Hello!
Here are the judge anniversaries for August. The following judges havebeen with the program for 5 or 10 years. Thanks to Johanna Virtanen for preparing this post!
10 years:
- Chikara Nakajima, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo-to, Japan
- Morgan Ramanchandram, Penang, Malaysia
- Eric Tewes, Mills, Wyoming, United States
5 years:
- Erik Gustafsson, Vallentuna, Sweden
- Daniel Neeley, Lexington, Kentucky, United States
- Goncalo Rodrigues, Porto, Portugal
- Cristobal Garcia, Mexico, D.F., Distrito Federal, Mexico
- Erick Agustin Ramirez, Ramirez D.f., Distrito Federal, Mexico
- Xavier Le Rest, Marseille, Sud, France
- Urs Traenkner, Munich, Bayern, Germany
- Milijan Gacanovic, Novi Sad, Serbia
- Marijan Cendak, Rijeka, Croatia (Hrvatska)
- Sasa Milicevic, Vinkovci, Croatia (Hrvatska)
- Graham White, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Congratulations and thank you for all your hard work!
Our featured judge this month is Milijan Gacanovic of Serbia. Regional Coordinator Philipp Daferner writes:
“I learned to know Milijan the first time I was in Serbia for their Nationals a few years ago. At that time he was helping out at Nationals and I tested him for Level 1. One year later I returned for the next Nationals and Milijan passed his Level 2 test. The very special thing about Milijan — what I’d like to share with all other judges worldwide — is that before I tested him for Level 1 there actually was no active Level 1 judge in Serbia at all. Due the special circumstances in Serbia Milijan was not able to travel to international events or share experiences with other judges in person. Still he managed to improve and pass his Level 2 test – and right now he’s the leading person in Serbia’s Magic community.
So far I could convince him once to attend a PT in Amsterdam last year. Besides that he’s very isolated and is still an important factor to keep Magic alive in a very small community like Serbia. I’d like Milijan to share his special situation with all of you, so that you can see how Magic is run in different and maybe not so easy parts of the world.”
Milijan: “A long time ago our Magic community was thriving with players. There were 5 big cities as Magic centers and Magic was expanding. Prerelease were the biggest events that sometimes gathered more than a hundred players. Players were not very interested in competitive play and fun was the primary factor. Then there were some issues within our distributor, and its partners parted ways. That fragmented the Magic community and many players left the Magic community. Nowadays the community is pretty small with almost no judges and little support for it. During all these years, I have had the stance of a neutral person trying not to be involved in the various groups quirrels. I’m trying to grow our community by introducing new players and organizing tournaments every week for which I try to get Organized Play support. Also I’m going to be the Head Judge for this years nationals which will be Open Nationals the first time.
My primary motivation to become a Magic judge was when I started playing I often got opposing answers to my rules questions, so I should take it on myself an learn the rules.”