Hello Debaters!

I am a high schooler in the class of '25, but I've been debating since 2019.

GENERAL/SHORT VERSION:

If something is dropped, point it out to me, I will not do your work for you.

Docs: I prefer a Microsoft Doc, but Google Docs are okay. Send the docs through an email chain (abrown25@heritagehall.com is the email you should use for me!) or SpeechDrop.

PLEASE BE KIND TO YOUR PARTNER AND THE OTHER TEAM IN ROUND.

Speed: I'm okay with speed, but clarity is everything to me, so please be clear!

Analytics: Always make analytics, but if they are not on the sent doc, please tell me when you are going on to them! (E.X. Next - Analytics)

If you take too long to download or share a Doc, I will start your prep time. I will give a warning before I start it. If you are having technical difficulties, communicate that with me and I will assist as best I can.

Please face the judge in CX and make eye contact during the rebuttals. This goes a long way toward making your arguments more persuasive and will earn you speaker points in round!!

CASE DEBATE: I think case debate is great, and is often underused on both sides! With case, I look for quality over quantity of evidence. Explain to me why your evidence is better!

NEG:

K's: I love a good K, but if I don't understand it, I won't vote for a K I don't understand. Make sure not to fall behind/concede F/W!

T: I will vote for T if it is properly extended, but you must have a clear violation and impact/voting issue.

Theory: I will vote on any decent theory, but again, extend it and have a clear impact/voting issue.

DA/CPs: I will vote for any DA/CP I feel is fair, but I need to understand how they work in order to vote for them!

AFF:

AFF Cases: I will vote on any fair AFF case with properly extended impacts AND solvency. I prefer plans, and if you don't have a plan, you will need to focus on impacts/solvency (if any) and why those outweigh neg impx.

AFF, if the Neg team is being unfair, call them out on it! I will vote on unfairness, but again, I need to understand what the Neg team is abusing, and the voting issues. For me to vote, this needs to be a large part, (3ish minutes) of your final speeches for me to vote, though if the Neg concedes this, I will vote.

I know debate is stressful, but have fun, it's a game!

*Updated for 2024*
Bryan Gaston
Director of Debate
Heritage Hall School
1800 Northwest 122nd St.
Oklahoma City, OK 73120-9598
bgaston@heritagehall.com

I view judging as a responsibility and one I take very seriously. I have decided to try and give you as much information about my tendencies to assist with MPJ and adaptation.

**NEW NOTE, I may be old but I'm 100% right on this trend: Under-highlighting of evidence has gotten OUT OF CONTROL, some teams are reading cards with such few things highlighted it is amazing they actually got away with claiming the evidence as tagged. When I evaluate evidence, I will ONLY EVALUATE the words in that evidence that were read in the round. If you didn't read it in a speech I will not read the unhighlighted sections and give you the full weight of the evidence--you get credit for what you actually say in the speech, and what you actually read in the round. Debaters, highlight better. When you see garbage highlighting point it out, and make an argument about it---if the highlighting is really bad I will likely agree and won't give the card much credit. This does not mean you can't have good, efficient highlighting, but you must have a claim, data, and warrant(s) on each card.**

Quick Version:

1. Debate is a competitive game.

2. I will vote on framework and topicality-Affs should be topical. But, you can still beat framework with good offense or a crafty counter-interpretation.

3. DA's and Aff advantages can have zero risk.

4. Neg conditionality is mostly good.

5. Counterplans and PICs --good (better to have a solvency advocate than not), process CPs a bit different. It is a very debatable thing for me but topic-specific justifications go a long way with me.

6. K's that link to the Aff plan/advocacy/advantages/reps are good.

7. I will not decide the round over something X team did in another round, at another tournament, or a team's judge prefs.

8. Email Chain access please: bgaston@heritagehall.com

9. The debate should be a fun and competitive activity, be kind to each other and try your best.

My Golden Rule: When you have the option to choose a more specific strategy vs a more generic strategy, always choose the more specific strategy if you are equally capable of executing both strategies. But I get it, sometimes you have to run a process CP or a more generic K.

Things not to do: Don't run T is an RVI, don't hide evidence from the other team to sabotage their prep, don't lie about your source qualifications, don't text or talk to coaches to get "in round coaching" after the round has started, please stay and listen to RFD's I am typically brief, and don't deliberately spy on the other teams pre-round coaching. I am a high school teacher and coach, who is responsible for high school-age students. Please, don't read things overtly sexual if you have a performance aff--since there are minors in the room I think that is inappropriate.

Pro-tip: FLOW---don't stop flowing just because you have a speech doc.

"Clipping" in debate: Clipping in the debate is a serious issue and one of the things I will be doing to deter clipping in my rounds is requesting a copy of all speech docs before the debaters start speaking and while flowing I read along to check from time to time.

CX: This is the only time you have “face time” with the judge. Please look at the judge not at each other. Your speaker points will be rewarded for a great CX and lowered for a bad one. Be smart in CX, assertive, but not rude.

