Matthew+Jonathan

I debated LD for Timothy Christian School for four years on both my local and the national circuit. I did mostly LD and did like 5 tournaments of PF. I graduated in 2016.

LD

After my first year out, the only involvement I've had with debate has essentially been judging at a couple nationals every year. At this point, all technical aspects of debate are far gone from my skill set; as such, it is probably better to just treat me as if I am a traditional judge. Now, you don't have to do this, and I'll do my best to make an objective decision based on the flow. And, I'll leave my old philosophy below in order to leave you with an idea of how I used to view debate. But, treating me as though I'm savvy with current debate trends skyrockets the likelihood that all three of us will be very uncomfortable during the RFD. If you are a TOC caliber debater and want to run cool stuff please just strike me. I'm gonna be a minimalist. I'm not gonna call for evidence. I'm not gonna say clear. If I don't understand something then I'm not voting for it; it doesn't matter if it's 100 percent conceded.

I **don't want to get your case emailed or flashed to me** because I think it defeats the purpose of the speech. Therefore speed is something you should take with caution. When I was debating I always had trouble getting everything on my flow and now that I'm not at a tournament every weekend my ability to flow isn't getting better, to say the least. Don't let this scare you out of speed, just take me seriously when I say that you need to **slow down** for short analytics, taglines, T and theory, card authors, and blip spreads. If you don't do this, there's a good chance I'll be extremely confused and make a decision one of you will be particularly unhappy with.

I'm good with T/Theory but I am not a fan of the neg running like 4 t-shells in order to prevent the affirmative form having time to respond. I won't vote you down for it, but I may lower your speaks to a number you may not agree with. Theory, in my opinion, can be decided more subjectively, so if I think one debater is making more sense ill probably lean their way, even if they are not making the proper extensions perfectly. That should dissuade you from running stupid/frivolous theory just because you know your opponent is less adept technically than you are.

I'm good with most other things such as K's, CP's and Plans. Just explain to me what specifically I can and should vote off of. I ran most stuff when I was in high school, but again remember that was a few years ago. If you have any other specific questions about what you can and can't run just as me before the round starts.

As long as both debaters are good with flex prep I am.

Please be respectful of your opponents and help them learn if they aren’t as experienced as you. Running T on a novice or someone who has never been to a bid tournament before isn’t going to help them learn, please don’t do that.

PF

Basically just **weigh** so it's easy for me to make my decision

General speaker point guidelines:

<27-below average

27-27.5- average

27.5-28.5-may break

28.5-29.5 deserves to break IMO

29.5-30 deserves to break and IMO should go deep into out rounds

P.S. if you can make me laugh I will give you better speaks.