Stephen Stewart Memorial Middle and High School Invitational at
2024 — milpitas, CA/US
Parli Varsity Paradigm List
All Paradigms: Show HideMy name is Pari Ambatkar. I am a new judge and hence I would request you to speak at a normal pace and clearly. It would be great if you could stick to the timings prescribed by the tournament. Please ensure you track the time.
I'm a parent judge and this is my second year judging Parlimentary Debate. I appreciate if you speak up and don't talk too quickly, as it can be difficult to follow the arguments and assess if speech is too rapid. I also appreciate it if you can signpost while debating to differentiate what contention you are making or point you are rebutting from your opponent.
Hi,
I am a very new parent judge. I can’t hear really well so try to speak up and sit very close to me. I am not familiar with debate jargon so don’t use too complicated terms. I value a few well explained arguments than lots of small arguments. Please sign post well and don’t speak too loud. I don’t like theories and critiques. Please impact your contentions and explain import points
hariharan balasubramanian
I am a lay judge. I have been judging for around 3 - 4 years for parliamentary debate.
Mira Loma HS '22 | UC Berkeley '26
Email: holden.carrillo@berkeley.edu
In high school I competed in PF for 3 years, mostly on the national circuit, and had an average career. I've competed in NPDA in college for 2 years, winning NPTE and a few other tournaments. I coached LD at James Logan and parli at Campolindo last year, and currently coach parli at Piedmont.
Public Forum
TL;DR: I'm a few years removed from the circuit so be aware that I may be unaware of newer norms. Tech > Truth, speed is fine but I don't like blippy arguments/responses, good warranting and good weighing are musts. Respond to everything in 2nd rebuttal. Overall, I'm chill with most things that go in round, and I'll do my best to adapt to you.
Front-Half:
- Speed: Add me to the email chain. I'd like docs sent in the first four speeches, even if you're going slow. If you send a doc, any speed is fine. If you don't, don't go faster than 300 wpm, anything under shouldn't be an issue.
- Evidence: While I paraphrased in HS, I'm not super proud of it. While I'm not a huge stickler for paraphrasing/reading cards, paraphrasing is a bad norm and I'm down to vote for paraphrasing theory if it's run correctly and won.
- Cross: I'll probably be half listening to cross, so I'll never vote off of anything here unless it's said in speech. However, cross is binding, just make sure someone mentions it in a speech. If both teams agree, we can skip any crossfire and have 1 minute of prep as a substitute.
- Rebuttal: 2nd rebuttal must frontline everything, not just turns. Advantages/disads are fine, 4 minutes is 4 minutes, but my threshold for responses will increase if you implicate them to their case. Blippy responses are tolerable but gross, I'd like it if you weighed your turns and your evidence when you introduce it.
Back-Half:
- Extensions: My threshold for extensions are very very very low. I think that extensions are a silly concept and uneducational (especially in PF). As long as you talk about the argument, it's considered extended. However, this doesn't mean that you can be blippy in the front half, and this doesn't mean that defense is sticky. Unless your opponents completely dropped their argument, dropped defense still needs to be mentioned at least briefly in summary.
- Weighing: Be as creative as you want, I hate judges that don't evaluate certain weighing mechanisms like probability and SOL. If 2 weighing mechanisms are brought up and both are equally responded to without any metaweighing, I'll default to whoever weighs first. If nobody weighs then I'll default to SOL (please don't make me do this).
- Final Focus: I know this is cliche, but the best way to win my ballot is by writing it for me. You're best off specifically explaining why your path to the ballot is cleaner than theirs rather than focusing on minuscule parts of the flow.
Progressive Debate:
- Theory: I'm probably a bit better at evaluating theory debates than LARP ones. I'll evaluate friv theory - if the shell is dumb then the other team shouldn't have an issue with winning it, but please don't be abusive to an inexperienced theory team. For accessibility reasons, if no paradigm issues are read, I'll default to DTA (when applicable), reasonability, and RVIs.
- Kritiks: Anything should be fine, but while I had a few K rounds in PF, most of my K experience comes from parli (i.e. I still don't know if proper alts outside of "vote neg" are allowed in PF, a lot of rules around K's are cloudy for me). There's a lot of literature I'm not familiar with, so please take CX to explain this stuff especially if it's pomo.
- Tricks: I'm a fan of them, don't know why there's so much stigma around them. With that being said, if you're hitting an unexperienced team, my threshold for responses are low, but feel free to run tricks.
Also, uplayer your prefiat offense. Please. Not enough teams do this in PF and it makes my ballot hard.
Other:
- I presume the team that lost the coin flip unless given a warrant otherwise. If there's no flip I'll presume the 1st speaking team
- Big fan of TKO's
- Big fan of content warnings
- Big fan of tag-teaming
- Not a big fan of discrimination/problematic rhetoric. This should go without saying, but you'll be dropped. On this note, please do not run afropess if you are nonblack.
Speaker Points:
Speaks are dumb and stupid and bad. You'll most likely get high speaks from me anyways, but if you want a 30, just win and debate well. Here are some other bonuses:
- + 1 for disclosing on the wiki (show proof before the round)
- + 1 for showing proof of you streaming my mixtape
- + 0.5 for a Lil Uzi Vert/Ariana Grande reference in speech
- + 0.1 for every CX skipped
- + 0.1 for every swear word
- - 0.1 for wearing formal clothing in an online round
- Instant 30's if you run spark, dedev, CC good, wipeout, or any other fun impact turn
- Instant 30's if you run any prefiat argument
- Instant 30's if both teams agree to debate without any prep time
- Instant 30's if you weigh/respond to their case for at least 30 seconds in 2nd constructive
If I'm missing anything specific, feel free to ask me any questions before the round!
Parliamentary
TL;DR: Most of my parli experience is on the college level, so I might be unaware of specific norms in HS Parli. Tech > Truth, speed is fine but I don't like blippy arguments/responses, good warranting and weighing will take you a long way. Overall, I'm chill with most things that go in round.
Case:
- Love it, I'm a case debater primarily.
- Please please please please please terminalize your impacts. For some reason some HS parli teams struggle with this. Tell me why your impact matters, go the extra step during prep.
- I'm a sucker for squirrelly arguments and impact turns.
- Please weigh, I mean it. The earlier you weigh, the higher my threshold for responses are. If 2 weighing mechanisms are equally competing with no metaweighing, I'll default to the first one read.
- I love lots of warranting.
- Go for turns.
- Skim through my PF paradigm to see detailed opinions on case, but to put it briefly I'm pretty simple and am cool with anything.
Theory:
- Good with theory, probably the most comfortable with my decisions here.
- MG theory is good, but will listen to warrants otherwise. I probably won't vote for theory out of the block/PMR unless it's a super violent violation.
- I'll evaluate friv theory - if the shell is dumb then the other team shouldn't have an issue with winning it, but please don't be abusive to an inexperienced theory team.
- I really don't understand the norm of no RVI's in parli. If a team runs theory on you, go for RVI's!!! I'm not an RVI hack but my PF background makes me want to see more RVI debates.
- Defaults: CI's > reasonability, DTA > DTD, text > spirit, potential abuse > actual abuse (but as with all defaults, win an argument on the flow and my mind changes)
Kritiks:
- While I'm totally cool with K's, I'm also not familiar with a lot of lit, esp some of the weird pomo authors, but at the same time I'll 100% vote for something I don't understand if you win it. When competing, I usually run Buddhism, Althusser, or some variation of cap, that's what I'm the most comfortable with. Any common K with a clear topical link should be fine though.
- Don't take the easy way out, write some non-generic links! This isn't necessary, but I feel more comfortable voting for a K with unique links to the topic.
- I feel a lot more comfortable judging K's vs. case/T-FW/dumps than K v K debates (while I really don't care what you run, that's where I'll feel most confident with my decision)
Other:
- If you take away one part of my paradigm it's this: I have a very low threshold for MO responses to the aff. I believe that all neg responses to case should be in the LOC, and while I'll evaluate responses read in the MO, I usually find myself erring aff.
- Speed is cool (top speed like 250-275 depending on how clear you are), but if I say slow and you don't slow then I'll stop flowing.
- Extensions are silly. While I do have a threshold for extending, that threshold is very low so the only time it would be a good idea to call out your opponents on their extending is if it's literally nonexistent.
- I'll evaluate any cheaty CP unless someone runs a shell telling me it's bad.
- If you're gonna perm something, respond to the perm spikes!!! Perms are a test of competition, not advocacy.
- Tricks are good, but my threshold for responses are low, especially if you're hitting a less experienced team.
- Condo's good, but you can convince me that condo's bad.
- Presume neg until I'm told otherwise
- Big fan of content warnings
- Big fan of tag-teaming
- Not a big fan of discrimination/problematic rhetoric. This should go without saying, but you'll be dropped. On this note, please do not run afropess if you are nonblack.
- Collapse. Please.
- Flex is binding but needs to be brought up during speech for me to evaluate it.
- Repeat your texts or say them slowly please!
Speaker Points:
Speaks are dumb and stupid and bad. You'll most likely get high speaks from me anyways, but if you want a 30, just win and debate well. Here are some other bonuses:
- + 1 for showing proof of you streaming my mixtape
- + 0.5 for each Lil Uzi Vert/Ariana Grande reference in speech
- + 0.1 for every swear word
- - 0.1 for wearing formal clothing in an online round
- Instant 30's if you run spark, dedev, or any other fun impact turn
- Instant 30's if you run any prefiat argument
- Instant 30's if both teams agree to debate without flex (if applicable)
As I'm writing this, I feel like I'm missing something, so feel free to ask me any questions before the round!
For LD/Policy:
I have literally zero policy experience and limited LD experience. I know enough to be a decent enough judge, but may be unaware with specific norms on the circuit. Check my parli paradigm for my general thoughts on things!
Quick Prefs:
1 - LARP
1 - Theory
3 - Tricks
3 - K v. Case/T-FW
4 - K v. K
5 (Strike) - Phil
Hi everyone! I’m Keira (she/her) and I debated on the high school circuit from 2019-2023. I love debate and all kinds of arguments (as long as they aren’t problematic), so feel free to run pretty much anything in front of me. If you ever have any questions feel free to reach out, I would love to discuss anything with you!
TL;DR - Make it as easy for me to vote for you as possible. Weighing is generally how you do that. I will evaluate basically anything that is read as long as it's not a blip and isn’t problematic. Generics are okay, I like creative arguments (but good well-warranted args outweigh regardless of whether they’re generic or not). Turns are wonderful so read lots!
Background on me - I’m a tech > truth judge but take that with a solid grain of salt because I probably have a higher bar for what counts as an ‘argument’ vs blips than other judges (I will vote on any argument as long as it's warranted). Sierra Maciorowski was the biggest influence on my personal debate paradigm. I was very much a NorCal debater who loved both tech and lay debate (so really read whatever you’re comfortable with in front of me) and I did dabble in east coast debate (and now APDA!) for a minute.
Round evaluation - the way I'll evaluate rounds is probably: layering --> weighing --> strength of link. If your rebuttal looks like this I will be very happy :)
Case - I love good case debates. Tech case debates were truly my cup of tea as a debater. Read strong uniqueness that clearly lines up with your links please! But if you’re going to have strong warranted claims anywhere please have them in the links because otherwise I cannot tell if your plan does anything. As for impact weighing: my default is magnitude > probability > timeframe but feel free to change my mind in round.
