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Arizona State HDSHC Invitational

2019 — AZ/US

Policy Paradigm List

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Momen Abdelkarim Hamilton High School 3 rounds

Last changed on Sun December 30, 2018 at 12:54 PM MST

I competed as an AZ policy debater (1A/2N).

I really don't like K's. If you really want to hear my opinion on them ask my before/after round. I will NOT vote you down if you run a K, but it'll be an uphill battle for you since I prefer policy arguments a lot more, so you'll have to do a really good job on that K to convince me. Still, I don't recommend running a K. If you're running theory please either explain it briefly in round or give me a quick crash course before the round in case I've forgotten it.

While I have been looking at some camp files, assume I have no prior knowledge on this year's resolution other than what I've been hearing in rounds as a judge and as an average citizen. You don't need to explain the resolution to me like a lay judge but I've only judged this resolution once this school year.

I will try to keep my Verbal RFD's as concise as possible. My handwriting isn't good so value verbal RFD over written RFD. If you'd like me to expand on my RFD you can ask me once the verbal RFD is over so others can get to their next round on time.

General

- I won't flow cross-ex but I do listen and take mental-note, it's one of my favorite parts of a round. Cross-ex factors heavily into speaker points for me and decently into the overall vote.

- I don't count flashing as prep, but if you take too long I'll warn you before I start counting it.

- I'm a bit rusty on listening to spreading but if you do the following then there shouldn't be any problems:

- Super clear (don't mumble or whisper)

- Flash me everything including analytics (if you don't flash the analytics to me then you run the risk of me not catching what you said).

- Go in the order of the speech doc, and if you skip parts of a card tell me where to mark them, or if you skip whole cards tell me which ones you skip.

- If your arguments are great but I can't flow them correctly due to your speaking, then you're wasting your time. Make it clear, straightforward, down the flow, and in a clean order I can read in the flashed files.

- Please use speechdrop.net. If you would use that, that'd be great. If not, email chain works. If not, USB works.

- Speaker points:

<27: no bueno, I had a lot of trouble understanding you.
27-27.9: mediocre, I had really had trouble understanding you.
28-28.9: good, I had a decent amount of trouble understanding you.
29-29.4: very good, I had a bit of trouble understanding you.
29.5-30: excellent, I had no trouble understanding you.

These aren't hard and fast ranges but this should give you an idea. Differs round-by-round.

Heather Allred American Leadership Academy 3 rounds

Lauren Barney Hire 3 rounds

Joseph Barquin Hire 6 rounds

Last changed on Wed January 3, 2024 at 4:53 PM PDT

Affiliations:

I am currently coaching 3 teams at lamdl (POLAHS, BRAVO, LAKE BALBOA) and have picked up an ld student or 2. I am pretty familiar with the fiscal redistribution and WANA topics.

I do have a hearing problem in my right ear. If I've never heard you b4 or it's the first round of the day. PLEASE go about 80% of your normal spread for about 20 seconds so I can get acclimated to your voice. If you don't, I'm going to miss a good chunk of your first minute or so. I know people pref partly through speaker points. My default starts at 28.5 and goes up from there. If i think you get to an elim round, you'll prob get 29.0+

Evid sharing: use speechdrop or something of that nature. If you prefer to use the email chain and need my email, please ask me before the round.

What will I vote for? I'm mostly down for whatever you all wanna run. That being said no person is perfect and we all have our inherent biases. What are mine?

I think teams should be centered around the resolution. While I'll vote on completely non T aff's it's a much easier time for a neg to go for a middle of the road T/framework argument to get my ballot. I lean slightly neg on t/fw debates and that's it's mostly due to having to judge LD recently and the annoying 1ar time skew that makes it difficult to beat out a good t/fw shell. The more I judge debates the less I am convinced that procedural fairness is anything but people whining about why the way they play the game is okay even if there are effects on the people involved within said activity. I'm more inclined to vote for affs and negs that tell me things that debate fairness and education (including access) does for people in the long term and why it's important. Yes, debate is a game. But who, why, and how said game is played is also an important thing to consider.

As for K's you do you. the main one I have difficulty conceptualizing in round are pomo k vs pomo k. No one unpacks these rounds for me so all I usually have at the end of the round is word gibberish from both sides and me totally and utterly confused. If I can't give a team an rfd centered around a literature base I can process, I will likely not vote for it. update: I'm noticing a lack of plan action centric links to critiques. I'm going to be honest, if I can't find a link to the plan and the link is to the general idea of the resolution, I'm probably going to err on the side of the perm especially if the aff has specific method arguments why doing the aff would be able to challenge notions of whatever it is they want to spill over into.

I lean neg on condo. Counterplans are fun. Disads are fun. Perms are fun. clear net benefit story is great.

If you're in LD, don't worry about 1ar theory and no rvis in your 1ac. That is a given for me. If it's in your 1ac, that tops your speaks at 29.2 because it means you didn't read my paradigm.

Now are there any arguments I won't vote for? Sure. I think saying ethically questionable statements that make the debate space unsafe is grounds for me to end a round. I don't see many of these but it has happened and I want students and their coaches to know that the safety of the individuals in my rounds will always be paramount to anything else that goes on. I also won't vote for spark, trix, wipeout, nebel t, and death good stuff. ^_^ good luck and have fun debating

clara bates The Meadows School 3 rounds

Mike Bausch Kent Denver School 3 rounds

Last changed on Sat April 6, 2024 at 1:31 AM MDT

Mike Bausch

Director of Speech and Debate, Kent Denver

Please include me in email chains; my email is mikebausch@gmail.com.

Thanks for letting me judge your debate. Do what you do best, and I will do my best to adapt to you all. Here are some tips for debating in a way that I find most persuasive:

1. Flow the debate and make complete arguments. I care about line-by-line debating and organization. An argument must have a claim, evidence, and an impact on the debate for me to vote on it. I must understand your reasoning enough to explain to the other team why I voted on it.

2. Be timely and efficient in the round. Nothing impresses me more than students who are prepared and organized. Please conduct the debate efficiently with little dead time. Don’t steal prep.

3. Focus on argument resolution after the first speeches. Impact calculus, developing specific warrants, identifying what to do with drops, answering “so what” questions, making “even if” statements, and comparing arguments (links, solvency, etc) are all great ways to win arguments, rather than just repeat them.

4. Feature judge instruction in the final rebuttals. The best tip I can give you is to go for less distinct issues as the debate develops and to focus on explaining and comparing your best points to your opponent’s arguments more. Begin your final rebuttal by writing my ballot and explicitly saying what you’re winning and why that should win you the debate.

5. Remember that this is a communication activity. Speak clearly, I do not follow along with the speech document and will say “clear” if I can’t understand you. Use your cross-examination time to persuade the judge and prepare for it like a speech.

6. Talk about your evidence more. I think a lot of teams get away with reading poor evidence. Please make evidence comparison (data, warrants, source, or recency) a significant part of the debate. Evidence that is highlighted in complete and coherent sentences is much more persuasive than evidence that is not.

7. Identify specific evidence that you want me read after the debate. I am more likely to read evidence that is discussed and explained during the debate and will use the debater's explanation to guide my reading. I am unlikely to read evidence that I didn't understand when it was initially presented, or to give much credit to warrants that only become clear to me after examining the evidence.

8. Develop persuasive specific links to your desired argument strategy. I think the affirmative should present an advocacy they can defend as topical, and the negative should clash with ideas that the affirmative has committed to defending. I think that the policy consequences and ethical implications of the resolution are both important to consider when debating about the topic. For all strategies, it starts for me with the credibility of the link.

9. Develop and compare your impacts early and often. Impact analysis and comparison is crucial to persuading me to vote for you. In depth explanation is great and even better if that includes clear comparisons to your opponent’s most significant impacts.

10. I prefer clash heavy instead of clash avoidant debates. I am most impressed by teams that demonstrate command of their arguments, who read arguments with strong specific links to the topic, and who come prepared to debate their opponent’s case. I am less impressed with teams that avoid clash by using multiple conditional advocacies, plan vagueness, generic positions without topic nuance, and reading incomplete arguments that lack clear links or solvency advocates.

*Note: Because evidence comparison is a valuable skill, I think all formats of debate benefit from evidence exchange between students in the debate and would prefer if students practiced this norm.

Jessica Carter Hire 3 rounds

Last changed on Wed December 1, 2021 at 12:55 PM MST

I competed in LD throughout High School and I am currently doing Policy in college.

I will be more familiar with an LD topic than any other form of debate so if I am judging you in PF or CX so if you have very technical things in the topic you will need to explain those more in your case.

Clash is my favorite thing in a round - Don't be two ships passing in the night say something and do a debate. That being said don't just say things to say things an incoherent argument is worse than no argument at all. Evaluate what your opponent is saying and respond to it in a way that makes sense. Respect your opponent and their arguments.

I will drop you without a second thought if you run a joke argument. During a college debate round I watched someone ran a coloring performance if you run anything like this getting me to vote for you will be very difficult. I love flair, critical, and performative arguments but it needs to be based in either theory or I need a reason why what your saying matters. I try to limit my intervention as a judge so don't expect me to do any work for you.

LD is a theory and morality-based debate so I expect a focus on the morality of affirming or negating the resolution. The debtors need to tell me why I should care about their V-C and why their V-C is better than their opponents and should be preferred for the round. I will not do any work for any side you have the responsibility of stating the impacts of your arguments and why these impacts are better than your opponents. You also have to extend your own arguments throughout the debate for them to matter. I'm fine with CP's, Theory, and K's you just need to explain it well and make sure the impacts and analysis are clear.

I will say I think traditional LD tends to be more successful than critical forms of debate just because of the time constraints. If you're confident that you can get out what you need to with the time you're given then go for it. But the 4 and 3-minute aff speeches do make it difficult to get out what you need to.

I have zero patience for being rude to your opponent. Especially if your opponent is not as versed in critical arguments as you are. This is an educational activity, not an opportunity for you to pretend to be cooler than you are.

I'm fine with any type of argument as long as it makes sense and you explicitly state the impacts.

Topicality

You need to be explicit about what the violation that the other team has committed is. I tend not to care about fairness as an impact especially when you just make this claim in a vacuum. However, if you can tie it to a structural claim I'll be more likely to buy the argument. Make sure you're extending this throughout the entire round. I also need to know what ground you've lost as a result of the Aff being non-topical. Don't run topicality in front of me if the violation is small it will not be hard for the other team to convince me that they are topical.

I like K's I think critical arguments are important to increasing education in debate and I think that they bring a type of education that doesn't typically exist in the debate space. That being said do not run a K if the only link you have is a link of omission. Language is super important for K's so make sure you're being explicit with what you're saying. I think K's certainly can win against topical cases you just have to show why the impacts on par with nuclear extinction. I tend to find structure claims to be the most persuasive.

Performative Things

I think performances can be good but you need to have a way that your opponent can actually engage with your argument. I don't particular enjoy it when performance teams get overly angry or hostile to try to prevent their opponents from arguing.

Framework

My hot takes here are basically the same as topicality. I do think the framework is generally more true than topicality.

My paradigm is generally the same for CX as it is for LD you need to extend your stuff and make the impacts clear.

Listening is not an impact.

PF

I did PF I think twice? My same general rules for other debates apply - don't spread your event is not made for it and I'm more inclined to believe that it's unfair for your opponent. I will call cards so they better say what you tell me that you say. Also generally don't take racism and blow it into some insane impact because you want to win an argument. Impacts and links should make sense.

General

I'm fine with speed just let me know at the beginning of the round if you're going to be spreading.

Flashing/Email Chains should not take forever if it becomes excessive I will make you use Prep.

I'm fine with flex prep

Read analytics slower if you want me to flow them

Keep in mind this is digital for the time being I expect you to understand your own technological constraints and adjust accordingly especially in regard to speed.

If you need to use a graphic description of SA to win you don't deserve to win.

Aamirah Chisti BASIS Chandler HS 6 rounds None

Tanzil Chowdhury Hire 6 rounds

Last changed on Sat January 6, 2024 at 1:34 PM MST

I'm Tanzil -- debated policy at Chandler High School and Arizona State University for a total of eight years, coached policy debate at Hamilton High School for four years. Currently a graduate student at Cal and help out here and there with ASU and HHS's debate teams. Policy paradigm follows from here, paradigm for other forms of debate continues below, follow the bolded headers.

2022 Update:

I have not judged debate at all this year and have basically no familiarity with the topic. If there are buzzwords or acronyms specific to this year's topic, please use the explain and/or use the full phrase at least once before reverting to the buzzword/acronym.

Quick Coronavirus/Virtual Update:

Main thing is that y'all should slow down in virtual debates -- speak at, say, 60-70% of your in-person speed. Obviously this is dependent on internet connection and all so this won't hurt your speaks or anything unless I call repeatedly for you to slow down (which I'll do verbally with a "CLEAR" or "SPEED"). Obviously virtual debating is still newfangled so let's all be patient with each other as we figure it out. Much love.

Send speech docs and questions to tanzil.chowdhury98@gmail.com -- please include me on the email chain.

Functional Tidbits: Prep time ends when the email is sent out or the flash drive leaves the computer, unless you are a novice, in which case please just do your best to be speedy with your technology. I will not disclose until your wiki is updated. My speaker point baseline is 28.7, which means that if you are somewhere between 3-3 and 4-2 and sounding pretty alright that's the sort of score you'll get. I won't look at your speech doc/cards during your speech, and will not look at them at all unless i am a) explicitly asked to and/or b) feel as though I cannot make my decision without looking at them because some unresolved question about the evidence remains at the end of the debate. I generally flow straight down an excel sheet on my computer and do the work of lining things up as I make the decision, unless something is very clearly flagged (which I do appreciate). I make decisions quite quickly in many situations, though this usually is not a signal that the debate was not close -- it's more that I am constantly evaluating the quality of arguments at every point in the debate, and usually things clear up re; argument quality well before the 2NR/2AR. Please do take notes as I give my RFD, there's not really a point in my spending time to explain my decision and give feedback if you won't write it down. I love to hear questions from the debaters afterwards.

Actual Paradigm: I don't think that I believe anything that is radically different from any other competent policy debate judge out there, so for the most part I'm good for you on most any strategy or style of argumentation -- everything except that which is outright offensive is equally valid in a vacuum. There are a few specific places where my opinion may differ from others, so I'll try to outline those for you below.

a) I have a very hard time voting for fairness as an intrinsic impact on Framework. Winning that debate is a game does not automatically make you win that fairness is an intrinsic good; "debate is a game" is a descriptive claim that very well may be true, but framework is a debate about competing models, meaning that the prescriptive claim "debate ought not be a game" will almost always beat that. Given that every (competent) 2AC to framework will say that, you're better off just defending why your model of debate is a good thing if you're the negative, usually meaning that it is a more educational model.

b) The thing I appreciate most during the rounds I judge is the ability for teams to make clear decisions and then communicate those decisions to me. It shows me that you have the ability to understand the debate as more than just a series of disconnected arguments and that you have considered the strategy of what you are saying before you say it. As such, I am very much against the concept of the judge-kick. This is usually a big problem during Kritik debates; I will never kick the alt "for you", and in a situation where the alternative is not explicitly kicked, I will evaluate the debate as Aff v. Alt. This means that even if you win a significant risk of a link and impact, I will still likely vote for the affirmative in the absence of an alternative which can resolve that link. The reasoning behind this is debate 101: the alternative exists to provide uniqueness for the link, and I cannot vote for a non-unique DA. To be clear, I'm totally for you kicking the alt and establishing the uniqueness in some other way, if you think that is the best strategic move.

c) For K debaters, being "wrong about the theory" is offense, assuming there's at least a bit of impact work done on the consequence of being wrong about the theory. What this means is that in debates where there is a high-level theoretical basis for your opponent's arguments (i.e. for certain flavors of afropessimism, "anti-blackness is ontological"), you ought draw clear lines of comparison between your theoretical disagreement with that claim (i.e., your analysis of anti-blackness concludes that it is not-ontological and is instead [insert position here]).

d) Ethos and Pathos matter in my decisionmaking, the former generally moreso than the latter, though not by much. I'm a big believer in the idea that the way you choose and execute your arguments at every point in the debate is constitutive of your "ethos" as debaters. To be clear, I don't mean this in the sense of a personal judgment of the debaters, but rather in the sense that your ethos and ethic(s) are inherently intertwined. It shouldn't be a controversial statement that judging is done based on the way the debaters formulate ethics, so obviously one's ethos must then also play a role in the decision.

For the other debates:

LD:
Having had to coach one lad in LD for the past year, I've developed some thoughts on the activity that may be relevant to you, if for some reason you have to deal with the perils of having me as a judge. For what it's worth, if both of the debaters have agreed to run the round as the mutated, gross, slug-like abomination you all refer to as "progressive" (it really means anything but! words mean things!) debate, then effectively everything in the above section applies to you. Everything in the "Other" section likely applies to your regardless of how you debate. If not, the following is what you should keep in mind: LD's value lies precisely in its form, and while that form may shift (I certainly am not some sort of reactionary that believes you ought to lose if you don't tell me your Value, your Value Criterion, and remember to say "Thus I affirm/negate" at the end of your speeches), we ought to understand why that form existed in the first place, and how such forms color the way we debate things. What this means for you LDers is that you should not shy away from the central question of your event: ethics. It is upon the question of ethics LD (and all debate, really) lies, and to act as if you don't have an ethic (you most certainly do), or to obscure your ethic (which you all seem to have a great penchant for doing), is to shy away from any of the value of this activity. And this is precisely why the form of LD has existed as such (it's my view that what we call "the K", or at least its central questions, has existed in LD since LD's inception), with defenses of the whole resolution, with the Values and Value Criterions, with every case beginning with a Framework etc. I know you may feel that it is strategic to treat this as a one-person policy debate, and it very well may be in many cases, but that is just because you decided to make the switch before truly getting a grasp on why the activity has been as it is for so long. Tell me, what is the value of reading the K as an "off-case" position when the traditional case-structure already has the in-built mechanisms for making the criticisms you want to make? Of course this is rhetorical, and the answer I believe to be true is that it is cowardice. Stop being cowards. Take a stand upon your ethics (even if they are the conventionally boring ethics of our Kants and our Humes and our Benthams, that purely English phenomenon himself [speaker point bonus if you know who called Bentham a purely english phenomenon]) and tell me why I as a judge should stand upon the same grounds you have chosen to stand on. And I bet (after a year of teching unsuspecting folks down on this very question when they did not expect it) that you will find competitive success in doing so.

PF:
I really don't understand this activity. I don't think it's possible for me to have any sort of stable, objective, or predictable method of judging PF because I'm not really sure if PF debate exists (I suppose I'll decide to explain what I mean by this as I'm writing the rest of this section, or maybe it will just become evident, though it likely does not mean what you think it means). To be fair, I don't think I have that for any form of debate really, but it's especially erratic when dealing with your lot. I suppose you should just do what you do, but I really have a low, low, LOW tolerance for inane stupidity, which is what I've had to deal with in the PF rounds I have had the displeasure of judging thus far (except one, which was surprisingly very good for a novice debate). If Policy and LD suffer from an over-reliance on the logical appeal, PF has the opposite problem where the logical appeal is so rarely used (and I know you all believe yourselves to be making such appeals, you just aren't actually doing so) that the debate is just nothing-speak for whatever ridiculously short amount of time (the only redeemable aspect of this activity) you all are allotted to torture me with. So, all I ask is that you speak of something, and when you speak of something, you are referring to something that is not totally positioned in a fantasy dreamt up in the empty space of your brain in that moment. As such, do not say things like: "Islamic Terrorism kills millions of people every day", or "THAT IS YOUR BURDEN TO ANSWER" when it is clearly not, or [insert overtly racist comment about Black people here that you, for some reason or another, do not believe to be racist]. Instead, make significant reference to the authors that supposedly (I write supposedly because more often than not, there is absolutely no care for evidence in this activity) provide the warrants and data for your arguments, and by reference I mean that in the direct, verbatim sense, because in all likelihood they know far more than you do about whatever it is you're talking about this month, and they can say it in a much better way than you can. There is a reason the other forms of debate are so reliant on the "card" (pieces of evidence cut as needed), and it is because they realized a long, long time ago that having vague name-drops and out-of-context quotes plopped into a poorly-written 10th grade English paper does not a good debate make. All forms of communication require a mutual intelligibility, some level of stable ground upon which those doing the communicating can stand upon and hurl their signs, and hopefully that which those signs signify, at one another in the hope of arriving at some new sign, which hopefully also signifies something that was previously not signified. And this is why I believe PF does not exist as the other debate forms do: I do not believe you all have such a ground. You all speak but the words are not meant to transcend themselves, they are words for the sake of words, and in this sense maybe it is best to call PF a form of collaborative literature rather than debate. Anyways, this is not a problem that cannot be fixed, and really the fix is quite easy: develop a common point to stand on (reference to evidence), and then draw out the consequences of such references. If you treat your "debates" like this, you stand the chance of having actual debates (and the chance to win my ballot, which is likely what you care about the most as you finish reading this unnecessarily long section about an activity I will probably a judge a total of 2 more times in the rest of my life, and I don't really blame you for wanting the ballot).

Congress: In the words of Rolling Stone's Greil Marcus, reviewing Bob Dylan's 1969 album Self-Portrait, "what is this s**t?"

Cade Cottrell Green Valley High School 6 rounds

Last changed on Sat February 3, 2024 at 12:58 AM PDT

cadecottrell@gmail.com

Updated February 2024

Yes I know my philosophy is unbearably long. I keep adding things without removing others, the same reason I was always top heavy when I debated. But I tried to keep it organized so hopefully you can find what you need, ask me questions if not.

For the few college tournaments I judge, understand that my philosophy is geared towards being of use to high school students since that is the vast, vast majority of my judging/coaching. Just use that as a filter when reading.

Seriously, I don't care what you read as long as you do it well. I really don't care if you argue that all K debaters should be banned from debate or argue that anyone who has ever read a plan is innately racist and should be kicked out of the community. If you win it, I'm happy to vote for it.

***Two Minutes Before A Debate Version***

I debated in high school for a school you've never heard of called Lone Peak, and in college for UNLV. I coached Green Valley High School, various Las Vegas schools, as well as helping out as a hired gun at various institutions. I have debated at the NDT, was nationally competitive in high school, and coached a fair share of teams to the TOC if those things matter for your pref sheet (they shouldn't). I genuinely don't have a big bias for either side of the ideological spectrum. I seem to judge a fairly even mix of K vs K, Clash of Civs, and policy debates. I can keep up with any speed as long as its clear, I will inform you if you are not, although don't tread that line because I may miss arguments before I speak up. If you remain unclear I just won't flow it.

Sometimes I look or act cranky. I love debate and I love judging, so don't take it too seriously.

My biases/presumptions (but can of course be persuaded otherwise):

- Tech over Truth, but Logic over Cards

- Quality and Quantity are both useful.

- Condo is generally good

- Generic responses to the K are worse than generic K's

- Politics and States are generally theoretically legitimate (and strategic)

- Smart, logical counterplans don't necessarily need solvency advocates, especially not in the 1NC

- #Team1%Risk

- 2NC's don't read new off case positions often enough

- I believe in aff flexibility (read: more inclusive interpretations of what's topical) more than almost anyone I know. That is demonstrated in almost every aff I've read or coached.

- I'll vote for "rocks are people" if you win it (warrant still needed). Terrible arguments are easily torn apart, but that's the other team's duty, not mine.

***

A Few Notes You Should Know:

Speaker Points: Firstly, I compare my speaker points to the mean after almost every tournament, so I try to stay in line with the community norm. I have had a dilemma with speaker points, and have recently changed my view. I think most judges view speaker points as a combination of style and substance, with one being more valuable than the other depending on the judge. I have found this frustrating as both a debater and coach trying to figure what caused a judge to give out the speaks they did. So I've decided to give out speaker points based solely on style rather than substance. I feel whichever team wins the substance of the debate will get my ballot so you are already rewarded, so I am going to give out speaker points based on the Ethos, Pathos, and Logos of a debater. Logos implies you are still extending good, smart arguments, but it just means that I won't tank speaks based off of technical drops (like floating pics, or a perm, etc) as some judges do, and I won't reward a team's speaker points for going for those arguments if I feel they are worse "speakers", the ballot is reward enough. Functionally all it means is that I probably give more low-point wins than some judges (about one a tournament), but at least you know why when looking at cume sheets after tournaments.

