LD Season Starter
2020 — Online, CA/US
Lincoln Douglas Judge Paradigm List
All Paradigms: Show HideI've debated for 3 years at Aragon High School.
Shortcut:
1- literally everything(phil, theory, tricks, K)
Top Level:
Go for whatever you want just make sure to explain it. I have debated in every way you can think of I have had pretty much any debate out there. People that have influenced my views in debate a lot are Jarvis Xie, Abhinav Sinha, Yesh Rao, and Jane Lichtman which means paradigmatically my views are pretty similar.
Stuff that will get you higher speaks:
- AUTO 30:if you spend 30 seconds of the 1AC playing the homelander sample on "on time" from the metro album into the transition to "superhero" and begin spreading when future starts rapping
- AUTO 30: getting sturdy preround
- +1.0 spit bars preround like if freestyle and you spit bars +1
- +1.0 talking bout how rap lyrics influenced your life.
- +1.0: GETTING ME FOOD +1.0: Call your parents (or guardian or any significant role model in your life) before the round starts and tell them you love them
- +0.5: Showing me screenshot evidence that you have followed LaMelo Ball on Instagram, reshared his most recent post on your story, and changed your ig bio to "1 of 1"
- +0.5: Winning while ending speeches early and using less prep (let me know)
- +0.3: Making fun of your opponent in a non-obnoxious manner
- +0.3: Making references to goated shows in your speeches (Suits, the Office, etc.)
- +0.3: Being funny
- +0.3: if you add a producer tag before you start spreading or you got a creative card signature
- +0.2: Drip (extra speaks if you didn't have to drop a rack on your fit)
- +0.5/0.1:I will have my switch with me before the round:if you and your opponent both want to, y'all can play a 1-stock game - winner gets +0.1, loser gets -0.1ORyou can play individually play me - winning gets you +0.5, losing gets you -0.1
- +0.2/-0.2:Feel free to play music pre-round:if I like the songs you play, I'll boost your speaks, but if I don't like them, I'll take away speaks (I won't deduct more than 0.2). For refernce, some of my favorite artists are Fivio Foreign, Pop Smoke, Drake, J. Cole, and lil Tjay, but I do enjoy my fair share of indie/alt, pop, k/c/jpop and disney music
- Note that most speaks additions/substractions is subject to change based on the quality of your execution of the task
Email Jororynyc@gmail.com
Perry Hs
CSUF
Assistant coach at Peninsula, 2023-Present
Cleared at the Toc.
A significant part of how I think is influenced by Amber Kelsie, Jared Burke, Tay Brough, and Raunak Dua, along with Elmer Yang and Gordon Krauss.
Condense the debate to as few arguments as possible and have good topic knowledge.
Mostly read K arguments - Some policy arguments on the neg. Some Affs had plans.
I am bad for Phil or Trix.
FW: Fairness is an impact,
I also have an increasingly higher threshold for K debate because most of it done in LD is bad.
I wont flow until 1NC case so I can read evidence. If I don't know what you're saying by the last speech, my rfd coherence will reflect.
*last updated April 12, 2021*
Hey all, I’m Ben (they/them), I go to Los Altos High School
Add me to the email chain benfe024@gmail.com
tech≥truth, I’ll avoid intervention as much as possible while still ensuring accessibility to the round.
1 - ks, phil
1.5 - policy
2 - t
3 - theory
4 - tricks and bad theory
idrc what you read and I like to think im flex - read wtv and win it.
don't be a pos tho
for reference here's my wiki - this is what I read, not necessarily what you should
for online debate
- record speeches locally and send after speech or round if theres a connection issue mid speech
- flash analytics
- send me music please I need smth to listen to
- get verbal confirmation from me before speeches that im ready
- don't worry about your camera - having it off is fine no questions asked
t/l
trad debater =/= don't read "prog" args or args u wanna read but does mean that you should try to be as accessible as you can while also staying within boundaries of what you want to do - however I trust your judgement as to what is accessible. Debate is your space, and what you read is up to you. Nobody, not even your opp, can change that.
on "death good" args: no <3. just no. benatar is fine *only* if read as a criticism of hedonic util, NOT as an advocacy - thats really what he's saying and is also just uh not repugnant
more to be added
Defaults:
truth testing (see the phil part for my thoughts on this), epistemic confidence, neg presumption, no RVIs, CIs > reasonability, fairness > education. that being said, my threshold for how heavily ill stick to these is incredibly low; say otherwise, and I'll follow.
If I cannot understand what you're saying I will yell "clear". If you haven't made any notable change in clarity after three times yelling clear, your speaks will die. Slow down for the last bit of the 2n/2ar, write my rfd for me.
judge instruction is really fuckin great.
cp/da:
tbh im a lot better for this than my wiki or what you know about me suggests
high level ev comparison is very cool. very.
the 2n collapse needs interaction w case or some level of clash w the 1ar direction of offense
Plans: have a solvency advocate lmao
Disads: clear uniqueness, links, and impacts. the more internal links necessary to complete the link chain, I'll have a higher threshold for the quality of each link. If it takes you that many steps to explain an internal link it's probably just not that true, or at least not as true as the aff.
Counterplans: have a net benefit - if ur cp only solves the aff but not a nb you need a disad or a really good offensive case push or just like,,, will lose. SA's are good, but if you can analytically prove that the cp is a good thing, impressive and acceptable. Infinite condo is a good thing. Process cp's probably true, but they should have some nuanced nb as to why this process of the aff is better.
analytic cps - are a thing.
perms are a test of competition omfl.
T:
this is a work in progress!
Theory:
I'll let you know when I hear a good rvi warrant, hasn't happened yet :/
If you win yes RVIs, you still need to win the shell.
weigh standards
funny frivolous shell done well = +0.1 speaks
the 1ar should answer the 1nc standards not just read a ci
Phil:
some of my favorite rounds to evaluate. understand your syllogism, and probably more importantly, make me understand it too. "bindingness", "freedom", "lexical prereq" means nothing to me unless you actually explain it and why it concludes your framing. not sorry. idk about you but Kant's getting kinda boring. way too many affs spend most of their time developing the syllogism and straight up just don't have robust offense. thats sad. don't be like that. good 1ar pivots against the k = high speaks. if you can give a straight ref 1nc and win, 29 speaks minimum.
Does induction fail? dunno. im quite sure I knew last week but thats a past event so idt I can induce from that ://
read an "obscure" Phil author (not Kant, Hobbes, Rawls, Sartre etc you get the point) you get a .5 speaks boost
you should engage the util and da 1nc - actually answering things >>> consequences fail
truth testing doesn't filter out util and you should stop pretending it does
Ks:
yay. I’d like to think that I know a lot of the K lit, so I’ll most likely understand it, but no matter what you gotta explain it. Go for specific links.
stolen from Patrick Fox's paradigm bc I agree w this
- Neg blocks/2NRs vs policy affs should be highly organized, overviews kept to a minumum, and most explanation done on the lbl. Organizing your 2NC/1NRs to mirror the 2AC order is good. Link debate on the permutation, framework on framework, etc. Framework should be a model of debate, so "reps first" isn't really an argument. Links should be contextualized to disprove why I should vote for the aff (whether the aff is a policy or a research object - tell me which!), and should be impacted out to some sort of turns case or external piece of offense. Examples - lines from aff ev, references to CX, etc - do them. If I don't know what the alt does by the end of the 2NR my threshold for the 2AR goes way down. Impact framing and comparison is often forgotten in these debates, and should be present in the block/2NR. Floating PIKs should be set up explicitly in the block (LD: if it's not set up in the 1NC, the 2AR gets new responses - you don't have a block! When does it "float?"), and if I miss it, that's your fault for trying to cheat. 2NRs that go for the PIK that don't robustly explain what the PIK actually looks like tend to lose to the perm, so explicitly re-contextualizing the alternative is probably in your interest - the one policy panel I've sat on was because of this.
