Debating the Discord Part 1
2018 — Online, US
Policy Debate Paradigm List
All Paradigms: Show HideI am a student at The George Washington School of Law and I spend most of my time reading contracts, cases, legal statutes, and law journals. I believe judges should do their best to remove political/ideological biases from the debate round. I will judge the debate based on what I see and what I write down.
In high school, I received many 'bids' to the TOC. I will understand your vernacular, but what I really care about is precision, persuasion, and logicality. Speak quickly at your own risk.
If anyone has any questions you can email me at siraofla@gmail.com.
About Me
I attended and debated for Rutgers University-Newark (c/o 2021). I’ve ran both policy and K affs.
Coach @ Ridge HS in Basking Ridge, NJ.
Influences In Debate
David Asafu – Adjaye (he actually got me interested in college policy, but don’t tell him this), and of course, the debate coaching staff @ RU-N: Willie Johnson, Carlos Astacio, Devane Murphy, Christopher Kozak and Elijah Smith.
The Basics
Yes, I wish to be on the email chain!
COLLEGE POLICY: I skimmed through the topic paper and ADA/ Wake will be my first time judging this season. Do with this information what you wish.
GENERAL: If you are spreading and it’s not clear, I will yell clear. If I have to do that too many times in a round, it sucks to be you buddy because I will just stop flowing and evaluate the debate based on what I can remember. Zoom through your cards, but when doing analytics and line by line, take it back a bit. After all, I can only evaluate what I catch on my flow. UPDATE FOR ONLINE DEBATES: GO ABOUT 70% OF YOUR NORMAL SPEED. IF YOU ARE NOT CLEAR EVEN AT 70%, DON'T SPREAD.
In general, I like K’s (particularly those surrounding Afro-Pess and Queer Theory). However, I like to see them executed in at least a decent manner. Therefore, if you know these are not your forte, do not read them just because I am judging. One recent pet peeve of mine is people just asserting links without having them contextualized to the aff and well explained. Please don't be that person. You will see me looking at both you and my flow with a confused face trying to figure out what's happening. Additionally, do not tell me that perms cannot happen in a method v. method debate without a warrant.
I live for performance debates.
I like to be entertained, and I like to laugh. Hence, if you can do either, it will be reflected in your speaker points. However, if you can’t do this, fear not. You obviously will get the running average provided you do the work for the running average. While I am a flow centric judge, be it known that debate is just as much about delivery as it is about content.
The bare minimum for a link chain for a DA is insufficient 99% of the time for me. I need a story with a good scenario for how the link causes the impact. Describe to me how everything happens. Please extrapolate! Give your arguments depth! It would behoove you to employ some impact calculus and comparison here.
Save the friv theory, bring on those spicy framework and T debates. Please be well structured on the flow if you are going this route. Additionally, be warned, fairness is not a voter 98% of the times in my book. It is an internal link to something. Note however, though I am all for T and framework debates, I also like to see aff engagement. Obviously these are all on a case by case basis. T USFG is not spicy. I will vote on it, but it is not spicy.
For CPs, if they're abusive, they are. As long as they are competitive and have net benefits, we're good.
On theory, at a certain point in the debate, I get tired of hearing you read your coach's coach's block extensions. Could we please replace that with some impact weighing?
Do not assume I know anything when judging you. I am literally in the room to take notes and tell who I think is the winner based on who gives the better articulation as to why their option is better. Therefore, if you assume I know something, and I don’t … kinda sucks to be you buddy.
I’m all for new things! Debating is all about contesting competing ideas and strategies.
I feel as though it should be needless to say, but: do not run any bigoted arguments. However, I’m well aware that I can’t stop you. Just please be prepared to pick up a zero in your speaking points, and depending on how egregious your bigotry is, I just might drop you. Literally!
Another thing: please do not run anthropocentrism in front of me. It’s something I hated as a debater, and it is definitely something I hate as a judge. Should you choose to be risky, please be prepared for the consequences. (Update: voted on it once - purely a flow decision)
For My LD'ers
It is often times difficult to evaluate between esoteric philosophies. I often find that people don't do enough work to establish any metric of evaluation for these kinds of debates. Consequently, I am weary for pulling the trigger for one side as opposed to the other. If you think you can, then by all means, read it!
Yale Update: Tricks are for kids.You might be one, but I am not.
I'm gonna have to pass on the RVIs too. I've never seen a more annoying line of argumentation.
NSDA 2024 PF UPDATE
If your cards are not properly tagged, cited and cut, I will be tanking speaker points severely.
If an email chain is not set up, I will be tanking speaker points severely.
If I get so much as a whiff of evidentiary dishonesty, I am dropping you, closing my laptop and leaving the round.
