[Level 2 judge and new homeowner Jason Lemahieu has shared some thoughts in this space on two previous occasions, and now he returns from Spain with stories of his first experience as a Pro Tour main event judge. -Seamus
Prior to Pro Tour Valencia, I'd been fortunate enough to have attended three Pro Tours. I played in Kobe last year, and worked with Side Events as a part of Legion Events at two others. If you're doing the math at home, you've already realized that this means Valencia was my first chance to finally judge a Pro Tour, and as you can probably imagine, I was ecstatic about the opportunity.
I prepared for the event in pretty much the same way I prepare for any constructed event—by getting a solid understanding of the format using Magic Online. I wanted to make sure I could identify any card that was being played with just the quickest of glance, and make sure I knew how all the cards, as well as decks, worked. Forty hours each week in #mtgjudge and keeping up with the rules and judging email lists keep me feeling confident about my rules and policy knowledge, so I didn't take any extra time with those.
I had extended my Wizards-covered four nights to a massive nine night Spanish adventure with some friends. After five Magic-free nights of taking in all that Valencia has to offer, Thursday eventually arrived. I had volunteered to work the Last Chance Qualifier, but they said they had plenty of volunteers, so they didn't need me. After drafting with some other American and some French judges, I found David Vogin, in charge of judge scheduling, and got my hands on the schedule for Day 1 of the PT. After locating my name on it, my heart sank a bit; I was scheduled to work side events. Don't get me wrong, I understand the importance of side events, but I just really didn't think I'd be flown seven time zones away to run some drafts or help out with a large Friday Night Magic.
I retired to my hotel room to meet my new roommate, JB, an L3 from France. After we both tried stealing some wireless internet for a while, with less than satisfactory results, we ended up just joking about the heavy rains and discussing some policy and judging community issues before getting some shut-eye pretty early.
I'm sure everyone is well aware that those rains we were joking about ended up being enough to get Day 1 of Pro Tour Valencia canceled. The venue flooded and was experiencing electrical problems, making it unsafe to be in. After breakfast, a team of judges headed into the venue to rescue dozens of boxes of boosters, tournament packs, and lands for the players (and judges) waiting in the hotel. We hit a snag when the product cage was locked, but 1337 h4X0r (and new Level 3 judge) Adam Shaw was luckily able to 'ease' the door open anyway.
The judging staff staked claim to a room in the basement of the hotel for some games of Elder Dragon Highlander and sealed deck play. By the afternoon, however, the games were replaced with seminars. I participated in Lindsay Hemming's seminar on being a team lead, and then in Carlos Ho's discussion of the Player Communication Guidelines. The PCG being still a very new addition to the Penalty Guide, there was a lot of interpretation going on, which made for some great discussions. With a PTQ season just getting underway, I encourage judges and players alike to become familiar with the communication guide. Everyone needs to know what they're allowed to say, what they're required to say, and, in turn, what they can choose to strategically omit.
After the seminars, we were informed that due to the tremendous efforts of the WotC and venue staff, the hall would be open to the public starting at 6 that night. David had also thrown together a new schedule for the new Day 1, which to my relief, had me working on the Match Result Slips team on Day 1. One highlight of Friday night was playing some games of Magic with a judge from Spain . completely in Spanish (at my request). Not surprisingly, things like 'upkeep' and 'attack' were absent from my Spanish classes. It was really interesting to learn that the some words carry over in their literal translations, while others don't. For example, your hand is still your mano, but your library is NOT your biblioteca. (I had actually tried to print this stuff out ahead of time, but my cheat sheet" was randomly down the morning before I left when I was printing out everything else I needed for the trip.)
The new Day 1 was now scheduled to be ten rounds. I thought about that as I put on the dressiest black shoes I own, and started to regret 'professionalism' being one of my goals for judging my first Pro Tour. By round 8, I was sure I'd be wishing I had some more comfortable sneakers along.
