Using DebateFlow
Making Your Decision
After the round ends, it's time to make your decision. This is often the hardest part—you've just heard 30-40 minutes of arguments, and now you need to figure out who won. The Decision Wizard is here to help.
Choosing your approach
When you complete the final speech, you'll see two options:
Traditional decision
This gives you a basic AI analysis and a blank text box to write your decision. If you're an experienced judge who prefers to work from scratch, this works great.
Structured wizard (recommended)
This is a step-by-step guide that helps you:
- Review what happened in the round
- Identify key voting issues
- Compare arguments between teams
- Write your decision piece by piece
We recommend the structured wizard, especially if you're new to judging. It breaks down a complex decision into manageable steps.
Analysis compilation
After you choose the structured wizard, you'll see a loading screen while we compile the complete analysis.
This usually takes a few minutes. During this time, we're:
- Reviewing transcripts from all speeches
- Cataloguing which arguments were extended, dropped, or refuted
- Analyzing argument quality and completeness
- Identifying potential voting issues
Go grab some water. You've earned it.
Reviewing the round journey
Once analysis is complete, you'll see an overview of how the round unfolded.
Your checkpoints
Remember those "who's ahead" questions we asked after certain speeches? You'll see all your answers displayed as a timeline.
This shows how your impression of the round changed over time. It's helpful for understanding when momentum shifted.
Argument flow
You'll also see a visual diagram showing all the arguments in the round:
- Which team made each argument
- Who rebutted it
- Who extended it
- Whether it was dropped
This is like a traditional debate flow, but you don't need to know how to flow to understand it.
Round timeline
Finally, you'll see your ratings of speaker performance throughout the debate—clarity and persuasiveness scores for each speech, plotted over time.
Click on any point to see the details of your ratings and checkpoints. This helps you see patterns: Did one team start strong but fade? Did someone make a comeback in final focus?
Identifying voting issues
When you click Next, you'll see the key voting issues we've identified.
A voting issue is a point of clash that matters for the decision. Not every argument is a voting issue—only the ones that are actually contested and matter for determining the winner.
Understanding each voting issue
For each voting issue, you'll see:
- What the issue is - A clear summary of the clash
- Technical analysis - Why this matters, what the argument structure looks like
- Our recommendation - Based purely on technical analysis, who won this issue
You're still the judge
Our recommendation is based on technical factors like argument structure, extension, and responses. But you make the final call. You might weigh things differently based on evidence quality, impact, or other factors we can't measure.
Making your decision
For each voting issue, you can:
- Accept our decision - Click "Copy decision" and it automatically fills in your RFD on the right
- Write your own - Type your own reasoning in the text box
- Modify our suggestion - Copy ours and then edit it
There's no judgment here—use what helps you. Some judges like to start with our analysis and modify it. Others write from scratch. Both are fine.
Comparing and weighing
After you've gone through all the voting issues, it's time to make your final decision.
See the big picture
You'll see a comparison view showing:
- Which team won more voting issues
- Your ratings for clarity and persuasiveness across all speeches
- Our overall recommendation based on the technical analysis
Speaker points
At this point, you'll also assign speaker points for each debater.
We show you:
- Their average clarity and persuasiveness ratings from your assessments
- Suggested speaker point ranges based on those ratings
- Details of all your ratings throughout the round (click "View details")
These are suggestions
The speaker point ranges are based on your own ratings throughout the round. But you're the judge—if you want to adjust them based on other factors, go ahead.
Enter the speaker points for each debater, then click Complete Decision.
What happens next
After you complete your decision, you'll be taken to the feedback page where you can:
- Generate educational feedback using the 3 C's method
- Review and edit your RFD
- Prepare your ballot for submission
See our Feedback Guide for details on that step.
Traditional decision vs. Wizard
Still not sure which approach is right for you?
Choose Traditional if:
- You're an experienced judge who prefers to work from scratch
- You have a clear decision in mind already
- You want complete control over every word
Choose Wizard if:
- You're new to judging debates
- You want help organizing your thoughts
- You appreciate having suggestions to react to (even if you modify them)
- You want to make sure you've considered all the key arguments
Most judges use the wizard at first, then switch to traditional as they get more comfortable. There's no wrong choice.
Pro Tips for Decision-Making
Start with voting issues, not the whole round - Don't try to evaluate every argument. Focus on the ones that actually matter for the decision. A round might have 10 arguments, but only 2-3 are real voting issues.
Use your checkpoints - When did your impression change? That's often where the key moment of the round was. If you said Team A was ahead after constructives but Team B after rebuttals, something important happened in those rebuttals.
Trust your post-speech ratings - Your gut reactions during the speeches (captured in those post-speech ratings) are usually pretty accurate. If you gave someone 4-5 on clarity and persuasiveness all round, they deserve high speaks. Don't second-guess yourself.
It's okay to use AI suggestions - This isn't cheating—it's using a tool. You still make the final call on everything. Think of AI voting issues like having a debate coach suggest what to look at—helpful, but you're still the judge.
What's next?
Now that you know how to make your decision, learn about:
Next Steps:
- Generating Feedback - Create helpful feedback for teams using the 3 C's method
- Tabroom Integration - Export your ballot and submit to Tabroom
Related Resources:
- Understanding AI Analysis - How AI identifies voting issues and tracks arguments
- Recording Your Round - How your post-speech ratings inform speaker points
- Workflow Overview - See how decision-making fits into the complete judging process
Help & Support:
- Quick Reference - Speaker point scale and quick decision tips
- FAQ - Common questions about making decisions
- Troubleshooting - Fix issues during the decision process
Questions about your decision?
If you're unsure about something during the decision process, you can always go back and review the detailed analysis, transcripts, or your notes. Take your time—good decisions are worth it.