| Subject | Creator | Description |
| Alexander Smith | David Rappaport | Alex was instrumental in helping to pull together a presentation on investigation skills. Although we all worked as a team, Alex worked the logistical side and was present and active at every meeting. I put a lot on my team as we did not have much time for preparation. Alex continues to work on the project preparing written documentation so the presentation might be shared with our peers. Thanks Alex. |
| Alexander Smith | Ben Sturtz | Alex, our discussion of my handling of our SCG Regionals deck check team was very honest and thoughtful. I appreciate your advice on differentiating simply completing required tasks versus doing so while leaving a lasting impression for a given team or event. Your honesty and advice were catalytic in my identification that I should be developing my own personal leadership style. Thank you! |
| Andrew Croy | Marcos Sanchez | Andrew, I’d like to recognize the drive that you’ve taken in working towards level 2. But first, I’d like to shine a light on how you got here, and it’s something I’d love for other Level 1 judges to emulate. You took the time to really think about what level 2 means, where you fit in your local community, and whether moving towards Level 2 was the right thing for you. I wish more people would take that careful consideration on their road to advancing in the program as opposed to trying to race to level up to the next plateau. Not only did you carefully think your decision through, you then committed to working towards L2 by traveling over 4 hours to a conference to learn, and dedicated yourself to working larger events. Thank you for showing how much of a commitment is necessary to make that next step forward. |
| Andrew Doyle | Leon Henderson | Andy. I just wanted to recognize you for your great team leading at Gencon. We were fairly well staffed but you made sure that everyone knew their role, had a schedule done up before our shift even started and regularly made sure that everyone was doing alright and staying well. You were a quiet but confident leader and even warmed up a bit as the weekend wore on. Even the last day when we were all very tired, you made sure we were in good spirits. That is a good leader. I am happy to see that you are active in the community at home and abroad and hope to see more of you in the future. thank you for all you do. And thank you for being exemplary. |
| Andrew Doyle | Scott Markwart |
Andy, you were my Team Lead for multiple days at Gen Con. Before the event even began, you reached out to me so that we could get to know each other a bit as we had never previously worked together. As this was my first large event, you made sure I was set up for success. Seeing that I was nervous on my first shift, you gave me the task of walking around and introducing myself to as many other judges as possible. This small act made the rest of the weekend so much easier and helped me feel much more a part of the judge community. Once I felt comfortable in my primary role, you worked behind the scenes to ensure that I would get exposure to all of the different jobs and tasks at the event. Though the weekend was, at times, a blur with all of the activity and responsibilities I rotated through, it has been my best learning experience in the judge program to date. The confidence and calmness with which you led your team at Gen Con was emblematic of a seasoned leader. It was even more impressive when I learned that this was your first time in a Team Lead role! Andy, you are an exemplary judge, leader, and mentor! |
| Ashlee Moran | David Rappaport | Ashlee volunteered to be a part of my investigation skills workshop project. As a person and a judge Ashlee tend to be soft spoken and introverted. She seemed terrified when I assigned her to not only perform in role-play scenarios, but to do so opposite Jeremy Tomacooper… exceedingly extroverted. Ashlee never balked and was not only brave, but based on feedback… quite effective. Ashlee continues in the project which is intended to produce yearly deliverable modular scenarios designed to improve how we teach investigation skills as a program. |
| Ben Litz | James Risner | Doing the work that literally no one else wants to do, Ben’s work on a state wide schedule helps players find events to play in Kentucky! I’m certain less players would be playing if not for Ben. |
| Ben Sturtz | Frank Singel |
Ben, your frankness when it comes to personal shortcomings is something of great value to me. Many people are too shy to share important feedback with me when there is an aspect of my character or actions that inconveniences or bothers another. Without you, I would be in a perpetual echo chamber of “Back-patting” and “Good job everyone”, keeping me devoid of much-desired personal feedback in my attempts to improve myself. Thank you for making improving myself feasible! |
| Carmen Campbell | Alexander Smith | Carmen, we worked together at SCG Indy in October on the the floor & breaks team. One pitfall of that team is how changing tasks for each round inhibits formation of routine and team identification. As your team lead, I commend you for your gung-ho attitude on that day. You were a great asset to stronger group cohesion and I appreciate the elan that outlook brought to the table. |
| Casey Barnett | Ben Litz | Casey, thanks for all your help with the KY Premier Play Connection. Having someone else to help with post updates and watching for rouge events really helps the KY players keep current on upcoming events in the state. It’s a lot to keep track of and I really value the time you put into it. |
| Charles Trepod | Ben Sturtz | Charles, working with you over the course of GenCon 2016 was a delight. Your ability to calmly and professionally handle multiple events and formats was impressive. Beyond your successes in terms of completing specific tasks, your pleasant demeanor was noted by multiple players. You are a great asset to the program! |
