September 2018 Anniversaries

Here are the September 2018 judge anniversaries!

20 years

from New York, New York, United States of America

15 years

from Odessa, Ukraine
from Savona, Italy
from Biella, Italy
from Midland, United States
from Hong Kong

10 years

from Täby, Sweden
from Stockholm, Sweden

5 years

from Sydney, Australia
from Solvang, California, United States of America
from Bangkok, Thailand
from Moreno Valley, California, United States of America
from goryo daito osaka, Japan
from Brisbane, Australia
from Singapore, Singapore
from Lexington, South Carolina, United States of America
from Great Falls, Montana, United States of America
from Great Falls, Montana, United States of America
from Billings, Montana, United States of America
from Sundsvall, Sweden
from Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States of America
from Bettendorf, Iowa, United States of America
from Tartu, Estonia
from Champaign, Illinois, United States of America
from Arlington, Texas, United States of America
from Changsha, China
from Melbourne, Australia
from NorCal, California, United States of America
from onomichi, Japan
from San Jose, California, United States of America
from Norwich, United Kingdom
from Skövde, Sweden
from Concepcion, Chile
from Bozeman, Montana, United States of America
from Billings, Montana, United States of America
from Distrito Federal, Mexico
from Sta Rosa, Philippines
from Melbourne, Australia
from Melbourne, Australia
from Salem, Oregon, United States of America
from Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America
from Singapore, Singapore
from singapore, Singapore
from São Vicente, Brazil
from Zoetermeer/Bergen(Norway), Netherlands
from Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America
from Bila Tserkva, Ukraine
from Arlington, Virginia, United States of America
from Hannover, Germany
from Brisbane, Australia
from Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America
from Limerick, Ireland
from Bad Säckingen, Germany
from Rouen, France
from Arlington, Virginia, United States of America
from Warszawa, Poland
from Toronto, Canada
from Liège, Belgium

Congratulations, and thank you for all your hard work!

Not forgotten!!

This month we are featuring 3 judges: Eric Smith, Patrick Ericsson, and Brook Gardner-Durbin. I’d like to first point out that Eric’s 20 year anniversary was actually in July but I missed it the first time around and then it totally fell off of my radar the following month. Sorry Eric! Thankfully, other people are around to keep me honest. One of those people, , wrote something to celebrate Eric’s 20 years as a judge:

Reaching 20 years as a certified judge is quite a milestone. Eric has been a fixture in the New York City Magic community for two decades. When I first moved to the East Coast in 2005, Eric was already one of the leaders of the judge community in the New York metro area. Back in the days of PTQs and PTOs, if you showed up a big event in the NYC area, you were likely to find Eric there, working to make the event run better. He has been a role model for local judges whether he certified them or helped them level up. As the PTQ system went away, he has remained a stalwart in the judging community. Though he has been busy with real life, he has still made time to work Grand Prix and SCG Open tournaments. His experience and wisdom has be a valuable resource for those that have had the chance to work with him. I’m always happy to see that Eric is on staff of an event I am at. I look forward to the next 20 years of working with him!

The one with all the C’s in the region

Next, we have Patrick Ericsson, a mainstay in Scandinavia. His RC, , reflects on his 10 year anniversary:

I first met Patrick at a Swedish Nationals many years ago – he approached me to ask about testing for Level 1. We had a conversation and I determined that he wasn’t ready, and I basically sent him away without much encouragement, let alone a plan to test him in the future. I am eternally grateful that he actually came back a year later and finally took his test. Since then, Patrick has become one of the leading judges of Sweden and the entire Nordic region. Although the Stockholm area is his home base, he has traveled all around Sweden judging PTQs, National Qualifiers and gaming conventions. He also served on the board of the Swedish Magic Association in 2011-2012. Patrick is a teacher by profession, and he puts those skills to good use in mentoring other judges and presenting seminars – his presentations and workshops are consistently the most popular seminars at our regional judge conferences. In 2014, Patrick was promoted to Level 3 at GP Utrecht – the first L3 to be promoted in the region for quite some time. Patrick is someone players trust and judges look up to, and I am proud to call him a colleague and friend. I couldn’t ask for better company for some quiet Nordic brooding in the corner of a judge dinner table. Patrick, congratulations for your 10 years of service to the Magic community, and thank you for all the good times!

(aka BrrGrrDrrBrr) (aka Sleepy Boi)

Lastly, Brook Gardner-Durbin is being heralded by for 5 years in the program:

See, here’s the thing about Brook: we weren’t ever supposed to get to this point, where we’re talking about him and this anniversary. He never really intended to become a Judge, it was more of a “hey, let’s see if I can pass the test and maybe I’ll do something when I don’t feel like playing?” kind of thing. And he did pass the test. And then he did give judging a try, at an event where he really didn’t want to play. And he was pretty good at it, and found out he actually liked it, and he kept on doing it.

So then, Brook thought “hey, maybe I should test for L2, and help some other judges get started, so I can build up a bunch of judges, and then I can just play”. And, sure enough, he passed his L2 test, and he started training up his Montana Judge Crew, and building his community, and – well, next thing you know, he found himself traveling to GPs as a JUDGE, not as a player, and loving it. And he became a pillar in his community; he’s been my Area Captain for Montana for a long time, and has been very active there and in surrounding states, and beyond the US-Northwest region.

Now, Brook is pretty far along on his road to Level 3, only a couple steps left on that checklist, and no matter his thinking before he started down this road, it’s pretty clear – I mean, the empirical evidence practically screams at us! – that once again, Brook’s gonna nail it and become an excellent L3. And once again, he’s going to have a bigger impact than he ever expected, and – at least, I hope this continues, too – he’s going to love it even more.

And no matter how it all turns out, it’s been a great five years, Brook, and THANK YOU for all you’ve done!

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

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