Debate is a rhetorical activity. This means if you want me to flow an argument, it must be intelligible, and warranted. I will not vote on an argument I do not have on my flow in a previous speech. I am a decent flow so don't be too scared but it means that if you are planning on going for your floating pic, a specific standard/trick on theory, a permutation that wasn't answered right in the block, etc. then you should make sure I have that argument written down and that you have explained it previously with sufficient nuance. I might feel bad that I didn't realize you were making a floating pic in the block, but only briefly, and you'll feel worse because ultimately it is my responsibility to judge based off of what is on my flow, so make those things clear. Being shady RARELY pays off in debate.

(*Update: This is no longer true in online debate tournaments, I look through docs because of potential clairty/tech issues*: I don't look at speech docs during debates except in rare instances. I read much less evidence after debates than most judges, often none at all. If you want me to read evidence, please say so, but also please tell me what I'm looking for. I prefer not to read evidence, so when I do after a round it means one of three things: 1. The debate is exceedingly close and has one or two issues upon which I am trying to determine the truth (rare). 2. You asked me to read the evidence because "its on fire" (somewhat common and potentially a fire hazard). 3. The debate was bad enough that I am trying to figure out what just happened.)

Prep time: I generally let teams handle their own prep, I do prefer if you don't stop prep until the email is sent. Doing so will make me much happier. If you are very blatantly stealing prep, I might call you out on it, or it might affect speaker points a little.

***

Neg: I am very much in favor of depth over breadth. Generally that doesn't affect how I feel about large 1NC's but it means I find myself thinking "I wish they had consolidated more in the block" quite often, and almost never the opposite. If you don't consolidate much, you might be upset with the leeway I give to 1AR/2AR explanations. Being shady RARELY pays off in debate. Pick your best arguments and go to battle.

DA's: I love in-depth disad debates. Teams that beat up on other teams with large topic disads usually have one of two things: A. A large number of pre-written blocks B. A better understanding of the topic than their opponents. If you have both, or the latter, I'll quite enjoy the debate. If you only have the former, then you can still get the ballot but not as much respect (or speaker points). Small disads very specific to the aff are awesome. Small disads that are small in order to be unpredictable are not. I am of the "1% risk" discipline assuming that means the disad is closely debated. I am not of that discipline if your disad is just silly and you are trying to win it is 1% true, know the difference.

CP's: I have a soft spot for tricky counterplans. That doesn't mean I think process/cheating counterplans are legitimate, that just means I'll leave my bias at the door more than most judges if you get into a theory debate. That said, theory is won or lost through explanation, not through having the largest blocks. Generally I think counterplans should be functionally and textually competitive, that doesn't mean you can't win of yours isn't, it just means if it is then you probably have some theoretical high ground. I also think if you have a specific solvency advocate for the counterplan (meaning a piece of evidence that advocates doing the counterplan, not just evidence that says the counterplan "is a thing" [I'm looking at you, Consult CP people]) you should utilize that both as a solvency argument and as a theoretical justification for the counterplan. I am neutral on the judge kick question. If you want me to judge kick, say so in the 2NR/2NC, and if you don't then say so in the 1AR/2AR, that's an argument to be had. However, if no one makes an argument either way, my default is if the 2NR is DA, CP, Case, then I think there is an implicit assumption in that strategy that the squo is an option. If the 2NR is only CP & DA, I think the implicit assumption is aff vs. CP. Advantage counterplans are vastly underutilized. Logical counterplans probably don't need solvency advocates.

T: I think the way reasonability is construed is sad and a disservice to the argument. I perceive competing interpretations as a question of whose interpretation sets the best standard for all future debate, and reasonability as a question of whether the aff harmed the negative's fairness/education in this specific round. Under that interpretation (Caveat: This assumes you are explaining reasonability in that fashion, usually people do not). I tend to lean towards reasonability since I think T should be a check against aff's that try to skirt around the topic, rather than as a catch-all. T is to help guarantee the neg has predictable ground. I've voted neg a few times when the aff has won their interp is technically accurate but the neg has won their interp is better for fairness/limits/ground, but that's mostly because I think that technical accuracy/framer's intent is an internal link, rather than an impact. Do the additional work.

Theory: This is a discussion of what debate should look like, which is one of the most simple questions to ask ourselves, yet people get very mixed up and confused on theory since we are trained to be robots. I LOVE theory debates where the debaters understand debate well enough to just make arguments and use clash, and HATE debates where the debaters read blocks as fast as possible and assume people can flow that in any meaningful fashion (very few can, I certainly can't. Remember, I don't have the speech doc open). I generally lean negative on theory questions like condo (to a certain extent) and CP theory args, but I think cp's should be textually, and more importantly, functionally competitive, see above.

Framework/T against Non-Traditional Aff's: I have read and gone for both the Procedural Fairness/T version of this argument and the State Action Good/Framework version of this argument many times. I am more than willing to vote for either, and I also am fine with teams that read both and then choose one for the 2NR. However, I personally am of the belief that fairness is not an impact in and of itself but is an internal link to other impacts. If you go for Fairness as your sole impact you may win, but adequate aff answers to it will be more persuasive in front of me. Fairness as the only impact assumes an individual debate is ultimately meaningless, which while winnable, is the equivalent of having a 2NR against a policy aff that is solely case defense, and again I'm by default #1%RiskClub. "Deliberation/dialogue/nuanced discussion/role switching is key to ____________" sorts of arguments are usually better in front of me. As far as defending US action, go for it. My personal belief is that the US government is redeemable and reformable but I am also more than open to voting on the idea that it is not, and these arguments are usually going straight into the teeth of the aff's offense so use with caution. TVA's are almost essential for a successful 2NR unless the aff is clearly anti-topical and you go for a nuanced switch side argument. TVA's are also most persuasive when explained as a plan text and what a 1AC looks like, not just a nebulous few word explanation like "government reform" or "A.I. to solve patriarchy". I like the idea of an interp with multiple net benefits and often prefer a 1NC split onto 3-4 sheets in order to separate specific T/FW arguments. If you do this, each should have a clear link (which is your interp), an internal link and impact. Lastly, I think neg teams often let affs get away with pre-requisite arguments way too much, usually affs can't coherently explain why reading their philosophy at the top of the 1AC and then ending with a plan of action doesn't fulfill the mandates of their pre-requisite.

K's: These are the best and worst debates. The bad ones tend to be insufferable and the good ones tend to be some of the most engaging and thought provoking. Sadly, most debaters convince themselves they fall into the latter when they are the former so please take a good, long look in the mirror before deciding which you fall under. I have a broad knowledge of K authors, but not an in depth one on many, so if you want to go for the K you better be doing that work for me, I won't vote for anything that I don't totally understand BEFORE reading evidence, because I think that is a key threshold any negative should meet (see above), so a complex critical argument can be to your advantage or disadvantage depending on how well you explain it. I also think the framing args for the K need to be impacted and utilized, that in my opinion is the easiest way to get my ballot (unless you turn case or win a floating pic). In other words, if you can run the K well, do it, if not, don't (at least not in the 2NR).

Edit: I think it usually helps to know what the judge knows about your critique, so this list below may help be a guide:

I feel very comfortable with, know the literature, and can give good feedback on: Nietzsche, Wilderson, Moten (& Harney), Security, Neoliberalism, Historical Materialism, Colonialism (both Decoloniality and Postcolonialism), Fem IR, Deleuze and Guattari (at least relative to most).

I have both debated and read these arguments, but still have gaps in my knowledge and may not know all the jargon: Hillman, Schmitt, Edelman, Zizek cap args, Agamben, Warren, Ableism, Kristeva, Heidegger, Orientalism, Virillio, Lacan, Anthro, Ligotti, Bataille, settler colonialism metaphysics arguments.

ELI5: Baudrillard, postmodern feminism arguments, Killjoy, Bifo, Zizek psychoanalysis, Object Oriented Ontology, Spanos, Buddhism, Taoism, your specific strain of "cybernetics", probably anything that isn't on these lists but ask first.

***

Aff:

Bad aff teams wait til the 2AR to decide what their best arguments are against a position. Good aff teams have the round vision to make strategic choices in the 1AR and exploit them in the 2AR. Great aff teams have the vision to create a comprehensive strategy going into the 2AC. That doesn't mean don't give yourself lots of options, it just means you should know what arguments are ideally in the 2AR beforehand and you should adapt your 2AC based off of the 1NC as a whole. Analytical arguments in a 2AC are vastly underused.

Non-Traditional Affirmatives: I'm fine with these. They don't excite me any more or less than a topical aff. I think the key to these aff's is always framing. Both because negatives often go for framework but also because it is often your best tool against their counter-advocacy/K. I often am more persuaded by Framework/T when the aff is antitopical, rather than in the direction of the resolution, but I've voted to the contrary of that frequently enough. This won't affect the decision but I'll enjoy the aff more if it is very specific (read: relevant/jermaine/essential) to the topic, or very personal to yourself, it annoys me when people read non-traditional aff's just to be shady. Being shady RARELY pays off in debate.

Answering K's: It is exceedingly rare that the neg can't win a link to their K. That doesn't mean you shouldn't question the link by any means, permutations are good ways to limit the strength of neg offense, but it means that impact turning the K/alternative is very often a better strategy than going for a link turn and permutation for 5 minutes in the 2AR. I think this is a large reason why aff's increasingly have moved further right or further left, because being stuck in the middle is often a recipe for disaster. That said, being able to have a specific link turn or impact turn to the K that is also a net benefit to the permutation while fending against the most offensive portions of negative link arguments are some of the best 2AR's.

Last Notes:

I prefer quality over quantity of arguments. If you only need a minute in the 2NR/2AR then just use a minute, cover up any outs, and finish. I believe in the mercy rule in that sense. I will vote against teams that clip and give the culprit 0 speaker points, however I believe in the standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt", so be certain before levying accusations and make sure to have a recording. (Explicitly tell me that you want to issue a clipping challenge, I've had debaters email me and I don't see it, or wait until after the debate. Don't do that.)

I'll give you +.1 speaker points if you can tell me what phrase appears the most in my philosophy. Because it shows you care, you want to adapt to your judge, and maybe because I'm a tad narcissistic.

Things I like:
- A+ Quality Evidence (If you have such a card, and you explain why its better than the 3+ cards the other team read, I accept that more willingly than other judges)

- Brave (strategic) 1AR/2AR decisions

- Politics disads that turn each advantage

- If you are behind, I'd much rather you cheat/lie/steal (maybe not steal, and cheat within reason) than give up. If you ain't cheatin' you ain't tryin'.

- Neg blocks that only take 1-2 flows and just decimate teams.

- Controlling the "spin" of arguments (I'll give a lot of leeway)

- Red Bull/Monster/M&M's (Bringing me any of these will make me happy, me being happy generally correlates to higher speaker points)

Things I don't like:
- Not knowing how to send speech docs in a timely manner!

- Debaters that act like they are of superior intelligence compared to their partner/opponents

- Reading arguments with little value other than trying to blindside teams (timecube, most word pics, etc.) Being shady RARELY pays off in debate.

- Being unclear

- Horses (Stop acting like they're so goddamn majestic, they're disgusting)

- Toasted Coconut

Mac Cronin McQueen HS 6 rounds

Last changed on Fri January 5, 2024 at 4:48 AM UTC

For e-mail chains (both pls):

damiendebate47@gmail.com

mcclurecronin@gmail.com

About me - I debated for 8 years competitively, starting at Douglas High School (Minden, NV) before transferring to Sage Ridge (Reno, NV) where I debated with the incredibly brilliant Kristen Lowe. We were the first team from Northern Nevada to qualify to the TOC and had a pretty consistent record of deep elim appearances. I went on to debate at Wake Forest University (class of '17) with varying amounts of success on a wide range of arguments, finishing my career with Varun Reddy in semis of CEDA. I currently work as a legal assistant and lobbyist in Reno/Carson City when I'm not out and about judging and coaching debate.

I have also been published a couple times. I don't think any of it applies, but please don't read my work in front of me. That's just awkward.

2023-24 Update: I am just getting back into debate after a roughly 2 year hiatus. Please slow down a tad and know that my prior experience with the topic (camps, summer files, etc.) is pretty much nonexistent.

Generally - YOU DO YOU!!! I cannot stress that enough. Be aware of my general thoughts on debate, but I want to judge the debate that you want to have!! I have increasingly found that my role as an educator and adjudicator in debate prioritizes the debaters themselves, whatever argument that they want to make, and providing them with the advice and opportunities to be better that I can. It is extremely unlikely (but not impossible) that you read an argument that is entirely new to me.

Whether the 1AC has a plan, an advocacy text, or neither, truly makes no difference to me. It is up to you to explain to me why I should care. I have become increasingly frustrated with the people so quick to say "no plan, no chance at my ballot". This is a pedagogical question.

I consider myself a hard working judge. I will flow, I will read cards, and I will take the time to make the best decision I can.

That being said, the following are my thoughts on certain arguments and some pointers on how to win my ballot.

The kritik - Really dig K debates. I'm pretty well read in a lot of different theories and genuinely enjoy reading critical theory, but I still prefer clarity in explanation. The less jargon you use, the easier it will be to win a K in front of me. Overall, I find that framework args are increasingly irrelevant to the way that I evaluate these debates. Both teams will (hopefully) always win why their conversation is good, so just do the impact calc. But also answer critical framing args about ethics/reps/ontology/etc. For the aff - I find that permutations are pretty underutilized when it comes to mitigating links and find myself voting aff in policy v K debates on permutations more than I would have anticipated. Alternatives are usually the weakest part of a K IMO so leveraging bits and pieces that may not be mutually exclusive, in addition to winning some offense/defense, will go a long way. I also think impact turning is something that is truly underutilized by affirmatives that are facing off with a kritik. Digging in on certain points of neg offense can work wonders. DO NOT say things like anti-blackness, sexism, ableism, etc. are good though. PLEASE explain why your aff outweighs the K, especially if you have big stick impacts that are basically designed for some of these debates... For the neg - framing is absolutely essential. I like 2NRs on the K that guide me through my decision in a technical fashion. Links should obviously be as contextualized to the aff as possible. I am frequently persuaded by teams that realize the alt is a dumpster fire and shift to framework for the same effect. I am more likely to vote negative when there is case debating happening in line with the K, as well. Whether that is impact defense or some sort of "satellite" K, well, that's up to you.

The flourishing of performance debate has really effected the way that I think about form and content in the debate setting. I think these arguments are extremely valuable to the activity and I thoroughly enjoy debates about debate as well.

The DA - I think these debates are pretty straight forward. Do your impact calc, win your link, answer uniqueness overwhelms, etc. I like power plays where the aff straight turns a DA, especially if the 1NC was a lot of off case positions.

The CP - don't judge as many of these debates as I would like. A good counterplan with a specific solvency advocate will impress me. I think these arguments are relatively straight forward as well. In terms of theory issues like PICs bad, condo bad, etc., I truly don't have much of an opinion on these issues, but that doesn't mean I will let you get away with shenanigans. I would prefer arguments to be contextualized to in round abuse claims and how the role of the affirmative became structurally impossible. Rarely do I judge a theory debate, but I would be interested to hear more of them.

I do not default to kicking the CP for the negative. I think the 2NR needs to make that choice for themselves and stick with it. That doesn't necessarily mean I cannot be persuaded otherwise, however. This question should be raised before the 2NR for it to be persuasive to me.

Topicality - I like T debates. Limits isn't an impact in and of itself, I want to hear more explanation on how limits effects what should be your "vision of the topic" holistically, what affs and ground exist within it, and why those debates are good. Education impacts that are contextualized and specific will go a long way for me, whether it be in the context of the aff or the resolution.

I am increasingly persuaded by teams that give me a case list and explain what sort of ground exists within that limited topic.

Framework - I am an advocate for engaging with the affirmative and whatever it is that they have to say. I don't think framework should be taken off the table completely, though, and if you do plan to go for it just know that I require a lot more work on a topical version of the aff and some sort of in-road to how you resolve the claims of the 1AC. There are a lot of framework debates I have judged where I wish the 2NR did some work on the case flow -- ex: aff is about movements, 2NR makes arguments about why movements are coopted or repressed, therefore state engagement is essential.... whatever.

Procedural fairness is becoming less and less persuasive to me. I would vote on it if I have to, but I likely won't be happy.

I believe that debate is a game, but a game that has unique pedagogical benefits.

I may seem "K happy" but I promise my judging record proves that I am more than willing to vote on framework. But like I said, there needs to be more interaction between the affirmative and a limited vision of the topic. I have found that a lot of teams give case lists (both on the aff and the neg) but there is little to no clash over what those affirmatives are and why they are or are not good for debate. If you are trying to make arguments about why your vision of the topic provides a better set of affirmations, whether policy or critical, then there must be some comparison between the two. And those comparisons must have some sort of impact.

Other things - if there is anything else, please feel free to ask me. I know that some of this is vague, but my thoughts tend to change based off of the argument that is being presented and how exactly it is explained. I probably lean more on the side of truth over tech, but that doesn't mean I will make a decision wholly irrelevant to what is said in the debate unless I feel that it is absolutely necessary and something terrible happened. Plus I like to think I keep a clean flow so obvi tech still matters. I have absolutely no qualms checking debaters that are being rude or problematic. That being said, I look forward to judging you and happy prep!

Zane Encinas Hire 3 rounds

Alex Fan Hamilton High School 6 rounds

Last changed on Mon January 13, 2020 at 7:43 AM EDT

Debated for Hamilton High School. 2A for 3 years, 1A for 1 year

Housekeeping things

-Include me on the email chain: fanafu@gmail.com

-I won’t disclose until the room is put back in order.

TL;DR

Please explain your acronyms as I haven't judged many rounds on this topic.
Quality > Quantity. It's your debate, debate what you want (also means read args that you're comfortable on).

Love K's of any kind.

T/FW is alright, just make sure to impact everything.

DA/CPs are chill if they're specific.

Be understandable, do clash for me, do the work for me, esp. in last two speeches.

I listen to CX (even if it looks like I don't) and it is binding.

Flashing isn't prep, but excessive amounts of flashing might come off as stealing prep so be wary.

Debate well, don't be mean, don't be offensive, respect each other.

Speaker Points

20: you did something extremely offensive/disrespectful/hostile

27.5-28.4: mediocre; prob not breaking
28.5-28.9: good; maybe breaking 4-2
29-29.4: very good; prob breaking
29.5-30: excellent; top speaker quality

CX Specific Paradigm
Affirmatives--Any style or way you want to present your affirmative is fine with me, just be sure you can justify it. Admittedly, I am not well versed with performance-based aff, so please explain to me what your performance means in and out of the round. Affirmatives should at least talk about the topic and anti-topical affs are definitely not legit.

*new thing. I find myself increasingly less enjoying big-stick policy affs, mainly because the debates tend to be just overly fast and blippy. If you ARE planning on running those kinds of affs, then i would highly suggest making good extrapolations of internal link chains and impact probability analysis.

Case-- I usually go by the offense/defense paradigm here even though it's probably not realistic. I just find it easier to evaluate debates this way sans a very robust analysis of impact defense in the 2nr. Try not to contradict here; however, if you can contextualize your arguments well to the affirmative a case debate is very impressive to see. Try to avoid making this debate "not my [insert some author]" and actually have a contextualized debate here. Line by line analysis as opposed to long generic overviews are preferred.

Counterplans--You must have a good analysis of how you resolve the net benefit of the CP if you're going for it. Neg must explain how they are competitive and should be preferred over the affirmative. Evidence should be good and actually say what you want it to say if you want me to vote for you. Theory is often insufficient unless entirely dropped. Also I default to reject the arg on CP theory, unless specifically spun to be reject the team.

Disads-- Most DA’s are chill. They probably all have very tenuous link chains that can be exploited. So exploit them. Impact comparison is also very important. Tell me why I should care. For ptx specifically, don’t speed through it. Intrinsicness is probably true, but you still have to argue the theoretical implications for me to evaluate it.

Kritik--This is where I spent most my debate career. I think K's are good as long as you can explain them well. If you are personally passionate about an argument, and it shows, your speaker points will likely be higher (this goes for affirmatives as well). I tend to think arguments about identity in debate are important, and play an important part in effecting the community. That being said most of my experience is with the "high theory" side of K's. Regardless of what kind of critical argument you read, I will NOT do the work for you. Tell me what your K is, why it matters, and why I should vote for you. If your only link in the 2NR is a state bad link, then you're prob not on the winning side. K's should not be a sketchy attempt to dodge clash, find a way to clash with your opponent and make the debate productive for everyone. I won't kick the alt for you. Most other K tricks, while cheap shots, are acceptable.

Also the question of perms is always an issue in a K vs. K debate. Someone please tell me what the perm means in the round or tell me why a method vs. method debate doesn't get a permutation.

T/FW--I treat framework debates like I would any topicality debate. Be sure to impact out anything you go for otherwise I'll probably prefer their impacts. Reverse voting issues are dumb, but I'll still vote for them if done well. If against a non-traditional affirmative try to provide an interpretation where they could still raise there issue, and not out right exclude them. It will be an uphill battle if you come in with the "non-traditional affirmative are wrong" mindset. Otherwise treat T/FW like a DA, I want to see how they link, what that does, why that's bad, and why I should care.

Theory--Theory is often not enough for me to vote for you unless there is a serious violation or the other team just dropped it. Give me examples of how they violate and how that is effecting you. I have a high threshold for these arguments; however, am more often convinced by the "drop the argument, not the team" plea for theory.
Also for Condo specifically, I will probably not vote on it unless there's some serious abuse and it's well extrapolated in the 2AR.

Other stuff

Flashing is not prep
please clash
jokes are cool
caring about your arguments is cool
don't be mean
don't exclude people
don't discriminate against people
have fun
be chill
If you can make a joke about your existential dread, Malhar Patel, Tanzil Chowdhury, Nikpreet Singh, or Quinn Zapata, then you’ll get an extra .5 speaker point.

LD Paradigm

Defend your ethics and position with good references to evidence and impact comparisons, and I'll be pretty satisfied. If you have any specific questions, just ask me before round.

If, for some reason, you're treating this as a one-man policy debate, then read my CX paradigm above.

Ryan Ferdowsian Hire 6 rounds

Last changed on Sat January 25, 2020 at 3:01 PM MST

Conflicts: Desert Vista, Chandler Prep

Yes email chain: rsferdowsian@gmail.com

I debated at Chandler Prep for 3 years and currently debate for ASU

LD-specific section at the bottom

General:

- I don't care what types of arguments you read, as long as they're (a) well-explained and warranted and (b) well-impacted out (by which I broadly mean implication-work as to why winning your args wins you my ballot, not just straight impact-calc)

- Framing is key, especially in the last 2 rebuttals - you're not going to win everything, so tell me what's most important for my decision and deal with what the other team is saying is most important

- I default to an offense-defense paradigm unless told otherwise

- I won't judge kick unless 2nr says so. For both sides: don't let the 'judge kick good/bad' debate start in the 2nr/2ar, esp. if the status of the CP is clarified earlier. The neg should say 'status quo is always a logical option' or even something more explicit in the 2nc for 'judge kick good' not to be new in the 2nr; similarly, aff should say judge kick bad before the 2ar, even when not extending condo bad as such in the 1ar. If the first times I hear the words judge kick are in last two rebuttals, I'll be forced to actually evaluate all the new 2ar args, so don't let that happen neg

- I might not know as much as you about the intricate, technical aspects of the topic, so be clear and slow on topic-specific phrases/acronyms, especially with T

Case:

- 2acs are generally terrible on case, the block should point this out, exploit it, and protect itself from new 1ar stuff

- Good case debating by the neg (and aff) = good speaks

Topicality v policy affs:

- I default competing interps. I've personally never understood intuitively or theoretically how one would decide whether an aff is "reasonably" T or not, so if you're going for reasonability on the aff, make sure you are very clear on what that means/how judges would determine reasonability under that frame or I'll be persuaded by the neg saying reasonability is arbitrary

- I usually view the relative interpretations as 'advocacies' the provide uniqueness for/solve each side's offense and the standards on both sides as net benefits/advantages to that standard/disads to the other, like a CP+DA debate. (If you don't want me to view it that way you should tell me). This means that impact calc is super important, eg "aff ground outweighs limits", "precision outweighs", etc.