- K v K debates - stuff gets muddled very fast in these debates, so examples + organization + clear impacting out of arguments is the winning move. I could be convinced "no perms in a method debate" may be a good argument in the abstract, but it certainly doesn't rise to the level of one in most debates. Read Marxism at your own risk - perversions of the immortal and revolutionary science and revisionist nonsense like "socialism is when healthcare" or "talking about racism is neoliberal" will make me more annoyed and I'd rather you just go for framework than be an annoying socdem.
k-affs: should defend something. your jumping off point should probably be the topic but im open to stuff if not. 2ns should go for presumption more often
more from pat:
- K affs should defend a shift from the status quo to solve an impact - if I do not think this is the case by the end of the 2AR, I will err super heavily negative because, shockingly, affs should defend things. Presumption is underexploited by the negative, but most presumption args should be less about the ballot and more about solvency (or lack thereof). Explaining why debating your aff is valuable is crucial. Overviews are fine but as time goes on, returns diminish. Case debate is essential, and I'm pretty good for the impact turn - I think the aff should be able to explain to me what it does and why it's good, which means saying those things are actually bad is obvious fair game. Wanna restate - the less 2As defend the more annoyed I get.
K v fwk
I don't have a preference in these debates but I do believe in k specific impact turns to T. If you can prove that your model of debate is preferable to T then you win the fwk debate. I think 2ar's are more convincing on the impact turn than the counterinterp, but there are strategic 2ars which go for both or j counterinterp which are good.
Some Ks that I've read and/or I'm comfortable with them:
Baudrillard, cybernetics, security, poetry, D&G, gift, Foucalt, Lacan, ableism, Agamben, Bataille, grove
^explain it^
yo tf is up w the 5 line long k tags ?! stop it.
non-indigenous setcol, nonblack afropess, etc are dtd issues - this is not something I will fill in the gaps on myself, but my opinion and I am very open to 2ns/2ars that go for procedurals like these.
Tricks:
trix are still args and still need warrants. I'll probably be just as confused as your opponent if you collapse to one half a sentence in the middle of your underview. I guess I’m impartial to tricks.
I find that the good ol fwk rob spec tt analytic brain rot 1nc isnt the most compelling but is strategic.
hiding "evaluate after the ac" in a cite of a card isnt a good thing :)
Ev ethics: should be read as a shell - allows for deliberation over it as well as opportunities to actually set norms. much better than a procedural which leaves me w a half explained ev violation and no idea how to decide anything. go read Holden Bukowsky's paradigm for more on this.
RFDs
please post round me talking about debate is fun
don't do it w the intent to be angry tho lol
Some things to get higher speaks:
-Signposting is always good.
-give content warnings!!!!!!! (but not when you don't need one obvs)
-Taking proper prep-time. That’ll make me happy.
-keeping the theory debate clear
-if you have some time left in the 2n (or 2ar) I appreciate if you either go back and keep extending offense, as long as it isnt just a repeat of the first half of the 2n, or slow down, give a lbl and tell me how I should be voting on this round. Slowing down and sequencing should be done more.
-pictures of pets in speech docs
-good 2ns on marxism
-music references
-from pat: Before the debate, both teams/debaters can give me recommendations for a song/s to listen to during prep time, which I will do, and if I vibe with it I may bump speaks.
Some things to get lower speaks:
-making arguments in cx. If you spend 20 seconds making an argument and then you say "what do you have to say to that?", I'll roll my eyes and yawn.
-obviously, evidence ethics are important, so maintain them please. heavy evidence ethics (if proven) is an L20
-be nice to people. cmon.
some other stuff, and pet peeves:
Call me whatever you want, but be consistent I guess. I don't really mind, but if you'd like you can call me my name (Ben!), "judge" "dude", whatever you want.
Explain your cards- "extinction" isn't a good tag. "this causes extinction by..." is a good tag.
Make all the references you'd like, you do you.
You may not concede your remaining cx time to prep time. if you have 20 seconds left of cx, either ask a question, or stop the timer and start your prep.
Anyhoo, just have fun.
obligatory:
Policy--------------------------------X-------------K
K/Policy----------X-----------------------------------Theory/Phil
States CP good----------X------------------------States CP bad
Politics DA is a thing-X----------------------------Politics DA not a thing
UQ matters most---------------X-----------------Link matters most
Fairness is a thing------X-------------------------Delgado 92
Fairness is an Impact-------------------------X------Fairness is an Internal Link
Try or die---------X--------------------------------What's the opposite of try or die
Clarity--X-------------------------------------------Srsly who doesn't like clarity
Limits-------------------------X---------------------Aff ground
Presumption----X----------------------------------Never votes on presumption
Resting grumpy face---------------------------X-Grumpy face is your fault
Longer ev--------X---------------------------------More ev
Fiat solves circumvention-----------------------X-Can't fiat enforcement if not in the res
CX about impacts-----------------------------X---CX about links and solvency
Fiat double-bind--------------------------X----------------literally any other arg
1AR should be a card wall-------X--------------------------------------No 1AR cards
(LD) 2NR should be a card wall---------------X-------------------------------No 2NR cards
Memes in speech doc--X-------------------------------------------I'm a boomer and wouldn't appreciate these
CEDA--------------------------------X--------------------------------NDT
Harvard------------------------------------------------------X--Berkeley
good transparent a prioris and clear tricks -x------------------------- what's an a priori?
Rawls------------------------------X-Literally anything else in existence
Sending Analytics in 1ar/2nr-X------------------------------"I don't want to send"
Five 1AR shells-------------------X------------huh,,, just,,, don't do that.
nathan.gong@utexas.edu
Hi everyone, I did LD in high school at Plano East and qualified for the TOC three times. Went twice, broke once, yada yada. I now study Canfield Business Honors and Finance at UT Austin.
I haven't thought about this activity since I quit halfway through senior year of high school and thus don't have any argumentative preferences. However, I appreciate people that are intelligent - be strategic, make good arguments, and have fun! I had the best time while reading arguments for fun (particularly body politics) although I mostly read policy arguments. I will try my best to give a fair decision.
Lynrbook 22
Debated circuit LD for 3 years at Lynbrook. Also did a good amount of traditional debate.
Add me on the email chain: gupta.aakash@gmail.com
---Circuit LD---
1 - LARP
2 - T, Theory, Phil, Trix
3 - Stock K's (Cap K, security, etc.)
