Here are the February 2018 judge anniversaries!
15 years
Simon Le GuiffantDiego Sotomayor
Chris McGuire
10 years
Vincent JohnstonSebastian Hausmann
Antonio Galluccio
Maarten Wybaillie
Masaru Koide
Bart Boudewijn
Rodrigo Gimenez
5 years
Joseph GialloLeonid Serdtsev
Erik Peters
James Young
Mario Zúñiga Gil
Joe Mann
Joshua Brown
William Israel
Carlos Oliveros Guntín
Guillaume Matignon
Nadia Bukach
Brian Braun-Duin
Ashford Smith
Emma Handy
Christopher Yarbrough
Lindsey Carroll
Terrance Armstrong
Nathan Andrews
Jack Janeski
Brandon Barstow
Thomas Holzinger
J Adam Anderson-Riley
Max Maloney
Chris Aston
Raoul Trifan
Daniel De Swarte
Jared Holder
Jason Hargreaves
Nobuyoshi Yoshida
Tsutomu Date
Serio Antezana
Chenle Yu
Preston Phillips
Jesse Gamboa
Shinya Sato
Pablo Petracov
Daniele Torre
James Arriola
Ronald Hicks
Jeremy Reid
Sami Säisä
José Luis Gómez
Ashley Coatl
Andrew Kurtzman
Julien de Graat
Keith Hagan
Danny Strunk
Mark Katerberg
Alex Pagnani
Cesar Cabrera Ruiz
Gustavo Ortega
Hans Hauser
Stefan Pekic
Chris Sullenberger
Kévin Massy
Ray Dill
Nickolas Tyers
Bryan Frye
Jeremy Richard
Ryuuhei Kuroda
Jay DeLazier
Brittany Smith
Justin Rix
Verónica Dorrego Benito
Marius Cholewa
Joseph Wilkerson
Jeremy Ortiz
David Poon
Valdas Kalvis
David Esquinas Sanchez
Bryan Hickey
Timothy Johnson
Erica Peterson
Micah Manary
Edward Vitro
Jeremy White
Jochem van’t Hull
Giorgio Maldarizzi
Salvatore Prota
Nate Statum
Joseph Solberg
James Cromwell
Congratulations, and thank you for all your hard work!
This month we are featuring 3 judges: Cesar Cabrera, Justin Rix, and Naoaki Umesaki. First off, CarlosCesar is a well known judge in the Mexico, who has been involved with projects in his community. Being L1 hasn’t stopped him from actively participating in the community and improving it, and I that’s something worthy of recognition, even if he’s at the moment looking into becoming a L2 (which I hope he does!).
Here’s what a few leaders of his community had to say about Cesar:
L3 Héctor Fuentes
Cesar is always a friendly judge, who works hard at every event he attends and is always trying to improve the day for other judges. This is not even his best quality, as I believe his best quality in the judge program is how much support he brought to the Mexican judge community, by helping out with creating a common fund whose goal was to make a better use of the assets we had. Thanks to Cesar’s efforts with the fund, we were able to help many judges reach far away events or conferences that otherwise they couldn’t have experienced.
L2 Enrique Manuel Guzmán Mosqueda
Ever since Cesar became a judge, I’ve witnessed how much he’s grown, increasingly participating in the program: judging in your local store, being staffed for GPs, involving himself in conferences as a presenter, or just like now that you’re looking into becoming a L2. I think the qualities that always remind everyone about Cesar is how much support he always provides and his excellent teamwork.
L2 Omar González
Cesar, there are few judges with which I’be built a relationship like I’ve done with you. I have followed your evolution as a judge and helped you during it, therefore I believe I can openly speak about how much of a change you have experienced from your start in the program.
You’ve always demonstrated a great enthusiasm, but nowadays you know how to focus that energy: be it presenting a seminar at a conference or head judging side events at a GP (like you recently did in Santa Clara and Indianapolis).
You’ve become a solid judge, able to fill in as needed in any event, and you’re always providing ideas and insight, and acting with confidence.
Now that you’re looking to become L2, I have to say, I have no doubts that you’ll get there and become an excellent L2 peer.
Justin Rix is a staple of the Southeast Community, as has been for almost as long as he’s been a judge. He’s been publicly recognized 10+ by his peers through the Exemplar Program, for everything from organizing Southeast branded clothing, actively cleaning up at events, feedback, and even organizing a Charity Event.
Lately, in addition to attending events and presenting at conferences, he’s taken up a love of Cosplay. He has attended conventions dressed as characters such as Kiran Nalaar and Sorin among others.
I can’t wait to see what the next five years have in store for Justin!
For this month, we have one Level 3 anniversary to recognize. Naoaki Umesaki is celebrating his 10-year anniversary as a L3 judge. Fellow Japanese Level 3 judge Yoshitoki Sakai“Hello Umesaki-san! Congratulations for your 10th anniversary as an L3!
I myself have been a judge for almost 5 years and a player for almost 20 years in the MTG world. Since I started travelling to play competitive events such as GP, PT, Nationals etc., you were always there and I remember seeing multiple situations when you were mentoring others very proactively.
After many years, you are still actively educating many people, exactly the same as I remember, despite the years that have gone past, and I was afraid that the next judge to be educated by you proactively would be me. And just as I expected, my turn was coming….
In our judge days together, we discussed rulings, policy and everything else, each and every single day. And during our discussions, all kinds of questions after questions keeps popping up, again and again… So our discussions never finish. One time that I remembers so vividly, was in front of the 7-11 at Takadanobaba, when we discussed many things about MTG until 5am, even though we had start work from 8am that day. Lots of memories with you that I remember.
I am certain that I would not have fallen in love with judging if it was not for you. Not only have you educated me as a judge, you also taught me how fun judging can be.
And now we often work together outside of the MTG world. Recently, both of us faced the big turning points in our lives. And this means we have less conversations about MTG. I have no idea if the moments that I enjoyed so much in judging with you would come back to us or not, but I am very looking forward to that again.
Once again, big congratulations for your 10th anniversary. Let’s celebrate your 15th anniversary together again!”
Best wishes to you for your decade of service as a L3 judge!
Happy anniversary to all of you! We look forward to many more years of judging from you all.
Just a question:
Anniversaries are taken into account from the most recent promotion (the last time you leveled up) or from the very start of judging (becoming L1)?
Your anniversary date is the date a judge was certified for L1.