Johns Creek Gladiator Debates
2017 — GA/US
Non-Varsity Policy Paradigm List
All Paradigms: Show HideGeneral stuff:
I've tried to keep my paradigm short for the past few years, but I realize that it's more helpful for me to provide more information for you to adapt to my expectations and know how I will see certain elements in a debate as opposed to other judges. At the end of the day, I vote for whatever team I think debated their arguments better, but I know that I have my quirks and I'll try to address them more specifically here.
I used to debate for Riverwood HS as 1/2 of Riverwood AD.
I believe that debate is an educational activity; we're all a part of the same community, so be respectful towards others.
I will vote on anything and am well versed in most argument/debate styles, so do what you want and as a judge, I will try to provide constructive feedback to help you improve it.
You don't need to read cards in debate, but please do unless you're very confident you have enough evidence to back you up without them.
If you say something extremely offensive in round (racist, sexist, homophobic, etc.) I will drop your speaks like a hot potato. People who give detailed analysis and comparison of warrants, internal links, and impacts will always get the best speaks.
Please put me on email chains and email me any questions you have - my email is sayadebate@gmail.com
if you're going to be talking about me, my pronouns are they/them
K arguments:
Performance arguments were my specialty in high school and I spent several years running theory Ks as well. While I personally enjoy listening to K debates more than policy debates, I also have a much higher standard for critical arguments than most judges. I know what a well-executed K looks like, and while I will give detailed constructive feedback on any and all K arguments, that also means that I will notice internal or performative contradictions you've built into your arguments.
KvK rounds are the most entertaining to watch and also where I think a lot of the best debates happen. If you pull off one of these well, I'll be happy.
Unlike some K-friendly judges on the circuit, I do think that some T/Framework arguments can be well executed and run. I'm not afraid to vote for T, but you need some innovative arguments and good internal link and impact work.
LD:
I was a policy debater and have been coaching policy for the past couple years, so the format of LD is not as familiar to me. That said, I can follow an LD debate, my feedback on more LD-specific things like time allocation across speeches may not be quite as helpful.
Just because your speeches are short and I used to debate policy does NOT mean I want you to spread as fast as you possibly can. I'm fine with speed, but if you sacrifice intelligibility for cramming in more cards you will lose points and arguments.
Otherwise, all of the policy stuff from above should apply.
2N for 4 years at Alpharetta High School
put me on the email chain: sakshideshpande@icloud.com
do not clip
racism, sexism, and death are all bad
do whatever you're good at
time your own speeches and prep
don't reread tag lines, focus on actually explaining the argument
clarity > speed
Northwestern, Peninsula, GBN
Emails
High School: jordandi505@gmail.com
College: jordandi505@gmail.com; debatedocs@googlegroups.com
Evaluation
I will flow and decide according to that flow. Technical execution and judge instruction in accordance with that flow will override any preferences. Debate would be untenable if I arbitrarily imposed my thoughts and opinions into certain arguments.
Other than the fact that I will flow, most other things about my evaluation of a debate are incredibly malleable. Judge instruction and “framing” of different portions of the debate should be utilized by debaters both early and often to resolve central questions of the debate. This means that a lot of things are up for debate and should be contested, ranging from impact calculus to the permissibility of “new” arguments to inserting a re-highlighting to presumption. If a team forwards a claim + warrant for how I should evaluate a particular issue, it is the burden of the other team to refute that. The only exception that comes to mind is if it’s “new” in the 2AR, where I will reasonably protect the NEG.
In that vein, I tend to vote for the team that best identifies the central questions of the debate and rigs them in their favor. That is preferable to me than being provided a “menu” of arguments to possibly vote on.
Whether an argument is considered “good” or “bad” is not something that impacts my decision-making. What determines the quality of an argument is the debating and/or evidence. If you believe an argument is “bad,” you should have no problem persuading me that is the case.
I tend to decide debates quickly. That rarely has anything to do with the quality of the debate. Rather, I have been able to follow the central questions of the debate, which allows me to evaluate it as the debate is ongoing.
