Grand Prix Denver 2017 - Welcome to the Fold

This week, seven new judges will be Welcomed to the Fold in the Mile High City.

Tavis Chan

Name: Tavis Chan
Level: Level 1
Location: Seattle, Washington
Region: USA – Northwest
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: 1998?
L1 Certification Date: 2/13/2015
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Drafting!
Occupation: Online Sales and Fulfillment
Random fact about yourself: My first language was Cantonese, but I can no longer speak it at all.
Why did you become a judge?: To give back to the community and game that has been such a large part of my life. To facilitate and spread the playing of Magic wherever I can.
What excites you most about this event?: The chance to flex my Judge muscles and rise to the numerous challenges that may arise from such a large number of people.
What worries you most about this event?: Brain-farting on basic things I know very well and making a fool of myself.
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: The intricacies and logistics of how to organize the chaos of a large event.
What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: I find it hard to deliver unpleasant judgments with confidence and authority. I am sometimes overly apologetic and feeble in such situations.
How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: By reviewing the IPG regularly so that I can be sure about proper resolutions to many issues.
What is the best part about your local Magic community?: It’s a mix of seasoned veterans and new players, set on being as laid-back as possible.
What is your favorite Magic memory?: Having Magic sleepovers at a friend’s house so that we could wake up early and roll up to the old Regional Prereleases as a whole crew of mediocre players.

Ian Crow

Name: Ian Crow
Level: Level 2
Location: Denver, Colorado
Region: USA – Northwest
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: 1995
L1 Certification Date: 4/15/2010
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Community and competition
Occupation: Museum Technology
Random fact about yourself: I fence
Why did you become a judge?: In the small town I grew up in there was not much to do other than get in trouble. Magic gave me an after school activity that allowed me to forge life long friendships. I wanted to provide that opportunity for others.
What excites you most about this event?: It will be nice to see all the local players wrecking the tournament.
What worries you most about this event?: Exhaustion, it’s a marathon.
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: I am going to learn about becoming an L3.
Who is your mentor?: Scott Marshall
What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: Keeping up to date with policy changes. There are no great sources for when policy changes occur outside of Toby’s blog which only pops into a social media feed every once in a while. A comprehensive page that catalogs the changes would be good.
How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: I have not contributed anything
What is the best part about your local Magic community?: The competitive players. When someone is excited and tells you about that one windmill game winning slam, their enthusiasm makes you charged. Hearing someone that is passionate talk about something that they love is always an amazing engagement.
What is your favorite Magic memory?: Teaching young people that suffer from Asperger’s syndrome how to play the game. The disease makes it difficult to interact with someone. Magic forces you to sit down face-to-face with another person and communicate with them. I have never felt something so warm as the thanks given to me for providing an outlet for these kids to learn social interactions. I cannot recommend enough for judges to get involved with programs to help teach kids suffering from Asperger’s the game.

Alex Finch

Name: Alex Finch
Level: Level 1
Location: Riverton, Wyoming
Region: USA – Northwest

Kade Goforth

Name: Kade Goforth
Level: Level 1
Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma
Region: USA – South
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: September 2013
L1 Certification Date: 1/28/2017
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Breadth of opportunity for engagement – you can enjoy the game in so many ways.
Occupation: Music Minister
Random fact about yourself: I have performed as a soloist in a concert for the Premier of Bermuda.
Why did you become a judge?: I fell in love with the game and found myself constantly exploring and explaining rules intricacies. I was encouraged by some of my now-colleagues to further the pursuit by becoming a judge.
What excites you most about this event?: Having only attended one GP, I am excited to work an event of this scale and to have the chance to work alongside judges that I don’t yet know.
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: Primarily how best to serve at a large-scale event. I’m also looking forward to picking up the small personal tricks that each judge brings with them.
Who is your mentor?: Trey Ballew and Jessica Livingston
What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: One of the challenges for me has been being confident on the first pass at a call. For the first few events I worked I found myself doubting most calls I made and confirming often with the head judge.
How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: Aside from practice practice practice, a fellow judge passed on this tactic: Whenever I want to confirm a call with a head judge, I present the scenario along with the fix I would administer. This puts me in the position to suggest a result rather than to wait and hear the ‘right’ answer.
What is your favorite Magic memory?: Too many to recount really – drafting my custom set, in-home Vintage tournaments, judging events… I always look back fondly at my first ‘real’ constructed deck: a Theros-era standard build based around Corpsejack Menace, Reverent Hunter, Kalonian Hydra and Give//Take that I affectionately called “The Counters of Monte Cristo.”