There are three parts to an argument - a claim, a warrant, and an implication. Please don’t read blips because I can’t vote on something that has no explanation or reason why it matters.
I'm not really a case framework person. I definitely won't penalize you for reading it but I also am not going to vote you up for it. The case framework debate usually doesn't end up being that important for me. I also don't like definitions debates (unless they're really abusive).
I will protect but call POOs because my memory isn’t great and my flows can get a bit messy. Jargon is all good, I will follow. PLEASE signpost so that I can stay organized and know what you're talking about.
Tech - Speed is all good with me but ONLY if your opponents are okay with it too. Do not use speed or tech to exclude others please. If you’re reading something really techy or critical I would really appreciate it if you would take lots of POIs.
Theory - I like theory. My defaults are competing interps > reasonability, drop the debater > drop the argument, and no RVIs but those are all easily changed by whatever happens in round (I LOVE reasonability with a good brightline). I’m down to vote on friv but I also have a much lower threshold for responses to friv.
Ks - Fun! I read many of these. I was particularly fond of K affs (doesn’t mean I won’t drop you to TUSFG but I'm also not a TUSFG hack). I can understand the gist of most arguments and I read a variety of lit bases but still assume I'm unfamiliar with most lit and explain it all. Take questions please because if your opponents can't understand your arguments they can't engage.
Some thoughts - I think K affs get perms but will 100% accept reasons why they don't. I don't like language PIKs (I just don't think I've ever seen one deployed well but feel free to disprove this). Links of omission aren't real links. I very much respect defending topical affs against K negs (its hard tho so good luck). Tricks are mean. I'll also vote on tricks. But not if they're blipped out.
Phil - I have never run phil or hit phil. If you want to try running it, please explain it well or I'm probably just going to end up disregarding it. Also make sure your opponent can engage with these arguments as well. And please don't read violent phil authors.
Speaks - I will usually give between 27-29.5 speaks, probably higher speaks for the winning team because I think speaker points should be a reflection of how well you convinced me your arguments are true or important.If you are offensive in any way or I find your arguments problematic, your speaks will drop. Just be kind please and have fun, that's what debate is all about :)
Don't be violent. Don't read problematic arguments. I will have no problem dropping you and tanking your speaks if you do. Debate is a space for us all to develop and grow together. If at any time you feel that you or anyone else is being excluded, please speak up and I will do my best to change that.
You’re all going to do amazing and I’m so excited to watch your round! If you have any questions feel free to ask at the beginning of the round or reach out by email.
Hi all! I’m a parent judge who has judged a few tournaments before.
Preferences:
Please don’t spread, be clear and weigh/impact.
No theory and k’s please as I am a parent judge.
Be courteous and kind to your opponents (maintain civility).
Thanks!
Summary
It’s your debate, I’m down to hear any argument. Comfortable with case/K/T/tricks/phil in roughly that order, but happy to evaluate any argument you make (including rejecting the res). As a debater, I went for a roughly even mix of K/case in tech rounds. Speed is fine if your opponents can handle it. Weighing, impacts, and warranting win rounds. Be respectful to everyone in the round. Call the POO, articulate the cross-application, make the debate as explicit as possible for me. Emailp.descollonges@gmail.com.
Background
I competed in parliamentary debate for six years, mostly at Nueva. I was most successful at tech parli, but also found success at both NorCal and Oregon lay tournaments (see bottom of paradigm for notable results if that matters for your prefs for some reason—it probably shouldn’t). I also debated 4 NPDA tournaments last year. I’m a sophomore at UChicago and coach for Nueva. You can reach me at p.descollonges@gmail.com. To prevent this paradigm from being too unwieldy, I’ve only included actionable preferences (i.e. preferences that have a clear impact on what arguments you should be making). Outside of these explicit preferences, I strive to evaluate all arguments fairly, but if you’re interested in my specific thoughts on an argument, feel free to ask me before/after the round (e.g. whether I personally like condo—I’m more than happy to evaluate it, but I also think condo bad is underused).
NON-PARLI EVENTS (feel free to skip if you are a parli debater!!):
I'm fine with speed up to ~300 wpm. If you're in PF, go as fast as you want. For LD, feel free to spread, I'll slow if needed. For policy, you'll probably need to cut speed, but feel free to ramp and I'll slow when I need to—just give me pen time and a speech doc.
I do not know your event. I do not know your norms. I'm sorry about that! I'll do my best to evaluate your round still. Regardless of event, I will vote on clearly articulated framework/weighing/sequencing claims ALWAYS, especially if I'm not comfortable with your event. In general, I assume defense cannot win rounds. I default to a net benefits/other offense-based framework, I'm willing to evaluate stock issues framing but am probably awful at it and need a justification for it.
My lack of knowledge about norms is not an excuse to be sketchy. I am more than happy to look up the (conviniently nationally codified!) rules for non-Parli events if something feels wrong to me. This doesn't mean I'll drop you for reading a K aff (because hopefully you're reading implicit or explicit args that breaking rules is good if there's a rule against your position); but it does mean that you shouldn't expect to get away with e.g. gross speech time violations. I'll generally defer to anything both teams seem to agree on if both teams seem comfortable and I am unfamiliar with the event, unless you try to convince me to give you a double win or something in that vein.
I am a parli person. This does not mean I don't care about evidence. I have a low threshold for ballot comments about sketchy evidence. I have a much higher, but still comparatively low, threshold for intervening on evidence ethics. I have an extremely low threshold for not voting on evidence your opponents call out as sketchy if it is sketchy. I will read cards necessary to decide my ballot (yes, this includes in PF.) I will not vote against you because e.g. you citing a specific sub-conclusion that helps you from a study that argues generally in the opposite direction unless your opponents point it out, in which case I will read the card. I will affirmatively intervene to disregard or vote down blatantly fabricated, misconstrued, or excessively powertagged evidence in compliance with NSDA evidence rules (7.4.A/B/C). I will also strive to comply with NSDA rules for formal challenges (7.2/3), but am not experienced with this procedure. Please just be ethical with your evidence.
Feel free to read my parli paradigm if you want an idea of more specific preferences! Ask me before the round if you have any questions.
PARLI:
Logistics
I hate protected time, but will grudgingly accept that some tournaments use it. It’s ultimately up to the speaker—I will not intervene if the speaker wants to take a POI during protected time. I will follow tournament rules on grace periods, but grace periods aren’t speech time—please don’t make new arguments. I will disregard them.
Call the POO. I protect in the PMR, but give the benefit of the doubt to the speaker unless a POO is called. Incorrect answers to a POO do not waive this protection. I do not protect in the LOR, because there are situations where the aff would prefer I not protect—call the POO if you want me to drop the arg. In novice/beginner rounds, I reserve the right to protect.
Please don’t shake my hand. I don’t care if you sit, stand, etc.—as long as I can understand you, you’re fine. I don't care what you're wearing.
I’ll give at least one of oral or written feedback depending on the specific circumstances of the round, defaulting to a longer oral RFD with a summary in the ballot. You are welcome to record anything I say after the round and/or request I write it out in the ballot. I will try to get substantive and substantial feedback to you in all circumstances—if the tournament bans disclosure and/or we’re running on a tight double-flighted schedule, expect a longer ballot. My preference is to give both an RFD in which I explain how I analyze the arguments in the round and individual speaker feedback, but in complicated outrounds especially, there’s a chance I won’t get to individual speaker feedback. If you’re specifically curious, always feel free to ask. I’m open to postrounding, but if I’m talking to you, I can’t change my ballot. If you think there was a genuine equity issue in the round and I've already submitted my ballot, the person to talk to is the tournament equity director, not me.
I’ll ask for any information I need for my ballot (e.g. speaker positions). No double-wins, no double-losses except in rounds with equity issues.
Speaker Points
If the tournament seeds based on speaks (speaks, -1HL, or z-score) as the first tiebreaker for teams with the same number of wins, I’ll default to 29s (or as close as possible). I’ll give 30s to anyone who impresses me, particularly with strategic argumentation. I will not hesitate to drop your score as a clear signal that I disapprove of some behavior (see equity section below), but will not go below 29 due to mistakes or perceptions of you as a “weaker” debater.
If the tournament does not seed based on speaks as the first tiebreaker, I’ll give speaks in the ~26.5-29.7 range in most rounds. You’ll get higher speaks for good strategic calls, clean argument execution, and cool extemporaneous warranting. Arguments I like that I haven’t heard before are 30s. I won’t go below 26.5 except as a statement of active disapproval (i.e. if you get a 26.5 or below, your debating was not bad/sloppy/inexperienced, it was problematic).
Equity
Please strive to be a good person in round and out of round. Be respectful to your opponents. I will stop the round if necessary to protect any participant in it. If you are uncomfortable, I’d appreciate it if you communicated that to me (or the tournament staff!) in some way.
Misgendering your opponents will result in lost speaker points at minimum and a round loss if egregious and/or intentional. This is also true for gendered/racialized/etc. negative comments or behavior. As a white man, I don’t have a great way to evaluate the exact harms of specific behaviors, so I’ll generally defer to preferences expressed by affected individuals in dicey situations and/or go to the tournament.
Regardless of current literature on the net effect of content warnings, in the context of the debate rounds, content warnings seem clearly net-good in terms of their risk-reward tradeoff. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to make the round better for you!
Case
I love case debate. I wish more people did case debate. Good case debate will make me very happy as a judge. That means clear arguments with clear impacts, good interaction with your opponents arguments, and a clear (and preferably explicit) articulation of what offense will win you the round. Warranting is also key. Arguments with well-explicated warrants backing them up will almost always beat arguments without warrants.
The best way to win a close case debate is weighing. The best way to win a close weighing debate is to do metaweighing. Please tell me whether I should prefer e.g. evidence or logic. Please explain to me how that applies to your arguments specifically. If you do this, you will win 90% of the case debates I have seen.
I’d love to see more link turns. I’d love to see more uniqueness leveraged after the PMC/LOC. I’d love to see more warrants on internal links.
CPs
Down for anything. Win the theory debate. I’ll evaluate all CP theory I can think of. I’ll also evaluate all CPs I can think of, but please have good reasons to prefer, especially if you’re reading delay, etc. Condo is fine by default. Dispo means you can kick it if there’s no offense by default. PICs are fine by default.
Advantages to non-mutually-exclusive CPs are not offense (or defense). Advantages to mutually-exclusive CPs are black swans, but I’m open to hearing why they’re offensive. Perm debates are good, but please don’t say anyone is “stealing” anyone’s advantages.
Evidence
Please do not fabricate evidence. Please do not plagiarize unless the tournament requires you to do so (please reference evidence you use rather than presenting it as original analysis). If the tournament empowers me to do so, I will check your evidence after submitting my ballot, and go to tab/equity if I discover something that seems like an intentional fabrication. Obviously, you have limited prep—mistakes are human, and I won’t hold them against you.
If you give me author’s name/date/source for a claim, you’ll likely win contests over whether that literal claim is true or not. This does not modify the strategic position of the claim in the round. If you do not give me a citation for evidence, I will treat your claim as a claim. Given that I try to be tabula rasa, this is normally fine (i.e. in most debates, it won’t matter if you cite a source for the US unemployment rate).