I have zero desire to adjudicate anything not pertaining to the debate in front of me.
Planless AFFs
I find answers to T that focus heavily on impact turns related to the process of debate that the NEG’s model forwards to be the most persuasive.
A counter-interpretation is useful to filter AFF offense. I am less persuaded by AFFs that lack a counter-interpretation. However, there are times when no counter-interpretation can be better than having one. This usually occurs when the AFF attempts to use their counter-interpretation mainly as defense to T. For example, it’s difficult to persuade me that a counter-interp is sufficiently predictable to outweigh NEG offense absent a large impact turn. In that situation, winning the large impact turn would have already been sufficent for an AFF ballot.
Debate is certainly a game, but it may be more.
T impacts about fairness / clash are more persuasive to me than topic education.
I think most 2ACs to even generic critiques, such as the Capitalism K, are poor and easily defeated.
The sole purpose of my ballot is to decide the winner / loser of a single debate.
K
The K should either be a DA to the plan or a framework argument that brackets the AFF out of the debate. I am worse for anything in the middle.
If both teams forward a framework argument, I will usually resolve that first. I have frequently been befuddled at how some can evaluate these debates without first going to framework. Additionally, I won't contrive a middle ground between both interpretations. If one team believes their interpretation is the middle ground, I am open to being persuaded. Too often these debates lack comparison and are reduced to the same buzz phrases.
I tend not to care that fiat is not real.
A note on “death good.” I won't vote for anything endorsing self-harm or violence against anyone in the debate. That is different than arguments like spark/wipeout, the "death k," or some revolutionary praxis. I think the line is generally a difference between arguments about the people within the debate vs actual academic controversy.
CP
I must know what the CP does, and it solves in order to vote for it. The combination of a vague CP text with a lack of explanation is not persuasive…obviously.
“Process” CPs are fair game. I have no strong disposition against these strategies and tend to believe the consternation around them is rather silly. This is mainly because I am relatively more persuaded by substance, as opposed to competition or theory, against these arguments than the average person. However, that is not to say I think most 2As are prepared to execute such a strategy (in fact, it seems to be quite the opposite). All that being said, I would prefer it if the CP had topic-specific evidence.
I am good for a model of competition based on “functional only” and “text and function.” Winning a model of “textual only” is a hard sell but not impossible.
Theory
Conditionality and judge kick are good. A longer ramble with specifics is below under “Long Conditionality Ramble.” My line is probably fiating out of a straight turn to offense you introduced.
Judge kick is my default. It will be difficult to make me not consider the status quo with only a theoretical objection. This must start in the 1AR.
Nothing is a voting issue aside from conditionality.
Most theoretical objections can be expressed through competition, and I would prefer that.This is mainly because most theory interpretations are incredibly arbitrary. There may be some exceptions to that, including, but not limited to, “fiating multiple governments” bad, “CPs must be policies,” and “fiating federal and sub-federal actors” bad.
DA
Fiat is usually durable, good faith passage and implementation of the plan.
I do not care about the “type” of DA. Anything is a free game, so long as you are prepared to defend it.
Recent and specific evidence is preferred but can be beaten by smart analytics and spin.
Fiating in offense is underutilized.
Turns case arguments (especially if carded) and “fast” DAs frequently swing debates for me.
T
Provide a clear vision of what the topic should encompass and directly contrast it with the opposing teams' interpretation.
Cards to support various parts of a T argument are underutilized.
Quibbles
None of these will decide a debate but may affect speaker points depending on my mood.
Here are some (I am sure the list will grow longer):
1. Please don’t refer to this paradigm. I have physically cringed every time this has happened, please stop. I might also prefer you refer to me as “judge” than randomly mentioning my name throughout a speech (though this is much more situation dependent).
2. Poorly formatted speech documents. I usually follow along during CX and tend to read cards during prep and other dead time. Bad formatting makes this difficult and annoying. This is not to say you must format in a particular way, but relative uniformity of tags, headers, and the like would be nice. There should not be deleted headers and tags, etc. This applies equally to card docs.
