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I debated L&D when I was in HS in the last millennium and now am enjoying judging. I am most comfortable with LD but enjoy public forum, policy and parli as well.

- I appreciate good speaking ability- the oral presentation should enhance the message, and not be just reading your speech.

- I prefer to see sound logic and critical analysis over a rush of minimal responses. If you can't respond reasonably to everything, prioritize and defend the top priorities that should decide the debate. I will decide the debate based on weighing, and that critical things are responded to, and in how the weighing ties into the value criterion. I'd prefer to see a win on good logic vs technicalities.

- LD: Whether you win or lose the value debate, I expect you to successfully defend how you meet the value criterion or debate goal in your weighing.

- Signpost and make sure you take the time to properly and clearly represent evidence - clearly tag it and make clear what is the quoted evidence versus your own argument.

- Finally, be kind, civil, and professional. Disagree with your opponent but refrain from disparaging.

Thank you for engaging in this important activity and I look forward to hearing your case!

I’m an 18 year old recent high school graduate, off to college in a couple of weeks. I joined my high school’s speech team on a whim during my last semester of high school and gave an original advocacy speech in two tournaments, but I have no experience with debate. I appreciate humor in any type of presentation. Be entertaining and don’t talk way to fast.

I was a policy and LD debater in high school in the 90s, qualifying for TOC and CA States my senior year. I also coached my high school team while I was in college.

My LD ballot will go to the debater who persuasively argues that their position maximizes the most important values. I'm looking for a clash of ideas; for critical thinking and evidence that backs it up, and for the arguments to be tied back to the values in the end. It's a big advantage to you to crystallize and weigh for me; if I have to decide for myself you're leaving it up for grabs.

I will hear out topicality and theory arguments, but they will only decide my ballot if I think one side has been abusive or off topic beyond a reasonable doubt.

It is important to me that debaters show respect and courtesy to their opponent, to me, and to the event and tournament organizers. Etiquette violations will show up in speaks (but not decide my ballot.)

If I judge students from the same program running word-for-word the same case, I will also deduct speaker points. I'm completely fine with pooling ideas, contentions, and evidence between teammates, but debaters should write their own cases.

I appreciate contentions that are explained clearly and in an organized manner. Prefer fewer meaningful arguments over many less impactful ones. Take a few sentences to explain more important arguments, otherwise I might miss them. When referring back to cards made in earlier speeches, it's helpful to mention the essense of the studies rather than just the name of the author. Strongly prefer reasonable analysis over taking arguments to the extreme ending up in nuclear war.

I am a first time parent judge. I did Oxford debate in high school. I would prefer moderately paced taking and no spreading. I will not be able to keep up with you if you start spreading. Since I am a first time judge, I will need you to clearly spell out your arguments, rebutals, and points during the round. Make sure you tell me why you or your team should win the round and why your arguments outweigh your opponents'. Thank you and good luck on your rounds!

I am a parent judge who has judged LD primarily for the past 2 years. I struggle with extreme circuit style speakers, so kindly slow down a little bit for me if you are a circuit style debater.

Experience: Did 4 years of Parli in high school, did 4 years in college Parli.

Overview : To be honest, I would prefer the debate to be about the topic, but its not a deal breaker for me.

I’am a flow judge, you tell me to cross apply, I will cross apply; you tell me to extend I will extend, BUT DON’T EXPECT ME TO DO IT FOR YOU, you have to tell me. Offense is more powerful to me than defense, but its still smart to protect your case regardless. IMPACTS are my thing, easiest way to win with me is to have lots of good impacts with clear and reasonable internal links. In the number and variety of the impacts, have at it. If you want to run the impacts like Nuclear War, Space Weapon Planetary Destruction, Anarchy, Dehumanization, Resource Wars etc . Go for it ! Just have the Internal Links to back it up. I only flow what is said by the speaker, during their speech, but feel free to have your partner answer a POI for you. I’m fine with the whole, your partner adding on to your speech, just make sure you restate what they say, so its on my flow. I’m fine with you folks asking any other questions not on this paradigm during round.

