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A Short Guide to Judging Debates
Topic Started: Jan 18 2008, 10:03 PM (278 Views)
Super Saiyan SolidSense
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Well, a lot of you probably know that judging debates isn’t all that easy, especially if two debaters are very close. As a judge and a debater myself, I’ve seen lots of confused votes when these close debates arise. For that reason I’ve decided to piece together this short guide to judging, which may someday be expanded into a longer, more detailed guide.

The major problem with the way that the current debates work is well-stated by Yzarc:

Yzarc Drowsnam
 
Person A debates Person B.

Person A posts.
Person B counters.
Person A counters.
Person B counters.
Person A counters.
Person B counters.



Perhaps the biggest problem with our current format is a huge problem that no one who knows things will deny. Note that I don't specify "no one who knows things about Fire Emblem will deny," I just say "things," because it doesn't take specific knowledge to understand how flawed this format is. In any case - The last poster has a ridiculous advantage. On every single point of every single topic in the entire debate, the last poster has the last word on it. Last word is something that cannot be avoided in debates. Someone has to finish, right? But in this format, the last poster gets absolute advantage in every topic, which is very unfair.


Indeed it is. Yzarc suggested a different debate format, but as that’s not being implemented at this moment, and as it’s uncertain whether it’ll ever be implemented, I’m going to suggest some things to the people that currently judge debates. Here’s a general format that Inui and I use:

Last post and first post are given the least weight. The first post is made based off of no counters, and last post is never countered. The middle four posts are the most important. If one person or the other is doing better in those four posts, then it hardly matters that one person is doing better in the final exchange. Sometimes a h4x first post can decide a debate, as can a h4x last post, but generally speaking, the middle four matter the most. All are counters and all are followed by counters.

And then in Inui’s words:

Quote:
 
Solid and I are probably the most experienced judges, followed by CATS. Our format for judging counts the first and last posts the least, and the two in the middle the most by far. If someone is outdebated in the first two exchanges, and then rapes massively on the counter, they should still lose because their last post never had a chance to be countered.


With that said, here are some other tips as well:

1.) Don’t let your own opinions mix with what you read. Judge what each person has to say on each point, not what you think of what they say. Someone could say “Marcia wins Res by a huge amount, and that matters more than Brom’s Def lead since physical enemies don’t really impact either of them that much” and it could seem totally ridiculous to you, but if the opponent in that debate can’t counter or counters it unsatisfactorily, or counters it without any evidence, the first poster easily wins.


2.) Don’t get caught up in details. The more you nitpick about “lol this guy was off by 6 Avo” or something, the more you’re going to lose focus on the actual logic used in the debate. Obviously getting a big point such as someone having a skill wrong is a bad thing, but if the person covers his or her errors well, and can maintain the case overall, it doesn’t really matter. Computational errors are entirely possible. Rarely so with logical errors—that’s where lack of skill comes into play.


3.) When the issue is conceptual, be sure to think things through. Does the person have a logical procession of thoughts? If so, does the other person counter it, or just brush it off? If one person counters with a statement rather than a logical procession, obviously that's worth a lot less, even if the statement seems more logical to you personally.
this is the best Brawl match ever....EVER
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+Ema Skye
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Thank you, Solid! If only I had achieved my destiny by now, I'd pin this myself. :(
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MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH

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pinned, open for discussion for now
Neon,June 8 2005
07:34 PM
@Reaver: Me grammer is better than ur post count newbie.

HJ, December 30 2008
06:20 PM
You gave Inui his first (and last?) sexual experience, didn't you? That's historic.

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