Ks
I like hearing good K debate! I really like hearing new shells, well-thought-out strategies, good historically-backed warranting, and solid links. I really dislike hearing canned shells from backfiles you don’t understand.
I like KvK debate. I am open to rejecting the res, I’m also open to framework. I have a high threshold on Ks bad theory from the aff, but would consider voting for it.
I’m most familiar with Marx, modern Marxists, and queer/disability theory, but I’m open to hearing anything—just explain it well.
Please have specific links that are not links of omission. Please give me a role of the ballot.
I’m not convinced the aff gets a perm in a KvK debate, but I’ll default to allowing it.
T/Theory
I’m happy to listen to literally anything. I generally prefer fairness on T and education on theory, but please don’t feel bound by that. Jurisdiction is absolute BS but I’ll vote for it.
I default to competing interps over reasonability, potential over proven abuse, and drop the argument when it makes sense. I do not default to theory being a priori, make the argument (especially if your opponents could plausibly uplayer theory). I do not understand why an OCI is not a separate shell, but I’ll listen to them. I’ll reluctantly vote on RVIs, the more specific the better. I view RVIs as making local offense on the theory sheet a global voting issue by default, but will appreciate and evaluate specific texts as well.
If an argument boils down to "did the team say the magic words," I'll default to the team that spent the most time on it in absence of argumentation on either side (e.g. what counts as an RVI). If that doesn't make sense to you, ignore it, and rely on good argumentation rather than linguistic technicalities.
Results
College: Second seed at NPDA nats '23;Mile High Swing 1 Finalist
Champion/Co-Champion: Evergreen ‘21, ‘22; Campo ‘21; TFT ‘17; Lewis and Clark ‘22; UoP ‘20; NorCal Champs ‘21, ‘22
Finalist: TOC ‘22
Semifinalist: NPDI ‘19, ‘20, ‘21
Familiar with Parli debate structure; I did Parli back in high school for 4 years, but that was also 4 years ago. Any other type of debate and I probably won't be familiar with the format, I apologize ahead of time.
Progressive argumentation is a bit unclear to me, so I'd advise against running Ks or t-shells or anything on that philosophical level purely for the fact that I just won't be qualified to evaluate it as thoroughly as you'd probably like. Feel free to run counterplans. For PF I don’t flow cross, because to my knowledge you can neither weigh nor impact properly during it. If you think you struck gold with a point you made in cross, reiterate it in the next speech and properly weigh it so I can flow it.
Everyone gets a 15 second grace period after their allotted speech time to wrap up your thoughts. Anything after that and I stop flowing. This grace period also applies to all the crosses.
If you’re Aff and you’re implementing specific policies/definitions, make sure you state your definitions/plantext clearly in the 1AC, using the resolution as a jumping off point. Neg if you wish to contest definitions, make that clear in the 1NC.
I'm generally good with fast speaking, but try to avoid spreading; if you spread I likely will not be able to flow your speech properly. Additionally, try not to compromise clarity for speed; you don't have to ask me if your speaking speed is alright, if I need you to slow down, I'll make it obvious/say "clear." I'd also appreciate clear signposting, just for everyone's ease of understanding.
Show your opponents respect and don't be passive aggressive or condescending. If any accidents/emergencies arise during round, let me know and I'll try to accomodate to the best of my ability-- I've been there and I understand things are ten times as stressful at a debate tournament versus real life (which does not occur at debate tournaments).
Background: MBA | Technology Industry Veteran | Parent | Novice Debate Judge
Focus Areas:
- Definition: Clear, non-ambiguous definition of all components of the motion
- Substance: Strong analysis, clear evidence with real-world examples
- Style: Clear and objective communication, strong and continuous delivery of speech, respectful debate etiquette
- Strategy: Effective use of debate theory, ability to anticipate, adhere to topic, respond to opponent's arguments
I judge many different formats, see the bottom of my paradigm for more details of my specific judging preferences in different formats. I debated for five years in NPDA and three years in NFA-LD, and I've judged HS policy, parli, LD, and PF. I love good weighing/layering - tell me where to vote and why you are winning - I am less likely to vote for you if you make me do work. I enjoy technical/progressive/circuit-style debates and I'm cool with speed - I don't evaluate your delivery style. I love theory and T and I'll vote on anything.
Please include me on the email chain if there is one. a.fishman2249@gmail.com
Also, speechdrop.net is even better than email chains if you are comfortable using it, it is much faster and more efficient.
CARDED DEBATE: Please send the texts of interps, plans, counterplans, and unusually long or complicated counterinterps in the speech doc or the Zoom chat.
TL:DR for Parli: Tech over truth. I prefer policy and kritikal debate to traditional fact and value debate and don't believe in the trichotomy (though I do vote on it lol), please read a plan or other stable advocacy text if you can. Plans and CP's are just as legitimate in "value" or "fact" rounds as in "policy" rounds. I prefer theory, K's, and disads with big-stick or critically framed impacts to traditional debate, but I'll listen to whatever debate you want to have. Don't make arguments in POI's - only use them for clarification. If you are a spectator, be neutral - do not applaud, heckle, knock on desks, or glare at the other team. I will kick any disruptive spectators out and also protect the right of both teams to decline spectators.
TL:DR for High School LD: 1 - Theory, 2 - LARP, 3 - K, 4 - Tricks, 5 - Phil, 99 - Trad. I enjoy highly technical and creative argumentation. I try to evaluate the round objectively from a tech over truth perspective. I love circuit-style debate and I appreciate good weighing/uplayering. I enjoy seeing strategies that combine normal and "weird" arguments in creative and strategic ways. Tricks/aprioris/paradoxes are cool but I prefer you put them in the doc to be inclusive to your opponents
TL:DR for IPDA: I judge it just like parli. I don't believe in the IPDA rules and I refuse to evaluate your delivery. Try to win the debate on the flow, and don't treat it like a speech/IE event. I will vote on theory and K's in IPDA just as eagerly as in any other event. Also PLEASE strike the fact topics if there are any, I'm terrible at judging fact rounds. I will give high speaks to anyone who interprets a fact topic as policy. I try to avoid judging IPDA but sometimes tournaments force me into it, but when that happens, I will not roleplay as a lay judge. I will still judge based on the flow as I am incapable of judging any other way. It is like the inverse of having a speech judge in more technical formats. I'm also down to vote on "collapse of IPDA good" arguments bc I don't think the event should exist - I think college tournaments that want a less tech format should do PF instead
TL:DR for NFA-LD - I don't like the rules but I will vote on them if you give if you give me a reason why they're good. I give equal weight to rules bad arguments, and I will be happiest if you treat the event like one-person policy or HS circuit LD. I prefer T, theory, DA's, and K's to stock issues debate, and I will rarely vote on solvency defense unless the neg has some offense of their own to weigh against it. I think you should disclose but I try not to intervene in disclosure debates
CASE/DA: Be sure to signpost well and explain how the argument functions in the debate. I like strong terminalized impacts - don't just say that you help the economy, tell me why it matters. I think generic disads are great as long as you have good links to the aff - I love a well-researched tix or bizcon scenario. I believe in risk of solvency/risk of the disad and I rarely vote on terminal defense if the other team has an answer to show that there is still some risk of offense. I do not particularly like deciding the debate on solvency alone. Uniqueness controls the direction of the link.
SPEED: I am good with speed, but I think you slow down if your opponents ask you to. I am uncomfortable policing the way people talk, which means that if I am to vote on speed theory, you should prove you made an effort to get them to slow down and they didn't. Otherwise I am very likely to vote on the we meet. I think that while there are instances where speed theory is necessary, there are also times when it is weaponized and commodified to win ballots by people who could engage with speed. However, I do think you should slow down when asked, I would really prefer if I don't have to evaluate speed theory
THEORY/T: I love theory debates - I will vote on any theory position if you win the argument even if it seems frivolous or unnecessary - I do vote on the flow and try not to intervene. I'll even vote on trichot despite my own feelings about it. I default to fairness over education in non-K rounds but I have voted on critical impact turns to fairness before. Be sure to signpost your We Meet and Counter Interpretation.
I do care a lot about the specific text of interps, especially if you point out why I should. For example, I love spec shells with good brightlines but I am likely to buy a we meet if you say the plan shouldn't be vague but don't define how specific it should be. RVI's are fine as long as you can justify them. I am also happy to vote on OCI's, and I think a "you violate/you bite" argument is a voter on bidirectional interps such as "debaters must pass advocacy texts" even if you don't win RVI's are good
I default to competing interpretations with no RVI's but I'm fine with reasonability if I hear arguments for it in the round. However, I would like a definition of reasonability because if you don't define it, I think it just collapses back to competing interps. I default to drop the debater on shell theory and drop the argument on paragraph theory. I am perfectly willing to vote on potential abuse - I think competing interps implies potential abuse should be weighed in the round. I think extra-T should be drop the debater.
Rules are NOT a voter by themselves - If I am going to vote on the rules rather than on fairness and education, tell me why following rules in general or following this particular rule is good. I will enforce speaking times but any rule as to what you can actually say in the round is potentially up for debate.
COUNTERPLANS: I am willing to vote for cheater CP's (like delay or object fiat) unless theory is read against them. PIC's are fine as long as you can win that they are theoretically legitimate, at least in this particular instance. I believe that whether a PIC is abusive depends on how much of the plan it severs out of, whether there is only one topical aff, and whether that part of the plan is ethically defensible ground for the aff. If you're going to be dispo, please define during your speech what dispo means. I will not judge kick unless you ask me to. Perms are tests of competition, not advocacies, and they are also good at making your hair look curly.
PERFORMANCE: I have voted on these arguments before and I find them interesting and powerful, but if you are going to read them in front of me, it is important to be aware that the way that my brain works can only evaluate the debate on the flow. A dropped argument is still a true argument, and if you give me a way of framing the debate that is not based on the flow, I will try to evaluate that way if you win that I should, but I am not sure if I will be able to.
IMPACT CALCULUS: I default to magnitude because it is the least interventionist way to compare impacts, but I'm very open to arguments about why probability is more important, particularly if you argue that favoring magnitude perpetuates oppression. I like direct and explicit comparison between impacts - when doing impact calc, it's good to assume that your no link isn't as good as you think and your opponent still gets access to their impact. In debates over pre fiat or a priori issues, I prefer preclusive weighing (what comes first) to comparative weighing (magnitude/probability).
KRITIKS: I'm down for K's of any type on either the AFF or the NEG. The K's I'm most familiar with include security, ableism, Baudrillard, rhetoric K's, and cap/neolib. I am fine with letting arguments that you win on the K dictate how I should view the round. I think that the framework of the K informs which impacts are allowed in the debate, and "no link" or "no solvency" arguments are generally not very effective for answering the K - the aff needs some sort of offense. Whether K or T comes first is up to the debaters to decide, but if you want me to care more about your theory shell than about the oppression the K is trying to solve I want to hear something better than the lack of fairness collapsing debate, such as arguments about why fairness skews evaluation. If you want to read theory successfully against a K regardless of what side of the debate you are on, I need reasons why it comes first or matters more than the impacts of the K.
