair and the aff should hammer them. However, my personal opinion doesn't inform my voting; the aff still needs has to win theory or, even better, competion. As a judge, I kinda enjoy these debates cuz techy and words, but at the level of the activity, I beg for the aff to level the playing field with sense.
CPs should ideally have solvency advocates in the 1nc, but whatever. I do think CPs lacking solvency advocates magnifies the strategy skew of conditionality.
Sufficiency framing is ridiculous. Not that it's wrong, but it's just like eh, why even say this? Solvency deficits will always need to be weighed vs a risk of the net-benefit. I'll end up having to do this, so you're better off telling me how I ought to do it and net-out.
Topicality:
Yes please IF the debates will be techy, organized, and clash-filled; both or either team reading blocks through the rebuttals without refuting the other teams arguments in depth is very boring and not something I want to watch.
*I don't know community norms on the topic, so argue from first principles. Also slow/break down acronyms and other esoteric vernacular if you want me to render the most accurate possible decision.
Theory:
As a 2n, I resent 2A's that explode theory arguments shadow-extended in the 1ar because they've lost everything else. Theory blips are probably bad for the community. With that said, I understand doing what you have to do to win, so I will vote for whatever, but I'd ideally prefer coherent strategies.
I have literally no predispositions on whether condo is good or bad. I tend to think the problem is the abusiveness of counterplans, not the number thereof (cuz let's be real, that's what aff teams are actually objecting to, albeit under a different name), but I enjoy a good condo debate from both sides.
I will vote on any theory argument if executed properly. I don't like how many judges will in practice only vote on condo, even if the usually throw-away arg was dropped or seriously won; this practice is sneaky and bad, and I promise not to replicate it. I literally will vote for anything. If you’re actually up for the task (ask yourself), please do convince me why 50 state fiat in a CP kicked in the 2nc is a reason to vote aff. Doing so requires great skill and risk (making it much of the final rebuttal), but if done well, speaker points will rain because I think good theory debate is cool. You have to be so thoughtful and clashing to do it, though.
In-Round Conduct:
I will not adjudicate on things that happened outside of the round. There is no way for me to make an accurate determination in these cases. My ballot does not endorse any debater's character.
Do not steal prep, even a little! It is so prolific. It is rude to me, your opponents, and will result in tanked speaks.
Do not clip cards.
Clarity
LD
My experience is in policy debate, so I am not familiar with trad or local LD, but I've judged a handful of nat circ LD rounds, including outrounds. My senior year, my partner and I were flex (mostly policy affs and k's on the neg). The policy community considers/prefs me as a flex individual. I am well-versed in all argument types, but I most enjoy clash (policy aff v k or k aff v t/fw) debates. I also enjoy and am very comfortable judging straight policy/LARP debates.
preferences:
k
larp
theory
[big jump]
phil
tricks
trad
any other (lay) stuff i wouldn't know about
I am very competent at judging fast, techy debates; debaters that embody this or otherwise want to be judged by someone with extensive experience in policy debate across the ideological spectrum should pref me. I am most qualified to judge TOC style and tier LD debates (ie those closest to circuit policy). These are also the LD debates I most enjoy being in.
Tricks: I will vote on them, and I have no preconceived ‘this is too stupid to vote on’ threshold, but I still would prefer not to be in these debates. Impacting beyond “they dropped this” is absolutely essential, and I won’t vote on any trick I don’t have flowed. As I said above, I was/am a very fast debater and want to judge fast debates, but if I miss #7 of 30 one-line analytic voting issues, sorry.
Phil: I study quite a bit of continental philosophy at uni lol
See the rest of my paradigm for my more developed thoughts. Both the TLDR and argument-specific policy sections apply to LD.
**My paradigm got deleted so this is my abridged version.
Hey!! I'm Lizzy (she/her) and I'm about to be your judge!!
Please add these two emails to the chain: lizzysabel@gmail.com ; eagancxdebate@gmail.com
Background: I did 4 years of high school debate at Eagan High School (MN) and now I coach there. I was very much a flex debater. I have judged A LOT of debates in the last few years, but I have been judging on and off for about 10 years. I went to the University of St. Thomas (Roll Toms) and double majored in Political Science and Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies.
TLDR: Do what you are going to do-- my job is not to police your arguments, but to evaluate the round that is presented to me. That being said, there is no human being without bias and I do my best to explain those below. Above all else, be kind.
