I debated high school debate in Virginia / Washington DC for Potomac Falls '03 to '07 and college for USF '07 to '11. I am currently the debate coach for Oakland Technical High School.

add me to email chain please: aegorell@gmail.com

I am generally pretty open to vote on anything if you tell me to, I do my best to minimize judge intervention and base my decisions heavily on the flow. I love judge instruction. I err tech over truth.

However, everyone has biases so here are mine.

General - Removing analytics is coward behavior. Okay, after I put this in everyone seems to think I mean I need to see all your analytics ever. I’m saying if you have prewritten analytics you should not remove those (coward behavior) especially in the early constructive speeches. Removing analytics and trying to get dropped args from spreading poorly is bad for debate and if it’s not on my flow it didn’t happen. Analytics off the dome from your flow are great and not what I’m talking about.I'm fine with tag team / open cross-x unless you're going to use it to completely dominate your partners CX time. I'll dock speaker points if you don't let your partner talk / interrupt them a bunch. Respect each other. I'm good with spreading but you need to enunciate words. If you mumble spread or stop speaking a human language I'll lower your speaker points. Please signpost theory shells. I will evaluate your evidence quality if it is challenged or competing evidence effects the decision, but generally I think if a judge is pouring through your warrants thats probably not a good sign, you should have been extending those yourself I shouldn't have to hunt them down. Don’t cheat, don’t do clipping, don’t be rude. Obviously don’t be racist, sexist, homophobic, etc, in life in general but also definitely not in front of me. This is a competitive and adversarial activity but it should also be fun. Don’t try to make others miserable on purpose.

Topicality/Theory - Hiding stuff in the T shell is bad and I'll probably disregard it if Aff tells me to. Good T and theory debates need voters/impacts, which a lot of people seem to have forgotten about. I think for theory to be compelling in round abuse is supreme. If you're complaining you had no time to prep and then have 15 hyper specific link cards....come on. Disclosure theory is basically never viable independent offense but I think it can be a strong argument to disregard theory arguments run against you since they refused disclosure norms.

Framework - I'll follow the framework I'm given but I prefer a framework that ensures equitable clash. Clash is the heart and soul of this activity.

Kritiks - You need to understand what you are advocating for. If you just keep repeating the words of your tags without contextualizing or explaining anything, you don't understand your Kritik. I prefer to weigh the K impacts against the aff plan but I can be convinced otherwise. My threshold is high and it’s easier to access if you can prove in round abuse / actually tailored links. Also, I don't think links on K's always need to be hyper specific but I do not want links of omission. I like fiat debates. I think a lot of kritiks are very vulnerable to vagueness procedurals.

K-Affs - Good K-Affs are amazing, but I almost never see them. I used to say I tend to err neg but I actually end up voting aff more often than not mostly because negs don’t seem to know how to engage. Vagueness seems to be most egregious with k affs. Don’t be vague about what you’re trying to do or what my vote does and you’ll have a much better chance with me. I like debate, which is why I am here, so if your whole argument is debate bad you'll have an uphill battle unless you have a specific positive change I can get behind. Just because I like debate doesn’t mean it can’t also be better. I can recognize its problematic elements too. Reject the topic ain't it. I need to know what my ballot will functionally do under your framework. If you can't articulate what your advocacy does I can't vote for it. I think fairness can be a terminal impact. Negs should try to engage the 1AC, not even trying is lazy. Really listen to what the K aff is saying because often you can catch them contradicting themselves in their own 1AC, or even providing offense for perf cons.

CPs - I'll judge kick unless Aff tells me not to and why. Justify your perm, don’t just say it. You need to explain it not just yell the word perm at me 5 times in a row. I tend to be fine with Condo unless there’s clear abuse. I think I start being open to condo bad around 3 or 4? But if you want me to vote on condo you better GO for it. 15 seconds is not enough. I think fiat theory arguments are good offense against many CPs. Consult, condition or delay CP's without a really good and case specific warrant are lame and I lean aff on theory there. Advantage CPs rule, but more than 5 planks is crazy. By advantage CPs I mean like...actually thought out a targeted ones that exploit weaknesses in plans.

