Bienvenidos, Judges!

This week, we are celebrating the achievements of a Judge who juggles multiple projects, builds up his local community and has received numerous Exemplar recognitions. Time to get to know Jose Tamargo!

Name: Jose Tamargo
Level: 2
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Judge start date: November 2012
Occupation:  MagicBarcelona® Employee
Favourite card: Contract from Below, definitely the best Magic card ever.
Least favourite card: Sowing Salt. I hate this card since I got it played against me 4 times in a row playing Tron.
Favourite format: Sealed
Commander General: Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. I like playing ramp decks in all formats.
Favourite non-Magic Game: Warhammer
Best tournament result: I may have won a FNM at most… hahaha. Winning Game Day or Pre-Release and a 6-3 record in GP Madrid 2015, which nowadays would mean playing day 2 🙁
Random fact about yourself:
Thanks to Graphic Design Gang Project, I’ve created more than 20 banners for several Magic Judge blogs, like “Exemplar Program,” “Official Resources” and some more funny ones like “What’s Up, Docs?”, “Time Distortion” or “Turner’s Big Boy Blog.” One of the most fun projects was the one about Facebook infographics for Modern Masters 2015 Weekend.

One theme that comes out from many of your Exemplar recognitions is that you are always working and always ready to volunteer. How do you juggle all the potential demands on your time as a Judge?
I also wonder how I can handle all that work. I think the most important thing is to choose those projects you can really help and will enjoy working on. It’s nonsense joining a project just to be in projects. If you think you won’t have time to work on it or your skill is not appropriate, your part of work will have to be handled by someone else. The same as if you don’t like the project.

Another habit I have is finishing some of my assigned tasks daily, so that they don’t get pending for days.

I am lucky to be in projects like Preparing candidates for level 1 for my region (Spain and Portugal) with Daniel Sole Garcia and in Graphic Design Gang with David de la Iglesia. Those projects allow me to contribute our community educating other Judges and graphic designing. This is something I really like working on.

You were also credited with improving the work flow on multiple projects. What projects have you been on and how did you contribute to making them better?
I’ve participated in several one-shot project like GP Guides or Regional Conferences and some regular project like Preparing candidates for level 1, PPTQ staffing in Spain and Graphic Design Gang.

I’ve contributed to achieve some improvements in Preparing candidates for level 1 project like improving project management and candidate preparation so that mentors work is easier. We are proud of our work during last year getting better certification statistics and quality in mentorship thanks to our work.

Tell us your favourite Judge story.
There is a fun fact about a playset of my nametag. Every time I requested my nametag, it was given to my area L3, Daniel Sole, so that he was supposed to give it to me. However, it always got lost once Daniel had it, up to 4 times!!!!! The key thing is that only my nametag got lost. Any other one was given to his/her owner.
Even worse, every time I attended a GP or judge conference, Judges made fun about my missing nametag. For a long time I thought I would never get mine. I suspect Daniel Sole was collecting my nametags…hehehe.

How did you get involved in Magic in the first place?
A long time ago. I was in a group that played role-playing games, Warhammer, etc. One day a friend came with a couple of Magic decks and we played some games during breaks. Although we had a Revised rulebook, we didn’t know the rules, so we did what we wanted… Soon we were trapped by the game and we quit playing anything else but Magic.

How has being a Judge influenced your non-Magic life?
I’ve met some friends in our community with whom I share some non-Magic life. It’s been a pleasant surprise meeting people with much more in common than Magic.

What’s the best part about your local Magic community?
As I’ve said before, the group of friends I’ve met and their Judge quality. This helps us to have better results in our local tasks and I feel satisfied about our good job. This is my biggest motivation to continue being a Judge.

What’s the biggest rule-breaking play you’ve ever made as a player?
This is not exactly a rule-breaking play but this play should be prohibited by rules.
I cast Lightning Bolt on my opponent’s Vendilion Clique when he was actually at 3 life… I admit my mistake. My friends reminded me about it for long, long time, too much.

What was the toughest Magic event that you’ve Judged, and how did you deal with it?
GP Madrid 2015.

When you realize a tournament is overwhelming you because of lack of resources or any other external problems, you must concentrate on doing basic things and make to tournament go forward. Assign the most valuable resources you have to key things and try to be constructive, don’t bother your TL with problems, be proactive and provide possible solution to a problem you are pointing out. I want to say thank Nuno Falcao e Cunha again for his help during a ruling at GP Madrid 2015. I was very tired and he helped me to attend a player.

What do you see as your greatest strengths as a Judge?
I work very hard and prepare tournaments in advance. I like preparing for the tournament  beforehand, talking with the TO to help him and ensure him everything will be ready the day of the tournament. Thanks to this habit, I’ve never had any big issue in my tournaments. The day before the tournament I reread IPG for some time. This has become my pre-tournament ritual.

What are the areas you feel like you would most like to work on?
My English knowledge is very low. That’s why I can’t attend GPs abroad and can’t achieve L3. I’ve had to ask someone else to translate this interview. By the way, thank you, David Larrea.

What do you see as your short-term and long-term goals within the Judge program?
Short-term: Continue working in the same line if I can continue investing my time and I continue enjoying.
Long-term: Learn English and work towards L3. That would be a nice plan.

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

1. I wear beard because of a promise
2. I’ve judged more than 15 PPTQ during 2015
3. I became L2 with less than one year of L1

If there is a judge who is also doing something exemplary, please nominate a judge TODAY!