Zabner,+Adam

Sep 26, 2017
 * __Last Updated __ **

First year at the University of Chicago Qualified to TOC (2015, 2016) Won IHSSA State Tournament (2015, 2016) Email: adam.zabner@gmail.com (please include me on the chain)
 * __Background __ **

Disclaimer: I have done no research on the education topic. While I'll certainly do my best to keep up, I might need a bit more explanation from you than other judges. Try to avoid using acronyms before you have explained them.

General Philosophy: I would like to do as little work as possible to decide your debate. Rebuttals that I can copy paste onto my ballot will be rewarded with both speaker points and the ballot. If you fail to pick and choose your best arguments and wrap up the debate, I will be unhappy. It is your burden to explain your arguments to me, and while I will do my best to comprehend you, I will not be embarrassed to vote against arguments that I don't understand by the end of the debate.


 * Specifics: **

Disadvantages- Probably my favorite part of debate is the top level interactions with case and good DA O/Ws and Case O/Ws and turns debates. These are probably where the majority of my decision calculus comes from. Obviously, you need to win risk/chance of your disadvantage being true, but good impact calc and turns debates are very convincing.

Counter Plans- My favorite neg strategies include well crafted, specific counterplans. As the aff, it is important to explain clearly the differences between the aff and the cp starting from the 2ac. I think that the aff gets to provide the plan text and nothing more ie. if the neg is able to characterize the plan in a certain way (with definitions or topic literature), I will be unsympathetic to aff teams that try and wish it away without in depth arguments. there tend to be a lot of cheating counter plans, and as a 2a I am probably sympathetic to reasonable theory arguments and perm do the counterplan. That being said, most counterplan theory should be a reason to reject the argument, it will be extremely difficult to win that it should be a reason to reject the team

Ks- The more time you spend talking about the aff, the more likely I am to vote for your k. I love being introduced to new ideas, and am willing to vote for any argument that is well explained but I am not as well versed in this literature as I am in other negative strategies.

"non traditional debate/ performance"- also not very versed in it. I am more than likely not the type of judge for this, but i will not reject any arguments out right. I think of debate as a game.

T- I don't know much about this topic, so all the topic specifics should be slower and well explained. I think that most debaters try to go too fast in their final rebuttals on T, which leads to a lot of judgement calls. To remedy this, go slower in your final rebuttal, and you will be rewarded.


 * Speaker Points **

The more you engage with the arguments and evidence presented by the other team, the more speaker points you will receive. I am okay with speed, but will yell clear once or twice before the speaks begin to get docked. Nobody likes kids who are fast but incoherent, going slower is in your best interest. Being nice/reducing all hostility is very preferable. If you have made it this far and are still reading, I will give you up to +.5 or more speaker points if you work a Groucho Marx quote into one of your speeches. I have a relatively low threshold for docking speaks due to hostility. Being assertive and being aggressive are much different, know the difference. I probably will not say anything if you are being overly rude/rude at all, but it will significantly hurt your speaker points, but will not affect the decision calculus.