![\"Chase](\"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/files\/2016\/08\/Chase-Judge-Pic.jpg\")
Name:<\/strong>\u00a0Chase Culpon<\/a>\n<\/span>Level:<\/strong> 2
\n<\/span>Location:<\/strong> New York City
\n<\/span>Judge start date:<\/strong> August 2014
\n<\/span>Why did you become a Judge?<\/strong> It was a way to participate in MTG more widely on a competitive level.
\n<\/span>Occupation:<\/strong> Audio Engineer
\n<\/span>Favourite card:<\/strong>\u00a0Deathrite Shaman<\/a>
\n<\/span>Least favourite card:<\/strong>\u00a0Chalice of the Void<\/a>
\n<\/span>Favourite format:<\/strong> Legacy
\n<\/span>Commander General:<\/strong>\u00a0Gaddock Teeg<\/a>
\n<\/span>Favourite non-Magic Game:<\/strong> Battlestar Galactica<\/a> board game, Bastion<\/a> for video games.
\n<\/span>Best tournament result:<\/strong> 5th (missing the top 4 cut) for a sealed Super Sunday Series for full RtR block.
\n<\/span>Random fact about yourself:\u00a0<\/strong>Judge dinner is my favorite part of any event.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/b>How did you get involved in Magic in the first place? What are some of the projects you have been involved in? –Area Rep for New York City & Long Island<\/span>.\u00a0I share the role of area rep for New York City & Long Island with Sam Nathanson<\/a> –Manage the PPTQ tracking spreadsheet for the Northeast<\/span>.\u00a0The PPTQ tracking spreadsheet in for the Northeast has a listing of every event with the date, format, location, and the reported head judge (https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheets\/d\/1g2FfwbYMbhQnwWwocBG7quSc1iBB2I-AUQknMChF4ps\/edit?usp=sharing<\/span><\/a>). The main goal of the spreadsheet is to make sure events can fire and highlight opportunities for L2s throughout the region to judge at stores they may not have a relationship with yet. We make this happen by pulling the full list of sanctioned events from Wizard\u2019s website, and have L2s \u2018claim\u2019 events they\u2019re HJing through a simple Google form. Big thanks to Joe Hughto<\/a> –Worked on the GP NYC travel guide & created a companion FB group<\/a> for travel ideas<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>The GP NYC travel guide is hopefully exactly what you\u2019d expect out of a GP travel guide. It was much more of a challenge than I had anticipated when I first volunteered to help out, and I hope it was useful for everyone attending the event.\u00a0<\/span>I did have some twists that I experimented with. The main one was building a Facebook group centered around travel & activities surrounding the GP. I invited our local judges to join and be a resource there, and make that a friendly place for judges to ask questions, make plans, and make the best of their stay in the area (all without any grumblings about emails to the staff!). I like the concept better than the execution in this case–after an initial flurry, it\u2019s a challenge to keep this kind of group active and engaged.\u00a0<\/span>The other small thing was taking a bunch of photos on the setup day, and sharing venue logistics as well–where the judge room is, the main\/side events stage, restrooms, etc. I\u2019m always anxious about exactly where I need to be going into a GP scale event, so hopefully what would make the event easier for me will help others as well.<\/span><\/p>\n –Developed & present a conference presentation on smaller competitive event logistics<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>My main conference presentation is \u201cAnatomy of a Perfect Round\u201d which is all about small and mid-size event logistics. Through the presentation, I outline all the little nuts and bolts that go into making a round happen, exactly when they ideally happen, and share some tips & tricks on how to handle things with limited resources.\u00a0<\/span>I\u2019ve also lead a discussion on PPTQs<\/a> at the last Judge Conference which is available online. It was a frank discussion about some of the opportunities and challenges in our area and ended up being geared mainly around head judging concerns, based on the attendance in the room.<\/span><\/p>\n –Launched a FB group for judges interested in improving health & fitness<\/span>.\u00a0Launching a local judge fitness group was one of more ambitious experiments. I\u2019ve heard the Judge Program referred to as a \u2018cult of self-improvement,\u2019 so I decided to put that to the test! After a health scare last year, it became a big priority to make some major lifestyle changes. I knew I wasn\u2019t alone in this, so I asked around, and collaboratively made an outline of what things would look like, and established the group. The good news is I\u2019ve lost a substantial amount of weight and mostly addressed my health concerns. But, the group has faced the same challenges that the GP NYC travel group has–it is difficult to keep things active and engaging long-term.<\/span><\/p>\n What motivates you to continue being a Judge? What is one tip you have for other Judges? What is your favourite non-judging moment that happened with other Judges? 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?<\/strong> What was the toughest Magic event that you\u2019ve judged, and how did you deal with it? What would you be doing now if Magic no longer existed? How do you have fun during events? If you were a Planeswalker, what would be your ultimate?
