Here are the July 2013 anniversaries!
15 years
Mark Cracco, Indiana, United States
John Grant, Washington, United States
George Novakowski, Pennsylvania, United States
Eric Smith, New York, United States
10 years
Oliver Beaumont, New Hampshirem United States
Brett Wright, Scotland, Great Britain
Victor Mtnez Vitidjin, Spain
Quincy West, Florida, United States
Keith Thompson, Washington United States
5 years
Jack Gaynor, Ohio, United States
Niko Skartvedt, British Columbia, Canada
Jorge Requesens, Spain
Chris Lee, Pennsylvania, United States
Julian Palermo, New Jersey, United States
Jeff Vandenberg, Iowa, United States
Juha Ihonen, Finland
Jorge Almeida Valdes, Spain
Kenneth Mullinix, Washington, United States
Viachaslav Kuhtuyk, Belarus
Tatsuro Iwakura, Tokyo-to, Japan
Michael Hall, Tokyo-to, Japan
Michael Mills, Virginia, United States
Daniel Schoenbach, Virginia, United States
Damion Guy, North Carolina, United States
Congratulations to all of you, and thank you for all your hard work!
Our first featured judge this month is Viachaslav Kuhtuyk, L2 from Belarus. Regional Coordinator Eugene Bazhenov says:
“Tested for L1 by his namesake when travelling to event far from his hometown in 2008, Viachaslav took the banner from an ancient Belorussian judge who’s been mostly lapsed at the time. See, you never know when a responsibility a size of a big European country falls upon your head:) As much as he is a modest person, never pursuing attention from others, Viachaslav is an absolute hard-worker. He is an important resource to a rapidly growing Magic community in Belarus, managing to help the interests of TOs to meet with the interests of players.
After being promoted to L2 at Russian Nationals in 2011, Viachaslav has started to join our bigger region’s events and conferences much more often, sharing wisdom with his fellow judges from Russia and Ukraine as well. To our players he is also known as an author of Limited primers for newly released Magic sets.
Happy anniversary, mate! And see you at events soon!”
Our second featured judge is Brett Wright, L2 from Scotland. Regional Coordinator Kim Warren had this to say about Brett:
Brett Wright is seven feet tall.
“Brett has been the driving force in the Scottish judge community for many years. He was Scotland’s go-to L2 when Scotland did not have an L2, and passed this well-deserved milestone at British Nationals 2009. At this point he formally took on the role of Scottish captain in support of the Regional Coordinator at the time, Glen White – a post which he held for a number of years while developing the region and certifying a legion of new judges. Scotland’s current crop of level 2s and healthy base of level 1 judges stems directly from Brett’s work. Friendly, approachable and competent, I hope that he continues to be present in the UK judge community in the years to come – congratulations on 10 years, Brett.”
This month there is one L3 anniversary: Level 5 judge Scott Marshall certified for Level 3 at GenCon in 2003. We asked a couple of other L5s for comments. Riccardo Tessitori had this to say about Scott:
![[O] and you know it.](http://blogs.magicjudges.org/anniversaries/files/2013/07/scottmarshall.jpg)
[O] and you know it.
Oh, yes, UNCLE Scott! ^__^ I believe that our beloved Scott Marshall is well defined by his nickname. An uncle is a member of our family, a person we can count on when we are in trouble, a person who can be our friend when we need a friend and our advisor when we need suggestions from a wiser person, a person who keeps surprising us with his kind behavior and his demonstrations of great capabilities… Like many families, the Magic judge program has his special uncle too, and we are very proud of him!”
Toby Elliott had more to say about Scott:
“Ten years is a long time, yet it’s hard to believe that Scott has only been L3 for that long. It feels like he’s been a rock of the program – someone who has been looked up to as an exemplar – forever. That’s because Scott’s patience is neverending. He’s been answering questions on various mailing lists and forums for a long time now, and no matter how basic, or how convoluted, or how repetitive, he takes the time to read them and provide a genuine response where many of us would be tempted to whip off something snarky or dismissive.
That’s not enough to be a globally recognized leader, of course, even if it does make you a candidate for sainthood. Scott combines that with a keen ability to get to the heart of problems, be they thorny policy questions, or interpersonal conflicts in tournaments. He defuses situations like a pro, finds an outcome that everyone can accept and moves on to the next problem, leaving us all better off in his wake. His calm is contagious, not just to the staff, but to everyone is a tournament, even when he’s having to deal firmly with someone who thinks they can take advantage of it!
Peace, love, and understanding. That hippie in Scott isn’t as buried as he thinks it is, and that’s made him a pleasure to have worked alongside him these last ten years. He can almost draft, too!”