ADL MentorMentee tournament
2025 — Taipei, TW
Debate Judge Paradigm List
All Paradigms: Show HideCoach @ Asian Debate League
Debated 4 years at Kapaun** Mount Carmel in Wichita, Kansas, 2017
Debated 4 years NDT/CEDA/D3 at University of Kansas, 2021
Email chain: gaboesquivel@gmail.com
My biases:
I lean aff for condo. Some might say too much. I might expect a lot from you if you do go for it.
For K's I value consistency between the scale of the links and impacts i.e. in round impacts should have in round links.
I strongly bias toward "The K gets links and impacts vs the aff's fiated impacts" unless someone delivers a very persuasive speech. I can be persuaded that making a personal ethical choice is more important than preventing a nuclear war.
I lean toward affs with plans. Fairness concerns me less than usual nowadays. I like research/clash impacts.
I will read evidence and vote for evidence in debates where things are not settled by the debater's words. This happens frequently in T debates and impact turn debates.
Status quo is always an option=judge kick
How I judge:
I am patient with novices because most of my students are novices.
I listen first and read your evidence second. If you are clear, this distinction shouldn't matter. If you aren't clear I'm not comfortable reading your blocks and cards to fill in the gaps for you.
I flow and use everything I hear in my decision, and overemphasize what is said in the rebuttals. I'll reference the 1AR speech to protect the 2NR on a 2AR that "sounds new" and I'll reference the block on a 2NR that claims the 1AR dropped something. I'll reference a 2AC on a 1AR that claims the block dropped something, etc.
For a dropped argument to be a true argument it must have been a complete claim and warrant from the beginning. I am not a fan of being "sneaky" or "tricky". Unless you are going for condo ;)
I am persuaded by ethos and pathos more than logos. I find myself wanting to vote for a debater who tries to connect with me more than a debater who reads a wall of blocks even if they are technically behind. When both teams are great speakers I rely more on tech and evidence.
I try to craft my decision based on language used by the debaters. I reference evidence when I cannot resolve an argument by flow alone. PhD's, peer reviewed journals, and adequate highlighting will help you here. If I can't resolve it that way I'll look for potential cross applications or CX arguments and might end up doing work for you. If I do work for one team I will try to do the same amount for the other team. It might get messy if its close, that's what the panel is for, but please challenge my decision if you strongly disagree and I'll tell you where my biases kicked in.
**Pronounced (Kay-pen)
Asian Debate League
Graduate of Emory University
Email chain: hmdebate01@gmail.com
Last Updated: September 2024
I am pretty much down to listen to anything, barring arguments that are disrespectful to your opponents, racist, sexist, etc. Do your thing, and don't take debate too seriously. Most of my experience is in the "policy" side of debate, but I have both argued and coached all sides.
My default understanding of kritiks are as CPs/DAs that have a different understanding of what constitutes a link and what determines competition. I can be convinced of anything, though.
Topicality against K AFFs is not dramatically different than topicality against policy AFFs. I can be convinced of almost anything, which is to say that ballot framing and impact calculus are very important. When talking about the merits of a K AFF, I am perhaps more persuaded than some that AFFs ought to be responsible for defending their method broadly, beyond the confines of just this individual debate. For example, suppose an AFF defends an orientation toward death. I am very easily convinced that I should evaluate its desirability for everyone and not just the debaters in the room. I think that perms exist in method debates, but not that they are just doing the AFF and the alt at the same time with no further explanation.