MagicFest Sao Paulo #1 - Welcome to the Fold

This weekend in Sao Paulo #1, we have 14 new judges to Welcome to the fold!

Bruno Benatti

Name: Bruno Benatti
Pronouns He/him/his
Level: Level 1
Location: Goiania, Brazil
Region: Brazil
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: April – 2004
L1 Certification Date: August 4, 2018
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Fascinated abouit the Izzet League!
Occupation: Musician
Random fact about yourself: I don’t know how to buy fresh fruits.
Why did you become a judge?: The purpose is to improve my community with my best.
What excites you most about this event?: thats my first big competitive event, it’ll be awesome!
What worries you most about this event?: My lack of experience in my functtion in the event.
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: All that’s possible about the community, the Judge program and aboiut my limits being surpassed.
Who are your mentors?: Andre Tepedino, Leonardo da Luz, Rafael Abdala
What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: The chalenge is absorb several doubts about some rules of the game and the way I seek to be useful for the program.
How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: Yes, and this has become my main project the last two months.
What is the best part about your local Magic community?: We are friendly and deeply connected with each other, what makes us a great place to improve your game skills and hacth new players.
What is your favorite Magic memory?: Grand Prix São Paulo, 2018, Day 2, Top 4 Pro Tour Guilds of Ravnica Qualifier.. What a Sealed… What a Draft… What a day!!!

Lu Cordeiro

Name: Lu Cordeiro
Pronouns They/them/theirs
Level: Level 2
Location: Vitória, Brazil
Region: Brazil
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: 2006
L1 Certification Date: November 4, 2017
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: I love Blue, but Liliana and Jaya Ballard are my queens. <3
Occupation: Maths Professor
Random fact about yourself: I really like vegan food, althought I’m not a vegetarian anymore.
Why did you become a judge?: To help friends with rules – I’m a nerd and really like rules.
What excites you most about this event?: The opportunity to learn and to work with some people I admire.
What worries you most about this event?: Getting nervous and missing or forgetting important things.
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: Online deckchecks, working in teams and general large tournament logistics.
Who are your mentors?: I try to learn from everyone, but I always count on Ricardo Leite and Cauê Hattori to discuss best practices and philosophy behind the rules.
What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: Keeping up with what my local community needs and expects of me – what involves much more diplomacy than rules knowledge.
How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: Learning from other people’s experiences, listening to players and TOs and mostly trying to accept some problems don’t have a clear answer or an easy solution.
What is the best part about your local Magic community?: We are very welcoming – from the most casual to the most competitive players.
What is your favorite Magic memory?: The time I was in a foreign country, with no decks, couldn’t speak the local language very well and still had a great time playing Magic. It always reminds me of how big and strong our Community is.

Maxx de la Fuente

Name: Maxx de la Fuente
Pronouns He/him/his
Level: Level 2
Location: La Rioja, Argentina
Region: Hispanic America – South
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: July 2013
L1 Certification Date: October 21, 2016
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: As for the game, the possibilities and the ever-changing meta. As for the Judge Program, the huge diversity of people that I can immediately identify with by just sharing a couple of sentences.
Occupation: Eng>Spa translator, university professor
Random fact about yourself: I seem to be incapable of physically manifesting a fever (with very few exceptions in my life).
Why did you become a judge?: To prevent rather fishy situations involving experienced players taking advantage of rookies.
What excites you most about this event?: The huge diversity of peoples and cultures and the almost endless possibilities of interactions with all the formats in play. I have never been in an event of such magnitude.
What worries you most about this event?: The above mentioned magnitude worries me a bit, it’s not easy to prepare for the unpredictable.
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: Mostly, I want to learn good practises from judges and players more experienced than I am, I want to bring some of those to my small community too!
Who are your mentors?: Federico Verdini, Juan del Compare, Julio Sosa (among many others who helped along the way)
What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: I can tend to be a bit grumpy with some situations and I needed to learn to keep my head cool and deal with situations bothering me after the tournament. Also, I find it hard coping with organization problems when they do not depend on me (problems with the venue, schedules and similar)
How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: Talking to people who can see the problems from outside is a great help, and I try to be on top of things that have historically gone wrong whenever I can too. I still have a long way to go, nonetheless.
What is the best part about your local Magic community?: Since it’s a very small community, we are prone to sharing and caring a bit more than normal: new players are like little brothers to some of us.
What is your favorite Magic memory?: Judging at the Nationals 2018 with my friends and girlfriend (who also happens to be a judge), I found the breaks especially enlightening, sharing deck-check techniques and other life-hacks.
The first Judge Conference I attended to in 2017 was also a high point for me. Given that I live in a small community far from most of the action, the conference was critical in making me realize I wanted to improve and be more like these people I was meeting for the first time.

