Woodward Academy '20

Last Updated: 02/06/19

Add me to the email chain: 20aajani@woodward.edu

Experience on the Topic: I attended GDS for 3 weeks over the summer and have been debating varsity all year.

My greatest influences in debate and what a good debate should look like have been Bill Batterman and Maggie Berthiaume. Please feel free to look at their paradigms as well...

Bill Batterman — https://www.tabroom.com/index/paradigm.mhtml?search_first=&search_last=batterman

Maggie Berthiaume — https://www.tabroom.com/index/paradigm.mhtml?judge_person_id=1265

General

Flow on paper and by ear. Clarity over speed. Don't steal prep. Both partners should be keeping time. Give a road map and sign post. Mark cards not only verbally but also physically so you can send your opponents a correctly marked version if they ask for one. If your partner gives you cards to read in the middle of your speech, I will not start cross ex until those cards are sent out.

The 2NR and the 2AR are definitely extremely impactful on the result of the debate. You must articulate your arguments thoroughly in these speeches. Extend an impact — impact comparison is very necessary. Cite authors and evidence for me to look back at in close debates. On the contrary, you can't just bring all this out of the blue in the last speech. Make sure your arguments are extended throughout the round or else I cannot evaluate them.

Be respectful to your opponents. This means make sure they are ready before speaking, do not intentionally exclude analytics from documents you send out, do not speak loudly in the middle of their speeches, and do not be aggressive in cross ex. Being respectful is a heavy influence on speaks.

It's better if the person who just gave the speech is answering all the questions in cross ex, but tag teaming is fine as long as you aren't dominating another person's cross-ex.

Don't go for multiple things in the 2NR. This also means the status quo is not always an option. I will not kick a CP for you.

Speaker Points: https://the3nr.com/2016/04/15/an-updated-speaker-point-scale-based-on-2015-2016-results/ +in-round courtesy

Non-Traditional Affs

Read a topical aff please :)

Kritiks

I’m not the guy for high theory debates or for debates that rely on winning framework. Links should be a DA to the plan. Specific links and an in-depth explanation are the best way to convince me to vote for a K.

Theory

It will be very hard to convince me to vote on a theory violation other than conditionality bad when there are 3+ conditional off-case. Of course, I will vote on obvious voting issues such as racism bad and sexism bad.

T

I am pretty impartial on topicality when it comes to policy affirmatives. Make sure to elaborate on what the impacts are if you read a topicality violation and if you have to answer topicality.

CPs

If you do not read a solvency advocate in the 1NC, please read one in the block and give me thorough explanation of what the CP does in the block with evidence. If you do not read a solvency advocate in the 1NC, I will also be more lenient on the 1AR for answering the CP. All that being said, the best thing to do is to read a solvency advocate in the 1NC.

Process CPs are a little difficult to win against a perm when I am judging, but they are definitely still a viable 2NR option with good analysis and articulation.

DAs

Please prove that the disad outweighs and turns the case. You have to win every part of the DA to win the debate, with or without a counterplan.

If you are reading a DA with a CP...

I will vote for sufficiency framing with a great enough probability of the DA. If the CP solves 100% of the affirmative, any risk of the DA is probably a reason to vote negative.

If you have any other questions, please ask before the round starts. I will happily answer.

2N for 4 years at Alpharetta High School

put me on the email chain: sakshideshpande@icloud.com

do not clip

racism, sexism, and death are all bad

do whatever you're good at

time your own speeches and prep

don't reread tag lines, focus on actually explaining the argument

clarity > speed

Samford

He/Him

Updated as of Indiana 2024

Add me to the chain: maddoxforfun@gmail.com

TLDR: I judge off the flow. Clash is great. Being prepped is awesome, not flowing and debating off of a script is not. I can only flow what I can hear, speed is fine but never sacrifice clarity for it. Start slower at the top of the final rebuttals. Don't change the args you go for in front of me, do what you wanna do and what you think you're best at. Do not ask to give a road map just give one. A roadmap is just the order of the flows, not what the arguments are. If there are more than 3 cards in the speech you should send a doc. Please be nice and have fun!