| Chelsea Hogan | Frank Singel | Chelsea, you’ve been involved in the mtg community for a significant portion of my judging career, and I’m glad to see you start to take a serious step towards involvement in the competitive community through judging. Your eagerness to answer hypothetical policy and rules questions as your L1 peers dodge “The hard questions” is commendable. Even when you’re wrong, you take it as yet another learning opportunity as you advance your experiences. I look forward to you reaching L2 someday. |
| Chelsea Hogan | Ben Sturtz | Chelsea, working with you over the course of the recent SCG Regionals I was impressed with your rules/policy knowledge as well as your professionalism in interactions with players. I believe that you are well on your way to becoming a superb L2 judge! Keep up the great work. |
| Chelsea Hogan | Aaron Hammer | Still surprised you’re an L1, but I guess that’s one of the requirements these days to be an L2 candidate. I just wanted to recognize the hustle you gave every time I interacted with you at SCG Regionals. You consistently provided great service in the judge calls I saw you on, and you were quick to volunteer and get-r-done with the other judges that day. Thank you! |
| Christopher Byrne | John Temple | Chris, You have really stepped up as an L1 at Pandemonium determined to make it the judge mecca it once was. You have shown an above average skill at mentoring candidates to L1 and running Comp REL level events. Keep up all the hard work! |
| Christopher Byrne | Scott Markwart |
Chris, your commitment to developing and nurturing a community of both inclusion and education has been remarkable. You have created a Facebook group where your players can easily communicate with each other. You answer rules and policy questions here as well as creating scenarios using Standard format cards that prompt engaging discussions and aid in reinforcing your educational efforts. You also focus heavily on fostering a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere among your players through your strong personal example. At numerous events I have judged, players from this community have approached me to compliment your rigorous efforts to create a positive gaming environment. These players have also been walking examples of the virtues you exude; welcoming, kind, and always willing to help another player. You are a great addition to the Judge community and truly an exemplary individual. Thank you for sharing your passion for community with us all. |
| Corey Castelli | Johnpaul Adams |
Corey, You’ve been stepping up quite a bit more locally on events at the store. Specifically, I wanted to acknowledge your excellent work during the pre-release for Kaladesh and during recent FNMs. Whenever I got tied down on a call at another table or was busy helping a customer at the counter, you were almost always the first judge to these other calls (even the events you were only assisting as a floor-judge/player, not as head judge). I really enjoyed seeing this hustle out of you and this motivation to deliver excellent calls in an expedient manner is why I am recognizing you this cycle! |
| Daniel Gore | Alexander Smith | Daniel, we worked together at SCG Indy in October on floor & breaks team. At the end of the day, you had feedback for me. The core of this feedback challenged me to assess and revise my performance as a team lead. Additionally, your delivery and time frame of this feedback was very diplomatic. Upstream feedback isn’t a frequent feature of the program, but you did it exceptionally well. |
| daniel hall | Leon Henderson | Hey Daniel! It has been such a joy to watch you grow in such a great fashion over these last few months. Your customer service skills have improved in a dramatic fashion and it is always backed up by your on point rules knowledge. At Gencon, you went about making sure that the judges felt united as a community and made sure everyone felt included on a special little treat for the judges at gencon in the form of plush toys. You helped people break the ice and made conversation easier for L1s to approach the higher level judge staff. While this may not seem like much, we had much better team cohesion and communication and I feel like its because you removed that barrier with your generosity and kind spirit. I hope to see you continue to grow in the future. Thank you for all you do. And thank you for being exemplary. |
| Daniel Kelly | Nick Gajary | Dr Dan, I want to recognize you for your consistent high quality work at the Dice Dojo. You may not be the most outspoken of judges, but your attention to detail and problem solving skills are unmatched. In particular, I’d like to praise you for coming to me after the Kaladesh prerelease with your concerns about the logistical issues faced and performances of some other judges. Critiquing your peers – especially those of a different level – can be unnerving, but your analyses were thoughtful and practical, and should improve the next tournament experience for players and judges alike. |
| David Elden | Patrick Cobley | Dave, I have always respected your rules knowledge as a judge and I know that is what most people recognize you for. That being said, I would like to recognize your ability recently to improve on some of your weaknesses and adapt to become a more versatile judge. We all have our strengths and you have reached out to other judges to improve your social skills which I for one believe shows that you are doing everything in your power to be the best judge you can be, keep it up! |
| David Elden | Raoul Mowatt | David, you travelled quite a bit to present at the mini Chicagoland judge conference on Judging at Regular. Your presentation was lively, polished and inspirational. It gave the group of about 20 participants, mostly L1s, better insight into how to handle different calls at FNM. Your lending your expertise to the conference will pay dividends at numerous events for some time to come. Thank you for your time! |
