Hello judges,
As you know, we celebrate the new members and promotions in our family with announcements on this list, and with a monthly post by Carlos Ho. I think we should also celebrate and recognize the judges who have already served their local communities and the program for a long time. That’s why I’m going to start posting a list of judges who have certified 10 or 5 years ago at the start of every month.
This first post is going to have all the 10/5 year anniversaries from September, October and November. I should point out that pre-2005 certification dates are not necessarily accurate. Sometimes it would take a while for the paperwork to get mailed and processed, and Andy Heckt tells me that years ago there was a database update that causes some certification dates on my list to be inaccurate. Things got a lot more accurate after the Judge Center was opened. If you think your certification date is incorrect, you can e-mail me privately and I’ll edit my list.
Here are 10 year anniversaries from September, October and November:
Steven Chen, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Huseh lan Chu, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Damian Hiller, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Chia Hao Chen, Taipei, Taiwan
Carl Winter, Binghamton, New York, United States
Andrzej Cieslak, Lodz, Poland
Mike Clark, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada
Angus Foster, Dubbo, New South Wales, Australia
Kerry Sammut, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Matthew, Semmens, Anula, Northern Territory, Australia
Sandro, Manfredini, Pisa, Italy
And here are the 5 year anniversaries:
Mick Wright, Surrey, England, Great Britain
Makoto, Kawamura, Sendai-shi, Miyagi-ken, Japan
Maximiliano Liprandi, Caracas, Venezuela
Caue Hattori, Sao Caetano do Sul, Brazil
Erkka Moisio, Tampere, Finland
Kari Tuominen, Tampere, Finland
Chas Hinkle, Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, United States
Luca Beltrame, Conegliano, Treviso, Italy
Jorge Alarcon, Majadahonda (Madrid), Spain
Pierre Laquerre, Carrieres sous Poissy, Paris, France
Maxim Ivanov, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
Joshua Laff, Lynnwood, Washington, United States
Dan Reif, Ashburn, Virginia, United States
Hiroyuki Matsui, Mitaka-shi Tokyo-to, Japan
Homero Flores, Springfield, Missouri, United States
Laurent Faure, Toulouse, Sud, France
Valery Balabanov, Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation
Roman Cupek, Bielsko-Biala, Poland
Pawel Kazimierczuk, Krakow, Poland
Andrey Petukhov, Moscow, Russian Federation
Irina Samonova, Podolsk, Russian Federation
Arcady Zavylenkov, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation
Guisheng Xiao Dalian Liaoning China
Jason Corrigan, Liverpool, New York, United States
Matthew Atias, Flushing, New York, United States
David Price, Centreville, Virginia, United States
Maciej Fidzinski, Warsaw, Poland
Dawna Havnar, Ft.Lewis, Washington, United States
Kepa Arrieta, Pasai Antxo, Spain
Daniel Mencia Martin, Alcorcon (Madrid), Spain
Hironobu Sugaya, Yachimata-shi Chiba-ken, Japan
Gianluca Tranchedone, Vairano Stazione, Caserta, Italy
Davide Succi, San Giovanni in Persiceto, Bologna, Italy
Fabian Silva, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Congratulations to all of you, and thank you for your hard work!
Our featured veteran judge this month is Andrzej Cieslak from Poland. Andrzej is a Level 2 judge from Lodz. His involvement in the local Magic community goes far beyond just judging, because he owns a store called GameLord. His store can host over 100 players if necessary, and he has run some of the largest events in the country. Andrzej first became a judge in the summer 2000, receiving the exam from legendary Level 4 judge Jakub Wysoczanski. He wanted to become a judge because he wanted to improve the tournaments in his area: “I saw the need of better organization and greater game support and I admitted that if I would advance in my own skills as a judge then it [would] increase the level of players from my region”, he says. He passed the L2 exam the following year and since then he has been judging tournaments every week.
Many of you remember the Worlds 2009 video that Andrzej made. He also puts a lot of effort into making reports from his tournaments – for example, here is one in comic book form! http://forum.gamelord.pl/galeria/gpw12comicsEN/ When asked about things that have changed during his long career, Andrzej mentioned the better learning opportunities offered by the Judge Center, the size of the rules and policy documents and the average size of a GP staff. It’s hard to believe we used to run these events with only 20 judges!
Finally, Andrzej says that the best thing about his judge career is the people he has met, both from his own country and from other parts of the world.