Nikhil Pisolkar
UHS '21
Purdue '25
email - npisolkar03@gmail.com --- add me to the chain pls
Last updated Sept 2022
About me - debated policy as a 1A/2N all 4 yrs in high school on the nat circuit. mostly policy stuff for the first 2 years, the second two years started running increasingly critical/procedural stuff on the neg. I went to camp and such. My favorite arguments to run were setcol, T, and FW against K affs.
Generally -- I'll try to do as little work as I can to explain my ballot. I'll use just about any framework to evaluate who deserved the ballot if you make it make sense. Extensions require warrants in every speech. If an argument is dropped, it still needs to be extended, but if it is extended I'll assume it's true even if it's a bad argument. T before Theory before K. I value your time, so I'll keep this brief.
I'm not familiar with the NATO topic, so don't assume I know what acronyms stand for. Haven't debated in a while. Do with that what you will.
Speed - I flow on paper, and obviously if we are online don't go as fast as you can possibly go. If I didn't hear it clearly, there is little chance it ended up on my flow. I'll have trouble lining up arguments if you go out of order, so please don't.
Topicality -- I went for T-substantial probably half of my 2nrs my junior year. I like T, and I think a well-structured, clean 2nr on Topicality with substantial impacts is hard to beat. I like fairness and education impacts. Weighing might be the most important component of these debates, so please don't skimp out. Examples of affs that are/aren't abusive are helpful from both sides, especially considering I'm not familiar with the topic. Please explain what affs both the interp and the counter-interp implicate and why that's a bad/good thing.
Kritiks -- I consider myself flex. I like critical debates. IMHO, a world where debate doesn't include critical arguments is bad, but I'm willing to be convinced otherwise. That being said, there are probably some bad critical arguments, and there are probably some good critical arguments that are debated badly. I've read setcol(Tuck and Yang, King), some Bataille, some afro-pessimist literature, and I think capitalism is bad. I probably won't have an in-depth understanding of your argument if it required loads of prerequisite knowledge of Lacan, Nietzsche, or somebody else like that, although I love hearing those arguments debated well, and doing so can earn you high speaks because I like those debates. However, please don't regurgitate theory blocks filled with jargon that I wouldn't know. Feel free to ask me about my familiarity with authors before the round.
DAs -- love them, ran them probably every round against policy affs. Clear impacts, weighing, meta-weighing. Dropped arguments I'll generally evaluate as true. Line-by-line is especially important here, and I will reward clean, clear, organized debating on the line-by-line. I'm fine with politics; I ran politics relatively often.
CPs -- ran them often. Clear net benefits are nice. I was never a fan of process CPs personally, both theoretically and practically, but I'm open to one being well-explained with clear reasoning that it's better than the aff. CP, DA, case is a really nice 2nr for me.
Affs -- I ran extinction affs, structural violence affs, and K affs. Anything flies if you can defend it.
K-affs -- Will vote for or against them. I like these debates. I think they are interesting and fun to judge. Please explain clearly why you are reading what you are reading and not what neg expected you to read. Impact turns are fun. I like FW against these affs personally, but a well-articulated KvK debate is also cool; however, I never really had these debates in HS, so I'm not familiar with their intricacies. Meta-weighing is very important in these debates. Impacts, impacts, impacts.
Theory - I like it. I think debaters should set their own rules. I think how many condo is abusive depends on the round, but there is definitely a limit. I'm open for you to theoretically challenge anything the other team is doing, but running 7 BS theoretical violations that will all be dropped will frustrate me(waste of paper). I'll probably begrudgingly vote for anything if it's extended better than it was refuted, but truly stupid args require less work to debunk.
glhf!