REBUTTALS: Give me reasons to vote for you. Be sure to explain how the different arguments in the debate relate to one another and show that the arguments you are winning are more important. I would rather hear about why you win than why the other team doesn't win. In parli, I do not protect the flow except in online debate (and even then, I appreciate POO's when possible). I also like to see a good collapse in both the NEG block and the PMR. I think it is important that the LOR and the MOC agree on what arguments to go for.
PRESUMPTION: I rarely vote on presumption if it is not deliberately triggered because I think terminal defense is rare. If I do vote on presumption, I will always presume neg unless the aff gives me a reason to flip presumption. I am definitely willing to vote on the argument that reading a counterplan or a K alt flips presumption, but the aff has to make that argument in order for me to consider it. Also, I enjoy presumption triggers and paradoxes and I am happy to vote for them if you win them.
SPEAKER POINTS: I give speaker points based on technical skill not delivery, and will reduce speaks if someone uses language that is discriminatory towards a marginalized group
If you have any questions about my judging philosophy that are not covered here, feel free to ask me before the round.
RECORDINGS/LIVESTREAMS/SPECTATORS: I think they are a great education tool if and only if every party gives free and enthusiastic consent - even if jurisdictions where it is not legally required. I had a terrible experience with being livestreamed once so for the sake of making debate more accessible, I will always defend all students' right to say no to recordings, spectators, or livestreams for any reason. I don't see debate as a spectator sport and the benefit and safety of the competitors always comes first. If you are uncomfortable with spectators/recordings/livestreams and prefer to express that privately you can email me before the round and I will advocate for you without saying which debater said no. Also, while I am not comfortable with audio recordings of my RFD's being published, I am always happy to answer questions about rounds I judged that were recorded if you contact me by email or Facebook messenger. Also, if you are spectating a round, please do not applaud, knock on tables, say "hear, hear", or show support for either side in any way, regardless of your event or circuit's norms. If you do I will kick you out.
PARLI ONLY:
If there is no flex time you should take one POI per constructive speech - I don't think multiple POI's are necessary and if you use POI's to make arguments I will not only refuse to flow the argument it may impact your speaks. If there is flex, don't ask POI's except to ask the status of an advocacy, ask where they are on the flow, or ask the other team to slow down.
I believe trichotomy should just be a T shell. I don't think there are clear cut boundaries between "fact", "value", and "policy" rounds, but I think most of the arguments we think of as trichot work fine as a T or extra-T shell.
PUBLIC FORUM ONLY:
I judge PF on the flow. I do acknowledge that the second constructive doesn't have to refute the first constructive directly though. Dropped arguments are still true arguments. I care as much about delivery in PF as I do in parli (which means I don't care at all). I DO allow technical parli/policy style arguments like plans, counterplans, theory, and kritiks. I am very open to claims that those arguments should not be in PF but you have to make them yourself - I won't intervene against them if the other team raises no objection, but I personally don't believe PF is the right place to read arguments like plans, theory, and K's
Speed is totally fine with me in PF, unless you are using it to exclude the other team. However, if you do choose to go fast (especially in an online round) please send a speech doc to me and your opponents if you are reading evidence, for the sake of accessibility
POLICY ONLY:
I think policy is an excellent format of debate but I am more familiar with parli and LD and I rarely judge policy, so I am not aware of all policy norms. Therefore, when evaluating theory arguments I do not take into account what is generally considered theoretically legitimate in policy. I am okay with any level of speed, but I do appreciate speech docs. Please be sure to remind me of norms that are specific to what is or isn't allowed in a particular speech
NFA-LD ONLY:
I am not fond of the rules or stock issues and it would make me happiest if you pretend they don’t know exist and act like you are in one-person policy or high school circuit LD. However, I will adjudicate arguments based on the rules and I won’t intervene against them if you win that following the rules is good. However, "it's a rule" is not an impact I can vote on unless you say why following the rules is an internal link to some other impact like fairness and education. Also, if you threaten to report me to tab for not enforcing the rules, I will automatically vote you down, whether or not I think the rules were broken.
I think the wording of the speed rule is very problematic and is not about accessibility but about forcing people to talk a certain way, so while I will vote on speed theory if you win it, I'd prefer you not use the rules as a justification for it. Do not threaten to report to tab for allowing speed, I'll vote you down instantly if you do. I also don't like the rule that is often interpreted as prohibiting K's, I think it's arbitrary and I think there are much better ways to argue that K's are bad.
I am very open to theory arguments that go beyond the rules, and while I do like spec arguments, I do not like the vague vagueness shell a lot of people read - any vagueness/spec shell should have a brightline for how much the aff should specify.
Also, while solvency presses are great in combination with offense, I will rarely vote on solvency alone because if the aff has a risk of solvency and there's no DA to the aff, then they are net beneficial. Even if you do win that I should operate in a stock issues paradigm, I am really not sure how much solvency the aff needs to meet that stock issue, so I default to "greater than zero risk of solvency".
IPDA ONLY:
I personally don't think IPDA should exist and if I have to judge it I will not vote on your delivery even if the rules say I should, and I will ignore all IPDA rules except for speech times. Please debate like it is LD without cards or one-person parli. I am happy to vote on theory and K's and I think most IPDA topics are so bad that we get more education from K's and theory anyway. I'll even let debaters debate a topic not on the IPDA topic list if they both agree.
I am a parent judge and this is my first time judging. I appreciate clear articulate arguments and prefer a lack of spreading. Make sure to connect different arguments during the round as well as impact/tell me why they're important. Clearly tagline and signpost. Explain any jargon that an average person would not understand. Treat your opponents kindly and with respect. And lastly, make sure your arguments have evidence that clearly connects back to the topic.
I have been judging speech and debate for couple of years. I love to hear good debates with good use of language and arguments related to the topic. I take copious notes. My expectations is that the debaters will have mutual respect for one another.
At the end of the debate we all should leave the debate learning and gaining something new from one another.
As a judge, I strongly prefer and lean towards calm, strong speakers who make eye contact.
• Maintain decorum.
• Do not be rude.
• Do not speak over each other or cut people off.
Take your time to convey your points and thoroughly extend. Please do not spread.
Public Forum: I will be looking forward to the rebuttal speech and verbal exchange during crossfire.
Parli: I find sign posting very important, so try your best to include off time roadmaps and sign post during your speeches. Accept a fair amount of POIs and take the full speaking time to the best of your ability.
Have fun! :)
Most important items if you have limited reading time:
PREF CHEAT SHEET (what I am a good judge for)--strategy-focused case debate, legitimated theory/topicality, resolutional/tightly linked Ks > project Ks > rhetoric-focused case debate > friv theory > other Ks not mentioned >>> the policy K shell you found on the wiki and didn't adapt to your event > phil > tricks
IN-PERSON POST-COVID: I live with people who are vulnerable to Covid-19. I do wish people would be respectful of that, but ya know. You do you.
ONLINE DEBATE: My internet quality has trouble with spreading, so if I'm adjudicating you at an online tournament and you plan to spread, please make sure we work out a signal so I can let you know if you're cutting out. NSDA Campus stability is usually slightly better than Zoom stability. You probably won't see me on Zoom because that consistently causes my audio to cut out.
Be good to each other (but you don't need to shake my hand or use speech time to thank me--I'm here because I want to be).
I will never, ever answer any variations on the question, "Do you have any preferences we should know about?" right before round, because I want the tournament to run on time, so be specific with what you want to know if something is missing here.
PREP THEFT: I hate it so much. If it takes you >30 sec to find a piece of evidence, I'm starting your prep timer. Share speech docs before the round. Reading someone's evidence AND any time you take to ask questions about it (not including time they use to answer) counts as prep. If you take more than your allotted prep time, I will decrease your speaks by one point for every 10 seconds until I get to the tournament points floor, after which you will get the L. No LD or PF round should take over 60 minutes.
***
Background
I'm currently DOF for the MVLA school district (2015-present) and Parli Director at Nueva (new this year!). My role at this point is predominantly administrative, and most of my direct coaching interactions are with novice, elementary, and middle school students, so it takes a few months for new metas and terminologies to get to me in non-parli events. PF/LD should assume I have limited contact with the topic even if it's late in the cycle. I have eight years of personal competition experience in CHSSA parliamentary debate and impromptu speaking in high school and NPDA in college, albeit for relatively casual/non-circuit teams. My own high school experience was at a small school, so I tend to be sympathetic to arguments about resource-based exclusion. A current student asked me if I was a progressive or traditional debater in high school, which wasn't vocab on my radar at that time (or, honestly, a split that really existed in HS parli in those years). I did definitively come up in the time when "This House would not go gently into that good night" was a totally normal, one-in-every-four-rounds kind of resolution. Do with that what you will.
Approach to judging
-The framework and how it is leveraged to include/exclude impacts is absolutely the most important part of the round.
-It's impossible to be a true "blank slate" judge. I will never add arguments to the flow for you or throw out arguments that I don’t like, but I do have a low tolerance for buying into blatant falsehoods, and I fully acknowledge that everyone has different, somewhat arbitrary thresholds for "buying" certain arguments. I tend to be skeptical of generic K solvency/insufficiently unique Ks.
-My personal experience with circuit LD, circuit policy, Congress, and interp speech events is minimal.
-I am emphatically NOT a games/tricks/whatever-we're-calling-it-these-days judge. Debate is an educational activity that takes place in a communal context, not a game that can be separated from sociocultural influences. Students who have public speaking abilities have unique responsibilities that constrain how they should and should not argue. I will not hesitate to penalize speaker points for rhetoric that reifies oppressive ideologies.
Speaker point ranges
Sorry, I am the exact opposite of a points fairy. I will do my best to follow point floors and ceilings issued by each tournament. 30s are reserved for a speech that is literally the best one I have seen to date. Anything above a 29 is extremely rare. I will strongly advocate to tab to allow me to go below the tournament point floor in cases of overt cruelty, physical aggression, or extremely disrespectful address toward anyone in the round.
Argument preferences
Evaluation order/methods: These are defaults. If I am presented with a different framework for assessment by either team, I will use that framework instead. In cases of a “tie” or total wash, I vote neg unless there is a textual neg advocacy flowed through, in which case I vote aff. I vote on prefiat before postfiat, with the order being K theory/framework questions, pre-fiat K implications, other theory (T, etc), post-fiat. I default to net benefits both prefiat and postfiat. I generally assume the judge is allowed to evaluate anything that happens in the round as part of the decision, which sometimes includes rhetorical artifacts about out-of-round behavior. Evaluation skews are probably a wash in a round where more than one is presented, and I assume I can evaluate the round better than a coinflip in the majority of cases.
Impacts: Have them. Terminalize them. Weigh them. I assume that death and dehumanization are the only truly terminal impacts unless you tell me otherwise. "Economy goes up" is meaningless to me without elaboration as to how it impacts actual people.
Counterplans: Pretty down for whatever here. If you want to have a solid plan/CP debate in LD or PF, far be it from me to stop you. Plan/CP debate is just a method of framing, and if we all agree to do it that way and understand the implications, it's fine.
