Grand Prix Stockholm 2018 - Welcome to the Fold

This weekend in Stockholm, we have a trio of new judges to Welcome to the Fold!

Francesco Falcone

Name: Francesco Falcone
Pronouns He/him/his
Level: Level 2
Location: Terracina, Italy
Region: Italy and Malta
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: Semptember 2003
L1 Certification Date: April 11, 2016
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: The colour pie philosophy
Occupation: Maths Teacher
Random fact about yourself: I make Video games and Board games as a hobby
Why did you become a judge?: I became a judge as a way to get back in touch with the game after a rather long hiatus. I love the game and wanted to keep in touch with it even at times when i wasn’t able to consistently play
What excites you most about this event?: The opportunity to meet many other people, and specifically many other judges, from all walks of life
What worries you most about this event?: The language barrier. I believe to be quite proficient in English, but interacting with players from many different countries might be troublesome. Luckily, Sweden seems to be a country where most people speak good English.
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: I look forward to learn how to judge large events as part of a small team, and with judges I never met before. By now, I know most Italian judges, so working with them is working with friends. Interacting with judges I never met might prove an interesting challenge
Who are your mentors?:
What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: I have a hard time issuing penalties, i fear to be seen as too “”harsh””. Especially DQs for Improperly Determining a Winner (the infamous dice roll) have been troublesome for me
How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: I try to be more deliberate when i judge. Approaching every call step by step, going infraction-fix-penalty is helping me a lot.
Also, i found that studying deeper and focusing on the philosophy behind the infractions has helped a lot. Once I realised the link between IDaW and gambling, it became a lot easier to apply the corresponding penalty
What is your favorite Magic memory?: My friend beating me by casting Brain Freeze on himself to mill his Wonder and attack for lethal in the air. It was truly a testament to how versatile this game is.

Courtney Medina

Name: Courtney Medina
Pronouns He/him/his
Level: Level 1
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Region: Europe – North
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: Around 4th edition/Ice Age.
L1 Certification Date: May 16, 2018
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: The banter during games and the MtG community in general. Ofc my favorite format is commander.
Occupation: Security guard but i’m applying for chef school to become a chef.
Random fact about yourself: I like to talk and can easily connect with people. Ooh im having a baby soon!
Why did you become a judge?: Growing up it wasnt easy for me to make friends until i got into Magic. Once i started i got hooked intstantly and made friends for life. Whenever i had problems or was feeling a bit down i always had the Magic community to support me. Players and judges. And that’s what eventually drove me to become a Judge when i moved to Sweden. I was welcomed with open arms and i wanted to give back what i have received all these years.
What excites you most about this event?: Being part of something huge. MtG has been a major part of my life and being able to help on a fantastic event that brings judges and players from all over the world together is amazing.
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: Anything i dont already know will be great.
Who are your mentors?: Alexander Johansson and Christopher Liewendahl
What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: Taking the judge test was hard. I had trouble learning from a book since im more of a practical learning but with the help feom my mentors and others i made it.
How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: Watched and learned other judges during events.
What is the best part about your local Magic community?: Just that everybody knows eachother and gets along eventhough we all play different formats.
What is your favorite Magic memory?: I think that finding out there was a huge Magic community here in Stockholm that accepted me from day one and that i’ve made so many friends within the community is pretty darn nice.

David Shor

Name: David Shor
Pronouns He/him/his
Level: Level 2
Location: Raanana, Israel
Region: Europe – East
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: 2013 Gatecrash
L1 Certification Date: August 20, 2015
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Casual EDH with big spells and fun interactions
Occupation: Full stack programmer
Random fact about yourself: I learned Swedish solely to surprise my family in Sweden(still learning:) )
Why did you become a judge?: The judge situation in Israel wasn’t really good , so I wanted to become an L2 to certify more judges.
What excites you most about this event?: I’ve never been in a GP. I want to see what a truly large event looks like, the people, the artists, the players and judges.
What worries you most about this event?: That I’m going to fail horribly, although that probably won’t happen[I hope]
Who are your mentors?: Yuval Tzur and Alon Luski. They have taught me practically everything I know about judging.
What is the best part about your local Magic community?: The diversity of players amazes me, we have a lot of competitive players, casual players, vintage modern pauper standard.
Whatever format you want to play, you will easily find someone to play with.
What is your favorite Magic memory?: The moment I became an L2 in February 2016. I was really nervous about the written exam and when I finished it and DLI pressed the submit button was one of the most intense moments of my judge career. But I passed! Everyone we’re excited and it was great!