Judge Mob? Why do it…and what is it?
One good question to ask yourself is: “Why do you judge?”
A common answer people give is “I love hanging out with other judges”, to that end in early 2015 I started a monthly judge social event called Judge Mob. The idea being that we could easily meet at a store on a weekday when they had nothing going on, much like a flash mob taking over a store. The main rule is have fun, the secondary rule is no presentations – we just want to play games, not worry about presenting. Since there are judges there normally is one or more EDH games going and I try and mix up the format for the other event like at previous Judge Mobs we have played formats such as:
- 2HG draft
- Borg Cube where people bring cards that are combined to form the “cube” we draft.
- Wacky draft formats such as RTR, Theros, Khans of Tarkir
Judge Mobs are great for networking – inexperienced judges get to hang out with higher level judges or in this case our Regional Coordinator Rob McKenzie. Or seeing an old friend and longtime judge that doesn’t get a chance to judge lately or outside their LGS. Like last night Shiny showed up with some friends, he’s been busy at work so he hasn’t had a chance to judge events, but could make some time to hang out on the evening. We also make the event open to people who aren’t judges so you can also meet up with players that are interested in becoming a judge.
We held the most recent on on February 24th at Air Traffic Games in Maple Grove MN, I chose the store as they are advanced and not a lot of judges had been there. The format of choice was Team Limited Trios as people wanted to practice playing or judging because of Grand Prix Washington DC.
We had 4 teams
- Bad-Ass Bearls
- Edible Breakfast Products
- Half the Gatewatch
- Team Shiny
Round 1
Bad-Ass Bearls defeated Edible Breakfast Products
Half the Gatewatch defeated Team Shiny
Round 2
Half the Gatewatch defeated Bad-Ass Bearls
Edible Breakfast Products defeated Team Shiny
Then some people had to leave because they worked early the next morning so the rest of us just talked about various judge stuff for an hour. It’s what usually happens and why you don’t have to plan a presentation. Also eventually I figured out that every month gets a little tiring so now it’s more like every other month or just when it feels right to have an event.
So if you like hanging out with other judges and who doesn’t, try planning a judge social event. It can be as simple as “hey I’m going to be at this store Wednesdays, who wants to play EDH?” or “lets have a potluck for the holidays.”