Otherwise, congrats on making it to NSDA. Have fun and do you, boo !
In general, give me judge instructions.
On average, tech > truth --- however, I throw this principle out when people start doing or saying bigoted things.
Den (She/They) - dnisecarmna@gmail.com
AmeriCorps Member for Chicago Debates
Coach at Thomas Kelly
Work in debate full-time coaching policy debate (CX) and teaching public forum (PF) to middle schoolers in the Chicagoland area. Routinely, I have topic knowledge working at debate camp(s) throughout the summer. During the season, I accumulate over 60+ rounds judged on the urban debate and national circuit.
Default towards a tech over truth style of judging unless stated otherwise in-round. I will operate on the parameters the debaters assign to me. Good practices in the debate space such as disclosure are non-voting issues. However, if your arguments are descriptive in its explicit/graphic content, please provide a trigger warning pre-round. Let's avoid going to tab at all costs. I will stop the round if the other team deems the environment as uncomfortable.
The non-negotiables:
[1] adherence of resolutional discussion
[2] order of speeches given
[3] speech times.
My broader thoughts on debate:
Counterplans----Affirmative teams should be able to defend against process counterplans. If your solvency mechanism is strong, you should be able to beat them. Multiplank counterplans and if the negative gets to kick out of individual planks is up for debate. Affirmative teams should be prepared to answer counterplans based on the proposals their 1AC authors write out that's distinct from the plan.
I will need hand-holding on the competition debate. Questions of severance and/or Intrinsicness permutations should not be glossed over. Especially, if the affirmative wants to win perm do the counterplan.
Topicality---For the negative to win Topicality, they must [1] provide a model that best adheres to the topic, [2] exclaim why the affirmative fails to meet that model, [3] flesh out why the negative's model of debate is preferable, [4] evaluating the flow through competing interpretations is best. For the affirmative to beat Topicality, they must [1] explain why they meet the negative's model and/or [2] provide a counter-model that's better for the topic, which leads to [3] more educational and fair debates moving forward. [4] Frame the debate through reasonability.
T-USFG---Prefer the debate to be framed similar to topicality (better model of debate). However, teams going for the impact turn(s) are welcome to do so. Affirmative teams running an advocacy statement tend to go for "the negative's model of debate is inherently worse, therefore by default the judge should vote for the affirmative's model". Definitely, the best approach when 1ACs are built to counter FW by embedding claims on the game of debate and how to best approach the topic. However, I have seen my fair share of critical affirmative's that.. could be read on any other topic. Negative teams, emphasize switch side debate. Provide TVA(s) under your model of debate. Explain the affirmative's burden and the negative's role in this game. Convince me that the negative should be the one reading all these different theory of powers against teams defending a policy. If they break structural rules such as going over speech time, call it out. Procedural fairness leads to better education. Don't rely too heavily on portable skills.
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Hall of Famers
Rats: Kelly Lin, Lisa Gao, Ramon Rodriguez
Learned From: Armando Camargo, Juan Chavez, Jocelyn Aguirre, Leobardo Ramos, Scott Dodsworth
Hello, I'd prefer to remain anonymous but I would like to contribute. If that's a disqualifying issue then it's no problem but I figured the tournament might need some help.
T/L
I think debate is a game but if there are structural problems with the game they can be pointed out and discussed. I am best at evaluating policy debates but I can evaluate more kritikal debates as well. I've read a lot of different K literature and am pretty well versed in it save for Bataille. Basically, if you want to run a specific strat, go for it. I'm a pretty flexible judge ideologically and will attempt to evaluate what is put in front of me and nothing more. However, like every judge, it's impossible for me to be tabula rasa and I have predispositions I should inform you of. I don't hold to these however. I want to see debaters that adjust to the debate more than they do the judge. This is a competitive activity first, not a solely performative activity a la forensics. You should win because you're a good debater, not because you gave me a better intellectual handjob than your opponent.
K Affs
See above. My philosophy on these isn't actually that complicated. My beef with K affs is that they either defend nothing, their offense isn't tied to debating, or both. I'd prefer if you defend spillover but if there's a disadvantage to policy debates on this topic that you think outweighs topicality, go for it. Generally though I lean toward T being good but I have no problem evaluating these debates. I'm inherently turned off by performative hostility for reasons I don't feel comfortable disclosing here.
Ks
I like well-developed, clear link stories that clash with the affirmative and turn the case. You won't have to explain your theory of power to me so much as you have to explain how it applies to the affirmative specifically. I'm not a huge fan of critical debaters who attempt to garner non-unique links to the affirmative but I'm not gonna throw them out either. If that's your strat, go for it. Another thing is that if you can find a way the action of the plan triggers your impact you will be immensely far ahead. That's my favorite part about kritik debates if the debaters set it up correctly. It will also mean the aff will be much harder pressed to win impacts outweigh once you have a case turn and a big impact the aff directly contributes to. I understand that's not a lot of kritikal debates, so if you plan on going for the K you don't need to do this and I've no problem with evaluating a "plainer" (for lack of a better term atm) K debate.