Above everything else be respectful to everyone involved in round. If you cannot be nice at least be polite. Respect isn't something that should be an added bonus but a norm. If I find that anyone regardless of ability is disrespectful of someone else involved in the round, then speaks will drop like the Nasdaq and I'll probably find it harder for myself to be persuaded by your args.

Everything else:

DA's:

The most important aspect's of the DA to me are comparative analysis, impact calculus, and contextualization with the aff. I don't believe in 100% risk or absolute defense/ 0 risk of the DA but I will vote on arguments near that threshold.

CP's:

Counterplan's should be both functionally and textually competitive. I think you can win with internal NB's, but that it's much harder to evaluate WHY the cp is an opportunity cost of the plan, and makes me err aff on the perm debate. I think that PIC's that steal the aff can be abusive, but not always a reason to reject the arg or team.

T:

I am not the best T vs policy aff's judge. I think teams need to be way slower and more deliberate when going for T, especially in final rebuttals. Reading pre-written speeches at full speed with the assumption I am catching all of this and understanding the deepest and most intricate nuances of the topic has not fared well in front of me. There should be clear ground loss and abuse stories presented in the debate, with contextualization to the plan text and the counter interpretation. I am a 70% reasonability 30% competing interps judge. T is a swinging gate, so if you win that the aff should be weighed/ is topical, you win the debate.

Identity based args note:

I have absolutely no tolerance for anything related to authenticity checking, invalidating anyone's identity based off of some silly game we go to camp for, or anything of that nature that would discourage people from partaking in this activity. Identity rounds have the potential to get personal and I am wholly uncomfortable letting any debater internalize negative things said about their identity, all for a ballot. I reserve the right to vote down any team regardless of how good they think they are based off of this premise.

K Affs:

I believe USFG should: is a norm and not a rule, so I have and will vote on aff's outside of that actor. How to win my ballot with a planless aff: Explicitly lay out what exact harms the affirmative aims to solve, be good on the flow as to why your implementation of X is sufficient and necessary, commit a fair amount of time to judge instruction and impact out what winning each part of the flow means. Be clear as to why my evaluation of X should come before standard policy framing/whatever the 2nr is. vote aff to affirm us because X has/probably will never be persuasive to me. that also applies to k's on the neg.

K's:

K teams who routinely win my ballots are great at explaining what offense me voting for them solves, via post or pre-fiat means. Impact out what winning an arg means, and what args you need to win to come out ahead on flows/which flow matters most. Point to 1ac and 2ac evidence and show me the link, it's really easy convincing me that an aff links when I see the exact verbiage and rhetoric in aff evidence when the neg points it out. Super long 3 minute overviews struggle to find cohesive spots on my flow, yet in speeches that go straight to the line by line I find myself losing the meta-level crux of the flow, so try and toe the line of over-explaining but also efficiency. Impact calc is still a necessity. Overexplain the alt's necessity/sufficiency, and how it correlates to the ballot. Oftentimes teams overinvest in the link debate, and I just don't know what I'm supposed to do with whatever is left of the alt. I don't find aff frameworks that exclude the K to be even slightly convincing. Paired with that I think I will pretty much always weigh the plan's impacts vs the k in my decision unless there is a tremendously lopsided debate had on this that concludes neg. Floating piks are probs bad, and if you kick the alt and go for it as a disad in the 2nr, the aff will get to respond accordingly.

Theory:

True neutral on condo. For condo bad args I don't think its how many worlds were involved in round that signal an aff ballot but what they justify. The difference between 3 and 4 or 5 and 6 conditional worlds isn't that big. but what the negs framework allows and prevents is what gets me to sign off. That being said, you probably never need more than 3 condo. Anything more and you're overloading the 1nc and are gonna link way harder to any in round abuse args. If aspec was hidden on another flow it gets a new 1ar answer. The moral of the story is don't be a coward, let us know youre going for aspec. If you are that scared of the 2ac answering it then it's probably not that good of an arg in this round. Perf con is not an independent voter, but rather an extension of condo or something that gets you ground somewhere else. Think about flowability and pen time before you blaze through multiple paragraphs of analytics.

