Let me start out by introducing myself to those of you who might remember me from years gone by when I used to contribute to this site on a more regular basis. My nom de plume (and in fact, my screen name in MODO) is Baron of Scrubs. I am not a pro-level player; I have never made a top eight in any premier event. I am not on a team of pro-level players, so don't look to me for the absolute latest tech or top tips on how to play the Tinker-on-Tinker match up (aside from,"Try to stay awake during your opponent's turns, no matter how long they take").

Now that I have lost at least half of you, let me say that I am part of a team - a very important team. The Pro Tour wouldn't happen without us. I am a Level Two judge, and I was part of the judging team at Pro Tour: New Orleans this past week and this article is written to show you what a typical judge does at a Pro Tour event.

This trip started back in August, when the call on the Judge's List came for people to submit their names for sponsorship to Pro Tour New Orleans. If you get sponsored for a Pro Tour, Wizards pays for your plane ticket to the city where the event is happening and puts you up in a hotel for up to four nights (Thursday through Sunday nights). Given that the Pro Tours are not generally held in backwater areas, this represents a somewhat large sum of money for most people, so most of the Level Two and above judges who want to work the Pro Tour submit a small resume and a plea to be selected. The period for submission is a fairly small one - about ten days - so if you want to go on Wizard's nickel, you have to pay attention to the list and be ready to submit your plea. Since I passed my Level Two test and interview at US Nationals, this was the first Pro where I could submit my name for consideration. My email to Alex Weitz was sent off in near record time.

Unfortunately, Alex decided to leave Wizards and follow Jeff Donais to Top Deck just after the period for submission was closed. So instead of having the list of people selected posted to the Judge's List some time in early September, it wasn't until early October that I found out that I was not one of the lucky ones.

I knew that there was a good likelihood that I would not be chosen, as there are a number of factors that go into who gets picked: Firstly, they need to consider judges who are ready to test for higher levels. You see to become Level Two judge, it only takes at least a year's worth of work at Level One, passing the Level Two test, and passing an interview with the testing judge. For Level Three, you not only have to work for two years as a Level Two, pass the Level Three test (a much harder one than those used for Levels One and Two), but your interview is much more intense than those before, with a panel of three Level Threes and above interviewing you and role playing through some interesting and difficult scenarios. This can happen only at the high-level events, so if you are ready to test, you have priority for sponsorship.

Secondly, they take into account the experience level of those submitting for sponsorship. If you have worked well at previous Premier-level events, they like to have you back.

Needless to say, my name was not on the list of judges selected for the event, (long sigh...). That meant that if I was going to go to the event, I would have to do it on my own expense. While Wizards could run the event with just the judges they sponsor, there is easily room for additional judges; in fact, they count on local judges and others to step in and assist.

Now why would someone pay to do this?

For me, the desire to have the experience of working a Pro Tour and the desire to help give back something to the game that I love were definite reasons. It also provided a chance to visit a city that I had never been to and to see friends I haven't seen since the last major event I went to (US Nationals). I had just finished a couple of months of hard work with long hours, and I admit the desire to have a vacation that included Magic was a great draw. I booked my plane ticket and a hotel room and wrote an email to Rune Horvik (who had replaced Alex), asking if I could be included in the list of other judges for the event. I knew that even if I wasn't selected in the self-paid group, I could work the side events and pick up some money/product and help make the event run a bit more smoothly.

So I breathlessly awaited Rune's reply - and when I didn't see one by the week before the event, I sent off an email to Tim and Sheila Weissman of Event Horizons, who were running the side events, volunteering to assist them. I got my schedule from them a couple of days before I was due to fly out. I was to be working the last chance qualifier Thursday night and the PTQs on Friday and Saturday, as well as doing general judging on Sunday. It's a good bit of work, and necessary, but not quite as glamorous as the Pro Tour itself.

