June 2013 anniversaries

5 years

Julian Impelluso, Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Eric Levine, California, United States
Min Moldover, Maryland, United States
Adam Clark, Pennsylvania, United States
Peter Stephenson, England, Great Britain
Dmitriy Shalyga, Russian Federation
David Zalesky, Czech Republic
Koen Valkeneers], Belgium

Hey Ingrid, are you awake? What happens if these cards all enter the battlefield at the same time…hey, wake up!

“Some judges know right away they want to become judges; others take a different path and ease into judging.  Such is the case with Pete.  We started out together as Magic players, and I was the one who first took the plunge into trying to understand cards and rulings.  (This was in the wild and wooly Pre-Comp. Rules days.)  When I became a judge, we still went to events together, but Pete arrived earlier than most of the players, and always asked if there was anything he could do to help us judges out – numbering tables, sorting lands, lugging stuff around, whatever needed to be done.

When the original Mirrodin block came out, we had the opportunity to playtest it.  This was huge fun – but it meant that Pete would not be able to play in the Mirrodin prerelease.  “Hey,” I said, “Why don’t you judge it?  You can run a prerelease pod.”  He’s always been kind of modest about his judging, but he agreed to help out.  He did a great job, had fun, and soon became a level 1 judge.  This opened up more possibilities to us.  As we traveled around to events, I judged, and he alternated being a player and being a judge.  “Hey,” I said, “Why don’t you consider becoming an L2?”  He hemmed and hawed at this for a while, and we continued going to events together.  My call time was usually earlier than his, but he would show up with me and, again, offer to do things to help – sorting stuff, checking decklists – anything that needed to be done.  Eventually at PT Atlanta, Andy insisted that if he was going to keep helping out, he should take his L2 test and he passed.

Since that time he has become thoroughly converted to judging, applying for events whenever he can fit them in, running events across the state, and working tirelessly with newer judges.  He has discovered he has a knack for mentoring judges and identifying candidates that are likely to pass their test.  It’s always a pleasure to judge with him, and it’s great to have someone always there when odd topics for judge discussions pop up.

And I’m glad we’re long past the days when he would wake me up in the middle of the night to ask me rules questions.”