3. Too much dead time. Let’s pick up the pace, especially if you want to give me time to decide debates. Particularly, let’s start debates on time. It’s 2024, you should all know how to use email.
Others
Evidence ethics or anything else in a similar vein should typically be debated. That's what I prefer but if there is a clear violation consistent with tournament policy, the onus is on the debaters to direct me to stop the round and address it.
"Being racist, sexist, violent, etc. in a way that is immediately and obviously hazardous to someone in the debate = L and 0. My role as educator > my role as any form of disciplinarian, so I will err on the side of letting stuff play out - i.e. if someone uses gendered language and that gets brought up I will probably let the round happen and correct any ignorance after the fact. This ends when it begins to threaten the safety of round participants. Where that line is entirely up to me." – Truf.
***Long Conditionality Ramble***
Here are my thoughts for the NEG. I don’t really have AFF thoughts other than maybe that these will be the most important things for you to grapple with. Things I am good for the NEG about:
1. I have yet to see a 1NC where I thought the 2A's job was so difficult that it would be impossible to substantively respond. For example, you don't NEED an 8 subpoint response with 5 cards to answer the Constitutional Convention CP. The flip side of this for the AFF is either establishing a clear and consistent violation from the 2AC onward or focusing on the "model" of debate to override my presumption that maybe this 1NC wasn't too bad.
2. NEG flex is great. Two sets of arguments are persuasive to me here. First, side bias. 2AR is certainly easier than the 2NR. I am unsure about "infinite prep," but I am persuaded that AFFs typically can answer most NEG arguments thematically. For example, having a good "certainty key" or "binding key" warrant addresses a whole swath of potential CPs. Second, the topic. Teams that appeal to the nature of the topic (honestly for either side) are persuasive to me. For example, the idea that appeals to "specificity" allows the AFF to murder core generics is one I find persuasive.
3. The diminishing utility of conditionality seems true to me. Appeals to "infinite condo" allowing the nth degree of advocacies is something I am presumptively skeptical about. There are only so many arguments in the NEG box that disagree with the 1AC in different ways. Take what I said about being able to answer arguments thematically to apply here. In addition, for the NEG to accomplish such a massive proliferation, arguments tend to be incomplete. Again, this was talked about above.
4. "Dispo" is a bit ridiculous. The 2AC must define it (the NEG needs to implicate this still). The only other thought I have other than the "plank + process spam" stuff (which I like) is that I can be persuaded "dispo" would mostly only ever allow one advocacy. It now seems intuitive to me that absent 1NC construction that made sure every DA was a net benefit to every CP, the 2A could force the NEG to have to extend everything but since one links to the net benefit, it would be impossible to vote NEG.
5. This is more of a random quibble that I think can be used to frame a defense of conditionality. It seems logical to me that the ability of the AFF to extend both conditionality and substance in the 1AR, forcing the 2NR to cover both in a manner to answer inevitable 2AR shenanigans (especially nowadays) is the same logic criticized by "condo bad" as the 2AR can pick and choose with no cost. It seems worse in this case given the NEG does not have a 3NR to refute the 2AR in this scenario. This is a firm view, but it seems much easier to me for the 2AR to answer the fourth mediocre CP in the 1NC (like uncooperative federalism lol) than for the 2NR to answer the 5-minute condo bad 2AR that stemmed from a 45-second 1AR.
Debated for Riverwood 2015-2018. Mainly did performance and critical debate.
I will vote for the team that wins the debate regardless of my personal feelings. If you say offensive things or make problematic arguments/statements, I’m going to give you extremely low speaker points.
I will vote on microagressions. I will vote on theory arguments. I will vote on ridiculous arguments like 'vote aff to vote neg'. I will vote on FW. I will vote on lots of other things. Obviously, impact out your arguments and explain them clearly. Frame the debate and instruct me on how to write my ballot. A 2NR/2AR that goes for everything with mediocre coverage is really irritating.