Megan Holden

Name: Megan Holden
Level: Level 1
Location: Fresno, California
Region: USA – Southwest
L1 Certification Date: 3/17/2017
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Krenko EDH
Occupation: Office Manager
Random fact about yourself: I really want to have my own cows and chickens some day
Why did you become a judge?: At first it was just to get better at rules, which as a player I have always struggled with. Come to find out, I actually really enjoy judging and being able to watch others succeed at their events. I’ve met some awesome people along the way and that has just encouraged me to get more involved in the judge program and to keep pushing.
What excites you most about this event?: Getting to see everyone! I have a small list of people I owe hugs to.
What worries you most about this event?: Coming up short in some way. I’ve been working really hard on learning rules/IPG and while I’m sure there will be mistakes made, I’m hoping to avoid any major ones. I would hate to slow down my team or be a burden in some way so hopefully I can hold my own.
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: I don’t know what team I’m on yet for Main Event, but I am on Prize Wall with some senior judges which I’m looking forward to. Just learning as much as I can and keeping my goals open. There are lessons to learn everywhere and I don’t want to hyper focus on any one thing and miss out on 5 others.
Who is your mentor?: I’m lucky to have more than one and I don’t want to leave anyone out.
What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: Early on I had to learn how to be wrong, there was a solid 2 months where I literally just had to keep telling myself it’s ok that you’re wrong on this, learn and keep moving forward. I still struggle with this at times but at least now I don’t get adrenaline responses which is an improvement! Anxiety is a life long struggle so I’m always looking to try and work on that.
How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: Talking with others who face the same anxieties has been a huge help. You realize quickly that even the people that look like they have it together, are just like you and struggle with the same things. I also read at least a little bit of the CR/IPG/MTR every day so increasing my knowledge has certainly helped also.
What is the best part about your local Magic community?: I’d say the stores, we have some amazing stores in our area that actively support both the players and the judge program so we are very fortunate in that regard.
What is your favorite Magic memory?: Coming back to magic during RTR and getting absolutely destroyed by my friend (future husband) week after week in standard because I insisted on playing U/R control, had no idea what I was doing, and we would ALWAYS get paired against each other.

Sean Lewis

Name: Sean Lewis
Level: Level 1
Location: USA – South
Region: Albuquerque, New Mexico

Evan Rennie

Name: Evan Rennie
Level: Level 1
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Region: USA – South
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: October 2014
L1 Certification Date: 5/3/2017
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Probably the group of people that got me started playing the game.
Occupation: Software Engineer
Random fact about yourself: I play the piano, but I’m extremely mediocre at it.
Why did you become a judge?: I enjoy the community and the corner cases of card interactions can be really intriguing.
What excites you most about this event?: Well, it’s my first GP!
What worries you most about this event?: it’s my first GP….
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: The basics of how to be an effective judge at a large scale competitive event.
Who is your mentor?: Locally I’ve got multiple judges who are all incredible resources but currently, Jessica Livingston has been extremely helpful not just to me but to the entire judge community.
What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: I feel like I need to increase my knowledge and confidence in policy questions and general tournament logistics.
How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: Practice and study, quite a bit of both.
What is the best part about your local Magic community?: Buffalo Wild Wings on Wednesday nights
What is your favorite Magic memory?: Watching a player who was new to magic figure out how insane mind twist was when they cast it for x=5