Judge Screws in Debate

The human experience. It defines our individuality and is what makes life worth living. The journey we take in this life follows a road of everchanging and neverending emotions. The highest of highs takes us past cloud nine, while the lowest of lows takes us past the gates of hell. At the lowest point of the road exists a feeling so profound, so visceral, that no one who has ever experienced it lets it go. It is a feeling that only a select number can ever experience. The judge screw. 

Every debater, from brand-new novices to the TOC champions, has had their heart mutilated by a stranger they met an hour ago. A dominant performance turned meaningless by a single wrong decision. A rightfully earned win ripped from your hands by a button on Tabroom. There’s nothing to do except stare at the singular “L” on your record. Do you give redos? Do you write it off as a fluke? Do you go around and trauma dump to everyone on your team? Each of us has our own coping mechanism, but none can change the result. Your coach always tells you: “Screws can’t exist because good teams don’t get screwed.” You know it’s true, but it doesn’t make sense. You did the better debating. You were winning the flow. The judge intervened against you, but why does it never seem to happen to anyone else? Why do screws never seem to work in your favor? Without an answer, the cycle of screws continues. 

At times, it feels like the round was never winnable to begin with. A judge can ignore an argument you made completely, or it can bring up new ones that were never made. Are these really screws? Maybe not. Maybe there could’ve better evidence comparison, more ballot directive language, but hindsight won’t let you redo the round. The best thing to do is to recognize room for improvement and focus on the next round. Don’t let this one round affect the next; keep L’s from snowballing. 

But how can I stop the L’s in the first place? Debate is a game, and sometimes the game is rigged against you. You don’t know what inclinations the judge has, the arguments they’re willing to vote on, where they’ll intervene, etc. Adapting to these situations comes with experience, and strategies to stop judge biases come both inside and outside of round. Carefully reading paradigms, asking friends who’ve had the judge are easy ways to get an advantage over your opponent in judge adaptation. Paying attention to the judge's facial expressions, when they stop writing, when they’re staring into your soul, are all in round things that you must also adapt to.  Essentially, figuring out your judge is the best way to get the highest chance of getting the ballot. The flow can’t vote for you on Tabroom, only the judge can. So win the judge.

Screws are inevitable. They will never put you in a jolly spirit, and despite all the strategies you use to avoid them, they will continue to occur. The best we can do is make sure to handle them properly and professionally. Moreover, even if you can’t stop all of them, minimizing the number of screws that occur is a proven possibility by the best teams on the circuit. As debaters, we are privileged to be able to experience the full range of human emotions. Only we have the chance to experience the devastation a judge screw can leave in your heart. By experiencing the lowest of lows can we truly appreciate the highs. But, personally, experiencing the pain of a judge screw once is more than enough. :)

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We understand sometimes judge screws just seem unavoidable. A decision is so bizarre you question the intelligence of the human species. We’d like to hear your worst stories and mourn with you, so please, if you have a sob story to share, do leave a comment.