My flight back to New Orleans was uneventful and the hotel was nice so I wandered the city on Thursday morning, having breakfast at the famous Café du Monde and taking a lot of pictures of the French Quarter for my daughter. I went back to the hotel room just after lunch, cleaned up, and put on the zebra shirt and headed over to the convention center. I had checked out the distance to the convention center the evening before and it was a good walk (just over a mile) but not too hard. Unfortunately, I hadn't checked out the convention center itself. It turns out that the convention center is around a mile long - and of course, the Pro Tour was in the hall at the other end of the center.

One thing I found disconcerting was that with all of the halls (there were ten), the convention center does not have any directory showing in which hall each event is scheduled. Therefore, I wandered about looking for the event and didn't find it... But I knew I was in the right place when I saw the clumps of players trading, playtesting, drafting and performing other unspeakable acts involving cardboard in some of the nooks and crannies of the convention center. I also ran into one of the judges I had worked with at Nationals and we talked a bit, with me mentioning that I had hooked up with side events since I hadn't seen anything from Rune about working the main floor. I finally located the hall and reported in with Tim and Sheila and helped them set up for the Last-Chance PTQ.

The format for the PTQ was Standard, so I knew that I would get a chance to see some very interesting decks with Champs having happened the previous weekend. The tournament actually ran very smoothly, ending around 1:30 a.m.

It was in the next-to-last round that I made my worst mistake of the weekend. I was watching a game at table 13 (so the players involved could possibly make top eight, but needed every advantage), and time was called. Each player had one game win and it was not looking good for either player to win in the allotted five extra turns. It was after midnight and I was extremely tired, not being able to sleep well in the early stages of a trip, and I was watching the match, mostly to prevent potential slow play or collusion. The match up was Goblins with Ensnaring Bridge vs. a U/W control deck. There was no way for the Goblin player to win, but he had an empty hand at the start of the extra turns, taking the first of them, with a Bridge on the board. He drew, played a land, and said,"Go." His opponent drew and played some card drawing spells, looking for the one card he thought was still in his deck that would allow him to attack for the win. It wasn't happening this turn, so he passed.

The Goblin player drew a card and played a Skirk Prospector. "Go." His opponent drew and played another couple of card drawing spells, still not finding his key card. He was slow-rolling the draws, looking hard at the cards and telling his friends that he wasn't sure that he hadn't sideboarded out the answer he was looking for. He passed the turn. The Goblin player drew his card, looked at it, and said,"Go." The control player drew his card, muttering about how lucky the Goblin player was to still be in it with all of the cards he had drawn. Yet another card drawing spell. Carefully looking at the cards drawn, he cast the bounce spell he had been looking for on the Bridge and attacked with lethal damage. The Goblin player looked disgusted, showed the spell in his hand and started scooping up his cards, mixing in his library, when he stopped, looked at me, and asked me the fatal question.

Did any of you spot my error?

The control player had dealt lethal damage on the sixth of five extra turns.

I hadn't stopped the match at the end of five turns. The control player objected to my saying that the match should be a draw due to the fact that I hadn't ended the match after the fifth extra turn and also claimed that it was only the fourth extra turn, not the sixth, when he dealt lethal damage. As I was slowly running through the extra turns in my head, he was also questioning if his opponent's scoop at the end indicated that the Goblin player was conceding. When I made my ruling that the attack occurred after the match had ended in a draw, he wanted me to reconstruct the entire five extra turns to demonstrate that it was only five turns. Unfortunately for him, I only needed to reconstruct the plays of the Goblin player to determine what had happened and so stuck with my initial ruling.

The control player appealed to the head judge, who asked me if I was sure in my contention and I went over the Goblin player's last three turns with him, saying that I was certain that they were all in extra time and that the Goblin player had taken turn one of extra time, and so the head judge upheld my ruling.

Okay - not the best start to the weekend, but something that was correctable and a learning experience. Only two more PTQs to go and some fill-in judging.