| David Elden | Matt Sauers | David, you continue to amaze me. The proactive delivery of your rules and policy updates digest is ridiculously thorough and predicts every useful and typical iteration as soon as the new rules or policies become available. This most recent update was outstanding and the subsequent presentations and articles were truly exemplary for community education. |
| David Incorvati | Frank Singel |
David, since you’ve hit L2, I’ve seen you become one of the most professional judges I know. I remember when you were in charge of Sides at the last SCG: Invitational we judged together. Everything was managed impeccably despite getting the awkward half of the hall without direct balcony access. Even outside of that event, you’ve always had a professional and level-headed opinion on issues that polarize the community and can offer dissent in a fair and well-reasoned manner. Topical discourse in the MTG community would benefit from more people like you. |
| David Rappaport | Samantha Davis | After I awkwardly checked some Brainstorm alters for a player before a Legacy side event I was about to HJ on Sunday at GP Louisville, David questioned my method. I explained that this was the first time I had ever been asked to approve altered cards. David then explained his process, and took the time to show me why certain alterations could potentially degrade sleeves as the event progressed. I appreciated this moment of mentoring in the middle of David’s role as swiss sides lead. |
| David Rappaport | Jeremy Blackwell | David, your work at the RPTQ in August this year was something of greatness, despite the fact that there were issues back at home you were willing and able to come to Canada and provide great assistance and motivation to ensure a successful event. Eventually hopefully you will get my name right but that’s a whole other story. Keep up the great work and I look forward to working future events with you. |
| David Rappaport | Adam Eidelsafy |
Hey Dave, You’ve taught me how to mentor judges to great success. When I mentor I try to emulate your patience when teaching new material. Your flexibility when adapting how you teach to the needs of each mentee. Case in point, in the same couple of months you help myself and Jeremy Toma-Cooper achieve L2 using two completely different approaches to match or strengths and weaknesses. If that isn’t exemplary I don’t know what is. -Safy |
| Gregory Tongue | Frank Singel | Greg, you continue to be a stalwart beacon of community involvement in the Cleveland Heights area. Your events are the most friendly, diverse, and accepting in Cleveland as a whole. The community would be better served by being more like the one you carefully cultivate (and prune when necessary). |
| James Darrow | David Rappaport | James is part of my investigation skills workshop project, and has been quite helpful in a support role. While I could go on with his contribution to our ongoing project, I feel that James needs to be recognized for another reason. Lately, I have become aware that James is suffering ennui. Dissatisfaction with activity or opportunity. I am aware because James Reached out for support and Guidance. Too often we suffer in silence, being curageous enough to share your feelings openly is an example to be followed. James is a very precise and long standing Judge… dissatisfaction is curable. If it is ignored, it becomes disinterest… that is not. |
| James Gibbs | Ben Litz | James, I want to thank you for all the hard work you’ve put in the past two PPTQs you and I have worked together. You have taken care of everything. Calls, setup, SK duties, hydration, snacks, going to get lunch, and all with a terrific customer service oriented attitude. You have spoiled us and Head Judges and its greatly appreciated. |
| James Risner | Michael Anderson | James, your work in organizing the Kentucky Mini-Conference was excellent. You provided a great space for a sizable turnout based on expectations, and the schedule was a solid mix of lectures and workshops. Not to mention feeding everyone! Thanks for all your hard work in education and community building in Kentucky. |
| James Risner | Tiago Lopes | Hi James. I want to recognize you for your help in GP Vancouver this year. It was my first GP and I was in charge of ODE on Saturday, and your tips about the floor map, runners organization and overall ODE stuff really helped me complete my task in a sucessfull way. Thank you for your wisdom. Hope to see you soon |
| Jarrod Williams | Matt Sauers | Jarrod it’s really hard to write an exemplar for an L3 and, notably, an RC. However, I must say that your effective reshaping of the GL region into its current form, and most recently, restructuring our conferences for the region to enable a farther reach to our fellow judges, was superb. Your leadership isn’t just comforting, it’s inspiring. Thanks for being willing to make changes that I haven’t seen before — in the right direction. |
| Jeremy Toma-Cooper | David Rappaport | Jeremy was on my team to construct an investigation skills workshop. We were pressed for time, and Jeremy was critical of the value of the project. Still, Jeremy never lost faith in my vision and contributed his energy unselfishly. In execution, his enthusiasm and charisma helped bolster his teammates and the project as a presentation. Jeremy continues to offer ideas and scenarios for this ongoing project. Thanks for the solidarity my good friend. |