4-5 - Other K's
LARP --
This was mostly what I did on aff and a decent amount on neg for most of my debate years. As a debater, I thought case debate was overrated since I would rather just moot all my opponent's offense with NC's and CP's, but they can make debates more interesting.
Intrinsic disad perms are really cool imo (though you probably shouldn't lose to theory). Intrinsic perms in general are really cool I guess.
T/Theory --
People should probably spend more time on paradigm issues. Reasonability + DTA is underrated, but I don't lean one way or another.
I default competing interps, DTD, no RVI's.
Phil --
I probably don't know the lit, so you should be able to explain it and how offense operates under it. Please have an impact calc section that explains how offense operates underneath your fw. Your opponent shouldn't need cx to understand your NC (even if it is a common one).
You guys do realize there are more arguments you can make against consequentialism other than sketchy calc indicts, right?
Trix --
I like logic trix (trivialism triggers, etc.) and phil trix. Fine with burden tricks. Dislike theory tricks since they often lack actual developed warrants.
Don't hide tricks within arguments. Every new argument should start on a new line in the 1AC and 1NC or your speaks won't be good.
All arguments need a clear claim, warrant, and implication.
K's --
I read a few kritiks but almost never went for them.
Aff-leaning on framework. I am more inclined to believe that debates should center around the resolution instead of traversing random fantasies.
Most kritik cards just assert a theory of power but lack any warrants for why the theory of power is accurate.
Stop using buzzwords and explain your theory of power coherently in the speech it is given. I'm not going to vote for arguments I don't understand in the speech it was given.
I started judging my two kids' speech and debate tournaments in high school. I judge IE's, LD, and Policy. And have continued judging these tournaments after my kids moved on to college.
I prefer that you speak loud and clearly. However I do not have a preference on speed. You may flow as fast or slow as you see fit.
Simply, debate is a very fun game that I used to play and enjoy watching. Do what you do best. I will vote for you if I think you win. And please be nice to your opponents.
As far as preconceived notions of debate go, here are a few of mine:
(1) I think the topic should be debated.
(2) I enjoy case debates and plan specific counterplans.
(3) I usually don't have speech docs open during the debate so your clarity is important to me.
Conflicts: San Marino
Experience: HS/Circuit- LD 2 years, PF 3 years, CX 1 year (2016-2020)
As of 3/13/2024: I have not been involved in debate since 2020. Most of my knowledge of debate has atrophied; if you plan on running technical arguments be prepared to explain them thoroughly.
Send me speech docs: j4ng.debate@gmail.com
discord: j4ng#0099
If the panel includes other lay judges - I am a lay judge. Please adapt to the other judges.
Speed is OK but don't exceed 350 WPM. I can't vote for a team if I cannot understand what they are saying. Spreading is not accessible and I prefer that everyone in the room can actively participate in the round :)
I ran generic, stock, LARP, and Ks in HS. If you are running anything else, I will do my best to evaluate them.
This is the paradigm that I wrote in 2021. It is wordy and extends into debate lore that I barely remember today. You can use it as general guidance. here
Feel free to ask any questions. I do not consider myself the most impartial judge, but I promise everyone that I will do my best to facilitate a fair and educational round.
Hello, I'm Taman Kanchanapalli! Nice to meet you and I hope I can give you good comments from your round with me in the back!
Email chain: taman.sai.k@gmail.com
Qualifications: Debated for Berkeley Prep and HB Plant High School and earned TOC bids in multiple formats (Policy, LD, and PF). I debated a total of 4 years. I’ve gotten some RR invites, made deep elims of national tournaments, and qualified to NSDA nationals 4 times. I think I can be able to make a coherent decision most of the time, but am no means perfect, and will try my best to adjudicate your round in the most technical fashion possible. Here are some people who have greatly influenced my takes on debate: Kevin Kuswa, Ronak Ahuja, Andrew Overing, John Overing, Daryl Burch, Ignacio Evans, Roberto Fernandez, Isaac Segal, Peregrine Beckett, Kumail Zaidi, and Tajaih Robinson.
Note for e-debating: Try to use a good microphone if possible, and please slow down a bit on analytics or send them in the doc. It’s probably due to static or some internet issue, but I’ve noticed a lot of people cutting out during some speeches, and I think going a tad bit slower can slow that.
At the top:
I think debate’s an educational and competitive space. Due to its competitive nature, I tend to view it as a game that reaps educational benefits as a result of clash. As so, I try to judge through a tech > truth paradigm and try to catch every argument on flow. I don’t necessarily default to anything and can convinced otherwise for every argument. The only exception is racism good, sexism good, homophobia good, and other arguments of that type.
Quick prefs:
K: 1
LARP: 1
Tricks: 2
nonFriv theory: 2
Friv Theory: 3
Normative Phil: 2/3
Tough to understand Phil: 4
Performance: 2/3
Here are my thoughts on specific arguments:
Disads: I really like good and though out topic DAs. I think it’s an important part of topic education and is unique to every topic. My favorite 2NR my senior year was the generic Conventional Weapons/Deterrence DA with a couple extra added in scenarios for escalation. I view the impact and link portions of DAs the most, so please establish solid ones and do weighing on which comes first. The earlier the weighing, the better my frame for evaluating the round. As I did my first 3 years in policy, I am a big fan on the politics DA, but I think the weakest part of this is the link level. Establish this, and be clear on the line by line and warrants of this and you should be good.
Counterplans: My favorite type of these are creative advantages Cps (tend to be multiplank ones) and process CPs. I think a solid CP strat should have a robust solvency advocate and be well applied to the aff. I reward strategic Cps and prowess with very high speaks as it kinda just gets me really happy to see these unfold in a unique manner in the 2NR. I usually default to CP theory, except Consult and delay, as drop the argument, but I can be convinced otherwise very easily by things like dropped paradigm issues. However, I grant the aff leeway with abusive perms against abusive Cps as long as you justify it.
Impact Turns: BIG FAN OF THESE! China War good, Russia War good, Spark, Wipe-out, all are arguments that I think are evidence heavy and end up being my favorite debates to judge. I’ve gone for these a lot and I think the biggest part of the impact turn debate really comes down to the timeframe differential and why the aff is worse than the status quo.
Topicality: I tend to think this is a bit different than theory for me. Having a policy background, I think this is usually a neg exclusive argument, and the unique abusive on T seems to be a gateway issue unlike theory that happens in the round. Obviously this can be changed if you win things like an RVI or Theory > T on the flow, but this is just how I view T usually. I believe a good T 2NR has a lot of standard/impact comparison, weighing, and defense. Basically a combo of robust offense under your model of debate, and terminal defense to your opponent’s.
Theory: This was a nice addition that I got used to as I joined LD. I understand the pedagogical benefits of these, and I LOVE to see a technical theory debate. This is where everything is pure tech of me, I can be convinced of literally anything (semantics > Fairness, E > F, etc.) I can buy even the worst, most frivolous impacts, and will even evaluate things like Clothes theory. Not the biggest fan of these args for obvious reasons, but if you win it on the flow, I will be more than happy to vote for it and reward with good speaks.
