Last changed on
Thu December 17, 2020 at 9:34 AM MDT
Leo Doctorman
He/Him
Yes email chain(and questions): leodoctorman@gmail.com
Affiliated with Rowland Hall Debate(Asst. Coach)/John R. Park Debate Society
Experience: 4+ years policy @ Roho
Currently Debating @ University of Utah
Tl/dr:
You do you. I vote off the flow but have lost of opinions.
Background:
My beliefs about debate:
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Efficiency/Clarity>Speed
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Clash over tricks
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Kritik is a verb
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Engage, don’t exclude
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Case debate = undervalued
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Cross X = binding and important
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Debates are won before they begin
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Truth is important, but tech can define it
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There is inherent value in research and discourse
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Debate is game!
Overview:
I have a deep appreciation of debate as an activity and as a community. I will strive to do everything I can to ensure a equitable debate. Debate is a game, and games are fun.
I will try to not intervene with my decision. I vote off the flow. All that I ask is that the 2NR/2AR slows down(a bit) and works to write my ballot. If I can’t flow it, it’s not in the RFD.
Don’t ask just put me on the chain. If you don’t flash analytics then slow down on them. In addition, generally slow down on tags. Otherwise I’m cool with speed so long as you’re clear. In fact, speed is good. Emailing is not prep if you are quick about it.
Some truth claims are non-negotiably false, dropped or not. Racist, Sexist, Anti-Semitic, etc. claims are always false.
My Voting Process: After the round I will reread all evidence I view as pertinent to my decision. I will probably take a while to decide. I will write the easiest ballot possible and won’t do work for you if I don’t have to. Disclosure and critiques are good for everyone and I will always try to provide these.
What my ballot does: My role as a judge is to determine the winner and loser. That’s it.
My ballot probably isn’t the link to upending debate norms. There is no narrative or radical argumentation that gets tied to my ballot. You need to win a spillover argument to change my mind. Judge instruction is good. If you want me to do a certain thing with a ballot, make the argument.
General:
(I’m stealing this format but I personally found it helpful)
Policy-----------x--------------K
Tech--------x------------------Truth
Fiat is good-x----------------------------------Fiat is bad
Cross-X is a speech------------x-------------------Cross-X is prep time
K affs: I don’t mind K affs. But they need to do something. It should also be tangentially related to the topic. I think K affs are ideologically good for debate, they are also pretty strategic.
K affs that have clear, strong advocacies that are well developed and backed up will make for an excellent aff round. Inability to access your discussion through the USFG is convincing. Justify everything you do.
Performance is an ends to a means. If you read a poem but don’t attach it to an argument you’ll probably lose. Same goes for narratives.
T-USFG: At the end of the day, the T-USFG debate is less about if ‘rules are broken’ and more about if the K aff ruins the fairness/education/etc. A well run T versus a K aff is very convincing. T with a TVA is even more convincing.
Fairness----------x-------------------------Dm/skills
1 off T----------------------------x--------Diverse strat
Theory(Non-T): Meh. Not really my schtick. If its dropped, I’ll vote on it. Don’t replace answers with theory. Don’t plan on going for theory before round. I’m probably sympathetic to a Neg’s multiple worlds, but I think condo is a good arg if a team is truly skewed out of the round. Theory is a check on abuse, use it for that. Nothing more.
Condo good-x--------------------------- Condo bad
T: It’s cool. Being on topic is important. Go for it if you need to. I will scrutinize your interpretations as a means of determining reasonability. I believe that in-round impacts definitely exist. Impact it out. Tell me where the abuse stems from. The most important part of T, next to your interp, is the internal link to your impact. Why does not defaulting to your interp explode limits? Even if you lose that your interp isn’t as good, it can still garner impacts if you win that it is uniquely key to limits. 2NR/2AR needs to slow down a bit and delineate standards.
Limits good(depth)----------x-------------------Overlimiting bad(breadth)
Reasonability-------------------x-------------Competing interps
Kritiks:
After I started doing Parli in college, I have shifted to the K pretty dramatically. I have a pretty good knowledge of many lit bases and I love the K debate.
Kritik is a verb. You should be doing something with the argument, not simply describing why “cap is bad”. You should provide a stable alternative, preferably not just rejecting the aff.
Framework is underutilized by both the aff and neg. I start my judging process on every K debate here. I’m probably willing to frame out a team that doesn’t have an interp, or looses that they get to weigh their arguments.
I believe strongly in kritical specificity. The more specific, the better. Contextualization is key.
If you can’t explain your alt, you’re in trouble. Be ready to define what the world of your alt looks like. It’ll make your life easier on the perm debate. Mechanisms to deploy your alternative(i.e thought experiment, rejection, counter-methodology, fiat, etc.) are very important.
Yes floating piks----------x--------------------Tell me why not
Perms--x------------------------------obviously
VTL is inherent------x----------------------------Sometimes No VTL
Reading a K you don’t understand-------------------------------x--Reading a disad
CPs: CPs are great. A good CP debate is awesome. CP specificity is important, and should probably have a solvency advocate. I’ll vote on a perm if the aff beats the net benefit and/or proves it’s not mutually exclusive. Solvency deficits won’t necessarily lose you the CP if you explain how you solve sufficiently. Solvency is a net benefit.
Explain your perms
I’ll judge kick if you can justify it
2NC CPs are probably abusive.
Lit=legit----x-------------------------------- “I don’t like weird CPs”
DAs: Specific DAs are good. Generic links usually kill uniqueness. Overbroad uniqueness usually overwhelms the link. This being said, very few disads are ‘true’, but they can be true enough. Impact calculus is important and undervalued. I also think that ‘topic DAs’ are a good fall back and can be debated very well. A creative politics disad will impress me. The newer the cards, the better the disad is.
Case: Case debate is undervalued. I think it’s a perfectly fair strategy to read fewer off and incorporate a higher level of clash on case. Turns, such as dedev, can end up being strategic 2NRs. Circumvention arguments can turn into NBs for a CP. One thing that’s difficult to judge is the brightline for presumption. This being said, never go for defense unless you think it’s a clear cut win.
Pet Peeves:
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Old politics cards
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Not knowing your K
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Excluding opponents
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Too many buzzwords
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Extending cards not warrants
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Not disclosing. Lacking a wiki page or at the very least disclosing past 2nrs/ the aff will go very, very poorly in front of me. It is good for big and small schools. The exception is new affs.
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Miscut/cited evidence: If you aren’t giving cites, I’ll ignore the cards. If you’re doing anything more sketch than that, I’ll drop you.
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Not having evidence: Obviously not for obscure/new args. Analytics are still cool. But for topic disads/CPs, or common affs, it just doesn’t make sense. The wiki is a thing. Go recut some evidence. There are thousands of well-cut cards coming out of camps. No excuses.
Speaker Points:
I will award good speaking with good speaker points. I will award wittiness, passion, efficiency, strategy, clarity and boldness with good speaks. I appreciate aggressive debate, but not overtly rude debate. I will detract speaks for exclusionary language, unintelligibility and strategic issues. My speaks reflect strategy and execution as much as speaking. If I can’t understand I’ll say clear maybe twice and then stop flowing.
My speaks reflect the tournament.
Misc:
Baudrillard---------------------------x-Balsas
Death Good-------------------------x-Death Bad