| Jeremy Toma-Cooper | Leon Henderson | Toma. You are a fire in the community. You are the constant at almost any event in the US. I would like to recognize you for your efforts at GP indy last year and Gencon this year. You have always been a born leader and made sure that people know what they are doing. You are a riot at events and always a joy to be around but never losing that sense of responsibility. Maybe you can Clue us into your secret to success one of these days. Until then, thank you for all you do. And thank you for being exemplary. |
| Jeremy Toma-Cooper | Meghan Baum | Toma you really stepped up at GP Portland and made sure our team succeeded day 1 of the GP. You helped me make sure that the deck lists got organized and helped ensure they stayed that way. On top of that you made sure that I was alright after having a truly rough weekend. That event both for me and in general would have suffered if you weren’t there being amazing you. |
| Jesse Meiring | David Rappaport | Jesse is from Ohio… despite this agregious error, Jesse was instrumental in preparing and executing a workshop on investigation skills. Jess confided that he was fearful of the performance aspect of our role play scenarios. He was brave for me, and discovered for himself a new aptitude. I did not give my team much time for preparation, but every one (even Jesse) still contributes to the project while we get ready for the next phase… shipables. |
| Joe Crawford | Spencer Cole | Joe, I’ve gotten to work with you quite a bit by this point. From the first time we worked together, all through our most recent time a couple weeks ago, you have shown me that you know how to take advice, and flexibility when implementing it. I’ve had a couple people pressing me for info on you for development reasons, and I’m proud to say that I’ve never had anything bad to tell them. Each time we work together, I walk away happier, and glad I had the chance to work with you. Keep up the great work, friend. |
| Joe Crawford | Billy Gilmore | I had the pleasure of working with Joe at GP Indy this year with both of us working on Side Events. Even though I did not know Joe before the event Joe was very friendly and when by default I ended up organizing a lot of the side events on Saturday, Joe was eager to help me and learn from my experience from working many side events. Joe showed a great desire to run a two-headed giant sealed Conspiracy event, so I helped him start the event and checked in with to help him throughout the event and that event ended up taking over eight hours. During this time Joe always had a smile on his face and when I asked some of his players they said that he made the whole GP for them because of his humor and how he cared for his player. I was impressed in that Joe never complained about the event and he turned what could have been a rough day much easier and I am thankful him. |
| Joe Crawford | Matt Sauers | Joe, your processing on sides for GP Indy was exemplary. Not only did we have happy players, but you proactively corralled them and communicated to them expectations to make their side events fun, entertaining, and enjoyable. More than one player mentioned your good work to me. Sides are the heart of fun at a GP, and you kept it pumping. Well done! |
| John Alexander | Ben Sturtz | John, watching you run end of round procedure over the course of Eternal Weekend quickly showcased how much you have grown within the program. You have become a detail oriented leader who can handle tasks under pressure. I hope to work with you again soon. |
| John Temple | Johanna Virtanen | John, thank you for being so active on the Player Investigations Committee. In particular, you’re active about providing feedback to HJs – something we haven’t been very good at this year. Thank you for improving our work! |
| John Temple | Sophie Pages | John, since you arrived in the verification committee, you gave an incredible energy to work on almost every cases, both in self evaluations and checklists. More than that, you are one of the most active and prolific members, giving a lot of details to give to candidates. And if it wasn’t enough, you are extremely rich in comments, ideas and motivations, always volonteer for every task or new ideas. Thank you very much for your involvement, it is really amazing. |
| John Temple | Nicola DiPasquale | Yo dawg, this past weekend at Eternal Weekend not only were you able to lead the sides teams effectively. You worked in some great team mentoring while you were at it. You took your time with David and provided him with some good advice to my understanding (after speaking with him about it afterward). None of this to the detriment of the event. It was great work and above one could see the great care you had for both the other judges and the event. |
| John Temple | David Rappaport | So… this is the second time I have nominated John Temple. The first time, I recognized his contributions to our community as a L2. Since then, John has become a L3 and a massively different Judge. Similar, John’s energy comes from a seemingly limitless pool. he is the Electrostatic Pummeler… heh. Seriously, John does much of the heavy lifting in our region, which frees Jarrod and i up to focus on what we are best at. John has become skilled at being a confidant. John Identified his intensity and certainty were making him less approachable and appear inflexible. He has made remarkable advancement in that area in short order. John will agree that there will always be work to do, but todays Temple is an example of effective channeling of a deep passion for the Judging Hobby. Wiener Dog…heh. |
| John Temple | Andrew Thompson | I wanted to recognize John for two things: First, he and Meg did an excellent job managing the Michigan Judge Leadership Retreat over Labor Day weekend. The presentations were excellent and educational, the venue was fantastic, and the opportunity to hang out with some excellent judges was awesome. Did mention that John and Meg fed us all too? All in all, it was an excellent weekend because John and Meg put in the work to make it happen. Second, I wanted to commend John on his excellent presentation about Effective Delegation. It was clear, concise, and contained a lot of useful tips that are usable not just in the Judge Program but in leadership generally. Excellent work! |
