Looking back at 2015
Hello everybody!
Another Magic year has come to an end.
Life is full of adventures, sometimes I look at the past and I think “That weekend was just six months ago? So many things happened, it seems years and years in the past!”, and sometimes I think “Do you remember that other weekend? No, it was just a little time ago! What? Was it really five years ago?”.
Yes, busy lives tend to form a series of memories that mingle, get mixed, and get switched in time.
What remains of our past?
Feelings, this what the past does in my brain, it engraves feelings.
I may forget where it happened, I may forget when it happened, but it’s very rare that I forget a feeling.
Let’s take a look at the most memorable moments of my 2015, both tournament related and also life related.
Happy reading.
January: Let’s Party!
This year of Magic started… well, with Magic right from the beginning!
There was in fact the first “GP New Year’s Eve” in history, in warm Manila.
There had been a couple of “GP Christmas” in the past, on the weekends just before Christmas (and I would have returned home on the morning of the 25th!), and this one was just after New Year’s Eve!
After evaluating the possibilities, I decided to have a magical New Year’s Eve, and I travelled before the end of the year, celebrating the New Year with my judge friends.
This is just an example of what a passion can do; it can get you in contact with other people with the same passion, with whom you will be able to connect and eventually become great friends.
Whether you live all your life in the same town or you travel every weekend to a different country, I recommend to get to know the *people* around you. People are the most precious treasure we can find.
February: A New Star
February was the month when Fate Reforged was published, and Sarkhan went back in time to save Ugin.
In the last couple of years, I’ve been working as a translator for Magic articles, and my favorite series is Uncharted Realms (now called Official Magic Fiction); if you are reading this article, I assume you play Magic; if you play Magic, it’s likely that you love fantasy tales; if you like fantasy tales, maybe they aren’t famous as the Lord of the Rings, but I can assure you that the Magic stories are very enjoyable.
Magic isn’t just a card game, it’s an experience; international events, travels, friends… and also a fantasy book (and a full time job as a translator for some of us ^__^).
You can find a lot of Magic articles here, enjoy.
The most important tournament I went to was GP Seville, and the special fact about that GP was the promotion to Level Four of Alfonso Bueno (you can read more about Alfonso at the end of this article).
Extra: Plaza de Espana is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been too; the image below gives you just a tenth of its beauty.
March: United States, Long Time No See!
In life, we would like to have infinite time and infinite resources, to experience *everything*, but it’s just not possible, and we have to choose.
In the previous three years, my judge focus had been Asia, and I have just checked and realized that, between mid 2012 and today (January 2015), I’ve been to 27 out of 29 GPs in Asia… I checked three times, as I couldn’t believe it. I’ve been saying for a long time that Asia and its people changed me, but I didn’t imagine how many of the opportunities I had taken to go to Asian events!
Anyway, back to March 2015 and the United States, as we can’t be in two places at once and it’s quite hard to travel every weekend, I had been away from the US for more than two years, and I’ve started again going “to the far west”.
Different cultures, different environments, different values, different concepts of kindness, honesty, respect. There is no such concept of right and wrong; two different cultures are just different, and each has its special characteristics that make it “right”.
April: The Importance of Consistency
Magic tournaments are a competition, and a competition must have rules, and the rules should be clear and applied to everybody; this is the basis of a fair competition.
If rules changed depending on the player (should “Pro” players or “superstars” be treated differently? I say no.) or on the judge (can two different judges facing the same situation choose two different solutions? No, rulings must be consistent. ), competitors would feel that the rules are a wrong variance, like luck, and a strong competitor wants to know the rules and wants rules to be applied.
During Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir, in Brussels, I had to face a relatively simple situation (the rules are very clear about it), but in a very difficult environment; it was a match on camera, with a live broadcast, and the player who committed the infraction was a very famous player with a strong personality and a series of very valid arguments to make me change my decision.
