Over the past year, I've written a lot of event reports for this column. I don't have any recent events to write about—my first big event this year is going to be Grand Prix Amsterdam, in March. If I haven't managed to wipe some events from my memory, it will be my 13th GP. You will have to wait a few weeks for the report about missing product, broken bones and general humiliation, and instead, read about an event that was a very important moment in my career as a judge. It's time to look to the past...

[The past, Johanna?]

That's right, Seamus! Let's look in the past, all the way to the year 2001!

In the year 2001, I worked my first Grand Prix ever. I had chosen not to judge at GP Helsinki 2000 (I opted to attend an aikido seminar instead), so when my friend Pasi decided to go to GP Gothenburg to take his Level 3 test, I decided to join him. I was only a Level 1 at the time, but I wanted a chance to work in a big event.

No sponsorship offer was posted for this GP, so Pasi and I just contacted the local TO a couple of weeks before the event and asked if we could judge. He agreed, and even gave us hotel rooms. Pasi also contacted the Head Judge to arrange for the Level 3 test. In those days, it was apparently possible to just inform the DCI that you were coming to an event for L3 testing.

This was my first chance to interact with high-level judges, as well as judges from other countries. The judge who certified me for Level 1 was not an L3, just a L2 with testing privileges. We were isolated; there was nobody with real connections to the international judge community (which, as far as I can tell, was much smaller than it is today).

The Head Judge of GP Gothenburg was Jaap Brouwer. As many of you know, Jaap is a Level 5 now, and has head judged several Pro Tours and the World Championships. In 2001, he was a L3. He made a great impression on me. I also met several other Level 3s for the first time, including Rune Horvik of Norway, and Jesper Nielsen of Denmark. All three judges have been important sources of inspiration and advice over the years.

Most of the other judges were also from Scandinavia. There were a couple of judges from Belgium and the Netherlands, but there were no judges from France, Italy or Germany, for example. The list of judges is still out there (in case you're wondering, that's my maiden name on the list). We had a meeting on Friday evening and enjoyed snacks that everyone had brought from their own countries. This fine tradition has continued in the European Grand Prix scene for at least 6 years now.

On Saturday morning we were split into teams. This was a totally new concept to me. Pasi had worked GP Helsinki, which didn't have teams, although judges were given particular jobs that they would do for the whole tournaments. I was happy to have a team leader I could rely on, because although I was quite excited to be working such a big event, I wasn't entirely confident in my skills.

My first team leader was Rune Horvik. He was a quiet guy, and I don't think I spent a lot of time with him. First he was helping out with registration, and then at some point he was called to take over scorekeeping for some reason. I was reassigned to Jesper's team. In those days, teams were not named for their tasks—instead of Logistics, Pairings, and Deck checks, we had Green, Red, Blue, and Yellow teams. Those names were completely meaningless. The Green team didn't have green hats or green shirts or green shoes. They also didn't have a particular task—all the jobs were rotated between the teams, so that we never did the same thing for two consecutive rounds. It was pairings on round 1, slips on round 2, deck checks on round 4, and so on. The idea was to let people have the chance to learn and do everything during the day. It was more exciting than posting pairings all day, but also more confusing for everyone. We had to keep checking our schedule to see who was responsible for what. If the first team on Pairings learned something about their job, the lesson didn't necessarily get passed on to the other teams. It took a year or two for everyone to realize that having one task per team was more efficient.

Now, I wasn't a particularly good judge back then. I was interested in tournament policy and organization (which is why I was very excited about the idea of judge teams), but my rules knowledge was a bit hazy and I was unfamiliar with the cards in the format. I wasn't very comfortable answering rules questions, and I let the players see my lack of confidence.

I also didn't have any clue about professional behaviour. A player asked me a question, and I didn't understand what he wanted to know. Instead of remaining calm and asking him to clarify, I made a confused face and walked off, grabbed the nearest judge, and told him to "help those players over there". There's nothing wrong with asking other judges for help when you need it, but if I can't even find out what the players are asking, I'm useless. I started to realize how much I had to learn about the rules and judging in general.

There was one player who unknowingly did something to boost my confidence in an unlikely way. He called me over for some kind of procedural error that his opponent had made. I made a ruling that I thought was reasonable, because I didn't know about the established way of handling this thing. I can't remember what the issue was, but I remember the reaction of the player who called me over: he said, "Okay, I respect your ruling, but I would like to appeal to the Head Judge". This is probably still the nicest appeal I've ever seen. Jaap came over, corrected my mistake, and told me about the correct way to handle it. At this point in the tournament I was feeling a bit in over my head, and the words "I respect your ruling" (together with Jaap's behaviour) made me feel better about myself. I would thank the player the next time I see him at an event, but I am not entirely sure about his identity.

The day ended sometime before midnight. There was a debriefing, and I think Jaap asked who would like to watch the draft pods on Day 2. I didn't put my hand up because I still felt overwhelmed, and so I was assigned to the side events. After the debriefing there was a dinner at the hotel restaurant. The food was very nice, especially since I had made the newbie mistake of not eating anything but a sandwich during the the day. Unfortunately, my stomach didn't like the combination of not eating anything for hours and then eating a heavy meal after midnight, and it made me a bit sick on Day 2.

Of course I still showed up for work. I helped to register teams for a Team Sealed event, and then I learned how to run 8 man drafts. I don't think there was an appointed team leader in side events, we just figured out what needed to be done and did it together. At some point, Jaap came over to ask if I would like to table judge one of the top 8 matches, and I was happy to get the opportunity. There were actually two judges assigned to each match: one would record life total changes and other game events, and the other would just watch for legal plays. I chose to be the scorekeeper, because it seemed like something I could handle.

I went back to side events after my match was done, but there wasn't much to do. I stayed around to watch the rest of the top 8, and received my compensation from Jaap. I'm sure he wasn't very impressed with my skills, but he still had something nice to say and thanked me for my work. I went back to my hotel room to get some rest, while Pasi stayed at the venue for his Level 3 interview—after working hard all day and table judging both the semifinals and the final. He didn't pass, which is not surprising in retrospect. Going in this event, I don't think we had any idea what a Level 3 was supposed to be. We travelled home a little bit wiser about the ways of the DCI.

GP Gothenburg was a source of inspiration for me. I wanted to apply what I had learned to my local events, I wanted to improve my skills so I wouldn't feel lost anymore, and most of all, I wanted to go back and do another Grand Prix. Hooked, I was.

If you would like, you can check out the official coverage from the event. Hightlights include a story about a French player who set himself on fire, and lots of photographs with very strange captions. There's even a picture of me, looking younger, thinner and very, very serious.

That's it from me this week. Next month: Two-Headed Giant Grand Prix in Amsterdam. It is going to be big, and I will tell you all about it.

Thanks for reading.

Johanna Virtanen
DCI Level 3 Judge, Finland
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