Theory:

- I'd love to hear a super in-depth "condo bad" debate, if the aff goes for this and does it well I'll probably give pretty good speaks

(Personal opinion: condo is good; being neg is hard; but I can be easily persuaded otherwise.)

- Everything else: I default to rejecting the argument, not the team; if you want me to reject the team, explain why it's justified/what the (preferably in-round, not just potential) abuse is

- The CP+DA thing from the Topicality section above applies here too, which means interpretations matter a lot (a good example of this is that the aff going for "states CPs with uniformity are not allowed, non-uniform states CPs are allowed" would solve a lot of neg offense while also allowing you to go for unique offense to uniformity being uneducational, cheating, etc.)

Disads:

- "DA turns case" is important and should be answered in the 1ar

- "DA solves case" is underutilized

-*Impact calc* - not just magnitude/probability/TF but also filtering arguments (e.g. 'heg solves everything'), filters for evidence-quality ('prefer our empirics over speculation'), etc.

- Again, I default offense-defense but I am ok with concluding that there is 0% risk of a DA. It's really important for the aff to be explicit when doing this (e.g. say something like "offense defense is bad for policymaking and decision-making")

Counterplans:

- I'm probably much more open to theoretically cheating CPs than most judges, just win the theory debate (for this, confer above on Topicality).

- Really techy CPs should be explained in the 2nc/1nr to a certain dumbed-down level

Ks v Policy Affs:

- FW matters a lot; the negative needs to set up a framing for the debate that shifts the question the ballot is answering away from whether the plan is better than the status quo/some competitive option, or at least provides a very specific set of criteria about how that question should be answered (e.g. ontological come first, reps first, etc.). Make sure to be clear about *what winning framework means for how I write my ballot*; i.e. does it mean I refuse to evaluate the consequences of the plan altogether? or just that the way in which I evaluate it changes? or something else?

- If you don't make FW args in the 2nc (at least implicitly), 2ac args like "Perm: double bind", "alt fails/is utopian", "state inevitable", or "extinction outweighs" become serious threats if extended well by the aff.

- The 2nc/2nr should explain your theory of how the world works and explain why I should think it's true relative to their policymaking stuff - isolating a specific section of the flow where you explain your theory (especially with high-theory kritiks), or just weaving it into the Line by Line, can go a long way

- Examples are always good for K debate, in all its different components

- Aff args I find true/persuasive: extinction outweighs, institutions matter, debate is a game, perm (if alt is explained as a CP instead of as a framework argument).

- I honestly don't care if you're going to read a long 2nc overview, but please be honest about it before the speech so I can get a new sheet of paper (I'll probably flow on paper, not laptop); I try hard to maintain the Line by line would prefer you just be up-front about it.

FW versus K affs:

- I have read K affs against FW, but I have also read FW against K affs, so I'd like to think I'm not too ideological when it comes to these debates. My voting record in these debates is probably ~60/40 in favor of the neg on FW, usually due to a lack of well-warranted arguments as to why the neg's model is bad (instead of buzzwords) as well as a lack of answer to significant defensive claims like TVA/SSD.

- Impact framing is paramount in these debates: the impacts the two teams are going for are often radically different -- e.g., how should I weigh a slight risk of unfairness against a risk of the neg's model of debate being a bit neoliberal/racist/X-ist? I'll probably end up voting for whoever does a better job answering these types of questions

- For the neg: TVA is important but Switch side is really underutilized as a defensive argument imo.

- Fairness can be an impact in and of itself if you explain why, although, all else being even, it's probably not the best 2nr impact in front of me since it begs the question of the value of the game it supports.

- Better neg impacts to FW for me: clash, dogmatism, truth-testing, even institutions good offense

- Limits and ground are (probably) just internal links, not impacts

- For the aff: *explain a clear vision of what your model of debate looks like under your interp*.

- I'm down for the extremist K strats that just impact turn every standard the neg goes for, but I'm also down for running more to the middle and explaining why your model is still topical/debatable 'enough' but with some significant net benefits over theirs. If you're doing the latter, your interp should be super well-explained in the context of their limits/predictability offense

K v K:

- These can be some of the best or some of the worst debates - worst when neither side gets beyond tagline extensions, best when each side speaks as if they were an actual scholar in whatever field they're deploying, doing comparative analysis of the other team's theories in relation to their own

- Impact calc and framing is crucial, esp. in rounds where both sides are discussing some identity-related oppression impacts. This doesn't mean saying certain lives or groups matter more than others, it's precisely to avoid that: you all should discuss your theories of the world in ways that don't put me in the position of having to 'pit' certain lives against one another, otherwise I'll have a rough time and so will you

- I'm down for not giving the aff a perm in these debates, BUT it's got to be explained much further than "no perms in a methods debate" - that's not a warranted argument. To win this, the neg should explain why perms in debates where no one advocates gov. action are uneducational, unfair, incoherent, bad for radical pedagogy, etc. and, ideally, also provide an alternate model for what the burden of rejoinder looks like if the neg doesn't have to win that the K is an opportunity cost to the aff.

- Cf. "K v Policy Aff" section above on long 2nc Overviews

***LD-Specific***

1. Fair warning: I tend to vote neg... a lot, seemingly too much, usually on technical concessions in the 2ar (damn speech structures).

To deal with this if you're aff:

- make sure you win your case - I've noticed I have a tendency to vote neg on presumption when the NR makes some circumvention args that the 2AR just straight-up drops in the last speech.

- also, make sure you frame the debate for me such that, even if there are some tech-y drops, I'm more likely to vote for you

2. Full disclosure: I don't get LD theory, like, at all. I don't really get RVI's, I don't know how they function, and I'm convinced most LD'ers don't either, so generally, if theory is your thing, just be very clear on these three components of theory debates: (a) interps, (b) violations, and (c) standards. As long as that basic template is there in some form, I can do my best.

Random things:

- I probably won't read that many cards unless it's brought up in the debate or I'm stealing your cites

- Flashing isn't prep but be quick

- Clipping means you lose and will get bad speaks; I'll try to follow whatever the tournament procedure is for this

- Extra speaks to anyone who brings me some flavored iced coffee beverage/bothered to read this far down.

Good luck!

Adriana Garcia Cherokee Trail HS 3 rounds

Last changed on Mon June 13, 2022 at 10:11 AM MDT

Name: Adriana Garcia

School Affiliation: DSST Byers High School

Number of Years Judging Public Forum: 3

Number of Years Competing in Public Forum: 0

Number of Years Judging Other Forensic Activities: 6

Number of Years Competing in Other Forensic Activities: 3

If you are a coach, what events do you coach? PF, CX, LD, OO, INFO, IX, USX, POI

What is your current occupation?

Science Teacher, Speech and Debate Coach

Please share your opinions or beliefs about how the following play into a debate round:

Speed of Delivery: I am okay with students who speak quickly but please keep it understandable.

Format of Summary Speeches (line by line? big picture?): No preference

Role of the Final Focus: The role of the final focus is to go over voters and/or impact calcs.

Extension of Arguments into later speeches: Please do, I am okay with them into any speech but make sure in the summary and the final focus make sure you are still completing your job.

Topicality: Not in PF

Plans: Not in PF

Kritiks: Not in PF

Flowing/note-taking: Yes but I don't vote straight from the flow. I will use the flow to inform how I vote but the arguments must make sense.

Do you value argument over style? Style over argument? Argument and style equally? Argument is a little more than style but they are pretty equal.

If a team plans to win the debate on an argument, in your opinion does that argument have to be extended in the rebuttal or summary speeches? Yes, any arguments that are being considered and valued need to be extended as much as possible

If a team is second speaking, do you require that the team cover the opponents’ case as well as answers to its opponents’ rebuttal in the rebuttal speech? Anything key to the case should be covered.

Do you vote for arguments that are first raised in the grand crossfire or final focus? Arguments in cross are considered but not new arguments in final focus.

If you have anything else you'd like to add to better inform students of your expectations and/or experience, please do so here.

I prefer a traditionally PF, please keep in mind that PF is suppose to be an every mans debate. Keep the content simplified and do not run technical arguments or theory.

In CX my biggest pet peeve is when evidence exchange is too long, please exchange evidence quickly and efficiently. Don't milk the time, send it ASAP and if you need to fix something take prep.

Malcolm Gordon The Meadows School 6 rounds

Last changed on Tue January 2, 2024 at 6:58 AM PDT

A quick guide to getting good speaker points:

-get to the point, and be clear about it
-"extinction" or "nuclear war" is not a tag
-a well explained, logical, argument trumps an unexplained argument merely extended by it's "card name"
-Ks need alts- i have a low threshold for voting aff when the neg is kicking their alt and going for a framework argument
-cross x is a speech-i figure it in as a substantial factor in speaker points

Here is an explanation of how I evaluate debates at a meta-level:

While I think there is value in the offense/defense framework for evaluation, for me to vote on offense there has to be substantive risk. Second, quality trumps quantity.

Also, "extinction" is not a tag line. I don't even like tag lines like "causes nuclear war." I need complete sentences, with claims and warrants.

Where does the evidence come from? there are not enough debaters talking about the quality of research their opponents are quoting.

Get to the point. On any given controversy in debate, there are relatively few arguments at play. Get to the core issues quickly. Point out the central logical/argumentative problems with a given position. I am much more compelled by a speaker’s ability to take the 2-3 core problems with their opponent’s position and use those fallacies to answer all of the other team’s advances. It shows you have a grip on the central issue and you understand how that issue is inescapable regardless of your opponent’s answer

Calling for cards: I will do this, but I don’t like to read every card in the debate. If you opponent is making well explained arguments you should be very wary of just saying “extend our smith evidence”.

Theory/topicality:

Arbitrary interpretations are one of the worst trends in debate right now. If your interpretation of debate theory is wholly arbitrary and made up it doesn’t seem very useful for me to uphold it as some new norm and reject the other team.

Conditionality is good, it would take a very decisive aff victory with a very tangible impact (in policy debate).

While I'm fine with conditionality, I am persuaded by other theoretical objections (multi actor fiat, uniform fiat without a solvency advocate, etc). I also think that a theory argument that combines objections (conditional multi actor CPs) could be a reason to reject the team.

My personal belief is that the negative can only fiat the agent of the resolution, and that competition based off the ‘certainty’ of the plan (consult/conditions) is not productive. This does NOT mean I have an incredibly low threshold in voting aff on agent/actor cps bad, but it does make my threshold lower than most. To win these theory debates on the aff, see above point about cutting to the core 2-3 issues.

On topicality-you need tangible impacts. You’re asking me to drop a team because they made debate too unfair for you. “limits good” is not an impact. “They unlimit the topic by justifying x types of affs that we cannot hope to prepare for” is an impact. There must be a very coherent connection between neg interpretation, violations, and standards in the 2nr.

Counterplans: I spoke above about my theoretical beliefs on counterplans. I think counterplans should be textually and functionally competitive. I am sometimes persuaded that purely functional competition (normal means/process counterplans) should probably not be evaluated. If you’re aff and theory-savvy, don’t be afraid to go for theoretical reasons the process cp goes away.

Floating Pics/Word PICs- I’m great for the aff on these. I believe that every position has theoretical reasons behind it related to education and competitive equity. The aff counterinterpretation of “you can run your K/word K as a K without the CP part” generally solves every pedagogical benefit of those positions-this means the aff just needs to win that competitively these positions are bad for the aff, and it outweighs any ‘educational benefit’ to word/floating pics. I'm persuaded by those arguments, making it an uphill battle for the neg if the aff can explain tangible impacts to the competitive disadvantage the PIC puts them in.

Politics:

The story must matchup. I will vote on such non-offensive arguments like: your uq and link evidence don’t assume the same group of politicians, you have no internal link, passage of that bill is inevitable, Trump has no PC etc. Of course I don’t vote on these in isolation-once again, refer back to my meta-approach to debate-you need to explain why that core defensive argument trumps everything else the neg is saying.

Ks:

I’m generally not compelled by framework as a voter against a Neg K-I think all Ks have a gateway/framing issue that is much easier and more logical for the aff to attack. For example, if the neg reads an epistemology K you are much more likely to win reading a card that says “consequences outweigh epistemology” or “epistemology focus bad” than you are to win that the other team is cheating because of their K. Focus on answering the gateway issue so that you can leverage your aff against the K and get the decision calculus of the debate back in your favor. Subsequently for the neg the issue of ‘framing’ is also very important.

That being said, I don't like Ks that are just framework arguments. Ks should have alternatives that actually resolve link arguments. I'm not going to weigh a K impact against the aff if the K can't resolve it.

In the 2ac, don’t make a bunch of perms you have no hope of winning unless they are conceded. Perm do the alt is not a perm. Make 1 or 2 permutations and EXPLAIN IN THE 2AC how the permutation overcomes neg links/risks of the impact.

Ks are a great example of the “there are only 2-3 arguments” theory I subscribe to. If you’re debating a 1 off team, it’s much better for me if you don’t read 40 cards in the 2ac with as many different caveats as possible. Instead, read a good number of argument but take the time to explain them. What part of the K do they refute? How do these arguments change the calculus of the round? When you do this I put much more pressure on the neg block to get in depth with their explanations, which I find usually helps the aff.

K affs:

T > Framework. Given that most impact turns to T come from pedagogical reasons, you need to prove that your interpretation provides space for the ‘good education’ the aff thinks is key to stop genocide/war/racism/turkeys. Topical version of your aff is compelling, as well as giving other examples of topical action that prove the aff could have accepted the parameters of the resolution and gained the same educational benefits. Then it’s just a matter of proving that competitively the K aff hurts the neg. Also, prove how your competitive equity impacts implicate their education impacts.

Case debate:

These are great. Impact defense is kinda meh unless it's real specific. Solvency and internal link answers are where it's at. Make alt causes great again!

Disadvantages:

It’s all about probability-magnitude is ok but only when you’re discussing it in terms of “our impact causes yours”. Extinction outweighs is trite because by the end of the debate all impacts are extinction or nuclear wars that easily result in another impact in the debate that has been claimed as extinction (nuke war hurts the environment, aff said that causes extinction). Probability is key. Establishing risk is where it’s at. A higher risk trumps a higher magnitude in most instances.

Cross Examination: it’s a speech, I grade it like a speech. Be funny if you can. Base the cross x on core issues in the debate, and base it on quality of evidence and establishing risk/threshold for various arguments.

Nate Graziano Kent Denver School 6 rounds

Last changed on Wed January 3, 2024 at 7:47 PM UTC

Current coach at Kent Denver School, University of Kentucky, and Rutgers University-Newark. Previous competitor in NSDA CX/Policy, NDT/CEDA, and NPTE/NPDA. Experience with British Parliamentary and Worlds Schools/Asian Parliamentary.

> Please include me on email chains - nategraziano@gmail.com <

TL;DR - I like judge instruction. I'll vote for or against K 1ACs based on Framework. Clash of Civilization debates are the majority of rounds I watch. I vote frequently on dropped technical arguments, and will think more favorably of you if you play to your outs. The ballot is yours, your speaker points are mine. Your speech overview should be my RFD. Tell me what is important, why you win that, and why winning it means you get the ballot.

Note to coaches and debaters - I give my RFDs in list order on how I end up deciding the round, in chronological order of how I resolved them. Because of this I also upload my RFD word for word with the online ballot. I keep a pretty good record of rounds I've judged so if anyone has any questions about any decision I've made on Tabroom please feel free to reach out at my email above.

1. Tech > Truth

The game of debate is lost if I intervene and weigh what I know to be "True." The ability to spin positions and make answers that fit within your side of the debate depend on a critic being objective to the content. That being said, arguments that are based in truth are typically more persuasive in the long run.

I'm very vigilant about intervening and will not make "logical conclusions" on arguments if you don't do the work to make them so. If you believe that the negative has the right to a "judge kick" if you're losing the counterplan and instead vote on the status quo in the 2NR, you need to make that explicitly clear in your speech.

More and more I've made decisions on evidence quality and the spin behind it. I like to reward knowledgeable debaters for doing research and in the event of a disputable, clashing claim I tend to default to card quality and spin.

I follow along in the speech doc when evidence is being read and make my own marks on what evidence and highlighting was read in the round.

2. Theory/Topicality/Framework

Most rounds I judge involve Framework. While I do like these debates please ensure they're clashing and not primarily block reading. If there are multiple theoretical frameworks (ex. RotB, RotJ, FW Interp) please tell me how to sort through them and if they interact. I tend to default to policy-making and evaluating consequences unless instructed otherwise.

For theory violations - I usually need more than "they did this thing and it was bad; that's a voter" for me to sign my ballot, unless it was cold conceded. If you're going for it in the 2NR/2AR, I'd say a good rule of thumb for "adequate time spent" is around 2:00, but I would almost prefer it be the whole 5:00.

In the event that both teams have multiple theoretical arguments and refuse to clash with each other, I try to resolve as much of the framework as I can on both sides. (Example - "The judge should be an anti-ethical decision maker" and "the affirmative should have to defend a topical plan" are not inherently contradicting claims until proven otherwise.)

Winning framework is not the same as winning the debate. It's possible for one team to win framework and the other to win in it.

Procedural Fairness can be both an impact and an internal link. I believe it's important to make debate as accessible of a place as possible, which means fairness can be both a justification as well as a result of good debate practices.

3. Debate is Story Telling

I'm fond of good overviews. Round vision, and understanding how to write a singular winning ballot at the end of the debate, is something I reward both on the flow and in your speaker points. To some extent, telling any argument as a chain of events with a result is the same process that we use when telling stories. Being able to implicate your argument as a clash of stories can be helpful for everyone involved.

I do not want to feel like I have to intervene to make a good decision. I will not vote on an argument that was not said or implied by one of the debaters in round. I feel best about the rounds where the overview was similar to my RFD.

4. Critical Arguments

I am familiar with most critical literature and it's history in debate. I also do a lot of topic specific research and love politics debates. Regardless of what it is, I prefer if arguments are specific, strategic, and well executed. Do not be afraid of pulling out your "off-the-wall" positions - I'll listen and vote on just about anything.

As a critic and someone who enjoys the activity, I would like to see your best strategy that you've prepared based on your opponent and their argument, rather than what you think I would like. Make the correct decision about what to read based on your opponent's weaknesses and your strengths.

I've voted for, against, and judged many debates that include narration, personal experience, and autobiographical accounts.

If you have specific questions or concerns don't hesitate to email me or ask questions prior to the beginning of the round - that includes judges, coaches, and competitors.

5. Speaker Points

I believe that the ballot is yours, but your speaker points are mine. If you won the arguments required to win the debate round, you will always receive the ballot from me regardless of my personal opinion on execution or quality. Speaker points are a way for judges to reward good speaking and argumentation, and dissuade poor practice and technique. Here are some things that I tend to reward debaters for:

- Debate Sense. When you show you understand the central points in the debate. Phrases like "they completely dropped this page" only to respond to line by line for 3 minutes annoy me. If you're behind and think you're going to lose, your speaker points will be higher if you acknowledge what you're behind on and execute your "shot" at winning.

- Clarity and organization. Numbered flows, references to authors or tags on cards, and word economy are valued highly. I also like it when you know the internals and warrants of your arguments/evidence.

- Judge instruction. I know it sounds redundant at this point, but you can quite literally just look at me and say "Nate, I know we're behind but you're about to vote on this link turn."

I will disclose speaker points after the round if you ask me. The highest speaker points I've ever given out is a 29.7. A 28.5 is my standard for a serviceable speech, while a 27.5 is the bare minimum needed to continue the debate. My average for the last 3 seasons was around a 28.8-28.9.

Kayla Chanel Green Hire 3 rounds

Last changed on Tue October 23, 2018 at 2:52 PM MST

A little bit about me, I debated two years of LD at Arbor View High School in Las Vegas, and this is currently my third year debating Policy at Arizona State University. I am a junior majoring in Political Science and double minoring in Philosophy and African and African American studies. Fill free to introduce yourselves before round, too! :)

When judging, I want you to tell me what to vote for. I want you to tell me what I should value most in round and why. Establish the voter issues in round and tell me what I need to evaluate most when deciding my ballot.

I am okay with spreading, but I will not vote on an argument that you do not articulate well enough to me, or that I simply cannot understand. If it's important, it is your job to make sure that I understand that. Why is everything that you are saying important? Why does what you have to say matter? Why are you right?

As far as policy and/or K debates, you run whatever you want to run; I will vote on anything. Debate shouldn’t be about debaters making the space better, it should be about debaters using the space to better themselves and others. You do you boo! I am not a fan of framework. Run at your own risk... I am fair though. I believe debaters should be able to talk about epistemology first and foremost if they want to, and I believe that you should be able to talk about things that you really care about, within reason. This is why I think framework is lame. Framework makes for boring debates in my opinion. There are no rules, only norms! Engage in the arguments being made! But with this being said, that doesn’t mean that you will absolutely not lose to it on the AFF if you don’t answer it well enough.

NEG, you need to prove to me why the AFF is a bad idea. Or else, I’m going to vote an affirmative ballot. AFF, you need to prove to me why you are a good idea. Or else, I will vote a negative ballot. Give me clash!

Flow and organization is important to me. I like to know where I am throughout the debate. I will not vote on arguments you drop in round. I am also not fond of new 2ARs and 2NRs. I will not vote on arguments that come this late in the debate. Your strongest arguments are most likely the ones articulated throughout the entire debate anyways.

I like to consider myself a smart gal, but it is likely that you know more about the topic and what you like to run more than I do. I am still learning too! Make sure you explain to me well enough what your position actually is in round. My face is pretty easy to read, so if I look confused its probably because I am. Don’t leave me lost at the end of the debate.

As for speaker points, be clear, be cordial, don’t be offensive, and have good articulations in round. Bonus points if you make me laugh.

Other than that, be nice and have fun!

Logan Guthrie Hire 3 rounds

Last changed on Sat November 12, 2022 at 6:47 AM PDT

Logan Guthrie

Coach at Mountain View High School, debated policy for Arizona State

lmguthrie0624@gmail.com

Overview

Hi, I am a tabula rasa judge that tries to minimize intervention as much as possible. This means that I value thorough extensions and arguments that arrive at a terminal impact. Unless otherwise argued, my default role as the judge is to compare competing worlds within an offense/defense paradigm. I am comfortable with speed and any literature base. Below are some thoughts on specific match-ups:

Plan vs. Counterplan

- I really appreciate numbered net-benefits when the debate gets muddled. Highlight the few stand-out impacts and then give judge instruction on how my decision should come together

K vs. Policy Affs

- Framework is really important. The K doesn't make much strategic sense if it doesn't re-orient the way I view my ballot or the round itself. Be sure to explain why ontology or epistemology comes before policy-making

- Alt's don't need to 'solve' the links of the criticism if you win framework. Just prove why the ballot is only a question of orientation, or a referendum on ethics, etc.

K vs. Fw

- Both sides should spend a significant amount of time on impact framing. How do I weigh a risk of unfairness against the risk of framework reproducing fascism? The debater that answers that question best is probably going to win

- Defense counter-interpretations are more persuasive with a clear model of debate under the k

- Topical Versions of the AFF (TVAs) with an explicit plan text are more persuasive than general assertions that the AFF could have been topical

K vs. K

- Comparative analysis is really important. Re-explaining their theory of the world or a particular structure through the lens of your own literature base is persuasive

- Be sure to emphasize the terminal impacts of the K -- Ex. Neoliberalism is an internal-link, not an impact

- The perm is probably important. I appreciate multiple, diverse arguments to prove or disprove competition (DAs, Solvency Deficits, etc.)