Disclosure: I think this is generally a good practice and am a huge fan of open source disclosure. Show me after the round and you get a .3 speaker point boost. I’ve really reaped a huge benefit from the LD open source wiki, and the college wiki during my senior year as a small school debater and believe that it doesn’t make a huge prep out disadvantage. I like disclosure, but if there are structural factors that prevent you from doing so or the disclosure violation is super frivolous, then there’s a good chance I could be voting the other way.
Phil: This is probably the model of debate I’m least familiar with, but I do really like and engage with basic phil. Here are the phil NCs I’m familiar with: Monism, Kant/Lib, Hobbes, Polls, Pragmatism, and the more basic versions of skep (Moral Skep, External World skep, Derrida, etc.). I like these debates on the justification level and nice tricks like hijacks/collapses type arguments. However, I really like robust contentions of offense, for example if your opponent reads Kant and reads like 1 card on Kant negates, if the 1AR has 3 offensive args under Kant and the 2AR ends up being Kant affirms, I would be very very happy and if you win, I would reward you with insanely high speaks. If you are running complex phil, please dumb down the language a bit for me. Whenever I’ve hit debaters running super complex phil, I always had a tough time in cross understanding what they were saying. Remember, if it’s very hard for your opponent to understand, good chance your judge will feel the same.
Ks: I really like good K debates. I was primarily a K debater in high school, except 2nd semester where I decided to run LARP, Tricks, and the K randomly at tournaments based on a random number generator (this was cuz I just wanted to have fun). I would say I’ve pretty well-read in most critical literature. I definitely know the basics of the vast majority of Ks, and know a few particularly well. Here are the ones I know really well: Black studies (the likes of afropess, Warren, Racial capitalism, Hapticality, Black Baudrillard, etc.), Semiocap & Logistical studies (baudrillard, BiFo, M&H, etc.), Marxist cap, Queer Theory (Homonationalism, Queer press, Queer becoming), Bataille, Academy K, Psychoanalysis. Ks I know relatively well: the Util K, Fem, Set col. There are probably a lot of missing Ks, but I would say I generally understand the thesis and format of these and should be able to adjudicate your debates. If you run the K in front of me, make sure you have a good defense of your theory of power, and if you’re debating against the K, please try to engage with it and DO NOT concede the theory of power. I am generally understanding of good K tricks under impact calc as well (Turn case, floating piks, etc.) My favorite K 2NR this year was Barber and Hostage taking. My general 2AR v the K was extinction outweighs and theory of power defense. I heavily dislike bad K debates, please don’t shift to the K just because I’m in the back. Bad K debates really make me big sad.
Tricks: Yeah man, these are funny, and I love judging these debates IF they are good. Bad Tricks debate were there’s no weighing, clash, and there are a prioris and spikes flying all over the place really makes me stress, and I don’t like to be stressing. I actually think Tricks debate has a good amount of clash and weighing involved and the best debaters do this and make my RFD very simple (for example, if condo logic is conceded by the neg, but the aff concedes GSP, and the 2AR doesn’t do weighing on why condo logic outweighs, but the 2NR makes an arg about GSP outweighing because affirming negates, then I can negate). Contestation, LBL, and weighing are crucial to these debates, and I will adjudicate them as such. Good tricks debates also makes my life super easy and prolly just result in high speaks.
Clash debates: I’ve usually judged these types of debates. I think NonT affs bring in a new pedagogical facet into debate. I’ve read a lot of these, but keep in mind, I also went for FW a lot versus these affs. If you defend a nonT aff, please PRESENT and DEFENSE your model of debate. I am not a big fan on args that try to use the space as purely a survival strategies or is good to auto-vote for X people. Affirmatives that defend a model of debate, have strong offensive, and turns against FW are the ones that fair the best in front of me. The only exception to this is if you just straight up go for debate bad, but then you will need to defend your solvency on the aff and prove what the aff uniquely does to “break down debate.” On the neg, Clash is my favorite impact and I think a TVA with a good solvency advocate is really deadly against nonT affs. I personally think fairness is an internal link to clash and education, but I can easily be convinced otherwise. I think SSD is underutilized against specific type affs, and should be explained more in the 2NR rather than for like 20 seconds as I think it’s a great impact filter. I also think presumption is heavily underutilized because half of these affs really don’t do what they say they are doing. A 2NR that defends their impacts, does weighing, and has an impact filter, but also heavily contests the case debate against nonT affs typically fair the best in front of me.
K v K debates: I think these debates are really intellectually informative and I enjoy adjudicating these debates. I think the main part of the neg is beat back the perm and win solid links with impacts against the K aff when you go for this. I’ve gone for Psycho, Academy, Antiblackness, and Cap Ks vs. K affs.
Anything besides TFW/Ks v NonT affs: I really like it when you get innovative and go for like a DA or NC v K affs. I think the biggest part of this is the link level on the DA, since they tend to be not the best, and same with the offense under an NC. But, if you do try this, I think I would reward with high speaks just because it’s quite innovative.
I debated LD and PF in hs, APDA in uni. Currently studying applied math, biology, and computational medicine at Johns Hopkins
Pronouns: He/Him
Email Chain/Contact: ikhyunkim2138@gmail.com | Facebook
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Quick Prefs
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Note: For PF teams, I am comfortable with Ks, Theory, etc. just execute it well...please
1-2: K/LARP
3-4: Phil/T/Theory
5-6: Tricks (please just strike me)
It seems like there is a tendency to pref based on speaks given so here are some quick stats on that
LD
Avg Aff Speaks: 28.9
Avg Neg Speaks: 28.8
Avg Overall Speaks: 28.8
Side Skew: 50.575% Aff, 49.425% Neg
PF
1st Speaker Avg Speaks: 28.8
2nd Speaker Avg Speaks: 28.7
Side Skew: 42.500% Aff, 57.500% Neg (idek what's going on here tbh)
CX
Avg Speaks: 29.1
Last Updated: 10.22.2022
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Defaults
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
• I default to semantics > pragmatics
• I default to epistemic modesty but I don't mind using epistemic confidence; just warrant why I should.
• I default to competing interps. Feel free to run RVIs when deemed appropriate but warrant why I should err towards accepting the RVI.
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Non-T
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• No matter what you do, please have a non-arbitrary role of the ballot else I will likely struggle in terms of framing the debate on both sides. Make sure you explain how your case functions in the round and explain why it's important through the ROB/J/S. That said, explain why we should reject/interpret the resolution differently.
• Aff, please respond to TVA as too many rounds with these types of affs have been lost because of a dropped interp or dropped TVA. Conversely, neg, please run TVA on these types of cases and it will make your work a lot easier if you win it. However, TVA is not enough for you to win the round.
• Cross is binding for me as I do believe that you can garner links/DAs off of the performance of either you and or your opponent even if your evidence says something else. That said, I'd like to emphasize that for these debates that the form of the evidence presented becomes far less restricted and there isn't some inherent hierarchy between them so don't disregard them.
• The permutation tends to be more awkward to both understand and evaluate in these debates so I'd suggest that you overexplain the perm to make it clear. This includes how you sequence the perm.
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K
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• Ks that only link to the aff’s FW and not to their advocacy feel awkward to me, so take that with a grain of salt.
