We’re starting off the year strong with four new judges to Welcome to the Fold!
Allyson Cole
- Name: Allyson Cole
- Level: Level 1
- Location: Cedar City, Utah
- Region: USA – Northwest
- Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: July 2012
- L1 Certification Date: June 18, 2017
- Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: How so many different interaction can happen between cards and the ideas players come up with using these interactions.
- Occupation: Retail Minion
- Random fact about yourself: I’ve been playing video games since I was 1 and haven’t stopped since.
- Why did you become a judge?: My community is quite small and we only have one L1. I wanted to become a judge to help the players around here learn a bit more about the game. For a while, I was putting it off since I didn’t think I knew enough to become one. Then I had to do a community service project in order to graduate and was able to use becoming a judge as my project.
- What excites you most about this event?: Being able to be apart of the judging community and get involved with it.
- What worries you most about this event?: I have zero experience with judging anything competitive, having only played in maybe 10-ish competitive events.
- What are you hoping to learn at this event?: More about competitive rules and regulations.
- What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: I tend to freeze or second guess myself when asked a question. I know the answer, but the second that someone asks me the question, I start to wonder if I’m correct and have to ask our other L1 or one of the L0 just to make sure. In a split second decision, I sometimes will give the wrong answer, then when I hear it out loud, realise my mistake and then correct myself.
- How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: I’ve worked on trusting myself and told the L1 and L0 that unless they hear me say something wrong, don’t correct me and to not tell me if I ask them for help (to a certain extent). So far, this has helped me immensely. I’ve also been reading the questions on Booth.MagicJudges.org to help myself notice the common interactions.
- What is the best part about your local Magic community?: Our community is quite small (our FNMs don’t fire half the time) but we are all very close. The town I live in is a college town so we gain and lose players all the time. Even so, the people here feel like a family and we are quite good friends, even playing outside of our LGS just to be able to get more Magic in during the week.
- What is your favorite Magic memory?: The day I figured out I could kill Emrakul with my army of squirrels. I somehow managed to give them flying, don’t remember how though…
Kami Hann
- Name: Kami Hann
- Level: Level 1
- Location: Alameda, California
- Region: USA – Southwest
Yeremia Iman
- Name: Yeremia Iman
- Level: Level 1
- Location: Santa Rosa, California
- Region: USA – Southwest
- Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: September 2010
- Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Meeting all kinds of people who play magic.
- Random fact about yourself: I love to travel
- Why did you become a judge?: I love to help and teach people and as a judge it provides me the opportunity to do so.
- Who are your mentors?: Joseph Sapp
was/is my judge mentor. He is one of the most genuine and caring human beings that I have ever met.
- What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: I have the tendency to be overly critical of myself when I make a mistake. So if I made a wrong call when i was learning or did something wrong during the event, I tend to beat myself up over it and it might affect future calls.
- How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: Joe Sapp has been a great encouragement to helping me quickly let go. “You made a mistake, you owned up to it, move on” and helping me feel more confident about judging an event or interacting with other players.
- What is your favorite Magic memory?: Pulling my first mythic from a pack, it was Wurmcoil Engine from Scars of Mirrodin
Tim Langermann
- Name: Tim Langermann
- Level: Level 1
- Location: Sebastopol, California
- Region: USA – Southwest