Speaker Point Scale updated: Speed is fine, and clarity is important. If you are not clear I will yell out “Clear.” The average national circuit debate starts at 28.4, Good is 28.5-28.9 (many national circuit rounds end up in this range), and Excellent 29-29.9. Can I get a perfect 30? I have given 3 in 20 years if HS judging they all went on to win the NDT in college. I will punish your points if you are excessively rude to opponents or your partner during a round.

Long Version...

Affirmatives: I still at my heart of hearts prefer and Aff with a plan that's justifiably topical. But, I think it's not very hard for teams to win that if the Aff is germane to the topic that's good enough. I'm pretty sympathetic to the Neg if the Aff has very little to or nothing to do with the topic. If there is a topical version of the Aff I tend to think that takes away most of the Aff's offense in many of these T/FW debates vs no plan Affs--unless the Aff can explain why there is no topical version and they still need to speak about "X" on the Aff or why their offense on T still applies.

Disadvantages: I like them. I prefer specific link stories (or case-specific DA’s) to generic links, as I believe all judges do. But, if all you have is generic links go ahead and run them, I will evaluate them. The burden is on the Aff team to point out those weak link stories. I think Aff’s should have offense against DA’s it's just a smarter 2AC strategy, but if a DA clearly has zero link or zero chance of uniqueness you can win zero risk. I tend to think politics DA's are core negative ground--so it is hard for me to be convinced I should reject the politics DA because debating about it is bad for debate. My take: I often think the internal link chains of DA's are not challenged enough by the Aff, many Aff teams just spot the Neg the internal links---It's one of the worst effects of the prevalence of offense/defense paradigm judging over the past years...and it's normally one of the weaker parts of the DA.

Counterplans: I like them. I generally think most types of counterplans are legitimate as long as the Neg wins that they are competitive. I am also fine with multiple counterplans. On counterplan theory, I lean pretty hard that conditionality and PICs are ok. You can win theory debates over the issue of how far negatives can take conditionality (battle over the interps is key). Counterplans that are functionally and textually competitive are always your safest bet but, I am frequently persuaded that counterplans which are functionally competitive or textually competitive are legitimate. My Take: I do however think that the negative should have a solvency advocate or some basis in the literature for the counterplan. If you want to run a CP to solve terrorism you need at least some evidence supporting your mechanism. My default is that I reject the CP, not the team on Aff CP theory wins.

Case debates: I like it. Negative teams typically underutilize this. I believe well planned impacted case debate is essential to a great negative strategy. Takeouts and turns can go a long way in a round.

Critiques: I like them. In the past, I have voted for various types of critiques. I think they should have an alternative or they are just non-unique impacts. I think there should be a discussion of how the alternative interacts with the Aff advantages and solvency. Impact framing is important in these debates. The links to the Aff are very important---the more specific the better.

Big impact turn debates: I like them. Want to throw down in a big Hegemony Good/Bad debate, Dedev vs Growth Good, method vs method, it's all good.

Topicality/FW: I tend to think competing interpretations are good unless told otherwise...see the Aff section above for more related to T.

Theory: Theory sets up the rules for the debate game. I tend to evaluate theory debates in an offensive/defense paradigm, paying particular attention to each teams theory impacts and impact defense. The interpretation debate is very important to evaluating theory for me. For a team to drop the round on theory you must impact this debate well and have clear answers to the other side's defense.

Impact framing-- it's pretty important, especially in a round where you have a soft-left Aff with a big framing page vs a typical neg util based framing strat.

Have fun debating!

I would like to be on the email chain: dsavill@snu.edu

Director of Debate for Southern Nazarene University since 2021 and former coach of Crossings Christian School from 2011 to 2023.

Things you need to know for prefs:

Kritiks: Very familiar with kritiks and non-topical affs. I like kritiks and K affs and can vote for them.

Policy: I am familiar with policy debates and can judge those. My squad is designed to be flex so I am good with either.

Speed: I can handle any kind of speed as long as you are clear.

Theory/FW/T: I am not a fan of FW-only debates so if you are neg and hit a non-topical aff I will entertain FW but that shouldn't be your only off-case. Contesting theory of power is a good strat for me.

Performance/non-traditional debate: Despite what some would think coming from a Christian school, I actually like these kinds of debates and have voted up many teams.

I try to be a tab judge but I know I tend to vote on more technical prowess. I believe debate should be a fun and respectful activity and I try to have a good time judging the round. I think debaters are among the smartest students in the nation and I always find it a privilege to judge a round and give feedback.

Last updated 9/28/2023

Pronouns are he/him, they/them is also fine.

Email: lsmithspeechdebate@gmail.com

History:

Debated at Moore High School for 4 years

Currently a third year debater at UCO that has debated at the NDT and made it to Double-Octos of CEDA.

tldr: I have experience in both K and policy debates on both the aff and the neg as well as experience as all speaker positions. Read whatever you want in front of me. General overall note, I am a "draw lines" type of judge. If the 2nr/2ar has a bunch of args that weren't in the block or 1ar I'm going to have a really hard time evaluating the round.

