UKISA Judge Maintenance – 2018

| Jack Doyle
Written by Jack Doyle Level 3, United Kingdom

Written by Jack Doyle
Level 3, United Kingdom

Hi, friends!

The end of 2018 approaches, and with it, a new batch of maintenance.

Most of you realise, that when you took a judge exam and interview, you were agreeing to a level of activity for that level, that we generally assess at the end of each calendar year.

I’m going to quickly explain how this works for each level, along with anything you need to do.

Level 1 Judges
As some of you may have experienced last year, we started using JudgeApps event data (as well as additional data from Wizards of the Coast) to determine events for which you were entered as a judge in Wizards Event Reporter (WER) or the Wizards Large Tournament Reporter (WLTR). This is an automated system that will be in place again this year. What this means for you is that you may receive an email telling you your judge status may change at the end of the year.

If this is incorrect, you need to get in touch with me before the end of the year. This was very unclear to many judges, and I was handling issues along the lines of “I’m not a judge anymore, what gives?” well into 2018. Please make sure that your JudgeApps email address is up-to-date so that we can avoid any communication issues.

Aside from the activity requirements rolled into this semi-automated check, I’m not planning to impose additional requirements for UKISA judges. That said, I’d really appreciate any feedback you have to give about the region, conferences, judges, leadership, or really, anything you want to talk about. I’ve set up an end-of-year feedback form here for that purpose. As part of your judge maintenance for the year, please consider your place in the program, your goals and how you interact with the region, as well as provide any feedback you want to give. This form (and this requested introspection) is optional, but honest feedback from the important, store-level judges in our region is very valuable.

Feedback form link: UKISA End-of-year Feedback Form.

Level 2 Judges
As with last year, Level 2 maintenance has a bit more structure to it. Everyone should be aware at this point, that the PPTQ scene is shifting and changing, and we’re honestly unsure about the future of Level 2 judges. That said, in the previous iteration of competitive REL tournaments in UKISA, Level 2 judges were a cornerstone of old-style PTQs, and I hope that to continue. To that end, I believe it’s important to keep an eye on the competitive REL skills of Level 2 judges and keep that as a maintenance requirement. As a result, the Level 2 maintenance requirements for UKISA for 2018 are:

  • A passing score on a Level 2 Practice (or more advanced) exam, taken in 2018, on JudgeApps.
    • If you certified for Level 2 in 2018, this requirement is not mandatory, although it’s always useful to keep on top of regular exams.
    • If your Level 2 Practice exam was taken in the first half of 2018, please consider brushing up ahead of the end of the year.
  • A written dedication to the judge program in some way, in 2018.
    • What do these words mean? Well, we know Level 2 judges are the workhorses of events. But as a strongly-minded community judge myself, I know the value of off-event feedback, community work, attending conferences, writing tournament reports, writing reviews, writing exemplar nominations.
    • Despite the checklist-style nature of maintenance requirements, this is a very freeform requirement. I just want to make sure that judges are exploring the wider options of non-event judge program activity.
  • Judge two competitive REL tournaments in 2018.
    • This is a written requirement on the judge levels page linked at the top of the article. As above, I believe it’s important for the UKISA judge landscape that we have our Level 2 judges stay brushed-up on competitive REL know-how.

To submit these requirements, please fill out this form: UKISA Level 2 Maintenance Form.

Level 3 Judges

The current set of Level 3 update requirements is program-wide, and looks like this (for anyone who is unaware, I think it’s good for people to see what Level 3s are required to do):

  • Pass update exams throughout the year.
    • Four smaller rules updates (one per set, three of which must be passed within two attempts)
    • One larger policy quiz (passed within two attempts)
  • Participate in the successful running of large tournaments, by working 12 event days in 2018.
    • GPs count as 3 days.
    • PTs, MKM series, SCG Tours, F2F Series, and other large two-day tournaments count as 2 days.
    • RPTQs and Nationals count as 1 day.
  • Submit a self-review in 2018.
  • Contribute to the development of other judges. Of these listed, three must be completed (one may be completed more than once)
    • Write 2 reviews of another judge based on their performance at an event you both judge.
    • Present at a judge conference.
    • Write an article for the judge community.

The majority of these will be pulled by the Level 3 Maintenance team and subsidiary projects. UKISA Level 3s, please make sure that you are working on these gaps before the end of the year. If you don’t intend to renew, please let me know sooner rather than later.

That’s pretty much it — I’m assuming that many people will just be reading the applicable requirements to their own level; but if you’re considering advancement, or stepping back from judging, please take a look at the others so that you can get a feel for what your activity might look like if you make a change.

Once again, that feedback form link: UKISA End-of-year Feedback Form.

If anyone has any questions, please direct them to me via e-mail, scryus@gmail.com. Remember that no-one should be crucifying themselves over these requirements; if you’re missing something or worried about something, please start the conversation earlier rather than later; it makes everything much easier to solve.

Jack x