• I default to perms being a test of competition rather than advocacy. You can try to change this, but you'll have to overexplain to me what it means for a perm to function as advocacy and clearly characterize the advocacy of the perm.
• PF teams, I love hearing Ks but only if they are well done. This means you should know what you are talking about and have a deep understanding of the literature you are reading. That said, please don't be a prick by reading a K in front of a team that clearly has no experience with progressive debate (just use your common sense, it's not that hard to figure this out).
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T/Theory
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• I don’t have defaults w.r.t. to voter questions such as DTD vs DTA, fairness/education being a voter, etc. It is YOUR job to tell me why your shell is a voting issue.
• I don’t particularly have an issue with RVIs. Feel free to go for an RVI, but I will need convincing on why you get them in the first place, characterize/construct it for me, etc.
• Please don't run frivolous theory in front of me. If the round becomes messy because of it, then your speaks will suffer.
• PF teams, while I am a supporter of theory in PF, please please please don't read shells unless there is/are an actual abuse story behind them. If not, your speaks will suffer.
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LARP
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• I generally am not a fan of conditional counterplans especially since I feel like the neg time skew arguments can be really strong. That said, I am fine with listening to them and will vote on them just please don't be dodgy by not clearly answering whether the counterplan is conditional or not.
• If the neg is running a conditional counterplan, I won't kick it unless it's clear that the counterplan is kicked. This means that just because squo is better than aff doesn't mean I default to voting neg if it wasn't made clear that the conditional counterplan is kicked.
• My position on perms is the same in LARP strategies as it is for Ks.
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Phil
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• If you are comfortable doing so, feel free to message me on FaceBook or email me if you want to ask if I know your philosopher well. Otherwise, don't assume that I am well-read up on the specific philosophy that you're reading and do the work of walking me through with it.
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Tricks
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... <- this summarizes my thoughts and feelings about tricks, take that as you will
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Other Points of Interest
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• Aff/Pro should have a speech doc ready to be emailed by round start time. Flight 2 should enter the room at Flight 2 start time.
• If both sides are fine with it, I’m fine with granting flex prep. Don’t be rude about it, or else your speaks may suffer. Don’t take too long flashing prep unless you want your prep docked along with your speaks
• Engaging with the tagline alone ≠ engaging with the argument or the card. This is a huge pet peeve of mine so please don't just engage with the tagline but engage with the internal warranting of the cards being presented. Cards don't exist simply to back up the claims made by taglines but they have within them their own layers of argumentation which is centralized by a thesis that links to the tagline. TL;DR respect what the authors are actually saying especially given that probably over 80% of your speech is their words verbatim.
• If your speech includes abbreviations or acronyms, please explain them first. Never assume that I know what they mean.
• While I recognize there's no obligation to share your analytics, I will award +.3 speaker points for those speeches including all/nearly all analytics in the speech doc AND that are organized in a coherent manner.
• I tend to make facial expressions that reflect how well I am processing an argument when it's being read i.e. if I am confused then I'll look confused and if I think the argument is good then my face will show this.I apologize in advance if my expressions confuse you; strike me if this is an issue.
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Concluding Remarks
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If you have any questions for me before the round starts about my paradigm, please ask after all the debaters are in the room so I don't have to repeat myself. Quick shoutouts/other paradigms that may be worth your time looking at of those who have influenced me as a debater, judge, and a person include Anne-Marie Hwang, Adam Tomasi, Sim Guerrero-Low, Michael Koo, Martin Sigalow, and Annie Wang I am more than happy to explain my decision whether it be in person after the round or through email/social media. Thanks for reading, good luck and have fun!
Peninsula
gordondkrauss@gmail.com
Offense-defense. The aff should defend a topical plan and the neg should defend a topicality violation, a competitive alternative, or the status quo. No zero risk, so presumption is impossible. Non-extinction impacts are relevant. The sole purpose of my ballot is to decide the winner / loser of a single debate.
Cross-ex is mandatory and cannot be used as prep. You must ask questions like "what did you read?" during cross-ex.
Counterplans. Most process counterplans should lose to a theory argument. Intrinsic perm unpersuasive because textual competition is dumb. Evenly debated, it would be difficult to convince me that international fiat is good, and it would be even harder to convince me that the neg can fiat random ideas. Counterplans should propose substantive solutions to the harms the 1AC identified. Conditionality is good. 1nc theory arguments are not.
Kritiks. I like Ks that disprove the truth of the 1ac, but I'm not a big fan of Ks of fiat. The neg needs a link to the plan or its justifications.
Philosophy. You don't have to read all the cards, but a few that say something would be nice. I will not consider skepticism or permissibility because I will not vote on defense (see presumption above). I like debates about the contention and creative strategies.
Topicality. Going for topicality is easy. I'm persuaded by reasonability and arbitrariness arguments but I'm equally good for aff ground. Plan in a vacuum depends, but usually not a winner.
4 years of pf, 6 years of debate. rmhs & pda
flay judge leaning flow. tech > truth
add me to email chains: graceliactive@gmail.com
i can handle some speed, but over 225 wpm im annoyed
if you want to win, you prob shouldn't run theory or ks bc i hate them
time yourself or we can do timing your opponents
signpost or i will literally stop flowing
judges are lazy, including me. write my ballot for me in your ff, it helps
good luck!
Hey my name is Arjun, I did PF and CX at Chelmsford High School. I am currently a freshman at UMass Amherst.
Tech > Truth
Put me on the email chain: junyyyhere@gmail.com
Racism, sexism, homophobia, etc, will NOT be tolerated, depending on what you say its a huge deduction in speaks and/or there's a good chance I drop you.
Run what u want, all substance is fine I can deal with whatever u throw at me even if i don't like it unless its discriminatory
I'll only intervene on two occasions
1. Racism/sexism/etc any other problematic things occur
2. Evidence issues. Depending on how bad it is, I will drop the argument and possibly the debater
Outside of what I just said above, for PF or CX or whatever event it is, I won't intervene on any level regardless of the argument you run
Speaks
I inflate them a lot because they're super subjective and shouldn't matter too much, usually 28s or 29s, but if you are in the bubble, just let me know and you get 30s.
Being aggressive/rude is fine to a level, being insulting means I drop speaks though
Bringing food is good, auto 30's, preferably candy or something idk
Cut cards/disclosure means +1 speaks
Case
idc what you do here, read some advantages or disadvantages or read theory or a k or respond to ur opps case in second constructive it's all up to you
If you're gonna read framing, please do it in the 1ac/1nc. If you do it in rebuttal then I'm not gonna stop your opps from reading an off against said framing in rebuttal. Just makes it much easier for everyone if you read framing in constructive.
Rebuttal
First rebuttal can read disads/advantages but please don't just contention dump, make it somewhat responsive.
Second rebuttal has to respond to all turns and defense or its 100% conceded, ik half of y'all read disads as huge turns and just don't implicate so idc anymore, just make sure u be somewhat responsive with ur "turns".
