Hello everyone!

In this wave, we will continue to feature some highlights of the Exemplar nominations received by judges in our region.

Stay tuned to this blog or to the Europe-East Magic Judges Facebook group to read more features, today we present…

Matija Vlahović

Matija Vlahović is a L2 from eastern Croatia. He has been level 1 since 2003, but only decided to go for level 2 in late 2014, mainly so that he would be able to judge local PPTQs.
Since becoming level 2, Matija has judged about 20 PPTQs, along with 3 WMCQs in Croatia and Serbia and he’s looking forward to judging many more in the future.

Matija received 5 nominations in Wave 4, let’s have a look at them.

Iva Kleiner had this to say about Matija:
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“While I don’t really nominate someone from my region, Matija has made quite an impression on one particular tournament.

Last month, during the 3-day Magic Halloween event, I was the only full-time judge for multiple simultaneous Regular and Competitive tournaments (cca 50 people each day). The rounds went out really late (playoffs at 2-3 am) and I was in poor condition to perform my judge duties, so Matija stepped up and helped in those crucial moments.
Throughout the following day Matija continued to assist me, despite it having a negative effect on his player skills (can’t really play that well with a bunch of judge calls around). In him helping out with Regular events, I was able to focus on the Competitive ones and the overall tournament quality increased.
But that’s not all!
Since it was obvious the playoffs would go late (again), he agreed to take over all the events so I could have enough time to drive back home (and arrive in reasonably late hours instead of unreasonable early hours).

Matija, thank you once again for stepping up and helping on such an exhausting tournament!”[/cets_callout_box] Nenad Cizmic had this to say about Matija:
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“Thank you for all your help with PPTQs, you are a true asset and diligent worker. Without you our community would be very little indeed. “[/cets_callout_box] Stjepan Sučić had this to say about Matija:
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“Thank you for dealing with the situation where I couldn’t handle drunk aggressive player during the PPTQ we judged together! I learned a lot there!”[/cets_callout_box] Milorad Pavlovic had this to say about Matija:
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“Dear Matija, thank you for making a PPTQ in Sremska Mitrovica much smoother, better organized and special thanks for providing me with briefs between the rounds. I am always pleasured to work with you and hope that our cooperation will last. :)”[/cets_callout_box] Vladimir Trajcevski had this to say about Matija:
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“Thank you for helping us with accommodation and planning out trip to Croatia last October. You and other judges there made all of the tournaments in Halloween Magic Festival run smoothly and I’m looking forward to coming there again this year.”[/cets_callout_box]

Congratulations Matija, this is very motivating for the rest of us!