Framework:

I will almost always weigh the aff, unless the negative forwards a better way of evaluating the debate. You do not have to win the entirety of the framework to win the debate or K flow. I'm fairly convinced by fw perms. Cross applications are key, and 1 dropped warrant could change the way I evaluate the rest of the flow.

Clipping:

If a clipping accusation is made the round immediately ends and is determined based off of the veracity of the accusation. If the accusing team is wrong they will lose, if the accusing team is right they will win. I will adhere to the tournament rules, if provided, pertaining speaks. If no rules are posted I will give 0's to the losing team, and some speaks in the low 29's to the winners.

Card doc:

I am not a card doc heavy judge. My ballot will be reflective of the argumentation on my flow and in round clash, and the card doc is merely supporting the flow. If you think a piece of ev is critical to my decision say so in speech, but do not expect me to recreate the debate based on ev.

Speaks:

A very easy way to lose speaks is to have a lot of downtime in the round where a clock is not running, if there isn't a speech going either you should be running prep, or have announced that the doc is being sent out. Especially after 2+ years of online debate, egregious stealing of prep will be harshly punished speaks wise.

Debate shouldn't be one big meme thread, but humor makes you more convincing and personable(if it's funny that is). I am a big fan of sports or pop culture references.

Be nice to the other team, have fun, and make friends!!! I promise you when everything is said and done you will remember the friends you made and the fun had in the activity more than the rfd's you get

If everyone in the round has a well-updated wiki with open-sourcing, I will give everyone a + .1 in speaks

Praval Kandimalla

Woodward Academy '21

Email - 21pkandimalla@woodward.edu

Updated 1/11/2021

Bio

I debated for 2 years at Woodward Academy, and now I'm judging for the team. I'm expecting to mostly judge Novice debates, so my paradigm largely focuses on the Novice Division, but I did add a section for divisions outside of Novice at the bottom.

Topic Specifics

I do not have much topic knowledge, so extra explanation would be appreciated. In any case, I'll do my best to follow along.

My Preferences for Novice

My big concerns are flowing, clarity, speech doc creation (tell me if you don't know how, I'll tell you), and clash (directly answering your opponents' arguments). I don't expect any of you to be experts, so CALM DOWN, I will be patient; I was once there too.

I promise to put my full effort into judging and giving you the best feedback I can give. The Novice division is for learning, so my main goal is to teach you how debate works.

The things I like to see the most are in-depth understanding of the topic and effective communication. Topic knowledge is understanding the history of the topic and its nuances and facts. I don't expect any of you to be experts, so don't feel bad if you don't know something. For effective communication, this to me is engaging speaking and organized debating. Once again, I don't expect you to have mastered this, but I do appreciate it.

Also, I love jokes, so feel free to add any.

I don't have any pet peeves, except for pronouncing words correctly (If you say coup with a "p" you're a chicken farmer, if you say it without then you're an international relations specialist). I won't get annoyed if you say something wrong; it's just something I always notice.

One last thing, be respectful to your opponents: don't be mean.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

For any division outside of Novice

My judging philosophy overall reflects those of my coaches, Bill Batterman and Maggie Berthiaume.

All I want is a good, clash-heavy debate. If you try to avoid this (i.e take the easy/lazy way), I will not be happy.

Also, I'm very policy heavy, so I prefer to judge those debates. I'm willing to judge K's, but I don't understand the literature that well, so I won't be a good judge for it.

Quick Specifics

Tech > truth (in most instances).

3 condo is the most I'm comfortable with. That's not to say I'm not okay with any more than 3, but be prepared to face a harder condo debate.

DA: I love DA's, just two things to consider. Have impact clac and fully flush the DA out (uniqueness, link, internal link, and impact).