Theory/Topicality: You need to format your theory shells in a manner that gives me a way to vote on them (ie, they possess some kind of pre- or post-fiat impact). I will listen to any kind of theory argument, but I genuinely don't enjoy theory as a strategic tool. I err neg on theory (or rather, I err toward voting to maintain my sense of "real-world" fairness/education). I will vote on RVIs in cases of genuine critical turns on theory where the PMR collapses to the turn or cases of clearly demonstrated time skew (not the possibility of skew).
Kritiks/"Progressive" Argumentation: I have a lot of feelings, so here's the rapid-fire/bullet-point version: I don't buy into the idea that Ks are inherently elitist, but I think they can be read/performed in elitist ways. I strongly believe in the K as a tool of resistance and much less so as a purely strategic choice when not tightly linked to the resolution or a specific in-round act by the opposing team. I am open to most Ks as long as they are clearly linked and/or disclosed within the first 2-3 minutes of prep. Affirmatives have a higher burden for linking to the resolution, or clearly disclosing if not. If you're not in policy, you probably shouldn't just be reading policy files. Write Ks that fit the norms of your event. If you want to read them in front of me, you shouldn’t just drop names of cards, as I am not conversant at a high level with most of the lit. Please don’t use your K to troll. Please do signpost your K. On framework, I err toward evaluating prefiat arguments first but am willing to weigh discursive implications of postfiat arguments against them. The framework debate is so underrated. If you are facing a K in front of me, you need to put in a good-faith effort to engage with it. Truly I will give you a ton of credit for a cautious and thorough line-by-line even if you don't know all that much about K structural elements. Ks that weaponize identities of students in the round and ask me to use the ballot to endorse some personal narrative or element of your identity, in my in-round and judging experience, have been 15% liberatory and 85% deeply upsetting for everyone in the round. Please don't feel compelled to out yourself to get my vote. Finally, I am pretty sure it's only possible for me to performatively embrace/reject something once, so if your alt is straight "vote to reject/embrace X," you're going to need some arguments about what repeatedly embracing/rejecting does for me. I have seen VERY few alts that don't boil down to "vote to reject/embrace X."
"New" Arguments: Anything that could count as a block/position/contention, in addition to evidence (examples, analytics, analogies, cites) not previously articulated will be considered "new" if they come out in the last speech for either side UNLESS they are made in response to a clear line of clash that has continued throughout the round. I'll consider shadow extensions from the constructives that were not extended or contended in intervening speeches new as well. The only exception to this rule is for the 2N in LD, which I give substantial leeway to make points that would otherwise be considered "new." I will generally protect against new arguments to the best of my ability, but call the POI if the round is fast/complex. Voters, crystallization, impact calculus and framing are fine.
Presentation preferences
Formatting: I will follow any method of formatting as long as it is signposted, but I am most conversant with advantage/disadvantage uniqueness/link/impact format. Paragraph theory is both confusing to your opponent AND to me. Please include some kind of framing or weighing mechanism in the first speech and impact calculus, comparative weighing, or some kind of crystallization/voters in the final speeches, as that is the cleanest way for me to make a decision on the flow.
Extensions: I do like for you to strategically extend points you want to go for that the opponent has dropped. Especially in partner events, this is a good way to telegraph that you and your partner are strategically and narratively aligned. Restating your original point is not a response to a rebuttal and won't be treated as an answer unless you explain how the extension specifically interacts with the opponent's response. The point will be considered dropped if you don't engage with the substance of the counterargument.
Tag-teaming: It's fine but I won’t flow anything your partner says during your speech--you will need to fully repeat it. If it happens repeatedly, especially in a way that interrupts the flow of the speech, it may impact the speaker points of the current speaker.
Questions/Cross-ex: I will stop flowing, but CX is binding. I stop time for Points of Order (and NPDL - Points of Clarification) in parli, and you must take them unless tournament rules explicitly forbid them. Don't let them take more than 30 seconds total. I really don't enjoy when Parli debaters default to yelling "POI" without trying to get the speaker's attention in a less disruptive way first and will probably dock speaker points about it.
Speed: I tolerate spreading but don't love it. If your opponent has a high level of difficulty with your speed and makes the impacted argument that you are excluding them, I will be open to voting on that. If I cannot follow your speed, I will stop writing and put my pen down (or stop typing) and stare at you really awkwardly. I drop off precipitously in my flowing functionality above the 300 wpm zone (in person--online, you should go slower to account for internet cutouts).
Speech Docs/Card Calling: Conceptually they make me tired, but I generally want to be on chains because I think sharing docs increases the likelihood of debaters trying to leverage extremely specific case references. If you're in the type of round where evidence needs to be shared, I prefer you share all of it prior to the round beginning so we can waste as little time as possible between speeches. If I didn't hear something in the round/it confused me enough that I need to read the card, you probably didn't do a good enough job talking about it or selling it to me to deserve the win, but I'll call for cards if everyone collapses to main points that hinge on me reading them. If someone makes a claim of card misuse/misrepresentation, I'll ask for the card/speech doc as warranted by the situation and then escalate to the tournament officials if needed.
Miscellaneous: If your opponent asks for a written text of your plan/CP/K thesis/theory interp, you are expected to provide it as expeditiously as possible (e.g. in partner formats, your partner should write it down and pass it while you continue talking).
Kyle Hietala (he/him)
kylehietala@gmail.com
Program Director & Head Coach, Palo Alto High School
President, National Parliamentary Debate League (NPDL)
Vice President, Coast Forensic League (CFL)
- 4 years of traditional LD
- 4 years of APDA college Parli
- 11 years of coaching
_________________________________________
Clash and clarity are the essential characteristics of great debate, and argumentation is always comparative.
Every round is an invitation to learn and an opportunity to have fun, and everyone is capable of being kind & respectful.
SUMMARY:
- experienced “truthful tech” flow judge from a traditional background
- prefer strategic topical case debate or substantive topical critical debate
- you should weigh well-warranted, terminalized impacts to get my ballot
- sit/stand/handstand, whatever’s comfortable for you works for me!
CAUTIONS:
- not a fan of non-topical / clash-evasive progressive debate
- don't know how to evaluate high theory, AFF Ks, performance
- I have a high threshold for warranting relative to other experienced judges
- speed is fine, but never use it to exclude an opponent – L20 if you do
- I don't follow along in speechdocs; it's an oral communications activity
LARP/POLICY:
- never voted for de-dev/spark, sorry!
- AFFs must prove risk of solvency to win
- NEGs must disprove/outweigh the AFF
- love smart counterplans lots
- love smart perms more
- don't love conditionality
THEORY:
- friv is L20, unless mutually agreed in a down round
- competing interpretations > reasonability
- access > fairness > education
- ambivalent about RVIs, persuade me!
- lean DTA > DTD
TOPICALITY:
- reasonability > competing interpretations
- pragmatics > semantics
- no RVIs > yes RVIs
- DTD > DTA
KRITIK:
- most receptive to stock Ks (e.g. capitalism, anthropocentrism, securitization)
- links should be cited examples of wrongdoing; links of omission aren’t links
- explain the K’s thesis in plain English – don’t hide behind poorly cut gibberish
- I won’t evaluate anything that asks me to judge a student’s innate identity
- rejecting the AFF/NEG is not an alternative; the alt must advocate for something
Hello debaters,
My name is Nitin (he/him) and I am a "lay" or parent judge who knows the basic format of parliamentary debate. I will do my best to pick the team that argues most efficiently and effortlessly in the round.
A couple of personal preferences for the debaters:
- Please signpost.
- I would appreciate it if when speaking, not to speak super fast so a regular person couldn't understand what was being said. I am unfamiliar with most debate jargon and would prefer it if someone explained terms and definitions to me in a simple way.
- I am a fan of persuasive speaking. If you can break down a complex argument in basic understanding, it will be a lot easier to work on.
- As for theory, I am not experienced when it comes to matters of debating about the debate itself. If you happen to want to run theory, prepare to explain it in great detail, as there is a risk of my misunderstanding.
- Please be respectful during the debate. Don't be mean or disrespectful in language/behavior throughout the round, or it may result in lower speaker points.
Above all, the debate is a friendly competition. Remember to have fun!
Hi y'all! I'm Rhea, a sophomore @ Stanford studying human biology. I debated parli @ Washington for 4 years, & now coach for MVLA.
TL;DR: I'm a flow judge. I enjoy efficient and warranted debate with clean collapsing, extensions, and two world analysis. I love Ks, but am happy to listen to interesting case or T debate.
Thoughts on:
- Case: Reading 2 swag contentions > 5 random short ones. Make my job easy by the rebuttal speech–collapse and weigh pls! I love overviews at the tops of cases/args & I think golden turns are cool, but have a high threshold for new args in last speeches.
- Theory/Topicality: Cool with good T shells. I default to competing interps > reasonability, education > fairness, and theory being a priori but I can be convinced otherwise! I'm okay with friv but don't clearly skew out your opps, I won't auto vote on them. If you read blippy args (i.e. a claim with zero warranting or justification) and expect me to buy it, think again. This is true for all args, but especially tech.
- Ks: Love them! I wrote & read Ks on feminism/gender, queer futurism, and cap/necrocap, so I’m most familiar w/ those literature bases. I love a thoughtful, well-warranted K when it’s run properly, but again, do not use them to skew your opps (who may not have familiarity w/ tech debate) out of the round! Down to vote for K Affs, performance Ks, etc if that’s something you want to read. I dislike Ks that force a debate about the personal identities of the debaters in the room instead of a critique of society. I have a low threshold for FW-T on the aff, and a high one for the neg.
- Other thoughts:
- Don’t call POOs just to annoy your opponents. If you’re calling more than 3 and you don’t have a good reason, I will be a tad sad.
- I can handle your speed, but don’t sacrifice clarity or exclude your opponents!
- I dislike presumption args and will almost certainly not vote on it; there will always be *some* offense in 99.9% of debates unless no one speaks the entire round.
- Don't contradict yourself.
- Please read content warnings if needed.
- Don’t be racist / sexist / homophobic etc, I will auto drop you to maintain a safe and equitable debate space.
Good luck and have fun!
Experience: Two years of policy in high school, just finished fourth year of APDA/BP in college at UChicago.
Theory: It's annoying, I will vote on it if necessary but will be looking for other places to vote, so be convincing if you do run it.
I am tech > truth, but please still substantiate and warrant your arguments, if they are not warranted then it will reflect in speaks and decision and will impact how the round is weighed. Dropped arguments are absolutely conceded, but make them good arguments to begin with. Crazy arguments are fine if you give warrants (e.g. you must convince me that the U.S. has one billion nukes, instead of simply asserting it). I will not vote on good arguments for which warrants were not given if I can help it.
Evidence: I am of the mind that evidence should support your arguments, they should not be your arguments. That is, you can say "X will happen because Y source says Z occurs, and Z causes X." This is a fully fleshed out argument, and then you can weigh X against other impacts. Obviously the way your arguments and evidence is constructed will probably vary a lot, and that's fine. Being convincing is the most important part so this is not a hard and fast rule.
Framework: Give one if you want, otherwise I just use cost-benefit analysis. Conceded frameworks are taken as true and I will use them to vote on the round; if you're giving a counter framework then you must prove why yours is better.
