Hello, everybody!  It’s time once again to spotlight a star in the Judge Program, and this week we hear from Quentin Boussardon, L2, from Orléans, France (except on weekends; then he resides in Châteauroux)! Quentin become a judge on May 15, 2011, and reached Level 2 on October 14, 2012.

Occupation: I develop billing software for a large telecommunications company.
Favourite card: The altered Olivia Voldaren I am using as my General in Duel Commander.
Least favourite card: I don’t have a least favourite card. But let say Eager Cadet, because he is everywhere 🙂
Favourite format: Duel Commander
Commander General: I am currently playing Olivia Voldaren.
Favourite non-Magic Game: Difficult question, I play a lot of (perhaps too many!) games. I think the answer is Baten Kaitos (a video game released on GameCube), the storyline is amazing, the player is not playing the main characters but an angel who guides them, and the combat system is completely different from other RPGs. Each character uses a different card deck to attack.
Best tournament result: 10th in a PTQ.

Why did you become a judge?
Since my first big tournament (GP Strasbourg 2007), I wanted to see the judging side of Magic. Many years after the event, there were no judges in my town and a gaming club was just being established. Then i decided it was the right time to finally do it and help develop the Magic community around me.

How did you get involved in Magic in the first place?
I discovered Magic when I was in prep school. My friends showed me the game, then I spent more time playing than studying…

How has being a judge influenced your non-Magic life?
It has helped me learn to organize my time. I judge a lot of events during the weekend, so I have to manage my time more carefully to be with my family and my friends who do not play Magic. It has also “forced” me to modernize my life; I got a smartphone in order to have access to Oracle text and Internet during events, and a car so I can get events to judge and play.

What motivates you to continue being a judge?
I like the game, the Judge community and my local community. So I am happy to help when I can.

What’s the best part about your local Magic community?
It’s a small community, and that being so, everyone knows each other. It makes it easy to talk, to answer questions and to have fun with everyone.

What is your favourite non-magic hobby?
I like to play various role playing games. I currently play a campaign of “Vampire: the Masquerade.” I am also trying to set up a campaign of “Talislanta“, a medieval fantasy RPG, and one of “Pavillon Noir“, a historic RPG which takes place during the golden age of piracy in the Caribbean.

What is your favourite non-judging moment that happened with other judges?
That was just after I first became a judge. We finished the tournament and cleaned the place. After that, we went to a bar, had a few beers and talked. I was part of the judge family and it was a blast.

What’s the biggest rule-breaking play you’ve ever made as a player?
When I was a very young player and I had a W/R Samurai deck with 4 Brothers Yamazaki. I played with friends and sometimes I would stack my deck before the game, then my friend and I gave it a few shuffles each, to easily have two of them in play during the game.

In tournament play, the biggest rule-breaking play I made was trying to play Submerge without paying his mana cost again a Bant deck. But I didn’t realize that I destroyed his only Forest two turns ago with a Wasteland.

What has been your favourite Magic event that you’ve judged?
That would be the National All Star event in 2013. It took place in my local town and I was chosen to Head Judge it. It was my first big event as Head Judge. We got a lot more players than expected (222 players when we expected 150) and we were not ready for so many players, so we had to take two extra judges, who were supposed to play and didn’t have their judge uniformswith them. We manage to provide them judge shirts. Most of us were young Level 2 or Level 1 judges. But with the help of everyone, we succeeded in having a great event and everybody was happy (and tired!!) at the end of the weekend. And the greater reward was that the players were happy too. That was a great experience and we learned a lot of things during the weekend.

If you could chat with one person, real or fictional, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
Alan Menken, because he composed some of the greatest songs in Disney movies. And by doing it, he made a lot of people sing and dream.

How do you have fun during events?
By talking with other people and asking stupid questions on hypothetical cases. During Duel Commander at GP Paris, I saw a player who was using a Pokemon card to represent a token, and it has a silver dice on it. So I asked another French judge, “Look, this guy is using a Scyther as a token and it has a silver dice on it. His opponent his playing mono blue; he could play Gilded Drake and exchange the Scyther with the Drake. Since the Scyther has a metal coat, will he evolve into Scizor during the exchange?” That’s a bad joke, but it made us smile.

If you were a Planeswalker, what would be your ultimate?
You get an emblem with “Whenever an opponent casts a spell, he or she sacrifices X permanents, where X is its converted mana cost.”

Two Truths and a Lie
Two of the following statements are true and one is false. Figure out which!
1- I have been face to face with a wild deer in the woods.
2- When I go to my parents’ house, I sleep in my bed with a 1 meter long snow leopard cuddly toy that I have had since I was 5.
3- My father has an air rifle and when I was young, I would shoot tomatoes in the garden.

This week, we have not one, but TWO answers for Two Truths and Lie for you!  Exciting stuff (but don’t get used to it!)  I’m sure the anticipation has been rough!

Thank you Quentin for taking the time to speak to us!  Please join us next week when we feature another member of our family as the Judge of the Week, and also please feel free to nominate someone you feel deserves to be featured here!

Written by Chris McGuire and Ryan Hoffman.  Edited by Meg Baum.