![\"\"](\"http:\/\/apps.magicjudges.org\/media\/avatars\/evianc1\/resized\/300\/evan.jpg\")
<\/span>\n<\/span>Level:<\/strong>\u00a0L3<\/span>
\n<\/span>Location:<\/strong> Houston, TX\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span>Judge Timeline<\/strong>: Started in 2009, L1 10\/30\/2010, L2 9\/23\/2012, L3 4\/6\/2014<\/span>
\n<\/span>Occupation:<\/strong> 3<\/span>rd<\/span> year medical student.<\/span>
\n<\/span>Favourite card:<\/strong> Phyrexian Obliterator<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/span>Least favourite card:<\/strong>\u00a0Knowledge Pool<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/span>Favourite format:<\/strong> Commander<\/span>
\n<\/span>Commander General:<\/strong> Savra, Queen of the Golgari<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/span>Favourite non-Magic Game:<\/strong> Beeriokart<\/span>
\n<\/span>Best tournament result:<\/strong> 10<\/span>th<\/span> place in a 20-something person GPT<\/span>
\n<\/span>Random fact about yourself:<\/strong> I\u2019m allergic to Pepsi. Hives and rash.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\nWhy did you become a Judge?
\n<\/strong>To help my local players and stores with rules and running events.<\/p>\n
Tell us your favourite Judge story. What motivates you to continue being a Judge? What is one tip you have for other Judges? What\u2019s the best part about your local Magic community? What is your favourite non-Magic hobby? What\u2019s the biggest rule-breaking play you\u2019ve ever made as a player? What has been your favourite Magic event that you\u2019ve Judged? What positive aspects has the Judge Program contributed to your everyday life? If you could chat with one person, real or fictional, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
\n<\/strong>At dinner after GP Dallas-Fort Worth in December 2013, we went out to dinner with staff. A Judge was telling a story about how his friend missed the cutoff by some percentage due to some reason, and I tuned him out because it\u2019d been a long day and I wasn\u2019t interested in another bad beats story (rude, I\u2019m sorry!). When I saw that he had stopped talking and was looking at me, I replied with \u201cBad beats bro.\u201d Everyone at the table was shocked and staring at me. It turns out that while ignoring him, I had reached to drink his water and he had been repeating \u201cthat\u2019s my water\u201d multiple times while I just drank it. People still call me \u201cbad beats bro.\u201d
\n<\/span>
\n![\"Evan](\"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/files\/2016\/03\/Evan-PAX-South-2-169x300.jpg\")
<\/span>How did you get involved in Magic in the first place?
\n<\/strong>My brother is 5 years older and brought it home from school. Of course he had the deck with the good cards and gave his little brother the crappy deck. The only way I stood any chance was to occasionally outplay him, and I learned to be pretty good at Magic<\/strong>. From there I played it on and off at school and while camping with Boy Scouts.
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\n<\/span>How has being a Judge influenced your non-Magic life?
\n<\/strong>First and foremost, Magic<\/strong> has really helped me meet great people and travel to cool places. I think it helped me develop the ability to deliver and receive criticism in formally writing reviews and face-to-face feedback. That\u2019s an essential life skill especially as I go through many interviews with school. Also, I think it really helped build diplomacy skills in areas where I\u2019m either: (A) absolutely right but have to teach someone without getting frustrated \u2013or- (B) absolutely wrong and have to learn from someone without getting frustrated. <\/span>
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\n<\/span>To improve your region, you taken on many roles including filing in for your RC at GP San Antonio. What did you do? What was it like? How much time did you have to prepare for the role?
\n<\/strong>While I was in College Station, I was able to travel to most of the major cities in Texas and work with judges from all over the state. Because my schedule was flexible in school, I was able to attend the major events (SCGs, GPs) and meet judges from all over my region. In short, I was able to get to know most of the judges in my region. Standing in as RC at GP San Antonio was really just a matter of making time to see everyone that came, make notes of their progress, ask how we could help them, and relay their goals to our RC. It was a lot of fun to wear the \u201cBlue RC tie\u201d and work on building community. It gave me a lot of experience testing L2 candidates and giving detailed feedback during the debrief. I had weeks to ask Kevin Binswanger<\/a><\/span><\/span> questions and meet expectations for the role.
