Markon,+Adam

I debated mainly Congressional Debate through my high school years and was reasonably successful, attending nationals twice, TOC once, and winning numerous local and circuit tournaments. The bottom line is that I have experience in the event, both speaking and presiding, and have extensive knowledge of its rules and nuances.
 * Congressional Debate **

Having said that, I know all of the tricks and politicking that goes on. As a presiding officer, I know how easy it is to manipulate the chamber through the first round of speeches and questions. Fortunately, I also know how easy it is to spot this behavior. Similarly, speakers engaging in behavior such as asking for extended recesses to prevent speeches and asking softball questions to make a friend look good will not be tolerated. While this is a politicized event and some of this politicking is inherent to the event, it should never get to a point where it detracts or distracts from the actual debate, nor should it prevent a competitor form having a fair chance at victory. There is a difference between saving your precedence to steal a speech and using every trick in the book to prevent that speech from occurring at all. I //know// every trick in the book, so don't even bother.

Evidence is crucial to getting a positive ballot from me. I won't go as far as saying explicitly that evidence wins tournaments, but I will say that I have yet to see a champion that doesn't use copious amounts of evidence. If you provide warrantless claims they will be treated as such. Furthermore, there is no situation in which falsified or misleading evidence is acceptable. It is easy to tell when evidence is being misrepresented and I will not hesitate to call you out on it. Finally, evidence must be properly cited and attributed. Author, publication, and date are all important.

This event's name has been changed from Student Congress to Congressional Debate for a reason: this is first and foremost a debate event. Clash is something crucial that I look for as a judge. Giving non-responsive speeches that are clearly points you have had outlined for days may make you sound more eloquent, but any experienced judge can immediately tell when this is happening and I will not hesitate to dock you speech points and ranks depending on the situation. For more on my opinion on clash, read my piece on my colleague Bailey Rung's congress blog, The Chair. On a related note, this event's extemporaneous nature means that prewritten speeches will not be tolerated with the exception of authorship speeches. Even first negative speeches should be responsive to the first affirmative.

Presentation is also important in this event. As a judge I focus roughly 70% on argumentation, 30% on presentation. While I will gladly vote for a student with great arguments and mediocre presentation over a student with mediocre arguments and great presentation, two students with similar quality of arguments will be evaluated on their presentation. Aspects such as posture, humor, confidence, volume, and your general ability to be an engaging speaker will all be taken into account. I would hope this goes without saying, but disabilities or conditions that prevent you from presenting well (speech impediments, physical disabilities, sickness, etc.) will obviously not be held against you.

Lastly, this is a friendly competition event. It only serves its purpose as an educational and constructive environment if you as debaters are enjoying your time and behaving amicably.