Lebeda,+Bobby

Hello y'all!

Background: I did speech for 4 years of high school and was ranked in the state. I did debate for 2 years, mid lay level LD and parli. After I graduated, I started coaching at Chaminade College Prep. To my dismay, they were mostly a policy school. I cried for weeks about this.

I've been the assist head coach there for 2 and half years and now the head coach for the past 2 and half years. Surprisingly, no one has died. I’ve judged probably around 120 rounds of debate.

Event Experience

Parli: I judged many rounds at Cal cup 2015, including quarters. I’ve probably judged around 40-50 rounds in total.

LD: I’ve judged about 12 circuit rounds. No circuit out rounds. I’ve judged dozens of lay rounds.

PF: I’ve judged a about 20 circuit prelim rounds and about 6 circuit out rounds (including Stanford quarters and semis in 2012) When I say circuit, I mean rounds at TOC tournaments. I’ve judged around 20 rounds at non circuit tournaments too.

Policy: I’ve judged about 10 open rounds, but not any rounds at TOC bid tournaments. I’ve judged about 25 policy rounds in total.

Here are some general things, then you can look at event specific things below:

Speed: I'm not the most trained when it comes to spread for circuit policy and LD. I’ve judged circuit rounds for everything except policy. If you want me to catch everything please email your cases/cards to me before each speech. Robert.lebeda@gmail.com. Usually by the rebuttal level, I'm fine. I'd say in policy try to go 70% your fastest. LD you can go 80% your fastest. I have yet to have an issue with speed in PF and parli, so don't worry. You'll want to go slower with me, mostly because I tend not to give any indication if I can't understand what you're saying because I'm trying so hard to understand what you're saying. Please spread clearly, enunciate. Run the arguments you want, but just be aware of the speech issues.

Rudeness: There's no reason to be rude. I will tank your speaks if you're a jerk. Be passionate by all means, but making your opponent cry, or just being a "meanie face" will not make me like you. I will still give you the win in the round, if you won the round, but I will give you bad speaks. In my view, being a rude isn't educational and won't help you in the real world and so I do not reward it.

My attitude: I’m pretty laid back in the round, feel free to ask any questions. It’s your round not mine. I like to smile and be supportive, it’s who I am as a person. I like to make jokes, feel free to ignore them. Most people do. You’re all here to learn and become more informed people and I think that’s great.

Content of Arguments: I try my best to be blank slate. I’m getting my master’s in communications so I’m familiar with a good amount of critical literature, but don’t know it all. Don’t assume I know it all. Don’t make me make the arguments for you, Many teams I find are bad at weighing the round at explaining why they’ve won, if neither team weighs, how am I as a judge supposed to know who is voting for? This forces me to make decisions and intervene, I’d rather not, as I’m sure you’d prefer if I didn’t. You need to explain why things matter. Why does this drop matter in the round? Why does it matter your case is winning on the probability debate? Why does it matter someone did X violation in round?

Structure of arguments:These are my preferences. As a preference it just means what I prefer to see, but I’ve voted for things against my preference, if it wins in the round. So they aren’t hard and fast rules, as I don’t believe there should be any hard and fast rules in debate despite the times.

CP: Would prefer no PICs. I feel it reduces clash and generally takes most of the aff ground.

Theory: If you can avoid theory, I’d prefer it as I’m more interested in watching a substance debate, however, if there is abuse or issues within the debate space then go for it, I have voted for it in the past many times.

K’s: I really want a clear link. I feel I’ve seen lots of weak links. I think other teams tend to freak out when they’re confused by a K or don’t know how to handle it. Generally, perm the alt yo.

Other arguments I have no major preference for how they’re deployed/used in round.

Parli: I love parli. As a judge, I realize that you've only had 20 minutes of prep. You can go as fast as you want. I'm fine with any critical arguments you want to run. However, I'm not a huge fan of parli in which the topic is ignored entirely. If it's a poorly written topic, call that out, have a theory debate, but don't refuse to debate it because you think it's poorly written. If we're getting a resolution on if we need to send aid to the Sahel region, I don't want the aff to come in and never discuss the Sahel Region (unless there is a very clear link on why you shouldn’t) Again, if you feel the topic is horribly skewed, explain that in round, but I don't like when the aff comes in with a new topic, It just comes off as lazy and not willing to engage the debate and topic. As a result. I’m not a huge fan of generic Ks that can link to almost any topic, I feel this ignores the point of the event to be spontaneous by running the same K in every round.

LD: I really like LD. I’m generally receptive to oppression arguments. Don’t go too fast, as stated above. I generally really appreciate the value debate, as it gives me a way to weigh the round. However, if your values and VCs are pretty much the same, you don’t need to debate, debate why your case achieves these things better.

Policy: If I'm judging a policy round, I'm already crying inside. Don't make those tears turn into a full out sob. I do actually enjoy policy. Clearly explain everything, go slow on your tag lines. I’ve not judged a varsity circuit round, so I highly doubt that’ll happen.

Public Forum: As a judge I’ve never had any issues with public forum. Basically, if you're in Public Forum, do you boo. Minus everyone yelling in grand cross. Seriously, it’ll make me hate all of you.

Also, because I'm fat, I'm receptive to receiving donuts, cheesecake and fettuccine Alfredo. It won't give you the win, but I'll give me something to cry into during your rounds.