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hi guys, im new to LD from PF and i'm severely underprepped for nov dec. if anyone is willing to donate a good block doc(or any other helpful prep) i would appreciate it so so much!

I have some old PF prep about the UNCLOS topic in the upcoming LD jan feb if anyone wants to trade.

Prepping for a bigger tournament rn and i have some questions!

1. I want to run a non topical cp but will people read any kind of T/Theory on me for that?

2. What is a soft left aff? from what I understand its a policy aff with sv or k lit which I want to do but idk what they're structured like. Is it like a specific type of case structure or just dif framing and is there any good examples on opencaselist??

ty!!

1. If I read a nontopical 1ac, how do I beat T args in the 1nc, and like how do i right a “we meet”

2. If i run a trad case, how do I beat aspec or just spec args in general?

Thanks

i'm a varsity policy debater from a pretty big school that exclusively does policy debate. because of this, we enter whoever into our sections tournament for pf and ld. i decided to enter in ld, as i'm generally a k debater and our circuit is very progressive. i know the basics of how ld works (ie emphasis on values, slower speaking, shorter rounds) but i will not be able to get any round experience before sections outside of practice debates.

• what are values/criterions? i've done digging on the wiki but don't actually understand what their role is in the argument/how i use them
• are kritikal affirmatives winnable in ld? i know this will vary from circuit to circuit, but i want to run a kaff and don't want to expend a ton of energy on an unwinnable argument lol
• how specific can plan affs get?

also, any specific tips on how to adapt to ld from policy specifically would be appreciated!! esp as related to prep, in round/pre round norms, and how to structure arguments

Dear LD Debate Reddit Community, 

We are super excited to announce that EmpowerDebate will be hosting a free Winter Debate Camp called the Winter Debate Intensive in collaboration with the Pacific Northwest Debate Society from December 27-30. The camp will be in four different debate styles: Public Forum, Lincoln Douglas, Policy, and World Schools Debate. The benefits of attending the camp include: 

• Built in practice rounds
• Free topic prep (including free cases + blockfile)
• Skills-based lectures 
• Learning from top debaters

It will be everyday from 12PM - 3PM PST or 3PM - 6PM EST. 

Here are the links to sign up: 

Camper Sign-Up: https://forms.gle/1dkoChNcwLPv4koG6 

Instructor Application: https://forms.gle/j5EhqjkFaD6aULxz7 

Best,

The EmpowerDebate Team

Resolved: The United States ought to become party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and/or the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

A total of 693 coaches and 2,686 students voted for the resolution. The winning resolution received 38% of the coach vote and 36% of the student vote.

I'm honestly shocked it wasn't sanctions.

Yo do any of you guys know any impacts for the racial wealth gap arg?

trying to get an idea of what i should be prepared to research, and also what people actually want to debate (the list topics kinda suck)

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I am going to be competing in the national circuit for the first time in a few months on the January-February NSDA prompt but I have never competed in the national circuit before. This is my first year debating and I have debated in 2 tournaments so far at the state level. I have not encountered any spreading or prog cases at the local level but I know that the national circuit is filled with it. How should I go about developing prog cases and increasing my speaking speed (I have been doing speaking drills to improve talking speed)?

The potential 2025 Jan/Feb resolutions are out and Isegora Briefs is here to offer advice. Check out our latest article that breaks down key strategies for affirming and negating to ease your prep burden; find it here.

Title + basically my school only goes to locals with the exception of maybe 1 tournament per year — I love prog debate and kinda hate trad, I was wondering how I could get into circuit debate even without proper school resources

I've been a debate for three years (mainly LD, but there was a Policy episode), I'm in a pretty trad circuit (the most prog case you'll ever see here is a counter plan), and I've heard mixed takes on whether or not have multiple Vs/VKs is legal, it would be interesting to see and I would wonder how one would work this.

If this is something you have heard of, is there a good way to pull it off, and is it a viable strategy?

Hey guys! I have a debate next week and i’m struggling lol pls help. My topic is “Civil disobedience in a democracy is morally justified.” and i am on the affirmative side. Any help or tips or literally anything is much appreciated.

