{"id":22,"date":"2026-08-11T15:11:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T15:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/lakeeffectleaders\/?p=22"},"modified":"2026-08-11T15:11:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T15:11:57","slug":"lake-effect-leaders-1-liam-shannon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/lakeeffectleaders\/2026\/08\/11\/lake-effect-leaders-1-liam-shannon\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake Effect Leaders #1: Liam Shannon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hello, Great Lakes Judges, and welcome to the inaugural Great Lakes Judge Spotlight! This article series will highlight multiple judges throughout the Great Lakes Region who are pillars in their communities, long-time Magic judges, large event masters, devoted to their craft, or just wonderful humans to be around. Every month, I will have a new article featuring an amazing judge\/human in our region. Without further-ado, let me introduce you to this month’s Great Lakes Judge Spotlight, Liam Shannon! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Name:<\/strong> Liam Shannon<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Judge Level:<\/strong> Judge Foundry Level 2
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Geographical Location:<\/strong> Chicago, Illinois<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge Start Date:<\/strong> October of 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Occupation:<\/strong> Event Manager, Tournament Organizer for NRGEvents, Theatre Artist, Server, and Chicago’s local Barbie<\/p>\n\n\n

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Favorite MTG Card:<\/strong> Lightning Bolt<\/p>\n\n\n

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Least Favorite MTG Card:<\/strong> Crackling Drake (Great design but the Drake has terrible vibes)<\/p>\n\n\n

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Favorite MTG Format<\/strong>: Cube<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Favorite Book\/Audiobook:<\/strong> All the Lights On <\/em>by Michelle Hensley<\/p>\n\n\n

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Favorite Song, currently:<\/strong> Out of Control by She Wants Revenge<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Judge Story:<\/strong> Upon returning to our team lead, Brook Gardner-Durbin<\/a>, after break Jenn<\/a> said to him as we approached “Brook your diversity hires are back”. This broke him. His face displayed his inner conflict; “Do I laugh, can I laugh” fighting for its life against “That’s the funniest shit I’ve ever heard”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most Influential Mentor:<\/strong> Mark Mason<\/a>. They have taught me so many things that I needed to know but are hard to obtain. Skills like diplomacy, marketing\/advertising, and to always have a question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Favorite Non-Magic Hobby:<\/strong> Dancing at the goth club<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advice for Other Judges:<\/strong> Rules and Policy knowledge is one of the least important qualities of a great judge. Put practice and attention into customer service, logistics, community engagement, mentorship, and personal brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why do you Judge:<\/strong> Because I like Magic, I love the judge community, and it pays me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two Truths and a Lie:<\/strong>

I once ate a snail, shell and all, off the sidewalk.

I’ve saved a woman’s life.

I memorized the rules text for banding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Join me next time as we find out what Liam’s two truths and one lie are. Moreover, I will be highlighting another stellar judge in the Great Lakes Region! Thank you, Liam, for your time and dedication to our Great Lakes community, and in the meantime, readers, take a look below to see Liam absolutely SLAYING! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hello, Great Lakes Judges, and welcome to the inaugural Great Lakes Judge Spotlight! This article series will highlight multiple judges throughout the Great Lakes Region who are pillars in their communities, long-time Magic judges, large event masters, devoted to their craft, or just wonderful humans to be around. Every month, I will have a new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":491,"featured_media":31,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"language":[],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/lakeeffectleaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/lakeeffectleaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/lakeeffectleaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/lakeeffectleaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/491"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/lakeeffectleaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/lakeeffectleaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/lakeeffectleaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions\/30"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/lakeeffectleaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/lakeeffectleaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/lakeeffectleaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/lakeeffectleaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/lakeeffectleaders\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}