Do whatever the hell you want. Just don’t expect me to be completely on board with it personally. Any specific questions? Ask me before the round.
Lack of explanation of internal links annoys me. Explain your theories and links.
Super serious debates are also boring to watch. Have some fun. I like CX a lot.
You can usually tell what I'm thinking from my facial expressions. Use that to your advantage.
Put me on the email chain. Julia.dias.debate@gmail.com
Debated for Hamilton High School. 2A for 3 years, 1A for 1 year
Housekeeping things
-Include me on the email chain: fanafu@gmail.com
-I won’t disclose until the room is put back in order.
TL;DR
Please explain your acronyms as I haven't judged many rounds on this topic.
Quality > Quantity. It's your debate, debate what you want (also means read args that you're comfortable on).
Love K's of any kind.
T/FW is alright, just make sure to impact everything.
DA/CPs are chill if they're specific.
Be understandable, do clash for me, do the work for me, esp. in last two speeches.
I listen to CX (even if it looks like I don't) and it is binding.
Flashing isn't prep, but excessive amounts of flashing might come off as stealing prep so be wary.
Debate well, don't be mean, don't be offensive, respect each other.
Speaker Points
20: you did something extremely offensive/disrespectful/hostile
27.5-28.4: mediocre; prob not breaking
28.5-28.9: good; maybe breaking 4-2
29-29.4: very good; prob breaking
29.5-30: excellent; top speaker quality
CX Specific Paradigm
Affirmatives--Any style or way you want to present your affirmative is fine with me, just be sure you can justify it. Admittedly, I am not well versed with performance-based aff, so please explain to me what your performance means in and out of the round. Affirmatives should at least talk about the topic and anti-topical affs are definitely not legit.
*new thing. I find myself increasingly less enjoying big-stick policy affs, mainly because the debates tend to be just overly fast and blippy. If you ARE planning on running those kinds of affs, then i would highly suggest making good extrapolations of internal link chains and impact probability analysis.
Case-- I usually go by the offense/defense paradigm here even though it's probably not realistic. I just find it easier to evaluate debates this way sans a very robust analysis of impact defense in the 2nr. Try not to contradict here; however, if you can contextualize your arguments well to the affirmative a case debate is very impressive to see. Try to avoid making this debate "not my [insert some author]" and actually have a contextualized debate here. Line by line analysis as opposed to long generic overviews are preferred.
Counterplans--You must have a good analysis of how you resolve the net benefit of the CP if you're going for it. Neg must explain how they are competitive and should be preferred over the affirmative. Evidence should be good and actually say what you want it to say if you want me to vote for you. Theory is often insufficient unless entirely dropped. Also I default to reject the arg on CP theory, unless specifically spun to be reject the team.
Disads-- Most DA’s are chill. They probably all have very tenuous link chains that can be exploited. So exploit them. Impact comparison is also very important. Tell me why I should care. For ptx specifically, don’t speed through it. Intrinsicness is probably true, but you still have to argue the theoretical implications for me to evaluate it.
Kritik--This is where I spent most my debate career. I think K's are good as long as you can explain them well. If you are personally passionate about an argument, and it shows, your speaker points will likely be higher (this goes for affirmatives as well). I tend to think arguments about identity in debate are important, and play an important part in effecting the community. That being said most of my experience is with the "high theory" side of K's. Regardless of what kind of critical argument you read, I will NOT do the work for you. Tell me what your K is, why it matters, and why I should vote for you. If your only link in the 2NR is a state bad link, then you're prob not on the winning side. K's should not be a sketchy attempt to dodge clash, find a way to clash with your opponent and make the debate productive for everyone. I won't kick the alt for you. Most other K tricks, while cheap shots, are acceptable.
Also the question of perms is always an issue in a K vs. K debate. Someone please tell me what the perm means in the round or tell me why a method vs. method debate doesn't get a permutation.
