November 2017 Anniversaries

Here are the November 2017 judge anniversaries!

20 years

from Calgary, Canada

15 years

from Firenze, Italy
from Rimini, Italy
from Montespertoli, Italy
from Catania, Italy
from Las Vegas, United States
from La Madeleine, France

10 years

from Reading, United Kingdom
from Aarhus C, Denmark
from Sittard, Netherlands

5 years

from Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States
from Lafayette, Louisiana, United States
from Greeneville, Tennessee, United States
from Montrose, Mississippi, United States
from Togliatty, Russia
from Fuzhou, China
from Edina, Minnesota, United States
from Kyoto, Japan
from Davenport, Iowa, United States
from Melbourne, Australia
from Platteville, Wisconsin, United States
from Eureka, California, United States
from Santa Paula, California, United States
from Rome, Italy
from Petoskey, Michigan, United States
from Rome, Italy
from Sevilla, Spain
from Lyon, France
from Sant Antoni de Vilamajor, Spain
from Longjumeau, France
from London, United Kingdom
from Lausanne, Switzerland
from Udine, Italy
from Napoli, Italy
from Etoy, Switzerland
from Orangeburg, New York, United States
from Haßbergen, Germany
from Antioch, Illinois, United States
from Belfast, United Kingdom
from Omaha, Nebraska, United States
from Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States
from Porto Alegre, Brazil
from Springfield, Illinois, United States
from GreenStrone Hill, South Africa
from Pretoria, South Africa
from Missoula, Montana, United States
from Ljubljana, Slovenia
from Ljubljana, Slovenia
from Brisbane, Australia
from Arlington, Massachusetts, United States
from Vienna, Austria
from Bonn, Germany
from Riverwoods, Illinois, United States
from Klamath Falls, Oregon, United States
from bloomington, Indiana, United States
from Superior, Wisconsin, United States
from Madrid, Spain
from Wilmette, Illinois, United States
from Bregana, Croatia
from Seattle, Washington, United States
from Ashland, Virginia, United States
from Florida, United States
from Salzgitter, Germany
from Auckland, New Zealand
from Cuenca, Spain
from Glen Burnie, Maryland, United States
from Santa Fe, Argentina
from Årjäng, Sweden
from Apple Valley, Minnesota, United States
from Baytown, Texas, United States
from Morristown, Tennessee, United States
from Uppsala, Sweden
from Belton, South Carolina, United States
from Melbourne, Australia
from Melbourne, Australia
from Greer, South Carolina, United States
from Victoria, Canada
from Fountain Inn, South Carolina, United States
from Sydney, Australia
from Austin, Texas, United States
from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States
from Darmstadt, Germany
from Belmont, Massachusetts, United States
from Thomasville, Georgia, United States
from Bremen, Germany
from San Jose, California, United States
from DeKalb, Illinois, United States
from Orlando, Florida, United States
from Fontaine L’évêque, Belgium
from Madison, Wisconsin, United States
from Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela
from Skövde, Sweden
from Busan, South Korea
from South Korea
from Singapore, Singapore
from East Durham, New York, United States
from München, Germany
from Magdeburg, Germany
from Subang Jaya, Malaysia
from Potsdam, Germany
from Braunschweig, Germany
from Scarborough, Maine, United States
from Kozelsk, Russia
from Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
from Rangsdorf, Germany
from São Paulo, Brazil
from Cape Coral, Florida, United States
from Vitória da Conquista, BA, Brazil
from Contagem, Brazil
from Lismore, Australia
from Fort Myers, Florida, United States
from Kaliningrad, Russia
from Houma, Louisiana, United States
from Lethbridge, Canada
from Cape Coral, Florida, United States
from SJ, Puerto Rico
from Tucson, Arizona, United States
from Pesaro, Italy
from Memphis, Tennessee, United States
from Auckland, New Zealand
from Auckland, New Zealand
from Centerville, Ohio, United States
from Genova, Italy
from London, United Kingdom
from Fresno, California, United States
from Pesaro, Italy
from Sydney, Australia
from Barcelona, Spain
from Dallas, Texas, United States
from San Antonio, Texas, United States
from Moscow, Russia
from College Station, Texas, United States
from Portland, Oregon, United States
from Idrija, Slovenia
from Seoul, South Korea
from Moscow, Russia
from Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
from Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
from China
from Schwarzenbek, Germany
from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, United States
from Taipei, Taiwan
from Providence, Rhode Island, United States
from São Paulo , Brazil

Congratulations, and thank you for all your hard work!

