> That's a weak argument, in my view. Definitely, but from all I've seen of debate competition, the strength of argument is largely irrelevant. How many points

> That's a weak argument, in my view. Definitely, but from all I've seen of debate competition, the strength of argument is largely irrelevant. How many points did you make, how many were responded to, how many of the opponent's did you respond to...you might not get credit for a completely off-the-wall response, but if you pass a basic sanity check, I think you're good. I could be wrong, but this seems to match, what I've been told, what I've seen, and what seems measurable (and balanced when you're assigned your position).