Please don't read Fem IR in front of me. That's all I ask.
Side note: I generally get lost in super long overviews during the 2NC. Make it easy for me to follow along - help me help you. Do your explanations on the LBL. Also, if I don't know what your alt does and you haven't kicked it, you're probably going to lose.
T
I think T-LPR and T-Tasoff are both really stupid, but since they are meta I will treat them as well as any other judge. Although I enjoy T debates, I think almost all of them on this topic are just excuses not to engage in the affirmative. I think Tasoff limits out too many affs while allowing really stupid ones. I'm persuaded by both reasonability and competing interpretations so the debating will have to be done there. Don't assume I default to either one. I'll decide based on the work the aff and neg do during the debate which one is more important.
CP
Conditionality is necessary for the negative to test the affirmative - I'm hard pressed to find a 2AC that was hurt by a bunch of conditional advocacies. This doesn't mean I hate theory debates - I don't - but the affirmative needs to do a good job explaining why they were hurt in this debate by conditionality. I'm more prone to agree with extremes because there is an aspect to which reading a bunch of CPs and Ks and then spending 8 minutes on one in the 2NC basically starts the debate after the 2AC.
Please, please have solvency advocates for your planks. I don't care if you the individual debater thinks UNCLOS will solve international law. Find a piece of evidence that says that. This is a competitive research activity. You the individual debater does not have the education or experience to just make shit up out of thin air. There's a reason you can't even vote yet. I lean heavily toward affs that go for solvency advocate theory as reason to reject the team and I will almost always default to rejecting the argument at worst. This topic I've noticed tons of adv CPs pop up without advocates and it's really frustrating to watch the negative do warrant analysis on cards while the aff goes "generic solvency deficit" and the negative spins it however they want because there's no stable basis to hold them to. I'll end my rant on that here.
PICs, int'l fiat, 50 state fiat, process CPs are all up my alley and theoretically fair in my opinion.
If no one says anything, I'm gonna judge kick the CP and evaluate the DA if the negative loses the CP but wins the DA. The disadvantage is still a reason the aff is bad, and if it outweighs the affirmative then as a policymaker there's no reason I should do the aff if it's worse than the status quo. Just because someone introduced a counterplan to solve it and it turns out it actually doesn't solve it doesn't make the DA suddenly untrue.
DA
Don't be afraid to sit teams down on a DA/Case 2NR. These are easier wins than most 2Ns think. Have the balls to go for these and put the onus on your raw skills. That said, there are 3 critical components you need to do, especially on immigration, to make it as easy as possible to win my ballot. First and most important is impact calc. MAKE TIME TO DO IT. Do comparative analysis about why the consequences of the DA are worse than the status quo and outweigh the affirmative's positive changes to the status quo. This strat is the biggest brain and is highly persuasive. Second, don't forget to turn the case even if the other guys have solid impact defense, a case turn functions similarly to a counterplan in my risk calc in that if you win the case turn, even a low risk of the DA's impact means the disad outweighs. Third, go to case. Make the 2AR's life hard. If the 2AR has to spend time explaining the affirmative, that's less time telling me about how stupid the disadvantage is. I'm also 100% comfortable with voting negative on presumption. Do not be afraid to go for that in front of me.
My threshold for understanding how a DA functions is pretty low. There's an astonishing amount of judges who get easily confused by internal link chains. This isn't high theory, so the storytelling burden shouldn't be that high when accessing your impact. Your case turn storytelling, however, matters. Internal links don't confuse me and case turns don't either. This doesn't mean you get to be lazy about your analysis.
I'm predisposed to extinction first and consequentialism.
Affirmative
Highly technical argumentation is good. Judges often feel too much social pressure to reward 2As for making good analytic arguments in the 2AC. The "normal means is that the house doesn't meet again until after midterms" should have nerfed every midterms 2NR ever. Not even super techy, but a solid example I think. Don't be afraid to be smart while also reading your block of cards.
None of the advantage CPs solve your aff - make solvency deficits and please always perm the cp even if you know it's dumb.
See solvency advocate rant above. Applies just as much here. Don't be scared of T interp debates.
Do impact calc. Your aff almost always solves the DA. If it's a soft left aff I'm already questioning your strategic capabilities with you reading one in the first place but obviously go for framing.