| John Temple | Brian Rapp | Recently there was an active discussion brought up by a judge within our regional FB forum that was discussing an incident caught on camera during a match. This video led to an investigation, and the discussion of that investigation by many judges in the region was squelched by your prompt action. In helping to remind us all that any open investigation is not water-cooler gossip and should not be discussed as such, I say thank you. Keep up the great work as a superb leader in our region and beyond. |
| John Temple | Spencer Cole | Driving to events, you taught me so much. Only when I put those things into practice, did I understand what it meant to be a judge. Before I knew it, you were helping me along the path to becoming a Level 2. Each time I hit a roadblock, you were there to point me in the right direction. To this day, I can count on you to help me when I need it. Though you may be tough, you make sure it’s for a good reason. Everything to this point has been a fantastic ride, and I hope to work many more events with you. Remember, you’re not my real dad. |
| John Temple | Pedro Gonçalves | During my time as a member of the Judge of the Week project, I had the pleasure of interacting with you. As one of the leaders of the project, you were an example of patience, helpfulness and availability, even when I wasn’t giving my best – I feel that I learned a thing or two about team management just from the you interacted with me. You are one of the role models that I hope to emulate if I ever find myself in a similar position. I know it has been a while, but I still feel inspired by the way you conducted yourself in our interactions – and for that, I would like to thank you. |
| John Temple | Lyle Dixon | Temple, I wanted to thank you for talking me through a rough day and situation at GP Louisville. I had a series of events happen that day that I was dissatisfied with, and I had no idea what to do about it or how to handle it in the least bit, I was completely at a loss on how to proceed. You took the time to let me vent to you, even when it involved stepping away from something you were doing to give me some time. After I vented, you helped me think of positive, appropriate, and professional steps I could take to possibly help things like that from happening again in the future, as well as giving me closure for my day. I really appreciated you taking the time to help me. Thank you! |
| Johnpaul Adams | Patrick Vorbroker |
JP, At GP Atlanta, you performed what I believe was your first called draft. Not only did you prepare very well, but your stage training from outside the program really shined. On a PA system that even event veterans were having trouble being understood over, your draft calls rang clear to the field and helped all three of Sunday’s drafts go off smoothly. Well done! |
| Johnpaul Adams | Jacopo Strati | I really want to thank you for your contribution during GP Atlanta 2016. I was leading the deck check team on Day2 and, while all judges were collecting decklists, you had a simple but great idea: the “inbox” slot for unsorted lists. Till that moment you and another judge were sorting lists inside the deck check area, while another judge was immediately next to it receiving lists from other colleagues on the floor. Your smart idea improved the collecting process (judges were coming directly inside the DC area, leaving the unsorted decklist in the “inbox” spot), allowing us to have an extra judge on the floor during one of the most crucial part of the day. You truly deserve this exemplar! Well done Jonhpaul! 😀 |
| Johnpaul Adams | Aaron Hammer | I was given many opportunities to gain experience as I advanced to L2. And I believe many or most of those opportunities were because of you. Thank you for being a pillar of the MTG Judge community, and your trust in me. This nomination is also specifically because of this compliment I received, “Oh, JP is your mentor? I trust you completely now.” |
| Justin Rentz | Alex McGregor | Justin. Listening to your efforts to grow your local community from nothing have been truly inspiring. Being able to share ideas and strategies with you allowed me to hone my own techniques, especially around generating hype for events. I hope you bring the same passion and love of the game to your new home. |
| Marcos Sanchez | Riki Hayashi | You’ve had quite a year, and while most of it has been positive, you hit a speed bump at GP Louisville, resulting in your worst performance serving in a GP Day 2 Team Lead role. You took that slip up and made lemonade out of it, writing one of the best, honest self reviews going over the issues from the event. Keep up this healthy attitude and introspection. It will serve you well. |
| Marcos Sanchez | Jarrod Williams | Marcos you do an excellent job at getting player feedback and converting it to actionable ways to improve for judges. Recently there has been a situation where a player approached you with feedback for a judge and you didn’t just listen to the player but worked with that judge so that they could take that feedback and improve. |
| Marcos Sanchez | Patrick Cobley | Marcos, it’s been an absolute pleasure watching you grow into the judge that you have become. Not only have you taken over Area Captain as you progress towards L3. but more specifically you have kept our area inside the Great Lakes region on track and growing. Our community is better because you are a part of it. I can honestly say that I wouldn’t be half the judge I am if it wasn’t for your tutelage. |