FYI:
I'm probs flowing on paper, that I most likely stole from you. Make sure that I am switching to the next flow before you go into 10 theory args at top speed that aren't in the doc. Just look at me and I am VERY easy to read. I vote entirely off of the flow and if your arguments aren't on mine... you can't win on arguments that aren't there.
I can get down with any style of debate, you just need to tell me what my ballot means, how I should evaluate the round, and why that's a good model. If there is no framing or framework, I will default to a utilitarian policy maker/educational games player. Tech > Truth.
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-Judge Adaptation is one of the best skills you can learn in this activity. If you watch me, I will give you visual cues.
-Clarity over speed. If you can imagine your theoretical maximum speed, I would like to hear you at about 80%. Please use short tags, organize your speeches, label positions, and identify arguments that you are responding to by signposting (e.g., 2AC 1) or short summary (e.g., "off the no link").
-I care most about how the affirmative's proposed action will affect people. Explain to me how your impacts affect the material conditions of people's lives and why your impacts are more important than your opponents' (e.g., via timeframe, probability, magnitude comparisons).
-My speaker points are pretty average/high. I would guess that in a decent varsity round, everyone gets somewhere around 28.5. I will reward well-executed strategies, clever concessions, insightful case debates, cross-examinations that develop the debate, and being kind.I will give you bonus speaks if you send out your analytics; I think this is good for the debate community and KIND. After the round, I will look at both teams' wikis and will give you bonus speaks for having sufficient disclosure.
-Show me your personality! People often forget about the actual speaking part of debate. I really enjoy it when people are funny and have personality in speeches, tags, cross ex, etc., but I do think there is a fine line between being entertaining and being snarky, mean, or demeaning. Being disrespectful in any way will hurt your speaks and may warrant me intervening mid-round to correct your behavior. Again, my role as an adult & educator in this space is first and foremost to keep everyone safe. I think the best debaters will have their persona as part of their performance.
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T: Topicality is a default voter for me, but I still need an explanation of why. I went for T often as a debater and I have a decently high threshold of what arguments are necessary to be on that flow (imo it's basic but lol). I think T should be similar to a DA with "UQ, Link, I/L, and Impacts" and organized as such (definition/interp, violation, standards, voters). If one of those are missing it's going to be hard to get my ballot. Jurisdiction is a REAL voter and should be utilized more. I generally prefer competing interps over reasonability, unless it's egregious.
T/Framework: The neg should have a TVA that includes at least some of the aff. I also like to see a topical caselist. Switch side is not something I want to vote on, but will. For ground, I want affs to tell me what ACTUALLY links to their aff to prove that there is no ground loss/core generics that can still be accessed by the negative. Cap links to everything, roll with that... but explain WHY. I need both teams to tell me what their model looks like and why the other team's model leads to bad debates.
Theory: If you want me to vote on theory you gotta go all in and have PROOF OF ABUSE. I'm compelled to reject the argument, not the team unless there is proof of abuse. I think Condo can be a good thing but can be convinced otherwise pretty easily if there is proof of abuse. Also, I think PIC/PIKs are probably good, especially if they are specific to the aff. I'll vote on disclosure theory, but probably not on new affs bad.
Ks: I think the actual K literature base is deeply interesting, but it is often botched in a debate round. I'm familiar with most Ks. Regardless of what you think my prior knowledge is on the K, I need some explanation of what is happening. I have no beef with any lit base, but I do not know your tricks. It is very easy to convince me that links of omission are bad. I want SPECIFIC links TO THE PLAN ACTION, but will vote without them when necessary. Oh yeah, I should have a clear idea of what the alt does & what the world of the alt looks like if you think I'm going to vote on it. Alts are helpful, but not necessary. Sure, kick it-- but I need some FW args on why that should be legit. I think the aff always gets a perm, unless it's a K aff then I'm more flexible. Root cause is not a link.
CPs: Most CPs that are fashionable these days are not competitive. The first thing I think about on a CP is competition. I'm BEGGING you to have a net benefit (internal and/or external). Process & Conditions CPs are sus, especially without a solvency advocate. "Should" definitions are probably bad reasons for competition. Topical CPs are legit, 50 States fiat is probs not, but negs probs get to fiat. I'll judge kick if you tell me to (and why that is a fair thing for me to do).
