Here are the March and April 2019 judge anniversaries for which we have historical data!
15 years
Nicolas GlikNicholas Sabin
10 years
Vuk GavrilovićSebastian Reinfeldt
Shinpei Ohkawa
Filipe Fernandes
Louis Fernandes
Christian Steudtner
Jens Lindberg
5 years
Lucas HyytiäinenCamilo Fernandez
Carlos Martín Bassetti
Kentaro Guthrie
Espen Oftedal
Raymond Parker
Marc DeArmond
Adrian Preston
Ricardo Felix
Hannes Versmissen
Janit Mindis
Justin Purcell
Hiroshi Yamada
John Rowe
Mani Cavalieri
Dale Marsh
John Macdonald
DJ Andrucyk
Leanne Capewell
Zack Ruckman
William Dair Grant
Tulio Abud Lemos
David Clawson
Kris Burningham
Dan Collins
Ivan Lendvaj
Filip Mrso
Derrick Correia
Darrin Sisneros
Benjamin Bandelow
Kazumasa Wada
Christopher Dreher
Jorge David Mendieta Chica
Vincent DiDomenico
Yanjie Liang
Christopher Rumore
Jeremey DeVooght
Miao Bai
Hebert Camacho
Lon Starkey
Brenden Gansner
Sangmin Choi
Tom Douglass
Sabas Barriga
hidetoshi kiyokawa
George Edouard Cuartero
Edgar Trujillo
Alfonso Sarmiento
Jelle Zwaan
David Incorvati
Jonas Drieghe
Charles Trottier
Christopher Brunner
Agustín Mopty
Jason Latham
Kai Li
Kyle Yeates
Patrick Hunter
Charles Milutinovic
Dave Bartlett
Jonathan L Melamed
Tyler Karle
Robert Johnston
Christopher Milburn
Nick Picard
Alexander Rosdahl
Joseph Strickland
Chris Wendelboe
Andrew Hallin
Caitlyn Hebert
Gustavo Marin
Ryuuji Nohara
Nicolas De Bonis
Francisco Gonzalez
Henrique Pacheco
Linda Johansson
Jon Buck
Marie Emonds
Gail Senatore
Michele Vianello
Dmitriy Zaritskiy
Karl Simmons
Doug Hewson
Trevor Murdock
Milorad Pavlovic
Daniel White
Xinyue Liu
Stefan Holebæk
Jason Stewart
Ryan Clow
Leonard Larratta
Lucas Hyttel
Yoann Buzenet
Àre Maturana
Manuel Gallardo
Geoffrey Drake-Heaton
Patrick Malvoso
Congratulations, and thank you for all your hard work!
This month we are featuring a whopping 10 judges: Janit Mindis, Àre Maturana, Savvas Themistocleous, Joe Wiesenberg, Jorge Requesens, Jernej Lipovec, Federico Donner, Paul Baranay, Takanori Nakamura, and Riki Hayashi! First up is Janit, who is celebrating their 5 year anniversary with their RC, AdriánSince Janit began the journey within the program of judges, its impact on the community, not only in Argentina, but inside and outside the region was incredible. Always ready to join many projects, with the desire to improve day by day, led her to be under the spotlight, in many team like mentoring, community and others, include the ones outside her confortable zone like rules, in there, little by little being a reference for many judges who take their first steps within the community. I could keep on making a big list of all the goals that Janit was able to achieve in these 5 years, but it would be unfair, because I will surely forget some of his achievements, but above all things because I will not be able to put in that list the most important thing that Janit is to the program of judges, a person in which each and every one of us can feel supported, a person in which you can trust any task and will give everything and more to help you . People like Janit, are not there outside every day and I think that all of us were lucky that Janit was part of this community which improved the same day when she decided to be part of it. Happy Anniversary!
Next up is Àre, who’s RC, SophieThe judge program is much more than going to a tournament, give rulings and come back home. It is more than having succeeded at a rules test. It is not being a cop for bad players.
It is about meeting friends, growing up and getting better persons. It is about knowing that we can count on them on any occasions. It is about exchanging in the same walk in a dark street of a foreign country both the last weird ruling we encounter and the most private memory we have from our childhood. It is sharing rooms, meals , improvements for the next challenge we’ll encounter and uncontrolable laughs for a logistic issue we had. It is giving a single smile to this only player that had hard time losing and by doing so making their day better. It is supporting each other when the worse arrive, could be on our improvement when we got stuck or on our private but too exposed life. It is listening without judging and give what we have to help the other getting better, even if what we have is just an earing and the silence. It is about giving all our passion in a single game, talking hours and with everybody we can meet between the side event stage and the main event stage about this special interaction that nobody agrees on. It is spending hours explaining in a little room to this other player why they got this penalty while they are so angry about it that they want to give up to Magic. It is creating a whole project we truly believe in to help growing dozens of judges. It is sharing our only cookie for the day in a small judge room. It is smiles again, kindness, hugs. It is love. Muito obrigada Àre , por dar essa paixão ao Judge program e ser um dos meus melhores amigos. Parabéns!
