Practice tools
The practice tools let you debate when there's no tournament: against another debater, against an AI opponent, in a simulated round with a timer and an AI judge, or as a single speech under a word count. They're the Practice section of the Coach Workspace and each has its own page. Unlike the training tools, most of them don't need a flowed round to start from.
Run a round against the AI
Practice vs AI (/practice/versus-ai, feature spec) is a full,
timed round against an AI opponent in real turn order. Choose a difficulty, a topic and your side, and one of
the opponents at that difficulty. Your opponent then finds cards and caselist outlines on the topic and
summarizes the arguments for both sides before you start. Debate through timed opening, cross-examination,
and closing phases; at the end an AI judge scores the round and explains its decision. It's also on the dock
as Practice vs AI, and a round in progress can be resumed on the same account.
The Practice Round Simulator (feature spec) is on the
same page now, in the collapsed Round simulator section (its old address, /practice, redirects there).
It recreates a tournament round's conditions — format, side, a timer, an AI judge paradigm, and an AI
opponent persona — and keeps your past attempts so you can compare them.
Practice against real people
Practice Partners (/practice/partners, feature spec)
is where you find a human opponent or judge. Set up a practice profile — switch on Open to
challenges, Volunteer to judge, or both, and pick the formats, styles, speed, and level you're
comfortable with. Then press Find me a match: you're paired at random with one of the most compatible
debaters for your profile, shown anonymously (level, speed, formats, styles, and how well you fit — never
who it is). Send request proposes a format, resolution, and time; they get a notification and can
accept or decline, and you both see who the other is once they accept. Find another draws again.
Accepted rounds get a webcam room code that both debaters and the
judge paste into the round workspace's Cameras panel. If you volunteer to judge, accepted rounds that still
need a judge are listed for you to pick up. It's the first panel in the Coach Workspace's Practice section.
Prediction Markets (/practice/predictions, feature spec)
lets you bet play-money points (everyone starts with 1,000) on who wins a debate, who wins a tournament, or
whether a team's team rating goes up. Prices move with every bet, and markets tied to rounds and events
hosted on the site, or to the rankings, settle themselves.
Setting the judge and the opponent
Both round tools take their judge paradigm and opponent persona at setup time, from the same six built-in AI judge paradigms and four built-in opponent styles, or from one you describe yourself.
| Tool | Route | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| AI Judge Decision | /practice/judge-decision | Generate an AI decision for a round under its saved paradigm, grounded in the same flow summary the Argument Tree Outline shows. |
Word-count speeches
Word-Count Speeches (/word-count, feature spec)
replaces the clock with a maximum word count: one text area per speech in the chosen format, with a live
word-count badge recomputed on every keystroke. It's the right tool for written practice, for formats where
you'd rather cap length than time, and for drafting speeches you'll later deliver against the timer. Rounds
are saved to your account when signed in.
Suggested loop
- Scout the judge and opponent you're preparing for in the
Prep Workspace (
/practice/prep), which keeps briefings, scout-to-strategy, opponent and judge profiles, and prep notes on one page, and turn them into a paradigm and a persona. - Rehearse in the Practice Round Simulator under that paradigm and persona.
- Pressure-test by playing the same side in Practice vs AI at a higher difficulty tier.
- Flow the practice round in the round workspace and run the training tools on it — drills and coaching prompts work on practice rounds exactly as on tournament rounds.
Tips
- Sharing a section:
/coaching?stage=practiceopens the Coach Workspace on the practice tools. - Signed out? Every practice tool except Practice Partners works without an account; signing in is what makes rounds, attempts, and word-count speeches follow you across devices. Practice Partners matches real people, so it needs a (non-guest) account.