Generally: Collapse strategically and on what you win on; my ballot is decided by what are in the final speeches. If you talk about something in those speeches, I take that as a sign that you want me to vote on that issue. Some speed is ok if you're clear, if I can't hear then the things I didn't hear just won't be on my flow.Do not spread. I prefer live docs with speech docs/evidence pasted before each speech, including rebuttals and summary. On crossfire, I am not flowing but I am listening, and if you want to use a crossfire response in your speech then by all means please do.
Don't just say the name of a card. Have a very brief summary of what the card says because that is how I remember it.
And weigh, weigh weigh weigh weigh weigh weigh weigh weigh weigh weigh
Be nice and respectful, use the proper pronouns, give content warnings where needed. Just be a decent person please; not being a decent person will be reflected in speaks and/or in decision. And of course, have fun :)
Email: samuel.johnson.fop@gmail.com
Hey y’all I’m evan's partner. I competed mostly in parli, but I’m familiar with other debate and also did a good bit of speech.
PLEASE READ PROPER IMPACTS. THEY'RE AMONG THE EASIEST WAYS TO WIN ROUNDS IN FRONT OF ME.
tl;dr
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I debated for 5 years and am now a coach @MVLA
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Comfortable w most tech, don’t assume I know your lit base, eh on speed
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Truth > tech meaning you have to explain the truth of your argument (warrant- logical/phil/analytical/evidence) for me to buy them (I won’t fill it in)
- An argument is a claim, a warrant, and an implication. I need all three to consider an argument. (especially an impact/implication)
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Please weigh and layer your args/impacts, I’d hate to intervene and if I do, you likely won’t get the result you want
- Be sure to explicitly extend arguments (especially uniqueness and impacts), I can't extend them for you, and can't vote very well on arguments dropped.
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Be good, nice, kind people :)
- I stop flowing entirely after 10 seconds overtime
For the full paradigm (it’s a mess so feel free to clarify):
My experience-- I competed in 70-75 odd tournaments in my career, mostly in Norcal Parli, was mostly a case debater but had a decent understanding of tech, ran some theory, etc etc. Qualled to TOC twice and broke as well, was a SVUDL Parli merchant. Got a pretty good amount of experience with all types of debating- norcal, socal, apda, etc. I also qualled to nats in duo (speech).
General Paradigmatic Things:
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When I say that I’m “truth over tech” it doesn’t mean I automatically intervene wherever-- it just means that you have to explain to me why your arguments are true for me to buy them. An argument consists of a claim, a warrant (can be empirical, analytical, logical reasoning, etc), and an impact/implication. Absent these aspects I find it hard to buy an argument. Without a warrant, idk why I should buy your argument. Absent an implication, even if the argument might be true, I still can't do anything with that argument.
- I'm going to say this one more time: PLEASE READ PROPER IMPACTS. Terminalizing impacts doesn't mean that everything ends in extinction. Rather, it means that you've proven that the impact is inherently a good/bad thing under the given framework for the round. Ie, death/dehum/Qol under a util/net ben FW. Read a proper link chain that takes the necessary steps to get from your links to your impacts, I find it hard to buy randomly detached impacts otherwise.
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I do my very best to protect the flow but please call the POO
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Y’all figure out how you want to handle POIs between yourselves and the other debaters in the round, my job is to evaluate the round that happens, not control your every move.
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Please for the love of all things good -- be respectful to one another. This means doing your very human best to make the round accessible to your opponents and also treating everyone with fair respect.
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As much as I love a good goofy argument, but exercise your good reason and restraint.
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I default to presuming neg absent a counter-advocacy (otherwise I’ll presume aff). If you tell me to presume a different way, I’ll do that instead. I’d much rather vote on substance than presume, so please don't make me vote on presumption.
- As stated earlier, I will give y'all a 5-15 second grace period after speech time to finish your thought, I will not flow any new arguments after speech time is up. I will stop you once you hit 30ish seconds over time because we need to move on.
- Please signpost, and try to progress through the speech in a consistent order, if you lose me on the flow it will only hurt you.
Case Debate Stuff:
- I am completely down for all forms of case debate. I will do my best to evaluate every round regardless if it's BP/APDA/Norcal/etc. resolution/case read by a team. At the end of the day, I'm here to evaluate the arguments and the round in front of me.
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I love a good case debate. I was pretty much entirely a flowish case debater for most of my career. Please be mindful about what you’re reading, it’s very easy to slip into saying something problematic while trying to justify arguments under Net Ben/Util. Debate also unfortunately puts us in positions to argue tough topics and it’s our job to make sure we handle those as sensitively and respectfully as possible. Additionally, attempting to justify genocide, outright racism, or anything else of the kind is an autodrop.
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Onto actual case stuff-- I default to weighing on Net Bens but I’m down for any other framework that y’all wanna try to run
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Please extend your arguments yourself- I will not do this for you. When there are responses made to your arguments, make sure to engage with them and not just repeat what you said the first time around.
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Clash is important. Weighing is also important. Try to use your rebuttal speeches to write my ballot for me in the ways that you see fit.
- I am ALWAYS down for a good framework debate. That being said, it's on you to (1) Justify your framework (especially against your opponents' framework), (2) Explain what the implications of your arguments are under your framework (what are your impacts and why do they matter under your framework), (3) Probably is strategic to at least briefly explain why you're winning underboth frameworks (but that's ultimately up to you).
- I have a high threshold for big stick impacts (extinction). Not only do you need warrants, but you need to explain every step of the scenarios that lead to your big stick impacts. It's not enough to say regional instability -> miscalc -> nuke war -> extinction.
- Internal Links are important. Link analysis is key to the impact debate, and I don't see enough quality work on the links these days. Impacts don't work without the links.
Theory
After much deliberation, I've decided that I'm probably not the judge to run random friv in front of. I will ultimately evaluate the flow, but I'll be incredibly skeptical at best with any friv t args, and I'll happily take any chance to not vote on it. I have a high threshold for friv t, probably not the most strategic type of argument in front of me. Sorry to the theory debaters who got excited.The standard CI > Reasonability, etc. applies here too-- I don’t wanna intervene in the round if I don’t have to. Please read explicit layering claims for your standards and voters. I hate intervening and again, you’re probably gonna be unhappy about the way that I evaluate the round if you don’t tell me how to view the round. PLEASE BE MINDFUL ABOUT READING THINGS IN AN ACCESSIBLE MANNER AND NOT READING ANYTHING THAT MAY BE PROBLEMATIC OR EXCLUSIONARY IN ANY WAY TO ANYONE WITHIN THE ROUND.
K
Pretty simple here: I’m super down for K debate, but don’t assume I am familiar with your lit base, I do my best to evaluate the flow alone. While evaluating the K I start at the framework and ROB layer before working my way to advocacy (and figuring out the link/impact debate). Don’t ever leave me to evaluate the K by myself. Just like any other type of argument, it’s YOUR job to tell me where, when, and how to vote. Please actually defend your K and engage in genuine clash with your opponent’s responses, just repeating what you said the first time gets me absolutely nowhere (note that you should still be extending, just don’t ONLY extend).
[silly rabbit] Trix [are for kids]
Uhhhh… Honestly, it depends on my mood-- run at your own risk. Chances are, I'm probablynot in the mood to hear em.
IVIs ig
Read what you want. I’m personally not a fan of the extreme proliferation of IVIs that I’ve seen in my time and the often frivolous nature in which they tend to be read. That being said, when justified, I’ll vote on them. Please layer them, absent layering claims there’s nothing I can do for you here, and also implicate them.
Other stuff
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Speaks: I default to 29.2 for the winning team and 28.4 for the other team. I’ll give out 30s if I see top tier debating :)
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Please read trigger warnings when applicable. If you’re unsure whether something needs a trigger warning, please air on the side of caution.
!!! Please feel free to clarify or ask any further questions about my paradigm/view on debate before the round starts, I’m more than happy to answer and help you out.
Excited to judge your round and I hope you have a great round and great tournament :)
email for email chain: skadi.debate6@gmail.com (or just for questions).
I've judged only a couple of debate tournaments. I don't have debate experience myself and am not familiar with debate techniques. Please prepare to debate for general public audience and persuade a high school parent. I like clear definition and structured arguments. Please avoid speaking too fast and using jargon or technical language.
I'm a lay judge, requesting respectful debate and valuing quality over quantity. Appreciate a slower pace, please.
Last updated: 2/2/2024 (Evergreen)
General:
I am a tabula rasa judge who will do my best to judge arguments based on the flow. Please do not spread or exceed significantly faster than the conversational pace because I am not the fastest at taking notes... I have judged for 4 years (Public Forum/LD/Parli) and mainly lay debate, however I am down to hearing progressive arguments if explained clearly and well.
Start all speeches with an off-time roadmap: Signpost and tagline extremely clearly. I cannot flow you if I do not know where you are. Please take at least 1-2 POIs per speech as I believe there is a purpose in them existing in the first place.. I will disclose my result at the end given that this does not go against tournament protocol.Finish on time as well.The grace period is illegitimate. You get your minutes and then you are done. Granted, I will not explicitly tell you your time is up -> that is for you and your opponents to enforce in-round.
Case:
This is my favorite type of debate. Simple and easy -> run the status quo or a counterplan if you are Neg and run a plan if you are gov. Be specific but do not spend 50% of your speech on top-of-case. I need lots of weighing and terminalization in the MG/MO and the clean extensions through the LOR/PMR. I barely protect, it is best to call the POO.A good collapse into the key voters and instructing me where to vote and why is the key to winning my ballot. Statistics and empirics are underrated in Parli: But do not lie please. Do not rely on them entirely to the point where you have no logic, but there should be a good balance and mix of logic and evidence.
Theory:
Will never vote on Friv T: I will evaluate actual theory against "real abuse", but explain every single jargonistic-like term in great detail. Err on the side of caution, I have judged very very few progressive rounds. I do not default to anything. If you do not tell me anything I can simply not evaluate it -> I also do not randomly put theory before case, that is up for you guys to argue. Overall, I would recommend just sticking to the case given my wavy evaluation of theory, but if there is actual proven abuse in the debate round then it is best to run it in some form or another.
Kritiks:
Never heard a Kritik before in a round. Best not to run this, I don't understand this concept still to this day. You can try, but explain everything in great detail.
Overall, be respectful to your opponents, it goes a long way for speaker points as well. Best to run a traditional, slower case debate with really solid impacting and statistics. If you collapse into voter issues and effectively rebut the opponent's points, you have a good shot at winning the round.
Good luck to everyone.
Hello, debaters! I’ve been judging parliamentary debate for a year and I’m still getting accustomed to some aspects of the game, so please assume lay appeal.
General Overview
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Spreading: I strongly prefer not to hear spreading in the round. While parliamentary debate doesn’t require evidence in the same way as policy, speed can hinder communication. I’d rather hear fewer, well-explained points than a barrage of arguments I can't fully absorb.
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Clarity: I’m not deeply immersed in political or current events, so context is key. Make sure to explain your arguments clearly, especially when dealing with more niche or complex topics. A logical link between your arguments and your stance is essential. Don’t assume I know the latest political news—provide background and clarity.
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Kritiks & Theory: I prefer rounds that are focused on case rather than theoretical arguments or kritiks (Ks and Ts). I’m not particularly comfortable evaluating these types of arguments unless there’s a clear, genuine abuse happening in the round. If you run theory, please be sure that it directly applies to the fairness or educational value of the round, and is not simply being used as a time suck or distraction.