Due to some scheduling issues, we didn’t get the chance to recognize a couple of Level 3 anniversaries in January. So this month, we’ll share those with you. First, Savvas Themistocleous is celebrating 15 years as a Level 3 judge. Anastacia Tomson“Savvas, throughout his judging career, has exemplified the spirit of commitment and dedication towards building, growing, and sustaining the South African Judge community. He has developed a reputation amongst South African Magic players as a wise and knowledgeable figure, but also an approachable one, and his passion for the game and all those involved in it is absolutely palpable. For years, Savvas’s name was synonymous with the SA Judge Program itself, as he steered the community almost single-handedly, doing his utmost to ensure that our rigorous standards were maintained even while South Africa was isolated from the rest of the global community. As far as recollection permits, Savvas’s presence has been ubiquitous in South Africa’s biggest events, where he developed a reputation for working tirelessly to ensure positive player experiences, and where he strives to grow, develop, and mentor judges, always trying to challenge them and give them new opportunities to build their skills and abilities.
Savvas has also, despite tremendous geographical challenges, proven himself a worthy leader in the global community, where his vast contributions ensure that he is well-known and respected by judges throughout the world. Despite whatever challenges life outside of judging has thrown at him, Savvas has always made a point of staying up-to-date with rules, policy, and community developments in the game, and has devoted the time and energy to make sure that he can continually find new ways to grow the community.
A true stalwart of the South African Magic community, in every sense of the word, this 15-year anniversary is a superb opportunity to acknowledge his significant contributions to the game and its Judges.”
Next, we celebrate the 5-year anniversary of Joe Wiesenberg. Joe’s RC, Angela Chandler“Joe Wiesenberg is one of my closest mentors and a fantastic judge. He is quiet and caring, yet can still surprise you with a great joke (or a really good troll moment). He has been taking care of the judge community since I have known him and is the main reason I pursued Level 2. Congrats on your 5 years at Level 3. I reached out to a few others in the community to include a little more about Joe….
Christian AguilarJoe’s’ nature constantly made him easy to be around and a caring mentor for an area that didn’t have much in the way of events. Between helping with the RPTQs to making sure that prospective judges got the experience to thrive, I’m happy to say it’s been an honor to have Joe continue being a pillar in the community.
Stephan Classen“I remember a walk around the city, on Monday after GP Moscow 2012, when Jorge was unsure if he wanted to go for the L3. I never encourage anyone to become L3, I present facts, advantages and responsibilities, and I let every individual to make their own decision.
I guess that conversation weighed in Jorge’s decision because soon after, he started his L3 process and he took very seriously the part of the responsibilities, because Jorge had become a very important part of the Spanish community back bone. He’s fundamental for the community growth, and for many judges after him.
Thanks you, Jorge, for being part of the community!”
And Sergio Pérez Marcos continues:
“”Jorge started judging almost at the same time as I did and has always been very active for the community, despite leaving in an area without too much organized play. For me, as an RC, Jorge has been always a well-balanced critical voice, while at the same time a huge support to keep track of pending action items; for our regional community in Iberia, he’s been way more, either by starting new projects (like the miniconferences many years ago, before they were a thing outside Spain), contributing to existing ones (L2 Candidates, forum maintenance…) or even taking over the leadership in key areas when needed (L1 Candidates project, L2 Maintenance…). In addition to that, and despite his quite short availability during the last years for professional reasons, he’s been always dedicated to contribute to our Conferences and attend our Leadership meetings while keeping up to date at events.
Jorge has been always a clear example of hard work and persistence, and I hope these 5 years as a L3 are just part of a much longer time with him on board. ¡Muchas gracias Reke! :D”
Next, we hear from Europe East RC, Yuval Tzur“Jernej is not only an incredible judge, but an overall amazing person. He’s generous, compassionate and easy-going, with an innate understanding of what makes a person tick. He has helped people grow as Judges, and also as a human beings. He’s a great asset in the L2 mentoring project in the region. What I like the most when working with Jernej is that he thinks of solutions and makes them happen before you realize you need them. He just sends you a link to a tool or a website (that he probably made himself), and that’s exactly what you needed. Jernej, I’m grateful to have you in my region, and I hope more people draw inspiration from you. Thanks for all the good work.”
Third on our list, we’ll hear about Federico Donner from his RC, Adrián Estoup“Speak about Federico for me is to speak of self-improvement and it is for me an inspiration to understand that if one proposes to it, things sooner or later will come. Federico began his career as a judge in Uruguay, one of the smallest countries in Latin America, where there was only one store, so, the environment was not very good for the development as a judge. He was certified and little by little he began to travel to Buenos Aires, to participate in other events a little bigger where he started as is logical in a somewhat shy way, but eager to learn and after a while, he was already one of the referents of magic at the regional level both for their participation within the events as well as outside, especially in discussion forums, did not surprise anyone who soon became L3.