\n<\/strong>I played back from Ice Age through 6th edition super, super casually as a kid. I rage quit after the 6th edition rules changes (WTF is the \u2018stack\u2019?!?) which in hindsight, was a really stupid reason to stop. I\u2019d occasionally pick up a pre-constructed deck, but got back into the game during Innistrad block.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I spend more time working on judge projects than I do at events. One of the secrets for anyone looking for a judge project is to just make things happen and keep at it until something sticks. Some of what I\u2019ve been up to:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span><\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>My main responsibility as area rep is to know what\u2019s going on locally and be a point of contact for our RC. We\u2019re also encouraged to go beyond that as it\u2019s appropriate for our area. My main focus has been trying to be a catalyst for a good judge community locally. That\u2019s done mostly through an active Facebook group and roughly quarterly judge meetups\/mini-conferences. I\u2019m a big fan of getting together outside the context of events & conferences to really get to know people.<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span><\/span> and Dan Collins<\/a>
<\/span><\/span> for really building the backbone of this system. My job is to remind L2s to fill out the form, verify all of the events against those reports & populate the main spreadsheet, and provide regular reports to all of the area reps about upcoming events that may not have head judges so they can act appropriately. There\u2019s some nice side effects of having this kind of listing; the most obvious is local judges can see all of the PPTQs in their area, and have a point of contact if they\u2019re interested in helping out at the event.<\/span>\u00a0My main responsibility as area rep is to know what\u2019s going on locally, and be a point of contact for our RC, but we\u2019re also encouraged to go beyond that as it\u2019s appropriate for our area. My main focus has been trying to be a catalyst for a good judge community locally. That\u2019s done mostly through an active facebook group for our area, and roughly quarterly judge meetups\/mini-conferences. I\u2019m a big fan of getting together outside the context of events & conferences to really get to know people.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>People & projects. Work and other hobbies (mainly cycling at this point) have made attending lots of events a challenge, but having friends at events and things I can work on as I have time keeps me going.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Networking is the one skill that\u2019s not in anyone\u2019s judge class that\u2019s absolutely required to succeed in the Judge Program (and a secret–I\u2019m bad at it, and most people are!). Clearly, getting to know TOs is a big way to get booked for events. But it\u2019s also important to get to know the judges you hope to work with and remember we\u2019re on the same team. Supporting, vouching, and helping others succeed is super important, as they\u2019ll do the same for you in turn.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Chase2\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/files\/2016\/08\/Chase2-225x300.jpg\")
What\u2019s the best part about your local Magic community?
\n<\/strong>The judges in New York City & Long Island are universally exceptional. The TOs, especially in NYC, are fiercely independent, and prefer to handle events themselves. Being the person to call when our experienced TOs need backup is a big accomplishment in itself, and the knowledge and professionalism of judges of all levels reflects that. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>My favorite non-judging moment was the first NYC judge gathering I hosted. It was simple–I just invited everyone to my Super Bowl party. While the game was a great excuse to hang out & have a bunch of great chow, we spent more time playing various board games than actually watching. It\u2019s great getting to know people outside of events, when the tournament doesn\u2019t need to come first. I\u2019ve yet to see someone upset that a game of Codenames was run sub-optimally. Low stakes = low barriers.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I\u2019ll leave it up to you if this is truly \u2018rule breaking.\u2019 In a competitive sealed event, a player set his bomb (which I had no answer to) aside when blocking, since they didn\u2019t want to lose it to a combat trick. They then promptly forgot it existed. I took full advantage, and clawed my way to a win in a still tight race. It was pretty awkward to point out the card sitting on the side of their playmat when shuffling up for the next game, and having to shrug when they asked if that was on the battlefield the whole time. This was all long before I was a judge, for what it’s worth.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/span>I really enjoy judging on the SCG Tour <\/a>whenever I have the chance. They\u2019re the perfect sized event for me–big enough that teams and dedicated systems are needed, but not so big that people get disconnected just due to\u00a0the scale of work that needs done.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Grand Prix Vegas. I wasn\u2019t planning on attending if I wasn\u2019t activated, and wasn\u2019t activated until the week of the event. Since everything was more expensive for last-minute travel, I took a red-eye flight to arrive late on Friday night, and another red-eye back on Sunday night, to save money on expensive hotels. Combined with dealing with some difficult situations on Saturday, the event was physically & mentally draining. Since that experience, I\u2019ve stopped considering standby positions, and scaled back how far I\u2019m willing to travel on a tight schedule.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I\u2019d like to think I\u2019d be cycling a lot more, and I\u2019d likely still be Twitch streaming regularly.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Home](\"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/files\/2016\/08\/Home-Work-3-300x300.jpg\")
What is the strangest card interaction you have seen in a tournament?
\n<\/strong>I\u2019ve taken the dreaded Chains of Mephistopheles<\/a> + Sylvan Library<\/a> call when both players cooperated in making things go horribly, horribly wrong. Second-best was sorting out a disagreement in life totals involving a Seeker of the Way<\/a>, with a player missing the prowess trigger, but not the lifelink.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>High-fives are a personal favorite, and stashing some healthy snacks definitely helps keep me (and hopefully others) going. But really, I end up going way too deep optimizing whatever task I\u2019m on. I have way too much fun cutting match slips & using a stopwatch to find the ideal setup for each cutter\/event size.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I\u2019ll take Tamiyo, the Moon Sage<\/a>\u2019s ultimate. Once I\u2019ve got something down, I\u2019m all about value & am happy to keep rocking over & over again.<\/span><\/p>\n