Everything he said was correct and he was very polite; I could have bent the rules and given a different ruling (note: the rules have changed between March and today, and the current rules would bring me to a different decision, much more similar to the one he suggested), because I actually agreed with him that “it would have been fair for his game”, but bending the rules wouldn’t have been “fair to competitive Magic”, because I would have destroyed the concept of consistency, adding another element of variance to the game.
Judges should be impartial, which means that they should give the same ruling to all players, and this also means that all judges should give the same ruling for the same situation. This is one of the most important concepts of judging.
May: A New Italian TO
Excluding very few people who claim being “citizens of the world” and others who choose a gipsy life, each of us belongs to a country.
What I mean is that we feel that a country, one country, is in our heart, with all its flaws and its beauties.
I’m Italian, and for me Italy is the best country in the World.
Sure, we have tons of problems; what’s that old sentence about Italy? “Pizza, mafia and mandolino”?
Sure, maybe we have mafia (a kind of “alternative government”), corrupt politicians, thieves and a too heated behavior… a lot of flaws.
But we also have wonderful landscapes and historic sites, several arts (not just sculpture and paintings, but also music, clothes, food), “la bella vita” (a style of life that makes us not worry about money or success, but allows us to rejoice and live happily) and a very passionate heart… also a lot of wonderful strengths.
Note that “too heated behavior” and “very passionate heart” are exactly the same, but from two different points of view.
OK, this is a superficial view of Italy, and I’m sure that each of you has his own idea of his own country.
The fact is that each of us loves his own country because it’s part of ourselves… and May was the month when the new Italian organizer had his first Grand Prix!
On the same weekend, there was one of the two Asian GPs I skipped, and it was painful to not be in Shanghai with my Asian friends, but it was also a great pride to be helping the new Italian TO, with whom I’ve been working for ten years, get to run his first Grand Prix.
Below you have one of the extra entertainment options available in the VIP area…. only in Italy you can find these at a Magic event 😉
June: The BIG One
Modern Masters 2015, the second edition of that special set that broke all records with GP Las Vegas, now even more successful.
Three GPs at the same time (Las Vegas, Utrecht, Chiba), with thousands and thousands of people playing Magic at the top level, simultaneously.
Grand Prix Chiba was for me THE BIG ONE, 4000 tickets sold online in only ten hours; I wonder how many people would have been there if there wasn’t a maximum capacity; would it have been even bigger than Las Vegas?
It was hard, it was damn hard; thousands of competitors, hundreds of people on staff, huge language barriers, a very difficult logistics; it was one of my biggest challenges as a judge, and one of the events I am the most proud of!
In the article dedicated to GP Chiba, you can read more details, or you can ask me in person at our next event together.
July: Summer Break
Six events as head judge in six months; it’s not “just the weekend of the tournament”; it’s much more, both before and after.
To perform at the top level and to always have a lot of energy and be motivated, holidays are fundamental too!
August: 100!!
It was the weekend of August the 30th, in Prague; Grand Prix number ONE HUNDRED.
Hey, I heard you! I’m not old… I just started a long time ago! 😉
Especially when we dedicate so much time to an activity and we have tight schedules that force us to always be focused on “the next event”, from time to time it’s good to take a look at the past and say “Look at all I have achieved”.
Milestones, round numbers like 100, give us the opportunity to look back and say “Damn, so many achieved goals since that day in 2001”.
September: Autumn is Coming
September is usually a quiet month, with prereleases and the WMCQs.
We need some quiet months, right?
October: Another Challenge
Each tournament can have its unique challenge, and each format may have different challenges.
Without considering the dimensions of the event, what’s the most challenging format and region?
Two answers come to my mind:
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A Legacy event in southern Europe; Legacy is the most difficult format rules-wise, and southern Europe is the most difficult area in the world for communication (the Mediterranean character is passionate, and loud, and not proficient in English). Sum up these aspects and you obtain an environment where both the number and the heat of the discussions is much higher than average. I believe the event where I’ve been the busiest (by far) for appeals (more than five per round, every round, just me) was GP Paris 2014.