DAs: Run any disad, please. I really appreciate the strategic choices in straight turning / impact turn debates. I wish more people would run DAs that turn case or just straight up read them as case turns. I need to hear all 4 parts of a disad (unx, link, int/L, & impact), except in very specific instances.
Performance: Do it! Have some framework/theory on why it should be legit. Performance is VERY cool when done well. You need to commit though.
Case: I need CLASH. It is really hard for you to win my ballot as the negative if you do not answer the aff. I also want at least some mention of case in the 2NR-- either in an overview, actually going to the flow, in impact calc, or cross application of links as DAs to case. This doesn't apply if you're going for T or Theory. Inherency is something I wish people would talk about more... it's part of the affs burden of proof.
Mike Shackelford
Head Coach of Rowland Hall. I debated in college and have been a lab leader at CNDI, Michigan, and other camps. I've judged about 20 rounds the first semester.
Do what you do best. I’m comfortable with all arguments. Practice what you preach and debate how you would teach. Strive to make it the best debate possible.
Key Preferences & Beliefs
Debate is a game.
Literature determines fairness.
It’s better to engage than exclude.
Critique is a verb.
Defense is undervalued.
Judging Style
I flow on my computer. If you want a copy of my flow, just ask.
I think CX is very important.
I reward self-awareness, clash, good research, humor, and bold decisions.
Add me to the email chain: mikeshackelford(at)rowlandhall(dot)org
Feel free to ask.
Want something more specific? More absurd?
Debate in front of me as if this was your 9 judge panel:
Andre Washington, Ian Beier, Shunta Jordan, Maggie Berthiaume, Daryl Burch, Yao Yao Chen, Nicholas Miller, Christina Philips, jon sharp
If both teams agree, I will adopt the philosophy and personally impersonate any of my former students:
Ben Amiel, Andrew Arsht, David Bernstein, Madeline Brague, Julia Goldman, Emily Gordon, Adrian Gushin, Layla Hijjawi, Elliot Kovnick, Will Matheson, Ben McGraw, Corinne Sugino, Caitlin Walrath, Sydney Young (these are the former debaters with paradigms... you can also throw it back to any of my old school students).
LD Paradigm
Most of what is above will apply here below in terms of my expectations and preferences. I spend most of my time at tournaments judging policy debate rounds, however I do teach LD and judge practice debates in class. I try to keep on top of the arguments and developments in LD and likely am familiar with your arguments to some extent.
Theory: I'm unlikely to vote here. Most theory debates aren't impacted well and often put out on the silliest of points and used as a way to avoid substantive discussion of the topic. It has a time and a place. That time and place is the rare instance where your opponent has done something that makes it literally impossible for you to win. I would strongly prefer you go for substance over theory. Speaker points will reflect this preference.
Speed: Clarity > Speed. That should be a no-brainer. That being said, I'm sure I can flow you at whatever speed you feel is appropriate to convey your arguments.
Disclosure: I think it's uniformly good for large and small schools. I think it makes debate better. If you feel you have done a particularly good job disclosing arguments (for example, full case citations, tags, parameters, changes) and you point that out during the round I will likely give you an extra half of a point if I agree.
Background: 4 years at Baylor University, 1-Time NDT Qualifier. Assistant Coach at the U.S. Naval Academy, 2018-2022, Assistant Coach at Dowling Catholic High School, 2019-Present. Currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science and I work for the Legislative Services Agency in Iowa.
Yes I want to be on the email chain: Sheaffly@gmail.com. Also email me with questions about this paradigm.
Paradigms are difficult to write because there are so many potential audiences. From novice middle schoolers to varsity college debaters, I judge it all. As a result, I want everyone reading this paradigm to realize that it was written mostly in terms of varsity college debates. I think about debate a little differently in high school and a little differently when it comes to novice debates, but I hope this gives you a general idea of how to debate in front of me
== TL;DR ==
Do line-by-line. I do not flow straight down and I do not flow off the speech doc. I am a DA/CP/Case kind of judge. I am bad at understanding kritiks and I am biased towards the topic being good. Be nice.
== Top Level - Flowing ==
It has become clear to me after years of judging that most of my decisions center not around my biases about arguments (which I won’t pretend not to have), but rather around my ability to understand your argument. My ability to understand your argument is directly related to how clean my flow is. Thus, it is in your best interest to make my flow very clean. I used to think I was bad at flowing, but I've come to the conclusion that line-by-line and organized debate has become a lost art. Debaters who learn this art are much more likely to win in front of me.
