{"id":7744,"date":"2017-11-22T13:00:28","date_gmt":"2017-11-22T19:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/?p=7744"},"modified":"2017-11-28T19:03:49","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T01:03:49","slug":"imogen-tilley-and-david-lyford-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/imogen-tilley-and-david-lyford-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"Imogen Tilley and David Lyford-Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello dear readers! This week we feature a Magic couple! Meet Imogen Tilley and David Lyford-Smith!<\/p>\n

\"ImogenName: <\/strong>Imogen\u00a0Tilley<\/a><\/span><\/span>
\nLevel:<\/strong> 2
\nLocation:<\/strong>\u00a0Reading, England (Formally Lancaster and Nottingham)
\nJudge start date and level up date:<\/strong> Started Judging early 2013 made L2 30.1.16
\nWhy did you become a Judge?<\/strong> My FNM was in a cafe after the local game store closed and none of the staff really knew anything about Magic or how to run WER. After just under a year of playing there I decided I could make it better, so I learnt to use WER and started doing the\u00a0sanctioning for the cafe and answering questions. I was acting as a judge for quite a while before I finally got up the courage to take a test.
\nOccupation:<\/strong> Homemaker (washing DL-S\u2019s socks)
\nFavourite card:<\/strong>\u00a0Knight of the Reliquary<\/a>
\nLeast favourite card:<\/strong>\u00a0Archon of the Triumvirate<\/a>
\nFavourite format:<\/strong> Draft
\nCommander General: <\/strong>Current favourite is Omnath, Locus of Mana<\/a>
\nFavourite non-Magic Game:<\/strong> Viticulture<\/a> and other worker placement games.
\nBest tournament result: <\/strong>Top 64 GP Liverpool 2015
\nRandom fact about yourself:<\/strong> I don\u2019t drink fizzy drinks because I don\u2019t like the feeling of bubbles in my mouth.<\/p>\n

\"DavidName:<\/b>\u00a0 David Lyford-Smith <\/a><\/span><\/span>, although almost everybody calls me DL-S
\n<\/span>Level:<\/b> 3
\n<\/span>Location:<\/b> Reading, UK
\n<\/span>Judge Start Date:<\/b> November 2007
\n<\/span>Why did you become a Judge?<\/b> I wanted to give back to the community.
\n<\/span>Occupation:<\/b> Accountant that writes about technology for accountants
\n<\/span>Favourite card:<\/b>\u00a0Hex<\/a> – I wrote a <\/span>whole article<\/span><\/a> about it!
\n<\/span>Least favorite card:<\/b> Today I will say Soul of Theros<\/a>. It only creates misery.
\n<\/span>Commander General:<\/b> Most recently: Alesha, Who Smiles at Death<\/a>. \u00a0Next up: Vona, Butcher of Magan<\/a>
\n<\/span>Favourite non-Magic Game:<\/b> Video game: Bravely Default<\/a>. \u00a0Board\/card game: Nano-fictionary<\/a>.
\n<\/span>Best tournament result:<\/b> I won a Super Sunday Series Qualifier and played in the SSS at Wizards.
\n<\/span>Random fact about yourself:<\/b> I love making modular origami.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Imogen
Imogen, Richard Wheatley and a hedron!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tell us your favourite Judge story:
\n(Imogen)<\/strong> My\u00a0favourite judge story is actually the story of a player. Four-ish years ago I was running FNMs up in Lancaster and one day while I was scrabbling under the counter at the\u00a0Juicafe\u00a0looking for that weeks FNM promos and heard a voice from the other side of the counter saying that they\u2019d come to see what FNM was like but weren\u2019t sure if they were going to be able to play. I said, without getting up, \u201cof course you can play if you want to just watch and play some casual games this week that\u2019s fine and then we\u2019ll get you set up with a DCI number next week and get you playing\u201d. The response was\u00a0\u201cAre you sure? I\u2019m blind\u201d to which I popped up from behind the counter and just said\u00a0\u201cCool, and\u00a0yeah, I\u2019m sure.\u201d That was how I met Richard Wheatley and the start of a journey that went from learning how braille sleeves worked and how they fit into FNM to arriving 4 hours before a pre-release to be Richard\u2019s eyes while he individually brailled 40 sleeves and joking about draft being a bit beyond us to watching him draft on day 2 at GP London (after being told on day 1 that he wouldn\u2019t be able to) and again at English Nationals just the other week alongside every other pod without a\u00a0separate caller. Richard\u2019s a great\u00a0friend and his story just goes to show why Magic is for everyone.
\n(David)\u00a0Many years ago, at a tournament I was head judging, a player was playing near the end of the round and it looked to be going to a draw. \u00a0There was a floor judge watching and the player turned to him and said \u201cJudge, can you please leave the table?\u201d \u00a0The judge obviously refused. \u00a0The player was adamant that he was allowed to ask the judge to leave, and he actually appealed. \u00a0The floor judge smartly managed to get my attention <\/span>without<\/span><\/i> leaving and I came over and explained in no uncertain terms why we were not going to leave him alone to talk to his opponent.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"DavidHow did you get involved in Magic in the first place?
\n(Imogen)\u00a0<\/strong>One of my housemates at Uni bought a deck builder\u2019s toolkit and built 5\u00a0mono coloured decks using all the cards in the box. I was happy to play with him but quickly got banned from playing the black deck (because I kept winning with it) and then the white deck and so on until I\u00a0bought my own cards (the GW M12 intro deck). From there I quickly found out about FNM from the university\u2019s board game society and went to my first FNM on my 19th birthday. I lost horribly but enjoyed every minute.
\n(David)\u00a0I was taught at school by a good friend named Ezra, back in 2000. \u00a0I had no idea what I was getting myself in to \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