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A Team Limited event in China; let me describe it in more detail; the first Team Limited event in Asia. Though easy from a rules point of view, Team Limited is logistically challenging. More, Chinese GPs tend to be more chaotic than any other GP. More, the language barrier on the continent is quite high. More, we usually have quite a low number of judges.
Yes, I am speaking about GP Beijing, the second biggest challenge of the year, after GP Chiba.
The expectations of difficulty were so high that some judges decided to come from other continents just to face such a challenge.
If you have already lived through such a challenging experience, you may know how it ends. What happens when a very difficult challenge approaches, and you have some of the best professionals at your side? It happens that you plan and prepare so well that the event itself becomes one of the smoothest Grand Prix I’ve ever been to!
At the end of the weekend, one person coming from Spain and one person coming from Australia actually told me “I decided to come because it was expected to be very problematic, and I’m disappointed that we had no problems at all”.
My reply was “It’s your fault, it’s because of you that we had no problems at all” 😉
Planning is one of the keys to success.
November: Autumn Has Arrived
Wow, you really want something very exciting every month?
It was “just a normal month”, with a GP in the US, a GP in Europe, a GP in Japan and a judge conference. I guess it was such a busy month that maybe I didn’t focus on finding something special to tell you.
By the way, it looked like a normal month… let me count how many events I have done this year.
Twenty-one?!? Isn’t that too much?
Well, this number tells me that, when you have a passion and you work hard to make it work, you can achieve great results. Luck has a very limited influence. The world has a limited influence. What counts is us; nothing is granted; if we want to achieve great results, we have to work hard to make our dreams come true.
Just choose your dream and make it come true.
December: World Champions!
What was I saying about my country?
Oh, yes, that I hate its flaws, but that I also love it (almost) unconditionally.
Sometimes it gives you satisfaction in your favorite sport…
… and sometimes in your favorite game!
This year’s World Magic Cup had several interesting situations in the finals, but what will remain in my passionate Mediterranean heart will only be the WMC title!
What’s Coming in 2016?
Life will tell.
Some plans are about my first travel to Australia, for both Grand Prix Sydney and Pro Tour Sydney.
Other plans are about my first travel to South America, for Grand Prix Santiago and a fabulous journey to Easter Island.
Other plans are about learning a new language; what may it be? I may have given hints in my past articles. 😉
Other plans are about areas outside of judging and also outside of Magic; I will tell you something about these too, as I sometimes write an article that has nothing to do with Magic; my style of judging is about humanizing the judges, right?
I’m very curious to take a look at these lines in 12 months, to see which plans have become reality!
To start the new year in a great way, I tell you that I went on holiday (a real, full holiday, without events, articles, translations) in Jordan; yes, one of those small countries in the Middle East. It has been marvelous, and the most exciting part was a 24-hour stay in the desert. It’s impossible to describe it, just go and experience it yourself, believe me.
Judge of the Year 2015
At the end of the year, we take a look at all achieved results and we give an “evaluation” of the experiences we lived.
One of the key aspects of the judge program is that judges help each other, and it’s a pleasure to give the deserved recognition to the people who performed the best and who gave the best contribution to our system.
I anticipated in February that we would have one promotion to level four this year (the judges are organized in levels; at the top levels we have five level fives and eight level fours) and this “new kid” is, in my opinion, the single judge who is giving the biggest contribution to the judge program at the moment.
He has been Regional Coordinator for several years, and his country is full of excellent judges and great people of very high values (a sign that he has been doing a great job!); outside tournaments, he’s now focusing on communication, with several successful projects; at tournaments, he inspires many people and has already been the head judge of a few Grand Prix. If you see him at a tournament, you can have full trust, he’s one of the best of all times!
His name is Alfonso Bueno, from Madrid, Spain.
I hope you enjoyed this article, and I’m looking forward to reading your comments.
Was it a good 2015? Was it a bad 2015 and are you expecting a better 2016?
In any case, I hope you will have a ton of adventures this year and to see you at many Magic events!
Contact Riccardo 