Theory

- Theory debates can get really messy, especially with competing interps, so weighing between standards or voters is key. I much prefer quality over quantity; collapse to a few standards or a single voter and sit on it

Random

- Please do your best to have the speech doc flashed when prep stops

- I usually only read cards after the round if they are flagged

- Clean up the room before you leave, it helps the tournament directors out a lot!

Sam Haley-Hill Saint Francis HS 3 rounds

Last changed on Thu November 10, 2022 at 5:06 AM EDT

TLDR VERSION

I've been around a long time. I've seen a lot of conventional wisdom come and go. I don't always agree with the consensus of the moment. Be fast, be clear, read a K and/or a counterplan.

Remote Debates:

I flow on paper and actually make an effort to watch you and listen to the words you are saying. It's hard to give speaker points to a glowing dot, so turn on your camera when speaking if possible. I will not follow the speech doc as you are talking, so be clear.

Want to be on the email chain? - Yes, but know that I won't look at the docs until the debate is over.

Please send docs to: samhaleyhill@gmail.com

Speed? - Yes

Open CX? - Sure, but if you aren't involved somewhat, your speaker points suffer.

When does prep time stop? - When you cease to alter your speech doc and to talk about the debate with your partner.

Judge Disclosure - Unless the tournament has some terrible counter-educational policy preventing it (looking at you, NCFL).

Can I read (X argument)? Yes, if it's not offensive.

T? - Reasonability (whew - really feels good to be honest there)

Will you vote on disclosure theory? - No. Disclosure is a good community norm which I support, but I do not think ballots can or should enforce this norm. The exception would be if you can prove that someone straight up lied to you.

Tech over truth? - Yes, but I think people often take this way too far.

FULL VERSION

Biography

Years Judging: 16
Years Debated: 4

I debated for four years in high school for Nevada Union (1998-2002) during which time I made two TOC appearances. I did not debate for Berkeley during my time there, but I was an assistant coach for the College Preparatory School from 2002-2006. After that, I was off the circuit for a few years because I moved to Hong Kong for a year and then went to graduate school. 2010-2011 was my first year back. I worked for New Trier for a year after that and at Nevada Union from 2011-2012. After that I went back to CPS for three more years. I then spent four years running the program at St. Francis. I now work with the Washington Urban Debate League. I have judged a lot for a long time.

Tech Over Truth - This is not dogma

I think that the phrase "tech over truth" is just as vacuous as its inverse, "truth over tech." I honestly have no idea what either of these slogans is trying to say, but I do know that people who repeat either of them incessantly tend to make decisions that I don't get.

"Tech" is just as subjective as "truth" because whether someone's embedded clash has answered something, whether an argument has a warrant, whether someone has explained something enough to have extended it, etc. are all judgement calls at some level anyhow.

I think that dropped arguments are conceded. I think that I should refrain from dismissing arguments that I don't agree with. I think that arguments which I think are bad should still win the debate if the debater advancing them has argued better than the opponent. I guess that's tech over truth?

At the same time, I am the kind of judge who thinks that one compelling, well-developed argument can be more important than three specious, underdeveloped ones. I don't think that the concession of a less significant argument necessarily outweighs a more significant argument that is won despite contestation. Is that truth over tech? Is this whole tech vs. truth binary kind of pointless?

My bumper sticker slogan would be something like: "Analysis over blips."

Speaker Points - No, you can't have a 30.

It used to go without saying that I award speaker points solely based on how well I feel the debaters performed in each round. These days, it seems that I need to say that I will continue to do this regardless of what anyone else does and regardless of what debaters tell me to do during the debate.

I think that there's a performative/communicative aspect to this activity. Speak persuasively and your points will improve.

Try to be nice.

Judge Disclosure - I do it.

I'll disclose my decision and talk about the round with you in depth afterwards. I remember getting a lot out of post-round discussions when I was a debater, and I hope I can pass something along. If your analytics are in your speech docs for my later reference, I'll even give you my flows.

Speed - Go ahead, but be clear

I can flow any rate of delivery.

Lately, someone out there has been telling high school debaters to slow down and emphasize tags. Stop it, whoever you are. This advice implies that I don't care about the text of the card. In fact, I care about how you tagged the card far, far less than I care about what the text of the card actually says. When you slow down for the tag, but slosh unintelligibly through the card, you are implying that I can't understand high speed and that the actual card text is a mere formality. If this is so, you may as well just paraphrase the card like a PF debater.

Believe it or not, I actually can understand your card at high speeds if you read it clearly. I'm actually flowing what the card says. Often as not, I won't flow your (often misleading) tag at all.

I'll yell "clear" at you if you're not being clear. I'll do this twice before putting my pen down and pointedly glaring at you.

Line By Line - Please and Thank You

I'll look at evidence, sure, but I will be grumpy if you make me sort out a huge rat's nest of implied and unexplained clash for you. I am a believer in directly responsive line-by-line debate. I think that explaining warrants is good, but comparing warrants is better.

Framework - Can't we all just get along?

I am one of the last folks out there who won't take a side. I vote neg on framework sometimes; I vote aff on framework sometimes. I think framework debates are kind of fundamental to the activity. I'm up for any kind of argument. I love a good K debate, but I'm equally pleased to adjudicate a game of competing policy options. Run what you love. In my heart, I probably don't care if there's a plan text, but I'll vote for theory arguments demanding one if the better debating is done on that side. Please don't read offensive/amoral arguments.

Conditionality - Yeah, sure, whatever

I think one or two conditional CP's and a K is just fine. You can win a debate on conditionality being more permissive than that or being bad altogether. I won't intervene.

T - I am different from the folks at Michigan

I think that winning complete or nearly complete defense on T is sufficient for the aff even in a world of competing interpretations. If the aff meets, they meet. I'm unlikely to give this RFD: "Even though you're winning a we meet, the neg interpretation is better, so any risk that you don't meet etc etc." Ever since someone told me back in 1999 that T should be evaluated like a DA, I have not agreed. It's a procedural issue, not a predictive claim about the consequences of implementing a policy. As such, I evaluate T procedurally. Whether or not the aff meets is a binary question, not a linear risk.

I think sometimes people think that "competing interpretations" means "the smallest interpretation should win." To me, smallest is not necessarily best. Sure, limits are a big deal, but there is such a thing as over-limiting. There are also other concerns that aren't limits per se, like education, ground, and predictability.

I can be persuaded otherwise in a debate, but I think we should evaluate T through the lens of reasonability.

Open Cross Ex - Yeah

Just make sure that you're involved somewhat or I'll hammer your speaks.

Disclosure theory

Stop it. People choose to disclose as a courtesy. It is not and should not be a requirement. I tell all my teams to disclose. I think you should disclose. If you choose not to, so be it.

If you make a disclosure theory argument, I will ignore you until you move on to something else. I will never vote on a disclosure theory argument, even if it is not answered.

I always find it sadly hilarious when big, brand-name programs tell me that disclosure is good for small schools. It most definitely is not. The more pre-round prep becomes possible, the more that coaching resources can be leveraged to influence debates. That's why the most well-resourced programs tend to be the most aggressive about disclosure theory.

New Affs

New affs are fine. I will not consider arguments which object to them, even if the aff team never answers such arguments.

Carlos Henry Casady School 6 rounds

Last changed on Sat February 17, 2024 at 4:45 PM CDT

Email Chain or questions: lawexpo@gmail.com

Speed: Any speed fine. Any argument fine.

Experience: I debated for three years in high school policy debate and two years on the college NDT Circuit. I'm educated as a philosopher and am a criminal defense lawyer. My philosophical training means I really care about logical fallacies and how arguments are posed and answered. Also, I ponder and wonder about big questions so that translates into my debate thinking. I'm a theory hack. Professionally, I defend criminals so I've developed a very thick skin. My love is trying criminal cases so I'm very focused on how folks decide and why, and how to persuade and adapt--oh just like debate. I dislike dogma which is now shockingly rampant on both sides of our current political culture.

FLOW I flow the debate specifically on a sketch pad. Cross X too. If you do not take this into account I'll miss your arguments. That means give me time to turn the page when moving to new arguments and signpost clearly where you going next on the flow (e.g. "on the states counterplan" and give me time to get there.) Connecting arguments - the line-by-line - is essential you don't want me to put the debate together myself. 'I will feel zero remorse if you tell me that I did not decode the word vomit on 2AC 5 subpoint C or the treatise you regurgitated in a 2NC overview. ..It would help me immensely if you used consistent, easily transcribable soundbites' (thanks Shree) and very clear signposting so I can make connections on the flow effortlessly. Long overviews are bad in this same way--put them in the line by line.

Judging Philosophy: Be yourself, because sincerity is transparent and convincing. No argument would cause me to automatically vote against any team, regardless of whether they are labeled politically incorrect, offensive or whatever (I hate dogma.) If a team thinks an argument is morally wrong tell me why I should not vote for it. I HAVE NO DEFAULT OR PREFERRED JUDGING PARADIGM. I'll follow what the round dictates. Nor have I any theory preferences that I apply to my evaluation. I like theory debates and listening to debate arguments about what debate or the theory should be and why. Alot. I expect the debaters to tell me how to decide the debate. I don't want to determine which interpretation is better or whether human rights trumps extinction. The best teams will compare evidence, indict arguments (qualifications or warrants), and resolve debate questions.

Online Debate: Online debate is terrible both as it deemphasizes persuasion intangibles and fails to replicate the community and support of an in-person tournament. But it is better than not debating. Judges should have their camera on during all speeches as debaters need to assess judge reactions and attention. Competitors should have their cameras on during their speeches and cross x so judges can see non-verbal cues to assign speaker points.

Subjectivity/Ks:

Both policy and kritik debates thrill me when there is clash and great intellectual battles. I'm current on most K literature but that is a double-edged sword. I'll probably understand your Kritik, but I have a higher threshold for what you must articulate. And I'll know when you superficially understand your authors or the literature base.

- - Poor DAs/Advantages/K links: More and more I see DAs and 1AC advantages with poor link evidence and then severe brink and obvious uniqueness issues. Often these go unchallenged by opposing teams in a rush to simply read their evidence blocks. A few analytics or even a well reasoned cross-ex questions could destroy some of these disadvantages. Solid analytics will be rewarded with higher speaker points.

- - Evidence Comparison: Great debaters evaluate, compare and attack evidence. There is good evidence and bad evidence; good sources and lousy sources. Quality of evidence is very important to me. I'll be reading along with your speech doc and reading evidence in your prep time.

- - Cross-x: It's not simply your partner's prep time or to get cards you missed. It's another opportunity to make your arguments. You are welcome to do cross x anyway you want but best speaker points are awarded to those who answer their own cross x. And when you find a soft spot in their answers go for the kill and savor it. It's a rare and beautiful thing...as close to a Perry Mason moment as you'll ever find because they don't happen in court, ever. In the 1994 CEDA finals, James Brian Johnston from UKMC as 2AC, questions 2NC Dave Devereux (KSU) and his questioning beginning around 51 minutes into the video is, for me, a perfectly executed aggressive and brilliant cross-examination. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7L5N3Jvg8A&feature=youtu.be

- - Speaker Points I won't give fewer than 26 for any reason. For me, 29 indicates a very good speech with few mistakes. Wake Forest University devised a speaker point scale to attempt to universalize speaker points and I tend to follow it: http://collegedebateratings.weebly.com/points-scale.html

The best debaters I see don't simply bury their heads in their laptop and spread; they actually look at the judge periodically and persuade, particularly in 2NR and 2ar. Watch the 2002 Ceda Finals and see Calum Matheson's 2nc or Jason Regnier's 2ac or 2ar for great examples. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpU21fxfAD4&feature=youtu.be .

Debate is about winning so be assertive even aggressive. Not rude or exclusive but go after your point with passion. We are in the persuasion business and enthusiasm is contagious. Have fun. A sense of humor is priceless (and rare) in a round.

Anika Jain The Harker School 2 rounds

Last changed on Mon February 8, 2021 at 5:19 AM CDT

I was a policy debater at Harker from 2012-2017 and now coach there. I primarily read policy-leaning arguments, and most of my 2NRs consisted of a DA/case, DA/CP, or Topicality. I now primarily judge and coach LD: I would most prefer to judge LARP debates. I would least prefer to judge tricks/theory debates. If you read tricks, phil, ridiculous/frivolous theory, or Ks with "B" letter authors, you will likely lose. RVIs are not a thing.

If you're doing an email chain, I'd like to be on it: anikaluvsla@gmail.com

In broad terms, I'd appreciate if you could use the most warrants and do the most comparisons that you think you need to in order to win. I evaluate arguments by thinking about their relative risk, but don't know if "zero risk" is as much a thing as people say in debates. Your arguments must consist of a claim, warrant, and impact - I will not read your evidence to construct the latter 2 parts of this for you.

CP: with specific solvency advocates are the best; otherwise, are still good. as a longtime 2a, probably lean aff on cp theory but can surely be persuaded otherwise.

DA: good. politics too.

Topicality: enjoyable when there is clear and specific clash, not enjoyable if extremely generic or out of context violations. case lists and impact comparisons are important. don't really want to see your pre written Nebel 2nr

Kritiks: enjoy these when there is a clearly articulated and specific link, not a random set of cards you read in every debate. i am more familiar with kritiks of security, capitalism, etc., and enjoy when the neg can point to specific things regarding the affirmative rather than blanket statements. I also enjoy the use of historical examples and well thought out impacts in these debates. The alt is very important. I am not inclined to voting on a K without a clear explanation of the alt. not interested in arguments that rely on the idea that death is good, not real, or anything similar to that.

Planless Affs: I went for framework against every planless aff I ever debated: do with that information what you will. topical version of the aff will compose a significant part of my decision in these debates, though I've come to think it's not necessary. I also do not think it necessarily would have to solve the aff.

Theory: I probably have some predispositions but will try my best to put them aside when I judge your debate. Especially in LD, I have a low threshold for what I consider a dumb argument (read: rvi, spec, afc), and I don't particularly want to judge a debate where you throw out a bunch of random shells and see what sticks.

Speaker Points: I'm a pretty sarcastic person, so I appreciate some of that and humor (while still maintaining respect). Be nice but bold, and use CX well. If you are not clear and I do not hear an argument then that is on you: be clear enough to convey the arguments you want to win on. I'm becoming increasingly annoyed with lots of CX/prep spent asking your opponent to list all the arguments they made, or waiting forever for a marked copy so you can see what cards they skipped- you should be flowing.

Somil Jain Hire 3 rounds

Eunice Jung Saint Francis HS 6 rounds

Last changed on Thu October 15, 2020 at 3:40 AM PDT

I'm a senior @ stanford double majoring in international relations + anthropology and i did policy in high school

2020 NOTE: I don't know much about this years' resolution-- explain topic-specific acronyms if you use any!

email: edasulj@stanford.edu

POLICY:

tl;dr- i'll listen to literally anything! i love unique arguments but even more importantly i love clash.

kaffs- i love them. i came from the smallest school possible (no coaches, no other policy team) so i find them extremely helpful with specific research focus for small teams/schools. i love them when they are unique and tailored to each individual debater. i think that the best k affs are ones that i can feel the emotion and power in every word you choose to say/sing/rap/dance/draw/perform.

ks- i think ks are extremely productive in debate; prob read some lit on what you are planning on reading. specific links are super awesome and engaging. but if u do k debate pls don't read off your computer the entire time it's sad. i read a lot of postmodern theory (both in hs, but also now in school as a college student), but this may help/hurt you. bad k debates are worse than bad policy debates, so make sure you know what you're talking about. empirical examples for k debates are persuasive. many judges don't feel compelled to vote for postmodern ks because it is hard to tie them to something tangible in the status quo. there are examples-- refer to art, movements, historical events...etc.

framework- framework can be extremely productive, tailor your framework arguments specific to the aff. tva's are good arguments-- make them

das- a really good da debate is exciting to watch. i love it when teams destroy case and do really good anaylsis on the da. pls don't make your 2nc extension of the da just reading more cards, like take the warrants of your 1nc and exacerbate them in the block. good da debates are great.

cps- i mean i'm down for listening to the most abusive cps you have. i think really specific ones are killer. i don't really care about theory unless someone calls you out on it. if you read a delay cp or a plan plus like tell me why that plus/net ben is so important. otherwise i'll vote on like perm: do CP

t- if you can't list a topical caselist with your interpretation why read t. read t when there is an obvious advantage the aff is getting away with. i don't really have a favorite between reasonability vs. competiting interps. like tell me which one to prefer and i'll do whatever.

theory- tbh theory debates are boring i'd still vote on them if i have to

case- case is so underrated especially in kaff debates. if you can destroy case on the kaff i'll be happy to vote on neg presumption or some case turn. if you go destroy case i'll reward you.

truth over tech- i lean more for tech over truth. but i am persuaded by ethos.

do u love the jesus cp?- sure, read whatever weird args you have. if you commit to them i'll give them credit in the round. EDIT: ok but also I strongly dislike the 30-speaks argument!!!!!!!!!!

prep/cross-x- tag team is cool and flashing doesn't count as prep

extras:

debate is an activity that i love and that i invested a lot of time in. please look like you're having fun, at least.

i guess i am a point fairy. debaters work really hard and i think that getting average speaker points like 28.3 is just not exciting nor rewarding. if life is meaningless and debate fills a meaningless void in our lives ill try to give y'all some temporary happiness with higher speaker points.

LD:

pretty much the same as policy; i don't really vibe with debates that are only about the rules of debate

PUBLIC FORUM:

tldr; debate is a game, so use whatever strategies you want. don't care about your speed, but do care if you're using speed as an excuse to not make real arguments. warrant all your arguments! I don't judge PF too often, so assume that I do not know anything about your resolution. Explain acronyms if you use them. HAVE FUN :-)!!

Samdeet Khan Hire 6 rounds None

Leonardo Kim Chaminade College Prep 3 rounds

EILINE KINGSLEY Hire None

Shardul Kothapalli Hamilton High School 6 rounds

Nicholas Lassen Hire 6 rounds

Last changed on Fri March 12, 2021 at 3:36 AM MDT

Updated 10/1/20 for UK

nicholasjlassen@gmail.com please include me on the email chain- you're also welcome to email me for any other questions as well

I debated in high school and college and I am the current head coach at Bingham HS in South Jordan, UT.

College Topic: I am well versed in debate but relatively new to this topic. Please explain important acronyms the first time you use them.

High School Topic: I have several tournaments on this topic already and I am pretty familiar with the literature base.

Theory - I really enjoy a good topicality debate. However, my expectation for the negative to win is that they can clearly define the impacts of the argument i.e. how has the aff been unfair to you directly, what grounds have been lost, why is your model for education better? I dislike time suck theory that you are never going to go for-i.e. things like incredibly thin pics such as capitalize the L in the word lands and disclosure theory. The important thing to keep in mind is that if you want me to vote on theory, you have to be good at articulating the impacts.

CP's - I believe that counter plans really need to be mutually exclusive either through actor or avoidance of a DA or something or else, otherwise it's really easy to buy the affirmatives claims of the perm. The permutation should be a test of competition towards the counterplan. In the plan v counterplan debate it is important to prove why your side is net beneficial either through some DA story or winning some solvency mitigation towards the aff or the CP.

DA's - My expectation on the DA debate is really articulate the link story. I think a lot of generic da's are easy to non/unique out of. As far as the link story goes, I need a good internal link chain. Please make sure that I can see how we get from the aff to point b and then point c.

Politics - I have a strong tendency to default to more recent evidence on politics disads. This can definitely create a research burden but if you want to run politics then you should know that this means that a lot of the time, it boils down to a recency/card quality debate.

K's

Aff - I want to know that your K aff means something. I am much more likely to buy into your criticism if there is some sort of personal connection. Make sure you are ready for the framework debate. I need to know why your framework is better for education than the negative or why I should choose to recognize your role of the ballot versus theirs.

Neg - I am open to most K's on the neg. I know it practically impossible to have hyper specific link cards for every aff. But with that in mind, please articulate how the aff links through a thorough analysis. Please make sure that you articulate the alternative well if you want to go for it -I want to know what the world of the alternative looks like and what happens when I sign my ballot neg. If I am left confused about what the world of the alt looks like, it will be hard for you to win the debate.

Method v Method

The one point I want to make here is that I have a higher threshold for voting on the permutation then i do in a plan v cp debate. I hold the aff to a similar burden as the negative, I would not let them just stand up and coopt your advocacy so I most likely wont let you stand up and just say perm do both and gain 100% access to their advocacy. I want the competing ideologies weighed against each other and to know why your world is "better" then the opposing teams.

Please don't be rude, disrespectful, racist, sexist, transphobic, etc. I will doc your speaks and most likely drop you. It's not welcome in debate or in society overall.

Vivian Lee SLC West HS 5 rounds

Last changed on Sat February 17, 2024 at 4:49 AM MDT

if you want to add me on the email chain at leevivian859@yahoo.com

the UBER basics -

use humor, be bold, and have fun!!

Just explain links well, I am fine with wonky arguments as long as they're logical, & tabula rasa

if you use racist, ableist, sexist language I will be very upset

please don't interrupt your partner in cross, also let your opponents answer your questions lol

I did policy, pf, speech, oh and I do british parli and speech in college at the U of U

I go by she/her/hers

pretty basic right ...

policy/debate in depth -

the K debate, I am a huge fan of it. I enjoy a good K debate, just make sure you're prepped for fw and T. I am not a huge fan of voting for T against K, but will do it if ya know needed. I think that lots of the K's I have seen this year aren't linking to the motion very well, neg in specific hasn't been linking to the affirmative . SO like please just make it a clean debate for everyone in the room.Debate is supposed to be a safe space, mentally as well. I can follow most args, I do personally believe debate should be a space to have a voice and be advantageous of this unique space ie identity politics and what not. I do not like to see identity or traits of a case/person used or commodified to win the ballot.

oh if ur alt is rage pls give me a headsup but I am still 100% okay with running it. I just wanna know ahead of time lol

Topicality- I think t debates are good, although procedurals aren't my favorite form of debate. if youre going to read t, read it offensively not for a time suck. I won't vote on it if there aren't violations or voters/reasons to prefer. easy right. oh t is always an a priori issue

t- theory I think theory is always good, it brings a little fun to debate. once again there needs to be a reason its read, not just because you wanna

politics da, if your da is a year old its prolly too old. things are changing, so these da's need to be following what is going on or being relevant.

cp - for this topic specific I don't really like the parole cp, I think courts makes more sense, but once again you do you. I am fine with whatever. so perms in this topic are a little funky, bc its still something you should do going against one.

whatever other da. like cool, I get it, go for it. Gotta go for some basics right. OHH if you read a meme da and it makes me laugh, higher speaks to you, and if its good even more kudos. (this doesn't mean you should read it because you think ill like it more or whatever, I just have this because encase YOU want to run it, that's okay)

pls do voters/rob I do listen to those and heavily weigh it out. I am fine with tag team cross x, I love performances, and clash. clash. clash.

if case goes uncontested, I usually pay heavy attention to that. make sure youre clashing with the case, why its bad, why it won't work, at least something pls.

if you have more questions about pls ask.

ok ðŸ‘ still kinda simple paradigm lol I know

Jaden Lessnick Hire 6 rounds

Last changed on Sat February 3, 2024 at 8:32 PM +00

Overview

Rowland Hall 2016; Emory 2020; University of Chicago Law School 2023

Ask if you have questions: jadenlessnick@gmail.com

Add me to the email chain; no need to ask. Please make the subject line something easily searchable (e.g., GSU 2023 Round 1 – Emory LS v. Georgetown AM)

I. How Should You Pref Me?

Experience

---I have spent years competing, coaching, and judging in policy debate. I have been fortunate to coach many terrific teams, several of whom qualified to the TOC, including, most recently, a TOC finals appearance by Chaminade AH. I have judged late outrounds of many major tournaments. As a competitor, I cleared at the TOC twice, reaching the quarterfinals my senior year. I received 15 total bids while in high school—9 with my primary partner during my senior year. My partner and I attended the Greenhill and CPS round robins.