You are NOT as clear on tags as you think you are. Getting every 4th word of a tag is okay only if every 4th word is the key nouns and verbs. This is never true. So slow down on your tags, I am NOT READING THEM.
I’m not gonna flow everything straight down and then reconstruct the debate afterwards. The 1NC sets the order of the debate on the case, the 2AC sets the order of the debate off case. Abide by that order. Otherwise, I will spend time trying to figure out where to put your argument rather than writing it down and that’s bad for you.
Another tip: Find ways to give me pen time. For example, do not read 4 perms in a row. It’s impossible for me to write down all of those words. Plus, it’s always first and you haven’t even given me time to flip my paper over. And then your next argument is always an analytic about how the CP doesn’t solve and then I can’t write that down either. So stop doing things like that.
== Top Level – Arguments ==
Basic stuff: I love creativity and learning from debate. Make it clear to me how much you know about the arguments you are making. I don’t think this means you have to have cut every card you read, but understanding not just the substance of your argument, but the tricks within them is important.
As I said above, the thing that will be a problem for me is not understanding your argument. Unfortunately, this probably impacts Kritik debaters more than policy debaters, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
I am probably a little more truth > tech than most judges. I believe in technical debate, but I also believe that debate is a place where truth is important. I don't care how many cards you have that say something, if the other team asserts it is not true and they are correct, they win the point.
== Top Level - Community Norms ==
1) For online debate, prep time stops when you unmute yourself and say stop prep. A couple of reasons for this. a) I have no way of verifying when you actually stopped prep if you come out and say "we stopped 15 seconds ago" and b) neither do your opponents, which means that you are basically forcing them to steal prep. I don't like it so that's the rule.
2) Debate is a messed-up community already. Don't make it more so. Be nice to each other. Have fun in the debate while you are disagreeing. If you make it seem like you think the other team is stupid during the debate, it's gonna make me grumpy. I love debate and I love watching people do it, but I hate confrontation and I hate it when people get angry about debates that don't matter that much in the long term. Be nice. Please.
3) This is mostly for high schoolers, where I see this issue all the time: If you are going to send a document without your analytics in it, making the version of the doc without the analytics in it IS PREP TIME. You don't get 45 seconds to send the document. Y'all are GenZ, I know you can send an email faster than that. You get 15 seconds before I break in and ask what the deal is. You get 20 seconds before I start prep again.
== Specifics ==
Affirmatives...
...Which Defend the Topic - I enjoy creativity. This includes creative interpretations of topicality. You should also read my thoughts on DAs as they apply to how you construct your advantages. Clear story is good.
...Which Do Not Defend the Topic - I am likely not a great judge for you. I think I may have a reputation as someone who hates these arguments. That reputation is not unearned, I built it up for years. But over time I’ve come to become a lot more accepting of them. There are many of these affirmatives that I think provide valuable debate. The problem I have is that I cannot figure out an interpretation of debate that allows the valuable "K Affs," but limits out the affs that I think are generally created to confuse their way to a win rather than provide actual valuable propositions for debate. I will always think of framework as a debate about what you JUSTIFY, rather than what you DO, and every interpretation I have ever seen in these debates simply lets in too much of the uneducational debates without providing a clear basis for clash.
I realize this sounds like I have been totally brainwashed by framework, and perhaps I have. But I want to be honest about where I'm at. That said, I think the above makes clear that if you have a defensible INTERPRETATION, I am willing to listen to it. You should also look at the section under kritiks, because I think it describes the fact that I need the actual argument of the affirmative to be clear. This generally means that, if your tags are poems, I am not ideologically opposed to that proposition, but you better also have very clear explanation of why you read that poem
Negative Strategies
Framework: See discussion above. Good strategy. Impact, impact, impact. Education > procedural fairness > any other impact. “Ks are bad” is a bad argument, “their interpretation makes debate worse and uneducational” is a winnable argument. Topical version of the aff goes a long way with me.
Topicality: Good strategy. Impact, impact, impact. Case lists. Why that case list is bad. Affirmatives, you should talk about your education. I love creative interps of the topic if you defend them. But for the love of god slow down.