| Mason Whitlark | David Rappaport | Mason assisted in the construction of an investigation skills workshop. Our initial time frame was short, but Mason was there with ideas and assistance even during the formative process. This project is ongoing as Mason is now helping to continue the project as a program that can be passed along to peers as an effort to improve how we teach investigation skills. |
| Matt Farney | John Temple | Matt, Your activity in Slack has been great especially in our Rules and Policy channel. You continue to ask hard hitting questions focusing on important parts of our tournament policy instead of turning to corner cases. Fostering these productive conversations shows a high level of mentorship. Thank you for all your hard work in this area! |
| Matt Toskin | Brian Rapp | Matt, I recently was out at your LGS, where I noticed you taking a pronounced role in helping clean up the community. Your efforts to curb the use of derogatory catch-phrases, gender-slurs, and other-wise unwanted wanton behavior that is not conducive to an inclusive, friendly, and safe environment. Continue to call-out this activity, and the community will continue to thrive. I look forward to visiting your area again soon to see the progress that you’ve made. |
| Meghan Baum | David Rappaport | This is long overdue and it is my sincere hope that this recognition means more to Meg than the token that accompanies it. It has been my consternation and distinct privelege to be Megs Mentor over the years. It is well documented that our friendship is… lets go with feisty. It comes from a deep love and respect we have for eachother… so not always terrible. We are very alike in certain ways. For much of Megs career I held concern that her focus was too personal… that she was more concerned with appearance than with her own skill and integrity. Lately, I have seen Meg grow in the directions I had hoped she would… and I have seen her become an infinitely better person and judge because of her effort. I know I stink at commending her, but I am very proud of her. Meg has taken on a project I suggested… my idea was basic… she has taken the Next Step program and made it a model for other Regions. her efforts are improving on-boarding experience of judes when we are most likely to lose their enthusiasm. Thank you and keep being the type of leader that makes everyone around you just a little bit better. |
| Meghan Baum | Jack Hesse | Meg! Thanks for all of your hard work, both at events and in your community. But specifically for this recognition, as head judge for the Standard Classic at SCG Milwaukee. I’ve worked with you many times by now, and I can see how your work is paying off. You exhibited great leadership and presence: on the floor (conversations about policy), on the mic (clear and entertaining announcements), and in giving your staff direction (not letting me sacrifice floor coverage for superfluous deck checks). Thanks! |
| Meghan Baum | Alexander Smith | Meg, I want to highlight your efforts in organizing the MI Leadership Conference and Retreat. The programming you coordinated, especially the round table discussion, provided worthy insights for even the experienced L2s of our state. Fostering a sense of community and fellowship is a complex and worthwhile task; one that you made look easy. |
| Meghan Baum | Andrew Thompson | I wanted to recognize Meg for the tremendous amount of work she and John Temple put in for the Michigan Judge Leadership Retreat held over Labor Day weekend. Not only did Meg and John assemble a group of informative and entertaining educational presentations, including several unique topics, Meg housed us at her family’s cabin and fed us. It’s not easy putting together such a great event, and especially not when you include food and shelter. Excellent job, and I look forward to next year! |
| Meghan Baum | Eli Meyer |
Hi Meg, This goes back a little ways, but I appreciate the work you did at GP Charlotte. The great drop of 700 players was an enormous mess, and no one had clear assignments on what to do and where to go. You put yourself right in the eye of the storm, standing by the stage and shouting your lungs out to send people into the correct line. In general, I enjoyed being on a team with you and seeing your policy knowledge and logistical skill. But I was particularly impressed with your ability to recognize a major source of confusion amongst a huge mass of confused players, along with your perception to figure out the best positioning for yourself midst of lines of players and judges snaking all the way across the event hall. |
| Meghan Baum | Spencer Cole | Meg, you have always been a mentor for me. You get a lot of flack for being intimidating, when most people don’t realize you’re actually one of the most genuine and friendly people they’ll ever meet, and it sucks. You are constantly a positive force for any event you’re working, and you never hold back when something needs done. I hope more people count themselves lucky to know you, and I hope you continue to be awesome! |
| Meghan Baum | Riki Hayashi | You received some feedback from another judge that you disagreed with on a factual level. It would have been easy to dispute the feedback, but you chose to listen and accept, not necessarily the content of the feedback, but honoring the feelings of judge giving it to you. It was a sterling example of not responding with feedbacklash in a situation where it would have been very easy to do so. |
| Michael Anderson | Ben Litz | Thanks for your help with script formatting for our video project. You went out of your way to find a structure that works and could be adapted to our needs. I was at a loss until you stepped in with the right formatting. I think it will help us churn out scripts much faster. Great Job!. |