Random stuff
Prep stealing: obviously I can't see you, but practice not doing it. Honestly though, little prep stealing here and there is really not a big deal because everyone does it and if you say you don't you're a liar.
Don't clip cards. Big duh. I will drop you if I notice it.
Pronouns - call me whatever. You'll never see me IRL so don't worry about misgendering or anything. Whether it's "she" or "big dumb jackass" I've probably earned whatever you're calling me so dw about it. Let me know what you want me to call you though so we can get that record set quick. I'd rather not hurt anyone. Help me help you.
Debated for 4 years at Moore High School, and going into my third year of college debate at the University of Oklahoma.
Do whatever. It's come to this point where my paradigm is too many words and has no bearing on how I evaluate rounds. I'll give you a detailed 'roadmap' if you prefer.
My pronouns are they/them.
The following things below were written in March at 3 AM. This'll probably be confusing for you as it is for me, so defer to the words I said above.
Speed: I'm cool with it... given that clarity is always better than speed. This being said, you should emphasize certain words in your taglines and analytics to not only give you ethos, but establish certain things I should look for in your arguments. This being said, I would much rather you slow down on your taglines and distinguish them from your cards. Train effect for bonus speaks.
Kritiks: I've spent most of my debate career reading these arguments in a one-off style. Specificity is key especially to Affirmatives. Quote-pulling would be my favorite, as long as they are contextualized in your speeches before the 2NR. I've read a lot of literature whether it be cards, articles, or books, but that doesn't mean I know all of the nuances even in my best studies. I think the best strategy regardless is to win the framework debate on either team.
K AFFs: Do it. You certainly should have justifications for your method, such as reasons they're good or whether your scholarship is key for debate, the round, or even external forces. Topic ties would be better, especially to hedge back against framework teams. That being said, use case as offense.
Framework: Framework is the best example that contests two models of debate. Each team should have reasons or net-benefits as to why these models are better. What makes framework even more convincing as a strategy is to also have a Topical Version of the Affirmative (please give a plan text)... bonus if there's a solvency advocate. Otherwise win reasons as to why your model creates the best way to adjudicate fairness and/or education or why institutions like the USFG are good.
Dis-Advantages: I think generally as a negative strategy you should have a specific and/or contextual link strategy to the affirmative. That being said, general links will probably not suffice, unless the link goes conceded. Disads are most certainly the best offensive policy strategy to outweigh the advantages of the affirmative so please do the dying art: impact calculus.
Counterplans: Counterplans are pretty cool. You should always have a net-benefit (internal and/or external) so it gives me an offensive reason that I should vote Negative. Otherwise, it gives me more of a chance to vote Affirmative either on the permutation or solvency alone. I would much rather prefer functional competitiveness on a counterplan only because I have to evaluate policy options.
Topicality: I believe the same thing goes for topicality debates: why is your interpretation a better model of debate? How does(n't) it explode or over-limit? Do I default to competing interpretations or reasonability? This is definitely a debate more about tech than truth.
Tech > truth in most instances.
I will NOT ever vote for racism/sexism/transmisogyny/ableism/etc. You'll either lose the debate round or all of your speaks... or most likely both.
Strake Jesuit Class of 2020
Fordham 2024
Email - hatfieldwyatt@gmail.com
Debate is a game, first and foremost.
I qualified for the TOC Junior and Senior years and came into contact with virtually every type of argument
Please note that I have strong opinions on what debate should be, but I will not believe them automatically every round they have to be won just like any other argument. Tech>truth no exceptions.
I am not a fan of identity-based arguments. Please don't run arguments that are only valid based on your or your opponent's identity.
Additionally do not swear in round or use profanities it will effect speaker points.
Styles of Debate -
I will vote on all of them if I see your winning them
Tricks - 1
Larp - 2
Phil - 1
K - 3
Theory - 1
K performance - 5
All chains: pleaselearntoflow@gmail.com
and, please also add
HSPD: dulles.policy.db8@gmail.com
HSLD: loyoladebate47@gmail.com
please have the email sent out before start time. late starts are annoying, which is grounds for penalties to speaker points.
Dulles High School (HSPD), Loyola High School (HSLD), University of Houston (CPD) - if you are currently committed to debating at the University of Houston in the future, please conflict me.