DAs - I evaluate based on risk and impact calc. More than 3 cards in the block saying the same thing is too many. Quality over quantity.

For LD - I try to be as tab as I can but in order to do that you need to give me some kind of weighing mechanism to determine whose voting issues I prefer. If you both just list some voting issues with absolutely no clash it forces me to make arbitrary decisions and I hate that. Give me the mechanism / reason to prefer and you'll probably win if your opponent does not. So like, do I prefer for evidence quality or relevance? Probability? Give me something. I'm probably more open to prog arguments because I come from policy debate but if someone runs a Kritik and you do a decent job on kritiks bad in LD theory against it I'll vote on that.

General Info
Sam King (email: debate@samking.org)

I went to South Eugene High School from 2004-2008 and did policy debate in the national circuit. I went to Stanford for undergrad and for a masters from 2008-2013. While there, I did some debating, and I coached Palo Alto High School. Since 2013, I haven't done much judging or coaching because I started managing tab rooms.

I try to be tab, so run whatever you're most comfortable with. I have biases, but I will try to suppress them when evaluating the round. I list my biases below in an attempt to be honest, not because you should do anything to adapt. You will do better debating something that you're comfortable with than something that you think that I like. Most of my biases aren't too significant, anyways.

Arguments I like or dislike:

• Any type of argument is fine. As a debater, I had a more or less equal propensity to go for the cap bad k, t / theory, or a case specific pic / sneaky counterplan DA strategy.
• The alternatives on most critiques are pretty weak. Also, a lot of K debaters are bad at arguing against impact turns.
• I love well-run critical affs, case specific pics, counterplans with Ks as net benefits, and good case debate.
• I think that Ks and performance arguments are interesting, and I'm moderately versed in the literature, but you should be sure to think about how it's relevant for a debate round or in the context of policy analysis.
• Bad theory debates are very boring. Good and innovative theory debates are interesting.
• Generic "using your agent is bad" das like politics, hollow hope, and prez powers tend to be boring unless they're non-standard or sneaky. So are consult counterplans.
• Sneaky arguments in general are good if you can defend them.
• Winning "terminal defense" is hard absent a concession or something that really doesn't link.
• Gendered language is bad. There is no good offense against the critique of gendered language. I don't understand why any debater ever lets another team that uses gendered language win. If you don't have a gendered language file, then ask me for one or check out bit.ly/genderedlanguage.

General stylistic things:

• If you are bigoted, don't expect very many speaker points. I might intervene against you too, who knows?
• Don't be afraid to extend your cheap shot.
• Argumentative depth is good.
• Speed is good. However, in the first 30 seconds of your first speech, I probably won't be able to hear you because I'm not used to your voice, so don't start out at your max speed, and don't start out on the theory debate. I probably won't yell clear because I expect you to get clearer anyways. I probably won't yell at you as often as I should.
• When you're debating, my face is a very transparent reflection of what I think if your arguments. If I look confused, it's because i don't understand your argument. If I'm nodding or waving at you, you have already made your point and should stop beating a dead horse. If I'm looking up and thinking, it probably means that you said something dense that I'm still processing.
• New Arguments: I was a 1a2n, so I'm fairly critical of new 2ar arguments. I consider an argument in the 2ar new if it isn't on my 1ar flow. For all speeches before the 2ar, I do not care if your argument is new unless the other team tells me to care: since the other team has an opportunity to respond and flag an argument as new, I won't bother looking to verify if it's new.
• Arguments are new or not new; I'm not sure how it's possible to have a "new cross application." Either the argument was in the previous speech or it wasn't; either it always applied to the "new" location or it never did. Everything else is just an artifact of particular styles of flowing, which has little bearing on the legitimacy of an argument.
• Cross-X: CX can be the most important or least important 3 minutes of the debate. I pay attention to CX and sometimes flow it, so make the most of it. Be aggressive.
• Debating Theory: recognize that every argument is some combination of disad and advocacy. In theory, the interpretation is an advocacy; the standards/voters are disads. That means that you need impact calculus and that you should use counter interpretations on theory for the same reason you read counterplans. Also, I prefer debates that discuss general rules of debate rather than ad hoc rules. The rule "a counterplan is illegitimate if there is no agent who could decide between the plan and the counterplan" makes much more sense and is probably more predictable than the rule "the China counterplan is illegitimate." Adopting this style of theory debate will also make you more likely to think about the DAs and impact calculus involved in adopting a given standard for debate.
• You don't need to generically re-extend every card in your scenario. If the other team only attacks your uniqueness, you don't need to specifically extend the link and impact. Just answer the other team's responses and do some comparative analysis between your scenario and theirs.