T/FW--I treat framework debates like I would any topicality debate. Be sure to impact out anything you go for otherwise I'll probably prefer their impacts. Reverse voting issues are dumb, but I'll still vote for them if done well. If against a non-traditional affirmative try to provide an interpretation where they could still raise there issue, and not out right exclude them. It will be an uphill battle if you come in with the "non-traditional affirmative are wrong" mindset. Otherwise treat T/FW like a DA, I want to see how they link, what that does, why that's bad, and why I should care.
Theory--Theory is often not enough for me to vote for you unless there is a serious violation or the other team just dropped it. Give me examples of how they violate and how that is effecting you. I have a high threshold for these arguments; however, am more often convinced by the "drop the argument, not the team" plea for theory.
Also for Condo specifically, I will probably not vote on it unless there's some serious abuse and it's well extrapolated in the 2AR.
Other stuff
- Flashing is not prep
- please clash
- jokes are cool
- caring about your arguments is cool
- don't be mean
- don't exclude people
- don't discriminate against people
- have fun
- be chill
- If you can make a joke about your existential dread, Malhar Patel, Tanzil Chowdhury, Nikpreet Singh, or Quinn Zapata, then you’ll get an extra .5 speaker point.
LD Paradigm
Defend your ethics and position with good references to evidence and impact comparisons, and I'll be pretty satisfied. If you have any specific questions, just ask me before round.
If, for some reason, you're treating this as a one-man policy debate, then read my CX paradigm above.
Email: Ronaldopor2010@gmail.com (add me on the email chain)
Do what you want. Try to be kinda funny tho cuz novice debates get kinda boring. Also don't post round me unless you tryna get roasted.
I do not like Kritiks.
Chain: shenjeffery113@gmail.com
Debated at JCHS for 3 yrs, was not able to compete the 4th.
Stanford 24'
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pls camera on if you can, it makes debating less of a bore
Stolen from my friend, Mr. Blake Deng:
I HAVE ZERO TOPIC KNOWLEDGE
my brain is not that big. I have experience with PTX DAs, Generic Ks, Generic CPs. If your aff is to regulate some small agency with an obscure acronym, please explain. Debate is about convincing the judge, not who can throw out the most off-case in 8 minutes.
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General thoughts on debate:
- Tag teaming is fine; too much = slight speaks dock maybe
- Be nice, don't flex, be courteous; CX is already toxic enough.
- Please do not steal prep with virtual debate, do not clip cards, do not cheat in any way. It will be a quick decision.
- I was a 2A/1N years ago, so I do lean aff on some common topics: >3 conditional, and condo bad is lookin pretty good; if the 1NC is under highlighted 10 off, the 2A gets more leeway, as long as the 2A says something (can be one sentence, oh well) about it, an argument is not "conceded," but it makes the 2A's job much harder to defend. Given that, the 1NR should be the best speech in the round - I loved doing it because it was blocked out, and had copious amounts of prep for it.
- Send analytics if you want - I'd recommend it because then I definitely won't miss any arguments and it generally just makes the debate easier to follow for everyone, but I know some people are stingy about this. No speaker pts diff if you do either or, just know I will probably miss some of your arguments.
- Tech > Truth within reason. This means, yes, if you drop 50 State Fiat is a voter, you will lose. No, this does not mean if the other team drops Covid isn't real/some other just false statement that you will win.
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Argument list ---
DAs:
Always good, basically the base of any neg strat. I don't know if 0 risk exists, but "so low where it's negligible" risk 100% exists. PTX DAs need to have updated ev (no-brainer). Straight-turning DAs is underused but is a good way to stop the neg from reading 4 crappy DAs and kicking them all in the block.
Ks:
I have a basic foundation in the more common ones (Cap, Neolib, Security, Afropess/Antiblackness EMPHASIS ON BASIC). I was more of a policy person, but I honestly think the topic are quite interesting and put spice into the bore of regular policy. Explain your args, and the name of an argument will never sway me away.
The alternative is critical. If the negative cannot explain how it works, solves, or even just makes sense, it doesn't matter if the aff is straight dropped all other points: you have no alternative. I think of it like a net benefit without a counterplan. The K becomes a linear DA at that point.