I headed off to my hotel and got around four hours sleep, before getting up, grabbing breakfast in the hotel café and heading over to the site to get in some playing before judging that evening's PTQ.

I got there and signed up for a draft before seeing StarCityGames' own Sheldon Menery posting seating for the Pro Tour Players. I walked over and said hello, having worked with him at Nationals and Grand Prix: Los Angeles. Sheldon then told me that I was on the list for working the Pro Tour and I should go over and see Mike Guptil, the Head Judge. Hurrying over, I introduced myself and apologized for not being on time, as I never saw anything from Rune that I was chosen to work as a volunteer judge. He indicated that he had known about my not hearing from Rune, and then said that I was on the Checks team and should get ready to do some real work. I was to report to my team leader, Savvas, a Level Two judge from South Africa who was here to test for Level Three. I scurried in the back to change my shirt (I had brought it in my backpack, so I wouldn't have to go back to the hotel before the PTQ), and reported to my team leader. I then quickly ran back to the side event area to withdraw from the draft I had signed up for and to let Sheila know that I had been picked for the main event after all.

Given the turnout at side events, she thought it would not be a problem if I was not able to judge for them and worked over on the main event. My real PT New Orleans adventure was about to begin.

As I mentioned above, I was part of the Checks team. While some of you might be higher-level judges or have just had a previous interest in what happens in judging a higher level event, I will wager that most of you have not had the opportunity to see what judging a Pro Tour or Grand Prix is about, so allow me to rip aside the veil of secrecy and show you what goes on at a Pro Tour... Or at least what I experienced at my first Pro Tour as a judge.

There are four teams of judges at a Premier level event: The Pairings team, the Slips team, the Logistics team and the Checks team.

• The Pairings team is responsible for getting up the list of who is paired against whom and what table number they are at. After posting the pairings, they become the floor judges at the higher level tables.
• The Slips team is responsible for cutting up the results slips and getting them on each table within the first couple of minutes of each round. Then they are delegated to a section below the high tables to be floor judges.
• The Logistics team is responsible for anything that needs doing within the realm of supplies and such. For instance, if a chair breaks, the Logistics team jumps into action and gets another chair as a replacement. They are also tasked with the general cleanliness of the environment as well as being floor judges in the lower 40-50% of the tables.
• The Checks team is tasked with doing all of the deck checks at the event and joining the Logistics team as floor judges. In the first round, all of the deck registration sheets need to be given a preliminary check for validity. This takes a lot more work than just the Checks team can handle, so additional judges are assigned to assist them.

As I had arrived a little late, the group was already in full swing checking the sheets, so I was given the job of double-checking any errors found.

Let me say right here that as this was a Constructed, professional-level event, where all of the people playing received an invitation to the event due to their ability either through their rating, their previous Pro Tour-level success or through winning a very coveted slot, there should not have been any errors for us to find. Right?

Well...

One player had listed two"Scrolls" in his main deck. Unfortunately, there are multiple cards that could be abbreviated as "Scroll," at least three of which were played at the event; Cursed Scroll, Merchant Scroll and Scroll Rack (it was the last of the three which most of the judging staff would have abbreviated as"Rack," not"Scroll," although none of us would have used an abbreviation at all). Another player seemed to need only fourteen cards in their sideboard, while a third was going to try to sideboard in a card named"Ensnaring Plague" (not any card that I am aware of, but then I don't play the other CCGs out there).

The topper was the player who wanted us to guess who submitted the sheet, as they had left off any identification whatsoever. This doesn't address the players who did such things as listing"0" copies of a card, or mixed English and another language to identify the card (Volrath's Stronghold, identified as something like"Woraughths Fortress"). Don't get me started on some of the handwriting on the sheets.

The first four errors above earned the player a game loss. Not the way I would like to start a round at a Pro Tour.

