Sabharwal,+Sid

Conflicts: Mission San Jose HS

I am a junior at UC Davis. I debated for 4 years for Mission San Jose High School. I competed in Varsity Policy for two years, and Varsity Lincoln-Douglas for two years. I competed at several circuit tournaments and am familiar with most arguments.

This is a basic overview, if you're lazy and not going to read the rest:
 * I haven't debated in 3 years, so while I can still flow pretty quickly, your absolute top speed will probably be too quick for me, especially if you have a high voice. Other than that speed is fine. If I can't understand you, I'll say clear twice, and then stop flowing
 * I'm a blank slate at the beginning, I come in with no prior opinions on the topic.
 * If you're aff I highly advise you to have some kind of advocacy, if you're running some weird performance aff, you should strike me. Neg gets the status quo at the beginning of the round.
 * I'll vote on anything, everything is fair game. However if your strat is to throw 10 off cases and drop whichever ones your opponent undercovers, you're less likely to get 30 speaks, unless they were all quality arguments (highly unlikely)
 * Speaker points depend on clarity, types of arguments you ran, and overall style of debate. If you're a snarky asshole, I'll still give you the W, but you're probably not getting a 30 out of me. I generally give pretty good speaks (28.5 - 29.5). To me a 30 is just a flawless round, that being said I have given 30 to a losing debater. I give high speaks to debaters who use humor well, and are strategic with prep time. Nothing more ballsy then the 2AR saying "no prep" and killing it.
 * If you're paperless, prep time stops when the flash drive leaves the computer. Otherwise, give opponents access to your evidence.
 * I pay attention to CX, but I don't flow it, and believe it is binding.
 * Please signpost before your speeches, so I can put my flow in order, if you're just going line by line, let me know where to flow it, so you can generate clash (don't expect me to fill in arguments for you).
 * Please spend 45 seconds in your final speech going over voting issues, and some impact calculus (magnitude, probability, time frame) should be done in every speech. Do some "even if" style of comparisons and try to generate clash.
 * I have only called for cards once, when a debater claimed that their opponent wrongly stated what was in the piece of evidence, other than that I don't call cards, if I don't understand your argument it's probably because you didn't explain it well.
 * Here is how I default to evaluating arguments: 1. Theory and Topicality, 2. Framework 3. Kritiks, Disadvantages, and Counterplans. That being said if you make an argument otherwise, I'll hear it and evaluate it.

Specifics:


 * __ THEORY: __**


 * NEG:** I will vote on shitty theory regardless if its a clear voting issue, and you're running it for strategic purposes, I just think it takes away from the educational value of debate. Honestly, if your strat is to run a ton of BS theory because you know the aff won't be able to cover the theory and a bunch of blippy off cases, I'll vote for you if you're ahead, but its an asshole move. I absolutely hate it when teams think they should win the round because they can speak faster than there opponents. I'm going to need an interpretation, violating, standards, and voter. Just to be clear I'll vote off your BS theory if the aff doesn't respond to it, but don't expect a 30 from me. In my opinion, there should be some clear abuse (strat skew, ground skew, moving target etc.) I default to competing interpretations.


 * AFF:** Aff can also run theory if there is abuse, although my threshold is just a bit higher, since the aff has the first and last speech. I've noticed in many rounds that the aff just gets intimidated when the Neg spews through a theory shell, and undercovers a lot of it. Respond to theory how you would respond to a T shell, go through the link story, and show how there is no abuse or how there is no harm even if you violate the standard. I don't think theory is an RVI for the aff. If no argument is made on the theory shell, I default to dropping the debater.


 * __ TOPICALITY __** :

**NEG:** I love T, it was one of my favorite arguments when I debated, but I do believe Topicality needs have a clear abuse story. This isn't a very popular opinion nowadays, but as a debater I hated when judges would intervene and let their opinions into the round, so I default to competing interpretations, however, if you make a more convincing argument that T is about reasonability, I'll frame the T debate that way. That being said, I'm not a huge fan of "potential abuse is a voter" arguments, the neg should tell me what arguments they couldn't run because the aff's interpretation of the topic limited them from generating any ground. Topicality needs to have an interpretation, violation, standards, and a voter. Good topicality needs internal links to the impact.

