Pfister,+Stephen

My name is Stephen Pfister and I've been involved with debate for over eight years. I consider myself a "tabula rasa" judge, and I suppose I interpret that to mean that I have no clear biases against any argument that might be ran. I do expect an extreme degree of clarity concerning speed, and believe understanding the other team to be fundamental to the activity and learning process that comes with it. I most enjoy evaluating critical debates, however I do not like catch-phrases, cliches, and the same-old tag-line rhetoric that comes with misunderstood critiques being ran by teams that don't fully understand them. As a sporadic judge, my ability to evaluate topicality is limited however with a definite explanation of standards, in-round abuse and a clear-cut explanation of the resolutional view being argued, I can evaluate topicality well. Theory debates are fine by me as long as there is clear-cut in round abuse. My threshhold is very high, however abuse is abuse and I am well aware of that.