The Mid-Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 2: April 2017

| nicholas

The More Things Change, The More Things Stay The Same

 

Hello friends, and welcome back to another edition of the Mid-Atlantic Monthly. March was quite a month: We learned that Channel Fireball will be the tournament organizer for all Grand Prix events in 2018, and for the foreseeable future. We also learned that we’re getting a new version of Judge Center, with some of the Judge Center functionality moving to JudgeApps. Oh, and the new Mid-Atlantic Regional Coordinator is me.

Change can be scary, and weird. I’ll advise you all to be positive and patient. The folks at Channel Fireball are interested and invested in making sure that Grand Prix are great for everybody, including judges. It wouldn’t make sense for them to try to milk the opportunity dry in 2018 when their plan is on a much longer timeline. The growth of the Grand Prix circuit is good for the Judge program, and so I choose to look at this as a good thing until presented with evidence to the contrary.

Those of you who have been judges for a long time will remember what Judge Center was like last month, and how it was almost identical to how Judge Center was last decade. I’m sure our friends at WotC are working hard to turn Judge Center into something even more helpful and, in the meantime, JudgeApps has added some robust and exciting functionality that will make it easier for judges to communicate, provide feedback and, when necessary, disqualify players.

I’m honored and grateful to have been selected to continue serving the region as Regional Coordinator. You’ll hear more from me this month for our plans over the next year, but if you have specific questions, concerns, or needs, I am always available to hear what you have to say. Please feel free to email me, or ping me on Facebook or Slack.

Until next month!

Nicholas Sabin
Regional Coordinator: USA – Mid-Atlantic

Advancements

Join me in welcoming the following judge to Level One!

A Reminder About Testing

With Judge Center currently down, we do not currently have a public-facing resource for judge exams. If you are an L2 in need of an L1 exam, or an L3 (or L2 Tester) in need of an L2 exam, please feel free to contact me, and I will provide you with a PDF copy of the exam you need. I also have copies of the L2 Practice and L3 Assessment exams available for those who need them. Thank you for your patience as we move forward!

A Change to Investigations

Another effect of Judge Center being down is the new way for us to handle investigations. Investigations Committee lead Johanna Virtanen wrote a great article on how we’re going to handle investigations moving forward. Please take a minute to review it in the unfortunate incident that you have to disqualify a player.

Upcoming Events

The following events are accepting applications for judges:

April

  • PPTQ Kyoto – April 15th – LANslide Game Center – Clinton, MD

May

June

The Q&E Award

Autumn is probably thinking about giving someone a bottle of water right now.

Last month, I awarded the Q&E to Brogan King. This month, Brogan has chosen to pass the award along to another judge who, if you’ve ever been thirsty at a Magic event, needs no introduction. She’s always a positive presence at events, and does her best to make sure that everyone is taken care of. She’s currently waiting to hear back from a number of colleges, and I’ll be sad if higher education takes her from us. Join me in congratulating the April 2017 recipient of the Q&E Award, Autumn Cook!