A simple rule: Write out your decklist ahead of time. If you change a card due to scouting reports, make sure to change it on your sheet before you copy it to the official deck registration sheet. Make sure to triple-check your deck list, and quadruple-check the deck registration sheet. Make sure the number of cards add up to at least sixty in the main deck and exactly fifteen in the sideboard. These are simple things to do that really help prevent such penalties. All this noted, about 310 of the 318 players got it right, so it can't be too hard... But some of those errors were on players who have multiple Pro Tours under their belt.

That and sorting the sheets out into the expanding file, pretty much ate up the first round of the tournament. We turned over the deck registration sheets to the mighty Ben Bleiweiss for entry into the computer for eventual posting to the web (more on this later).

We started the second round with deck checks on three tables with significant problems. A few game losses later, we were ready to start floor judging. The Checks team joins the Logistics team in floor judging the higher numbered tables.

The next few rounds included a couple of random tables for deck checking, along with ones that still had some issues with their lists, but not really serious ones. We were able to complete the deck checks before the ten-minute mark in each round on Friday, even those with problems. Since this includes the time it took to present the deck (often close to three minutes into the round), we considered this timeliness a success. My task for much of the checking was to get the sheets ready for the other judges returning from the"Swoop." The"Swoop" is where the Checks judge is loitering in the area of the table to be checked, waiting for the players to present their decks for the opponent to shuffle. You do not want to be perceived as waiting to swoop down on the table you are to check, as that would give the players a chance to correct any shady dealings that they might be involved in (although we didn't see any of this at this event). While this may seem a bit harsh, given the past history of Pro Tour events, we would rather err on the side of caution.

When the deck is brought back to be checked, the first thing that we do is look at the deck registration sheet to make sure that it was given an initial check and to see if we spot any glaring errors that might have been missed in the press to check out three-hundred-plus sheets in less than fifty minutes. The next thing we check is the sideboard. We check to see that the appropriate cards are in the sideboard and that the sleeves are not marked in any way. This is done first, as it is the fastest way to determine if someone failed to desideboard between rounds. Next the main deck is checked for randomness. It is then sorted and compared to the deck registration sheet. As we do this, we check the sleeves to determine if there are any problems with the sleeves. With any minor problems with the sleeves, we note them and have the player substitute a different sleeve for the suspect one. If they do not have any extras, we have them swap a sideboard sleeve with the offending one and tell them to swap sleeves if that sideboard card is brought into the deck.

Let me say here that before any event of any magnitude, get new sleeves and check them out. Sleeve your deck in the new sleeves after shuffling either the deck or sleeves. If the sleeves have some minor defect on a series of cards, by shuffling them, you tend to make sure that the sleeves for the same cards are all marked with the same defect. Also remember that miniscule defects can become easily apparent with lots of use (and with all of the searching and shuffling in Extended today, the sleeves saw a lot of use during the day).

I also recommend that if there is a day two to the event and you manage to make it, change your sleeves to new ones yet again. It is far better to take a little extra time and energy to do this than to get match losses for"marked cards - major" and have to do it anyway.

I did get to do one"Swoop" on Friday. In the fifth round, one of the random tables selected for checking was called out as a Feature Match. This led to a discussion among the Checks team of whether we should disrupt a Feature Match with a deck check. It has been done both ways in the past, so after pulling the sheets for checking, I went over to Mark (the Grand Poobah of the Feature Match area) and asked him. He replied that if the table was chosen for a check, we should check it.

I looked around for the person assigned to the table for the swoop and didn't see him. I checked in with the judge for the Feature Match area and then asked for the players' decks and sideboards when they presented their decks to their opponent. I was checking Mike Pustilnik's deck and discovered a minor error that warranted a caution. Mikey P had inadvertently shuffled his deck with the cards facing in different directions. As some of you may know, your deck should all face the same direction as if it is done purposefully, it could give you unfair knowledge of what the upcoming cards in your library are. After drawing Mikey P aside and informing him of what I found, the match began. Even with the caution, we completed the deck check in the allotted time.

