Ask the Judge, 02/03/2006: Feature Friday

Why Judge, Judge?

Last week's column inspired a forumn discussion that I thought was worth elaborating on. NorrYtt, who just passed his level 1 test (congratulations, sir!) and found it easy (which it really isn't, though once you're really prepared to take it, it might seem so) wants to know what drives judges to judge, rather than to play? He throws out a couple of hypothoses:

• "There aren't enough judges, so events can't be held or be run to full capacity. This must vary from region to region."
• "You are a terrible player. To put it nicely, you are a better judge than you are a player. You can contribute more to the game by judging than playing."

Are these the reasons why we do it? I can't really claim to speak for most judges out there (and honestly, there are some judges out there who clearly have motivations that I cannot begin to fathom), but I'll wager that the answer is a resounding sort of.

There are a lot of judges out there—close to 1600 on the current Worldwide Judge List, which is probably slightly low. About 1100 of those are Level 1; 400 more are Level 2, and the last hundred are Level 3, 4, or 5 (it's a small world: I'm not a particularly well travelled judge, but by my count I've worked at events with 70 of the 3/4/5s currently on the list).

The broadest set of motivations is undoubtedly spread out over the Level 1s (and Level 0 judges, who also play an important role in the judging system). Many Level 1s test because their local shop feels like they need a certified judge for running small tournaments, like Friday Night Magic. Others like being the guy who answers questions for their playtest buddies. Some are PT players who are no longer eligible to play in local PTQs, so they judge instead. Some are drawn by pictures of foil Sol Rings dancing in their heads.

It comes as a great shock to some players to learn that this last reason, on its own, is not entirely sufficient to get them tested by the local Level 3 judge.

As judges learn their craft and move gradually up the hierarchy, the rewards and the motivations change. The one common thing is that successful judges find some reward that goes beyond the packs and occasional foils that get distributed. You have to, because these things just don't add up to all that much, compared to the hours you have to put in. If what you really want in life is judge foils, you'd be better off getting a job at KFC and bidding on ebay.

But that's fine, because there are plenty of rewards.

When I found myself wanting to learn to judge, my personal motivations were to learn the rules better and validate my rules knowledge; to have another way to participate at prereleases, and to have a way to get lots of packs to draft with. I'm not convinced that I had the best motivations, but it worked out alright—I quickly learned that there was a whole lot more to know about than just the contents of the Comprehensive Rules. In fact, floor judging at Pro Tour Qualifiers involved very little in the way of rules questions, and instead, a lot of difficult situations involving players ignoring the rules for several turns and then calling judges to sort it out. The Comprehensive Rules are startlingly quiet on the subject of what to do when players don't know the rules.

I occupied myself with learning the Floor Rules and the Penalty Guidelines as well as I knew the rules. And I learned that while I didn't necessarily get a lot of opportunities to share my rules knowledge with players, I could always find interesting rules bits to talk about with other judges.

Eventually, I got pretty comfortable with that role, and I started getting opportunities to think about how to run small events... which lead to opportunities to run large events (it's a lot like small events, except you are coordinating a group of judges to do it). At a certain point, you make a leap from "what do I do next to keep this event going smoothly" to "which floor judge should I send over to clean up that mess"*. Turns out that I like teaching people about Magic.

Each of these things that I had to learn about were rewarding. I like learning about stuff.

And I was getting packs, still, and getting to travel to meet other judges and learn about how much there was left for me to learn.

In a nutshell, the draw for me was that judging was a constant series of new challenges, in much the same way that every game of Magic is different (so long as players respect the rules regarding randomization!). That's pretty great. I think that similar motivations drive a lot of judges.

Finally, are judges terrible players? I am certainly a better judge than a player, but I'm not a bad drafter. Pasi Virtanen, L3 from Finland, qualified for PT Honolulu with a top 8 at the recent GP Copenhagen. Lubos Lauer, L3 from the Czech Republic and head judge for the Copenhagen GP, started the recent GP Hasselt with an 8-1 record on day 1. It's certainly difficult to maintain a high level of play when your primary focus is judging, but it's not what drives us there.

I hope this sheds some light on why those crazy folks in the black and white stripes are up there, month after month and year after year, when they could just as easily be playing or spending their time elsewhere.

I'm off this weekend to a birthday party in Rochester, New York, but as usual I'll be keeping an eye on the forums come Monday. I'd love to hear stories from others about what motivates you to judge and what you get out of it.

Until next time, keep on shufflin'.

Seamus

* The answer, as it turns out, is often "Me."