"takes his job seriously, but not himself."
the safety of debaters is my utmost concern at all times. racism, transphobia, misogyny, etc. will not be tolerated, and I am more willing to act on this on my own accord than most judges (i.e: I have submitted a ballot mid-1AR before due to egregious misconduct). you should not attempt to test me on this.
i judge an extremely large volume of debates every year. i've been in debate since 2014, and in my competitive career i won little but learned lots. in high school, i went for politics disads and advantage counterplans while reading niche plans, usually with a process advantage. in college, i read exclusively planless affs starting sophomore year, with most of my 2NRs being the K, topicality, or straight turning an advantage. i have coached every argument imaginable at some point at every level of the game. these days, i am happiest when the 2NR is a card heavy disad/counterplan or K against an aff with a plan (and most of my debates are like this), but debate is for you, not me. I am more concerned with the structure of high-quality, well-warranted arguments and lots of judge instruction than the content of your positions - Kant, planless affs, process counterplans, and topicality can all produce dense, interesting debates, and they can also produce nightmarish slop. offense/defense means no presumption or zero risk, but impact calculus still matters a lot to me and debaters should explain their core offense in comparison to the other side's. i flow diligently and value "technical" execution and refutation above "truth", but bad arguments are still bad. ergo, dropped arguments are true, but only as true as the argument itself. i am an incredibly die-hard 2N, which probably tells you more useful info about my debate views than anything else in this paradigm. Wheaton's law is axiomatic, so please be kind, and show me you're having fun. i will do my best to give detailed decisions and actionable feedback, as debaters deserve no less than my best effort.
"act like you've been here."
details
- Dallas Perkins: “if you can’t find a single sentence from your author that states the thesis of your argument, you may have difficulty selling it to me.” David Bernstein: “Intuitive and well reasoned analytics are frequently better uses of your time than reading a low quality card. I would prefer to reward debaters that demonstrate full understanding of their positions and think through the logical implications of arguments rather than rewarding the team that happens to have a card on some random issue.” Richard Garner: "I read a lot of cards, but, paradoxically, only in proportion to the quality of evidence comparison. Highlighting needs to make grammatical sense; don’t use debate-abbreviation highlighting"
- inserting cards is fine if it is an indict of the same card they read and its implication is explained – external arguments or different parts of the article should be read aloud. i can be convinced to strike excessive insertions, especially when most amount to nothingburgers.
- textual competition is confusing. positional competition is emotionally upsetting. functional competition is good. counterplans that solely compete off of immediacy/certainty or banning the plan seem like they shouldn't compete at all - unsure why things not assumed by any literature ever matter here.
- state of counterplan (and plan) texts is an atrocity. this should matter more than it does in most debates. people get away with murder these days - evidence quality for solvency claims are paramount.
- i would consider myself medium-good for intrinsicness, but also think most "intrinsic" perms are not actually intrinsic.
- will judge kick if told, but only if told. generally think splitting the 2NR is bad though – I’ve never once kicked the counterplan and had it help the negative.
- "perm shields the link" and "links to net benefit" are the most underrated arguments in debate. most permutations seem to be nothingburgers in the 2AC, making debates unacceptably late breaking - the less i understand these arguments before the block, the more spin i give the 2NR and the less spin i give the 2AR. this is solved by reading fewer, better developed permutations - "do both, shields the link" is a tag, not an argument.
- uniqueness controls link and vice versa should be debated out contextually. extremist opinions on either side (i.e: "no offense without uniqueness" and "don't need uniqueness") both seem silly.
- impact turns often have overly totalizing uniqueness and questionable solvency. teams should invest more time in these questions in addition to the impact debate proper.
- i care a lot about turns case in both disad and K debates. these arguments are ideally carded, but should at minimum be thoroughly explained with reference to which specific 1AC internal links/impacts they interact with.
- k teams that are very technical and read lots of detailed evidence should pref me highly. less technical/performance teams can also pref me highly with the understanding that this is not my wheelhouse, but i would consider myself much better for them than this paradigm would suggest. ideally, negative teams have a link that impact turns some 1AC premise or mechanism with an impact that can outweigh the net benefit to a permutation, an external impact that turns and/or outweighs the case, and a well-defined alternative that is both competitive and solvent.
- framework arguments should answer the question "which parts of the 1AC should be the basis for rejoinder and competition?" – “weigh the aff” and “reps first” are both non-arguments. i will not adopt a “middle ground” interp if nobody advances one – i usually find these models to be both incoherent and unstrategic. anything other than plan focus seems like it gives the negative more than you want (I am unsure why PIKs are bad if the negative gets links to both “reps” and the plan). This also means I am fine with “delete the plan” if won, but usually think the negative can win with a more nuanced framework push that gives them links and the alt without doing so.
- I vote for topicality against planless affirmatives more than I vote against it, but this is less ideological bias and more because in a bad debate it’s easier for the negative to win. when controlling for quality, I probably vote for the best K teams and framework teams equally often. fairness or a specific, carded skills impact appeal to me much more than “clash”. impact turns and counterinterps are equally winnable, but both require detailed explanation about how voting aff solves your offense. i think debate should be valuable beyond competition, but competition is still axiomatic. using the language of impact calculus (e.g: “turns case/their offense”, uniqueness, etc) helps a lot.