Kindness is his foundation

This month, we have 3 headliners: Darren Gamble, Kevin Desprez and David Lyford-Smith! First, lets celebrate Darren’s 20 year anniversary as a judge! had prepared this for Darren’s monumental anniversary:

20 years in the judge program is an incredible achievement – and I started flipping through old ‘back in the day’ photos of Darren for inspiration. I started noticing something as I looked through old photos of GPs, Canadian Nationals, and many many judge dinners … Darren was one of the few pictured that are still actively judging.

Darren certified in 1997 – Tempest block would be the new set that fall, and the game had yet to grow through art design changes, the sixth edition rules overhaul, the M10 rules overhaul, mythic rares, and the list goes on! Young Randy Buehler would win Pro Tour Chicago that fall – his debut PT appearance! ‘Sequences’ and ‘Batches’ were likely on his level 1 test … which would have been administered by a L3 (the only level at the time that could certify new judges)

In that time Darren has judged many many tournaments of all shapes and sizes, certified and mentored innumerable judges in his home province of Alberta, and been a touchstone of integrity and energy at every event. Even after all these years he is a bottomless well of enthusiasm and hustle. I’ve never seen him do something sluggishly or absent-mindedly.

Much has changed in the last 20 years, and much is changing now both in organized play and the judge program. I look at 10-year-old pictures of Darren in his ‘zebra shirt’ alongside judges who have long since stepped down or who I don’t recognize at all. I think about how not all of us have ‘survived’ turbulence in the past, and it’s quite possible that in the years to come more of us will step down.

But it makes me feel safe to know that Darren will be there for those of us still judging years from now – he’ll be there to show us how to hustle, he’ll always up for a beer and a game of Commander, and always happy to share his ‘back in the day’ war stories to try and educate us young folk 🙂

Congratulations Darren, and we all hope to be judging alongside you 20 years from now!

More than just a scarf

Next, wrote a few things about Kevin’s 15 year anniversary:

A couple of days ago, Sophie Pagès asked me if I was ok to write something about Kevin for his 15th anniversary. My first reflex was, wooooh 15 years is a pretty long long time. Then I realized that I’ve known Kevin for almost 15 years; first as a player, then as a judge. Finally it made me realize that I’m not twenty anymore… but that’s another story.

Fifteen years is a long period of time, but when you think about Kevin’s impact on the judge program, you realize that it can’t be done in just a couple of months. I could start to talk about Kevin’s influence on the French PTQs scene from something like 10 years ago, but let’s focus on the Kevin Desprez as a L3.

First of all, Kevin has been a keystone of the judge program in France for quite some years. This happened when 3 or 4 French L3+ stopped around the same period and Kevin was the last one until Daniel Kitachewsky finally passed his L3 and came to support. At this time, the MSN messenger window between Daniel and Kevin was the center of decisions for the French community 🙂

During this period Kevin was mentoring a decent group of L2s and some of them finally got their L3 and came to help to support the community. At the international level, one of his first big mark of influence was on the Investigation Committee. When he became the lead of the committee around 2010, he worked hard to create a structured document with philosophy support. The general concept of this document is still used today and allows the committee to handle most of the cases with pretty good consistency.

