Greetings and welcome to another Southwest Exemplar Highlight, this time brought to you by Kevin Yu!

Travis Lauro began his Judge journey shortly after M14’s pre-release. Almost five years later, he has become one of the Bay Area’s top leaders and mentors of the program. Travis excels at providing feedback for recipients to reflect and improve upon, while making sure his staff is sufficiently caring for themselves. He also emphasizes on improving the customer service experience for players, a skill I believe to be integral of the Judge Program.

While at a recent Grand Prix, Travis noticed Adam White (known to many as Taz) helping out a player in a difficult situation. Here is what Travis had to say about Adam:

“During Grand Prix San Jose, you were approached by a player missing cards in their deck shortly after deck construction. The solution ended up involving tracking down players who had built in the area, laying out their decks, and locating the missing sideboard cards. This was done with very little information and in a short amount of time. Your resourcefulness and expedience were impressive in the matter.”

Certain types of investigations are never easy, but Travis witnessed how quick and efficient Adam was at Grand Prix San Jose. It takes a significant degree of skill and resourcefulness to retrace footsteps at the Grand Prix level, especially at a Limited event where timing is critical. Minimizing time loss for players is thus fantastic customer service.

A bit more on Adam: An avid aggro player, Adam has been judging on the Grand Prix level for six years. although he has been playing Magic since Beta! During his L2 journey, he was mentored by Riki Hiyashi before being certified by Alexei Gousev.

Customer Service is an important part of judging, as judges are usually the first contact for players in an event. Providing positive and timely service helps create a better play experience for all parties, so thank you to both Travis and Adam for promoting an important Judge skill!