My theoretical conception of debate as an activity:

• Fairness and Education are Connected: Debate is a game. Being a fun and fair game is necessary to maintain participation. Debate, as a game, is valuable because it's educational. Speaking fast, thinking technically (including in theory arguments), the K and debates about values, discussions about the political process and policy, and thinking in a policymaking mindframe (ie, uniqueness/link/impact, impact calculus) are some of the different and valuable types of education that debate offers. Competition gives debaters a very strong extrinsic motivation to pursue this education. Competition also, by pitting ideas against one another, increases critical thinking and acts similar to a peer review, helping debaters get closer to the Truth.
• Performance: To win that debate should be changed, you need to win that a world that includes your modified version of debate would be superior to a world with the status quo form of debate. Both teams will argue that debate is a unique form of education. The question is how to best utilize that uniqueness. Making debate easier at the expense of education might hamper what makes debate unique; maintaining the rigor of debate while incorporating personal experience might make debate both more unique and more accessible. In order to convince me that debate ought to be change, you would have to win that your plan for debate has a better internal link to (inclusive / good / meaningful) education than their counterplan for debate. Alternately, you could just say that status quo debate educates people in a form of policymaking that leads to imperialist unilateral policymaking (ie, the Spanos critique of debate).
• Framework: No one really believes that signing an aff ballot means that congress will vote for your aff. That doesn't mean, however, that 'discourse' trumps 'fiat' in terms of a framework for evaluating the round: I vote for which (theoretically acceptable and competitive) advocacy the debate has established is best. To be clear, if I vote neg, it does not mean that I actually reject development discourse or that I will solve any of the real world impacts of your critique; voting for a negative critique is just as theoretical an act as voting for an affirmative plan.
• Specific Arguments: (And, remember, I suppress these biases if there's a debate about them) Floating pics are vulnerable to cross-x and theory. Condo is good. Advocacies without specific solvency advocates are annoying and generic. Advocacies that are not an opportunity cost DA against the aff don't make sense (that means, for instance, that if there is no agent who could choose between the plan and the counterplan, then the counterplan doesn't make sense. Feel free to get creative with how some third party might decide between the plan and counterplan, though. This also makes utopian advocacies problematic). Every plan has an implementation (defined by plan text, cross-x clarification, and evidence about what normal means is), and every part of that implementation is vulnerable to a counterplan; some people call this 'functional competition.' That generally means that things like pics and delay counterplans are fine as long as the aff is willing to clarify that their plan does something that makes the counterplan mutually exclusive.

Hi, my name is Allen Nesbitt. You may add me to your chain at ahnesbitt@gmail.com. My pronouns are he/him.

I enjoy debate strategy. I am probably on the more traditional side in that I like cases with plans on the aff. That said, I will consider an argument so long as it is coherent and well reasoned. I will weigh a kritik that makes solid strategic sense in the round. I believe that K affs or affs that do not have plans have a high bar to cross on T.

I enjoy the clash inherent in competitive policy debate.

I value creative and new arguments.

I am fine with speed and tag team cx. Speak only as quickly as you can speak clearly. Go slower and OUTLINE your analytics!

I debated HS in Kansas for four years and today I own a progressive political consulting firm based in SF and DC and specialized in opposition research (oppo research = writing 1ac and 1nc blocks about political candidates and issues).

https://www.nesbittresearch.com/about/allen-nesbitt/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/allennesbitt

Updated Dec 2023

I prefer not to read cards unless I have to (and won't follow along live in the doc) but you can include me on email chains. My email is sarahsmaga@gmail.com.

About Me:
Groves High School '10, Michigan State University '13
I debated for three years in high school and was a coach and judge in college (mostly for Niles North HS). Since then, I've judged a handful of NYCUDL and BAUDL rounds each year.

