{"id":42,"date":"2016-01-01T16:07:56","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T16:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/riccardotessitori\/?p=42"},"modified":"2016-09-28T15:13:34","modified_gmt":"2016-09-28T15:13:34","slug":"a-magic-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/riccardotessitori\/2016\/01\/01\/a-magic-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking back at 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Looking back at 2015<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n
Hello everybody!<\/h5>\n
Another Magic year has come to an end.<\/h5>\n
Life is full of adventures, sometimes I look at the past and I think \u201cThat weekend was just six months ago? So many things happened, it seems years and years in the past!\u201d, and sometimes I think \u201cDo you remember that other weekend? No, it was just a little time ago! What? Was it really five years ago?\u201d.<\/h5>\n
Yes, busy lives tend to form a series of memories that mingle, get mixed, and get switched in time.<\/h5>\n
What remains of our past?<\/h5>\n
Feelings, this what the past does in my brain, it engraves feelings.<\/h5>\n
I may forget where it happened, I may forget when it happened, but it\u2019s very rare that I forget a feeling.<\/h5>\n
Let\u2019s take a look at the most memorable moments of my 2015, both tournament related and also life related.<\/h5>\n
Happy reading.<\/h5>\n

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January: Let’s Party!<\/strong><\/h4>\n
This year of Magic started\u2026 well, with Magic right from the beginning!<\/h5>\n
There was in fact the first \u201cGP New Year’s Eve<\/a>\u201d\u00a0in history, in warm Manila.<\/h5>\n
There had been a couple of \u201cGP Christmas\u201d in the past, on the weekends just before Christmas (and I would have returned home on the morning of the 25th<\/sup>!), and this one was just after New Year\u2019s Eve!<\/h5>\n
After evaluating the possibilities, I decided to have a magical New Year\u2019s Eve, and I travelled before the end of the year, celebrating the New Year with my judge friends.<\/h5>\n
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.<\/h5>\n
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.<\/h5>\n

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February: A New Star<\/strong><\/h4>\n
February was the month when Fate Reforged was published, and Sarkhan went back in time to save Ugin.<\/h5>\n
In the last couple of years, I\u2019ve 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\u2019s likely that you love fantasy tales; if you like fantasy tales, maybe they aren\u2019t famous as the Lord of the Rings, but I can assure you that the Magic stories are very enjoyable.<\/h5>\n
Magic isn\u2019t just a card game, it\u2019s an experience; international events, travels, friends\u2026 and also a fantasy book (and a full time job as a translator for some of us ^__^).<\/h5>\n
You can find a lot of Magic articles here<\/a>, enjoy.<\/h5>\n
The most important tournament I went to was GP Seville<\/a>, 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).<\/h5>\n
Extra: Plaza de Espana is one of the most beautiful places I\u2019ve been too; the image below gives you just a tenth of its beauty.<\/h5>\n

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March: United States, Long Time No See!<\/strong><\/h4>\n
In life, we would like to have infinite time and infinite resources, to experience *everything*, but it\u2019s just not possible, and we have to choose.<\/h5>\n
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\u2019ve been to 27 out of 29 GPs in Asia\u2026 I checked three times, as I couldn\u2019t believe it. I\u2019ve been saying for a long time that Asia and its people changed me, but I didn\u2019t imagine how many of the opportunities I had taken to go to Asian events!<\/h5>\n
Anyway, back to March 2015 and the United States, as we can\u2019t be in two places at once and it\u2019s quite hard to travel every weekend, I had been away from the US for more than two years, and I\u2019ve started again going \u201cto the far west<\/a>\u201d.<\/h5>\n
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 \u201cright\u201d.<\/h5>\n

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April: The Importance of Consistency<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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.<\/h5>\n
If rules changed depending on the player (should \u201cPro\u201d players or \u201csuperstars\u201d 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.<\/h5>\n
During Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir<\/a>, 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.<\/h5>\n
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 \u201cit would have been fair for his game\u201d, but bending the rules wouldn\u2019t have been \u201cfair to competitive Magic\u201d, because I would have destroyed the concept of consistency, adding another element of variance to the game.<\/h5>\n
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.<\/h5>\n