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\n<\/span>You\u2019ve also received a lot of recognition for the Judge Article project. Could you tell us more about the project and your contributions?
\n<\/strong>The Judge Articles project is a source of high-quality Judge information with the specific purpose of educating Judges about any Judge-related topic. We only expect that the authors choose material they are passionate about and provide sufficient detail to make the material educational to the general judge audience. We\u2019ve hosted some tongue-in-cheek humorous pieces, some detailed primers, and I\u2019m really proud of the L3 Qualities series which continues to be a great source of information for L3-oriented Judges.<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>I was recruited to the Judge Articles project by Lems<\/a><\/span><\/span> after I\u2019d helped him move an older project onto judge blogs using WordPress. I was working with Stefan Ladstatter<\/a>
<\/span><\/span> and David DLI<\/a>
<\/span><\/span> in formatting and publishing articles. They gave me a lot of free reign to choose how to format it effectively and choose the little cardimg tags to give the articles more personality with the game. Eventually Stefan decided to shift his attention elsewhere, and I was honored to be designated as the Project Lead. I was able to recruit a distinguished team of reviewers and thanks to lots of volunteer effort, the project has grown in scope and volume over the years. I serve as \u201cEditor-in-chief\u201d, communicating with the authors, passing along submissions to the review team, formatting the article, and publishing when the submission is ready.
\n<\/span>
\n![\"Evan](\"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/files\/2016\/03\/Evan-GP-Denver-1-169x300.jpg\")
<\/span>Judging from your recognitions you spend a lot time contributing to the program. Do you have suggestions to other Judges on how to balance the hobby with other life priorities?
\n<\/strong>Don\u2019t sleep. Seriously though, focus on things that are important to you and manage your priorities. There will be times when real life has to be more important than Judging, and times when Judging will help enrich your life in other areas. Be passionate about what you do, and don\u2019t focus too hard on one or the other.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I like to help others by developing other Judges, helping stores increase attendance, and getting to know more players.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Praise in public, criticize in private.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>My LGS is very casual and everyone tries to have a good time.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I really enjoy making music. I play violin, guitar, and piano, and it\u2019s very therapeutic when my stress levels are high.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Oh God. I think it was casting Black Sun\u2019s Zenith<\/a> to again trigger Undying with a Geralf\u2019s Messenger<\/a> with a +1\/+1 counter at my local Game Day back in Scars\/Innistrad standard. I wasn\u2019t great with SBA\u2019s back then. I\u2019m pretty rusty when I play Magic, so I tend to break rules or forget triggers when I\u2019m playing because I\u2019m watching people around me.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Pro Tour Honolulu 2014 was my first and only PT so far. It\u2019s an entire experience and the Judge staff was phenomenal of course. Being around that many quality Judges and players made the event really smooth. I was chosen to lead coverage on Day 2 and it was an amazing opportunity to handle the technology and work with Wizards staff.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I\u2019m more confident knowing that I\u2019ve helped others and have shown and received a lot of appreciation over the years.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>That\u2019s a hard question. I think Abraham Lincoln would be a great source for understanding how to be silently strong. He was under a great deal of political and family pressure with great repercussions to his decisions, so I\u2019m fascinated by how he was able to manage everything. Also, I think there\u2019s a great line I\u2019d want to use: \u201cOther than that, how was the play?\u201d
\n<\/span>
\n![\"Evan](\"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/files\/2016\/03\/Evan-HJs-Largest-TX-SCG-Open-300x169.jpg\")
<\/span>What would you be doing now if Magic no longer existed?
\n<\/strong><\/span>I\u2019d be doing what I\u2019m currently doing: studying to become an oncologist.<\/span><\/p>\n