Case Over Everything
- Prioritizing Case: I focus heavily on case arguments. That means your core case, the logical structure, and clash are my primary considerations. I'll weigh case impacts more heavily than off-case arguments. Strong, clear arguments that directly engage with your opponent's points will stand out to me.
Evidence & Argumentation
- Evidence: While evidence isn’t as central in parliamentary debate as in other formats, I appreciate when you include it. However, I’m not looking for a pile of evidence; quality is far more important than quantity. I’m happy to see well-chosen examples, analogies, or expert testimony, but you should prioritize logical reasoning above all else.
Speaking & Style
- Speaking Style: I won’t be evaluating you purely on speaking style, but strong delivery, clear enunciation, and a structured approach can boost your speaker points. It’s essential that your communication aids the flow of the debate rather than complicates it.
Weighing & Impact Analysis
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Weighing is Critical: Weighing the impacts of the arguments is essential. I need to understand why your impacts matter more than your opponent’s. If you don’t do this, I will default to my own judgment in assessing which impacts I think are more important, which may not favor you. Be explicit about why your points should take precedence—whether it’s based on magnitude, timeframe, probability, or another metric.
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Give Me Your Ballot: After the clash in the round, make it easy for me to give you the ballot. Essentially, I want to hear your RFD within your final speeches. Tell me why I should vote for you based on the arguments that have played out. The clearer and more structured your explanation, the easier it will be for me to write your name on the ballot.
Debate Culture
- Respect: Maintain good debate culture. I expect civility and mutual respect throughout the round. Disrespectful behavior will not be tolerated and may negatively impact your speaker points.
I’m looking forward to hearing your arguments and seeing how you engage with each other! Let’s have a great debate.
I am a parent debate judge. These are some of the things I will be looking for while judging
- Content rich definition and points.
- Speak clearly.
- Empirical evidence.
- Respect each other.
I am a parent judge. I started judging in 2021.
Do not spread or run theory. I prefer speakers go not too fast and carefully establish their logical framework, rather than glossing over a list of items. If I cannot understand, the contents do not matter. Once I understand, I vote for both arguments and speaking.
Be respectful and courteous to your opponent.
I prefer to give a written comment instead verbal comment at the end of the debate.
I am a parent judge, and this is my third year with debate. Consider me a lay judge.
I appreciate it when speakers talk clearly and introduce issues, and definitions or describe acronyms before using them.
Do speak confidently and in equal measure use logic and arguments to support your case.
I expect participants to be polite and courteous with the opposing team. Also, I expect participants to state what are the key facts I should consider, even when seemingly obvious.
Do not assume I will credit you for a mistake of the opposing team unless you highlight it. In other words make the ballot for me.
Good luck!
Hi, my name is Ruturaj Pathak, and I flow the debate. I have been judging debates for 6 years now. I judge fairly in an unbiased way. I like the teams to be respectful of each other.
Speed: Go as fast as you want as long as you enunciate, and everyone can understand what you are saying.
POIs: Have no more than 3 POIs per speech otherwise it is disruptive. Please use them correctly and ask them in a form of a question.
I always flow the debate and write what you speak. I judge on clear contentions, evidence that supports them and impacts. I also like clear refutes based on logic and analysis. Clear evidence strengthens your refutes.
Logic and reasoning are key in parle.
I add 10-15 second grace period to your time to allow you to complete your chain of thought. But I will not add or write any new information presented once you pass your time limit.
Hi, I am a parent judge who is new to judging debate rounds.
Things I look for:
- Logical explaining of arguments
- Good impacts
- Talking at a reasonable pace
Bonus points for being respectful and having a positive attitude.
Hi, I am a first time judge. I will be flowing on my computer, no spreading. I have no tech experience.
New to Judging, appreciate normal pace, meaningful elaborations, quality over quantity and RESPECTFUL debating.
First-time parent judge. No K's, tech. Speak slowly and clearly and do not use jargon.
Welcome to the competition! Debates and speeches are exceptional events and a fun way for students to engage discussing social, economic, and a wide range of topics.
I have been judging both speech and debate in the current stint for 3 years with 4 years of prior judging experience. I am a parent judge. I am a former competitor as well.
Please follow your methodology relevant to your event and respect your fellow competitors. All the best!
I'm a lay, parent judge. This is my third year judging Lincoln Douglas Debate. I have judged both Novice and Varsity: however, I do not understand spreading or progressive arguments. I prefer the typical conversational speed. The rate of delivery doesn't weigh heavily on my decision as long as I'm able to understand. Some tips that you might want to take into consideration are:
1. Being assertive is good, but please don't be offensive or overly aggressive.
2. I like a great Cross-Examination.
3. Having good evidence comparison is an added bonus, don't just take into account that evidence is right on face
4. Framework debate is good, but I don't understand complex philosophies, so you will have to explain it very well
5. Please talk clearly and slowly.
Rice University '24
4 years HS policy
4 years NPDA/NPTE
I believe that debate is a game that allows for all sorts of players to create, share, and debate advocacy. While debate may be more of a technical logic puzzle rather than a truth-seeking activity, this does not allow for the invalidation of experiences that each person comes into the round with.
In my belief that debate is a technical game, I try to give full rein to the debaters in the round to choose the strategy that they believe is the best to win the round; I will then try to evaluate the round using all arguments that are given by the debaters. Because this is the case, I ask that y'all make my job easy and tell me how to vote instead of making claims that are impossible to evaluate in the vacuum of the round. That being said, I am not perfect and have my own presuppositions toward debate elements. Below are my thoughts on common topics. If you have any questions feel free to email me.maximusrenteria@gmail.com
Aff
I don't have a preference between policy or kritikal affirmatives. If rejecting, give a reason why it is necessary.
T/Theory
I see T/Theory as link chain arguments with violations (links), abuse/standards (internal links), and impacts/voters. I would probably be more receptive to reasonability arguments than most.
Counterplans
I don't necessarily think the aff needs a theory shell to tell me why your CP is not legitimate. I like when affs tell me how a perm functions rather than just tagging it.
Kritiks
I think whoever wins framework will prob win the plan v K debate. I think most frameworks in debate are descriptive and need more arguments for implications within the round. I like plan unique links but res links are fine if you still give uniqueness to the plan. I don't find perm-double bind arguments convincing unless given clear scenarios of both worlds.
Hi, I am a parent judge and this is my first time judging. I am currently getting familiar with speech and debate terms/procedures so please speak slowly and explain your arguments very clearly so I can follow. Thanks!
About Me: I'm a parent judge in my second year of judging, and I'm thrilled to be here to witness you debate with passion!
Here are the specific aspects I prioritize:
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Logic: While evidence holds importance, I give higher weight to the clarity and strength of your logical reasoning.
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Clarity: The ease with which I can follow your thought process and the effectiveness of your speech are important to me.
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Honesty: I greatly value fair play, so calling out any fallacies or inaccurate/unfair statements is a plus.
Note: I'm slow in processing, so please talk clearly and at a normal pace.
TL;DR:Tech over truth; establish the comparative, do the link and impact weighing, Ks and theory fine, dont be a bad person.
Hey y’all, I’m Rohan (he/him) and I did varsity Parli for 5 years. Coach for Nueva and APDA competitor for UChicago.
Random musings:
I won't protect against new arguments or shadow extensions; anything the PMR says is on the flow unless you tell me it ought not be.
I do not vote on claims without warrants. A warrant is not an assertion: for example, I will ignore things that sound like "the economy will go up" or "the aff takes away our ground" without any mechanization of how that occurs. I probably have a higher threshold than a lot of tech judges here so you should use more evidence/robust analytics; "trust me bro" is not an argument, I'm not gonna vote for it.
Presentation really doesn't matter to me: rhetorical flair is cool but it isn't going to help or hurt you on my ballot. I don't care what you are wearing or if you have your camera on or anything like that, please don't run theory on that sort of stuff.
I autoextend all plantexts, advocacies, ROB texts, and procedural interpretations. You have to extend everything else, but I don't think it makes sense to drop someone for omitting the words "extend the alternative." This is important for you because it means I won't kick your text for you, you have to explicitly tell me to do that.
Go as fast as you want; I'll slow you if I have problems.
Case:
Anything goes really: interesting and innovative boosts speaks but the heg DA is also fine.
I default to: magnitude>probability>timeframe>anything else.
Have previously found myself speaking structural violence framing high, so might be good to go for.
Have blocks for mutual exclusivity on your counterplans.
I have read and answered condo; I don’t really lean one way or the other. Pretty much goes the same way for all the CP theory stuff: I’ll evaluate everything so just be prepared to justify what you do.
Do horizontal weighing between their link story and your link turns, otherwise I have no idea how to evaluate competing offence on the same sheet.
Kritiks:
Love them; was primarily a cap debater as an upperclassman and messed around with some anarchism alternatives as a sophomore. Read a lot of decolonial authors (Fanon, Tuck & Yang, etc.) as well. Anything else is gonna need a thesis.
Reading a K does not absolve you with the responsibility to provide an alternative with (real) solvency. The best Ks draw from the praxis and organizing of real world movements. I'm not voting for epistemology alts that simply reject something without an explanation of what you want in its place; explain to me what the power of the ballot is and what fills in afterwards, or justify why something fills in after the rejection.
I probably lean (60-40) towards the K-aff against T-FW.
Making technical arguments engaging and pedagogically productive for people who do not understand them = good, >29.5
Weaponizing technical arguments to bulldoze novices with buzzwords and not explain what you mean = bad, 26s> and idc ill intervene against you.
Theory/T:
pass texts pls
I don't have anything against friv theory. I still don't know what a friv theory shell is. If it's friv then you should have no trouble beating it.
Defaults:
CI > Reasonability: reasonability will be dropped without an explicit briteline
Theory is drop the debater
Theory is apriori
RVIs are good
Accessibility > education > fairness > anything else
Text of the interp > spirit of the interp
· I am a parent judge with many years of experience judging debates and public speaking.
· I value the presentation of the debate a lot, and look for good eye contact, diction, and inflection of the voice.
· A few well-developed arguments prove more persuasive than a larger quantity of arguments
· Please do speak clearly. Speed is okay, but you must be understandable. Please remember this is not about how fast you can go, it’s about how good your arguments are.
. I flow the round, but I promise there is a high probability that I will get lost if you go too fast or jump around with your arguments.
. If I am unable to clearly hear your arguments, the ending decision may not end up being fair. (I am not a fan of spreading)
. I have no knowledge on theory/kritiks/jargon, so please don't run them.
. Make your impacts clear to me. Highlight why you win the round.
. Ask POIs, and take at least 1.
· Remember that in order to get good speaker scores, respect towards your opponent is paramount. It is hard to favor debaters who belittle or berate their opponent in or out of round. Graceful winners are as important as graceful losers.
· And finally, please enjoy your debates. It will show in your performance.
Hi, my name is Mayur, and I am a parent judge. I have been judging debates for 2 years now. I judge fairly in an unbiased way. I like the teams to be respectful of each other.
Speed: Go as fast as you want as long as you enunciate, and everyone can understand what you are saying.
POIs: Have no more than 2 POIs per speech otherwise it is disruptive. Please use them correctly and ask them in a form of a question.
