Hi all!

Some cool announcements are happening, and I just wanted to address a couple of concerns that tournament organisers, judges, and players had brought to my attention.

This is the most recent announcement that’s happened:

MODERN HORIZONS SCHEDULING

Today new scheduling has opened in WER. In next couple of days we will be creating an article on magic.wizards.com about the launch of European Modern Series – a series of events based in WPN stores featuring Modern and Modern Horizons sealed leading players to Regional Finals where they will have a chance to compete for a slots to Mythic Championship Richmond as well as 8 sets San Diego Comic Con Promos.

Here is what you need to know:

Every WPN store can host up to 2 Qualifiers (1 of them being Modern and 1 Modern Horizons Sealed) between 22nd of June and 11th of August. Top 8 on each of the events can be run as draft.

Winner of each event will be qualified to participate in a regional final. Winner of each Final will get a slot to Mythic Championship in Richmond and top 8 participants will also receive a set of San Diego Comic Con 2019 promos each.

Finals will happen from 17th of August to 15th of September. The location of the regional final your events qualify for will be announced in the near future.

We do not have any formal judge requirements for Qualifiers, but your events need to be run at Competitive Rules Enforcement Level.

Scheduling in WER for qualifiers will be open from Monday 27th of May untill 10th of June.

Later this week we are going to run a Live to share more details and answer all your questions – stay tuned

This means we’re going to have a smattering of PPTQ-like events in the UK, Ireland, and South Africa. That’s kind of cool, but also problematic in terms of judges. One of the points is “no formal judge requirements”. The UKISA judge leadership strongly believe that certified judges are a key part of delivering a quality, competitive REL environment at these events.

Judges need events to learn and flourish. Players need judges to ensure those events are held to a decent standard, and an impartial arbiter is around to resolve disputes. These tournaments are more complicated than FNM, and judges are trained to run them. UKISA wholly supports the judge program’s idea of Recommended Staffing Guidelines.

We know that the pressures of having to find, and pay, a Level 2 judge for PPTQs of days gone by was a rough task, and judges such as myself and the Area Captains put in a considerable amount of effort and time trying to keep all of those plates spinning. Meanwhile, there were and continue to be very able Level 1 judges who could run these tournaments in their sleep, so we encourage that you bring in judges who are local to you to help run these events. At the very least, if they’re not comfortable doing it, they will likely be able to pass you up the chain to those who can help out. L2+ judges are trained to run these events. While there are exceptional L1 judges who can do this, it’s not inherently expected of the level, so please make sure you ask the questions beforehand.

If you’ve run PPTQs in the past, this should be more of the same. If you haven’t, and need a hand, feel free to use the Contact an RC Form to get in touch with me, and we’ll see what can be done for your store.

Jack x