This weekend in Oakland, we have 6 new judges to Welcome to the fold!
dakota ainsworth
- Name: dakota ainsworth
- Pronouns He/him/his
- Level: Level 1
- Location: 29 Palms, California, United States of America
- Region: USA – Southwest
- Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: may 2003
- L1 Certification Date: December 31, 2018
- Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: My favorite thing about magic is once everyone gets together the only thing that separates us is which formats we play.
- Occupation: Manager of a shipping center
- Random fact about yourself: The flash is my favorite superhero and I have Flash everything.
- Why did you become a judge?: I love to tutor and teach and being a judge gives me that opportunity with both players and other judges.
- What excites you most about this event?: I’m excited to do a large competitive event finally.
- What worries you most about this event?: I just hope I can keep up with the hectic pass of the event.
- What are you hoping to learn at this event?: I’m hoping to learn more about the flow of gps and now to navigate them better.
- Who are your mentors?: I worked a lot with Dave delgado, and Ralph colby, and now I’m working with Jeremy stoermer
- What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: Right now my biggest obstacles are time and location.
- How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: I am training someone to cover me when im gone and trying to have less hours worked per week.
- What is the best part about your local Magic community?: That it’s there. For a while my area didn’t have a store and the nearest places is hours away. It’s great to have a store again and even better that’s there is great people at it.
- What is your favorite Magic memory?: My favorite memory is winning my first competitive legacy event. It’s as great to go into an event and come out on top of so many great competitors
Kazi Baker
- Name: Kazi Baker
- Level: Level 1
- Location: Chula Vista, California, United States of America
- Region: USA – Southwest
Liam Binell
- Name: Liam Binell
- Pronouns He/him/his
- Level: Level 1
- Location: Los Gatos, California, United States of America
- Region: USA – Southwest
- Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: 7/1/2011
- L1 Certification Date: January 7, 2018
- Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: EDH
- Occupation: Nonprofit Teacher/Tutor
- Random fact about yourself: I have 40 Commander Decks
- Why did you become a judge?: I wanted to be part of/help out with the world of competitive magic, but I don’t like playing competitive magic.
- What excites you most about this event?: Learning what it’s like to judge at a competitive event.
- What worries you most about this event?: Making mistakes.
- What are you hoping to learn at this event?: More about the rules, possibly how to start working toward L2
- Who are your mentors?: Angela Chandler and Chris Trent.
- What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: There are no L2 judges in my county.
- How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: Reaching out to Angela through my friend Chris.
- What is the best part about your local Magic community?: It’s a very casual and accepting environment, especially for younger kinds trying to get started.
- What is your favorite Magic memory?: My very first draft I received a Spellstutter Sprite from the TO, and even though I went 0-3, my last opponent helped me rebuild my deck after the match, and I managed to beat him with it.
Thomas Conmy
- Name: Thomas Conmy
- Pronouns He/him/his
- Level: Level 1
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States of America
- Region: USA – Southwest
- Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: September/2000
- L1 Certification Date: December 29, 2017
- Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: My custom Danger Room//Battle Box, Commander and Vintage and the communities that surround these formats
- Occupation: School Teacher
- Random fact about yourself: Getting my doctorate studying Dungeons and Dragons as an instructional method
- Why did you become a judge?: Wanted to help my community
- What excites you most about this event?: I’ve been at GPs as a player and a vendor, now it’s time to see it from a new point of view
- What worries you most about this event?: No time to worry, I got side events to run!
- What are you hoping to learn at this event?: Everything; I seek all the knowledge
- Who are your mentors?: Dave Delgado, Nealesh Aneja
- What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: Working on my philosophy to better focus my immediate rulings
- How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: More puzzles, reading the IPG, debriefs from events and “talking out the line”
- What is the best part about your local Magic community?: The people are family
- What is your favorite Magic memory?: Any time I get a player to jam games with my Battle Box and get hooked (sometimes bring them back to the game they left years ago!)
Ryan Koenig
- Name: Ryan Koenig
- Pronouns He/him/his
- Level: Level 2
- Location: San Marcos, California, United States of America
- Region: USA – Southwest
- Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Nexus of Fate. There is nothing like having all the fun by taking all the turns.
- Occupation: IT Manager
- Random fact about yourself: Two time International Pro Tour Competitor. And avid Taylor Swift fan
- Why did you become a judge?: It was a way for me to stay a part of my local Magic community when I did not have the money or the time to play competitively.
- Who are your mentors?: The David Zimet
- What is the best part about your local Magic community?: The attitude everyone has about Magic is one of the best I’ve seen in the country. It’s never serious, it’s about self improvement and fun.
- What is your favorite Magic memory?: Doing not-awful at Pro Tour Hour of Devastation will always stand out, as it was just proving to myself I could play at the highest level. Now I can judge and never feel bad I’m not playing.
Christopher Trent
- Name: Christopher Trent
- Level: Level 1
- Location: San Jose, California, United States of America
- Region: USA – Southwest