Hello judges!
It’s time to celebrate the judges who have been with the program for 5 or 10 years.
This month the list is pretty short – apparently December is not a popular time to get certified.
10 years:
Oliver Suryatenggara, Jakarta, Indonesia
5 years:
Jason Lemahieu, Madison, Wisconsin, United States (exactly 5 years today!)
Jason Riendeau, Uxbridge, Massachusetts, United States
Xavier Nardin, Houilles, Paris, France
Carlos Fernandez, Zamora, Spain
Gabriel Willmon, Highlands Ranch, Colorado, United States
George Trichopoulos, Agrinio, Greece
Benjamin Schrijver, Amersfoort, Netherlands
Congratulations to all of you, and thank you for your hard work!
Our featured judge this month is George Trichopoulos from Greece. George began his Magic career in a small town that had no judge, and the local players made their own rulings and had a relaxed attitude towards bribery. After trying to convince other players to become judges, George finally realized his true destiny and contacted local Level 3 judge George Michelogiannakis about certification. He tested for L1 in December 2005, and for L2 a couple of years later. George M. has since then moved to the US, leaving George T. as the leader of the Greek judge community. “There is an undergoing project which is trying to strengthen the bonds between the organizers and the judge community. We are translating the FCE in order to send it to organizers, helping them to create a more fulfilling experience for the players”, George says.
George is well known for his long dreadlocks and other interesting hairstyling experiments. Because of the dreadlocks he has earned the nickname “Octopus”, and he has many other nicknames besides. Many say that George T has been the target of many judge pranks, although he denies any knowledge of such shenanigans. The Octopus is also a bit of an expert on public event logistics. His favourite judging experience ever is Worlds 2006, where he spent hours and hours on the microphone, coordinating 8 man drafts. He has even written an article on organizing 8 man drafts:
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=judge/article/20090721a.
That’s it for this month. I wish you all a great holiday season – see you next year!