Grand Prix Warsaw 2017 - Welcome to the Fold

We will be Welcoming four new judges to the Fold at GP Warsaw this weekend.

Monica Gonzalez

Name: Monica Gonzalez
Level: Level 2
Location: Madrid, Spain
Region: Iberia
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: may/2013
L1 Certification Date: 6/12/2016
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: My lgs community. They are amazing. And my fellow judges from Iberia, the most welcome people I’ve ever seen
Occupation: senior IT project manager
Random fact about yourself: I’m a big fan of comic books and fantasy and science fiction books. In fact, I write articles for blogs on the subject. I have a large collection of European comics, including some valuable books. Books and comics are always competing with Magic cards for space on my shelves.
Why did you become a judge?: I always liked to read about and study the rules. And soon I became that player whome the other players at my local store always asked about complex interactions. But the first time I thought about become a judge was when I met some Spanish judges and I realized the great work they do for the MTG community.
What excites you most about this event?: Everything. It’s my first GP! I want to learn about the procedures in big events, but what I really expect is to meet a lot of interesting people from other regions. I’m sure they have a fantastic experiencies to share with me.
What worries you most about this event?: Several things. First the language, it will be my first event in a foreign language, so I’m a little worried about my understanding. And then the procedures, I don’t know anything about how things work in big events, so I hope my TL will be patient with me.
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: I would like to learn how the different teams interact with each other, the basics of the communications between them. And also the main tasks to perform by each one and the best way to undertake them.
Who is your mentor?: Sandra Regalado, L3 from Spain
What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: I want to do my best in every tournament so I always feel a bit anxious when going to an event, thinking I’m going to mess things up. And, as I know I’m not very good at rules, this lack of confidence means that sometimes it’s hard for me to penalize players. Although I know they’ve made an infraction I always doubt if It’s me who is wrong.
How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: As I need to feel more confident about my answers to the players, I try to read everything I could about rules and review the official documents (IPG, CR, MTR) everytime I have a chance. Talking with my fellow judges about interactions and examples of penalties is a very good option too. And another way to improve is to take advantage of being in events with judges more experienced than me. I try to ask them about their decisions orthe way they see some specific situation during a match.
What is the best part about your local Magic community?: The diversity. At my LGS there are almost as many immigrants as natives and the way we all relate to each other is fantastic.
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Everybody is welcomed, wherever they come from, and everyone helps the everyone.
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The atmosphere is excellent and we have managed to create a great family.
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The only thing that gives me grief is that there are still too few women playing, but little by little we are getting more.

Elli Eirini Osmantzikidou

Name: Elli Eirini Osmantzikidou
Level: Level 2
Location: Thessaloniki, Greece
Region: Europe – East
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: 20/8/2012
L1 Certification Date: 12/21/2015
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: I really like the judge community.
Occupation: Computer Science Student
Random fact about yourself: I love video games and cats.
Why did you become a judge?: I like helping people. Through judgint I can help the players solve their problems. I also went on a judge conference as a spectator and I loved it. After some months I became a L1 judge.
What worries you most about this event?: This event is my first GP so I am pretty stressed about it. I haven’t participated in one (as a player) so I don’t know what to expect. I have talked to judges who have participated in other GPs which helped a bit.
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: I am hoping to learn how I can participate in a group, since this will be my first major event as well as become a better judge by watching more experienced judges on the floor.
What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: My biggest challenge is my stress. I am trying to manage it, but I have a long way to go.
How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: By taking challenges that will put me through stressful situations. For example a few days ago, I made a presentation during the 3rd Greek Conference.

Tytus Rduch

Name: Tytus Rduch
Level: Level 2
Location: Katowice, Poland
Region: Europe – Central
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: September 2012
L1 Certification Date: 10/20/2014
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: Flickerwisp – a magic card equivalent of a swiss army knife
Occupation: IT
Random fact about yourself: 99% of the time I’m wearing almost exclusively black clothes
Why did you become a judge?: I became a judge to help grow my local community. For quite a long time I was the only judge in my area.
What excites you most about this event?: To be honest it’s hard to choose, but I think it’s the scale of the whole event that excites me. The biggest event I participated in as a judge so far had around 50 players.
What worries you most about this event?: I’m worried that I won’t be able to keep up with all the new things I’ll have to do for the first time in a GP enviroment.
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: I’m hoping to improve my cooperation skills while working with completely new judges.
Who is your mentor?: During my first couple years as a judge my mentor was Paweł Kazimierczuk, nowadays when I need advice I usually speak to our RC Sebastian Pękała or fellow L2 Judge Bartłomiej Wieszok.
What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: The hardest challenge I have faced during my judge career was overcoming my social anxiety and communication issues while working at events.
How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: I gathered feedback from other judges, players and tournament organizers I worked with and worked on improving my communication skills based on their opinions. From that point it was just practice and more practice.
What is the best part about your local Magic community?: The thing I value the most about my local community is how easy it is to cooperate with. They have reaching out for my advice when they need it and they are eager to help when a problematic situation occurs.
What is your favorite Magic memory?: My favorite Magic memory is the day I passed my L2 exam, during the 2016 Polish Judge Conference. It was one of the hottest days of that summer and I thought I was going to melt while taking the test and fail it, but it turned out fine in the end.

Tanya Skugarevskaya

Name: Tanya Skugarevskaya
Level: Level 2
Location: Minsk, Belarus
Region: Russia and Russian-speaking countries
Approximate date/month/year you started playing Magic: 01/06/2007
L1 Certification Date: 9/5/2015
Favorite thing (e.g., card, deck, group of people) about Magic: The community
Occupation: Student
Why did you become a judge?: I both wanted to do something good for my local community and enjoyed the way the rules work
What excites you most about this event?: Meeting new people!
What worries you most about this event?: The need to quickly get familiar with some procedures that will be new to me
What are you hoping to learn at this event?: A lot of things, one of the most important being working in a team with people I never met before
What challenges have you faced or are you facing to become a better judge?: Maintaining focus during the long day of judging
How have you worked to overcome those challenges?: I set myself goals for each tournament, including carefully watching matches taking place near me and trying to understand the details of players’ actions