T:
Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but I strongly dislike T unless the aff is clearly untopical/is obviously unfair. Reasonability is valid, the neg gets a litany of random off case to check the aff, and most teams that say the aff spikes out of links have 10 off-case in the 1NC. Don't mind my flashy school name: my brain is not that big, and debates over minute details in interpretations/counter-interps make me sad. If you go for T, please have specifics on why the aff is bad, case list (very underutilized), and not just "the aff does not line up with our merrian-webster 1996 definition."
CPs:
Yes, good as well. They must be competitive, both textually and functionally. It cannot just do the same thing as the aff, P do the CP will suffice. You need a net benefit. Saying "it solves 100% of the aff" is a buzz-phrase, but I can believe it if given enough ev. The CP does not need to solve 100% of the aff given the NB is extraordinarily large - debate it out in round.
CPs should have solvency advocates in the 1nc!!!! Why should they not? The 2ac needs to know what is going on there so they can hedge against it; it's like if the neg chose to just read all their links and uniqueness cards for the DAs in the block. What is a solvency advocate? A carded piece of evidence that proves why your CP solves the harms of the aff. Keep it simple; not having an advocate gives me a pretty good reason to reject the argument (maybe not the team, depends on abuse).
Non-Traditional Affs:
I will be extremely confused, and unsure how to vote. If you want to try, go ahead; I think I will find it very interesting to listen to, but I caution you that there are many more well-qualified people than me to judge you. I do not have much experience at all in this field.
Theory:
If it's not either straight dropped or close to it, it's probably not a good idea to go for it unless you really know what's going on. The two args I have a soft spot for are "condo bad" and "absolutely terrible CPs bad" (no solvency advocate, textually uncompetitive, PICS bad, etc). Other than that, I'd say theory is not very viable.
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Extra stuff:
- Mandatory "if you make me laugh, you'll get bonus speaks"
- Be clear, speaks go down if you are a bad speaker.
- Be nice. I know firsthand how CX can have a toxic culture, and if I see it in round (to your partner, to others, etc) you are losing entire digits of speaks.
- I'm a nice person I swear, ask questions after the round if you want. No judgement.
Coach at Alpharetta High School 2006-Present
Coach at Chattahoochee High School 1999-2005
Did not debate in High School or College.
E-mail: asmiley27@gmail.com
General thoughts- I expect debaters to recognize debate as a civil, enjoyable, and educational activity. Anything that debaters do to take away from this in the round could be penalized with lower speaker points. I tend to prefer debates that more accurately take into account the types of considerations that would play into real policymakers' decision making. On all arguments, I prefer more specifics and less generics in terms of argument choice and link arguments.
The resolution has an educational purpose. I prefer debates that take this into account and find ways to interact with the topic in a reasonable way. Everything in this philosophy represents my observations and preferences, but I can be convinced otherwise in the round and will judge the arguments made in the round. I will vote on most arguments, but I am going to be very unlikely to vote on arguments that I consider morally repugnant (spark, wipeout, malthus, cancer good, etc). You should avoid these arguments in front of me.
Identity arguments- I do not generally judge these rounds and was traditionally less open to them. However, the methods and messages of these rounds can provide important skills for questioning norms in society and helping all of us improve in how we interact with society and promote justice. For that reason, I am going to work hard to be far more open to these arguments and their educational benefits. There are two caveats to this that I want you to be aware of. First, I am not prima facie rejecting framework arguments. I will still be willing to vote on framework if I think the other side is winning that their model of debate is overall better. Second, I have not read the amount of literature on this topic that most of you have and I have not traditionally judged these rounds. This means that you should not assume that I know all of the terms of art used in this literature or the acronyms. Please understand that you will need to assist in my in-round education.