Disads: Absolutely. Well constructed DAs are very fun to watch. However, see truth vs. tech above – I have a lower threshold for “zero risk of a [link, impact, internal link] etc.” I love Politics DAs, but they’re all lies. I am up-to-date on the news. If you are not, do not go for the politics DA using updates your coaches cut. You will say things that betray that you don’t know what you’re talking about and it will hurt your speaks. Creative impact calc (outside of just magnitude, timeframe, probability) is the best impact calc.
Counterplans: I'm tired of the negative getting away with murder. I am VERY willing to listen to theory debates about some of these crazy process CPs which compete off of a net benefit or immedicacy/certainty. Theory debates are fun for me but for the love of god slow down. Otherwise, yeah, CPs are fine.
Kritiks: Eh. You can see the discussion above about K affs. I used to be rigidly ideological about hating the K. I am now convinced that the K can make good points. But because I was so against them for so long, I don’t understand them. I still think some Kritiks (here I am thinking mostly of French/German dudes) are basically designed to confuse the other team into losing. Problem is, I can’t tell the difference between those Kritiks and other Kritiks, because all Kritiks confuse me.
Very basic Ks are fine. Realism is bad, heg is bad, capitalism is bad, I get. Get much beyond that and I get lost. It's not that I think you're wrong it's that I have always been uninterested so I never learned what you're talking about. I cannot emphasize enough how little I understand what you're talking about. If this is your thing and I am already your judge, conceptualize your K like a DA/CP strategy and explain it to me like I have never heard it before. Literally, in your 2NC say: "We believe that X is bad. We believe that they do X because of this argument they have made. We believe the alternative solves for X." I cannot stress enough how serious I am that that sentence should be the top of your 2NC and 2NR. I have had this sentence in my judge philosophy for 3 years and this has been the top of the 2NC once (in a JV debate!). I do not know how much clearer I can be. Again, I am not morally opposed to Kritiks (anymore), I just do not understand them and I will not vote for something I do not understand. I believe you need a good link. Yes, the world is terrible, but why is the aff terrible. You also need to make your tags not a paragraph long, I never learned how to flow tags that were that long.
Hi, I'm Micah and I use any pronouns.
My email is Micah.sheinberg@gmail.com
Please be funny, judging debate all day gets boring :)
I graduated in 2023, so I am not a very experienced judge. I will flow and pay attention, but if you are not clear enough to understand, I will not make your arguments for you. You should explain in the 2NR/2AR why you should win, make it easy for me to write my ballot. Signpost and make it clear where one argument ends and the next begins.
My topic education is approximately none, so just be understandable.
I mainly ran policy arguments in my five years at Rowland Hall so if you are going to run a K you should explain what your framework, what the impacts of not voting on that framework is and talking about the role of the ballot. Don’t be abusive in rounds.
Truth < Tech
Remember that debate is a game, so have fun. Funny, clear, and effective debaters will get high speaks. If you don't take yourself too seriously and can make fun of yourself I will respect you more.
If an argument is not extended by either team I default to judge kick.
(if you ever feel like I made a bad decision, I get it, but also if you lost a round its because you didn't explain your position in a way that I felt comfortable voting on)
Pretty much everything else is similar or the same as Mike Shackleford, Zachery Thiede and Zachary Klein.
Collin Smith -- collin.smith8941@gmail.com
Most of my argumentation has been on the K side of things in debate. My research interests, however, are very broad, and I do not really care what form your arguments take. As a judge, I value specificity, evidence comparison, and in-depth explanation. I generally decide debates by identifying key points of offense and sifting through the evaluative mechanisms set up by either team to discern whose impact matters more, and how I should conceive of solvency.
Framework – I will vote for it, I will vote against it. I think neg teams win these debates when they win clash/debate-ability as an internal link turn to aff and some type of procedural impact, but I see the utility in switch-side or topic education arguments in some contexts. Neg’s also need to win a framework comes first/case doesn’t matter argument. I think the aff is set to win these debates when they win an impact they can solve, an impact turn to the neg’s interp, and apply that disad to the 2nr’s arguments. I do not think a counter-interpretation is necessary, though often it is quite useful.
Case/disads - I really enjoy a detailed, specific case or disad debate. I am willing vote on well-executed defense to mostly minimize the risk of an advantage or disadvantage.
yes please include me on email chain- warrensprouse@gmail.com
Please turn on your cameras when you are speaking if at all possible.
Remember to weigh claims and warrants within your evidence; I am much more likely to vote on well-explained arguments than taglines, even if those arguments do not necessarily have evidence to back them up. If you can do both- awesome.