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May: A New Italian TO<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Excluding very few people who claim being \u201ccitizens of the world\u201d and others who choose a gipsy life, each of us belongs to a country.<\/h5>\n
What I mean is that we feel that a country, one country, is in our heart, with all its flaws and its beauties.<\/h5>\n
I\u2019m Italian, and for me Italy is the best country in the World.<\/h5>\n
Sure, we have tons of problems; what\u2019s that old sentence about Italy? \u201cPizza, mafia and mandolino\u201d?<\/h5>\n
Sure, maybe we have mafia (a kind of \u201calternative government\u201d), corrupt politicians, thieves and a too heated behavior\u2026 a lot of flaws.<\/h5>\n
But we also have wonderful landscapes and historic sites, several arts (not just sculpture and paintings, but also music, clothes, food), \u201cla bella vita\u201d (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\u2026 also a lot of wonderful strengths.<\/h5>\n
Note that \u201ctoo heated behavior\u201d and \u201cvery passionate heart\u201d are exactly the same, but from two different points of view.<\/h5>\n
OK, this is a superficial view of Italy, and I\u2019m sure that each of you has his own idea of his own country.<\/h5>\n
The fact is that each of us loves his own country because it\u2019s part of ourselves\u2026 and May was the month when the new Italian organizer had his first Grand Prix!<\/h5>\n
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\u2019ve been working for ten years, get to run his first Grand Prix.<\/h5>\n
Below you have one of the extra entertainment options available in the VIP area\u2026. only in Italy you can find these at a Magic event \ud83d\ude09<\/h5>\n

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June: The BIG One<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Modern Masters 2015, the second edition of that special set that broke all records with GP Las Vegas, now even more successful.<\/h5>\n
Three GPs at the same time (Las Vegas, Utrecht, Chiba), with thousands and thousands of people playing Magic at the top level, simultaneously.<\/h5>\n
Grand Prix Chiba was for me THE BIG ONE<\/a>, 4000 tickets sold online in only ten hours; I wonder how many people would have been there if there wasn\u2019t a maximum capacity; would it have been even bigger than Las Vegas?<\/h5>\n
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!<\/h5>\n
In the article dedicated to GP Chiba, you can read more details, or you can ask me in person at our next event together.<\/h5>\n

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July: Summer Break<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Six events as head judge in six months; it\u2019s not \u201cjust the weekend of the tournament\u201d; it\u2019s much more, both before and after.<\/h5>\n
To perform at the top level and to always have a lot of energy and be motivated, holidays are fundamental too!<\/h5>\n

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August: 100!!<\/strong><\/h4>\n
It was the weekend of August the 30th<\/sup>, in Prague; Grand Prix number ONE HUNDRED<\/a>.<\/h5>\n
Hey, I heard you! I\u2019m not old\u2026 I just started a long time ago! \ud83d\ude09<\/h5>\n
Especially when we dedicate so much time to an activity and we have tight schedules that force us to always be focused on \u201cthe next event\u201d, from time to time it\u2019s good to take a look at the past and say \u201cLook at all I have achieved\u201d.<\/h5>\n
Milestones, round numbers like 100, give us the opportunity to look back and say \u201cDamn, so many achieved goals since that day in 2001\u201d.<\/h5>\n

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September: Autumn is Coming<\/strong><\/h4>\n
September is usually a quiet month, with prereleases and the WMCQs.<\/h5>\n
We need some quiet months, right?<\/h5>\n

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October: Another Challenge<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Each tournament can have its unique challenge, and each format may have different challenges.<\/h5>\n
Without considering the dimensions of the event, what\u2019s the most challenging format and region?<\/h5>\n
Two answers come to my mind:<\/h5>\n