Afterwards, I informed the head judge of the caution given and he asked me if I would check Mikey P again at the start of the next round. I did so and after a startled "What, me again?" I told him that I was only rechecking to make sure that the problem hadn't reoccurred as per the head judge's request. He opined that checking up on him was fair and their match began. I gave their match an additional two minutes because of the interruption and then went on to floor judge the round in my assigned area.

The art of floor judging consists of mainly looking at games in progress to see that the players are playing at a good pace and that they are obeying the rules. We look for players who have what could be described as a questioning look on their faces, and we go over and watch that match for a bit. The reason for this is that most times when this happens, either their opponent is doing something that they are not sure is legal or it may involve a card that they haven't tested against and may have questions on the rulings for the card. We also look for tables where some sort of contention might be occurring, as that is where the majority of rulings take place. And of course, there is always the need to respond to a player calling for a judge.

We also look for tables where the"Concession Dance" might be taking place to make sure that any decision to concede is as much on the up and up as possible. The"Concession Dance" (a close relative the"Intentional Draw Dance") usually take place in the later rounds of the day. The"Concession Dance" usually occurs either right at the beginning of the round, or late in the round when it looks like the match will end in a draw. It usually starts with one player commenting that they would have the record necessary to advance (get more money, get the points necessary to stay on the train, etc.) if they win, but both players would not advance if they draw. The rules clearly state that a player may concede a game or the match at any time. The reasons for this have been hashed out in an excellent article by Sheldon, but it really boils down to the fact that we as judges cannot prevent someone from playing in such a way as to give up or draw the game anyway. Even "Draw, Discard, Go" could be part of a viable strategy (I have seen it done with a Reanimator deck to put a big creature in the yard for later).

"An evaluation of my mind-reading skills" was not part of any test that I took to be a judge. Draws and concessions could be engineered by any pair of players even if they are playing at a reasonable pace. What we as judges need to be aware of are concessions or draws as a part of a quid pro quo deal. Yes, players could make deals behind our backs or could concede in anticipation of receiving a benefit from the other player - but as long as they are both at the table, there should be no explicit benefit given to another player in exchange for a concession or draw. This is something that we can enforce like any other rule. One interesting note here is that one of the higher level judges observed that with the change to eight rounds each day, there is far less of the"Intentional Draw Dance" and much more of the"Concession Dance" happening late in the first day of a Pro Tour.

Floor judging at a Pro Tour also includes collecting the match slips when a match completes. The judge has to sign the slip and turn it into the scorekeeper. I make it a practice (as do most, if not all, of the floor judges) to check with at least one player to see that the result is correct. I usually ask the listed loser of the match if the results are correct, as he has the most to lose if they are incorrect. This is something that we are supposed to do, but sometimes gets lost in the shuffle of the end-of-round activities.

When time is called, there should be a judge for every match that is still going on. Many of them may not be in extra turns due to extra time for rulings or deck checks and someone needs to monitor the time. For those in extra turns, someone needs to monitor them to make sure they end on time (oops...) and to make sure that any"Dancing" going on is legal. We also have to monitor for slow play. Just because you are on a limited number of turns, you must still play at a reasonable pace.

You get to see some very interesting plays during this time. Usually, both players are searching as hard as they can to bring the game to a successful conclusion for themselves and to frustrate their opponent. They make plays that even the lowliest scrub wouldn't risk, but might work in this case because of limited turns. This is one of the most exciting times to be a judge. The general populace gets to see some of this by reading the Feature Match coverage (both here on StarCityGames and on the Sideboard), but as a judge, you often get to see it unfold right before your eyes. You also get to see the range of human emotion go through the players faces as they go from thinking that they are doomed in the next turn, to the intense thought over how the card they just drew affects the situation that they are facing, to elation when they find the perfect play that snatches the victory from their luckless opponent, or not, if that opponent has the perfect counter to the perfect play.

