April 2018 Anniversaries

Here are the April 2018 judge anniversaries!

20 years

from Melbourne, Australia

15 years

from Musashimurayama-shi, Japan

10 years

from Norwalk, Connecticut, United States
from Ishikawa,Kanazawa-shi, Japan
from Brussels, Belgium
from Lyon, France
from Glen Burnie, Maryland, United States
from Lyon, France

5 years

from Tietê, Brazil
from Chicago, Illinois, United States
from Saltillo, Mississippi, United States
from Vancouver, Canada
from Milford, Massachusetts, United States
from Corpus Christi, Texas, United States
from Olympia, Washington, United States
from Campinas, Brazil
from Roslindale, Massachusetts, United States
from mount pleasant, South Carolina, United States
from Vancouver, Canada
from Berkeley, California, United States
from Älvsjö, Sweden
from Oakland, California, United States
from Domžale, Slovenia
from alexandria, Virginia, United States
from Pilar, Argentina
from Alexandria, Virginia, United States
from Vaasa, Finland
from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
from Towson, Maryland, United States
from Chicago, Illinois, United States
from Tokyo, Japan
from Hokkaido,Sapporo-shi, Japan
from Glendale, California, United States
from St. Catharines, Canada
from Donetsk, Ukraine
from Donetsk, Ukraine
from Bloomington, Minnesota, United States
from Hartlepool, United Kingdom
from Taunton, United Kingdom
from San Ramon, California, United States
from Neuötting, Germany
from Novi Sad, Serbia
from Novi Sad, Serbia
from Santo André, Brazil
from Jaú, Brazil
from Lorena, Brazil
from Chihuahua, Mexico
from Diadema, Brazil
from São Paulo, Brazil
from Cape Town, South Africa
from Cascais, Portugal
from Sydney, Australia
from Seoul, South Korea
from Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States
from Seoul, South Korea
from Northbrook, Illinois, United States
from Clovis, New Mexico, United States
from Odessa, Texas, United States
from Warner Robins, Georgia, United States
from Sheffield, United Kingdom
from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
from Paranaque City, Philippines
from bologna, Italy
from Bellevue, Washington, United States
from Southampton, United Kingdom
from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, United States
from Albertslund, Denmark
from Baltimore, Maryland, United States
from Levittown, Pennsylvania, United States
from Sydney, Australia
from thessaloniki, Greece
from Larissa, Greece
from South Butlington, Vermont, United States
from Madison, Wisconsin, United States
from Superior, Wisconsin, United States
from Cape Town, South Africa
from New York, New York, United States
from Lubbock, Texas, United States
from Lewisville, Texas, United States
from Samobor, Croatia
from Oakland, California, United States
from Indialantic, Florida, United States
from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
from Cumberland, Maryland, United States
from Hamilton, Canada
from Marshfield, Wisconsin, United States
from Arnold, Missouri, United States
from Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, United States
from bologna, Italy
from TIGERY, France
from Cary, North Carolina, United States
from Singapore, Singapore
from Vanderbijlpark, South Africa
from Aachen, Germany
from Busan, South Korea
from Johannesburg, South Africa
from Oxford, United Kingdom
from Berkeley, California, United States
from Reykjavík, Iceland
from york, Pennsylvania, United States
from Oakland, California, United States
from Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
from Johannesburg, South Africa
from Mainz, Germany
from Terryville, Connecticut, United States
from bedford, United States
from Belleville, Illinois, United States
from Winchester, Virginia, United States
from Delicias, Mexico
from Volta Redonda, Brazil
from Madison, Wisconsin, United States
from Tampa, Florida, United States
from Corona, California, United States
from Solymar, Uruguay
from Palm Springs, California, United States
from Novi Sad, Serbia
from Vukovar, Croatia
from Campo Grande, Brazil
from São Paulo, Brazil
from Speedway, Indiana, United States
from Richmond, Virginia, United States
from Brasília, Brazil
from Liverpool, United Kingdom
from Kota Damansara, Malaysia
from New Ulm, Minnesota, United States
from San Cristóbal de La Laguna (Tenerife), Spain
from La Laguna, Spain
from Köln, Germany
from South Lake Tahoe, California, United States
from Offenburg, Germany
from Gent, Belgium
from Eindhoven, Netherlands
from Vienna, Austria

Congratulations, and thank you for all your hard work!

Dedication

This month we have 3 featured judges: Jack Hesse, David Guteša, and Jasper Overman. First, lets celebrate with Jack’s RC, :

I’ve worked with Jack for several years, and have watched him really step up into being a strong leader in the North, helping to build both the local Madison community and the wider judge community.