These days, I'm a pretty flexible judge - just make sure that you stay organized, explain your arguments well, and help me understand why I should vote for you. If you're interested in my more technical thoughts (circa 2013), see below.

General:
Take my philosophy into consideration when prepping your strategy, but ultimately you should run arguments you feel comfortable running.

1. Clipping cards is cheating. If you are caught clipping cards, you will lose the round and get the lowest possible speaker points that the tournament will allow.
2. (new) Prep ends when your speech is saved on the flash drive and that flash drive is removed from your computer. I used to be more relaxed about this, but realized it makes rounds inefficient.
3. Tag-teaming in cross-x is fine. Prompting during a speech is fine. Neither should be excessive. That being said, if two people are talking over each other, I can't flow/hear anything.
4. Be nice to other people in the round. Being condescending, rude, mean, etc. will impact your speaker points.
5. Speed is not as important as clarity: I need to be able to understand you read your arguments in order to vote on them.
6. Please define specific acronyms and topic-specific terms of art - I didn't work at camp last summer and have had limited exposure to the topic.

Specifics:

Counterplans - I'm fine with multiple conditional worlds, but they might make the aff's "condo bad" arguments more convincing. I'm less fond of process counterplans, dirty word PICs, etc. Make sure you explain specifically how your counterplan solves the aff advantages - this might require more work if you run an excessively complicated counterplan. Affirmatives should be making perms, solvency arguments, exploring any links to the net benefit, etc.

Disads - These are good. The negative should be making disad turns case arguments, and the affirmative should be careful not to drop them. I think it is possible for the affirmative to win terminal defense, but it's often very difficult - make sure you're also making offensive arguments as well. I'm not a huge fan of intrinsicness, vote no, bottom of the docket, etc. but I would vote on them if dropped and impacted accordingly.

Kritiks - Try to avoid jargon and explain your arguments, I'm probably not familiar with them and I don't come across critical literature very much in my science major classes. I'm much less persuaded by super-generic or "dirty word" kritiks, especially if they don't prove that the affirmative plan is a bad idea. I think the aff can weigh their advantages and should be doing impact calc versus the kritik, especially on issues of timeframe. The negative should interact with the affirmative and clearly explain the alternative - if these things are unclear by the 2NR, I find it difficult to vote neg.

Theory - I think most theory questions (with the exception of conditionality, PICs) are a reason to reject the argument, but not necessarily the team. If you think otherwise, make sure it's articulated in the debate. Theoretical objections against the consult counterplan, etc. are also convincing if argued well. I find it more difficult to vote on theory when there is a distinct lack of clash - don't just reread blocks, engage with the other team's arguments. Please explain what "conditionality" and "dispositionality" mean - clarify judge-kicking, etc.

Topicality - I prefer a competing interpretations framework. There should be substantive analysis, starting in the block, about why I should prefer your interpretation/standards/voters (just re-reading the 1NC shell in the block isn't sufficient). Impact calc is important here too.

Project Teams/Nontraditional Affs - Historically these are not the debates I feel most comfortable in. Make sure you explain your position and make efforts to engage with the other side's arguments.

Email: lilmisswatticle@gmail.com
Hi, if you bring me food/drink and you might get an extra speaker point. I’ve been to nationals and I’m currently still debating. I AM NOT A LAY JUDGE!!! I flow the whole round and I wanna focus to give you good feedback. I will give you most of the feedback in round but I’ll still write some stuff on the rfd if I miss something. Put me on the chain!! I wanna see your evidence. Do not say PROBLEMATIC Stuff I will vote you down. Example: black people aren’t oppressed or anything racist. Don’t bore me to sleep I am really excited about debate and if you bore me that’s a problem. Be creative I wanna see your arguments come to life. I really like k debate, it’s fun to judge, I also think T is a voter if you run it correctly.

I have judged a minor slew of the wild'n'crazy debates over the past few years. This has lead me to a strong appreciation of the fundamentals: line-by-line, "even if" statements and strong impact calculus. That said, I like to learn and experience new things. If you introduce me to a word or an author or a frame of thinking, I am more likely to reward you with whatever ballots mean. 