- i'd probably enjoy a good K v K debate more than a framework debate, but bad K v K is pure slop. judge instruction, organization, and specificity are paramount. i care a lot more about "turns/solves case" than "root cause". exact same ideals for policy v K debates apply here. i'd much rather both sides invest in explaining how i determine what is offense, what competes, etc (e.g: framework arguments) than say it's too hard for me to evaluate them (e.g: "no plan, no perm"). aff teams often benefit from a "functional competition"-style argument, since the meta seems to be to spam word PIKs and call it "frame subtraction" these days. the "ballot PIK" should never win a debate against a competent aff team. Marxism should win 9/10 negative debates when executed by a sufficiently prepared and knowledgeable 2N.
- critical affirmatives with plans and "soft left" affs should be much more common. teams that take me for this historically do incredibly well, but only when they actually answer neg arguments (i.e: the disad doesn't automatically vanish when you say "conjunctive fallacy")
- I care a lot about evidence quality for topicality - a more predictable and precise limit is better than a more “debatable” one, since literature determines what is debatable. that said, a marginally more precise but massively underlimiting interp is probably not a winner - risk of links and size of impacts should be weighed like any other argument. reasonability is about the counterinterpretation, not the specific aff, and is good when framed as an offensive argument about substance crowd-out against silly violations, but bad when explained as "good is good enough". plan in a vacuum is probably good as a check against extra-topicality violations, but less convinced in other contexts. i am extremely bad for arguments about grammar/semantics.
- I would consider these arguments theoretical non-starters if near-evenly debated: disads that link based on “riders” to the plan or being "horse-traded" (not how fiat works), counterplans that fiat actors different from the plan (yes, this includes the states). i am unconvinced either are not solved by dropping the arg, and aside from these, you should consider me ungettable for basically any aff theory argument if well answered. i consider conditionality a divine right bestowed upon the negative by heavenly mandate, and will defend it with the appropriate religious zeal (read: unless wholly conceded with an actual 2AC warrant, don't bother). "RVIs" get a verbal "stop it". neg theory is usually a total non-starter.
- terrible for LD “tricks” – beyond being unwarranted garbage, most of them (skep, a prioris, permissibility) are just fundamentally defensive.
- much better for well warranted, carded phil positions than you'd expect. Kant has a high win-rate in front of me these days.
- judges i generally tend to agree with if the above is insufficiently detailed include Richard Garner, James Allan, J.D. Sanford (my former coaches), Brett Cryan (my former 2A), Holden Bukowsky, Bryce Sheffield (former teammates), Aiden Kim, Sean Wallace, (former students) and Ali Abdulla (my best bud in debate).
procedural notes
- I have hearing damage in my left ear, and I don’t flow off the doc. i consider myself extremely good at flowing, but given these two things, clarity matters a lot to me – you get two free "clears," then I stop typing. debaters tend to go through tags and analytics too quickly – i will take pen time whether you give it to me or not.
- I have a terrible poker face. you are free to treat facial expressions as real-time feedback on your speech and adjust accordingly.
- i have autism. this means that i may close my eyes or put my head down during a speech if i feel overstimulated. i promise i'm still flowing. i also make very little eye contact during debates, don't take it personally.
- card doc is fine and good, but I will only read cards extended in the final two speeches – attempting to sway my evaluation of the debate by including extraneous evidence will be harshly penalized with speaks.
- CX is binding and mandatory. i will flow things i think are important. "lying by omission" is just smart CX practice, but direct dishonesty will prompt intervention (i.e: the 1NC reads elections, 1A asks "was elections read", and you say "no", i am pausing CX and asking if i should scratch that flow).
- prep time ends when the speech doc is sent. the amount of prep stolen while "sending it now" is getting ridiculous. if you are struggling to compile a doc and send it efficiently, i suggest Verbatim drills - this is not a joke. i am increasingly willing to enforce this by imposing additional prep time penalties for excessive dead time while "sending the extra cards" and such (thanks for the idea, Shackelford).
- there is no flow clarification timeslot – “what cards did you read” is a CX question. “can you send a doc with the cut cards marked” is fine question to ask without prep or CX, because the team that cuts evidence should provide marked copies, but “can you take out all the cards you didn’t read” is a question that the other team can say “no” to, because it is your obligation to flow (or you can burn CX time asking if they read elections or not because you didn’t - i don't care). the amount of not-flowing you do negatively correlates with speaks. be reasonable - putting 80 case cards in the doc and reading 5, skipping around randomly, is bad form, but objecting to the general principle is telling on yourself. flow.