---I feel comfortable with this topic’s subject matter, but I have judged only at the Meadows and Notre Dame tournaments thus far.

---I like fast, technical debate regardless of argument style.

Ideology

---I consider myself a generalist, and I have yet to find an argument I am ideologically unwilling to vote for. I have read, coached, and voted for arguments running the ideological gamut. In high school, I read mostly K arguments; in college, mostly policy arguments. My research as a coach is about 50/50 policy/K.

---I also believe that I can learn enough about a new argument—policy or K—throughout a debate that I can and will vote for it, even if previously unfamiliar, assuming your explanation is satisfactory.

---Using T-USFG as a modest proxy for prefs, I would likely conclude fairness is an impact assuming equal debating. It can be dispositive, but only with the right framing. I rarely think the substance of any given debate meaningfully impacts what we do in the real world, so “skills,” “education,” or “violence” typically face an uphill battle on either side. I am much better for planless affs that say "debating about the USFG is bad" than those that say "the USFG is bad."

---I'm in the "if you can't beat dumb arguments, you should lose" camp—but I reward teams who identify the dumb arguments and address them accordingly.

---I am a law clerk for a federal court of appeals judge, so my day-to-day involves a considerable amount of reading about technical aspects of government structure. But I don’t think that has made me any less comfortable evaluating kritikal arguments.

Other

---If your strategy, policy or kritikal, depends primarily on tricks intended to obfuscate clash, I will likely look for ways to vote for the other team.

---I don’t mind vertical 1NCs, but the more that you’re including obviously throw-away positions, the more likely I am to give the aff some flexibility as the debate goes on.

II. Argument Idiosyncrasies

This section lists the places where I think I deviate from community norms in my evaluation of certain arguments.

Top Level

---I care more than most about card quality, especially internal link evidence. It's not dispositive if overcome by debating, but I have been incredibly skeptical of: (1) the ability of certain CPs to solve an internal net benefit or avoid an external net benefit, (2) the necessity of an aff internal link to an advantage (as opposed to its sufficiency), and (3) the internal link to the terminal impact of a DA, even granting the negative a link to the plan.

---I seem to have a higher threshold than most for thoroughness in making an argument analytically/extending an argument. I will be deeply uncomfortable voting for an argument that was less than 3 complete sentences in the prior speech unless absolutely conceded (obvi that number is arbitrary; it depends on the argument and the debate).

---In exactly zero debates has swearing made me more likely to vote for a team.

---I am unlikely to vote on a “cheap shot.” If you bury ASPEC in your answer-to-condo block, I’m unlikely to care if the aff drops it. Whether something is a “cheap shot” depends on (1) how apparent the argument was when you made it, and (2) the degree of argument development when it was first introduced.

Topicality

---I care more about precision and predictability than most. That often means I care a fair bit about the card quality of an interpretation. Precision doesn't always mean a technical definition. Generally, dictionaries > court opinions/white paper/etc > defining a word for a social science paper. There are also other indicia of meaning than defining a word; the structure of the res and other words might be relevant, too.

---I'm agnostic about whether reasonability requires a counter-interpretation. If the neg goes for a contrived but limited interpretation of the topic, and the aff is one of the primary and predictable affs on the topic, I could see myself voting aff even absent a counter-interpretation if done right.

---If the plan uses the phrase you're defining, you might consider redeploying your T arguments as link/CP competition arguments rather than T arguments, unless your definition of the phrase is incompatible with another part of the plan. E.g., if you say "FJG requires taxes," and the plan says "FJG," winning T simply means you've won that the aff taxes people. It would be different if the plan said "an FJG funded by deficit spending."

T-USFG/Framework

---I’m better for fairness-style impacts than skills/education/whatever because it's substantially easier to quantify. I don't automatically think that any deviation from instrumental implementation is per se unfair; I care about what the state of negative/affirmative ground looks like under each interpretation.

---The more that aff offense critiques debating ABOUT THE USFG and not just debating about the TOPIC, the better position they will be in.

---Is my role as a judge to actually remedy an instance of procedural unfairness in this particular debate, or is it to hypothetically adopt a model for debate more broadly? If it’s the former, do interpretations/counter-interpretations/limits even matter?

---What happens if the counter-interpretation links to the aff’s offense? Does it matter if it links less?

---I'm comfortable and experienced evaluating these debates. I have read everything from identity Ks to postmodernist Ks in my time as a debater (and coach). I will be careful not to let my independent knowledge of an argument compensate for a lack of explanation.

---the burden of specificity goes both ways. Specific links/alts/etc. are good; so are specific aff answers.

---If the links exist in a different world from the hypothetical implementation of the aff, you need to win a framework argument. The argument that “the aff gets to weigh the aff and the neg gets its K” makes no sense to me in such scenarios.

---For that reason, framework arguments on either side often fare better in front of me than they do other judges.

---K tricks are dumb. Most of the time, they are implicitly answered by other aspects of the debate. If your strategy primarily depends on the aff dropping a K trick, I'll be unhappy.

DAs

---I often get hung up on link uniqueness, and I rarely think that "our uniqueness evidence prices that in" is meaningfully responsive, because it still empirically disproves the link. Negative teams fare better if they can qualitatively differentiate the aff from the other things that would have triggered the link. This is one of the places where the quality of evidence matters to me a lot.

---The internal link is usually the weakest part of a DA, typically because of poor card quality. The internal link often says that "X bad thing will contribute to Y impact," but rarely is avoiding the DA sufficient to stop the impact.

---For both of those reasons, I usually think that negative teams should spend more time CPing offense into the debate.

CPs, Competition, and Theory

---As a matter of abstract preference, I'm neg on conditionality—even in 2+ conditional options. I have been persuaded otherwise. This preference comes more from the fact that I think debate is more fun with multiple conditional options in a debate than any feeling about the quality of arguments on either side.

---I’d prefer a competition debate over a theory debate. Theory doesn’t necessarily require an “interp” if you think what they did was unfair.

---Having a solvency advocate that compares the CP against normal means assuages a lot (but not all) of my concerns about process CPs. I'm not convinced all CPs need solvency advocates, though.

---Not sure what the best form of CP competition is. I’m uncomfortable with the notion that CP competition can be determined only by reference to the words of the plan text, but I’m not sure whether competing off of normal means makes the most sense either. I might be persuaded that something like positional competition is the best we’ve got.

---Relatedly, I can be persuaded relatively easily that if the aff chooses not to specify something in the 1AC cx, they don't get to claim offense based on that thing later in the debate. E.g., if the aff says "we don't specify whether we mandate a tax increase," the aff shouldn't get to read an add-on based on tax increases. I'm more agnostic about whether this applies to the aff's agent.

---I will default to NOT kicking the CP. That means if the aff wins PDCP, it will necessarily avoid the link to the DA. I will NOT kick the CP for you if the first time you say "judge kick" is in the 2NR, and saying "logic" on conditionality in the 2NC won't do the trick.

Case

---Necessity vs. sufficiency matters a lot for internal links. If your card says something is necessary to solve an impact, that doesn’t mean the plan is sufficient to solve it. This often gets explained as “reverse causality,” but I think of it more in terms of necessary vs. sufficient.

III. Rules of Decision

The following default rules will apply when I’m making my decision, absent debating otherwise.

---Generally, tech over truth, with the following two caveats. First, the argument needs to pass a minimum threshold of reasonableness. If you say, “PICs are a voting issue because they steal the whole aff, so vote against them even if they kick it,” I probably won’t vote for that argument; it’s a non-sequitur. Second, the argument needs to pass a minimum thoroughness threshold. If you say, “extinction outweighs—it’s irreversible,” and nothing more, I’ll give the argument almost zero weight. This will inevitably involve some subjective judgment on my part, so it’s better to err on the side of more explanation.

---If a complete argument is dropped, you can extend it without explaining the warrant, but you need to at least mention it in each speech (and subsequently impact it). If the neg drops reasonability in the block, and you don’t point that out in the 1AR, can’t re-raise it in the 2AR; but you can say, in the 1AR, “they dropped reasonability—this obviates their offense because XYZ.”

---Presumption is less change.

---No inserting. The mere act of inserting something does not constitute justification for insertion—you need to independently justify it.

---I will not kick the CP, even if you say you're conditional, unless judge kick is explicit. If the aff wins PDCP, they will necessarily avoid the link to the net benefit. If judge kick is raised for the first time in the 2NR and the 2AR answers it sufficiently, I'll likely default aff. Saying "you can kick the CP for us, it's most logical" borders on too blippy.

---Absent any debating, I will assume the CP doesn't link to the net benefit—even if it obviously does.

IV. Immutable Rules

These are rules that cannot be changed by the debating.

---If you ask for certain speaker points, I will give you a 25.

---Speech times and orders

---I will flow only the person who is supposed to be speaking, unless part of a 1AC/1NC performance. If both people are speaking during the 1AC/1NC as part of a performance, I reserve the right not to flow the person who should not be speaking if it seems like allowing them to speak will confer an inappropriate advantage on the team (e.g., if they are considerably faster than their partner).

---CX is three minutes long, and anything said outside of those three minutes isn’t binding—including the status of advocacies, whether there were any theory arguments, etc.

---When marking a card, you must do so during your speech.

---Clipping requires a recording, but I reserve the right to raise it sua sponte if I’m following along and I see you’re clipping.

---If you make an ethics challenge, it will stop the debate. I will consult tab before proceeding. Whomever loses the ethics challenge will get the lowest points possible. My strong preference is that substantive evidentiary issues get cached out over the course of a debate.

V. Miscellanea

---The best CXs are those that subtly get another team to make a concession without realizing it, and then referencing it later. Using CX as a "gotcha" moment is usually unhelpful.

---I don't like saying "clear." It encourages debaters to push the envelope of clarity. I will still try to flow an unclear debater, but I'll be far more willing to give the other team some leeway in responding.

Matt Liu The Harker School 1 rounds

Last changed on Tue January 2, 2024 at 11:22 AM MST

Matt Liu

University of Wyoming

Last updated: 9-12-22

Email chain: mattliu929@gmail.com

Feb 2022 update: If your highlighting is incoherent gibberish, you will earn the speaker points of someone who said incoherent gibberish. The more of your highlighting that is incoherent, the more of your speech will be incoherent, and the less points you will earn. To earn speaker points, you must communicate coherent ideas.

If you want to read far more than necessary on my judging process: https://wyodebateroundup.weebly.com/blog/reflections-on-the-judging-process-inside-the-mind-of-a-judge

I put a pretty high premium on effective communication. Too many debaters do not do their evidence justice. You should not expect me to read your evidence after the round and realize it’s awesome. You should make sure I know it’s awesome while you read it. I find many debaters over-estimate the amount of ideas they believe they communicate to the judge. Debaters who concentrate on persuading the judge, not just entering arguments into the record, will control the narrative of the round and win my ballot far more often than those who don’t. I have tended to draw a harder line on comprehensibility than the average judge. I won’t evaluate evidence I couldn’t understand. I also don’t call clear: if you’re unclear, or not loud enough, I won’t intervene and warn you, just like I wouldn't intervene and warn you that you are spending time on a bad argument. Am I flowing? You're clear.

Potential biases on theory: I will of course attempt to evaluate only the arguments in the round, however, I'll be up front about my otherwise hidden biases. Conditionality- I rarely find that debaters are able to articulate a credible and significant impact. International actor fiat seems suspect. Uniform 50 state fiat seems illogical. Various process counterplans are most often won as legitimate when the neg presents a depth of evidence that they are germane to the topic/plan. Reject the arg not the teams seems true of nearly all objections other than conditionality. I will default to evaluating the status quo even if there is a CP in the 2NR. Non-traditional affirmatives- I'll evaluate like any other argument. If you win it, you win it. I have yet to hear an explanation of procedural fairness as an impact that makes sense to me (as an internal link, yes). None of these biases are locked in; in-round debating will be the ultimate determinant of an argument’s legitimacy.

Clock management: In practice I have let teams end prep when they begin the emailing/jumping process. Your general goal should be to be completely ready to talk when you say ‘end prep.’ No off-case counting, no flow shuffling, etc.

Cross-x is a speech. You get to try to make arguments (which I will flow) and set traps (which I will flow). Once cross-x is over I will stop listening. If you continue to try to ask questions it will annoy me- your speech time is up.

Pet-peeves: leaving the room while the other team is prepping for a final rebuttal, talking over your opponents. I get really annoyed at teams that talk loudly (I have a low threshold for what counts as loudly) during other teams speeches- especially when it’s derisive or mocking comments about the other team’s speech.

Tucker Lovell SLC West HS 6 rounds

Last changed on Thu December 1, 2016 at 12:29 PM EDT

Debated for four years for Bonneville High school and I am a current debater for Weber State University.

I was a 1A/2N in a very policy oriented circuit in High school.

I have a good understanding of most debate arguments. I will most likely understand your argument and how it interacts with your opponent's.

Biases

I will try not to let any biases I have as a debater influence my decision. Each round isnt about the judges pre-determined ideas, it is about who does the better/smarter debating.

I default to a policymaking framework unless told not to.

Impact out your FW arguments, you will have a tough time trying to win FW in front of me if you dont impact it out. I love a good FW debate, you just need to tell me why it matters.

K affs - I tend to prefer affs that are in the direction of the topic. However, if you run an anti-topical aff, dont be afraid to run it in front of me. I will evaluate the claims you are making. Make sure you have a good defense for your stance.

I believe debate should be a place for people to have discussions that they otherwise wouldnt be able to have elsewhere. Debate should be a space where everyone should feel welcome. There is line between "rage" arguments (which I like) and personally attacking opponents for who they are.

Strategy for my ballot

Impact out your arguments.

give me some way to view your argument, dont assume that I will just default that value to life outweighs extinction and vice versa. You must do that work for me.

Have fun, nothing is harder to watch and judge than a round where no one wants to be there. Compete and do your best.

I understand your kritikal arguments. I understand your policy arguments. Tell me why they matter. How does your marx K interact with their Space aff?

I reward witty and humurous debating with higher speaker points.

If you have any questions - email me at tl32501@gmail.com

I would like to be in the email chain/pocketbox

Tyler Lyons Desert Vista HS 6 rounds

Rakin Nasar Canyon Crest Independent 6 rounds

Last changed on Thu December 27, 2018 at 7:57 PM EDT

I was a Policy debater at Torrey Pines HS and I debated for Wake Forest University. I am not familiar with the topic, so explain any topic related jargon.

Read whatever you want. In highschool I went for policy args i.e. the politics disad, counterplans, etc. In college I've gone for the K in like 80% of my 2nrs I'm a 2N and I've been a 2N for my entire career.

I can keep up with tech, but I prefer to look at debates that are focused on central themes. I dont think cheap techy wins are good examples of that. That being said, don't be sloppy. I really appreciate spending my mental energy thinking about arguments instead of searching for them. You want me spending more time thinking about your arguments. I presume all your arguments are horrible until I get time to actually think about them.

Kritiks: Love em, they gotta be really smart though. Be especially clear about what your argument is. Earlier in college I leaned heavily on the cap k in various iterations, but i am familiar with all different types of kritiks. The more specific the kritik is to the aff, the better. Specific answers to the particular kritik/alt as well as a strong defense of the 1AC is a good way to win as aff. Please explain the alt in the 2NR. I will not drop the alt for you, if you plan on doing that please make that decision as decisive as possible in the 2NR. A lot of framework debates are silly. Justify your impacts and give me reasons why they have misrepresented their impacts. High theory, go for it, but I'll probably need some good explaining. Don't turn it into a game of who dropped what, please have a compelling and thought provoking thesis.

Conditionality is aite. i’ll vote either way if i’m convinced.

Topicality Some of my favorite debates were T debates, but since I am not familiar with the topic I don't have a good pulse of what good debates on this topic look like. I'll be more likely to take T seriously if you invest a lot of time on it in the block. Give me what debates look like in your definition of the topic. A case list and what neg ground comes with that case list are helpful for both sides to have. I don't know why certain affs are good or bad, so you have to do some more work impacting the relevance of your case list.

Theory go for it, but I will only take it seriously if you spend quality time on it. if it becomes a 2NR/2AR thing, don't just read off your pre-made block, contextualize it to the debate.

Counterplans The benchmark for a good counterplan is a good solvency advocate. I love the advantage counterplan and impact turn strategies, please do it well though. There are a lot of moving parts in those debates, so keep it well-oiled and clean. I went for sketchy PICs throughout my career, but that means I expect PICs to be extremely well executed. That being said, affs don't fuck it up. You just have to win a couple of arguments to beat cheating counterplans, don't feel overwhelmed. If you got the confidence to end a 2AR in 2 minutes, go for it.

Disads go ahead, read em.

Framework I’ve been on both sides in my career, I read non-traditional affs and i’ve gone for framework. Please read whatever you want. Generic policy debate good/bad is not what anyone should be arguing in 2019. Your interpretation for framework needs to resolve some of the offense of the affirmative. Topical versions of the aff that resolve the advantages of the aff and the disads on framework are a good idea. Specificity is the most important thing in these debates.

Tell me why debating about the cases your interpretations include make us better people. You gotta show me how debates look within your case lists. I am not easily convinced with the argument that "they are so unpredictable that we don't have any specific arguments against them, and that proves offense on framework." In general, a world with only generic debates is a boring place to be. I like nuanced and well-informed debates, I think that both sides are trying to achieve that. If you think that world view is wrong, please try to change my mind in a compelling way.

Have fun, don't be assholes, get lots of sleep.

If you got a specific question please feel free to ask me!

Michael Obuchi College Prep 6 rounds

Martin Osborn Fullerton Union High School 1 rounds

Last changed on Sat March 16, 2024 at 1:40 PM EDT

drmosbornesq@gmail.com

My judging paradigm has evolved a great deal over time. These days, I have very few set opinions about args. I used to think I had a flawless flow and a magnet mind but now I can't follow each little detail and/or extremely nuanced or shrouded arguments with 101% accuracy like once upon a time. Still pretty good tho lol. And that said, I believe I've come to prioritize debaters' decisions more than ever and try harder than ever to base my decision on what debaters are trying to make happen in the round, and how well they do it, as opposed to how I logically add up what occurred. No judge can totally eliminate their process of sorting things out or their lived personal experience but I try to judge rounds as the debaters tell me to judge them, and with the tools they make available to me. I do think debate is about debaters, so I try to limit my overall judge agency to an extent. But sometimes my experience with traditional policy debate matters and favors a team. Sometimes my lived experience as a brown dude effects my encounter of an argument. These things happen and they are happening with all of your judges whether they admit it or you know it or not. I competed with "traditional policy arguments" (which, frankly, I am unsure still exist #old) but by now I have voted for and coached stupidly-traditional, traditional, mildly-traditional, non-traditional, and anti-traditional arguments in high-stakes rounds for a ton of programs in high school, college, internationally, in different eras, dimensions, all kinds of shi*. If you think your reputation matters in how I see the round, don't pref me. If you or your coaches are used to attacking in the post-round, you're gonna play yourself because I'll either be 101% and crush you or I won't care and I'll just mock you. Debate's a game but we are people so we should treat each other with respect. Self-control is one of the hallmarks of critical thinking and a disciplined intellect; if you cannot make peace with results in a subjective activity, you are simply not an elite debater, imho. Take it or leave it. Good luck to all debaters, seriously -- it's a hell of a thing.

Dan Pace-Farr Hire 3 rounds

Steve Pointer Fullerton Union High School 1 rounds

Last changed on Fri October 16, 2020 at 10:00 AM CDT

Put me on your email chains: pointer.debate@gmail.com

I am done with trying to use your speech docs to fill in tags. You need to recognize that there is an expectation of clarity, even when we're debating remotely.

Early thoughts on the criminal justice reform topic, or at least K affs on the criminal justice reform topic:

I find myself much less persuaded by the claim to need to read an aff that refuses to directly engage with the topic than in previous years. The argument that you must refuse to engage with the state as a survival strategy/mode of alternative political organization seems to me to be subject to a higher degree of scrutiny when the topic allows you to abolish prisons or police. This leads me to presume much more that affirmatives that rely on the carceral or policing as metaphor, or just say that policing/prisons are a product of modernity and thus modernity must be abolished because the state/civil society are always bad are much more about the strategic advantage to be gained in the debate activity than a discussion of a model of engagement/activism/thinking. I'm predisposed to be persuaded that the aff getting to abolish prisons/police/etc. is probably good enough aff ground. Does this mean that I think teams have to defend the process of implementation in a traditional fashion? Debateable. It does, however, mean that I should think the 1AC should be willing to commit to defending a reform in policing or sentencing. But seriously, this isn't the arms control topic. Prison abolition or eliminating policing is the topical version of the affirmative. I feel like I will hold your inevitable "but reforms are always bad" claims to a higher standard this year.

This likely may cause me to alter my position on the nature of T/Framework as concerns the fairness/model of debate question. I find it far less compelling that a metaphorical interpretation of the topic language, or some pessimism, or a connection to an analogous logic is part of a strategy of activism/critical thinking rather than an attempt to gain advantage in a debate on this topic (as opposed to other topics). My thoughts on this will likely develop more throughout the year.

And if the Baudrillard aff is still your thing, and you refuse to change that on this topic for whatever reason (I have my theories) please reconsider. I've been generous to you in the past, but come on.

Previous random thoughts and rants:

Debate is better when claims come from some form of evidence. This expanding trend of taking the K in the 2NC, not reading any cards (or 1-2 max) and asserting claims like "the state is always bad" and "humanism is always bad" is not really appealing to me. I don't start the debate with a predisposition to think those arguments are already decided, and I don't find your assertion persuasive. You need some evidence to back up those claims. That being said, I'm pretty open to alternative forms of evidence and will do my best to evaluate them, but there has to be something there.

I've been coaching debate for quite a while now, and I've coached teams that run just about everything. I've judged debates about most things as well, so the odds are that you won't be doing anything that I'm not somewhat familiar with. That being said, I find myself less willing than I used to be to unpack your buzzword-laden cryptic statements about continental philosophy or psychoanalytic concepts. If your strategy revolves around obfuscation or deferral, I am not the most sympathetic judge for you. If you are talking about Lacan, I have a higher burden of explanation than you are probably meeting. I also find rejection as an isolated concept to be a generally uncompelling alternative absent some development.

Debate is a game, but it is a game that needs to have some value. Therefore, any good debate practice should be both fair and educational, but the content of such education and the neutrality claims of procedural fairness become internal links, not terminal impacts, once contested. In other words, be able to defend the value of your model of debate, and you'll have a much better chance in front of me when the opponent offers a different model of debate.

Most of you would be better off slowing down, especially on tags and analytics and overviews. Seriously, most of you read them like they're cards, which just makes them unflowable. Typing time and mental processing time are real things that judges need. I know you are just flowing the speech doc, but please don't make me do that too. Be slow enough that you can be clear.

Now to the stuff you actually care about:

Can I read the K? Yes. But please have a better link than the state or civil society. The more germane you are to the topic, the better.

Can I read a K aff? Yes

Does that K aff have to be about the resolution? It should be. I've been persuaded that it doesn't matter in some debates, but I am going to be skeptical about aff claims about that on this topic, see the initial rant above. Questions of process or implementation are generally up for debate.

Will you vote on framework/T against K affs? Yes. However, you probably need to make inroads against the aff's structural fairness claims about the world to have a shot. I am generally more persuaded by engagement/institutions arguments than fairness arguments, but have voted for both. I think the value of fairness in debate often begs a larger question about the value of the model of debate that particular claims to procedural fairness would preserve, and I'm open to hearing that debate. I think debates about the merits of ending mass incarceration, abolishing prisons, or defunding police are much better and more educational debates than debates about the negative struggling to find a link because the aff refuses to defend abolition.