Of the three topics that are being voted on, two of them have multiple choice options.

OPTION 1 – Resolved: The United States ought to formally recognize one or more of the following: Iraqi Kurdistan, the Republic of China, the Republic of Somaliland.

OPTION 2 – Resolved: The United States ought to remove all or nearly all of its economic sanctions on one or more of the following: Islamic Republic of Iran, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

So Aff can pick or choose just one and focus on that. Neg, however, has to create cases for each option. Do I have this correct? New to LD, so, any past experience with this type of resolution would be helpful. Thank you in advance.

Hey guys I want to learn what plans, Ks, counterplans, theory are and how to debate against them on my trad circuit. Can anyone point me in the right direction of some good resources because I can't find much?

just had a round where the judge said he wasn't able to tell if i was running a cap k or a socialism cp, and thought it resembled the latter more and thus voted me down because how well a cp can be implemented plays a large role in whether or not it's good (but not for a cap k??? idt??)

anyway i'm lowk confused so if anyone would be willing to explain the diff i'd appreciate it. i thought a cap k was just link, impact, and alt, and i had all three (i think) so i wanna know why it may not be considered such. tysm!!

Can anyone send me prep for an LD tourny, I have no trad cases and all of the judges are basically trad 😭

Email: z3nitsu02@gmail.com

Hey guys, I have a tournament in a couple of days, it's trad lay LD and mostly parent judges and some coaches. But this is my first time doing Varsity so I think my judges will probably be parent judges with a lot of experience or coaches. For aff on the wealth tax topic, do I have to pick a specific plan to support? Like the Elizabeth Warren plan that says like ppl with net worth over 25mil will pay 2% and those with net worth over 1B will pay 3% on the extra. Or can I define wealth tax as something general like “a tax on all of a taxpayer’s assets above a particular level”. I'm not quite sure which would be more strategic on this topic

Hey guys, I'm a pretty new debater. Can someone explain to me what the difference is between traditional and progressive debate? Further, what are Ks or kritiks and can someone tell me more about the terminology in the different circuits?

does anybody have any cards saying a wealth tax promotes/strengthens capitalism

Hi there! Im on a trad circ and have been having trouble thinking of any unique neg arguments that have a large scope of impact that isn't capital flight. Does anyone have any ideas?

This past weekend, I won a TOC bid tournament. On the tournament page it says that I won a full bid to TOC, however, online sources say that I need two bids to qualify for TOC. Help would be appreciated if anyone has been in a similar situation before.

I’m helping coach a kid in LD and I would like to practice some actual debate skills with some old cases. I need both Aff and Neg on the same topic from last year or older. Anyone know where I could track some down or could email me old ones?

I decided to go to look at circuit debater because I was curious about some stuff, only to find that there had barely been ANY edits in the last month. I find this distressing because it is a great resource for a lot of new circuit debaters. I think we should try our best to bring it back by updating the articles and creating new ones based on our individual specialities as this is such a great resource. Viva la revolution!

Hey everyone! I started doing novice LD this year and so far i've been to two tournaments. My first one I had no idea what I was doing and didn't place but my second I got first. Unfortunately, my local circuit mostly stops offering novice devisions after November. Any advice? I fully expect to get cooked at the next tournament.

I hate non Consequentialist arguments like what even is that like they don't respond to my nuke war arguments and I'm like I clearly won and then the judge just says that I didn't respond to what ever self ownership is and the other debater wins do you think I should just switch to policy cuase I really just not get this

small school debater here- going to a bid tournament in feb and was wondering what's the best strategy to take against these schools with tons of experience and prep in VLD. do you guys go for niche da's, weird k's, things that havent been prepped against by them? or should i just attempt to outprep them?

any help is appreciated!

On one of my recent debates for Novice LD my judge gave no feedback no nothing no reason for loss is there anything I can do about that I received nothing on tabroom

Also another judge based winning off speaking mentioning nothing about the debate

title