Here are the January 2018 judge anniversaries!
15 years
Rachel GilbeyJi Liu
Ian Turner
Carlos Ho
Ezekiel Davis
Cristiana Dionisio
Justin Miyashiro
Martin Golm
Takumi Yamamoto
10 years
Greg DegiJorge Lopez Morales
Kevin Binswanger
Mario Alexander De La Carrera
Daniel Yarrington
Tameron Josbeck
5 years
Xiaoping PengBenjamin Stark
Eric Pigeon
Zane Mitchell
Gus Landt
Alec Pitzer
Yunfei Jiang
Robert Riley
David Spada
Martin Goulet
Jinda Soungpanya
Aaron Huntsman
Tyler Hickox
Xinliang Zhan
Warrick Goodhew
Jake Quintana
Andrew Hougard
Tony Pagliocco
Stacy Winchell
Simone Debellario
Brian Ruble
Morgan Wentworth
Joshua Schaeffer
Matias Gonzalez
Steven Lundberg
Maximilian Kuntze
Josh Wilhelmi
Evan Wright
Barrett Kroeger
Matthew Hall
Damian Bronowicki
Kevin Barron
Alexander Hawksley
Michael Hill
Jamie Syed
Vilhelm Lindholm
Joe M
Christopher Heskett
Huw Morris
Tomasz Pakieła
Nathan Cotner
David Patton
Charles Curfman
shuta tsuboyama
Simon Ahrens
Kusatani Takehiko
Sébastien Morel
Francois Pawlaczyk
Austin Meshel-Haun
Iván Pérez
Jasper König
shawn houston
Ray Pena
Rami Abdo
Brian McAtee
Yasunori Baba
Steven Curl
Sebastian Park
Thomas Lando
Francisco Ayrolo
Jeremy Toma-Cooper
Takuya Sugiura
Michael Peretz
Tiago Correia
Francisco Javier Muñoz Cortes-Monroy
Lochlan McIntosh
Joshua Deming
Victor Bernhardtz
José Manuel Cruz
Andrea Mondani
John Byrne
Ashley Puhlman
Shane Dugan
Allan Tran
Alexander Pilipenko
Doug Lunn
John White
Travis Traxler
Antonio José Bitarian
nathan moneymaker
Josh Brubaker
Miguel Serra Sard
Chris Parham
Corbett Gray
Zachary Fitzgerald
Gabriel Schlittenhardt
Ryan Nightingale
Michael Ranton
Uy Tran
David Carroll
Marcel Kondrk
Alex de Bruijne
Raian Chaves
Arron Thompson
Jethro Harrup
Christopher Conley
Josh Stothers
William Seymour
Gabriel Ščerbák
Douglas Lambert
Jon Chung
Bas de Vaan
Michele Lo Conte
Fredrik Herlitz
Tristan Lebon
Brian Rapp
Dimmy Magalhães
Jonathon Williams
Guillaume Cailliez
Jason Chung
Jason Clark
José Luis Rofa
Mark Bush
Ronald Capalongan
Adam Yount
David Söderlund
Davis La
Alexander Korobkin
Ali Merali
Congratulations, and thank you for all your hard work!
This month we are featuring Simon Ahrens and Alex de Bruijne! First, Simon’s RC, StefanI’m very happy to announce Simon Ahren’s 5-year anniversary this month. What he has achieved during that time is nothing short of amazing. A bit more than two years ago, Simon came up with the idea to implement an Area Captain structure in our region, and then helped make his bold plan reality. The ACs are now well established as the region’s leadership, and when I took over the mantle of RC, I had a functioning support network in place, making the transition so much easier.
However, that’s not the only big achievement of Simon—he also helped introduce and shape the L2 mentoring project in our region. Interested L1s can now be mentored remotely in a series of 2-on-2 Skype sessions, where they prepare for their life as L2 judges. The project is a huge success: the L2 exam pass rate has gone up significantly, and we are only beginning to see the long-term beneficial effects of good training. Since then, many other countries have adapted the recipe and implemented it in their region, most notably France. A while ago, Simon stepped back from his leadership duties as AC and in the L2 project for the birth of his son, and I’m happy that he is back, supporting the region (and me!) with his insight and diligence. Here’s to many more years!
Next we have Alex:Alex has been a main-stay at the European Grand Prix circuit for a while and has really found his role there, but as with many of these kind of judges the question is; how did this come to pass?
For that I send an inquiry to the judge who certified him for L1, Anniek van der Peijl. This is what her memory brought up:
I certified Alex during that time when we were pushing to have a judge in every store. De Burcht in Middelburg was my old LGS from when I lived there, so I had a chat with the owner, Christopher, about this judge-in-every-store thing. Initially he volunteered himself, but after some time it became clear that he was simply too busy. So who else would be a suitable candidate? We both knew Alex to be a reliable guy with lots of play experience under his belt. We’d all played since ‘back in the day’ when there was no LGS and Magic happened at the local library on Friday afternoons.
Alex was not the most excited candidate I ever met. I think he did it mostly for the local community, and because he was already showing up to every FNM anyway. I certified him, and he went about doing exactly that, running the FNMs and not much else. That is, until the store in Bergen op Zoom (a city two towns over) had an emergency: they didn’t have a head judge for their competitive event, and were close to cancelling it. Alex responded to that bat signal, judged his first Comp. REL event as the head judge of said event with minimal prep time, and the result was this report.
Most important quote: “I did not expect this to be my thing, but it is! I felt very happy and content with helping others and learning from this event. I’ll definitely try to get a judge spot at the next PTQ in my neighbourhood, and I’ll even try my luck for the GP Utrecht.”
The rest is pretty much history. I’m extremely proud of this ‘happy accident’, and it’s always a pleasure to work with him. To many more years!
As we all know, that’s only part of the story. Anniek certified him for L1, but Dustin had the honour of certifying Alex for L2, so there’s a story there too:
Alex has a history of volunteer work in his local community, and is a proven force behind many charities and local clubs. Despite that, he still manages to make time for judging, and frequently brings his wife along on a city trip. His sheer enthusiasm and sincere joy make it a pleasure to see him at any event.
After Alex’s first PPTQ, he quickly started judging more and more Competitive events, both in the Netherlands and in Belgium. He became a regular face at the Dutch Open Series, soon completed his L2 checklist and thus we scheduled a date for his exam. I was happy to see him pass it with flying colours.
At the Grand Prix level, Alex really enjoys the challenges, and now has become one of the European Special Ops Leads, which suits his logistical expertise and constant need for new approaches to problems.
I look forward to many more events in the near future!
Anyways, when thinking of Alex de Bruijne, I’ll always think of someone with a huge smile and a ‘can-do’-attitude, which I’m happy to play Tichu with.
Happy anniversary to all of you! We look forward to many more years of judging from you all.