Can I read a "traditional" policy aff and not automatically lose to the K? Yes. I don't think that because you said the word "reform" that the permutation debate is always already over.

Conditionality? It's good. Contradictory conditional advocacies, however, are probably not. Note that a K that links to the CP as well as the plan probably does not meet this threshold of being a contradiction in this sense. Your 3-4 counterplans in the 1NC are probably not complete arguments, and likely haven't made a solvency argument worth comparing to the case, so those might be better arguments than conditionality. Conditionality only allows you to jettison an advocacy statement and default to the status quo or another advocacy, not the series of truth claims made on a page. Losing that conditionality is bad means at a minimum that the 2NR is stuck with the CP. Rejecting the argument makes it de facto conditional, thus rewarding teams for losing conditionality debates.

Theory arguments? Be clear when you present them. Everything other than conditionality bad is probably a reason to reject the argument, not the team.

Judge kick? Not by default. If you make the argument and win it, sure I'll kick the CP for you. Otherwise, you made your choice and I won't default to giving you a second 2NR in my judging.

I like smart, strategic debate and quality evidence. I give pretty clear nonverbals when I can't understand you, either because of clarity or comprehension. I'm not above yelling clear if I have to. Policy teams, your highlighting is bad. K teams, your tags are unflowable.

Despite our best efforts to avoid it, sometimes clash accidentally occurs and a debate breaks out. Be prepared.

Tim Pollard Hire 6 rounds

Last changed on Tue January 2, 2024 at 9:54 AM PDT

Hi.

This is Tim Pollard.

Brief note for LD Debaters (2024):

Yearly small note addition before I judge my one-ish tournament of the season, content of last year's note is all you really need to know (but my hearing has improved dramatically).

JanFeb 2024 is a topic that concerns several rapidly-developing global crisis. Evidence that describes the behavior of states a decade ago is probably really questionable. Evidence the describes the relations between countries in the region more than 6 months ago is probably pretty questionable. You should ask your opponent these questions.

** I am going to be very willing to accept reasonable analysis made by a debater about current states of affairs over outdated evidence. **

Brief note for LD Debaters (2023):

Every year I stray further from meaningful investment in debate. All the things below are probably still true, but I have spent even less time involved in the activity than previously. Be gentle. I can hopefully still flow your speed but my sound discrimination is completely shot so make sure you are exceptionally clear at whatever speed you debate.

To summarize the decade of rambling that follows, the process to get me to vote for you is:

a. explain what you are defending.

b. explain why that is different from the other side.

c. explain why that means you win.

I will probably laugh if you structure every argument with each of these three points but based on a lot of the debates I've judged in the past few years it would probably also result in the easiest ballot of my life voting for you.

Brief note for LD Debaters (2022):

Short notes to actually reflect the sort of debates I seem to be judging.

The space topic is complex and kindof unclear about what actually constitutes topical ground. Please make it extremely clear what constitutes "appropriation" and what your position says about it. I will be heavily rewarding debaters who leverage this fact in the speaker points department and think it will greatly improve your strategic position.

util mirrors reward nuance and in-depth analysis. You should be able to identify what the current direction of the status quo is (uniqueness) what the affirmative does to affect that condition (link) and what the implication is for people (impact). Your speech should reflect this structure and the more explicitly you develop what each portion of the argument ("the economy is collapsing now so there's no risk to the disadvantage", "chinese emissions mean US action can't change the status quo") the more directed I will be towards voting for you.

the easiest way to increase your speaker points beyond that on the negative is to not waste speech time reading a nonsense framework that is just "act utilitarianism" when your opponent has already done so. If your framework offers an actual strategic advantage, go ahead but if your 2nc is going to be a body count against the aff's bodycount please don't spend 20s of the 1n telling me why "justice subsumes morality" (please never say that in any debate).

Note for LD debaters (2020):

Below you will find a paradigm that reflects what I've been doing in debate for the last 5 years - infrequently judging policy debates. All the points translate pretty directly back to how I feel about LD. Though I should add that I do have a reasonable amount of familiarity with "LD-style" arguments, so don't worry that I won't like your Kant Aff. I would love to hear your Kant aff.

However, policy debate HAS spoiled me by not having to deal with some of the ... idiosyncrasies of LD debate. Three aimless rant sections identified with bold if you don't have time to read the corpus and need to check what's relevant to you.

First, I think Theory debates in LD generally sit somewhere between asinine and making the activity of debate actively worse. If yr ideal 1ar involves metatheory, I am likely not your judge. I also really don't want to judge any theory debate that would make "Reading util against a Kant aff and then going to case" an impermissible negative strategy (AFC / ACC sort of things). Arguments like theory-justified frameworks are pretty close to that as well, seems like cowards moves. That said THERE ARE DEFINITELY TIMES WHERE YOU CAN AND SHOULD READ THEORY AND THAT'S OK. TOPICALITY is a different class of argument from theory and you should read it.

Second, at an in-person debate event, i would be unable to flow yr a-through-f enumerated warp-speed-delivered 5-word-each wall of spikes. I can't imagine this gets better over Zoom, so enunciate. Slow down a little, or i'm liable to miss the third reason why moral skepticism affirms and I will not vote on it when it shows up in the rebuttal. This is also true in the theory debate. If yr strat is to make your opponent miss something in the cloud of chaff, I'm likely to miss it as well and won't feel bad about not voting on it.

Third, some of the notes on K debates below likely operate slightly differently in LD than in policy debate (or maybe they don't.. i have no idea what the metagame looks like these days). Short version: Yes I will vote for your critical argument. It is absolutely crucial that you explain how it functions and under what understanding of the world and debate I should vote for it if that differs from "the resolution is true/false". I've probably forgotten most of the buzzwords so walk me through it.

Please feel free to ask me questions before the round if you want something made more clear or it's not in the doc - I don't spend a lot of time in-depth thinking about debate anymore so I'm sure it's imperfect. timapollard is my google email handle if you have q's. (Actually does this tournament even have prefs? You might just be stuck with me and I hope to provide better service than the average rando. Good luck.)

Top-level (Following material assumed policy debate but still applies generally):

The first thing I evaluate in debates are questions of uniqueness or differentiation. You will win if you prove why whatever you did in your speech is distinct and preferable from your opponents.

I usually think of debate as a game (in the strategic and competitive sense). That doesn’t mean that it lacks extrinsic value or is bound to specific sets of norms or forms of strategy. But does mean that things like speech time limits and my ability to sign a ballot deciding a winner are non-optional. Prep ends when you email the doc or otherwise transmit your speech to the opponent.

The ability for me to understand the structure of your argument is a prerequisite for me to evaluate it, so debaters have a positive burden to explain the function and operation of their argument. I am willing to vote on presumption if either I cannot describe to myself what an argument does or can be persuaded by either side wrt it's non-function.

Judging the round is based on the comparative quality of argument as presented. The most important thing is that your chosen form of argumentation displays knowledge of the issues and is compellingly defended. The more you sound well-researched and engaged in the issues, the better points I'm likely to give you.

I evaluate performance in CrossX compatibly to a speech.

I flow on paper and might ask you for some. I still want the doc, but pay attention because I don't want to (and probably won't) dredge up yr args from some speech doc if I couldn't catch them in the speech. I'm usually pretty good at saying if I can't flow you.

Assorted Specifics:

This is the first tournament I have judged on the arms sales topic. Assume my knowledge of the topic is imperfect - as mentioned, yr burden to make me get yr arg.

Plan is implemented and matters debates

I don't subscribe to the offence/defense paradigm and believe in the ability of sufficiently complete defense/lack-of-link to take out an impact.

Going for the permutation against a criticism in your big silly impacts aff generally just sounds weird and you are actually going for "case outweighs" anyway. Seriously just talk about how sweet your aff is. The permutation is a fundamentally defensive argument.

Go for T against policy affs more. Folks are getting away with WAY too much.

KvK debates

First, generating external impacts and/or differentiating your impact claim is critical. Often these debates get gummed up in both teams winning that they solve and the other team causes some amount of violence/oppression - with me left to muck through and pick an internal link story, tending to have people end up unhappy.

Second, explain how yr perm works in the context of the debate round - what does it mean for me to endorse/reject a permutation? The argument that affs don't get permutations in these situations (method v method debate) threatens to make sense but also has to work through my presumption that the negative must prove something the aff does/assumes/engages with is bad. Generally you should not expect to win just for having another good idea.

Clash debates

I am extremely unlikely to be persuaded by args that reduce to FW: Ks are bad. Stop whining and defend yr aff.

I generally think affirmatives should take an affirmative position wrt the topic area (this doesn't mean you need a plan or to defend the politics DA or whatever).

Debates where I vote for critical affirmatives against T usually hinge on the aff either successfully defending what distinguishes the affirmative from a negative arg against topical affs, or winning impact turns. You will benefit from putting a lot of defensive pressure on the neg's impacts - which tend to be poorly developed.

Both sides - don't fall into the trap of forgetting the 1AC. At the end of the day the 1AC happened and its ability to solve is likely strongly determinant of a lot of the rest of the debate.

T debaters: Stop going for the truth-testing 'assume all their args are false because we can't research them' stuff.

Isaac Quah Desert Vista HS 6 rounds

Colin Redman Hire 3 rounds

Devon Reese McQueen HS 6 rounds

Last changed on Wed January 3, 2024 at 11:35 AM PDT

mcqspeechanddebate@gmail.com

37th year in the activity; lawyer and elected official these days…

Issues:

-I vote for things that I don't like, the debate is yours to make what you will. That does not mean I have no opinions.

-T: compare evidence and impact T like a DA.

-Things I am unlikely to vote for: ticky-tacky debate; Inherency, "speed kills", claims without warrants, poorly debated T violations, "multiple perms bad".

Read a topical plan----------------------X--------------------say anything

Tech-----------------x-------------------------Truth

Usually some risk---------x---------------------------------Zero Risk

Conditionality Good--------------------X----------------------Conditionality Bad

States CP Good------X------------------------------------States CP Bad

Process CPs------------------X------------------------Ew Process CPs

Competing off immediacy/certainty---------------x---------------------------No

Politics DAs are a thing-------------------x-----------------------Good Politics DAs are a thing

Reasonability-----------------------------------x-------Competing Interps

Limits-----------------x-------------------------Aff Ground

Read every card----------x--------------------------------Read no cards

Lots of evidence--------------------------------------x----Lots of good evidence

Judge Kick---------------------x---------------------Stuck with the CP

Reject the Team--------------X----------------------------Reject the Arg

CPs need cards--------------------------------------x----Smart CPs can be cardless

Competition is based off the plan----x--------------------------------------Neg gets to define the plan

Fiat solves circumvention---------------x---------------------------Trump's President

K alts need to do something-------------------------------X-----------but you're asking the wrong question

K links about the plan---------------X---------------------------K links about a broad worldview

Have fun and be kind.

Adit Sakthi Hamilton High School 6 rounds

Last changed on Fri January 5, 2018 at 4:34 AM MST

aditsakthi99@gmail.com for the email chain

TL;DR

Note: Please explain your acronyms.
Quality > Quantity. It's your debate, debate what you want. K's are fine. T/FW is alright, just make sure to impact everything especially in the 2nr and 2ar. I hate tag line extensions and wont give much weight to those args. Be understandable, do clash for me, do the work for me. I won't flow CX, but I listen to it and it is binding. Flashing isn't prep. Debate well, don't be mean, don't be offensive, respect each other.
I would also like a copy of the speech doc based on past issues with clipping and power tagging.

Speaker Points

27-28: mediocre
28-28.5: good
28.5-29.5: very good
29.5-30: excellent

Specific Arguments

Debated for Hamilton High School. 2A for first year, then double 2's for the last 2 years

Affirmatives--Any style or way you want to present your affirmative is fine with me, just be sure you can justify it. I ran a Heidegger K aff (now realizing that it's shit) in my last year, but as I said before please justify methodology throughout the round especially 2ar.

Case--Try not to contradict here; however, if you can contextualize your arguments well to the affirmative case debate, it is very impressive to see. Try to avoid making this debate "not my [insert some author]" and actually have a contextualized debate here. Line by line analysis as opposed to long generic overviews are preferred.

Counterplans--You must have a good analysis of how you resolve the net benefit of the CP if you're going for it. Neg must explain how they are competitive and should be preferred over the affirmative. Evidence should be good and actually say what you want it to say if you want me to vote for you.

Disads--Any kind of DA is chill, do good impact comparison. Tell me why I should care.

Kritik-- I think K's are good as long as you can explain them well. If you are personally passionate about an argument, and it shows your speaker points will likely be higher (this goes for affirmatives as well). My go to K against K affs was cap. Regardless of what kind of critical argument you read, I will NOT do the work for you. Tell me what your K is, why it matters, and why I should vote for you. K's should not be a sketchy attempt to dodge clash, find a way to clash with your opponent and make the debate productive for everyone. I won't kick the alt for you.

T/FW--I treat framework debates like I would any topicality debate. Be sure to impact out anything you go for otherwise I'll probably prefer their impacts. If against a non-traditional affirmative try to provide an interpretation where they could still raise there issue, and not out right exclude them. It will be an uphill battle if you come in with the "non-traditional affirmative are wrong" mindset. Otherwise treat T/FW like a DA, I want to see how they link, what that does, why that's bad, and why I should care. This being said, I would much rather prefer educational standards over fairness args.

Theory--I like thoery but you have to be able to prove some kind of abuse in round. I have a higher thershold for potential abuse. Give me examples of how they violate and how that is effecting you. Again I prefer educational impacts to fairness. When reading theory, you have to slow down. I take theory seriously and need to catch everything.

Chris Sardo Polytechnic School 6 rounds

Last changed on Mon February 11, 2019 at 10:17 AM PDT

To add me to the chain: csardo@polytechnic.org

Rounds on the topic: 48

Tournaments Judged: Greenhill, Jack Howe Invitational, CSU Fullerton Invitational, Damus Hollywood Invitational, Glenbrooks, Arizona State HDSHC Invitational, Peninsula Invitational, UNLV

TL/DR: Run the arguments that you think will best show your skills as a debater. Argumentation isn’t just tallying dropped arguments, but engaging in comparative and contextualized analysis. Your warrants and evaluative criteria are the most important thing. I have a Ph.D. in political theory, so I'm probably familiar with your lit base, whether it's K or policy oriented.

Background:

I completed a PhD in political theory at Northwestern and now coach at Polytechnic School, where I judge 5+ TOC bid tournaments a year. Matt Liu (then Struth) taught me policy debate in High School, and I judged and coached occasionally throughout college. I was a 1A/2N, reading both big stick policy and soft left affs, and everything from Agent CP/Politics to 1 off Ks on Neg. In my other life, I teach and write on political theory, specifically on Nietzsche, critical theory, the Anthropocene, and political responsibility.

Stuff I care about (Judge philosophy):

My biases are much less on particular substantive arguments or styles and methods of debate, than on argumentation practices more broadly. I am equally comfortable judging a round with a non-traditional affirmative as a straight up policy round. I would much rather judge the debate that you want to have that plays to your argumentative strengths than watch a debate where you run arguments that you think I want to hear. Whether that’s a 1 off Deleuze K, a performance identity aff, a flex strat with 7 off, an agenda politics disad, or an all postmodernism round, I will evaluate the round based on the quality of the debating in round. I tend to think of debate as a game, albiet one with enormous pedagogic value.

While I think I’m fairly agnostic and open when it comes to argument substance and debate style, I tend to sound like a “cranky old man” when it comes to techniques and mechanics of argumentation. A couple of things you should know:

Comparative analysis: too many rounds lack comparative link and impact analysis. Simply repeating your link cards without doing the work to compare your evidence and/or analysis to your opponent’s and giving me multiple reasons why I should prefer your reasoning is not persuasive. Debate is not just about competing claims, or even competing evidence, but the warrants that that justify those claims.

Contextual evidence analysis: Just because you’ve read a card on it doesn’t mean that the argument is true. Just because the card is more recent doesn’t mean that it’s better. Contextualize and analyze the evidence in the round. More cards doesn’t mean better: I’m looking for the warrants of the evidence not just the assertions or conclusions of the author. If you highlight the card down to only the author’s thesis or conclusion without reading their justifications for reaching that conclusion, it’s just an argument from authority and is no different than if you just made that assertion. This also means that author’s qualifications and forum of publication matter. I reward debaters that really do the work on comparing the quality of evidence in the round

Flowing, listening, and organization: nothing will annoy me more than you spending significant portions of cross-x asking which evidence your opponent read. In some cases it is warranted, but in most cases the problem can be resolved by flowing. Don’t rely on speech docs and don’t assume I’m reading along (I’m not, I’m flowing what you actually communicate). If you don’t have a good flow, you’re going to miss round winning arguments and your speeches are going to get messy and you will not be able to develop as coherent and compelling arguments.

Ethos and Pathos: Good speakers aren’t just fast or clear, they speak with passion and emphasis. A speech is a performance and persuasion doesn’t just happen on the flow it happens through your rhetoric and your speech.

Tech v Truth: I tend to lean on the side of tech because you should have to develop the better arguments not just happen to be right on accident. That being said, I’m evaluating arguments not just looking for who dropped the argument. If you’re running arguments of a questionable veracity (conspiracy theories, Flat Earth, etc) or arguments that are demonstrably false and you should know better (i.e. the bill in your politics disad has already passed), your opponent doesn’t have to do a lot of work to persuade me that your argument is bad, regardless of the amount of ink on the flow.

Stuff you care about (specific issue biases):

Like I said, I’d rather hear the debate that you want to have. I prefer well-researched in depth substantive debates. These are just some issue biases, but I often find myself voting against them:

Affs: I personally think that affirmative should affirm the resolution, but I’ve become more open as to what affirming the resolution means. I love a clever and well-crafted affirmative (whether K or policy) that shows deep research into the topic.

Framework v K Affs: My personal biases tend to lean towards framework, since I think that in general – though not always – switch side debate is good and that most literature bases can be accessed by a topical action (more so on pomo than identity Affs). But I find myself often voting Aff in these rounds, because the framework debate gets too block reliant and is less responsive to the impact turns the Aff is making on framework. I tend to think that procedural fairness in itself is not an impact. Good TVAs can be quite persuasive to me, and I would rather have one clearly developed (and even carded) TVA than rattling off a bunch of them. I don’t think the TVA has to solve the aff, but has to a) access the literature base of the Aff and b)meet the framework interpretation. On the aff, you need more than just access to your literature, but some articulation of why that literature is a) necessary for debate and b)necessarily precludes a topical action.

T v policy Affs: I default to competing interpretations and evaluate standards like disad impacts. I tend to lean truth over tech a little bit here: just because you found a weird definition that excludes the aff and sets good limits for the resolution, doesn’t mean it’s the best, especially if it’s decontextualized or from a strange source. I do think your plan text is important, as it’s what provides the stable advocacy point around which I evaluate your action. Teams should be less afraid of going for T in the 2NR when they're ahead on the flow.

Case debate: I love a good case debate. Whether the neg strat is critical or policy, I think it’s hard for you to win without some ink on the case flow.

Disads: the link debate takes priority, the more specific you can contextualize the disad in terms of the affirmative the better. Impact calc isn’t just about outweighing, but providing the evaluative criteria for how you outweigh

Politics: Most politics cards are bad, but I like a clever politics scenario with a well developed internal link story.

Counterplan Theory: I lean neg on conditionality and agent counterplans, but lean aff on process counterplans (especially ones that involve multiple agents doing multiple conditional actions).

Counterplans: Counterplan texts are important (just like plan texts), and solvency advocates are important too. Case specific advantage counterplans or pics that show in depth research are some of my favorite arguments.

Perms v CPS: just because they perm doesn’t mean that they are severance or intrinsic. The aff should be able to test the competition of the CP; if it fails I don’t think it should be a reason to reject the team, but shows that the argument is competitive. I’d rather fewer well-explained perms than a bunch of blippy perms hoping that the neg drops one.

Ks: I think critiques are good for debate; forcing the affirmative to justify their method/reps/scholarship/speech act/ontopolitical assumptions is both good in general and good for debate. I would much rather hear specific link analysis that engages the specifics of the Aff advocacy and contextualizes the thesis of the K in terms of what the Aff is doing (whether their policy action or their ontological assumptions) than a vague pre-written overview that doesn’t connect to the aff. Even if the K is a really a K of debate or Fiat, I want to hear your criticism in terms of the Aff. As a political theorist, I’m fairly deep in the literature, so you should feel comfortable running just about any K in front of me. I’ll keep my own interpretive and hermeneutic biases out of my decision, but if it’s a blatent misinterpretation of the scholarship, I will let you know in my ballot. I also want to contextualize the alternative for me, whether it’s reject the aff, an advocacy statement, or some sort of ethical orientation. Tell me what it is that you are asking me to vote for.

Perms v Ks: I tend to think that most K perms are really variations on perm do both. I’d rather you just articulate why the alternative’s advocacy isn’t competitive with the AFF with one perm, rather than read a bunch of perms with no explanation and hope they drop one. I definitely give aff leeway on perm theory since most Alts don’t get fully articulated until the block. I don’t think Perm: do the Aff is a perm, or really an argument. It doesn’t test competition; just make the alt fails argument.

Framework v Ks: I don’t like framework arguments that are either pure defense “we get to weigh the aff’s impacts against the K” or frameworks that exclude Ks entirely from debate. In general I think framework is important on the K for both sides, as it provides the evaluative criteria by which I will make my decision. I think we all know that fiat is illusory, but it’s a question of how I should evaluate the competing speech acts in the debate, and why that method is the best (for whatever reasons you articulate).

Catherine Shackelford Juan Diego Catholic High School 6 rounds

Last changed on Sat February 15, 2020 at 8:19 AM EDT

Please include me on the email chain: jdutdebate@gmail.com

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. I reward self-awareness, clash, good research, humor, and bold decisions. I will not tolerate language or behaviors that create a hostile environment. Please include trigger warnings for sexual violence. Feel free to ask me any questions you have before the round.

Specific things:

Speed - I'm comfortable with speed but please recognize that if you're reading typed blocks that are not in the speech doc at the same speed you are reading cards, there's a chance I will miss something because I can't flow every word you're saying as fast as you can say them. Slow down just a bit for what you want me to write down or include your blocks in the doc. I will say "clear" if you are not clear.

Topicality- I enjoy good topicality debates. To me good topicality debates are going to compare impacts and discuss what interp of the topic is going to be better for the debate community and the goals that are pursued by debaters.The goals and purpose of debate is of course debatable and can help establish which impacts are more important than others so make sure you're doing that work for me.

Counterplans- I enjoy creative counterplans best but even your standard ones will be persuasive to me if there is a solid solvency advocate and net-benny.

Theory - In-round abuse will always be far more persuasive to me than merely potential abuse and tricksy interps. I expect more than just reading blocks.

K- I really enjoy a good critical debate. Please establish how your kritik interacts with the affirmative and/or the topic and what that means for evaluating the round in some sort of framework. Authors and buzzwords alone will not get you very far even if I am familiar with the literature. I expect contextual link work with a fully articulated impact and alternative. If your K does not have an alternative, I will weigh it as a DA (that's probably non-unique).

Performance - All debate is a performance and relies on effective communication. If you are communicating to me a warranted argument, I do not care how you are presenting it.

Khalid Sharif Juan Diego Catholic High School 3 rounds

Nikpreet Singh Hire 6 rounds

Last changed on Thu January 3, 2019 at 4:12 PM MST

TL;DR
Quality > Quantity. Explain arguments. FW/T debates need proven abuse and a deep standards debate. Use theoretical and substantive framework properly. 2AR/2NR needs to clash, weigh arguments, and tell me what I should be evaluating on my ballot. CX is binding. Flashing isn't prep. Don't be offensive. Don't be an ass to anyone or your speaks will suffer. My face is usually pretty expressive during rounds. Other than that, have a good time, I'm fairly lenient.

Background Info
I debated for four years at Chandler HS, AZ (3 CX/1 LD). I was the 2A/1N. Read Nietzsche and Marx a lot. I enjoy debaters who use the debate space as a space for education, empowerment, and growth, but the better debater wins. I'm a pretty versatile judge.