Santiago Grangetto

Name: Santiago Grangetto
Pronouns He/him/his
Level: Level 2
Location: Cordoba, Argentina
Region: Hispanic America – South
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: Around mid 2013, going to a theros pre release as my first sanctioned event
L1 Certification Date: September 18, 2015
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Playing cube with my friends
Occupation: Student
Random fact about yourself: I’m a sea of knowledge, but only one inch deep
Why did you become a judge?: Because I thought that knowing more rules was a perk to compete, and being a judge would validate that i know more rules than the average
What excites you most about this event?: I see this opportunity as the first step to really grow in the program and learn all the skills that i’d like to get from others judges
What worries you most about this event?: Probably the usual, like making dumb mistakes or not being able to follow the team
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: Mostly how to work in a big event
Who are your mentors?: I got certified by José Nazareno who has been following my progress since then, also I has the opportunity to participate in a couple of big events, where Julio Sosa was the HJ and Federico Verdini my TL, where I learnt a lot
What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: Im trying to participate as judge as much i can but here in my city there are only a few competitive events in the year and lately i’m struggling to get free time in general
How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: Trying to participate in better events in near cities or even going to this Magic fest
What is the best part about your local Magic community?: We arent a lot of people so we know each other and we have people playing almost any format
What is your favorite Magic memory?: When I won an old 64 man draft in mtgo after a lot of testing with friends

Anna Luiza Harumi Hiwatashi Gallicchio

Name: Anna Luiza Harumi Hiwatashi Gallicchio
Level: Level 0
Location: Location Hidden
Region: Brazil

Kim Kanegusuke

Name: Kim Kanegusuke
Level: Level 2
Location: São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil
Region: Brazil

Felipe Kertes

Name: Felipe Kertes
Level: Level 0
Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Region: Brazil

Paulo Macedo

Name: Paulo Macedo
Level: Level 0
Location: São Paulo, Brazil
Region: Brazil

Pedro Manzoni

Name: Pedro Manzoni
Pronouns He/him/his
Level: Level 1
Location: Porto Alegre, Brazil
Region: Brazil
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: 1994
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Confraria Igreja Jambo
Random fact about yourself: I love barbecue, the real one.
Why did you become a judge?: I was inspired by other judges to help my comunity.
What excites you most about this event?: It’s my first ‘big’ event and I don’t know what to expect. I’ve never had such experience.
What worries you most about this event?: Not being prepared enough…
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: I’ve never worked with people that I don’t know… or foreing judges… or big teams… I hope to learn as much as I can from the more experienced judges.
Who are your mentors?: Bruna Chiochetta.
What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: I’d like to have more time to learn and study.
How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: Trying to be more focused and organized.
What is the best part about your local Magic community?: Playing whit the non-competitive people. It’s the most funny games of all by far.
What is your favorite Magic memory?: There are many… I think I don’t have my favorite.

Leonardo Portela Leal

Name: Leonardo Portela Leal
Level: Level 1
Location: Teresina, Brazil
Region: Brazil

Paula Roberta Ribeiro Ceresani

Name: Paula Roberta Ribeiro Ceresani
Level: Level 0
Location: Ãmericana, Brazil
Region: Brazil

Daniel Saléh

Name: Daniel Saléh
Pronouns He/him/his
Level: Level 2
Location: Volta Redonda, Brazil
Region: Brazil
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: 2002
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Making good friends.
Random fact about yourself: I still have my first “competitive” deck, from aaages ago. I still feel amazing when I look at it, filled with great memories.
What excites you most about this event?: If you play Magic, you gotta be excited about a MagicFest/Grand Prix. And I’m very excited because this time I’ll be one of those amazing people that make it possible.
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: I want to learn anything that I can put my hands on. I believe that even if you’re very good at something, you can still improve it.
Who are your mentors?: Ricardo Leite
What is the best part about your local Magic community?: Players are very close, so they respect and help each other. It’s a very friendly environment.
What is your favorite Magic memory?: Me and my friends training all night long for a tournament.

Brunno Santos

Name: Brunno Santos
Pronouns He/him/his
Level: Level 1
Location: Santos, Brazil
Region: Brazil
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: 2015
L1 Certification Date: December 5, 2016
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Storm Decks
Occupation: Work in a Magic Store
Why did you become a judge?: i see other judges work and hat interest
What excites you most about this event?: the size
What worries you most about this event?: the size haha
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: i hoping learn more about my area in this event (SK)
Who are your mentors?: i got help from many peoples
What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: increasing my english
How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: read a many articles
What is the best part about your local Magic community?: the friends
What is your favorite Magic memory?: i have a many favorite memories

Florencia Valle

Name: Florencia Valle
Pronouns She/her/hers
Level: Level 2
Location: La Rioja, Argentina
Region: Hispanic America – South
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: July 2013
L1 Certification Date: October 21, 2016
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Playing control decks.
Occupation: Music professor
Random fact about yourself: I like to organize things.
Why did you become a judge?: Because I wanted to create a comfortable and welcoming enviroment for everyone and help people enjoy Magic while playing fair and correctly.
What excites you most about this event?: That there will be a lot of people that shares my passion for Magic.
What worries you most about this event?: That it’s in a country with a different language and customs.
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: To work with a lot of people in very big tournaments while providing the best service we can.
Who are your mentors?: Nicolás de Bonis, Julio Sosa and Janit Mindis
What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: To give public speeches or announcements loud and clear.
How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: By practicing in all the last events that I’ve worked on.
What is the best part about your local Magic community?: That it’s very small but warm and nice.
What is your favorite Magic memory?: All the trips to play and judge the game with very good friends.