January 2016 Anniversaries

Here are the January 2016 judge anniversaries!

15 years

Nicolas Alcubilla from Marratxi, Spain
Aaron Atwood from Alexandria, United States
Marcin Berlowski from Warsaw, Poland
Rafael Dei Svaldi from Porto Alegre, Brazil
Namir Elias from Florianopolis, Brazil
Davide Fenu from Torino, Italy
Christian Gawrilowicz from Wien, Austria
Steve Hatto from Frisange, Luxembourg
Toru Hayashi from Yokohama-shi, Japan
Gabor Hegyi from Pecs, Hungary
Andrew Herber from Schertz, United States
David Hibbs from League City, United States
Teruyuki Hiraishi from Hiroshima-shi, Japan
Jason Howlett from London, England
Hidetoshi Ito from Toshima-ku, Japan
Kazuya Kawashima from Funabashi-shi, Japan
Brian Kolins from Ardmore, United States
Lubos Lauer from Praha, Czech Republic
Sandi Lovrencic from Koper, Slovenia
Todd Luken from Fridley, United States
Anton Lunau from Copenhagen, Denmark
Mark Lyons from Franklin, United States
Ivan Negrete from Burgos, Spain
Jorge Antonio Penailillo Monckeberg from Santiago, Chile
Rick Ralsten from Hopewell, United States
Marcel Scheibler from Therwil, Switzerland
David Spears from Hermitage, United States
Rudolf Sukeandra from Surabaya, Indonesia
Shin’ichiro Tachibana from Matsuyama-shi, Japan
Hisaya Tanaka from Toshima-ku, Japan
Fernando Urralburu from San Martin, Argentina
Hannu Vallin from Vantaa, Finland
Francisco Vazquez from Barcelona, Spain
Johanna Virtanen from Espoo, Finland
Austin Whitehead from Sedley, United States
Alejo Zagalsky from Buenos Aires, Argentina
Teun Zijp from Amsterdam, Netherlands
Andres Moro from Buenos Aires, Argentina

10 years

Jan Ver Eecke from Torhout, Belgium
Guillaume Beuzelin from Bellegarde sur Valserine, France
Zohar Finkel from Rehovot, Israel
Kevin Jennings from Wakefield, United States
Chadwick McKenzie from Terre Haute, United States

5 years

Tomas Sukaitis from Bingley, England
Robert Ebert from Carmichael, United States
John Viera from Knoxville, United States
Ralph Colby from Berkeley, United States
David Hartford from Santa Clara, United States
Tyler Herman from Bismarck, United States
Andrea Bacco from Padova, Italy
Giovanni D’Amelio from Telese Terme, Italy
Fredrik Fagerberg from Malmo, Sweden
Zac Houle from Theodore, United States
Sun LeMunyon from Edwardsburg, United States
Carlos Alberto Lorca Tello from Santiago, Chile
Yann Sevette from Saint Nazaire, France

Congratulations, and thank you for all your hard work!

This month is a crazy one! Look at all of those 15 year anniversaries! Here we have two judges featured this month: Zohar Finkel and Rafael Dei Svaldi. First we have Zohar Finkel, a very active judge from Isreal. His RC Giorgos Trichopoulos wrote this about Zohar:

“Zohar is one of those people that I would describe as a silent force. When I nominated him, I was expecting lots of questions, since my first impression of him is very calm, a bit of an introvert, shy and not a very talkative person. I couldn’t be more wrong. Zohar has already established a reputation among the group. So who is Zohar?

I met him when he was already the area captain of Israel. For the first few years, his energy was dedicated into developing his local community. After getting another L2 in there and multiple other L2 candidates he was hungry for more. Ask and you shall receive 🙂 Nowadays Zohar is responsible for keeping up to date the post regarding all the region’s activities, he has created an in-region anniversary project and he is the driving force behind our pioneering achievement project. Oh that’s only the in region projects; he is also into Judge Booth, Judge Experiences, Judge Resources and Project org chart.

He has a reputation of being punctual, thorough, and always accepting challenges. Just give him objectives and he will come up with a plan, and even if it is “his” plan, he is ready to accept other people opinions and change it. So, that’s Zohar! We are very glad that we have him, and he is the clear proof on how one can shine even when originating from a very isolated part of the world. Happy birthday Zohar <3"

Next, we have Rafael Dei Svaldi from Brazil, who has recently started TO'ing the Brazilian GPs. Brazilian RC Thales Bittencourt says this about Rafa:

"I have written these kinds of stories about Rafael for some time now. Even after all these years I can't say that I have told enough about how Rafael is to me a role model in Magic, and an example in life. In each of these 15 years Rafael had a clear goal in mind: make Brazil a better place for Magic players and judges. Having participated in uncountable national and international events, from FNMs in his local store to many GPs and PTs, Rafael has been showing not only that he cares earnestly about the judge program, but also that he is a great judge. One of best this program were able to offer. Congratulations, Rafael! The judges in Brazil, and all the judge program, are deeply grateful for the 15 years of your life that you have been dedicating to us. Thank you!"

Happy anniversary to all of you!  We look forward to many more years of judging from you all.