Mauro,+Tyler

HS: Central Gwinnett, Georgia College: University of West Georgia (Currently Debating) Questions? Email: tmauro1@my.westga.edu

I’ve been in debate for 5 years now. I started debating on the military withdrawal topic and I’ve debated every year since. I have also debated this debate year, so there’s no need to slow down, I know what the high school topic is this year (surveillance) and I understand everything you’re saying.


 * __Discliamer before you read this philosophy__** -- read what you were going to read before you read this wiki. I am more interested to hear what you have to say, what you think is strategic, and I prefer to hear you debate how you debate. That's going to make me more happy than whatever is in this wiki.

Philosophy:

__Topicality:__ T is a voter if you win it, and I view T and framework to be essentially the same thing - as a result I won't say T is never a reverse voter because I do believe that bracketing out important discussions, especially the discussion of race, with T can be bad. I don’t believe that T shouldn’t be under-covered just because you run a clearly topical AFF, but I do believe that the AFF can smartly answer T with an obvious counter interpretation. I’m a logical person and understand definitions both ways, so don’t be afraid to go for T and don’t be afraid if the other team does. T is a very line-by-line debate and I will judge it as such.

__CP:__ I like to watch this type of debate. This has even been my go-to strat on some topics. When going with a CP, make sure you make the net benefit obvious, whether it’s a DA or internal. I am cool with any CP you can come up with as long as you can defend it as net beneficial, and I am super duper cool with the PIC. I love PICs. Sorry. I think it's strategic, but that doesn't mean I necessarily think that it's fair. Debate it out.

__DA/Case:__ This is my least favorite type of debate. Hate the PTX DA. You know what to do, just properly explain solvency deficits to magnify the DA, or just straight up go for turns on the DA. I really, really look at uniqueness when you’re going for a DA, so make sure it’s up to date and goes your way.

__Ks:__ I understand and debate Ks. Your K should win a link. If you win a link you often win the debate, often times the link/impact flow is more important than the alternative, although a good alternative debate will make me warm and fuzzy inside. I am fairly familiar with most K literature, I am more familiar with Deleuze as a specific author, ableism foremost, feminism, capitalism, speciesism, "race", and Ks of method. What does this mean? It doesn’t mean that you don’t have to explain the debate to win, it just means that your rebuttals shouldn’t be the generic “this is how X K functions” and should be instead centered around smart analysis of how the K interacts with and wins against the affirmative. AFF, answer the K smartly and don’t forget your 1AC is your biggest form of offense. I do not care how you word your perms, but you need to explain to me HOW your perm functions.

__Theory:__ Tell me what to do with it. Do I reject the argument or the team? Why? If you plan to go for theory, go for theory. Don’t be afraid; I am a judge who votes on theory and who will flow the entirety of the theory debate – I just need to be told what to do once I decide which team is winning the theory flow.

__K AFFs/Performance AFFs:__ I’ve debated these, I’ve run these, I like these, and you can run these in front of me. Make the question “why vote AFF?” very clear to me, don’t be sketchy about it, and you’re in a good place. I don't care if you have a plantext, I don't care if you don't say anything at all in your 8 minutes, just tell me why I vote for you.

 DISCLAIMER – THINGS THAT WILL GET YOUR SPEAKS DOCKED: -- Racist/Sexist/Ableist slurs -- Being rude. This isn’t cute to watch. Prep ends when you say it is over.