Move Over, Stock Issues: Introducing Omni Theory
When hanging case structure first emerged, it revolutionized value and fact debate. It created a system for building coherent cases in seconds and identifying weaknesses in opponents. It gave debaters tools for making great strategic decisions. And while doing all that, it somehow managed to make value debate easier to learn and explain.
As Ace Peak students kept using hanging case structure to win championships, we thought:
“If only there was something like this for policy debate.”
But that felt like a pipe dream. Value and fact resolutions call for rigid, airtight structure. Policy is more open-ended. So we settled for our take on mainstream policy theory. Combined with Ace Peak strategic techniques, you can go pretty far with mainstream theory. But we were never going to settle until we found a way to do for policy what we did for value and fact debate.
We wanted a theory ecosystem that was easy to learn, intuitively created strong cases and arguments, and was effective in front of any kind of judge. That journey took us far deeper than we could have imagined: to the foundations of debate itself. After extensive analysis and testing, we created Omni.
Omni is a complete theory ecosystem that builds policy, value, and fact arguments from the same common foundation.
This means a few upgrades to hanging case structure (which was already working great), and a full makeover for policy debate (which wasn’t).
If you’re a novice, Omni will significantly smooth your learning curve. If you’re intermediate, you’ll be surprised by how easy it is to pick up. If you’re advanced, you’ll be very excited by the strategic options Omni gives you - and the ways it solves problems that have plagued the Team Policy format from its origins. And no matter who you are, you’ll love the fact that you can implement Omni without explaining anything new to your judge.
We’ll teach you the entirety of Omni theory right here on the Ace Peak blog for free. Stay tuned.