August 2016 Anniversaries

Here are the August 2016 judge anniversaries!

15 years

Chikara Nakajima from Itabashi-ku, Japan
Eric Tewes from Mills, United States

10 years

Goncalo Rodrigues from Porto, Portugal
Cristobal Garcia from Mexico City, Mexico

5 years

Maykel from Jakarta, Indonesia
Adam Amy from Pakenham, Australia
Carl Ansell from Epsom, Surrey, England
Davis Gibson from San Diego, United States
Andrew Hurth from Bolingbrook, United States
Geoffrey Larvor from Brest, France
Zach Rivers from Minneapolis, United States
Kenny Russell from Sacramento, United States
Vidianto Wijaya from Rowland Heights, United States
Kyle Evans from Katy, United States
Douglas Barros Franklin Oliveira from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Sergio Garcia Gonzalez from Madrid, Spain
Hirotsugu Kondo from Katsusika-Ku, Japan
Maximilian Schroeder from Overland Park, United States
Benjamin Smithee from High Ridge, United States
Paulo Araujo Vianna Costa from Porto Alegre, Brazil
Martin Chaves Murillo from San Pedro de Poas, Alajuela, Costa Rica
Carl Etter III from River Edge, United States
Edmund Greco III from Holmdel, United States
Casey Hermanson from Noblesville, United States
Nicolas Jathe from Syke, Germany
Adam Lugibill from State College, United States
Carlos Maripangui from Santiago, Chile
Scott Neiwert from Beaverton, United States
Donald Eric Powell from Lake Villa, United States
Archibal R. Sanchez Peralta from Mexico City, Mexico
Marco Storelli from Trieste, Italy
Jonny Teloeken from Dortmund, Germany
Sam Alpert from Elkridge, United States
Jonathan Andres Barria Arjel from Punta Arenas, Chile
Jona Bemindt from Gent, Belgium
Tyler Bienlein from Burton, United States
Lewis Bronson from Mayfield Heights, United States
Chaz Estell from Muncie, United States
Jeremy Hallock from Belding, United States
Raoul Mowatt from Chicago, United States
Anthony Wood from Conway, United States
Craig Wostratzky from Waukegan, United States
Cristóbal Vigar from Madrid, Spain

Congratulations, and thank you for all your hard work!

This month, we are featuring Max Schroeder! Regional Coordinator Steven Briggs, has this to say about Max:

Max Schroeder in his first five years as a judge has developed into a pillar for officiating in the USA – Central region. Serving as an L2 for most of that time, Max has served as a regional captain and regional leader for several years for Missouri, working alongside other seasoned veterans in helping shape regional operations and regional policy while the USA-Midwest mega-region was in juggernaut form. Fun Fact: For a portion of his time as a regional captain, Max was actually living in the South region in Overland Park, Kansas (across the river from our region) – thanks Kevin Binswanger for lending him to us!

Max has been on staff at all levels of Organized Play, including several Grand Prix events, SCG Opens, and many PPTQ’s in his area. He is known for his cunning, sly grin, an incredibly positive and upbeat attitude, and for a wicked Judge Deck he uses very effectively in mentoring judges of all skill levels. The positive attitude he brings, combined with top-of-class professionalism and tournament expertise, makes Max invaluable as a member of our community.

This month we celebrate a pair of Level 3 anniversaries. At US Nationals in 2006, both Brian Schenck and Damian Hiller certified for Level 3. We asked each of their Regional Coordinators to share some thoughts on their impact on the judge program. First, Mid-Atlantic US RC, Nicholas Sabin, had this to say about Brian:

“Brian Schenck had a hand in your advancement, even if you’ve never met him. For the past several years, Brian has been one of the driving forces behind Judge Center. He’s the one ensuring that test content is up-to-date. He’s the one who fixes your reviews. He’s the one who helps maintain an infrastructure for judges to leave feedback and improve. The judge program would not be where it is right now without the involvement of Brian Schenck.

Beyond his contributions to Judge Center, Brian has also operated as an L3 for a decade. His combination of comprehensive rules and policy knowledge, extensive event experience, and a deep understanding of the Magic community have made him an invaluable asset to his region and to the community at large. I don’t see Brian at events nearly as often as I’d like, but he’s always ready with a keen insight and a great attitude.”

Next, Adrian Estoup, RC for Latin America – Spanish, said this about Damian:

“I’ve known Damian for a long time. I couldn’t be very specific on how long I’ve known him, but bear in mind that he taught me how to play Pokémon when the game started being distributed in Argentina. We have always shared game places in Buenos Aires; however, we had different groups of friends.

Sometimes, these kind of messages focus on commenting about someone’s achievements. With Damian this is not something too complicated; he certified as a L1 when he was very young, and became L2 shortly after that. He then advanced to L3, as the youngest in the world to my knowledge. After that, he became the RC of Latin America – Spanish, and in no time, he reached L4.

‘Congratulations, Damian, for all you’ve achieved, we hope to see you around for many years!’ That’s it. The End. However, in this opportunity I would like to go deeper than that.

Damian is, without any doubts, the person that started to guide the region into professionalism. Some years ago, Latin American events were chaotic, communication between communities were awful, and judges came and went without much guidance. He was the one that didn’t want to settle with that, that we could be up to the challenge for events, and he started working hard so that Latin America stopped being the place where the worst events were run; our first steps towards improvement.

Personally, I can only be thankful for what he has done. He was the one that helped me the most during my L3 process, and working with him taught me everything I needed to know to be the RC of the region. A big part of what I am today as a judge and Regional Coordinator is thanks to his teachings. I am proud to have the friendship of that boy that played cards on a store so many years ago, and being able to see how much he has grown during these years.”

Congratulations to these two judges on a decade each as a high-level judge. Best wishes to you both!

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