How has being a Judge influenced your non-Magic life?
\n(Imogen)\u00a0<\/strong>Well it\u2019s pretty much eaten it. The only non-Magic related thing left in my life is pretty much my parents; everything else is related to Magic in some way or another. My relationship, my income, my house, my social life they\u2019ve all got something to do with Magic.
\n(David)\u00a0<\/strong>Massively. \u00a0Judging taught me skills like self-organisation, presentation, public speaking, and leadership, that have been hugely influential in my career path. \u00a0I would not have made the career I have without those lessons and opportunities.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ImogenImogen, you were nominated for your work during wave #6 of the Exemplar Program. Would you care to explain to the community the work you did during this wave so we can follow your footsteps?
\n(Imogen)\u00a0<\/strong>Wave 6 was about a year and a half ago now but I\u00a0remember it well. It was (unbeknownst at the time) the last season of WMCQs and I was on staff for all 3 in England. Each had over 150 players and each presented their own challenges ranging from the logistics of using 3\u00a0floors of a venue to having a WER issue that meant the whole tournament had to be rebuilt half-way through round 3. But the big thing that they all shared, and the thing a lot of my nominations\u00a0that wave recognised, was a high number of L1 judges at their first large Comp REL event. Mentoring has always been something that\u2019s meant a lot to me, as I had such great mentors up in the North West of\u00a0England when I was starting out as a judge and WMCQs were a great place to share knowledge and help judges transition into learning about wider tournament logistics. My biggest recommendation to others is to never stop communicating; every time you see something that could be improved talk about it. It doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s to a brand new judge or someone who\u2019s been in the programme ten years longer than you, everyone has room to improve or change with the times and it\u2019s only be keeping those communication channels open that we all improve together.<\/p>\n

