This article was supposed to be published a couple of weeks ago, but technical problems prevented me from finishing it on time. In case you care about the details, I bought a new case for my home computer and failed miserably at installing things in it, which forced me to send the whole computer on a short vacation with Friendly Local Computer Shop Guy.

At the time of publication, I will be at the World Championships in Paris. Right now I don't know my work schedule, but if I have the time, I might post in the comment thread and give you some exciting news from Worlds (or just tell you about the venue food). With five days and four formats, Worlds is a challenging event for everyone involved. In this article I'm going to tell you about how to prepare for this kind of marathon of judging, and in a couple of week's time I will tell you about what actually happened.

Getting there
My preparations started as soon as I found out that I had been accepted for a partial sponsorship. I always like to book my flights as soon as possible. Since my husband Pasi is not going, I'm not going to spend any extra days in Paris. I booked a Tuesday morning flight from Helsinki to Paris and a Monday night return. In general, if I'm taking extra days for sightseeing, I want to make sure I don't do a lot of walking before the event. Earlier this year, in Prague, I'd been sightseeing for two days before the tournament started, and I'd probably been happier during the event if I hadn't done that.

I didn't have to worry about hotel rooms this time, because that was all taken care of by Wizards of the Coast. If you're volunteering for an event and paying for a hotel room yourself, you might want to find someone to share the room cost. Posting on dcijudge-l [... for those of you who are judges, anyway. -Seamus] is a good way to find other people who are going, if you don't mind sharing with someone you've probably never met before. Sharing a room with a fellow judge might be a better idea than sharing with your player friends, because the players might have very different schedules and interests.

Finally, you should do some research on how to get from the airport to the hotel and tournament venue. Taxis are not always the best or fastest option, and they're practically never the cheapest option. I also like to plan some of my sightseeing beforehand, especially if I only have one day to see everything.

What to bring
For most events, you are going to need a judge shirt, a pair of black pants, a belt, and a pair of black shoes. For Worlds, you'll need several sets of those things. It's good to have several pairs of shoes because your feet will feel less tired if you're not in the same pair of shoes all week.

Of course you should bring more than just your clothes and toothbrush. You'll have some opportunities to play games with other judges, so bring your Elder Dragon Highlander deck or other Constructed decks, or even some non-Magic games. I sometimes bring Finnish sweets and beverages for people who have asked for them. In exchange, I get foreign goodies to bring home.

Mental preparation
When you go to a big event like Worlds, you want to make sure you know the latest rules and policies. Reading the judge mailing list daily and hanging out on #mtgjudge keeps me updated on any new developments, but I still like to refresh my memory by reading all the relevant rules documents before any big events. The list of documents is the same as for studying for a judge exam: Comprehensive Rulebook, Universal Tournament Rules, Magic Floor Rules, and the Penalty Guidelines. Sometimes I make printed copies of everything so I can read during the flight, but usually I try to do the studying before I travel. That way I can relax during the flight and enjoy the delicious airplane food and the interesting inflight magazines.

Of course, knowing the rules of the game is just a good start. You should also think about what you want to accomplish at the event, and how to go about it. In fact, these days most head judges expect you to come up with some goals before the event. At my first Worlds in 2003, my goals were quite vague—I just wanted to survive, get experience and perhaps get a chance to lead a team. In 2004, I was scheduled to test for Level 3, so I was very much focused on passing the test.

Setting goals isn't always easy. If you have received feedback about what you should work to improve, then it can be only a matter of deciding whether that feedback is still relevant. If you haven't had any good feedback lately—useful feedback that helps you to improve, not just praise—you can try to analyze your weak and strong points yourself. Goals do not have to be overly sophisticated: "I want to learn more about how to do deck checks" is a perfectly fine goal. But don't just pick one out of a hat; make it relevant to your skills and long-term plans in the judge program. Avoid the empty goals of "I just want to get more experience" (experience in what?) and "I just want to have fun". Everyone will get more experience, and everyone wants to have fun. In this game, you don't get experience points just by picking up the treasure at the end of the adventure. Also remember that the goals are for you, to help you focus, and not for the head judge. He or she wants to know them so that he or she can help you achieve them.

If you have a hard time coming up with an abstract goal, you could think about tasks that you would like to learn, such as logistics or deck checking. It never hurts to ask for a particular job—if you don't ask, the Head Judge might never know that you're interested in that task.

One of my goals for Worlds is to learn more about managing a team of judges, and because of that I asked for a team leader slot in side events. Leading judges in side events is quite different from leading a main event team, and I want to improve on my GP Malmö performance.

Sometimes you know your work schedule before the event, and sometimes you don't. If you do get a schedule some time before the event, it might very well change before or during the tournament. Usually the Head Judge will tell you if you have a task that requires a preparation, such as leading a team for the first time or running a seminar.

The final part of my mental preparation is a sort of attitude adjustment—getting into the spirit and atmosphere of a professional level event, and reminding myself that it's a privilege to be there and that I should make the most of it.

EXCITING ALMOST-LIVE COVERAGE OF WORLDS!
That is more or less how I prepared for Worlds this year. I'm actually finishing this article on Wednesday night, after Day 1 of the event.

There are over 70 judges present. We started the day with a general briefing, which for obvious reasons didn't include a round of introductions. What we did have was some very exciting news about changes in DCI policy. I won't give you details, because the policy is not finalized yet, and the plan is to fine-tune it by testing it at Worlds.

I was assigned to seminars, so I spent most of the day sitting at the hotel bar, talking about the requirements for Level 3; the differences between Levels 1, 2, and 3; and bluffing versus cheating. The seminar was led by Juan del Compare of Argentina, and Judge Manager Andy Heckt popped in with Sheldon Menery and Gis Hoogendijk for a little Q&A session.

Tomorrow (Thursday) I will be leading the morning shift of Side Events. Today many side events were cancelled because the PTQ was much larger than expected and we ran out of space, so tomorrow should be a busy and interesting day. I will tell you all about it in a couple of weeks, in my next article.

Thank you for reading.

Johanna Virtanen
Level 3 Judge, Finland
flame- on #mtgjudge (Efnet)
flame (at) bore dot org