Author Archive

• Peoples Republic of China agent counter-plan

Purpose of the novice case limits: The MDTA sets up limits for the novice division of debate in order to increase education for novices by encouraging depth in their argumentation and predictability for them in the rounds they will debate. All novices must adhere to the case limits. If a novice team encounters a team running arguments outside of these parameters, they may advance a topicality violation based on the fact that the team is debating outside of the acceptable limits and argue that violation of the limits is grounds for a loss in the round. Since the 2011-2012 limits impose restrictions on both affirmative and negative teams, either team may advance a claim that the other side is in violation of the novice limits. We discourage judges from deciding a round on topicality if neither team advances a topicality argument, however, as we believe it is an important skill for debaters to learn what arguments should be made in the round.

 

All of these novice affirmative cases are still subject to the national resolution listed below and can be challenged based on topicality. The fact that they are included in the novice case limits does not deem them automatically topical. It is still the obligation of the affirmative team to show that their plan falls under the larger resolution.

Novices may run any advantages or disadvantages to the cases listed, but are limited to the counterplans,  kritiks, and alternative texts as stated.Negative team always has the option of defending the status quo.