Weighing can start here too, it's always nice when that happens
Summary
You can go for 1 or 3 things, doesn't matter to me. My personal advice is collapse, stop extending 30 things, saves us all time and helps you win easier. Extend properly. I don't need word for word extensions of ur card, just what ur arg is, it shld be like 15-20 seconds max imo
First summary doesn't have to weigh, second summary needs to weigh, no new weighing in 2ff
Final Focus
New weighing in 1ff is fine, don't go over tho try to do it if u can in summary, just the basics, no new stuff, extend, weigh, all that and same with 2ff
CX
I don't really care too much about it i will be paying attention
Also, evidence comparison is key. And for PF, i'm not talking about saying "hey my author says this warrant" I mean comparing authors. Policy/LD does it way more and doing it in PF would make it much easier to win. I guarantee you, if your opponents have evidence about Russia escalation from from a part-time blogger and you have evidence from an experienced IR scholar and you explain this, I am probably going to prefer your evidence. Do evidence comparison with warrants and authors. Authors matter just as much, if not more than warrants.
Progressive
Please never read progressive stuff on a novice/person who won't know how to interact, it just makes the whole debate boring, uncomfortable, and tiring to judge and debate for all sides. If there's a violation, just bring it up in paragraph form and i'll evaluate it.
My style in pf is usually substance sometimes a k here or there if i think it strategic or theory if it works, no k affs. My policy strat on aff is just a policy aff, on the neg its like everything, mix of whatever works, but i usually go for cps/das, the occasional k if its clean, sometimes t based on the aff/round. Even though a lot of your stuff might not line up with mine, I probably understand good amount of it, other than super complicated k/k aff lit, so don't be afraid to run what you want, just warrant it out and explain it.
CPs- Not allowed in pf, BUT i like a good cp debate, its fun, if u wanna run it in pf then go for it. U can make the argument its not allowed but that can be answered by its educational, im up for anything, do whatever.
K's- Fine with some k's and have experience with the usual (cap, setcol, sec, abolition, biopower, semiocap, etc) but more complicated stuff and just k's in general need to be explained in round. i'm not voting off what I know about the k already im voting off what you say. I don't want jargon spam even if i know the argument, i want explanations of it so there's a good debate on it that i can judge. K rounds are overall fine just know what you are running and EXPLAIN THE LINKS CLEARLY, like HOW marijuana legalization links to setcol, or some other link. It can have a link and I could know that but I'm not writing your arguments for you, just please explain it relatively clearly. My opinion and how i feel on k's has changed a good amount. A good K is great, just make sure if you run it its going to be good.
K Aff's- Haven't debated many, i don't think t/fw is inherently racist/sexist/whatever agaisnt it, you can make that and win on it easy, I just won't drop t/fw automatically if ur hoping I do. But run whatever k aff u want idrc
Theory-I just don't like it in general, it's very boring and repetitve please try not to read it I can judge it fine and won't be biased but I find rounds involving anything else more enjoyable.
Familiar with most theory arguments, disclo, para, all of that and the fun frivolous stuff. I personally think disclosure if u can is good and cut cards are good too, but i don't lean on either of those in rounds and voting on disclo bad/para good is totally fine with me. Debate and convince me however u want to on CI's and reasonability and RVI's, I default competing interps and no RVI's. Haven't debated theory much, generally I think its boring/kinda stupid unless its disclosure or paraphrasing, but even then, it won't be a high speaks win if you read it and win. If its something fun then yeah
T/fw- Go for it im fine with this, ran it enough and know it enough to be able to interact/judge it, but please please please don't just spam backfiles responses without explaining anything, i might not know what the third response on clash or procedural fairness was so just try to have all ur responses make sense and not be meaningless spam. I'm too lazy to write stuff up, you do you, I don't have any biases on anything.
Impact Turns - Adding this just cause, I love these. Spark, wipeout, dedev, all impact turns, except things that are bad like racism good, are fine with me. I've been aff and read neg links or whole neg args and then impact turned them myself. Doing something creative or fun like that, reading cards for ur opponents and then impact turning it all, will get you nice speaks.
Email me after if you have questions about stuff in the round
tldr do what you do best; i'll only vote for complete arguments that make sense; weighing & judge instruction tip the scales in your favor; disclosure is good; i care about argument engagement and i value flexibility; stay hydrated & be a good person.
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About me:
she/her
policy coach @ damien-st. lucy's: spring 2022 - present
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Recently rewritten paradigm, probably best to give it a quick skim!
My strongest belief about argumentation is that argument engagement is good - I don't have a strong preference as to what styles of arguments teams read in front of me, but I'd prefer if both teams engaged with their opponents' arguments; I don't enjoy teams who avoid clash (regardless of the style of argument they are reading). I value ideological flexibility in judges and actively try not to be someone who will exclusively vote on only "policy" or only "k" arguments.
I am good for policy teams that do topic research and aim to not go for process cp backfiles every 2nr. I am also good for k teams that do topic research and answer the aff and go for 2nr arguments that are substantive (not "role of the ballot"). I am bad for ld teams that go for ld-specific things ("tricks"), but am good for ld teams that are well-researched and read policy or k arguments.
More LD-specific notes/thoughts at bottom of paradigm.
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Topic Knowledge:
I don't teach at a policy camp in the summer. I am involved in the Damien-St. Lucy's team research, and have vaguely kept up with the camp evidence updates. Most of my early-season topic knowledge is a result of hearing Chris yap at me about how he has a law degree in this field. So, consider my topic knowledge to be a less-smart version of Chris. Will update this section of the paradigm if/when that changes. Independent of this, I am generally a bad judge for arguments that rely on understanding of or alignment with community-developed norms -- I don't form my topicality opinions in July and then become immovable on them for the remainder of the season.
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email chains:
ld email chains: nethmindebate@gmail.com
policy email chains: damiendebate47@gmail.com and nethmindebate@gmail.com
if you need to contact me directly about rfd questions, accessibility requests, or anything else, please email nethmindebate@gmail.com (please don't email the teamail for these types of requests)!
please include an adult (your coach, chaperone, or even parent) on the email chain if you are emailing me directly -- just a good safety norm to not have direct communications between minors & adults that don't know them!
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flowing: it is good and teams should do it
stolen from alderete - if you show me a decent flow, you can get up to 1 extra speaker point. this can only help you - i won't deduct points for an atrocious flow. this is to encourage teams to actually flow:)
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Some general notes
Accessibility & content warnings: Email me if there is an accessibility request that I can help facilitate - I always want to do my part to make debates more accessible. I prefer not to judge debates that involve procedurals about accessibility and/or content warnings. I think it is more productive to have a pre-round discussion where both teams request any accommodation(s) necessary for them to engage in an equitable debate. I feel increasingly uncomfortable evaluating debates that come down to accessibility/cw procedurals, especially when the issue could have easily been resolved pre-round.
Speed/clarity – I will say clear up to two times per speech before just doing my best to flow you. I can handle a decent amount of speed. Going slower on analytics is a good idea. You should account for pen time/scroll time.
Online debate -- 1] please record your speeches, if there are tech issues, I'll listen to a recording of the speech, but not a re-do. 2] debate's still about communication - please watch for nonverbals, listen for people saying "clear," etc.
