Welcome to Exemplar Highlights. My name is Sal Cortez and I am a L1 from Atwater CA. Today I will be highlighting Eric Lee’s recognition of Doug Patrick.

Eric began to play Magic the Gathering during the Alara block, despite knowing about it for years. After going undefeated at the Dark Ascension pre-release, two of Eric’s friends (both L2’s) suggested he become a judge. Eric wasn’t sure about it, but took and passed the exam. He’s gone on to become a great leader in his community, helping others achieve greatness.

Let’s take a look at Eric’s Exemplar Recognition of Doug Patrick.

“I’ve been waiting for you to become L1 so that I can send this. A while back, you were the person who organized and got together a small local judge gathering of the people in our shop who were either judges or wanted to become judges. It started with a few lunch outings and meetings at friends’ houses, but started the education and mentoring process that has now led to four new L1’s and an L2 for the store. This could never have happened without the judge gatherings that you organized, and though you were an L0 at the time, I wanted to specifically recognize your contributions to the local judge community.”

One fateful day, Doug went to his local game store with his brother. There he played in a draft, first picking Soulcatcher’s Aerie. Noticing a lack of judges in his local area, Doug thought about becoming a judge. Doug began to invest in his community by running judge classes. After running these classes for a few years, Doug finally became a L1 in January of this year. It is clear that Doug’s community is important to him.

For me, Magic the Gathering is a big part of my life and without it I don’t know what I would be doing. Community is what makes Magic thrive. Without community there would be no Magic, and there would be no Gathering.