One interesting thing that happened on Friday was that StarCityGames' own Sheldon Menery caused some concern amongst the players and judges by walking off with the clock remote. Wizards brought two large digital countdown clocks for the event, which were used to time the rounds. These clocks were controlled by a single remote. Sheldon had been in charge of starting the clocks when the announcement was made at the beginning of each round. When Sheldon's lunch break came up, he walked away from the convention hall with the remote in his pocket. Many of the floor judges, myself included, noted that the clock had not started with the start of the round and brought this to Mike Guptil's attention. The clocks were started manually and the round proceeded without too much delay. Some players received some extra time for the round, as they had been in a place where they couldn't hear announcements and had been waiting for the clock to start.

After eight rounds of play, most of the judges were beat, but it was Halloween in New Orleans. Mike Guptil reminded us that while partying hardy would be a great deal of fun while it happened, we needed to be here early the next morning ready to shepherded the a hundred and twelve remaining players through another eight rounds of grueling play. Personally, being on the wrong side of fifty, I had decided that the scene on Bourbon Street on Halloween was probably not for me. I opted for a draft instead. It was almost a mistake, as it took almost ninety minutes to get together eight players and start the draft, but I was happy to stick it out.

I drafted an insane white deck with a red splash that included a Loxodon Punisher, three Leonin Den-Guards, two Skyhunter Cubs, a Loxodon Warhammer, Vulshok Battlegear, and Vulshok Gauntlets. Getting an 18/13 trampling, Spirit Linked creature kind of ends games quickly.

I won the first two rounds fairly quickly, just getting that Punisher in the second round equipped for the win the turn before my opponent could cast his Platinum Angel to go with his Scythe of the Wretched-equipped Spikeshot Goblin. I offered a split for the finals due to the late hour and my opponent agreed. So after collecting my packs, I headed back to the hotel for some well-earned rest.

On Saturday, I was assigned to the Logistics team under team captain David Welch, a Level Two judge from Arkansas who was going to test for Level Three on Sunday. Waiting for all of the players to arrive and for the area to open up, I went around and checked all of the chairs for problems like broken backs, excessive rocking, or a seat that slanted too far forward. After replacing about six chairs, it was almost time for the players to arrive and be seated for round nine.

It was at this point in time that the Checks team discovered that due to the delegation of a judge for testing people for Level One and Two, and with one judge moving over to side events, they were one judge short of the six that works best for that team. Mike asked me to help out the Checks team since I had done such a good job the day before.

We first pulled out all of the deck registration sheets and separated out those players who had made day two and put them back into the expand-a-file. The players all started taking their seats and I was assigned a table to swoop. I did swoops every round on Saturday. We didn't find any problems with the decks, aside from a sleeve or two that needed replacing, and it was off to floor judge.

I had only one tricky question in the first round concerning Oath of Druids. The problem was that the card in use was French and the player asking the question didn't read French. The question concerned the timing on when the creature came into play and the remaining cards into the graveyard. The key word on the card is the 'and' in the "place that creature into play and the other cards revealed into your graveyard." Because it uses 'and' and not 'then', the two effects are simultaneous. That means if you Oath up an Avatar of Woe and a Dragon Breath is put in the graveyard at the same time, the Dragon Breath triggers and may be placed on the Avatar to give it haste. This was a question that I already knew the answer to, but the player requested the current Oracle wording for the ruling. I grabbed the binder from the judges' stand and showed him the wording and play continued. I gave them four minutes extra time for the ruling - not that it was needed. The match was over fairly quickly.

During the second round, an issue came up: One player, at the end of his match, complained to me that his opponent knew every card in his deck and sideboard. It seems that the opponent was part of a team that could go online and download the deck list for each opponent for a quick review after the pairings were posted. As there were no rules against this, there was nothing I could do about this practice directly, but I told him that I would bring it up with the head judge.