- related to the above, if you answer a position in the doc that was skipped, you are getting a 27.5. I am beyond serious about this. the state of flowing is an atrocity. you should know better. flow.
- speaks are solely decided by me, based on my assessment of the quality of your debating + how enjoyable you were to judge (i.e: being respectful, having fun). 28.5 means i think you should go about 3-3. i have been told this is at the low end of the speaker point distribution for HSLD in particular - i don't really care.
- not interested in adjudicating the character of minors I don’t know regarding things I didn’t see.
- any and all grumpiness above should not be read as without consideration for experience, i.e: I am not docking speaks because a novice accidentally answers a skipped disad or sends an extra card in the card doc. generally, how harsh i am (and how harsh you can be) is inversely related to skill level. trolling an opponent of relatively equal skill in finals is different from bullying a post-nov in presets.
- ethics challenges (clipping, evidence issues) will be evaluated based on the principle that only issues that make continuing in good faith impossible are worth stopping a debate. the burden is to reasonably prove criminal negligence or malicious intent. the result will be solely decided by me, with the loser getting an L0 and the winner getting a W28.5. if the debate is ended, it will not restart, and i expect all evidence to be immediately provided to me and then for everyone to shut up - any attempt to sway my evaluation of the issue by debaters or coaches will result in an instant loss. i tend to only care about these things when they have an impact - omitting multiple paragraphs that conclude neg fundamentally changes the argument of a card, but accidentally leaving out an irrelevant last sentence doesnt. i am open to alternative solutions to these issues - i'd much rather we agree to strike a card that was cited incorrectly than not debate. you can ask me if i would consider ending the round or some alternative appropriate for a given issue, and i will answer honestly. clipping requires a recording for me to evaluate the accusation, and is always an instant loss (as there is no other way to resolve it) if it is shown to be persistent enough that it substantially altered functional speech time (again, criminal negligence/malicious intent). inexperience grants some (but minimal) leniency on this issue. all of this goes out the window if the tabroom tells me to do something else.
- disclosure is likely good, but increasingly arbitrary and demanding standards for it seem counterproductive. disinterested in voting on it in the absence of deliberate misdisclosure. unconvinced by arguments demanding disclosure of unbroken prep.
-edebate: it still sucks. i will keep my camera on as much as possible. in the event my wifi connection is spotty, i will turn it off during speeches to maximize bandwidth for debaters, but will always turn my camera back on to confirm i'm there before speeches. assume i am not present before your speech starts unless you either see my face or get a verbal confirmation. if you start and i'm not there, you don't get to restart. low-quality microphones and audio compressions means debaters should go slightly slower and focus more on clarity than they normally would.
- please don't call me "judge", "Mr.", or "sir" - patrick, pat, fox, or p.fox are fine.
- i like music. feel free to recommend me a song to listen to during prep or decision time. enjoyable music gives everyone in the room +0.1. music i dislike receives no penalty.
good luck, have fun!
pat
Brett Boelkens
Background
LD/Parliamentary Debate Coach - Cogito Debate — (2021-Present)
LD Brief Publisher - Kankee Briefs — (2019-Present)
Varsity Policy Debater — UNLV (2019-2021)
Varsity Policy/LD Debater — NWCTA (2017-2019)
TLDR
-Put me (brettboelkens@gmail.com) on the email chain (yes, even if its LD)
-Not a good K hack judge - I don’t know as much lit and think framework args are true. I won't not vote for a K, BUT don't be mad if I miss something or think aff centric rejoinder is cool
-Line by line muy importante. Keep speeches organized if at all possible and try to clean it up if you can.
-Tech > truth - I try to not intervene unless someone is intentionally excluding someone from the debate space
-Signpost please
-I will yell “CLEAR” on Zoom if you’re unclear. If I can’t understand you, I won’t be blamed for less the suburb flows.
-Theory on any issue is okay, BUT slow down and give extra pen time theory. This includes more policy oriented arguments like ptx theory, but not LD trix like permissibility or NIBS.
-None of my preferences are hard rules and are just what I am biased towards. I will vote on any issue if need be
-Inserting rehighlighted ev is cool
-Write prep down on Zoom chat
-Tell me if I need extra paper for say an long K overview
-Creativity in quality arguments is rewarded
-Quote I stole from Gomez:
I will not give up my ballot to someone else. I will not evaluate arguments about actions taken when I was not in the room or from previous rounds. I will not vote for arguments about debaters as people. I will always evaluate the debate based on the arguments made during the round and which team did the better debating. Teams asking me not to flow or wanting to play video games, or any other thing that is not debate are advised to strike me. If it is unclear what "is not debate" means, strike me.