CP: I don't really have a particular opinion on most CPs, just make sure it's not extremely theoretically dubious. However, I don't like consult CP's; I agree with Dr. Galloway's opinion of them. Also, you need to tell me to judge kick.

K: Just be clear and explain what the K does. Get a specific link and explain the alt well. If I don't have a clear explanation of alt solvency, it will be really difficult for me to vote for it.

FW: No particular opinion here; just clash with the other side's framework and tell me why I should prefer yours.

T: Before I vote on a T, I need at least an explained violation, interpretation, and impact (Example, education or fairness). I don't lean one way or the other much on topicality, but I do believe a smaller topic is a better topic. Also, I find T substantial persuasive when well warranted.

Theory: Outside of consult CP's and more than 3 condo, I don't really lean one way or the other on theory. I would prefer if the theory debate was delivered at a slower pace and contextualized to the round.

Aside from that, I really don't lean in any way, so just debate your best.

4th-year debater at Alpharetta (2A)

add me to the email chain: 20vikkumar@gmail.com

1. Do what you are most comfortable with, I will vote on anything that has enough warrants and is extended sufficiently throughout the debate.

2. Be respectful to the other teams and the rooms provided by the school. Bigotry will not be accepted.

3. Do not clip cards.

4. Time your speeches and prep.

5. Clarity over speed.

6. Explain your arguments don't just read the tags

7. Have fun!

I debated as a 2N for 4 years at Northview High School. I don't have a preference for any type of argument, so you can read whatever you feel like reading as long as its ethical.

Also, I don't know much about the topic this year, so just explain your arguments thoroughly to me, and we should be golden.

Add me to email chains: avpat02@gmail.com

Have fun debating!

Northview High School '20

2A/1N

Add me to email chains: manavirao38@gmail.com

LD:

1.) I’m a policy debater. Don’t assume that I know what you’re talking about. That being said, if you explain your arguments well and debate your best, you’ll win my ballot.

2.) I will hold LD debaters to all the standards I hold policy debaters to. Look below for more information. All preferences still apply.

3.) Speed is fine, but please please please be clear.

4.) I tend to evaluate framework first. That being said, win your value criteria and I'm much more likely to vote for you.

Some Top Level Stuff:

1.) "Tech over truth, no exception. Reading poor, ridiculous arguments like racism good, patriarchy good, suicide good, etc. will reflect in low speaks." - Faeez Juneja

2.) Clarity > Speed. Please don't try to go 100% speed if you're not going to be clear. I'll yell clear one time, then I'm docking speaks.

3.) Please, be nice. We come to debate to learn and have fun. I won't have fun and neither will anyone else in the room if you're not being nice.

Counterplan/DA

Love. Them. A good PIC that solves the aff and a good (or bad) DA/case turn as a net benefit is sure to get my ballot.

Take advantage of advantage counterplans - solving one impact and turning the other is a very underutilized strat that I like a lot.

Politics DAs: love them, but don't just throw evidence at me. Give me reasons why I should prefer your [x] evidence or why your [y] evidence is better than theirs. Often times these debate get so caught up in the cards that people forget what the cards say. I want evidence comparison - one super good link card can destroy 6 bad link turns.

Topic Specific DAs: I love topic specific DAs. The most compelling arguments is if you can explain why exactly the Aff's plan links to your impacts. You have to win that there is a very high chance of the link.

Kritiks

I like them. However, I'm not super versed in a lot of K literature. If you're reading something like Cap/Neolib or anything similar, great. Win the K. But if you're going to read some Bataille/Baudrillard/D&G mashup, you gotta explain the arguments to me and make me understand them. Only then can you win the flow.

T

I flow aff on T. I think that reasonability is a compelling argument that should beat most of the T violations this year as long as you win standards and impacts.

I do however like it when the aff mishandles T and the 2NR completely crushes them. So do your thing. If you think the aff mishandled T, explain it to me and I'll probably agree with you.

