Early in my judging career, every event felt unique, special, new. As I gained more experience and judged more events, though, this feeling of novelty wore off. Of course, each event had its own challenges that I wanted to prepare for, as well as its own crew of great other judges to chat with. But floor judging a PTQ, for example, was no longer something inherently noteworthy. It felt more like another day in the office, and I believe that was a good thing: it meant that I was growing more confident, more relaxed, and more comfortable as a judge.
Grand Prix Las Vegas never felt like another day in the office—and I believe that was a good thing as well, although for very different reasons.
For an individual judge, remaining in your comfort zone for too long can be just as damaging as diving into the danger zone. The same thing applies to systems in general, and groups of people specifically—such as the Judge Program as a whole. Modern Masters Weekend was a pivotal weekend for the Judge Program. The program’s evolution has been fantastic in recent years, but it does have limits, and Modern Masters Weekend helped us understand where those limits are. More importantly, we did so without breaking the program in half or causing any of the three (!) events to explode. Even if Wizards never runs an event on the scale of Modern Masters Weekend again, that’s very valuable knowledge to have.
(As an aside, I had worked four days of a gaming convention before Vegas. Specifically, I had volunteered as an Enforcer for four days at PAX Prime 2013 in Seattle. Enforcing is similar to judging in some respects, but quite different in others. Maybe that’s a topic for a future Bearz Repeating!)
Another huge challenge facing me at Vegas was the fact that I would be leading a group of other judges on three of those days. In particular, I had been tapped as the Logistics Lead for one of the eight splits on Saturday (the first day of the main event), which I expected to be an especially complex role. Fortunately, I knew that I was going to find support from every direction, and that’s exactly what happened:
- From below – My team members were all fantastic. In particular, they included some very strong judges who I leaned on to mentor newer judges and take ownership of various tasks.
- From above – The Head Judges and Sides Leads at this event were the best of the best.
- From the other Team Leads – I got to be part of a fantastic “team of Team Leads,” who all worked together to take great care of the events we were in charge of.
- From the TO – I always enjoy working for Channel Fireball and Cascade Games, and a big part of that is because they have a fantastic crew of staff. While I knew they would all be working their tails off, I was also confident that I could get support from them if something truly drastic happened.
If you’re interested in what it was like to Team Lead at Vegas, Rob McKenzie wrote a fantastic tournament report, “Awesome People Every Day.” Rather than risk duplicating Rob by focusing on my day-to-day experiences, instead I’m going to focus on what it felt to be part of this event overall.
As you might guess, judging at GP Vegas was incredibly rewarding. Enabling players to have a great experience is the very essence of why I judge, and every single judge and staff member worked together to achieve that goal. Beyond that, I was personally very gratified when various team members thanked me for helping them have a great event. More than just helping the event go smoothly, the Team Lead role means taking care of the judges on your team. I’m glad I was able to be a friendly face for my team members amidst the craziness of the event.
This GP Vegas was a personal milestone for another reason: I had also been part of the first GP Vegas in 2013, so this event provided a natural opportunity to reflect on how I’ve changed in the past two years.
One obvious change is my level. At GP Vegas 2013, I was L2 and very happy with that. In fact, I had not even begun to think seriously about L3. Although I had some conversations that touched on the topic at Vegas, I didn’t start actually tracking my L3 checklist until about a month later (thanks to a discussion with Steven Zwanger after ConnectiCon).
Another fairly apparent change is my typical role at events. For the first Vegas, I had the pleasure of being a floor judge on Nicholas Sabin‘s team on the main event on Saturday. These days, I am one of the judges who shares the responsibility of team leading on Day One. Fortunately, I learned a ton about that role from Nicholas.
Finally, Vegas 2013 stands out in my mind because it was one of the first major events where lots of people called me Bearz. Again, Nicholas is largely responsible for this, although I distinctly remember Ryan Hoffman picking up and running with that nickname as well. Embracing this nickname was a major part of my concerted attempts to relax, have more fun while judging, and become more approachable. While I have always room to improve, I think that I’ve come a long way since 2013, and it’s super fun to think about how things have changed since then.
Overall, I’m incredibly happy with how Grand Prix Las Vegas 2015 went, not only for myself, but for all the judges, staff, and players. We put on a fantastic event and truly made Magic history, and that’s something to be proud of.
While there’s so much more I could write about Vegas, these are my major takeaways, and I’m afraid that’s all I have space for today, anyway. If there’s anything you’re curious to know more about, let me know in the comments, or find me at our next event together!
It was a great pleasure to be part of your main event team. You are definitely someone I would choose to work with again in the future if I have any choice in the matter.