About the Judge Booth

Welcome to the Judge Booth Blog.

Many of you have heard of or even participated in a judge booth at a GP or other tournament worldwide. If not, let me introduce the concept of the judge booth. It’s a place where players can meet us, the Magic Judges. Our goals are public relations: showing that judges are more than the guy who answers your rules questions and wants to get your result entry slip. Education: We can educate players on the rules and policy chances and answer questions they might have about Organized Play and our Magic Judge Program.
Last but definitely not least: We want to grow our community. If you are a player who wants to become a judge at this event or is interested in becoming a judge, we can introduce you to the judge program with the help of a certification team at a GP. You might even become a judge the same day.

Interested in running a booth? Great, then head over to the booth! You can find detailed instructions on how to use it here. For setting up a booth at your next event, all you need is a laptop or tablet, a table and some time. If you have some spare foils or cards laying around, consider handing them out as prices for correct answers to motivate players to participate in the quiz.

Would you like to submit some questions for the booth? Sure, just do so here:
Spreadsheet for Questions

There is a sample questions on the first line; please do not delete it. Please follow the “You” and “Your opponent” wording on it. Doing so makes it easier to use the question at the booth 🙂

When submitting a new question, please have in mind the following guidelines:

  1. Questions should use simple cards when possible; Standard-legal cards would be good.
  2. Questions should both test and educate.
  3. Questions should involve core rules. (Basics about layers, targeting, casting spells, combat, and turn structure)
  4. Questions should not contain more than 4 cards. Keep the questions simple and not too hard to understand what is going on.
  5. Questions should not be yes/no questions. We don’t want players to be able to guess the answer.

Last but not least, if you have any pics from a judge booth you participated, feel free to share it with me. I am looking for a nice picture for this blog 🙂

Happy booth judging! 🙂
Jean-François DURMONT
Judge Booth Manager