K- I have not traditionally been a big fan of kritiks. This does not mean that I will not vote for kritiks, and I have become much more receptive to them over the years. However, this does mean a couple of things for the debaters. First, I do not judge as many critical rounds as other judges. This means that I am less likely to be familiar with the literature, and the debaters need to do a little more work explaining the argument. Second, I may have a little higher threshold on certain arguments. I tend to think that teams do not do a good enough job of explaining how their alternatives solve their kritiks or answering the perms. Generally, I leave too many rounds feeling like neither team had a real discussion or understanding of how the alternative functions in the round or in the real world. I also tend towards a policy framework and allowing the aff to weigh their advantages against the K. However, I will look to the flow to determine these questions. Finally, I do feel that my post-round advice is less useful and educational in K rounds in comparison to other rounds.
T- I generally enjoy good T debates. Be sure to really impact your standards on the T debate. Also, do not confuse most limiting with fair limits. Finally, be sure to explain which standards you think I as the judge should default to and impact your standards.
Theory-I am willing to pull the trigger on theory arguments as a reason to reject the argument. However, outside of conditionality, I rarely vote on theory as a reason to reject the team. If you are going for a theory arg as a reason to reject the team, make sure that you are impacting the argument with reasons that I should reject the team. Too many debaters argue to reject the team without any impact beyond the argument being unfair. Instead, you need to win that it either changed the round in an unacceptable way or allowing it changes all future rounds/research in some unacceptable way. I will also tend to look at theory as a question of competing interpretations. I feel that too many teams only argue why their interpretation is good and fail to argue why the other team’s interpretation is bad. Also, be sure to impact your arguments. I tend towards thinking that topic specific education is often the most important impact in a theory debate. I am unlikely to do that work for you. Given my preference for topic specific education, I do have some bias against generic counterplans such as states and international actor counterplans that I do not think would be considered as options by real policymakers. Finally, I do think that the use of multiple, contradictory neg advocacies has gotten out of hand in a way that makes the round less educational. I generally believe that the neg should be able to run 1 conditional CP and 1 conditional K. I will also treat the CP and the K as operating on different levels in terms of competition. Beyond that, I think that extra conditional and contradictory advocacies put too much of a burden on the aff and limit a more educational discussion on the merits of the arguments.
Disads- I generally tend towards evaluating uniqueness as the most important part of the disad debate. If there are a number of links and link turns read on a disad debate, I will generally default towards the team that is controlling uniqueness unless instructed by the debaters why I should look to the link level first. I also tend towards an offense defense paradigm when considering disads as net benefits to counterplans. I think that the politics disad is a very educational part of debate that has traditionally been my favorite argument to both coach and judge. I will have a very high threshold for voting on politics theory. Finally, teams should make sure that they give impact analysis that accounts for the strong possibility that the risk of the disad has been mitigated and tells me how to evaluate that mitigation in the context of the impacts in round.
Counterplans-I enjoy a good counterplan debate. However, I tend to give the aff a little more leeway against artificially competitive counterplans, such as consult counterplans. I also feel that a number of aff teams need to do more work on impacting their solvency deficits against counterplans. While I think that many popular counterplans (especially states) are uniquely bad for debate, I have not seen teams willing to invest the time into theory to help defeat these counterplans.
Reading cards after the round- I prefer to read as few cards post round as possible. I think that it is up to the debaters to give clear analysis of why to prefer one card over another and to bring up the key warrants in their speeches.
I competed in AZ policy (2A/1N)
I'm a pretty open judge, willing to listen to any kind of argument. I like K's, but I also like policy arguments, so go for whatever you are most comfortable with. Please make sure, however, to clearly impact out whatever you are going for.
I am familiar with a small to fair amount of k lit; however, assume that I have no prior knowledge of your critical argument when you explain it to me. I will not vote on an unclear k.
General
- I like crossex, so I will listen to it.
- I don't count flashing as prep, but don't take too long.
- I understand not flashing analytics over, but do not expect me to be able to accurately flow minutes of analytical arguments spread like cards
- spreading is fine, but don't be unclear. Also, I would like to have speech docs flashed to me as well.
- speaker points:
<27: not too good
27-27.9: mediocre
28-28.9: good
29-29.4: very good
29.5-30: excellent