| Michael Miles | Michael Anderson | Michael, the move to L2 is all about growth and stepping up to challenges. your willingness to help lead a workshop panel at the Kentucky mini-conference was a big step in that direction in my mind. You gave other L1 and L0 participants a chance to practice taking a contentious call, and led a discussion on how these calls go at larger events. You’ll be called on in the future to be a leader in small groups and at events, and your actions at this event show your ability to do that. Great work! |
| Nathaniel Snyder | Johnpaul Adams |
Nate, This cycle I haven’t seen you do a lot of judging locally and I’d really like to see you back judging. That being said, you gave me an excellent perspective and highly-effective policy discussion after witnessing a difficult call I had to make a local event. It’s great to have these policy discussions and discuss in-depth where policy and implementation could have been better handled. Thanks for beig open and honest about your view on the policy and challenging my response to it in a professional manner that made me double-check my reasoning and see my ruling as incorrect. I love these deep policy discussions but rarely get to have them. Thank you for that. |
| Nicholas Rausch | Spencer Cole | Nick, you have helped me extremely with educating judge trainees, including giving me a place to work with them, and more importantly, shadowing them at FNM while I couldn’t be there to do so myself. You’re committed to helping the program grow in northwest Ohio, and I hope we can see returns on all of our effort. Keep it up! |
| Patrick Cobley | Marcos Sanchez | Patrick, I was very impressed by your presentation at the Southern Indiana Judge Conference. You presented on the really difficult things for newer to competitive REL event judges to learn without going through it themselves. You managed to make it look easy even though you manage to do exceptional work everywhere you go. Not only that, but you’ve taken that experience and doubled down by putting in some phenomenal work behind the scenes of the upcoming Northern Indiana Conference. You’ve now continued to demonstrate how much education is to you, and I really hope that others see this type of dedication to helping others in the program learn and improve in the same way you have. |
| Patrick Cobley | David Elden | Thanks for all the hard work you put in helping organize the Fort Wayne area judge conference. Although the measure of success for something like that is for others to not notice how much work you did, rest assured that your diligence, sharing of your expertise, and work ethic were appreciated. We couldn’t have done it without you. |
| Patrick Nelson | Michael Arrowsmith | Having you as my DC team lead for the Indy Open made my event much less stressful. You lead your team very well, and were a good source to bounce concerns off of as the day went by. I look forward to working with you again! |
| Patrick Nelson | Patrick Cobley | Patrick, you did a fantastic job running the Central Indiana Judge Conference in Sept ’16. You made sure that all of your presenters were prepared and did an excellent job keeping the conference on track! I see big things in your future and can’t wait to see what you accomplish. |
| Patrick Nelson | David Incorvati | On Sunday at SCG Indianapolis, we were tasked with trying a new deck check strategy. However, almost every round presented a disruption to that plan. You were able to improvise and communicate the necessary adjustments to keep the event covered both on checks and on the floor, all while maintaining a calm and cheerful demeanor. |
| Patrick Nelson | David Elden | Patrick, Marcos and I want to commend you on the hard work you put in to make the first small scale judge conference in our state a success. It’s tough going in without a comparable reference point, but you did a great job planning ahead to make sure things went smoothly and working with presenters to make sure our seminars were the best they could be. |
| Raymond Smith | Leon Henderson | Ray Ray! I would just like to say how impressed I was with your performance at Gencon. You were able to handle a lot that was thrown at us. You always made sure you had proper event coverage and took rulings like a champ. On top of that, your knowledge of the rules and policy even at Regular REL is astounding. I see great things in your future and hope you one day make the leap to L2. You have such a fire and awesome attitude at events and its something I would love to see at more events in the future. Thank you for all you do for the community. And thank you for being exemplary. |
| Richard Staley | Andrew Blizzard | Richard, at GenCon 2016, you helped me coordinate the progression of turns during the Grand Melee event. You helped me hold it together while keeping your poise as well as providing an excellent player experience. Please continue being a strong presence in this program! |
| Scott Markwart | Jeremy Blackwell | Working with Scott at Gen Con this year was an experience that really helped me to put player interaction and customer service into perspective. His infectious energy and excitement towards judging, as well as his great ability in judging the events he did was awesome and I hope to work with him again in the future. Keep up the great work Scott!! |
| Spencer Cole | Benjamin Lurie | At GP Louisville, you were my deck checks partner under a stress-inducing situation. Thank you for being my sounding board, and helping me keep calm and professional throughout the event. As always, I’m looking forward to the next time we get to work together. |
| Spencer Cole | David Elden | It had been a while since I worked with you when I was your team lead at Eternal Weekend, and I’m impressed with how much improvement I saw in a relatively short time. You were confident and comfortable the whole day, and you showed great initiative and foresight, handling everything that came our way as it came up, and often before I brought it up. Floor judges like you make big events like that run smooth. |