General stuff:

Speed speed is fine, just make sure you're clear. If you're not clear I will say clear, if that happens more then once/frequently it will be reflected in speaker points.

Prep: I don't count flashing as prep, but I suspect someone is stealing prep when flashing I'll ask if I need to start rolling prep again and if it continues I'll start rolling prep again. Don't steal prep.

Arg specific stuff:

DA's: Make sure the DA has a clear link and generally up to date UQ. For answering DA's if going for the link turn a warrant for why the link turns o/w the link makes my decision a lot easier.

T/FW:For me to vote neg on T/fw I need a clear interp extended in the 2nr, alongside definitions if needed for the interp. I will not do that work for you, if you don't extend your definitions in the 2nr then I probably will default to not knowing what the interp means at the end of the debate. Explain the violation and why the CI doesn't solve the reasons to prefer and explain what type of affs the CI allows and why that's bad. I need to have a clear understand of the neg/aff debate models and why I need to care about the particularities of said model at the end of the last rebuttals//why the negs model is uniquely bad and why I have to care about that if just impact turning fw.

CP's: Make sure to explain how the CP solves the aff, why the perm can't solve and the nb to the cp.

theory: I'm definitely much more truth over tech in terms of the way I think about debate. With that being said I need a clear impact to theory and why that outweighs the case to make me vote on it. Nonetheless I'll vote on theory and evaluate it like I would any other arg, but this is def not my area of expertise.

K's: I love K v K debates and K debate in general. With that said, I'm most familiar with the lit areas of settler colonialism, disability studies, the cap K, and I know the bases of some queer theory and anti-blackness lit. This means when explaining the K I will most likely understand the lit to some degree, but if your reading more high theory args like Baudrillard I may need slightly more explanation than your typical blocks. In order to vote neg I need to know how the links turn the case, how the alt solves the links or how the alt solves the case and how the alt solves the links. For affs, reasons why the link turns o/w the link, how the perm functions if going to the perm, why the alt fails//why the alt can't solve the aff.

Experience

Currently the Director of Debate at Casady School.

Competed at the University of Oklahoma and Owasso High School.

Put me on the e-mail chain: snidert [at] casady [dot] org

On Evidence

Evidence quality and consistency is very important to me. I can easily be convinced to disregard a piece of evidence because it lacks quality, is insufficiently highlighted, or is not qualified.

Author qualifications are under debated and if a piece of evidence lacks a qualification then that should definitely be used in debate.

K Things General

One line should dictate how you approach reading the K in front of me:

“You are a debater, not a philosopher.”

This should be your guiding principle when reading and answering a kritik in front of me. Debaters seem to rely more on jargon than actually doing the work of explaining and applying their argument. Unnecessarily complex kritiks won't get good speaker points (90% of the time you could have just read the cap k).

I will not flow overviews on a separate sheet of paper.

If you plan on reading the K

I've got good news and bad news. I'll start with the bad news: You are very unlikely to convince me not the weigh/evaluate the aff. I'm not persuaded much by self-serving counter interpretations on framework.

That said, the good news is that I think people give the aff too much credit and most of the reasons why I shouldn't evaluate the plan are typically offense against it. For example while I don't find the FW interpretation "Debate should be about epistemological assumptions" very convincing, I will definitely vote on "the affirmative's plan relies on a flawed epistemology that ensures serial policy failure, which turns case."

If you're answering the K

While the above may seem like good news for the aff answering the K, I tend to hold the aff to a higher threshold than most in K debates. I don't think "you need a specific link to the plan" is responsive to a K of the aff's epistemology. Likewise, aff framework interps that exclude Ks entirely are pretty much a non-starter.

Theory Issues

Condo seems to be getting a bit excessive, but no one goes for condo anymore so I'm sort of stuck with it.

Tech vs Truth

I think of this as more of a continuum as opposed to a binary. I lean more towards tech than truth, but I'm not going to pretend that I evaluate all arguments with equal legitimacy. For example, I have a higher threshold for arguments like “climate change not real” than “plan doesn’t solve climate change.” I traditionally evaluate the debate in offense/defense paradigm, but there is a such thing as a 0% risk.

K affs/T-FW

I enter every debate with the assumption that the resolution is going to play a role in the round. What role it plays, however, is up for debate. I don’t have a preference between skills or fairness standards.

Common reasons I vote aff on FW:

The neg goes for too many “standards”/"DAs"/whatever-youre-calling-them in the 2NR.

The neg doesn’t even try to engage the aff’s 2AC to FW.

Common reasons I vote neg on FW:

The aff doesn’t have an offensive reasons why the TVA is bad.

The aff doesn’t even try to engage the neg’s standards on FW.

Misc

I only flow what I hear, I won't use the doc to correct my flow. If I don't catch an argument/tag because you're too unclear then *insert shrug emoji*. That said, with online debate I will flow what I hear and use the doc to correct my flow after the speech. Including your analytics in the speech document will make correcting my flows much easier.

Guaranteed 30 if you’re paper debate team #PaperDebate

My facial reactions will probably tell you how I feel about your arg.