McCarty,+Andrew

McCarty, Andrew.

I debated for four years at Wake Forest and am now the Director of Policy Debate at Blake.

Generally, this is how I approach judging debates.

1. Voting aff means the plan is superior to the status quo and any competitive policy option. 2. Topicality is a voting issue and never a reverse voting issue. 3. Impact evaluation and comparison is crucial. Whichever team is controlling the frame is likely the team that is going to win. 4. "Uniqueness determines the direction of the link" is not very compelling. Uniqueness is never definite. If the neg wins a link, then voting aff increases the probability of the disad. 5. Offense/Defense makes the most sense for most impact evaluations, but there are notable exceptions. Teams that actively attempt to strategically alter this frame will be rewarded. 6. I will only determine the quality of an argument after I determine if it was responded to. That said, you have to make a dropped argument matter. 7. Qualifications matter, like, a lot. If you have super qualified cards, tell me about it. If you don't, don't say "OUR CARDS ARE WRITTEN BY PROFESSORS" and expect me to care. 8. Teams should be prepared to debate about debate to a certain extent. That said, I am heavily on the side of debate being an worthwhile and educational activity, and I feel uncomfortable being asked to endorse a movement or a project given sufficient debating by the other team. 9. I vote neg on T more than I expected, primarily due to 1AR/2AR execution issues. Impact comparisons, like everything else, are critical. Good teams start those debates in the 1AR. 10. Permutations are a test of competition unless otherwise stated. Advocating permutations is a very, very uphill battle. 11. Legitimate – conditionality, PICs 12. Questionable – consult, condition, delay, agent, floating PIKs, states, international 13. Illegitimate - object fiat, individual actor fiat, world peace, utopian fiat 14. Reject the team, not the arg – conditionality, dispositionality, topicality. 15. Reject the arg, not the team – agent CPs, states CPs, international CPs, PICs, no neg fiat, consult, condition, delay, severance perms, intrinsic perms, framework, cheap shots. 16. Things that will get you good speaker points: humor, situational/strategic awareness, aggressive strategies, not stealing prep.