My definition of a *good debate* is as follows: words are clear and discernible, arguments are distinct and comparative, speeches are well-organized and contain multiple historical and situational examples, debaters are cordial and crafty while always keeping a sense of humor, paperless wastetime is kept to a minimum and the final two speeches are spent writing my RFD.

Unless you are doing something wrong, I almost always flow cross-ex.

While not impossible, I don't typically vote for teams that solely extend defensive arguments.Since definitions of offense/defense differ among judges, mine are:

Offense = what they advocate is/leads to something that is bad/dangerous/catastrophic. Defense = something they said is incorrect/unlikely/false.

If you are using debate to fashion a new Total World-Image, you should realize that I might not care that hard. I leave you with the following kernel of empuzzling wisdom from the Haruki Murakami:

...there is nothing unusual about a dairy cow seeking a pair of pliers. A cow is bound to get her pliers sometime. It has nothing to do with me.

(Older Extra-Long Version, All Of Which Is Still True-ish)

My primary goal as a judge is to enjoyably resolve debates with a minimum quantity of my own intervention. While true tabula rasa is impossible, I think that attempting to constrain the influences on my decision to arguments in the debate is a necessary thought experiment in the interests of pedagogical competition. Therefore, I will attempt to prevent my prior knowledge of the topic, history, and certain authors or literatures from influencing my decision and will consign such interests to post-round suggestions and comments.

That being said, I have some presumptions which are generally reflected in the way I make decisions in really bad/unresolved or good/close debates, where key questions are left to the judge. If you want me to judge in a different way, then you should introduce a judgment calculus as an argument in the debate itself and tell me how you’d like things resolved. Below are a list of some of my considered presumptions.

STRUCTURE

Debate is a game — it is supposed to be fun and it is supposed to stimulate participants’ intellect. Rules and constraints on arguments are a vital element of motivating this stimulation, in the same way that constraints on poetic forms motivate novel plays of language. Debating the rules, the framework and the impact calculus within that framework has always been a component of winning debates. This is true whether the framework argument concerns a stipulation that the affirmative defend the minimum number of votes necessary for legislative passage, that the judge is a logical policy-maker, that the affirmative must defend a topical plan or that every debater must answer the cross-ex questions posed to them. Fiat and policy implementation are black boxes that can be uniquely unpacked in every debate for strategic gain, whether via an intrinsicness argument or an argument about one’s personal connection to the topic.

Line-by-line is pretty important — it’s how I flow and my flow typically dictates how I decide debates. If there is a compelling reason not to decide a debate on dropped arguments, tell me what it is during the debate and if the other team drops it I’ll make a good-faith effort to embrace your paradox. Conceded arguments may be treated as true, but the scope of that truth is limited by arguments which remain contested. I try to remain vigilant of new arguments in final speeches.

Scope matters — an argument that is thesis-level is more powerful and wide-ranging than a specific argument, but because there are more opportunities for counter-example, general arguments are logically easier to disprove. If you concede the truth of a thesis-level claim without taking the opportunity to find a counter-example, then you should not be surprised when the debate is decided at the level of generalities. See Karl Popper’s explanation of Occam’s Razor for an explanation of the logic behind this.

Warrant depth and diversity are key — it’s how I decide most contests between given claims. Counter-intuitive, improbable and morally repugnant claims are totally winnable with diverse and high-quality warrants.

Cheap shots aren’t a great idea — I’m a pretty good flow but I have a high threshold for clarity. If you mumbled out a voting issue or trick perm in pig latin that the other team missed there’s a decent chance I missed it too. I won’t vote on an argument that I didn’t record during a speech unless all four debaters agree that it was made or concede the same

Offense/defense is standard — with some obvious exceptions it seems like everyone wants to debate this way, so I’m happy to go along with it. I do think there are serious problems with the logic of offense/defense, most easily highlighted in debates over the link differential between a plan and counterplan. I am also susceptible to offense/defense bad arguments (“Arguments are sentences that are either true or false…the counterplan either links to the DA or doesn’t… therefore link differential as a concept is incoherent… you’re either pregnant or you’re not”), but I’m sure there are good responses to such objections

THEORY

Remedy is the most important question for theory debates. I will assume that the impact to a theory argument is to reject the argument unless it is explicitly stated otherwise prior to the final rebuttals.