David, you were recently recognized for your outstanding performance as Regional Coordinator as well as your role in transitioning the leadership of your region. What are your biggest insights regarding being a program leader as well as helping others be successful leaders?
\n<\/b>(David)<\/strong>Being the Regional Coordinator was a big challenge, but also a huge honor. Having now retired from it, it\u2019s been interesting looking back on what I accomplished in my time at the top. I guess the number one thing I learned is just how much influence you can have over people\u2019s motivation and mood by how you act as an RC or other authority figure. People look to you to get a read on the tone of the program and to judge how they should be feeling. So putting out those positive vibes and looking to inspire others can pay real dividend. Helping others learn leadership is way too complex of a topic for an answer like this one, but I\u2019d start by saying: empower people and trust them and learn how to guide from the back seat without taking over. Being a supportive part of a team but not taking over is a very fine balance and takes practice – it\u2019s hard not to try and fix things and take over if you\u2019re supporting someone less experienced than you. But allowing them the room to make their own decisions and , yes, their own mistakes, will pay dividends in the longer run.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"DavidWhat is one tip you have for other Judges?
\n(Imogen)\u00a0<\/strong>Enjoy Magic more, play, chat, engage not only with other judges but with players as well. Remember that we\u2019re all here for the love of the game and we\u2019re all the same.
\n(David)\u00a0<\/strong>Listen. \u00a0This goes for a lot of things: Listen to your colleagues\u2019 opinions and ideas. \u00a0Listen to both players\u2019 sides of the story. \u00a0Listen to the sound of your tournament to see if you can hear something going wrong. \u00a0Listen to complaints and don\u2019t dismiss them out of hand. \u00a0The more time you spend listening, the better a judge you will be.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the best part about your local Magic community?
\n(Imogen)\u00a0<\/strong>I\u00a0still consider myself part of the 3 Magic communities I\u2019ve been part of in the last 5 years and I love them all for different reasons: Lancaster for its resilience, Beeston, Nottingham for its love of the casual community and Reading for its insatiable desire to draft and the optimism and nonsense of team 2\/2 Fast 2\/2 Furious.
\n(David)\u00a0We have a local player named Kelly who often makes amazing Magic-themed cakes for our prereleases – models of Elesh Norn, the Helvault, guild flags, the lot<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

What is your favourite non-Magic hobby?
\n(Imogen)\u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s an ongoing battle between Lego and Board Games both for my love and for shelf space.
\n(David)\u00a0Watching anime and reading manga. \u00a0I love the variety and depth that\u2019s available.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"DavidWhat is your favourite non-judging moment that happened with other Judges?
\n(Imogen)\u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s a tie between\u00a0escape room team\u00a0\u201cteam shoodie\u201d\u2019s success after GP Birmingham and that time I almost kissed Jason Howlett.
\n(David)\u00a0After Worlds one year, Tobias Fjellander, Andreas Jepsen and I were sharing a pizza. \u00a0Now this pizza place delivered the pizza uncut and without any cutlery, and it was pretty messy work – but I\u2019m already a messy eater. \u00a0We were all tired and a bit silly, and the other two guys starting laughing at me, and the more I laughed with them, the worse it got. \u00a0By the end of it I could barely breathe from laughing and had tomato sauce all down myself, on my face, on my glasses, everywhere. \u00a0I still laugh thinking about it now all these years later.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

If you could chat with one person, real or fictional, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
\n(Imogen)\u00a0<\/strong>My grandad, definitely. He passed away unexpectedly just before I left school and my life has changed so completely since he died\u00a0that I want to tell him all about it. He\u2019d always been interested in games and new technology and so I\u2019d love telling him all about Magic and tablets and smart phones.
\n(David)\u00a0Probably my paternal grandmother. \u00a0From all accounts she was (a reference for Discworld readers) a real Nanny Ogg type, a force of nature and an all-around kickass lady. \u00a0She wasn\u2019t well when I was young and died when I was still very little, so I would have loved to have known her in her prime.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

What would you be doing now if Magic no longer existed?
\n(Imogen)\u00a0<\/strong>No idea, literally none. Crying probably.
\n(David)\u00a0I can\u2019t even imagine this. \u00a0Magic gave me my mental health, my skills, my friends, my partner, my job, and really my whole life. \u00a0I can\u2019t picture I would be without it.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Proudest moment of your Judge life?
\n(Imogen)\u00a0<\/strong>Being Judge Manager at English Nationals. It was an incredible\u00a0weekend. I was\u00a0hugely happy with the staff I put together, the floor plan I designed for an iconic (round!) venue and being part of Richard Wheatley\u2019s draft. It nicely combined all the things I think I\u2019ve done best in judging over the years.
\n\"David(David)\u00a0<\/strong>Certainly making Level 3. \u00a0I failed on my first attempt and overall had to fight an uphill battle to get there, and it was a massive turnaround in my personal skills to be able to conquer the panel on the second attempt.<\/span>I am also very proud of the work I did on the Judge Code of Conduct, and although they were both flawed in the end, I think a lot of good came out of the Magic Judge Hall of Fame and Player Experience Sphere as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