**AFF:** If you can show me why your counter interp isn't limiting, or why the neg interp isn't the right way to look at a word or a phrase, it'll probably be enough for me. If you can also show me why the Neg isn't losing some ground with your advocacy, I'll also buy it. If an Aff runs T on some CP the neg runs, I'll kill your speaks. T isn't an RVI, obviously, the aff shouldn't win just for being topical. I also default to dropping the debater on T.


 * __ FRAMEWORK __**


 * NEG:** When I was debating on the neg, and the aff was really fast and had a bunch of impacts coming out of there AC, I would run FW to negate some of those advantages. Neg should show why their education and ground is good, and why they should even get it. I really like seeing framework debates, I think they're a smart strategy and underused.

**AFF:** In LD, especially at the circuit level, I realize the standard value and value criterion way of debating is getting outdated, however that doesn't mean you shouldn't provide me with some way to frame the round in your first speech, if you don't do this the Neg can jump ahead on the flow really quickly, and it becomes harder to recover. I like to see good framework debates, you can read whatever philosophy you want, just go a bit slower on analytics. If you realize you're behind on FW and kick it, make sure you can generate offense under the neg FW.


 * __ KRITIKS __** :

**NEG:** I always interpreted K's as just non-unique DA's. I never ran that much of them in HS, mostly just the Cap K, but I understand them well, as people ran them on me almost every round. I'm decently versed in critical literature, but if you start throwing out buzz words and don't explain what they mean, it's going to be very hard for me to flow you. If you're going to be running a K, please go a tiny bit slower as you run through the guts of the card, so I can flow the important arguments. Additionally, if you're running a K, I'm going to need a link, impact, alternative. Your alternative should solve the problems in the aff, otherwise what's the point? Additionally, if you're running a dense K, with a lot of weird terms, and if the Aff asks you to explain something and you can't, it looks really poorly on you. Please don't double turn yourself, I've judged rounds where people run a fem K, and use "he" as there stock pronoun everywhere else in the round. That being said, if the aff doesn't call you out on it, neither will I.

**AFF:** Understand that a K is just a way to test the world you present in your aff advocacy, even if you don't understand a single word of what some obscure late 15th-century French guy is saying about something, don't be worried. Clarify your doubts in CX, and if you can show that the alt doesn't actually solve, or how there is no link to your aff, it'll be a good start.

__ **DISADVANTAGES**: __

**NEG:** I love hearing unique DA's, like I'll vote on a Politics DA, but they aren't exactly my favorite. Congress doesn't do much these days anyways, so I find a lot of Politics DA's to be non-unique. Do your research, and cut recent evidence. Be knowledgeable here. Specific links to the Aff, and then internal links to the impact are awesome, and I love when a debater clearly explains why the aff advocacy will cause something bad to happen.

**AFF:** DA's are chains, if you take out the link to your plan, or some internal link to the impact it's good enough. If you can show something is non-unique and then do an impact calculus and show 0% chance of neg impact happening is also okay, you could also clearly show how your impacts outweigh.


 * __ COUNTERPLANS __** :


 * NEG:** You must have some other advocacy, and show how it competes with the aff. You MUST have some net benefit. Just like DA's a unique CP to an aff advocacy is devastating. I have voted on actor CP's in the past, but I find them to be pretty generic, and the net benefit is normally non-unique. I'll also vote on Word PICs but honestly if you can beat an Aff with a "The" PIC, you probably would've beaten them with anything else too.


 * AFF:** The Perm is becoming an underused strategy, especially in LD debate. Use it, show me that the CP isn't mutually exclusive, and that's a good beginning strat. Otherwise take out the net benefit.

Feel free to ask me any more questions before the round, and good luck to everyone!