Hello again! Let’s get to it. Today’s Judge of the Week is Carsten Haese, Level 2 from Toledo, Ohio! Carsten was nominated by Dan Stephens!

Dan Stephens, L3 Indiana has this to say:
“Carsten is known for two things that he does incredibly well.
1. He runs an annual charity tournament that benefits MS (Multiple Sclerosis). He has been running it for several years and is drawing over a hundred players to a little backwoods area of Ohio for the great event, noble cause, and some awesome prizes.
2. He is one of the longest running writers for Cranial Insertion, a weekly rules blog that has been an invaluable resource to judges and players that are interested in learning the why and how of magic rules.”

Occupation: Software Developer

Favorite card: Humility. It creates so many good layers questions.

Least favorite card: Life and Limb. It creates too many crazy layers questions.

Favorite format: Judging: Legacy / Playing: Sealed

Commander general: Whichever commander comes with the deck I happen to be borrowing.

Favorite non-Magic Game: Rock Band

Best tournament result: I don’t have a “best” result. My “least bad” result was 3-3 at the Innistrad prerelease.

Random fact about yourself: I am one of the three writers of the weekly rules column Cranial Insertion.

How has being a judge influenced your non-Magic life?
Being a judge has definitely improved my interaction with people. In may day job, I work with computers most of the time and I don’t interact much with people outside of phone calls and emails. Being on the tournament floor is a welcome change from that environment and allows me to sharpen my face-to-face customer service, diplomacy, and
teamworking skills.

You were nominated by Dan because the excellent work you do running charity tournaments. Can you tell us more about what you do?
I organize charity tournaments to benefit the National MS Society. The first time I ran it, in May 2010, it was a smallish affair due to various rookie mistakes — it turns out that running a tournament on the same day as Regional was a bad idea — but it was just enough of a success that I was willing to learn from my mistakes and do better next time. The next attempt was in March 2011, and it raised three times as much money, so it was indeed much better than the first time. From then to March 2012 the donation doubled in size, which exceeded even my most unrealistic expectations.

To support this tournament series, I put aside all Magic product I get for judging events throughout the year. For the 2012 tournament I also received very generous prize donations from other judges throughout the Midwest region. Without those donations, the tournament would definitely not have grown as much as it did. I expect that I’ll also need additional donations for March 2013, so if you’re interested in donating something, whether it’s a single booster pack or a box or a judge foil, please let me know.

What motivates you to continue being a judge?
Besides wanting to continue my annual tournament series, there are several motivations. Magic is an endlessly fascinating game, and being a judge allows me to be involved in it even if I don’t have the time to play it. Also, the judge community is such an amazing group of friends and the camaraderie among judges is unlike anything I’ve experienced anywhere else. Finally, being a judge allows me to exercise customer service and interpersonal skills that I don’t get to exercise in my day job. Overall, judging is an immensely rewarding hobby.

What is your favourite non-judging moment that happened with other judges?
That’s almost like asking “What’s your favorite child?” Except that that question is much easier to answer because I only have one child. Anyway, I’m going to pick the Judge conference in Indianapolis back in January of this year. Hanging out with as many judges as you normally see on staff at a Grand Prix and talking about Magic, but without the
stress of actually running a Grand Prix, is a very special experience.

What’s the biggest rule-breaking play you’ve ever made as a player?
I probably broke tons of rules when I was getting back into the game in 2006. I remember doing things like sacrificing the same creature to pay multiple costs and splicing the same card multiple times onto the same card. My grasp of the rules has improved a lot since then.

If you could chat with one person, real or fictional, dead or
alive, who would it be and why?
Douglas Adams. He was a hoopy frood who always knew where his towel was.

What would you be doing now if Magic no longer existed?
I think Magic will always exist. Even if Wizards were to stop making Magic, I think there will still be some kind of organized play, at least for a while. Anyway, if I were to stop judging for some reason, I’d probably try to join a band. I used to play drums in a rock band longer ago than I care to admit, and it would be fun to do that again. I play the fake drums in Rock Band on my Wii, but that’s not quite the same as playing a real drum set on a stage in front of dozens of adoring fans.

Two Truths and a Lie
Two of the following statements are true, and one is false. Figure out which one!

1. I played the title role in an amateur theater production of Doctor Faustus.
2. At age 16, I placed second in a city-wide Rubik’s Cube speed-solving competition.
3. I wrote a research paper that has been cited in an algebra text book.

A big thanks to Carsten for providing such an excellent interview! Please leave your guesses and comments down below, and make sure to nominate a judge today!