Etiquette/Behavior: Debate is a very rigorous, respectable, and educational activity. I have the upmost respect for all of you debaters, so you might see me a bit serious in round. I want all of you to be respectful to your opponents and do not make fun of them and give them the proper attention they deserve. Public speaking is not natural to most, so please, if you are going to talk to your partner while your opponent is speaking, WHISPER. I'm totally fine with you doing your speech standing up or sitting down at your desk, be comfortable. I don’t mind if you are not dressed in “tournament attire”, mainly to avoid the Elitism, Nudist, and/or any other wonky K, but I also know people who are great debaters that cannot afford to wear a nice suit, so there is that.

Flow: Be clear and to the point.

Topicality: I don’t mind voting on T, but I have a very high threshold on them. You need to show me clear and present abuse in round.

Procedural: No A spec, No E spec, for god sake no Funding Spec. Trichot gives me a literal headache, don't go for it in-front of me. All of things you think are procedural should be on solvency and/or the framework.

Every round should be a Policy, miss me with that value/fact debate.

Critcal Aff’s

• I am a believer of the disclosure. If you run a critical AFF you should disclose your advocacy to the Neg before or right as prep starts. If not and you go for it, and the NEG runs any decently canned disclosure theory on you, you’re in deep water with me. But if you have answers to disclosure good, you can still win as long as they are thicc and warranted.

Kritiks: Meh, they exist. If you make the case compelling. I HAVE voted on it.

What I will do is vote down the K if you don’t follow these prerequisites.

The K must be accessible (in terms of understanding) to everyone in the round. If you see your competitors confused or you see me confused, you're losing your K before you even finished with it. E.g. ontological, existential, pedagogical, epistemology, any philosophical K’s must be read in a way in which everyone in the room can understand what is going on. You will not win the round by your opponents being dumbfounded on your K.

• The K also must be organized as well. Do not miss a thing!

• There MUST be a link for the K. You must clearly link into why the debates warrants the use of your K.

• Your K must have impacts

• Your K must have a roll of the JUDGE, role of the ballots are stupid, to be honest. Like its a piece of paper that decides who wins, tell me how my consciences act of selecting the team that wins; has an impact inside and outside of the round.

Adv’s/DAdv’s: Internal links and Impacts ! Please. Harms and links, are a given, you should already know this.

Counterplans: If squo can solve then focus on the DA’s and case turns. If that doesn’t work RUN THE COUNTERPLAN ! But be ready for the PERM. I don’t mind you running your case on status quo, just mind the fact that you as the opp will face “you are not doing anything to fix the problem” argument from the aff.

THE PERM: this is where some the best debates I’ve ever seen, wind down to. The perm is a very serious move that can be run by the aff. I have and will vote on the Perm. It comes down to who really owns it. If you are a good opp and preemptively make your plan mutually exclusive you should be fine, but the usually gov runs a permutation anyway.If the PERM fails, I will resort to which plan has more impacts and are solving for the most harms.

Speaker Points: I judge on clarity and presentation of argument. I really do not care about regalness or elegance. I usually don't give 29 or 30. If you get a 29 or 30 from me, that’s essentially me saying, “damn you're good, you deserve to win top speaker”.

Speed: I’m fine with it, if it gets too fast I will yell “CLEAR”, in which I want you to repeat the last thing you said and slow down a little afterwards. If you make me say it more than 3 times, i'm knocking off a speaker point for every time you do it again.

Anything else you want to ask, ask me before the debate begins or even after. I'm extremely approachable.

Adrian Youngquist (they/them)

I have been coaching LD for Palo Alto for 5 years, and before that, I was an LD debater there.
Email: adrian.youngquist@gmail.com

For lay tournaments: I believe that lay tournaments should be lay–flay. I am capable of judging a fast round, but I really do not want to. I will drop speaks if you instigate a fast round. Debate flay—you can speak like a fast newscaster but don't sound like an auctioneer.

