Here are the May 2016 judge anniversaries!
15 years
Martial QuintynLee Singleton
Lars Freitag
Mike Goodman
Henk Claassen
10 years
William Laycraft5 years
Casey BrefkaJianhong Sun
Karl Weisling
Alex Morrill
Dalibor Trnka
Lilith Gilhespy-Kummling
Kam Lee
Przemyslaw Ulatowski
Paco Plana Caballero
Adrian Teodorescu
Benjamin Topping
Guilherme Figueira
Edmond Mendoza
Quentin Boussardon
Brecht Van Reusel
Stewart Wattson
Travis Coffman
Andrew Green
Zhu Hao
Andreas Struchholz
Jin Zhang
Bai Li
Tim Bentkowski
Tim Gagne
Steve Guillerm
Ivan Smirnov
E-Li Sun
Matteo Maria Tonazzo
Congratulations, and thank you for all your hard work!
Happy anniversary to all of you! We look forward to many more years of judging from you all.
We have two featured judges this month. First, Adrian Teodorescu from Romania has been with the program with 5 years. Regional Coordinator Giorgos Trichopoulos had this to say about Adrian:
Romania’s mapmaker
Although his busy work schedule and his personal life did not allow Adi to make the jump to L3, he is one of the most experienced judges in our region. Not many L2s can brag to have organized a conference, event more the biggest conference in our region.
You can easily spot Adi in the tournaments even more in a judge dinner. His loud voice along with his Balkan humor makes him recognizable. Outside tournaments Adrian is the country coordinator of Romania, the eyes and ears of the regional coordinator. He makes sure that all competitive events are staffed adequately while developing new player and judge communities.
Adi, those were some happy and enjoyable 5 years, let’s double them, shall we? :)”
Dalibor Trnka also certified 5 years ago. Regional Coordinator Adrian Estoup wrote about Dalibor:
Dalibor Trnka
It’s easy because if you think about Magic and Mexico, Dalibor is for sure one of the most representative members of the community, not only as a judge, but he’s a fundamental stone as player and member of the staff of premier events. But it’s also hard at the same time, because as he’s present in so many places at the same time, that it’s not uncommon to start talking about one role and end up talking about another.
I’ve met Dalibor during GP Mexico 2014 when he was a L1, being one of the judges with more initiative inside the staff. He got the L2 certification during that event and after getting the new level, he started a marathonic career, participating in lots of GPs outside the region and becoming an ambassador of the Latin American Judge Community.
Now, as Judge manager of some GPs inside the region, he’s still growing and improving every day. In Mexico, and the rest of latin America, he’s one of the fundamental judges and reference for many others, a great mentor and always looking for a place to help. I’m glad to have him in the region: it’s important to know you have a person like him to help you in any project.
Dalibor, congratulations for your anniversary!”
For May, we have a trio of Level 3 anniversaries. First up, we have Ryan Dare from Australia, who certified for Level 3 ten years ago. Nathan Brewer, RC of Australia, shared these thoughts:
An actual officer of the law
There are few people I’d rather have in my corner when the shit hits the fan than Ryan. He thrives under high pressure situations, and he’s never afraid to throw himself wholeheartedly into thankless and difficult tasks. He knows how to approach situations, applying pressure when needed and being supportive when it’s a better approach.Thank you for your 10 years as an L3. I hope that you find an appropriate way to celebrate :)”
Fellow Australian L3, Fabian Peck, also shared this:
“Ryan’ 10 years of experience as an L3 really show. From when I first met him at Australian Nationals as a relatively new L1 he’s been a strong presence, and a strong influence on the AU/NZ judge community. With his blunt, direct style he’s given a lot of important feedback, and cut through a lot of nonsense.
Ryan has always been an excellent judge to have around going into a tough situation, whether it’s a complex investigation or needing space for two more side events from nowhere. He’s bailed many people out of a difficult time, myself included.
He’s instilled a culture of investigation in the community here that many others can look up to.
