This ongoing blog will focus on my favorite subject in judging: feedback. You might know it better as reviews, and that is a big part of the feedback culture in the Judge Program, but I like calling it feedback because it’s good to emphasize the face-to-face interactions we have at events before we ever write a review. For the most part, I will end up using those two terms interchangeably when talking generically on the subject.

At a recent Judge Conference, I was asked to speak about my motivations for writing reviews, and I think that’s as good a place as any to start this blog. By far the most important thing is that I care about seeing my fellow judges grow and improve in this craft of ours. This sounds Gouda cheesy, but it’s no different than the more general judging motivation of wanting to run good events. I’ve always been big on seeing my friends succeed and reviews are a way to be a part of their improvement. Also, if the judges I work with improve, it makes my job a lot easier.

The funny thing about improvement is that it is a two-way street, and why I think the name Feedback Loop is so apt for this blog. Every time I examine someone’s performance at an event, it is also a chance for me to learn something new about judging. Recently, I’ve been spending a lot more time at tournaments in the TO or Scorekeeper role for StarCityGames Opens, but I still try to write reviews, usually of our Head Judges because I spend the most time with them. Through these reviews, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the role of a HJ and how best they can serve the players and judges. This has helped me immensely the few times that I’ve been a HJ recently, as I have incorporated many of the things I’ve observed into my own repetoire, essentially giving me some “phantom” experience.

Another motivation for me personally is the numbers game. As an avid frequent flier who is trying to get to 1 million lifetime flight miles with United, these types of counting subgames appeal to the OCD part of me. I think it’s okay to celebrate milestone numbers. After all, there’s a reason that the numbers 56, 61, and 755 are revered by baseball fans (Joe Dimaggio’s hitting streak, Roger Maris’s single-season home run record, and Hank Aaron’s career home run record).

That being said, numbers just for the sake of numbers are meaningless, especially when talking about reviews. Writing reviews just to get more tally marks isn’t useful because it ignores all the things I mentioned earlier about improvement.

The final factor (that I will write about today) that motivates me to write reviews is that it’s fun. If it weren’t fun, I wouldn’t spend so much time doing it. I will admit that part of the fun I derive from it is my background as a writer; I like to write things (like this blog!) and finding new ways to put my thoughts into words. There is a certain joy to finding just the right words.

If you have suggestions about what I should write about next regarding feedback, or you want to let me know what motivates you to write reviews, please leave a comment below!

Riki Hayashi

Regional Judge

Blacksburg, Virginia, USA