I always flow the debate and write what you speak. I judge on clear contentions, evidence that supports them and impacts. I also like clear refutes based on logic and analysis. Clear evidence strengthens your refutes.
I add 10-15 second grace period to your time to allow you to complete your chain of thought. But I will not add or write any new information presented once you pass your time limit.
I judge based off what the event calls for but as a general rule, don't make it hard for me to vote for you. I strongly value communication in debate so make sure to sign post all your arguments. If you spread, do it clearly. Other than that, I will vote based on the strongest weighing mechanism brought up during the debate, so please give me one. If not, I'll just go based on who based the strongest case for the ballot. Extensions of impacts are very much appreciated, as I'd like to not fill in any information gaps myself. TELL ME WHY WHAT YOU'RE SAYING MATTERS. I will only vote for Ks if I feel that they're warranted in the round, but you'll really need to work hard at proving to me why it is. Lastly, be courteous towards your opponents and your partner, nothing will make me drop you faster than uncalled-for personal attacks and a lack of courtesy.I don't tend to flow CX. Bring the questions asked and the answers (if they're important) back into the round during your speeches.
I am a parent/lay judge who has been judging since 2022. I do not have any debate background, but my son is always inundating me with debate information and I do have litigation/trial experience.
TLDR: Debate is a space for people to learn and engage in real-world topics. Please keep theory to a minimum. However, if there is real abuse occurring in the round, explain the theory in layman’s terms. I have a hard rule of no Ks, as devoted to them as my son is because I feel I cannot evaluate them fairly. Limit the use of complete debate jargon, but I know the basics (e.g. uniqueness, links, impacts, etc).
Case
My favorite and only type of debate that I like judging! Your arguments should have a three-part structure: claim, warrant, and implication. I won't count it against you if you don’t, but know that your opponents should be able to easily knock it down, so include it anyway.
On actual (dis)ad crafting, I won’t be upset if you don’t have the traditional UQ-L-MPX, but it certainly helps me judge the round. The easier I can navigate through your arguments, the easier time you will have winning. In terms of links, don’t make the tags generic like “plan passes”, you need to actually tell me what the plan passing does. BE SPECIFIC. On impacts, please terminalize them and put some effort into explaining your impacts. Don’t just say them and move on.
WEIGH YOUR IMPACTS. Too many teams forget to do this and it makes it much harder to judge the round. It also means that I have to intervene in some sort of way when adjudicating, which I try to avoid. Not weighing will not lose you the round, but it certainly won’t help you win it.
Miscellaneous
I take copious notes. Do signpost throughout the round (ie. "on the first UQ", "on the first advantage", etc.), not just in the first speech. If you tell me where you are, it allows me to follow better, which helps you in winning the round.
Spreading is a big no-no for me, although you probably already guessed that from my being a parent/lay judge. You can speak fasterif you are clear. If you go too fast for me, I’ll call out “slow”. Likewise, if you are having clarity issues, I'll call out "clear".
No tech debate in my rounds, sorry :( This includes tricks, theory, and Ks. The only exception is if there is actual abuse occurring in the round. In that case, I'll try to evaluate any theory that you run, but keep in mind that you have to explain it to me without so much debate jargon. Also, I will not evaluate a frivolous theory (i.e. tropicality, no shoes, etc.), as fun and entertaining as it may be, it does take away from the education of the debate round.
I’m usually fairly conservative in awarding points. I try to award speaker points based on the actual quality of argumentation made in the round. But, not being monotone and boring makes things more interesting and engaging for me. On another note, my son tells me I would be a fun judge if I bumped up speaker points for those who work in a Harry Potter reference. So, feel free to give it a go for some bonus points.
I understand that all people have unconscious biases, but I try to have a tabula rasa mentality when judging.
NOTE: racism, sexism, homophobia, or any other sort of discrimination is not acceptable. Don't be exclusionary and ruin the experience of debating for everyone. I’ll almost certainly intervene if there is anything of the sort and I may (probably) will drop you for it.
Good luck!
I am a former high school debater, current Benicia High School coach.
I will buy most (non-offensive) arguments as long as they are well supported.
Go as fast as you want at your own risk, excessive spreading can lead to me missing parts of your argument. I will not fill in the blanks.
Any argument can win as long as it is a good one.
Open to T's and K's, however they must be connected to the round, how is up to you.
Hi, I am a lay parent judge with experience.
Things I like: clear explanation of your side and burden, clear path to the ballot, defend your assigned side of the topic
Things I dont like: technical arguments and fast speaking
- My own opinion on the topic will not affect how I judge.
- I enjoy arguments built on fact and logic.
- I enjoy original ideas and enthusiastic performance.
- Feel free to confront, but with grace and respect.
- Good luck!
I am a lay judge, so whenever you talk about anything, please make sure that you explain it thoroughly. I know little to nothing about this topic so just keep that in mind.
How I will vote.
1. The first thing that I will take into consideration is whoever proves more convincing to me, whoever proves that the benefits outweigh the harms or that the harms outweigh the benefits.
2. Whoever debates better. I would also vote for a team that refutes all of their opponents points compared to a team that drops all of their opponents points. Whoever keeps their case alive at the end, and destroys their opponents or whoever convinces me to vote for them in this way will definitely earn my ballot.
Not as important but I may include some of this in my decision
1. PLEASE TIME YOURSELVES. For example: If you take like a minute of prep extra and YOUR OPPONENTS POINT THIS OUT TO ME, this will affect my decision. Please use your respective amount of time for speeches, there is a 10 second grace period after every speech, and 3 minutes for prep.
2. PLEASE BE RESPECTFUL. Although this is competitive, it is still done for fun. There shall be no disrespect shown to anyone else, as this is a formal setting and must be looked upon as.
3. PLEASE NO SPREADING. IF you do so, I may not catch everything which will affect my decision.
I am a first year parent judge.
-Please be respectful of your opponents.
-Please provide me with your roadmap and guide me through your arguments.
-Well developed argument is more important than the number of arguments
-Speak at a moderate speed so I can follow all your points.
-Encourage to use cited evidence, examples and numeric values, if available.
Hope you enjoy the competition.
Hi! I am a parent judge. Although I am flay, I have judged for many years and has experience to some extent. Here are a few preferences that may win you a round:
1. Please be nice to your opponents. If something rude or offensive is brought in, I will automatically vote for the other side.
2. Please do not spread. You can speak at a fast pace as long as it is clear, although I do prefer a slower and steadier pace.
3. When your opponents ask for cards, please give them in less than 2 minutes. After 2 minutes is up, it will count as your own prep time.
4. I do not flow crossfire. If you want me to flow something brought up in cross, please extend them in later speeches.
5. I have some knowledge over this debate topic, but please do make sure you explain your arguments clearly.
6. I prefer Truth > Tech, but if your truth makes no sense, then I will not buy it.
7. Please weigh impacts and bring up voter issues in the final speeches.
8. I will provide a 10 second mercy rule after you have reached the speech limit. Note that I will not flow anything after that.
9. Have fun! I am looking forward to seeing you all! :D
Firstly - please do not spread: debate is for education and logic, speaking fast not only doesn't enhance that, but may detriment what education can be produced for both sides. I would prefer you speak slower as that gives both me and the opponents a deeper understanding of what you are truly saying.
In terms of other delivery, use proper articulation, tone, and I take into consideration a large amount of delivery skills such as nonverbal body language and tone (especially in speaker points).
I feel the need to put the disclaimer that I have trouble buying K's, as I was not extremely well-versed in kritikal debate, especially as it is something arguably more recently surfaced.
With this being said, I understand that kritikal arguments are a mechanism for debaters to spread these advocacies, however, I may not understand this post-fiat advocacy enough to have a crystal clear ballot, which makes voting quite hard.
Kritikal arguments are on one spectrum of technical arguments that I may not know well enough about to buy (as once again, K's were never a thing back then, and have become more usable after the pandemic, etc. so I am still learning), and am not likely to buy it under these given circumstances.
Some other tech args that fall along the same lines of the ["please don't run, I will not understand/buy and it will only frustrate you"] radar are things like Friv T, which is very harmful to real education and ends up becoming annoying. In general anything that seems "quirky" and reflects in opposition to more traditional Parliamentary formats will be looked down upon. So once again, please do not run them as I will be very saddened, and refer to using the fundamental debate structure as the AFF/NEG.
I will protect the debate space first and foremost. Do NOT use personal attacks, homophobia, racism, misgendering, transphobia, etc. as there is 0 tolerance for this especially in the debate space where we are here to learn. I won't regulate how you choose to debate as long as debaters handle themselves accordingly with reason to rules, speech time (including grace period within reason), respect, etc. but if blatant violations occur or are brought up, I will step in.
Please adhere to well-delivered, logically sound arguments, clash, and impacts and evidence that are reasonable, warranted, and supported. Arguments are meant to make sense. Don't say a bunch of evidence with no purpose or logic to analyze and tie it back, after all, although numbers may sound good, if there is no real argument, it's much easier for me to rely on analytics that truly are well-explained and link chains that make sense.
I am tabula rasa, meaning that I will not produce exterior knowledge or factor-in outside opinions when making my ballot. At the end of the day, I will flow what you and the opponents tell me, and how you clash, rather than my own opinions (no matter if I agree or disagree).
I evaluate arguments partially on their presentation and how they are delivered, but also the ways they are explained and logically backed upwith evidence and analysis.
Clash is vital, as that is where we can learn and discuss, so please use your ground and weigh clash and impacts. At the end of the day I shouldn't have to guess or gamble who wins the round, you should be using proper impact calculus and weighing of impacts to tell me why/who wins. With that being said, I expect debaters to warrant their evidence and actually explain it in their constructive, or in rebuttal when refuting. In addition, please signpost clearly, it makes flowing and understanding your points much easier.
In terms of framework, there are tight burdens to ensure AFF has set topical, reasonable, and agreed upon framework. If you fail the burden of framework as the AFF, it will make it very difficult to regain feasible ideas of your advocacy, as your side, as well as the entire round, is lacking any real image, weather it be a lack of definitions, clarity, weighing, plan (and plan specifications such as timeframe), etc. Once again, because I try to be tabula rasa, losing framework basically makes me unable to evaluate the following speeches properly or until framework is set.
In terms of counterplans, I find some CPs to be slightly confusing especially depending on the context of the round (or if the round is loaded with more niche topics). With that being said, you can still run a CP, just at your own risk. My largest requirement for a CP is that it has to be very very well explained, given all the framework and elements that I would expect from the AFF, presented in the first NEG speech, and must be shown to pass the test of perm to be both better and competitive.
I am also aware that PIC's are a form of CP's, however, many debaters fail to distinguish to two well, making them more confusing. At the end of the day, if you can explain them well, I will try my best to evaluate them, however, if I am left confused and to guess the perm, then I will be discouraged from voting for it (given that the AFF has substantial points against it). Once again, I don't want to have to "guess" who wins, so the same applies for any CP advocacy.
Finally, if you have any questions about my paradigm, other things that were not explicitly listed under this paradigm, or just questions in general, feel free to ask before the round (in reasonable time)! I will try my best to answer all questions.
Lastly, debate is a very prestigious art and sport, so despite being caught up with all the chains and dedications of it, don't forget to have fun! Good luck all.