For non-LD debate events: I've judged them, I know the format (most familiar with PF, less so with others), all of the below applies, except I will not be at all familiar with the topic lit.

I will vote on pretty much anything unless it is offensive, but if your case is strategically abusive, your speaks will suffer.

Impact your arguments. If your argument has no explicit impacts and solid links to those impacts, I won't vote on it. Have a clear ballot story, and do plenty of weighing. I won't weigh, extend, or cross-apply for you, and if you don't tell me how to evaluate the round, you probably won't like how I do evaluate the round. If your opponent does weighing and impacting and you don't, even if their weighing and impacting is poor, they will almost surely win. Debate clearly with well-explained links.

In general, I'm well-read in the topic literature (for LD). I'll probably know when you're making things up or misusing your evidence. I will vote on bad evidence if your opponent doesn't call you on it as long as it's not blatant cheating, but I won't be happy about it, and your speaks will suffer.

I was not a circuit debater, but I have experience with circuit arguments, and I will vote on them. I'm not comfortable with fast spreading, but some speed is okay. If you're extremely clear, 300 wpm is okay. Otherwise stick to a little above 200 max. If you see me stop writing, you are unclear, too fast, or saying something that doesn't merit writing down. (Also see my note on lay tournaments.)

LARP debate is fine. Exception: I hate extinction link chains. Unless the topic is explicitly about something like nuclear weapons, climate change, or a similarly large threat, I don't want to hear it. If there are more than two–three links, I don't want to hear it. These arguments usually just get in the way of substantive debate. Cards are almost always power tagged. I lower speaks significantly for any bad link chain that just attempts to inflate impacts.

If you are running something complicated like a nuanced K, explain it well, slow down on the analytics, and run it at your own risk—be warned that I don't have experience with the literature or this type of debate. I will vote on it, but don't expect me to understand something if you don't clearly explain it. The same goes for complicated FWs, though to a lesser degree. Explain things well and don't expect me to vote for you/believe your arguments just because you use big, fancy words.
I prefer topical debate, so if you want me to vote on a non-topical K, performative case, or other non-topical argument, you need to explain your ROB extremely well. Know that this is not my preferred type of debate, and as above, run it at your own risk.

I'll vote on theory/topicality, but I strongly dislike frivolous/abusive theory. I default to competing interps, but in cases of frivolous theory I am very receptive to arguments for reasonability. Don't run theory just for the fun of it.

Speaker points: I believe that speaker points are meant to encourage and discourage norms in debate. Your strategic decisions, argument quality, weighing, and round framing, as well as the way you treat your opponent, will determine your speaks. I don't assign speaks based on perceived speaking ability.

- Abusive arguments will severely lower your speaks.
- It should be a given, but do not be offensive. If you are lucky, only your speaks will suffer. If it is bad enough, it will lose you the round.
- Be polite and don't be a bully.
- Don't force a circuit round at a lay tournament, especially if your opponent is clearly uncomfortable with it
- Stay within the time limits. Go ahead and finish your (short) sentence after time, and it is okay to answer a question after time runs out in CX (you don't need to ask me, please). Past that, I will not flow anything you say, and your speaks will suffer.
- My pet peeve is misused statistics. Analyze statistics well or point out your opponent's misanalyzed statistics and I will give you bonus speaker points. Egregiously misuse statistics and your speaks will drop.

Congrats for making it this far into my (long) paradigm. Before the round, tell me the best name for a pet cat you can think of and I'll bump your speaks by .2 (more if your cat name is absolutely brilliant).

On email chains: Your adding me to an email chain and giving me a copy of your case does NOT give you license to read less clearly or skip parts. If I do not catch something during your speech, I will not put it on my flow. I use your case for technological difficulties and informational purposes only—referring back to evidence when specific parts are disputed, exact wording of tag lines, plan texts, and interpretations, etc.

Hi, if you can, please do not speak very fast. Thank you