While many reach the highest level of the judges’ program feel that they have achieved their greatest goal, this was not true for Federico, his participation in many events being an expert in many areas, both logistic and rules or philosophy. Also outside events, where he obviously became the benchmark of Uruguayan magic but also covered the entire region by launching the first Spanish-language podcast, with a great regularity that helped many other judges to continue growing.
On this anniversary, I want to congratulate Federico for these years in which I saw a person grow up who, although from their place of birth, many might have thought that moving forward in the program would be difficult, showed that no matter how much the environment conditions you, With effort and dedication you can achieve great feats.”
The last 5-year anniversary from March is for Paul Baranay. His RC, Megan Linscott“While Paul Baranay goes by the moniker “Bearz”, he is far from the intimidating figure that name would suggest. Instead he’s one of our most approachable leaders, passionate about the Judge Program and the people in it.
Paul is driven – he certified in 2012, and worked at his first Pro Tour as an L3 only two years later, in 2014. The path to L3 is arduous, but Paul set his mind to it and achieved it. Since then, he’s advanced to GP HJ and continued to strive for the improvement of himself and others.
He’s the head of the Technology Sphere, and one of the lead developers on JudgeApps. He’s part of a wide variety of projects, including help certify new judges, and advance to all levels of the program from L2 to L3 and beyond. He also ran a personal blog that discussed a variety of ideas, including self-improvement, providing radical candor, and discovering comfort in the judge program. He’s presented on similar topics at a variety of conferences in the Northeast and spoken about the inclusivity the judge program shows, and the steps we have yet to take. He’s a moderator on /r/mtgJudge and was previously involved in the main Magic Subreddit, helping with, among other things, daily spoiler season update posts. On top of all that, he’s a Grand Prix Head Judge, showing up to events in burgundy frequently, in addition to being a stellar floor judge.
In spite of his impressive resume, Paul is sure to always be approachable. His warm demeanor and keen listening make him easy to talk to. He’s know to help you take your thoughts and rephrase them to allow you a new perspective. It works because Paul cares. To Paul, the judge program is a family, focused on inclusivity and personal growth, and he does what he can to foster that. He recognizes those judges who exemplify those traits and seeks to embody them himself. He speaks up for those who have no voice and encourages others to do the same.
Paul is dedicated, passionate and kind – a paragon of the judge community”
The only L3 anniversary for April is for Takanori Nakamura. Masaru Koide“Dear Nakamura-san. Congratulations for your 5th anniversary as an Lv3.
Time has passed 10 years since we started judge together and five years have passed since you were at Lv3. Time pass way too quickly.
You are continuing to judge at competitive event such as Magic Fest as professional.
I feel nostalgic about the days which I used to judge at local event with you on a weekly basis together.
Outstanding rule & policy knowledge has not changed than before.
Nakamura-san is making a summary of changing rule & policy when these has changed every time over 10 years for support for Japanese judges understanding.
That’s a grateful activity for everybody.
Since you are at L3, you are expanding your activities by participating in activities for worldwide project.
I feel that you have become an integral part of the judge program.
By the way, I have left 3 years until last year from Japan by my job.
I distressed whether I can continue to be judge even I left this region.
At that time Nakamura-san gave me an advice for giving me encourage to continue it.
I would tell you thank you at this opportunity about I could continue judge at East Europe region and I continue work with you now.
I proud to be able to work with you.
Thank you very much !!
Once again, congratulations for your 5th anniversary.
And I am looking forward to the day of celebrating your 10th anniversary.”
“I have known Riki since he was a Level 2 judge. At one of these early Grand Prix events, I had a chance for him to be my Team Lead. He was one of the most prepared Team Leads that I had a chance to work with. I was impressed by his passion and desire to help others even from those early days. In the years to come, Riki continued to grow as a judge, while his influence as a member of the Magic community also grew. He has worn many hats in the program, from Regional Coordinator to Grand Prix Head Judge to Pro Tour Judge and the list goes on. He’s held roles for event management at StarCityGames including organizing the Keystone program, which has provided great growth opportunities for countless judges.
In addition to the roles he has held, the passions that he has promoted in the program have had significant impacts. He’s been one of the strongest advocates for feedback, particularly in the form of reviews. I know that he believes that this feedback drives the growth of us, individually and as a group. Riki has also been a great advocate for diversity in the judge program. He’s pushed for more opportunities, such as Team Leads, to be provided for underrepresented groups, including women and LGBTQ+ judges. His desire to grow the judge community is undeniable and the passion he shows for it is contagious.
I don’t get to see Riki out on the floor of events as much as I used to, but I am still always happy when I have a chance to see him at an event or discuss a topic with him online. I know that he still loves the Judge Program and the people in it. I look forward to many more years of his involvement, regardless of the role. Best wishes, Riki!”
Okay, that’s all the Level 3 anniversaries for this month, but there will be more in the months to come. Best wishes to all of the judges celebrating this month!!
Happy anniversary to all of you! We look forward to many more years of judging from you all.