What character in Magic (real or fictional) represents you the best, and why?
\n(Imogen)\u00a0<\/strong>If Venser made judges and tournaments rather than\u00a0artifacts.
\n(David)\u00a0I feel like Karn: Someone who tries to be a good person, but sometimes has struggles, and someone whose best parts are made from pieces of many of their experiences and friends.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

David, tell us your favourite Judge story that happened to both of you together.
\n<\/b>(David)<\/strong>We got to organise and run English Nationals together this year for Axion Now, with me as the Head Judge and Imogen as the Judge manager. I felt a bit nervous putting forward Imogen as judge manager as it could be seen as favouritism, but she did an incredible job with it and I think showed everyone why I rated her abilities so highly. This was a big deal for me as well as I\u2019d missed out on a chance to be Nationals HJ back when they were first around. We spent weeks together on the logistics and schedule and the event went off amazingly well, which was hugely satisfying. Turns out we make a great team!<\/span><\/p>\n

Imogen, what is your favourite non-judging moment that happened with David?
\n<\/b>(Imogen)<\/b> It has to be when David asked me if I wanted to come with him on his trip to Seattle for the Super Sunday Series final. Not only did we get to go on a brilliant holiday together but we got to visit WotC Headquarters together in Renton and hang out with the lovely Sara Mox, our awesome Judge Manager. I sadly got sick while we were out there and didn\u2019t get to watch all of David\u2019s matches in the SSS but cheered him on from our hotel room while watching the Twitch coverage.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ImogenWhat is the best part about your local Magic Community?<\/b>
\n<\/b>(Imogen)\u00a0<\/b>For David, I think it has to be that he gets to play with the same people he drafted with growing up. We live just\u00a0down the road from his school and some of the people we draft with every week were some of the people who David learnt to play Magic with.<\/span>
\n<\/span>(David) <\/b>And for Imogen, I think it would be that she\u2019s the best drafter in the area.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is there anything else you’d like to add?<\/strong>
\n(David)<\/strong>I can\u2019t leave without mentioning <\/span>The Magic Bracket<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0It\u2019s a crazy idea I had back in early 2016, when I noticed that the number of Magic cards was close to crossing a power of two and hence would be perfectly set up for a single-elimination contest. \u00a0The Magic Bracket is a two-year-long, fourteen-round single-elimination contest of public vote to determine the greatest Magic card ever. \u00a0It\u2019s about one year in (halfway done!) and has been a lot more time-consuming, popular, and fun than I ever expected \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/p>\n

Two Truths and a Lie<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Imogen)\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I have a lifetime sanctioned draft win percentage of over 75%<\/li>\n
  2. I\u2019ve had a player curse and shout at me for a solid minute for being a woman at their previously all male play group when I wouldn\u2019t give up my seat for them<\/li>\n
  3. I hate having to DQ players, it makes me feel sick to my stomach<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    (David)<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. I was an extra in an episode of long-running detective show <\/span>Midsomer Murders<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n
    2. I used to be a gold certificate trampolinist<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. I have modeled for a wedding cake topper
      \n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      [expand title=”The answer to the last Two Truths and a Lie…”]Josh McCurley has not had poetry published.[\/expand]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Have we gone insane? This week we feature not one, but two judges! Imogen and David are a couple from England and they have a lot to tell us!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":349,"featured_media":7758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"language":[],"class_list":["post-7744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judge-of-the-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/349"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7744"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7938,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7744\/revisions\/7938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7744"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/jotw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=7744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}