I am aggressively pro-disclosure. Disclosure is one of the elements of debate that is most important for small-school and novice accessibility. If you do not disclose, I will assume that you prefer the exclusionary system where only big schools have access, and I will punish your speaker points accordingly. I am so aggressive about enforcing disclosure with all teams (big and small school) because I believe in the mission of the open evidence project and other similar open source disclosure practices. tldr disclose or lose!
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Speaker points:
Speaker points are dependent on strategy, execution, clarity, and overall engagement in the round and are scaled to adapt to the quality/difficulty/prestige of the tournament.
I try to give points as follows:
30: you're a strong contender to win the tournament & this round was genuinely impressive
29.5+: late elims, many moments of good decisionmaking & argumentative understanding, adapted well to in-round pivots
29+: you'll clear for sure, generally good strat & round vision, a few things could've been more refined
28.5+: likely to clear but not guaranteed, there are some key errors that you should fix
28+: even record, probably losing in the 3-2 round
27.5+: winning less than 50% of your rounds, key technical/strategic errors
27+: winning less than 50% of your rounds, multiple notable technical/strategic errors
26+: errors that indicated a fundamental lack of preparation for the rigor/style of this tournament
25-: you did something really bad/offensive/unsafe.
Extra speaks for flowing, being clear, kindness, adaptation, and good disclosure practices.
Minus speaks for discrimination of any sort, bad-faith disclosure practices, rudeness/unkindness, and attempts to avoid engagement/clash.
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Opinions on Specific Positions (ctrl+f section):
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Case:
I think that negatives that don't engage with the 1ac are putting themselves in a bad position. This is true for both K debates and policy debates.
Extensions should involve warrants, not just tagline extensions - I'm willing to give some amount of leeway for the 1ar/2ar extrapolating a warrant that wasn't the focal point of the 2ac, but I should be able to tell from your extensions what the impact is, what the internal links are, and why you solve.
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Planless affs:
I tend to believe that affirmatives need to defend the topic. I think most planless affs can/should be reconfigured as soft left affs. I have voted for affs that don't defend the topic, but it requires superior technical debating from the aff team.
You need to be able to explain what your aff does/why it's good.
I tend to dislike planless affs where the strategy is to make the aff seem like a word salad until after 2ac cx and then give the aff a bunch of new (and not super well-warranted) implications in the 1ar. I tend to be better for planless aff teams when they have a meaningful relationship to the topic, they are straight-up about what they do/don't defend, they use their aff strategically, engage with neg arguments, and make smart 1ar & 2ar decisions with good ballot analysis.
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T/framework vs planless affs:
In a 100% evenly debated round, I am likely better for the neg than the aff. However, approximately none of these debates are evenly debated. Either team/side can win my ballot by doing the better technical debating. This past season, I often voted for a K team that I thought was smart and technical. Specific thoughts on framework below:
The best way for aff teams to win my ballot is to be more technical than the neg team. Seems obvious, but what I'm trying to convey here is that I'm less persuaded by personal/emotional pleas for the ballot and more persuaded by a rigorous and technical defense of why your model of debate is good in this instance or in general. I have historically voted against aff teams that made arguments along the lines of "vote for me or I'll quit debate."
I think that TVAs can be more helpful than teams realize. While having a TVA isn't always necessary, winning a TVA provides substantial defense on many of the aff's exclusion arguments.
I don't have a preference on whether your chosen 2nr is skills or fairness (or something else). I think that both options have strategic value based on the round you're in. Framework teams almost always get better points in front of me when they are able to contextualize their arguments to their opponents' strategy.
I also don't have a preference between the aff going for impact turns or going for a counterinterp. The strategic value of this is dependent on how topical/non-topical your aff is, in my opinion.
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Theory:
The less frivolous your theory argument, the better I am for it.
Please weigh! It's not nearly as intuitive to make a decision in theory debates - I can fill in the gaps for why extinction is more impactful than localized war more easily than I can fill in the gaps for why neg flex matters more/less than research burdens.
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Topicality (not framework):
I like T debates that have robust and contextualized definitions of the relevant words/phrases/entities in the resolution. Have a clear explanation of what your interpretation is/isn't; examples/caselists are your friend.
Grammar-based topicality arguments: I don't find most of the grammar arguments being made these days to be very intuitive. You should explain/warrant them more than you would in front of a judge who loves those arguments.
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Kritiks (neg):
I tend to like K teams that engage with the aff and have a clear analysis of what's wrong with the aff's model/framing/epistemology/etc. I tend to be a bit annoyed when judging K teams that read word-salad or author-salad Ks, refuse to engage with arguments, expect me to fill in massive gaps for them, don't do adequate weighing/ballot analysis/judge instruction, or are actively hostile toward their opponents. The more of the aforementioned things you do, the more annoyed I'll be. The inverse is also true - the more you actively work to ensure that you don't do these things, the happier I'll be!
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Disads:
Zero risk probably doesn't exist, but very-close-to-zero risk probably does. Teams that answer their opponents' warrants instead of reading generic defense tend to fare better in close rounds. Good evidence tends to matter more in these debates - I'd rather judge a round with 2 great cards + debaters explaining their cards than a round with 10 horrible cards + debaters asking me to interpret their dumpster-quality cards for them.
Counterplans:
I don't have strong ideological biases about theory other than that some amount of condo is probably good. More egregious abuse = easier to persuade me on theory; the issue I usually see in theory debates is a lack of warranting for why the neg's model was uniquely abusive - specific analysis > generic args + no explanation.
No judge kick. Make a choice!
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LD-specific section:
-you might think of cx judges in ld as people who despise judging ld and despise you for doing ld. i try to not let this be true about me. all of my issues with ld can be grouped into two general categories: 1) speech times/structure (not your fault, won't penalize you for it), and 2) the tendency to read unwarranted nonsense, such as "tricks," shoes theory, etc (you can avoid reading these args very easily and make me very happy)
-i am a horrid judge for tricks and frivolous theory. please just go for another argument!
-i am okay for phil. i don't have any personal opposition to philosophy-based arguments, i just don't coach/judge these arguments often, so i will need more explanation/hand-holding. many phil debates recently have involved tricks, which has soured me on this argumentative style, but i would be happy to judge a straight-up phil debate:)
-you don't get 1ar add-ons -- there is no 2ac in ld
-i teach at ld camp every summer, so assume i have some idea of community norms, but don't assume i am following trends super closely
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Arguments that are simply too bad to be evaluated:
-a team should get the ballot simply for proving that they are not unfair or uneducational
-the ballot should be a referendum on a debater's character, personal life, pref sheet, etc
-the affirmative's theory argument comes before the negative's topicality argument
-some random piece of offense becomes an "independent voter" simply because it is labeled as such
-debates would be better if they were unfair, uneducational, lacked a stasis point, lacked clash, etc
-a debater's moral character is determined by whether they read policy or k arguments
-evidence ethics should be a case neg, as opposed to an opportunity for reasonable preround discussion and an opportunity to correct mistakes
-"tricks"
-debaters get to make arguments about how many speaker points they should get
-teams should not be required to disclose on opencaselist
-the debate should be evaluated after any speech that is not the 2ar
-the "role of the ballot" means topicality doesn't matter
-debaters get to claim the alternative is a floating pik after pretending not to know what a floating pik is during cx
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Arguments that I am personally skeptical of, but will try to evaluate fairly:
-it would be better for debate if affirmatives did not have a meaningful relationship to the topic
-debate would be better if the negative team was not allowed to read any conditional advocacies
-reading topicality causes violence or discrimination within debate
-"role of the ballot"
-the outcome of a particular debate will change someone's mind or will change the state of debate
-the 5-second aspec argument that was hidden in the 1nc can become a winning 2nr
-the affirmative may not read a plan because of "bare plurals"
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if there's anything i didn't mention or you have any questions, feel free to email me! if there's anything i can do to make debate more accessible for you, let me know! i really love debate and i coach because i want to make debate/the community a better place; please don't hesitate to reach out if there's anything you need.
debate.ianmackeypiccolo@gmail.com
2 yea rs of policy at Fox chapel. I was a 2N, did ins on aff, and went for only policy arguments. 3 bids to the TOC my senior year if that's important to you.