K Affs/Non-Traditional Affs

I don't have anything against them. If you can give me a reason why I should prefer a non-traditional form of debate, you'll be in a good spot. If not, I'm likely to vote neg on framework/T to preserve fairness/clash/education. I am familiar with cap, security and more policy leaning Ks, so if you are reading something I am not familiar with, be sure to take the time to actually explain it. I can't vote on something that I don't get.

Theory

Nothing but condo is a reason to reject the team. That being said, use other theory violations strategically to give you more leeway in your own arguments. I'm swayed easily by reciprocity.

Alpharetta 21. Emory 25.

Email chain: hargunn.sandhu03@gmail.com

Note:

I have ZERO TOPIC KNOWLEDGE. Explain acronyms and don't assume I know the limits/consensus on T.

General:

1. Tech > Truth. Better debating can easily overcome any of the preferences I have below. Judge instruction is key, especially in the final rebuttals.

2. Good debating requires quality evidence; strong logical explanation, and contextualization.

3. Online debate: please slow down and enunciate more than you normally would. Clarity should not be sacrificed for speed. Sending analytics might be useful in case internet cuts out. Try to keep your camera on at least during speeches and CX.

4. Racism, sexism, discrimination, or any other problematic actions will result in an L and the lowest speaks.

5. Clipping = L and lowest speaks. If you accuse someone of clipping you must have evidence, if you fail to prove they clipped then you get an L.

Specifics:

1. K:

a. K Affs: Clash > Fairness > Education/Skills. I'm more inclined to vote on t usfg/framework since I have mostly been on this side of the debate. Heg good, cap good, etc are all good 2nr options. However, I do think the aff can win with impact turns to the negative's model. Good K affs have a connection to the topic and a clear offense/defense mechanism in the 1AC.

b. Ks: Leaning towards aff gets to weigh the plan. Who cares if fiat isn't real. Specific links, pulling quotes from the 1AC, and in-depth explanation at every level are very important. Avoid large overviews. Turns case/root cause/alt solves > fw 2nrs. Extinction ow/impact turn > permutation 2ars.

2. CPs/DAs:

a. CPs: Cool. If undebated, I'll judge kick the CP. I might be a little more receptive to intrinsic perms than most.

b. DAs: Turns case is crucial. Politics DAs are good, spin is important. 0% risk is a thing, but hard to get to.

3. Theory:

a. Conditionality: Good. Worth noting that I think aff teams rarely capitalize on neg teams' poor defense of condo.

b. International CP and Ctrl + f word PICs are bad assuming even debating. Neg leaning on most other theory.

4. T - Assuming even debating, competing interps > reasonability. Precise, contextual evidence is key to winning these debates, for both the aff and the neg, but especially the aff if there's a substantial limits differential. Read cards. Both sides should be clashing over their visions of the topic and the impacts to it.

5. Case: Not a fan of framing pages. Impact Turns are fantastic. Good case debating is underutilized. Presumption is possible.

6. Misc:

- Speaks: I'm prolly a little above average giving them out. Specific strategies are good. It always helps to make the round fun. Quality evidence is good. If you opensource, let me know, + .1

- Insert perm texts

- I'm usually not expressive, and anything I do express is usually not your fault.

- Things I prolly won't vote on: ASPEC, death good, and out of round issues

2a for 4 years at alpharetta

add me on the email chain saanya.saurabh@gmail.com

do whatever you want

no clipping

don’t be rude

time your own prep and speeches

clarity > speed

yes, you can tag team

most importantly, have fun

Chain: shenjeffery113@gmail.com

Debated at JCHS for 3 yrs, was not able to compete the 4th.

Stanford 24'

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pls camera on if you can, it makes debating less of a bore

Stolen from my friend, Mr. Blake Deng:

I HAVE ZERO TOPIC KNOWLEDGE

my brain is not that big. I have experience with PTX DAs, Generic Ks, Generic CPs. If your aff is to regulate some small agency with an obscure acronym, please explain. Debate is about convincing the judge, not who can throw out the most off-case in 8 minutes.

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General thoughts on debate:

- Tag teaming is fine; too much = slight speaks dock maybe

- Be nice, don't flex, be courteous; CX is already toxic enough.