Speaker Points
27.7 - 28.2 = Mediocre.
28.3 - 28.7 = Good.
28.8 - 29.5 = Very Good.
29.5 - 29.8 = Impressed.
Be aggressive, not mean. I'll give an extra speaker point if you (successfully) make fun of these people: Tanzil Chowdhury, Manav Sevak, or Rohit Rajan.

Specifics
Counterplans
Need a good analysis of how the perm resolves the net benefit of the CP. Consult CP's are bad. Neg needs to explain the competitiveness of the CP well. Theory is usually insubstantial unless it's dropped. CP cards should be really good, and there needs to be comparative analysis from aff and neg. I enjoy PICs.
Disads
Impact scenario needs to be well explained. Any DA works for me, but there needs to be a lot of link/internal link work done to win it.
Case
I'll get mad if you just read an OV and then a bunch of cards on case and move on. Use the cards from the 1AC on the line by line and articulate your thoughts and read new cards when necessary. If I'm not able to explain your argument by the end of the 2AR, then you didn't do a good job. My threshold for case negs is lower, but if you go for case they also need to be explained well in the block.
Kritiks/Non-Traditional Affs
This is what I spent most of debate doing. If you just vomit a bunch of buzz words without explanation I'm not going to like/understand the argument and I'm going to give the other team a lot of leeway in their rebuttals. If you're able to explain your aff powerfully and concisely, I'm down to listen to anything. I enjoy smart 2AR tricks. For the neg, the same explanation standards apply. Tell me what the alt looks like, and I won't kick it for you if you're going for it as a case turn in the 2NR.
T/FW
I need to know why T/FW is a better model of debate than what the aff offers. I'm probably not going to vote on potential abuse. K affs should provide substantial DA's to the negs interpretation. Know the difference between substantive and theoretical framework (state engagement key vs. debate needs rules), and explain your standards accordingly. I default to competing interpretations.
Theory
Sure. In addition to utilizing it as a voting issue, I like teams that couple their theory with other arguments to justify/extrapolate key arguments to give them the edge on contested issues. I have a high threshold on using theory as a reason to vote aff/neg; give me a compelling reason (more than just a blip) why I should reject the team. In most cases, it's just a reason to reject an argument but if you do enough work on it, you may be able to convince me otherwise. Make sure you give some example of abuse, i.e. specific models of debate/in-round. I don't like disclosure theory.

You can catch ya boy @ nikpreet45@gmail.com

Shikhar Srivastava College Prep 3 rounds

Last changed on Sat January 22, 2022 at 8:11 AM EDT

background:

--->brophy '18 (policy), cal '22, double 2'ed so no aff/neg sympathy, toc qual/coaches poll/tournament wins and all that stuff. i coach LD now so this is customized for that.

general:

---[1] ssrivastava@berkeley.edu - put me on the email chain

---[2] good debating outweighs any of my following argumentative preferences, my leanings are only relevant in borderline decisions where poor debating has left too many arguments unresolved and there's no other way to arbitrate other than defaulting to what i'm more convinced by.

---[3] always tech>truth as long as there are arguments

---[4] an argument has a claim and a warrant, a good one has an impact (some ev doesn't even meet this standard) - calling out 'non-arguments' is a sufficient answer until it becomes an argument (pls do this more? it's strategic and helpful for norm-setting - a lot of ev i'm reading is abysmal)

---[5] don't just tell me to read ev - do the actual debating and use good ev comparison in conjunction with that

---[6] slow down on theory. spreading your blocks ≠ debating. and if your opponent is incoherent spreading theory, don't ask them to say it slowly during cross ex - i only evaluate/flow what i can actually hear so you're only doing yourself a disadvantage

---[7] 'which cards did u skip' / 'can you send with analytics' / etc auto-caps speaks at 28.6 nonnegotiable

by argument:

k affs:

---> neg: k affs are cheating. fairness is an impact, but not always the most strategic one. debate is a game, answering args ≠ racist, the [insert fake word here] disad is probably stupid, TVA + SSD are super compelling to me, etc. I'm increasingly willing to vote on presumption vs affs that do/solve nothing and you will be heavily rewarded with speaks if you go for it. k v k can be fun or painful, just have actual answers to the perm.

---> aff: clever/creative t interps with strong defense, strong answers to SSD/TVA, and coherent offense is the best route in front of me. or, just impact turn everything with your thesis and win on the flow. please have real topic-specific AND lit-specific answers to SSD + TVA - i weigh those much higher than most judges, but am also down to discount them on stupid but poorly answered args like "micropolitics is a pre-requisite". vs the k, go for the perm it probably solves.

kritik:

--->aff vs k: most convincing args = particularity, falsifiability, impact turns, alt solvency attacks, and fw. pet peeve is people just saying 'weigh the case' when other interps have more strategic value. also i'm very down for fw no alts with good reasoning. a lot of k teams (not just psycho) make nonfalsifiable broad-sweeping claims so call that out (please do this more i am so ridiculously persuaded by it).

--->neg going for k: can be the worst debates, can be the best - up to you to decide. i'll have a hard time thinking a generic baudrillard debate is good, but neolib/security i'm very open to. surprisingly literate in a wide range of literature, but i'm not granting you the thesis of an entire book without you explaining it sufficiently (which, in ld, is almost impossible because of time constraints). utilize framework cleverly PLEASE

cp/da: my personal favorite strat. vs soft left affs sufficiency framing makes sense (especially if you bait 'step in the right direction'). smart adv cp's make me happy and will reward you with speaks. think about competition theory more - pdcp is very sloppily debated out. i'm very anti pics that are textually uncompetitive.

t: good for nit picky violations with good impact stories, undecided on reasonability (but more down to vote on it than the avg judge if well explained - esp if the only response is a 2 second 'causes intervention' arg - but tbf it's never well explained)

tricks/phil/friv: hate this but also if you can't answer this nonsense you probably deserve to lose

theory: in theory inf condo good, but i could be persuaded that the structure of LD makes this untrue. no 1ar theory makes a weird amount of sense to me. slow down and actually debate theory pls. pics are fun but theoretically more justifiable with solvency advocates.

decision time:

decision making: i first resolve quick arguments (technical drops or one side being clearly ahead) then I compare how much work I have to do for each side to grant the key argument pathways for their victory and vote for the team that requires the least work. there's almost always some work required - if there's not, then a) you're getting good speaks b) comes down to persuasive argument framing / judge instruction (i.e. which way to err on key args, how losing one key arg might implicate some other arg's probability, etc - basically closing doors).

tech>truth: the implication to this being true is limited by the debating done/argument presented, and everything is a sliding scale. dropping a solvency deficit doesn't mean the aff doesn't solve, it probably just means the aff only solves some percent of its advantages depending on the ev (unless it's articulated to implicate 100% of solvency or the argument lends itself towards a large solvency take out via evidence or warrants).

ev evaluation: good research sets you up to win debates. that being said, a clever 2ac analytic is the same in my mind to a card from a random blog with no author quals. just because you have evidence, does not make it a better argument. good ev + explanation > bad ev + good explanation > good ev + no explanation > bad ev + no explanation. resist debate's recent tendency towards awful evidence, but don't be scared to rely heavily on smart analytics.

misc: default to judge kick and sufficiency framing, long overviews are never helpful. the brightline on 2ar leeway is whether enough of the argument was in the 1ar to reasonably expect the 2nr to have predicted it. if i'm not flowing, you're not making arguments.

speaks: being a clear, loud, and snarky/clever presenter with judge instruction in final speeches is the most important for me. closing doors makes my decision easier (god please do this more i dont think ld'ers know how to close doors) and will be generously rewarded. research quality/innovative strategies would be the next most important. speaks inflation is probably inevitable and hurting certain debaters doesn't solve, so i'll default to the rough average at that tournament to form my scale.

Jada Stinnett Palo Verde HS 6 rounds

Last changed on Sun March 3, 2024 at 4:35 AM PDT

Last Updated: 2/27/24

TLDR: I know what debate is. I'm sorta removed from the activity now but I competed in policy debate in HS and in College at UNLV and have coached Policy for several years after that.

Please speak slower than your top speed so I can Adjust.

I would like to be on the email chain stinnett.jada@gmail.com

***I don't know why debaters have transitioned to using google drive. But since this is the only place I can complain... here I am...so I guess I will be very upset about cards sent in the body of an email instead of a document as well..I will also complain in my head about the usage of speech drop, But this is because debaters remove files after the debate is done and that is annoying***

***This Paradigm is written with with the idea that I will be judging policy debates, if this isn't a policy debate take what applies to you and ignore everything that doesn't***

*Overall Ideas that I have about debate*

I like all styles of debate.

I believe that debate is a fun game we play.

Why we play the game is different for everyone.

I believe that everyone should have fun playing it.

This is especially true for novice debate. I think sometimes we forget we all had a first day.

What this means is that I will make it a priority to keep the spaces I'm involved in safe.

I will acknowledge the material implications of some bodies in certain spaces, so I will not police the debate space or conform to respectability politics of ANY tournament.

I will try my best to make this space accessible for you. Let me know what I can do (this can include an email before the round).

Technical debate is good debate.

A true argument can beat a bunch of silly arguments.

An Argument is a claim with a warrant. I will only flow claims with warrants.

I will not listen to impact turns of oppression. I will stop the round and leave. Your speaker points will reflect this.

Don't use slurs outside of your social location. I will stop the round and leave. Your speaker points will reflect this.

I don't want to judge a debate based off of what happened outside of the round. It becomes really awkward for everyone. And I can't adequately attest these truth claims. Just don't do it. Please.

I flow on paper- due to technology sound transfer and audio processing I ask that you go slower than your fastest pace. 80% of your normal speed should be good. If I don't flow it, it doesn't count so don't try to argue with me on what you did/didn't say.

Spreading is a strategy used to create Layers to an argument in a small amount of time. If you are just fast without adding dimension to your argument then you are dong it wrong and should stop.

I am very expressive, you can tell if I like your argument or if you are winning an argument.

I understand adapting to judges, but from personal experience you can win in front of any critic doing what you do best.

I am open to adjusting my judging style/practice in nearly anyway that is asked of me.

I will not be offended if you ask me about my familiarity with topic specific acronyms/specific arguments. PLEASE DO SO. I want to know what you're talking about.

Other things:

AFF: You should be "topical", what that means is up for debate. Does that mean in the direction of the topic? Does that mean USFG action? IDK you tell me. But criticizing the "norms" of debate without relation to the topic is iffy for me and in my opinion a negative argument. If you have a justification for it go ahead because I will be evaluating the debate based off my flow anyway, but I am sympathetic to T/Framework Arguments. But don't be discouraged I have read/do read/coach teams to read "non-topical" affirmatives and understand the strategic choice behind doing so. That non-topical affirmative MUST do something (re: differ from the status quo).

Case Debate:

The status quo is always an option. Please don't forget the art of case debate. This goes beyond just impact defense. Don't be afraid for a good Impact Turn debate I'm all for a warming good, econ decline good, bio D loss good, ect debate.

T/Framework:

I wholeheartedly believe that you can say the state can do a particular policy action, and that single instance is good for x amount of people, without defending the other terrible things the state has done. Example, Welfare is probably a good thing. Yes there is problems with who gets it, but a world with out it is probably worse. I also believe that wiki disclosures is good defense against predictability claims. I also believe that some teams don't even make an attempt at engagement and some framework shells are written with the intent to never have k debates exist. That's probably a bad thing to defend. Don't let that be you. Nonetheless, T debates are dope. I default to competing interpretations unless told otherwise. It will never be a reverse voter. It will never be genocide. You have to have a TVA. Your standards need to be impacted out or else they are just internal links and idk what to do with that. I will not vote on potential abuse. I want to see the blood on the flow. Where did they make the game unfair for you. I think the more specific the evidence/examples the better.

DA:

Impact framing and comparisons are major key. I'm cool with Generics DA's as long as your links are baller, but the more unique the DA the better. I believe in a 1% risk of a link. I also believe in a 0% risk of an impact. Explanation is key here. Im more willing to vote on a good story with fewer cards than me drowning in cards and trying to put together a story myself. also please tag your card 7 words or more. "more ev" is not an argument and i will not evaluate it.

CP:

I'm all for a good counterplan. 2nc counterplans are cool. 2nc amendments are cool. For me to vote on a CP you need to be super good on the case debate and differentiating the perm. Be clear on the CP text so I can flow it and also establish competition and better evaluate the argument. The states counter plan is definitely a legitimate strategy and should be protected at all cost.

I'm most familiar with argumentation in critical race theory, gender and sexuality args and identity/performance based arguments but this doesn't mean I won't listen to what you have to say if those things aren't your jazz. Reading is Fundamental. I read a lot so I will most likely know what you are talking about. I expect college debaters to also be well read. My patience increases with hs debaters learning about different arguments, none the less you should still be reading. I cannot stress this enough. Reading is imperative. My hs kids have taken a liking to old french dudes so I have tried by best as an educator to familiarize myself with that field of literature to be a better coach. I will give you that same respect as an adjudicator if I don't understand your criticism. I believe engagement and contextualizing your theory with your opponents arguments gets you a long way. Explain what the alt does. I think far too often this explanation is missing from the debate. I don't believe in just voting on links (I say this, but as I think about it you can go for links as disads to the case...idk convince me). You have to find a way to resolve those for me. Also "root cause" arguments are not links, they are just alt solvency evidence.

I don't believe in Fem IR criticisms, I don’t believe in satire performances, I’m not a fan of girl boss feminist narratives, language is important so I think there is a big difference between "set col is good" and "modernity is good" and I have a problem with “debate bad” arguments. masculinity is no inherently bad.

THEORY:

Don't read theory args as a time skew. The aff gets a perm unless you say why. Conditionality: The neg can do whatever they want as long as the positions don't contradict (nothing more than 5 off please), and they make a decision in the 2nr. I will not judge kick for you. You need to make a decision. Not here for cheap shots. I really don't want to have to judge a theory debate but I understand abuse and am willing to vote on it. If you plan on going for a theory argument, a substantial amount of time needs to be spent on it in the rebuttal. SPEC arguments are the worst thing to happen to debate and I will buy anything the 2a says if its remotely responsive. As said before, I don't like performative contradictions. This also just applies to the rounds that i'm in. I don't care that the person reading framework against you also reads a k aff. It's a game. they picked a strategy that's going to win them the game.

CX:

Is binding. Is a speech. I'll write notes during this time. Please Answer questions. Don't be sketchy, I'll know it. Don't be afraid to point out if your opponents are being sketchy.

cheating:

Do not Fabricate evidence. It's inexcusable. Do not clip cards. its inexcusable.

Challenges of card clipping will result in stopping the debate if material evidence is provided that proves beyond a reasonable doubt in my mind that card clipping has occurred. the offending team will receive a loss and the offending speaker will receive 0 speaker points. however if i conclude that the speaker is not guilty of clipping cards the challenging team will receive a loss and both challenging speakers will receive 0 speaker points.

***clipping cards is not a slurring of words or clack of clarity***

Evidence:

I'm from the school of thought that everybody in the round should have access to all evidence read in the debate. Denial to share citations or disclose is a b!+ch move. Prepared debate is good debate. Don't get this confused with breaking new, that's all fine.

Prep/Speaking Times:

I don't keep time. Im not a baby sitter. you should all move through speeches and prep in an efficent matter. if i do decided to track time because yall have prolonged this process my time will be the only clock that matters. I don't count flashing or emailing as prep. Flex prep is not a thing(you cannot use cross-x as prep or time to give another speech). Speak in your assigned time slots (interpret this vaguely. It just means 1 constructive and 1 rebuttal. idc the order) unless for some performative or ethical reason that you can't (For example, if both debaters speak during the 1AC cool. There was a reason for it. Probably performative. In the rebuttal to continue the performance? Cool. Have a debater take over the line by line? Not Cool. This is a clear shift in the competitive aspect and nature of the game. Unless for some reason a debater disappears/goes missing...why would this happen? idk, but unusual things happen all the time)

Clarification questions during prep is okay. But don't try to make "a point". If you happen to be a team on the receiving end of someone trying to tear down your argument during prep, please refuse to answer.

Speaks:

I'll hook everyone up with speaks #PointFairy. I never want to be the reason debaters don’t break so I might over compensate, but who cares y’all are doing all the rigorous work the least I can do is help in the speaker point end.

I understand the joy of speaker awards and I will do my best to help y'all out.

I evaluate speaks of by delivery>argument choice. the team with the better Argument choice will most likely win win the round.

You'll get a 30 if you are just baller, or make me laugh uncontrollably. (I enjoy witty jokes, and I'm a big sports fan if that helps you come up with material)

+1.0 if you know who the Las Vegas Aces are

(I haven't made up my mind if I will put a cap on jokes or not, so be a comedian at the risk of knowing you might not be rewarded for all the jokes)

I'll use this as a tool to teach young people how to advocate for themselves. after the round tell me what speaks you think you deserve(realistically) and I might agree with you.

when making analytical arguments I would advise going for the easiest pen to paper phrasing

if you send me your flow after the round I will up your speaks(HS ONLY)

How I make my Decisions:

I use the burden of rejoinder frame to structure how I evaluate debates.

I hold a strict line with new arguments in the rebuttals so a majority of my time will be lining up arguments.

In clash debates the easiest framing for me is what's most educational and best for the community.

I dislike students who try to post round. This has only happened to me twice. None the less I will not tolerate it. I am also willing to admit that I am wrong. But that will not change my decision. If the understanding that I get form your argument happens in a post round and not in a debate, I cannot reward you for communicating your point late in the game. This is a communication activity and if something didn't reach my flow like how you intended there isn't much I can do but listen and process to the best of my ability. If you think I made the wrong decision that's fine and you are completely entitled to feel that way. It does not change the fact that you loss.

Mics/Things you might wanna know about me:

I am Black and Queer.

pronouns: they/them

When I debated I was trained to "Defend the walls" later in my career I became a "k-debater"

You all can call me Jada you don't have to say judge

I was a 2n

#FREEPALESTINE

I have a real pet peeve with what is considered violence in debate

You can insert re highlighting- you don't have to reread the card

Quotes from People in The Community about me:

"Super smart and a great person all around" Allego Wang

"Incredibly intelligent + really good at explaining difficult concepts" Ali Saffieddine

"Their ability to compartmentalize argumentation and overall communication skills are ones I've always aspired to have and continue to grow from simple conversations I have with them. Jada's ability to empathize with students and find the grammar to communicate in ways to accommodate students needs and comprehension skills is one of the many talented characteristics they have. They will really be personal to you and your needs, with flares of individual organic wisdom they've learned over the years. They will not just lecture you. They will help you on your path to education/understanding difficult literature bases by shining light at your strengths and guiding you to find solutions to your weaknesses. Legit, Jada is one of the most influential person I've been blessed to come across" Yumasie Hellebuick

"You're the 50 cent of this community" -Chris Randall

"Jada is the love of my life" - Caitlin Walrath

"I told ppl to pref u just cuz you’re not afraid to stare a k team down and say “yea I voted on nuke war outweighs” with a smile ¯\_(ãƒ„)_/¯" -Ari Davidson

"Jada makes the best memes" JV Soccer Captain and my Teammate Dan Bannister

Jack Stransky Green Valley High School 6 rounds

Last changed on Fri January 1, 2016 at 6:33 PM PDT

About Me

"The Better Stransky"

I debated 4 years at Green Valley High School (NV) and am currently studying at Arizona State University.

Short

· I’m generally willing to vote on anything

· Be comfortable with what you’re reading

· Better to be clear than fast on the big picture

· It’s ok to be aggressive, don’t be a jerk and don’t clip cards

Long

· Links are better than impacts. If you’re not explaining the link/internal link to the impact of your argument, then there’s little reason for me to evaluate the impact.

· Explain the warrants to your claims. Don’t just extend the claim without any analysis on what the evidence actually says. That’s a poor way to debate and will not go on my flow

· I can tell whether or not what you’re reading is what you’re most comfortable with. Read the arguments that you know best and not just because you think the other team won’t be able to answer it.

· Don’t just reiterate your arguments and read new ones in the 2nd constructive, make sure you’re answering the line by line. It’s hard to evaluate a debate when there isn’t any clash.

· I don’t care how fast you go as long as your clear and efficient. Good organization and how you present the argument will get you more speaker points.

Specific Arguments

· K affs – I read and debated against K affs in high school so I am familiar with them. You don’t need a plan text to read a K aff. Make sure the aff is related to the resolution with an advocacy statement and not just a waste of my time.

· Topicality - I will usually default to reasonability on the aff in terms of T. I will still evaluate topicality, but the negative interpretation needs to have an external impact as to why the aff’s interpretation is bad and why your interpretation solves. Don’t just say “we lose ground” or they “underlimit” the topic if you’re the negative, explain why that is bad.

· Disads – I loved reading PTX in high school as well as core DA’s specific to the topic. Like I said before, explain the link and internal link in the argument and not just the impact. Sure you’re impact may outweigh, but if there isn’t any analysis on the internal link level, then I can easily vote for no risk of the impact.

· Counterplans – I’ll evaluate all types of counterplans, just make sure as the negative to have a net benefit to the CP or it’ll make it harder for me to vote on. Don’t just say “we have 100% solvency” without explaining why. I like PIC’s as well, just make sure to be sharp on theory

· Critiques – I have a pretty small lit base in terms of the K. That doesn’t mean I won’t evaluate the K, it just means that a lot of analysis needs to be included for me to understand what the argument is saying. Make sure to go in depth on the link and alternative. How does the aff specifically link the K and why is the alt more effective than the aff.

· Framework – I like a good framework debate. In terms of competing interpretations, don’t just explain why your interpretation is better for debate, but explain why your opponents’ interpretation is bad. Also, don’t just give me a list of standards as to why your interp is best, isolate an external impact

· Theory – I generally will default to reject the argument, except on conditionality. A couple of things when going for theory on the aff. 1) Don’t spread theory blocks. If you have 6 different reasons why I should reject the team, go through them slowly so I can catch all of them. Like T and Framework, isolate an external impact to why I should theoretically reject the team. 2) Conditionality – I will err neg on conditionality as long as they are being reasonable with the amount of conditional advocacies they read. Having more than two is definitely not going to do the neg many favors.

Miscellaneous

Speaking - It's very difficult to catch things on my flow if you're going as fast as possible. My main thing on speed is be clear on the taglines and on the authors. That way I can catch each individual piece of evidence. Be as clear as possible when you are spreading the evidence itself. I'll yell out clear 1 or 2 times, after that I stop flowing.

Flashing Arguments - I had a very slow computer in high school, so I understand how it would take a long time to flash the other team your evidence. Be reasonable with it and let me know if you're computer is being slow

Prep - I will let the debaters handle their own prep time. Prep ends when the flash drive is out of the computer (unless computer is taking forever). I hate teams that steal prep time. I can tell when a team is prepping by the sounds of the typing on the computer or when someone is writing on a piece of paper. Be fair to each other during the debate.

Speaker Points - A good way to earn yourselves extra speaker points is by slipping in some jokes in your speech. The highest speaker points will go to the debater that makes the smart/brave decisions in the round. If you don't need the entire speech time to finish what you need to say, then end your speech early. Don't just repeat the same stuff over and over again to use up time. I won't give anyone under 27.0 unless they are rude/cheating. I average around 28-28.5 for debaters that did a good job and made some pretty decent arguments. 28.5-29 goes to debates that make very smart/bold decisions in the round that earn them the win. 29-29.5 will go to debaters who I think deserve a speaker award in the tournament or debaters who just dominated the debate round. Anything higher than 29.5 will go to who I think is the best speaker in the tournament.

