In Orlando, Florida this weekend, we have four new judges to Welcome to the Fold!
Matthew Bolan
- Name: Matthew Bolan
- Level: Level 1
- Location: Orlando, Florida, United States of America
- Region: USA – Southeast
- Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: 2001: collecting; 2006: playing
- L1 Certification Date: October 1, 2013
- Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Losing.
- Occupation: Rocket Engineer
- Random fact about yourself: I looooove talking about physics.
- Why did you become a judge?: I enjoy helping others understand interactions and why those interactions work the way they do. I also love finding complicated rules interactions and testing people on them.
- What excites you most about this event?: Being able to finally judge a large event. Really excited to learn how side events are run and to run some myself.
- What worries you most about this event?: Accidentally forgetting small nuances between this event and smaller ones I’ve judged (like forgetting to record time extensions on the program and writing it on the match slip only).
- What are you hoping to learn at this event?: How the event is organized from the judge perspective and how to run multiple side events at once.
- Who are your mentors?: Travis Coffman, Bryan Prillaman, and David Greene.
- What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: Social anxiety. Plain and simple.
- How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: Paying 1 life and exiling a blue card from my hand.
- What is the best part about your local Magic community?: All the different types of players have groups and all get along. The Spikes will tone themselves down for EDH games with the casual crowd and some members of the casual crowd will build high tier Standard decks to help the Spikes test.
- What is your favorite Magic memory?: How do you pick just one? From the many late night commander games, to the first time I drafted my cube, to the first competitive event I judged, to the three months I dominated the local Standard metagame with five color aggro slivers, it’s hard to really choose. I *think* it would have to be the joy from my friend after going X-0 a two headed giant draft to bring him to his very first win in an event.
Carl Miller Jr.
- Name: Carl Miller Jr.
- Level: Level 1
- Location: Deltona, Florida, United States of America
- Region: USA – Southeast
- Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: August 2012
- L1 Certification Date: September 18, 2016
- Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: A well-oiled combo machine
- Occupation: College student
- Random fact about yourself: I build worlds and construct languages as a hobby.
- Why did you become a judge?: I felt like it would open more pathways than would playing, given my skill level.
- What excites you most about this event?: The fact that it’s my first GP on staff.
- What worries you most about this event?: The complexities associated with registering players.
- What are you hoping to learn at this event?: Organizational and other soft skills that will be crucial in the workplace.
- Who are your mentors?: Chris Ajemian, Justin Turner, Bryan Prillaman, and Riki Hayashi.
- What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: The costs associated with travel to events, especially since I’m yet unemployed.
- What is the best part about your local Magic community?: It’s basically my second family — I went to SCG Atlanta with the owner of, and a few employees from, my LGS earlier this year.
- What is your favorite Magic memory?: My first FNM victory, shortly after my birthday in 2014.
Jerry Quiros
- Name: Jerry Quiros
- Level: Level 1
- Location: San Ramon, Costa Rica
- Region: Hispanic America – North
Gerard Vega
- Name: Gerard Vega
- Level: Level 1
- Location: Orlando, Florida, United States of America
- Region: USA – Southeast