I think Jack’s approach to judging and handling things is probably best shown with his Level 2 exam. We had a huge, oversized PTQ, where we ended up recruiting a couple of Level 2 judges from the players to work it. Jack came up as an L1, and had planned to test that day, as did another candidate.

I sat them down in a quiet place off to the side of the event at the same time, gave them my spiel on how to test, and set them loose. The other candidate burned through his L2 test in maybe 45 minutes, going through each question once, ripping off an answer, and declaring it good enough, so they could get back on the floor.

Jack probably felt intimidated by this – I know I would have been. The other candidate was returning to judging from a hiatus, and was completely unintimidated by the testing process and was very confident in his skills.

Jack spent another hour on his test. He took the time to be settled, to make sure he did things *right* on this test he felt was important, despite seeing another candidate take less than half the time to take the same exam.

I graded the other candidate, and had mostly gotten through his debrief by the time Jack was done with his exam. The other candidate passed, but not by a lot. He knew what he got wrong, but was a little cavalier about the process. He has overall been a good judge. I’ve been happy with him.

Jack I was much more interested in.

I graded his exam, and we went to debrief. Jack had a rundown and explanation for every answer he gave. He really really knew what was going on with the exam, inside and out. He aced the policy portion (which is unusual for L2 candidates), and got only two wrong on his rules portion. I was quite impressed, and trusted that this was someone who wanted stuff to be really correct and well-structured in his judging and community. He puts in the work, and puts it in well, and is willing to take the time to make sure things are as good as he can get them.

Globetrotter

Next, tells us about David’s 5 year anniversary:

David is one, if not the most well-known judge in the world if you don’t count L3s 🙂 Some of you may find this statement inflammatory, but let’s go through the motions of knowing him, shall we?

David was born in one of the most multicultural and tormented places, the Balkans and most specifically Serbia. Magic entered his life from a young age and stayed with him continuously through today. Seeing that Serbia had a lack of judges he stepped up on his own and seek for a mentor. Your truly answered the call and after some talks and exams we met formally for the first time in a PTQ in Thessaloniki (David travelled 10hours by car to get there). He passed the test with flying colors and set up to change the world 🙂

Soon he realized that L1 is not the level that is happy with and almost immediately shoot for L2. Without a close mentor, with no big tournaments, things were rough for David, but what David wants, David gets 😀 and one year later we made again the 10hour drive to Thessaloniki, took the test and passed. Now he was ready to change the world.

Soon enough David discovered some tournaments called Grand Prix. Reading the application David read free travel/hand out with judges and he harassed be on all types of social media to get him on board one of them. Within the next 3 years David judges more than 40 GPs and 20+ judge conferences. After the first year, Europe felt too small for him so became a frequent visitor of North and South America, Asia and Japan.

In his real life David is a romantic student of the law, a semi-professional mtg trader, and also a restaurant owner?!

Will David travel to Australia? Will he aim and become a L3? I guess we will find out in five year’s time 🙂

Even keel

For this month, we have asked BeNeLux Regional Coordinator, to write about another one of his Level 3 judges. This time, we are recognizing the 5-year anniversary of Jasper Overman. Here’s what Richard had to say about Jasper:

“Jasper is one of the judges who I’ve known from way back when. He was already a judge when I became one 16+ years ago.

He was L2 before I was and we met while judging the old style PTQs and mega-Prereleases (from when there were still 2 weekends of Prereleases).
For a long time it looked like that’s where Jasper’s ambitions stopped, but after the redefinition of DCI Judge levels in 2012, Jasper indicated he wanted to do more. That’s why he went ahead and worked towards obtaining the next level and 5 years ago he managed to get certified for L3.
Since then Jasper has been judging all over Europe, but mostly in the BeNeLux and Germany. He has always been heavily involved in his local community in Enschede, being the driving force behind local tournaments, as well as training others for nearby stores.

I’ll never forget the day when I was there to head judge a Sealed Deck PTQ that Jasper organized and the power went out, leaving us in a very dark bowling alley in the middle of deck construction. Jasper kept his calm and handled all the dealings with the venue, HJ and players splendidly. After a few hours the back-up generator arrived, was hooked up and we could finally start Round 1. Top 8 finished somewhere around 2AM, and I was happy I could drive home instead of having to take the next train (which would’ve taken a few more hours according to the railroad schedule).

Thanks Jasper, for showing me some great logistics, and even better diplomacy in dealing with those understanding, but unhappy players.”

Best wishes to Jasper on his years of service as L3.

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

About Ronald

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Recent Posts

Magic Judges On…

Recent Comments

Meta