Things I like:

- Brave decisions in the 2AR/2NR
- Good jokes about Alex Stransky (Will earn you extra speaker points)
- The Politics DA (I especially like teams that decimate teams with it)
- 1-2 flows in the neg block that dig a hole for the aff
- Teams that have confidence in the decisions they make
- Arizona Sports teams (Jokes about any team could earn you bonus speaker points)

Things I don't like:

- Arguments that I have trouble understanding
- Rudeness during CX (Ask a question and get an answer, don't try to overwhelm the other team with a bunch of questions at one time)
- Debaters that take a long time to use a flash drive under normal circumstances (see above about flashing arguments)
- Debaters that clip cards/cheat

Brandon Sumner Brophy College Prep 6 rounds

Last changed on Tue January 29, 2019 at 6:31 AM MST

Brandon Sumner

Brophy College Prep

Arizona State University

Debating Experience:

4 years in high school

Debated briefly at Wake Forest University

Coach at Brophy College Prep

Tldr;

My philosophy shouldn’t change the strategy of the 1ac or the 1nc, all it should do is help the way you frame your arguments in the round. You should run what arguments you want to run/are strategically viable, and at the end of the day if you debate better than your opponent I’ll vote for you.

Logistics:

Tech > truth – I won’t vote on what your evidence says or if your argument is more true real world, I’ll only vote on what is said within the round. Even if I ideologically disagree with everything you’re saying, I’ll vote for you if the other side doesn’t respond to your arugments properly.

Prep time – keep track of your own/your opponents prep time, if you steal prep I’ll drop your speaks heavily so don’t do it. Prep time should stop when the email is sent/flash drive leaves the computer.

Evidence – please include me on the email chain (bsumner16@brophybroncos.org).

Speaks – I give 27-30, if you go below 27 its because you were offensive. Best way to get high speaks is to be efficient, clear and have arguments with intention. Beyond that, I like puns and witty one liners about people I know/myself, but those come far after making sure you debate well. Demonstrating mastery of your arguments/the topic climate in cross ex will also boost your speaks.

Speaking style – Any speed/style/form is fine as long as I can understand what you’re saying. I will only say “clear” twice during a speech. After that if I can’t understand what you’re saying I won’t be flowing it. I will not flow off the speech doc.

Argumentative Positions:

Aff -- I read a K aff for 4 years in high school so I’m fine with any form of subversion from the resolution, be it tangential relationships through some critical/identity issue, or performance/high theory rejection of the topic. On the flip side, I have grown to love more traditional policy affirmatives lately, and I think there is a certain ethos to running a big-stick impact and defending your reps. I feel like I might be more qualified to judge “K on K” style debates, but I probably prefer judging a 6+off debate vs a traditional policy aff. Run whatever you want.

Disads – I like good link analysis, and unless the aff is running a lot of “big impacts bad”, “your internal links are bad” or good impact defense, focus more on the link and uniqueness. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t explain your internal link chain, I just think that UQ/Link are easier for the aff to contest than the idea that there is a 0% risk of the disad impact.

Counterplans – I have grown to love counterplans over the last year. Advantage cp’s, pics, multi-plank addons in the 2nc to respond to 2ac addons, generic cps (states), all of them. Uptopian fiat, pics good/bad, solvency advocate requires/not required are all theory debates to be had however, so make sure you answer any theory the aff brings up.

Theory – I’ll vote on theory, and you don’t necessarily need to prove in round abuse. Don’t just read your blocks, I like specific in round examples of how strategies have changed, how the round could have been different, what the aff justifies the neg doing, etc.

*Berkeley update* condo: I will vote on condo, but I think it's good to know that I probably lean slightly neg in my personal ideology (if the debate is 50-50 I'm more likely to default to condo good). If you want condo to be a viable option in the 1ar and the 2ar you should have examples of what types of offense/arguments the negative's interpretation prevents you from using - and why those arguments are important for the topic. On the neg, you should point out what arguments the 2ar can make that solve their offensive claims and what specific ground/education/type of debate you lose when I vote on the aff interpretation. Also, I haven't decided yet if I think condo should be a question of what model of debate is justified or if in round abuse is a magnifier for your interpretive claims, so tell me instead so I don't have to think about it.

Framework – I’m 50-50 on this issue. Probably the best answer to K affs in my opinion, but I was also a 2a against framework for 80% of my high school rounds so I understand how the arguments interact with each other. Please make the distinction between substantive framework and theoretical framework – I am persuaded by the argument that the neg went for only theoretical fairness and the affs 2ac was an impact turn to substantive framework.

Topicality – Love in depth topicality debate, both sides should describe what their model of debate does for the case list, the neg ground on the topic, and the theoretical implications of their interpretation. This debate, even more so than others, is a tech>truth flow. For this topic specifically, don't assume I understand how all of the mechanisms of the aff work in conjunction with the topic literature so if that's going to be a key argument do a little extra work on it.

K – I have predominately been a K debater, and I’ve read a lot of the literature base for most kritiks on the circuit. For me, you need to win a) the link to the aff and analysis on why the perm doesn’t work and aff doesn’t outweigh b) either win framework or that your alt solves the K/the aff. I won’t judge kick the alt for you unless you tell me to (and aff can answer that pretty easily) but if you win that you don’t need an alt, I will vote on reps/method/unethicality. Explain the thesis of your critique, even if I know the argument well I won’t vote on it unless you explain it well. I prefer the 2NC to be more flow/line by line heavy than your 2.5 minute rhetorical block. The only time I think you should wax poetic is if you have specific historical analysis for root cause/proximate cause or you need to explain the more nuanced parts of your critique that frame the rest of the line by line or specifying your argument to historical events/philosophical movements.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me

Debnil Sur Lowell HS 6 rounds

Last changed on Wed April 10, 2024 at 7:38 AM PDT

he/him/his

Pronounced phonetically as DEB-nil. Not pronounced "judge", "Mister Sur", or "deb-NEIL".

Policy Coach at Lowell High School, San Francisco

Email: lowelldebatedocs [at] gmail.com for email chains. If you have my personal email, don't put it on the email chain. Sensible subject please.

Lay Debate: I care deeply about adaptation and accessibility. I find "medium" debates (splits of lay and circuit judges) incredibly valuable for students' skills. I don't think I'd ever be in a setting where I'm the sole lay judge. In a split setting, please adapt to the most lay judge in your speed and explanation. I won't penalize you for making debate accessible. Some degree of technical evaluation is inevitable, but please don't spread.

Resolving Debates: Above all, tech substantially outweighs truth. The below are preferences, not rules, and will easily be overturned by good debating. But, since nobody's a blank slate, treat the below as heuristics I use in thinking about debate. Incorporating some can explain my decision and help render one in your favor.

I believe debate is a strategy game, in which debaters must communicate research to persuade judges. I'll almost certainly endorse better judge instruction over higher quality yet under-explained evidence. I flow on my laptop, but I only look at the speech doc when online. I will only read a card in deciding if that card was contested by both teams or I was told explicitly to and the evidence was actually explained in debate.

I take an above-average time to decide debates. My decision time has little relationship with the debate's closeness, and more with the time of day and my sleep deprivation. I usually start 5-10 minutes after the 2AR, so I can stretch my legs and let the debate marinate in my head. Debaters work hard, and I reciprocate that effort in making decisions. My decisions themselves are quite short. Most debates come down to 2-4 arguments, and I will identify those and explain my resolution. You're welcome to post-round. It can't change my decision, but I want to learn and improve as a judge and thinker too.

General Background: I work full-time in tech as a software engineer. In my spare time, I have coached policy debate at Lowell in San Francisco since 2018. I am involved in strategy and research and have coached both policy and K debaters to the TOC. I am, quite literally, a "framer", as a member of the national topic wording committee. Before that, I read policy arguments as a 2N at Bellarmine and did youth debate outreach (e.g., SVUDL) as a student at Stanford.

I've judged many excellent debates. Ideologically, I would say I'm 60/40 policy-leaning. I think my voting records don't reflect this, because K debaters tend to see the bigger picture in clash rounds.

Topic Background: I judge and coach regularly and am fully aware of national circuit trends. I'm less in the weeds as many other coaches. I don't cut as many cards as I did in the pandemic years, and I don't work at debate camp.

If you're reading the web3 UBI affirmative, I implemented one of the first CBDC pilots back in 2018/19. If you know what you're talking about, I'm the best possible judge. But if you don't, I'll be much more easily persuaded by the negative, especially on the case debate.

Voting Splits: As of the end of the water topic, I have judged 304 rounds of VCX at invitationals over 9 years. 75 of these were during college; 74 during immigration and arms sales at West Coast invitationals; and 155 on CJR and water, predominantly at octafinals bid tournaments.

Below are my voting splits across the (synthetic) policy-K divide, where the left team represents the affirmative, as best as I could classify debates. Paradigm text can be inaccurate self-psychoanalysis, so I hope the data helps.

I became an aff hack on water. Far too often, the 2AR was the first speech doing comparative analysis instead of reading blocks. I hope this changes as we return to in-person debate.

Water

Policy v. Policy - 18-13: 58% aff over 31 rounds

Policy v. K - 20-18: 56% aff over 38 rounds

K v. Policy - 13-8: 62% aff over 21 rounds

K v. K - 1-1, 50% aff over 2 rounds

Lifetime

Policy v. Policy - 67-56: 55% for the aff over 123 rounds

Policy v. K - 47-52: 47% for the aff over 99 rounds

K v. Policy - 36-34: 51% for the aff over 70 rounds

K v. K - 4-4: 50% for the aff over 8 rounds

Online Debate:

1. I'd prefer your camera on, but won't make a fuss.

2. Please check verbally and/or visually with all judges and debaters before starting your speech.

3. If my camera's off, I'm away, unless I told you otherwise.

Speaker Points: I flow on my computer, but I do not use the speech doc. I want every word said, even in card text and especially in your 2NC topicality blocks, to be clear. I will shout clear twice in a speech. After that, it's your problem.

Note that this assessment is done per-tournament: for calibration, I think a 29.3-29.4 at a finals bid is roughly equivalent to a 28.8-28.9 at an octos bid.

29.5+ — the top speaker at the tournament.

29.3-29.4 — one of the five or ten best speakers at the tournament.

29.1-29.2 — one of the twenty best speakers at the tournament.

28.9-29 — a 75th percentile speaker at the tournament; with a winning record, would barely clear on points.

28.7-28.8 — a 50th percentile speaker at the tournament; with a winning record, would not clear on points.

28.3-28.6 — a 25th percentile speaker at the tournament.

28-28.2 — a 10th percentile speaker at the tournament.

K Affs and Framework:

1. I have coached all sides of this debate.

2. I will vote for the team whose impact comparison most clearly answers the debate's central question. This typically comes down to the affirmative making negative engagement more difficult versus the neg forcing problematic affirmative positions. You are best served developing 1-2 pieces of offense well, playing defense to the other team's, and telling a condensed story in the final rebuttals.

3. Anything can be an impact---do what you do best. My teams typically read a limits/fairness impact and a procedural clash impact. From Dhruv Sudesh: "I don't have a preference for hearing a skills or fairness argument, but I think the latter requires you to win a higher level of defense to aff arguments."

4. Each team should discuss what a year of debate looks like under their models in concrete terms. Arguments like "TVA", "switch-side debate", and "some neg ground exists" are just subsets of this discussion. It is easy to be hyperbolic and discuss the plethora of random affirmatives, but realistic examples are especially persuasive and important. What would your favorite policy demon (MBA, GBN, etc.) do without an agential constraint? How does critiquing specific policy reforms in a debate improve critical education? Why does negative policy ground not center the affirmative's substantive conversation?

5. As the negative, recognize if this is an impact turn debate or one of competing models early on (as in, during the 2AC). When the negative sees where the 2AR will go and adjusts accordingly, I have found that I am very good for the negative. But when they fail to understand the debate's strategic direction, I almost always vote affirmative. This especially happens when impact turning topicality---negatives do not seem to catch on yet.

6. I quite enjoy leveraging normative positions from 1AC cards for substantive disadvantages or impact turns. This requires careful link explanation by the negative but can be incredibly strategic. Critical affirmatives claim to access broad impacts based on shaky normative claims and the broad endorsement of a worldview, rather than a causal method; they should incur the strategic cost.

7. I am a better judge for presumption and case defense than most. It is often unclear to me how affirmatives solve their impacts or access their impact turns on topicality. The negative should leverage this more.

8. I occasionally judge K v K debates. I do not have especially developed opinions on these debates. Debate math often relies on causality, opportunity cost, and similar concepts rooted in policymaking analysis. These do not translate well to K v K debates, and the team that does the clearest link explanation and impact calculus typically wins. While the notion of "opportunity cost" to a method is still mostly nonsensical to me, I can be convinced either way on permutations' legitimacy.

Kritiks:

1. I do not often coach K teams but have familiarity with basically all critical arguments.

2. Framework almost always decides this debate. While I have voted for many middle-ground frameworks, they make very little strategic sense to me. The affirmative saying that I should "weigh the links against the plan" provides no instruction regarding the central question: how does the judge actually compare the educational implications of the 1AC's representations to the consequences of plan implementation? As a result, I am much better for "hard-line" frameworks that exclude the case or the kritik.

3. I will decide the framework debate in favor of one side's interpretation. I will not resolve some arbitrary middle road that neither side presented.

4. If the kritik is causal to the plan, a well-executing affirmative should almost always win my ballot. The permutation double-bind, uniqueness presses on the link and impact, and a solvency deficit to the alternative will be more than sufficient for the affirmative. The neg will have to win significant turns case arguments, an external impact, and amazing case debating if framework is lost. At this point, you are better served going for a proper counterplan and disadvantage.

5. I will not evaluate non-falsifiable statements about events outside the current debate. Such an evaluation of minors grossly misuses the ballot. Strike me if this is a core part of your strategy.

Topicality:

1. This is about the plan text, not other parts of the 1AC. If you think the plan text is contrived to be topical, beat them on the PIC out of the topic and your topic DA of choice.

2. This is a question of which team's vision of the topic maximizes its benefits for debaters. I compare each team's interpretation of the topic through an offense/defense lens.

3. Reasonability is about the affirmative interpretation, not the affirmative case itself. In its most persuasive form, this means that the substance crowdout caused by topicality debates plus the affirmative's offense on topicality outweighs the offense claimed by the negative. This is an especially useful frame in debates that discuss topic education, precision, and similar arguments.

4. Any standards are fine. I used to be a precision stickler. This changed after attending topic meetings and realizing how arbitrarily wording is chosen.

5. From Anirudh Prabhu: "T is a negative burden which means it is the neg’s job to prove that a violation exists. In a T debate where the 2AR extends we meet, every RFD should start by stating clearly what word or phrase in the resolution the aff violated and why. If you don’t give me the language to do that in your 2NR, I will vote aff on we meet." Topicality 101---the violation is a negative burden. If there's some uncertainty, I almost certainly vote aff with a decent "we meet" explanation.

Theory:

1. As with other arguments, I will resolve this fully technically. Unlike many judges, my argumentative preferences will not implicate how I vote. I will gladly vote on a dropped theory argument---if it was clearly extended as a reason to reject the team---with no regrets.

2. I'm generally in favor of limitless conditionality. But because I adjudicate these debates fully technically, I think I vote affirmative on "conditionality bad" more than most.

3. From Rafael Pierry: "most theoretical objections to CPs are better expressed through competition. ... Against these and similar interpretations, I find neg appeals to arbitrariness difficult to overcome." For me, this is especially true with counterplans that compete on certainty or immediacy. While I do not love the delay counterplan, I think it is much more easily beaten through competition arguments than theoretical ones.

4. If a counterplan has specific literature to the affirmative plan, I will be extremely receptive to its theoretical legitimacy and want to grant competition. But of course, the counterplan text must be written strategically, and the negative must still win competition.

Counterplans:

1. I'm better for strategies that depend on process and competition than most. These represent one of my favorite aspects of debate---they combine theory and substance in fun and creative ways---and I've found that researching and strategizing against them generates huge educational benefits for debaters, certainly on par with more conventionally popular political process arguments like politics and case.

2. I have no disposition between "textual and functional competition" and "only functional competition". Textual alone is pretty bad. Positional competition is similarly tough, unless the affirmative grants it. Think about how a model of competition justifies certain permutations---drawing these connections intelligently helps resolve the theoretical portion of permutations.

3. Similarly, I am agnostic regarding limited intrinsicness, either functional or textual. While it helps check against the truly artificial CPs, it justifies bad practices that hurt the negative. It's certainly a debate that you should take on. That said, if everyone is just spreading blocks, I usually end up negative on the ink. Block to 2NR is easier to trace than 1AR to 2AR.

4. People need to think about deficits to counterplans. If you can't impact deficits to said counterplans, write better advantages. The negative almost definitely does not have evidence contextualizing their solvency mechanism to your internal links---explain why that matters!

5. Presumption goes to less change---debate what this means in round. Absent this instruction, if there is an advocacy in the 2NR and I do not judge kick it when deciding, I'm probably not voting on presumption.

6. Decide in-round if I should kick the CP. I'll likely kick it if left to my own devices. The affirmative should be better than the status quo. (To be honest, this has never mattered in a debate I've judged, and it amuses me that judge kick is such a common paradigm section.)

Disadvantages:

1. There is not always a risk. A small enough signal is overwhelmed by noise, and we cannot determine its sign or magnitude.

2. I do not think you need evidence to make an argument. Many bad advantages can be reduced to noise through smart analytics. Doing so will improve your speaker points. Better evidence will require your own.

3. Shorten overviews, and make sure turns case arguments actually implicate the aff's internal links.

4. Will vote on any and all theoretical arguments---intrinsicness, politics theory, etc. Again, arguments are arguments, debate them out.

Ethics:

1. Cheating means you will get the lowest possible points.

2. You need a recording to prove the other team is clipping. If I am judging and think you are clipping, I will record it and check the recording before I stop the debate. Any other method deprives you of proof.

3. If you mark a card, say where you’re marking it, actually mark it, and offer a marked copy before CX in constructives or the other's team prep time in a rebuttal. You do not need to remove cards you did not read in the marked copy, unless you skipped a truly ridiculous amount. This practice is inane and justifies debaters doc-flowing.

4. Emailing isn’t prep. If you take too long, I'll tell you I'm starting your prep again.

5. If there is a different alleged ethics violation, I will ask the team alleging the violation if they want to stop the debate. If so, I will ask the accused team to provide written defense; check the tournament's citation rules; and decide. I will then decide the debate based on that violation and the tournament policy---I will not restart the debate---this makes cite-checking a no-risk option as a negative strategy, which seems really bad.

IMPORTANT: I will only vote on an ethics violation about previously-read evidence (missing an author, missing a year, paragraph missing but no distortion, etc) if the team alleging the violation has evidence that they contacted the other team and told them about the issue. Clearly, you had the time to look up the article. As a community, we should assume good faith in citation, and let the other team know. And people should not be punished for cards they did not cut. But if they still are reading faulty evidence, even after being told, that's certainly academic malpractice.

Note that if the ethics violation is made as an argument during the debate and advanced in multiple speeches as a theoretical argument, you cannot just decide it is a separate ethics violation later in the debate. I will NOT vote on it, I will be very annoyed with you, and you will probably lose and get 27s if you are resorting to these tactics.

6. The closer a re-highlighting comes to being a new argument, the more likely you should be reading it instead of inserting. If you are point out blatant mis-highlighting in a card, typically in a defensive fashion on case, then insertion is fine. I will readily scratch excessive insertion with clear instruction.

Miscellaneous:

1. I'll only evaluate highlighted warrants in evidence.

2. Dropped arguments should be flagged clearly. If you say that clearly answered arguments were dropped, you're hurting your own persuasion.

3. Please send cards in a Word doc. Body is fine if it's just 1-3 cards. I don't care if you send analytics, though it can help online.

4. Unless the final rebuttals are strictly theoretical, the negative should compile a card doc post 2NR and have it sent soon after the 2AR. The affirmative should start compiling their document promptly after the 2AR. Card docs should only include evidence referenced in the final rebuttals (and the 1NC shell, for the negative)---certainly NOT the entire 1AC.

5. As a judge, I can stop the debate at any point. The above should make it clear that I am very much an argumentative nihilist---in hundreds of debates, I have not come close to stopping one. So if I do, you really messed up, and you probably know it.

6. I am open to a Technical Knockout. This means that the debate is unwinnable for one team. If you think this is the case, say "TKO" (probably after your opponents' speech, not yours) and explain why it is unwinnable. If I agree, I will give you 30s and a W. If I disagree and think they can still win the debate, you'll get 25s and an L. Examples include: dropped T argument, dropped conditionality, double turn on the only relevant pieces of offense, dropped CP + DA without any theoretical out.

Be mindful of context: calling this against sophomores in presets looks worse than against an older team in a later prelim. But sometimes, debates are just slaughters, nobody is learning anything, and there will be nothing to judge. I am open to giving you some time back, and to adding a carrot to spice up debate.

7. Not about deciding debates, but a general offer to debate folk reading this. As someone who works in tech, I think it is a really enjoyable career path and quite similar to policy debate in many ways. If you would like to learn more about tech careers, please feel free to email me. As a high school student, it was very hard to learn about careers not done by my parents or their friends (part of why I'm in tech now!). I am happy to pass on what knowledge I have.

Above all, be kind to each other, and have fun!

Vignesh Viswanath Hamilton High School 6 rounds

Day Woodruff BASIS Chandler HS 6 rounds

Quinn Zapata Hamilton High School 6 rounds

Last changed on Sat December 22, 2018 at 5:48 AM MST

Background: Debated for Hamilton High School as 1a/2n for 4 years and did a little bit of coaching outside of high school. The vast majority of affs I read were non-topical K affs mostly based on high theory. The other affs I read were usually middle of the road and the occasional "traditional" policy proposal debate. On neg I mostly ended up going for Ks or case; however, I ran a lot of FW, DAs, and CPs. In short I'm fine with any kind of debate y'all want to have but most of my familiarity is with Ks.

I haven't really judged on this years topic so please explain your acronyms.

General Notes and TLDR:

* Above all be respectful to everyone in a debate.

* Prep ends when your flash drive leaves the computer, email is sent, etc.

* CX is important and binding.

* Don't expect me to do work on the flow for you.

* K's are great and most of what I read in high school.

* T/FW is alright, just make sure to impact everything.

* DA/CPs are chill as long as they're specific.

TL;DR: Anything is fine, as a judge I will evaluate the debate you want to have.

Speaker Points

20: very disrespectful/offensive in round. You have to really mess up.

27.5-28.4: mediocre; prob not breaking
28.5-28.9: good; maybe breaking 4-2
29-29.4: very good; breaking
29.5-30: excellent; top speaker quality

Affirmatives - Any way you want to present you're aff is fine as long as its justified, whether that be a policy proposal or a performance of some kind.

Case - Some of the most enjoyable debates for me has come down to the case debate. Make sure what you read actually applies to the aff presented and give me reasons why I shouldn't be able to vote for the aff if you win these arguments. Don't let this flow start randomly contradicting with your off-case and make sure to contextualize everything.

Kritik - Ks are great as long as you make it clear how you are interacting with the affirmative. Link explanation is key and making it clear how your theory clashes with whatever the the affirmative is reading is crucial. Don't expect me to do work on this flow for you (e.g. dropping the alt if not done explicitly). Just because a K is being read please don't forget about clash and line by line, its always really sad to me when the debate become a bunch of prewritten overviews without much clash.

T/FW - I treat framework debates like I would any topicality debate. Be sure to impact out anything you go for otherwise I'll probably prefer their impacts. Reverse voting issues are dumb, but I'll still vote for them if done well. If against a non-traditional affirmative try to provide an interpretation where they could still raise there issue, and not out right exclude them. It will be an uphill battle if you come in with the "non-traditional affirmative are wrong" mindset. Otherwise treat T/FW like a DA, I want to see how they link, what that does, why that's bad, and why I should care. - Taken from Alex Fan, sums up my thoughts pretty well.

Counterplans - Anything is cool here. Make sure you clearly explain the net benefit.

Disads - DAs are cool. Explain your link chain and impacts well. It will likely be hard to win on just a DA alone unless the aff is really behind the case debate.

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Arizona State HDSHC Invitational

2019 — AZ/US

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