Do not be rude or disrespectful to your opponents or your partner.
Tell me in the last rebuttals how to weigh your arguments and how to compare your impacts with the other team’s.
If you read cards that are not in the novice packet and were given to you by your varsity debaters, that is cheating and I will yell at you.
Head Coach for St. Paul Central(MN) from 2021(water topic)->present
Pronouns are they/she
I would like to be on the email chain @ stpaulcentralcxdebate@gmail.com
Email for questions/contact @ marshall.d.steele@gmail.com
For 24-25 --- Serving as Program Development Fellow at the MNUDL so judging a little less than past years on local circuit
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TLDR for prefs/strikes
I appreciate good judge instructions and am neutral on most arguments. Prob best for KvK debates and fine for everything else. Will vote on just about anything that isn't you being overtly hostile to your opponents.If you just wanna know my K aff thoughts I will happily vote on em and find those debates very interesting. Be nice and run arguments you like and we'll get along fine. As a default I wont check speech docs until the end of the round so clarity is your friend on blocks. I am mostly a clash judge but will still consider/would like to see good 2R top level conceptualization of the round. I value technical drops and all that fun clash debate stuff, it's just to say that actual persuasive argumentation and analysis are probably very important.
slow down for dense analytic blocks especially / fw / theory, putting this here as well as below. If you want me to flow every warrant you should probably not be going at the pace and intonation of the body of a card
Also idk when this became controversial but I'm only gonna flow words you say. you cannot just say "insert the perms" and get your 10 perms you wrote. you have to say them. Same goes for other issues perm, you have to actually say what issues you are adding. Re-highlighting I'm fine with being an insertion.
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Judging Takes:
Tech V Truth: Tech over truth but making overtly illogical arguments at high speed to get the other side to drop them is gonna be worse for your speaks than well-thought-out positions.
Speed/Delivery- Besides the stated above, I always appreciate starting out slower and speeding up, i.e start at 85% and ramp up to full speed.
Kritikal Affs- go for it. I like them. Don't assume I'll automatically understand your lit or import my analysis - the same standard as any policy arg. Probably a better-than-average judge for you if you're running queer theory(though misuse of the term "overkill" is a personal pet peeve).
Topicality - I'm pretty neutral on T. just please don't forget to at minimum say "voter for xyz" and I'm open to hear your interp of the topic.
Counterplans - I don't have many strong opinions on counterplans. I don't particularly enjoy process counterplan debate but I'm not gonna refuse to vote on them. default to perms as a test of competition. Am generally not a fan of counterplans with 5+ (functionally contradictory) planks. Judge kick as a default
Kritiks - I like kritiks generally, I think more kritiks should utilize offense about their theory of power to prove why the aff is materially also wrong. I.e, if you're running security and the aff's main impact, is predicated on a tech race that should at minimum be defense to the impact if you're winning a theory of power that precludes tech races as a real scenario.
Theory:Do I like theory debates? Not at all. Will I vote on it? yeah
Default to tournament rules on ethics challenges/evidence stuff/anything you're gonna
Feel free to ask questions on anything listed or not listed above, always happy to yap about my debate opinions.
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Random Notes
Plan flaws are awesome and under-utilized
Not a fan of random swearing, if you feel you're argument is more rhetorically powerful with it that's cool but "that's a dumb F***ing question" in cx will get your speaks dropped severely. Just because college debaters over-use it doesn't make it persuasive.
I didn't think I'd ever have to write this but overtly calling your opponents dumb or bad at debate or anything in that nature is a really quick way to 26-land. Yes, this includes when you think you are whispering quietly and are in fact quite loud.
Prep stealing is not epic
how is farm bill still a DA - this was "Unique" when I started debating
Rowland Hall Assistant Coach (2022-Now).
Please include me on the email chain. If I am your judge it means we are at an online tournament because I currently do not reside in the United States. SPEAK CLEARLY! Online debate is not new and we should all know what is required of us. I will have my camera on during all speeches, if it is off please check and make sure I am present.
I am literate on the IPR topic, I taught at debate camp this previous summer, but over-explaining complicated topics or plans never hurt anyone.
I have very little predispositions about debate, do what you do best and I will work hard to fairly adjudicate your round. If you have any specific questions for me, please ask before the debate.
Argument thoughts:
Do NOT read death good.
I have a high threshold for condo bad, BUT I can be convinced it is egregious if it is.