Conditionality is usually a good thing, but then again it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Nuanced theory is key — I’m more sympathetic to the aff if conditional advocacies contradict or steal the aff in some way, as opposed to the debate over whether or not conditionality in the abstract is good or bad.

Postround conditionality is sweet for the negative but terrible for the aff. I am very sympathetic theoretical objections against it. I won’t kick arguments for the negative unless explicitly told to, and then only if the aff doesn’t object.

Permutations are tests of a link unless explained otherwise. If there is a link argument extended by the negative, then it must be explained how the permutation resolves the link arguments.

DISADS

Uniqueness controls the direction of the link if decisively won by either team — otherwise I’ll evaluate all arguments probablistically via offense/defense

Diverse case turn arguments are a great way to persuade me that you’ve won the debate

I find that I begin most of my decisions by looking at impact uniqueness — the part of debate that determines whether or not either side truly controls “try-or-die”. If a team decisively controls impact uniqueness, then I may be inclined to vote for them even if they appear to be losing much of the rest of the debate.

Extreme-low-risk causal chains fall within the penumbra of statistical noise and in principle only dictate possibility rather than probability. In other words, if you lose a key defensive argument on a DA, you have proven that the link-chain suggested by the DA is possible, but not probable. Because lots of things are possible, the fact that the DA is possible may not be significant in my decision.

COUNTERPLANS

PICs done right are some of my favorite arguments. Case specific, functionally and textually competitive, with specific solvency advocates are awesome

Counterplans that steal the aff are probably unfair for the aff to have to debate — I’m more aff-leaning on condition/consult than most

Cross-ex is the best way to establish competition

Solvency advocates in general are preferable but not a must

KRITIKS

Specificity is key — if you aren’t pointing to specific 1AC cards to do link analysis then you are depriving yourself of both a speaker point opportunity and strategic advantage

Think through what the alt is — if you get embarrassed on the alt being vague and/or naive and/or dumb in cross-ex then I may feel hard-pressed to vote for you

Floating PIKs are silly but really strategic — if you make them too sneakily in the block and then claim that they were “dropped” I think the 2ar probably gets a few new-ish logical answers

CROSS-EX

I flow it sometimes, it’s binding and vital for speaker points

INTERNETS

Only use it for research questions during debates — fine for Wikipedia checks or to get the context of a full article, not cool to open an email with a bunch of new updates half-way through the debate. If you want to use time during a debate to cut a cards, that’s your own business

SPEAKER POINTS

I give speaker points for rhetorical and persuasive flourish, use of historical examples and creative analogies, humor and technical talent. I may lower points for debaters who fight with or interrupt their partner, are cruel or disrespectful to their opponents, who prompt excessively, who make poor use of cross-ex. I will also punish the speaker points of debaters who use prejudicial or discriminatory language in a debate, or violate ethical norms of conduct.

ETHICS

I don’t vote on ethics challenges. There are other remedies that solve better, and I don’t think that it is worth ruining an entire debate over one person’s opinion of what constitutes “community norms” or “ethical practices”. That being said, please don’t lie, cheat, steal, cross-read, fabricate evidence, text/chat with your coaches during a debate and so on — it fosters a weakness of spirit if you get away with it and makes you look pathetic and/or stupid if called out on it.

PERFORMANCE

Arguments are arguments, whether made by voice, image, song or body. That being said, sometimes it’s difficult for me to flow the warrants of the body, so make sure you explain your arguments in plain language. I appreciate rhetorical debating, and will give higher speaker points for performances that look like some effort was put into composition and rehearsal.

I find that reading evidence often distracts from / undermines the rhetorical force of a performance. I appreciate warranted argumentation — you don’t need to hand me a lot of evidence.

Your opponents influence the way that I judge your solvency. Make sure that the other team understands what you’re argument is, or at very least give them the opportunity to understand. Performance teams whose arguments are excessively complicated, vague or constantly morphing can undermine their own raison d’etre.

I am more sympathetic to performances that either justify the resolution or have advocacy statements that are germane to the topic. I think that topicality and framework are different arguments. Make sure you can defend your education in the context of the education facilitated by the resolution.