-I'm chill and don't care if you need a second for tech issues or to take care of something
-Quote I stole from Danban that is somehow now relevant, “ [I] won't vote for any argument that promotes sedition.”
-If you have any questions about my paradigm / RFD, please email me or just ask in person.
Disadvantages
-I’m pro ptx DA gang though to be honest 99% of them are made up and don’t make sense
-Recency for ev helps. For example, please update your July econ UQ answers you cut at camp
-Utilize DA turns case and link turns case arguments more
Counterplans
-I usually err neg on CP theory since borderline abusive fiat debates can be fun
-Its probably best to functional and textual competition
-I think CP's with internal net benefits are neato
-Intrinsic and severance perms are more acceptable if the CP isn't as theoretically legitimate
-I’m cool if you tell me to judge kick the CP, but the 2AR can object if they want to
Kritiks
-Wouldn't suggest running them in front of me
-Ks should have specific links to the aff
-Links of omission aren’t a thing
-I like more consequence centric K debate (i.e. cap good/bad) as opposed to high theory Baudy quackery
Theory / T
-Hot take - most T args are rubbish except T-FMWK.
- Current thoughts on common theory issues
-Competing interpretations good and most affs T should be read against aren’t reasonable
-Functional limits args aren’t convincing if the plan is able to spike out of common DA's
-Condo good
-PICS good
-International fiat good
-Consult Process CP bad
-Perfcon not necessarily bad, but does likely justify severing representations
-PIKS bad
-Word PIKS bad
-RVIs bad
-Disclosure good, but probably not good enough to be something worthwhile voting on
-Caselists and specific explanations of what can / cannot be read under a certain interp are helpful
CX Specific Notes
-I think T-Substantial gets a bad rap - its likely necessary against most fringe affs unless you’re going for the topic K or disad, or very contrived CPs (not that there’s anything wrong with that
-I default to util = trutil and think teams running structural violence affs still need to answer disads regardless of the framework debate
LD Specific Notes
-I don't care if it's a lay debate or not, set up an email chain.
-Separate theory under/overview jazz from solvency and/or framework arguments
-Nailbomb affs are bad - theoretical spikes aren’t super justified
-Same with chunks analytical paragraphs that suck to flow - separate args please
-Since LD is weird, I’m cool with new theory args at any point in the debate if it is justified (e.g. judge kick the CP or the 2NR reexplaining the K as a PIK). Otherwise, try to introduce almost all theory arguments to the 1AC, 1NC, and 1AR
-I know a lot about whatever the current topic may be even though I do CX - you don't need to over explain stuff and can be somewhat fast and loose when explaining certain topic specific knowledge
-If you're second flight, I'm down if you come in and watch first flight. Otherwise, please be there when first flight ends, and know who your opponent is in case I don't know where they are.
-quote from Alderete I liked “LAWs Specific* References to The Terminator will be considered empirical evidence. References to The Matrix will not, because that is fiction.”
he/him, appleton east ‘19, wisconsin ‘23
wsdt update -
i am excited to judge your debates, please just do the following:
a. read my paradigm and please ask me questions if you have any - i would much rather be transparent than leave you with concerns over your strategy
b. share the evidence you will be reading to your opponent and myself before your speech starts - evidence quality matters and your opponents have a right to analyze the evidence you read
c. do impact calculus - rounds without good argument interaction require me to intervene which is always bad, the more work you do to write my decision for me = the better your decision will be
d. be nice, enjoy yourself, treat everyone with respect, and focus on improving every round instead - ballots aren't everything and you should take every round as a new opportunity to learn something new, take notes afterwards and ask questions about my decision if anything is unclear
paradigm proper -
1. tl;dr - not formally involved in debate anymore but judging is a privilege and i am plenty qualified to judge your round, i care about good debating and really nothing else, don't worry too much about tailoring towards my ideology from when i was a debater/coach
2. background - did ld and dabbled in policy at appleton east in wisconsin, i broke at the toc in 2019, led 3 summer labs, and have coached state champions and toc qualifiers - my main experience is with policy-style debate and kritiks, but i have extensive experience coaching, debating, and judging every style of debate at national and local levels
3. hard and fast rules - strike me if you don't disclose/flash your evidence or i will rigorously tank speaks, an arguments' risk starts at 0% and goes up based on the quality of it's warrant, evidence quality matters so i will read cards you reference in the 2nr/2ar, yes judge kicks but tell me to, won't vote for stuff i can't explain back to you which means winning arguments require a ballot implication, arguments that demonstrate your work put into debate are always better than cheap shots you grabbed from backfiles or had your coach explain to you pre-round
4. for high speaks - my avg range is 28.2-29.4, biggest boosts for ending the debate early/speeding things up and being casual/personable - have fun, make jokes, be technical, and write my rfd