Tech > truth shall be the whole of the law. No argument is presumptively too dumb or unfair to answer it.
I like impact turns and debates about counterplan competition.
no out-of-round stuff.
Misgendering is a sufficient reason to reject a team and stop the round if requested.
Fairness is not intrinsically good.
No mercy for dropping framework tricks, even really bad ones like truth testing.
Assistant LD Coach for Peninsula HS
I will evaluate all arguments and base my decision on what you extend into your final speeches.
I'm good for all policy arguments and kritiks that disprove the affirmative with links to the plan or its justifications. I’m less comfortable with non-Kantian philosophy positions, but I’ll do my best. I’m not a fan of theory or tricks.
I’m convinced by reasonability against most theory shells, but you need a counter-interpretation.
I tend to read a lot of evidence, so prioritizing reading high-quality evidence will serve you well.
I try to stay non-expressive during rounds. If I show any facial expressions, it is most likely unrelated.
There is no designated time for flow clarification during a debate. If you want to ask your opponent about what was or wasn't read, you must do so during cross-examination or use your prep time. If you mark cards during your speech (i.e., if you start reading a card but do not finish it), you should clearly state where you marked it and send a marked document immediately after your speech. You are not required to include cards you did not read.
I do not have a specific metric for speaker points, but demonstrating a clear understanding of your positions and minimizing dead time are effective ways to improve your score.
About Me:
I was a Kritik + Philosophy debater who rarely defended the topic. I never TOC'd (didn't try that hard beyond sophomore year) but I did learn a lot and had a ton of fun!
I attended VBI/NSD in 2020 and the UMich K Lab in 2021.
benjaminpatrickpersonal@gmail.com
NatCir LD/CX:
1 - k/k aff/performance and philosophy/framework
2 - tricky stuff (paradoxes, floating piks, what have you)
4 - policy/larp
5 - theory/t (but see below)
Traditional LD:
Overuse of rhetoric does not compensate for losing the actual arguments in the debate. That's not to say 'tech over truth' but it is to say that you should engage, not grandstand! There are definitely judges where that works (most judges) but I certainly prefer the line-by-line.
PF:
1 - normal, traditional public forum arguments
5/strike - anything else.
three more details:
1.] On theory/topicality and disclosure: There are three scenarios: A.) If you are the clearly more resourced/skilled debater in the round, you should not read these things and should opensource 30 minutes pre-round + seek your opponent's contact information and send them your case, including when it is brand new. B.) If you are equally resourced/skilled just avoid these arguments. C.) If you are clearly under-resourced/skilled, I will not penalize nondisclosure to or misdisclosure against an over-resourced/skilled debater and feel free to read theory/topicality/disclosure.
2.] If you're a circuit debater somehow paired against a traditional debater, you will employ !!!only traditional tactics!!! with traditional speed or you will lose.
3.] Debate is not a game -- I get what you mean when you say it, but it reeks of privilege and for some people it is far more than that, meaning it can be how they get into/afford college, can make extra cash judging and coaching after, etc.
Basically couple of things
1. signpost
2. Make eye contact if possible, turning on camera really shifts my view towards your side
3. Trad>Prog- but one important caveat- This is in terms of an understatement. If you can explain and assert why you win by all means
4. Spread, idk up to you- two things- first consent from your opponent, second speech doc
Disclaimer- to not hurt our novice babies don't spread or read prog without consent
5. Don't be a yes man- be your self. Just because you say yes sir and speak in a cordial manner won't shift any bias towards you. In fact, the less yes man you are, the better
6. Especially for cross x- be assertive pls, don't cower, but don't be too assertive. Ill usually give a signal, a grunt of some sorts if it's getting firey on one side
7. Tech>truth- but again protec novice babies.
8. I will judge based on the debate, and if the opponent and you consent then Ill flow and decide based on how close the arguments were based to topic
9. I actually, really like rithviks paradigm, imma link it, check it out:
https://www.tabroom.com/index/paradigm.mhtml?judge_person_id=82866
10.And this should be obivious- but no -isms: Sexism, Racism, and what not. Automatic 25 in speaks, and heavy bias towards the other side
11. If your stressed, go watch some of these YouTubers- Elliot Choy, Johnny Harris, And Peter Mickinnon. If you can name one place they have been to- end of the speech- and clearly, automatic 30
Also just a quick thing- if you can slip the phrase, the quote "The two most peaceful warriors are patience and time in your speech, *clearly*, automatic thirty :) And more respect if you can say who wrote that,and why he's famous
Things about me- Have debated 3 years ~2 years competing. Conflicts- Idk RIV STEM, but its not like ill go easy on you guys anyways.
Finally- if there is anything you want to clear up, tell me before the round. Ill answer them straight up.
good luck for my CCO ppl. Hope you do well
joshuasp.debate@gmail.com
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Recent Affiliations:
Coaching: Ivy Bridge Academy (PF), Thomas Kelly College Prep (Policy)
Debating: Western Kentucky University (2024-present), Georgia State University (2021-2024), Sequoyah High School (2017-2021)
Call me "jsp" or "Josh", I do not know who is this "judge" person you keep calling out longingly for.
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AI Rule: auto loss.
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PF:
Frontlining is good, line by line is good, weighing is good, weighing should start by the summary at the latest. Uniqueness and Internal Links matter just as much as the link/impact. If any of these terms are new to you talk to your coach or I before/after the round.
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Policy:
I will adapt to you. I am 50/50 for framework, flow on paper and don't look at the doc. Just like... make good arguments. Use what you are good at, don't use what you are not.
I need pen time, i flow on paper and by ear, my laptop will likely be closed till the rebuttals, I will yell "clear" or "loud" as much as needed but I would rather not have to and I will just stop if I get tired of saying it - speed will always be fine - clarity though is just as important
I will not vote for arguments that had no warrant/signaling. Such as ur fiat K's that ngl was not even in the block
It must have been in your final speech for me to vote for you on it (including extending case vs T)
I evaluate impact level first usually unless told otherwise (whether its education or nuke war, etc)
My ballot will likely be determined off who i have to do the least work for, i do not usually vote on presumption
Tabula rasa is a conservative debate dogwhistle