All in all, Day 1 went by ridiculously smoothly. I must say, I was very impressed with the level of technical play I saw. Over ten rounds, I only had one or two calls that were things like "I forgot to discard to my Razormane Masticore." Instead, most of the calls were for legitimately tricky rules questions, such as, "Does Golgari Grave-Troll really count itself if you Dread Return it?" (yes) or "Does Meddling Mage stop an Isochron Sceptor?" (no)
In addition to the technical play, I was also very impressed with the level of sporting play. Even with so much on the line, players accepted mana screw and unfortunate topdecks with much more grace than your standard FNM player. I saw players teaching each other their native languages and laughing constantly, despite the stakes of the tournament. I even saw a player trying to talk a judge out of giving his opponent a game loss for being tardy.
There was a memorable judge call where the player asked to speak in private, which is nothing unusal in and of itself. He said his opponent activated a Bloodstained Mire at his end of turn step, and announced, "I'll go get a Blood Crypt." After looking through his deck twice, with an increasingly confused look on his face, he said, "I'll just take this Swamp instead." The player who called me was concerned that his opponent might have lost his deck's sole Blood Crypt by mistake at some point, and might have been playing with a 59-card deck. I quickly explained the situation to the deck check team, who 'randomly' selected the table for an 'immediately following the game' deck check.
The judge who performed the deck check said the first thing he did was go through the deck looking for the Blood Crypt, and couldn't find one, so he proceeded to lay out the entire deck. Only then was he able to identify the Blood Crypt. It was in a foreign language, using non-Latin characters, and looked so different from an English one that both the player and the judge, when looking specifically for that card, were unable to recognize it.
That tale should teach two lessons. First, if you borrow cards in another language, be sure you know what they are and what they do. Secondly, if you suspect something fishy, call a judge. I was more than happy to investigate the situation because the player's actions did seem legitimately odd.
For Day 2, I was assigned to side events, helping Shawn Doherty run drafts all day. After the long Day 1, I was more than fine with this. Very few of the players at Side Events spoke English, so this was the perfect opportunity to put my Spanish to the test. Luckily, I had been practicing all week. I ended up telling players how to draft, reminding them they couldn't review their picks except between packs, emphasizing their eyes need to stay on their own cards, telling them what to do when their match is over, explaining fairly complicated rules questions, and even making announcements for players on the microphone—all in Spanish!
Now that Valencia has wrapped up, I can put a few of the misconceptions I had in regards to the Pro Tour to rest. First of all, I was always under the impression that Pro Tours were intentionally overstaffed, to promote time for things like judge discussions and mentoring. However, that was hardly the case. I often found myself the only judge for as many as forty or fifty tables. With the aforementioned high level of technical play on the Pro Tour, this isn't actually too much of a problem, until the match result slips start coming in and I simply didn't have enough arms to collect them all concurrently.
As mentioned previously, I had assumed the bulk of the excitement of the Pro Tour came with the main event. While it's true that it was very fulfilling to work the main event Day 1, I had more fun judging Side Events than I ever would've guessed. It could be that the PT has become 'just another tournament' for many of the competitors, while for most of the players in side events, it's their first time actually being at a Pro Tour, and their excitement shows. Or maybe it's the diversity, both of people and of formats, that makes Side Events so fun. Either way, it was an all around great time.
Of course, not all my notions of the Pro Tour would turn out to be false. I went into it expecting to work hard, meet some new people, and have a great time. Ten round days and running about thirty concurrent drafts clearly kept me working hard. Meeting other judges is easy, and is always one of my favorite parts of the larger events. Whether I was looking for a language tutor, another person to draft, or even a phone to use, it was always my fellow judges who would jump at the opportunity to help. Last but not least, one of my major goals was to have fun at the event, and I cannot even begin to explain how much of that goal's ass I kicked.
I'd like to urge all of you players to make your way to the next Pro Tour on your continent, as there is plenty for everyone to do. Side Events at Worlds is even giving away a car this year! For you judges, do whatever you need to do to volunteer at a Pro Tour, as it's an experience you won't soon forget. Thanks to everyone who made my PT Valencia trip a success!
- Lems
|