Thanks Ryan for all you’ve done for us so far. (You should all look out for him on “Beach Cop”)”
Next up, we celebrate a 10-year anniversary for Richard Drijvers, RC of BeNeLux. Dustin de Leeuw, L3 from Netherlands, wrote the following:
A good boy
Since the invention of the role of Regional Coordinator, Richard (or RichardD, as he calls himself online) has been the BeNeLux RC. Which is quite fortunate, because even though we are a tiny region when it comes to area, we are a huge region when it comes to judges, events and activities! With over 150 judges, 8 L3’s and 3 Judge Hall of Famers, Richard has quite the flock to herd. He makes it a priority to visit many local events, like the Belgian Judge Dinner, the Dutch Judge Dinner, while hosting many different gatherings like frequent L3 meetings, TO meetings and the endless online presence.
Whenever anything happens in our region, Richard knows of it and gets involved when needed.
It may be a judge needing advice about a ruling, a second opinion by phone for a DQ, or just a heads-up on a recent incident online or at an event. He seems to be everywhere all the time, and then also finds the time to organize our yearly BeNeLux Judge Conference, that is so well organized that it has gained international attention and now draws judges from all over the world.
Before Richard became RC, he used to work for the Dutch Magic distributor and was involved in setting up many events in all parts of the country. Despite not working for them anymore and having a full time job as an engineer, he still finds time to spend so much dedication on the Judge Program. Did I already mention that besides being RC, Richard also is a member of the L3 Checklist Verification Committee, the Exemplar Recognition verification Committee, the Judge Anniversaries Project, the Articles Blog Project and is an active member of the BeNeLux Bulletin newsletter?
With that many judge-related activities, it’s almost unbelievable he still finds time to spend with his wife and their 3 dogs. They breed bull terriers and have won several prizes with their dogs at international dog shows. Feel free to ask this proud man for some pictures of his most prized litter of puppies!
Besides Magic and dogs, there are many more things Richard likes. He is a well-known party animal, turning many nights after a GP or PT into a memorable event. While it is inappropriate to offer him a beer during an event, please feel free to offer him ice cream at virtually any time, as this is his biggest known weakness and he won’t be able to say no to that kind of treat. And yes, Richard deserves a treat and some pats on the back, because he, without doubt, is a “good boy”!
Richard, thank you for all your hard work for the BeNeLux Judge Community, and here is to many years to come!”
Finally, we have a 5-year anniversary as well. David de la Iglesia certified for L3 at GP
Providence in 2011. His RC, Giorgos Trichopoulos, wrote the following about David:
La gente esta muy loca
David had set course to conquer the world from his early stages of his career. He started a blog to foster the relationship between his country’s fellow judges. His community efforts were recognized within one year when he achieved level 2. But for David level 2 was just an intermediate step, his mind was fixated on being a premier judge.
He became focused on giving feedback and in digital communication, while at the same time he became a regular in both European and North American GPs. As his pet projects met with success, his L3 certification followed through and at May ’11 DLI achieved his dream.
But enough the bio staff, who is DLI in reality?
He is the Izzet mana incarnated. He has a shockingly vast knowledge about our community. Right now he is engaged in 18(!) projects in judge apps and is leading a big percentage of them. Izzet also have a red brother; so it is not surprise that David is a passionate person; he cares, supports and advertise with vigor his views. His open personality has allowed him to form bonds with a lot of judges around the world in such a short time. That same personality sometimes clashed with others. You may read such adventures in his personal judge blog; path to exile. And this path to exile lead David to Doha, where he gave birth to the Middle East community, held the first gathering, Facebook page, common projects. It was so successful that other regions were contemplating on how to get their hands on it. I remember DLI on his first PT when he was not able to speak English properly. Now he is the testament on what one person can achieve if he loves what he is doing. And that statement goes beyond mtg:judges.”
Congratulations to Ryan, Richard, and David on your time as Level 3 judges. Best wishes to you all!