- Please do not steal prep with virtual debate, do not clip cards, do not cheat in any way. It will be a quick decision.

- I was a 2A/1N years ago, so I do lean aff on some common topics: >3 conditional, and condo bad is lookin pretty good; if the 1NC is under highlighted 10 off, the 2A gets more leeway, as long as the 2A says something (can be one sentence, oh well) about it, an argument is not "conceded," but it makes the 2A's job much harder to defend. Given that, the 1NR should be the best speech in the round - I loved doing it because it was blocked out, and had copious amounts of prep for it.

- Send analytics if you want - I'd recommend it because then I definitely won't miss any arguments and it generally just makes the debate easier to follow for everyone, but I know some people are stingy about this. No speaker pts diff if you do either or, just know I will probably miss some of your arguments.

- Tech > Truth within reason. This means, yes, if you drop 50 State Fiat is a voter, you will lose. No, this does not mean if the other team drops Covid isn't real/some other just false statement that you will win.

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Argument list ---

DAs:

Always good, basically the base of any neg strat. I don't know if 0 risk exists, but "so low where it's negligible" risk 100% exists. PTX DAs need to have updated ev (no-brainer). Straight-turning DAs is underused but is a good way to stop the neg from reading 4 crappy DAs and kicking them all in the block.

Ks:

I have a basic foundation in the more common ones (Cap, Neolib, Security, Afropess/Antiblackness EMPHASIS ON BASIC). I was more of a policy person, but I honestly think the topic are quite interesting and put spice into the bore of regular policy. Explain your args, and the name of an argument will never sway me away.

The alternative is critical. If the negative cannot explain how it works, solves, or even just makes sense, it doesn't matter if the aff is straight dropped all other points: you have no alternative. I think of it like a net benefit without a counterplan. The K becomes a linear DA at that point.

T:

Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I strongly dislike T unless the aff is clearly untopical/is obviously unfair. Reasonability is valid, the neg gets a litany of random off case to check the aff, and most teams that say the aff spikes out of links have 10 off-case in the 1NC. Don't mind my flashy school name: my brain is not that big, and debates over minute details in interpretations/counter-interps make me sad. If you go for T, please have specifics on why the aff is bad, case list (very underutilized), and not just "the aff does not line up with our merrian-webster 1996 definition."

CPs:

Yes, good as well. They must be competitive, both textually and functionally. It cannot just do the same thing as the aff, P do the CP will suffice. You need a net benefit. Saying "it solves 100% of the aff" is a buzz-phrase, but I can believe it if given enough ev. The CP does not need to solve 100% of the aff given the NB is extraordinarily large - debate it out in round.

CPs should have solvency advocates in the 1nc!!!! Why should they not? The 2ac needs to know what is going on there so they can hedge against it; it's like if the neg chose to just read all their links and uniqueness cards for the DAs in the block. What is a solvency advocate? A carded piece of evidence that proves why your CP solves the harms of the aff. Keep it simple; not having an advocate gives me a pretty good reason to reject the argument (maybe not the team, depends on abuse).

Non-Traditional Affs:

I will be extremely confused, and unsure how to vote. If you want to try, go ahead; I think I will find it very interesting to listen to, but I caution you that there are many more well-qualified people than me to judge you. I do not have much experience at all in this field.

Theory:

If it's not either straight dropped or close to it, it's probably not a good idea to go for it unless you really know what's going on. The two args I have a soft spot for are "condo bad" and "absolutely terrible CPs bad" (no solvency advocate, textually uncompetitive, PICS bad, etc). Other than that, I'd say theory is not very viable.

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Extra stuff:

- Mandatory "if you make me laugh, you'll get bonus speaks"

- Be clear, speaks go down if you are a bad speaker.

- Be nice. I know firsthand how CX can have a toxic culture, and if I see it in round (to your partner, to others, etc) you are losing entire digits of speaks.

- I'm a nice person I swear, ask questions after the round if you want. No judgement.