Fairness is an impact.
No ad homs, out-of-round fights, or incriminating screenshots. I am NOT tabroom and if this is brought up in my debate I will refuse to adjudicate it and contact the appropriate tournament officials. Please remember, judges cannot evaluate what occurs beyond their purview. It doesn't mean you should not tell people if you are having problems with a fellow debater, coach, or judge, just don't do it in a debate round.
Judge(s) who I seek to emulate: Mike Shackelford.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign '28 ('27?) (Not Debating (for now))
Fox Chapel '24
Other conflicts/coaching: Gunn KB, Edison BB, Jenks GH, Whitney Young SV/MB
Email: adhi[dot]thirumala[at]gmail[dot]com
Varsity only, add this as well: realartistsofguantanamobay[at]googlegroups[dot]com
I've decided to do version-control on this page; you can find previous versions at my Github.
Long story short, dishonorable victory is preferable to honest defeat. Because some people have misinterpreted this line in the past, this does NOT mean to do academic dishonesty.
I've been every speaker position, gone for every kind of argument, and debated at every level of the activity from the most lay to the most circuit. This used to be a lot longer. I thought that I needed to express all these random thoughts about the activity, but as I kept going on, I realized that I don't actually care that much. Debate made me happy in high school, and I enjoyed doing it. One of the few things that caused me anguish while I competed was judge intervention, either at the level where they would enforce argument preference, or at the level where they would make poor technical decisions and not take the simplest path to a victory. Part of what made the activity so fun was going for whatever positions I wanted, whether they were "honorable" or not. I will try my hardest to listen to whatever is in front of me because at the end of the day, the debate is about you, the debaters, not me.
I will intervene and end the round only in one of the three following circumstances.
1. A debater asking to end the round.
2. A debater not capable of communicating to me that they would like the debate to continue (e.g. someone unconscious, linguistic barrier, etc.)
3. Tabroom telling me to make a decision in a certain manner.
A couple of thoughts from an older version of this document that I think are still necessary for me to express.
1. Remember to have offense. Posturing and asserting that your opponent has gone for a "bad" argument does nothing to beat back the "badness" of it. This applies a lot in theory, competition, and topicality debates a lot. Having strong vision in these debates is something that will result in high speaker points.
2. Send me emails with proper subjects, WORD documents with proper names and headers, and time your prep. Preferably nothing in the body of an email either. My computer is already cluttered; don't make it worse.
3. I don't want a card document. I think most judge screws come from judges going rogue and reading evidence. I will try my hardest not to do this unless instructed to by debaters. I also think that card documents give debaters an incentive to add cards not extended or rewrite headers to imply arguments not made. I don't want to deal with that.
Now, to end this page, imagine that I quoted that line about science fiction, trolls, and blank checks.
use John.thompson257@gmail.com for email chains
Update -Silver and Black
I've been reminded by my earlier judging this year that my greatest frustration when judging is when the debate is muddy at the end of a round. In many circumstances I encounter a round where one side has a clear affirmative case with slightly mitigated impacts and the other side has some muddied disad with a counterplan that captures a portion but not all of the affirmatives impacts and the round ends with both sides saying "see, we won" with no strong warranted calculus of where and how different implications overwhelm rivaling arguments. If you find yourself in this circumstance I have to do this calculation myself and there is no prediction for how I am going to wind up. The less of this I have to do at the end of a round the happier I end up being.
I'm a bit out of date with the current meta, it's been several years since I was involved in the debate community. I have 9 years of experience debating then judging and coaching in policy debate on the national circuit. I'm comfortable with just about any style of argument and consider myself mostly tabula rasa in judging style.
I think you should do what you do best and you are more likely to perform well than trying to cater your arguments to me in particular.
I believe debate should be interactive in the sense that you and your opponents should not be talking past each other and should directly engage as deeply as possible in specific arguments.
For PF and LD debate:
As a former Policy coach I feel like the round should inform me of what and how I should evaluate the debaters. I'm totally fine with more traditional elements as well as progressive elements and think that quality of arguments is far more important than being able to out spread your opponent regardless of the debate style.
Name : Lauren Velazquez
Affiliated School: Niles North
Email: Laurenida@gmail.com
General Background:
I debated competitively in high school in the 1990s for Maine East. I participated on the national circuit where counterplans and theory were common.