Kevin also worked a lot on the work flow, allowing players to have an answer regarding the outcome of their disqualification in a decent timeframe, while it was pretty erratic before that. Another point of interest in Kevin is an unusual trait of character: when you are working with the same group of people, doing the same things for years, it’s super easy to take habits and to stick to them. What always impresses me with Kevin is his ability to ask himself questions about everything, all the time. Take public transportation with Kevin in a country he never visited and you will quickly see what I mean. 😉 He is not only asking questions, he is also trying to find the best answer and if the current system is not the best answer he will design something to replace it. I could mention these recent ideas:

– In trial registration, he asked if the staff was able to take money at the table to give judges the ability to fire a huge number of trials from at the opening of the venue, without any waiting time for the players.

– In the sleep in special system, he crafted a process helping to answer to this question: “How to do the most efficient system to generate a great player experience, without risking to open the door for cheating?”

One of the most recent and visible impact that Kevin had on the program is the GP HJ program. While some people had concerns about the automatic maintenance of the GP HJ in the past, Kevin accepted the challenge and tackled this issue. I said challenge, because we are talking about evaluating other skillful people which for a large part of them are friends and trust me the job is not the most pleasant thing to do, but it has to be done. Kevin has been able to craft a process were a committee is able to evaluate different candidates anonymously, removing a maximum of bias in the candidates evaluation.

All of these initiatives have always been combined with a large amount of documentation and mentoring. If sometimes you feel Kevin has strong opinions, it’s true! But don’t be afraid to continue to discuss and to give your best arguments. As a very rational person, Kevin is very careful to listen to the facts and if at the end your suggestion makes more sense than the initial plan, he will probably go for it. Kevin is always giving his full attention to you when you enter a discussion with him. It looks like he believes that in every discussion there is a gem hidden that could improve the program or lives of others. Seeing him thinking about your craziest arguments and making them running in his head is something quite fantastic to see. Sometimes his conclusions go even farther than what you initially wanted to achieve!

One of two famous judges with the first two initials DL

Finally, we get to David’s 10 year anniversary! remembers the last 10 years here:

David’s ten-year lifetime as a judge has been a winding road of responsibility, professionalism, and excellence. At a time, David was only Level 2 judge on the main land-mass of the UK. Slightly later, he was one of the few Level 3 judges in the region, when that group could have their meetings at a single table in a Starbucks. David handled coordination of Level 1 certification and Level 2 certification for periods that I have personally experienced. He has served as the Head Judge of a Grand Prix (and indeed, he did so wearing a pointy witch’s hat). He has served as the Regional Coordinator for the region, leaving me with boots to fill that I still have worries about, to this day. He’s served as a sphere leader for the Player Experience sphere, spearheading (or sphere-heading) a multitude of projects, initiatives — both player- and judge-facing — and for each of these tasks, he’s inspired awe from many more judges, players, and Magic-involved individuals than just myself.

Throughout all of these roles, where I remember first seeing and experiencing the phenomenon known as “DL-S”, is as the Head Judge of a PTQ many years ago. Seeing David command a judge team, hundreds of players, and steer a ship through choppy waters to the end of the day has always been a fond and powerful memory of mine. One of the few things that he didn’t get to do “at the time” was be the Head Judge of Nationals. He got to show the English community exactly how well such a role suited him recently, and that memory of “Head Judge DL-S” was refreshed for me.

If I search my email account for “David Lyford-Smith”, what comes up is more than half a decade of advice, witticisms (or, as he would refer to them, as one of the most “street” individuals I know, “bants”), and relentless time and effort put in to improve me as a judge and as a person. That chain starts with “I want to become a Level 1 and I’ve been told you’re the guy to talk to” and ends somewhere yesterday providing information on yet another task David does for the region. I can believe DL-S has had this impact on an absurd number of other individuals. David has been a major positive influence for myself and the region, and I’m proud to call him a friend.

To ten more years!

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

2 Responses to November 2017 Anniversaries

Steve Wellington says:

February 17, 2018 at 1:24 pm

Didn’t get my 15 years 🙁

- Ronald says:
  
  February 17, 2018 at 1:32 pm
  
  There are some errors in the database that has caused a few people to miss their anniversaries. 🙁 We’re still trying to get it fixed but when we do, we’ll have a makeup post!

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