| Spencer Cole | Minh Vu | An excellent Job at Eternal Weekend on slips team. I am happy you went above the call of duty and coordinated with the scorekeeper on his unique needs and helped him in his duties while keeping me informed of your actions and whereabouts. It shows good foresight and event awareness. |
| Thomas Fritz | Ben Litz | Tommy, you were instrumental in planning our first KY Judge Conferences. You set up the events in apps, you did a lot of the paperwork (that I didn’t even know about) you made sure we all stayed on track and put together a great conference that helped a lot of local judges. Thanks for all the hard work. |
| Tim Pass | Kali Rainwater | You were a great sport at GP Louisville when you were assigned to start a Conspiracy draft consisting entirely of judges who chose to pretend never to have drafted before. Not only did you patiently explain all aspects of drafting, but you also went above and beyond by finding us not one, but two crowns, so that both pods could have a monarch. Your efforts positively contributed to our enjoyment of the event. |
| Tim White | Steven Zwanger | Tim, on the Midwest judges Facebook group, you definitively answered a question about goad, complete with the exact rules citation. Good job! |
| TJ Clark | Jernej Lipovec | Thanks for being the MVP at Porto Allegre sides saving our butts all day long with your ability to run events and give good feedback and ideas to managers. I especially appeciate the situation where you extensively helped fellow judge with serious health problems even though I was calling you on stage to run your event several times. You’ve correctly identified what was more important and did just that. |
| Torrance PeLong | Randy Tice | Torrance- it has been awesome to get to know you! I met you a couple of months ago, and have been privileged to mentor you on two separate occasions. What makes you Exemplar is your thirst for knowledge. You are always trying to better yourself and those around you through knowledge. I was so impressed by your skills with players that I asked a local TO to let you help with a PPTQ! Please continue your pursuit of knowledge! I hope that through your travels more judges try to become more knowledgable! |
| Torrance PeLong | Andrew Doyle |
We don’t always have as much time to prepare for events as we would like to have, especially when plans change last minute. When a large event simply fell through the cracks, you were there to pick up the pieces and make something out of seemingly nothing. Torrance, you single handily turned a failed 3K event into a successful GPT with literally 36 hours notice. Showing this dedication to your local area with the intention to foster events is wonderful, but I’m specifically nominating you because of your attitude throughout the fallout. You stayed bright, cheerful, and communicated wonderfully with players through Facebook channels. You advertised and ran a 19 player GPT without even bothering to be concerned with your time restraints. The fact that you made an event happen at all is just downright amazing. Torrance, thank you for your attitude and perseverance towards fostering the Grand Rapids community. |
| Victor Logan | Ben Litz | Vicor, thanks for jumping in and helping at the Legendary PPTQ. Even though you had just certified you showed great initiative and exceptional knowledge. You really took a load off of me, helping in a pinch (one floor judge left early, the other was the TO and was too busy to help as planned) with both floor coverage and deck checks. The tournament would have been delayed significantly without your help. Thanks for stepping up. |
| Zachary DeLadurantaye | Spencer Cole | Zak, my friend. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve witnessed you lifting other judges up to help them realize their potential. If all judges cared half as much as you do about the judge program, we would have the strength to take over small nations. I hope to one day be on your level, and I hope you never change. |
| Zachary DeLadurantaye | Joseph Steet | Zachary, at Eternal Weekend you and I had an awkward moment where we were tripping each other up in asking a player to play faster, and our differing approaches. You wanted to talk with me about our differences on this, but were not defensive, you very politely just wanted to get a better understanding of how I proceed and what my motivations are so that you could possibly change your stance and approach (or mine!). You even went so far as to make sure we could talk about it later when the needs of the event did not afford us the time to discuss it in the moment. Extremely gracious interaction and excellent efforts towards development of yourself and/or others! |
| Zachary DeLadurantaye | Heidi Sitten | Zach, on Sunday at GP Louisville I was not feeling well and had dealt with some angry people and emotionally draining situations. We were discussion some regional business while walking the floor when a seriously salty pair players called for a judge. I took the call and you could see how much difficulty I was having and how heavily their anger was affecting me. You stepped in and handled the call in a very diplomatic manner, serving the players better than I could have that day. Thank you for helping me when I needed it. The way you took the players aside for individual talks and got them to act like adults again was pretty awesome as well! |
| Zachary DeLadurantaye | Michael Mapson | Working with you at eternal weekend was a delight. I generally am very bad about getting to know my fellow judges but whenever we were near each other and not this you kept me engaged in fun and often thought provoking conversation. Even going so far as to add me on Facebook so we could keep talking about something I was obviously passionate about. I’m not sure when well work together but I look forward to it. |