Director of Debate at Niles North
Laurenida@gmail.com
ME
Experience:
I competed in the 90s, helped around for a few years, took a bit of a break, have been back for about 7 years. My teams compete on the national circuit, I help heavily with my teams’ strategies, and am a lab leader at a University of Michigan. In recent years I have helped coach teams that cleared at the TOC, won state titles and consistently debated in late elim rounds at national tournaments. TL/DR--I am familiar with national circuit debate but I do not closely follow college debate so do not assume that I am attuned to the arguments that are currently cutting edge/new.
What this means for you---I lean tech over truth when it comes to execution, but truth controls the direction of tech, and some debate meta-arguments matter a lot less to me.
I am not ideological towards most arguments, I believe debate structurally is a game, but there are benefits to debate outside of it being just a game, give it your best shot and I will try my best to adapt to you.
The only caveat is do not read any arguments that you think would be inappropriate for me to teach in my classroom, if you are worried it might be inappropriate, you should stop yourself right there.
DISADS AND ADVANTAGES
When deciding to vote on disadvantages and affirmative advantages, I look for a combination of good story telling and evidence analysis. Strong teams are teams that frame impact calculations for me in their rebuttals (e.g. how do I decide between preventing a war or promoting human rights?). I should hear from teams how their internal links work and how their evidence and analysis refute indictments from their opponents. Affirmatives should have offense against disads (and Negs have offense against case). It is rare, in my mind, for a solvency argument or "non unique" argument to do enough damage to make the case/disad go away completely, at best, relying only on defensive arguments will diminish impacts and risks, but t is up to the teams to conduct a risk analysis telling me how to weigh risk of one scenario versus another.
TOPICALITY
I will vote on topicality if it is given time (more than 15 seconds in the 2NR) in the debate and the negative team is able to articulate the value of topicality as a debate “rule” and demonstrate that the affirmative has violated a clear and reasonable framework set by the negative. If the affirmative offers a counter interpretation, I will need someone to explain to me why their standards and definitions are best. Providing cases that meet your framework is always a good idea. I find the limits debate to be the crux generally of why I would vote for or against T so if you are neg you 100% should be articulating the limits implications of your interpretation.
KRITIKS
Over the years, I have heard and voted on Kritiks, but I do offer a few honest caveats:
*Please dont read "death good"/nihilism/psychoanalysis in front of me. I mean honestly I will consider it but I know I am biased and I HATE nihilism, psychoanalysis debates. I will try to listen with an open mind but I really don't think these arguments are good for the activity or good for pedagogy--they alienate younger debaters who are learning the game and I don't think that genuine discussions of metaphysics lend themselves to speed reading and "voting" on right/wrong. If you run these I will listen and work actively to be open minded but know you are making an uphill battle for yourself running these. If these are your bread and butter args you should pref me low.
I read newspapers daily so I feel confident in my knowledge around global events. I do not regularly read philosophy or theory papers, there is a chance that I am unfamiliar with your argument or the underlying paradigms. I do believe that Kritik evidence is inherently dense and should be read a tad slower and have accompanying argument overviews in negative block. Impact analysis is vital. What is the role of the ballot? How do I evaluate things like discourse against policy implications (DAs etc)
Also, I’m going to need you to go a tad slower if you are busting out a new kritik, as it does take time to process philosophical writings.
If you are doing something that kritiks the overall debate round framework (like being an Aff who doesnt have a plan text), make sure you explain to me the purpose of your framework and why it is competitively fair and educationally valuable.
COUNTERPLANS
I am generally a fan of CPs as a neg strategy. I will vote for counterplans but I am open to theory arguments from the affirmative (PICs bad etc). Counterplans are most persuasive to me when the negative is able to clearly explain the net benifts and how (if at all) the counterplan captures affirmative solvency. For permutations to be convincing offense against CPs, Affs should explain how permutation works and what voting for perm means (does the DA go away, do I automatically vote against neg etc?)
RANDOM
Tag team is fine as long as you don’t start taking over cross-ex and dominating. You are part of a 2 person team for a reason.
Speed is ok as long as you are clear. If you have a ton of analytics in a row or are explaining a new/dense theory, you may want to slow down a little since processing time for flowing analytics or kritkits is a little slower than me just flowing the text of your evidence.
I listen to cross ex. I think teams come up with a lot of good arguments during this time. If you come up with an argument in cross ex-add it to the flow in your speech.