Welcome back to another edition of My First Review.

Looking back on the first two reviews we’ve featured, I noticed that both were longer than a typical first review. While their length is by no means a bad thing, I don’t want to give judges the wrong idea of what to expect out of their first review.

Reviews don’t have to be long. In fact, last week on The Feedback Loop, Jacob Milicic wrote an article advocating that less is often more.

This brief first review comes to us courtesy of George Gavrilita of Torino, Italy. While I haven’t met George in person, I’m impressed by his willingness to help others he’s never met. I was recently accepted to judge GP Rimini, and he immediately reached out to see if I needed help with my first European GP.

George’s review touches on only three points, making the review easy to digest quickly.

THE REVIEW

Date: August 17, 2011, Event: Italian Nationals 2011, Rimini, Italy Reviewer: George Gavrilita, Level 1, Floor Judge Subject: Giuliano Freiles, Level 1, Floor Judge

Strengths: This is a 2011 Review.

Giuliano is a good mix of professionalism and cordiality. He can floor efficiently, being in the right place at the right time, making sure the entire room is efficiently covered.

He is very diplomatic and gentle with judges, even ones he isn’t familiar with. After talking about a ruling, I turned back to the table and verbally gave it. I then walked away from the table, because I needed a new pen to write the infraction on the slip. Thinking I was done, he asked: “Don’t we usually give some additional time in these cases?”, in a very kind way. I answered that I was about to once I found the pen, but I was particularly impressed by his approach, very different from something like “You forgot to give them additional time. Pay attention next time.”

Areas for Improvement: After the first Nationals draft, the Land Station where
Giuliano was working was literally assaulted by players, and he immediately ran out of one type of basic lands, let’s say Forests. He then proceeded to manually search Forests for each player, picking them from the land box. Instead of laying out new piles of basic lands from the box on the table, where everyone could pick theirs. This choice significantly slowed down the procedure and creating an ever bigger crowd in front of the land station. In the future, I suggest taking an additional minute for yourself when completing a new task to try and understand which is the best strategy in a difficult situation, without worrying about the outside pressure

Comments: It was a pleasure to be on the same staff with Giuliano, he has been a valuable component and an efficient worker.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

As someone who tends to overcomplicate everything, I find George’s straightforward review refreshing. The kindness I noticed when we first spoke is also apparent his first review, which provides good detail in relatively few words. I believe this kind of writing often creates the most impactful reviews.

Interested in seeing your first review featured here? Email us. Be sure to include

1. the review itself, including the headers.*
2. a brief backstory on the how and why the review was written.
3. your reflections on the review and lessons you’ve learned since.

*You must get permission from the subject of your first review before submitting it for publication. If your subject does not give you permission to use the review, please submit only the story and your personal reflection on the review.