Miles,Scott

I will start with my background: I am a philosophy major at University of Virginia and I did policy debate all four years of high school at broad run. I went to CFLs and NFLs my junior and senior year and debated a good amount at the varsity level on the national circuit all four years. as a debater i considered myself to lean more towards the critical side running everything from development and capitalism, to orientalism, nietzche, and the whole gammut of PoMo authors.

As a judge, I always enjoy a good critical debate, but please please please connect it back to the round. tell me why it matters in the round dont just give me 8 minutes of post modern bullshit and expect me to apply it how you want. So for me the link debate is very important. and the alternative is honestly much less important. the negatives job is to prove that the aff is a bad idea, so even if the alt cant solve it can still function as a linear morality disad or whatever you want to call it. By the same token this means i allow the aff case to weight against the impact of the disadvantage usually unless a compelling reason is presented why it shouldnt.

I tend to have a higher threshold for topicality because I was the squirrely t debater who would take 5 minutes of aspec in the 1nr. I will still vote on T if its presented well or if it is a non topical case, but i tend to lean towards letting debates go to see a debaters analytical skills (thus i would give more weight to more creative or less substantial arguments if i deem a case to be squirrely)

DA/Counterplans: no issue with these at all, but they do tend to et boring and repetitive. If you run politics please make sure it is unique. i have low tolerance for a politics DA with uniqueness from over a year ago. counterplans are often very strategic and should be used as such not just a time skew. as tempting as it may be to throw in a crappy 1 card CP to make the aff answer it, it is not strategic and you will lose the condo flow.

theory: i also tend to have a little bit higher threshold for theory for the same reason as topicality, but I will vote for it if its run well or not answered well.

Framework: Framework is very important in a good critical round because this is where you tell me how to evaluate your arguments in the round. however, keep in mind that you can win the framework and still lose the round.

I have no problem with speed, but dont compromise clarity for speed. slow down on tags, blah blah blah

All in all, do what you do best and tell me what you think is the most important issues in the round and why they are more important than your opponents main (dis)advantages. If you want to play music or frollic around like a fairy for 7 minutes of your 1ac, thats cool with me, just tell me the importance/significance of the performance.

Most of all, Have Fun