I was not the first judge to approach Mike with this question but Rune had come up with a solution: They printed out the decklists for everyone in day two, taped them together and taped them to the tables on the other side of the Pro Tour area (where I was working on Friday). This was announced when pairings were posted, and the stampede of players running over to check out their opponent's deck every round was amazing to see.

This caused a problem in the following round, when one player wrote down what type of deck his opponent was playing and what key cards were different from the standard build on the back of his score pad. One of the judges on the Logistics team noted him turning over his pad to study something and went over to look at the pad. It was clear that the player had not had the opportunity to see these cards, as it was the first game and some of the cards on the list were still in the player's library. Reviewing outside information while playing is distinctly against the rules, and Mike was called over to substantiate the floor judge's ruling of a match loss.

On Saturday, Sheldon almost caused panic again when he started to walk away with the clock remote, but the head judge caught him just in time.

It was also on Saturday that I finally figured out what was happening with the announcements about there being only five minutes left in the round. I would hear the start of the announcement and look over at the judge's stand, but no one would be at the microphone giving the announcement. It seems that DCI Reporter, the program used to run a tournament, has a function built in to allow it to broadcast messages and the scorekeeper had the message recorded on his computer and was using this function to pipe the announcement through the loud speakers.

The day went very smoothly for the teams that I was on. There were no major logistical issues, and the checks flowed very smoothly with only one check taking us past the ten-minute mark in the round. One player was using the same sleeves that he used the day before, and had not checked the sleeves prior to sleeving the deck. There were two separate minor defects in the sleeves that affected multiple cards. Unfortunately for him, these defects were placed on the same cards. Five of nine Islands and three of four Mana Leaks were distinguishable from the other cards. The markings were not as severe as those that were found on Dave Williams' Accumulated Knowledges two years ago and given that only some of the cards had minor marking, we felt that the appropriate penalty was a game loss and the player had to resleeve his deck. He ran over and bought some new sleeves and the Checks team helped him resleeve after he shuffled the sleeves around to prevent any defects from showing up on similar cards.

While watching one of the higher level tables right before time was called for the final round, a fairly well known player asked me if he could offer a prize split with his opponent in return for a concession. I informed him that if he did, it would be very serious and would lead to a disqualification without prize and likely a suspension from sanctioned play. From other things he said, it was clear that he was confused over what happens in the finals of a PTQ or such where one player drops and receives prizes from the other one ("I'll give you my box and the money for the slot..." sort of action). He believed that since this was the final round before the top eight, it might be legal.

He did offer a straight-up prize split to his opponent, who accepted. They played two more turns each and then when time was called with neither of them in a commanding position, the opponent figured that the two of them would make more money if one of them conceded and since the other player was higher-ranked in the tournament, the prize would be bigger if the opponent conceded, so he did. What happened here was legal in the eyes of the DCI - and as I said earlier, it really is beyond the power of the judges or the DCI to enforce rules that would prevent such from happening. While it is true that the two of them got more money by means of the concession and since the pool of money is fixed that meant that other players got less, what is also probably true is that a number of the players that were moved a notch lower in the standings also took part in a few steps of the"Concession Dance."

After the final match finished, the judges got together and Mike thanked us for all of our hard work. He commented that this tournament went off without any major scandal except for the one that would play out tomorrow. By this time, it was known that one of the two French players who were in the quarterfinals and facing each other would not be showing up on Sunday (see the Ferrett's article on this). The table judges were assigned for the top eight and it was announced that StarCityGames' own Gis would be leading a judging workshop on Sunday for those of us not involved with the top eight matches. I went off, got some dinner from the concession area, and took part in one draft before leaving for my hotel room and some well-earned rest.

On Sunday, after a good night's rest, I had a good breakfast and headed over to the convention center to watch some of the quarterfinals and take part in the workshop. I got to see Upheaval used as a kill card when Eugene Harvey attacked with many Myr tokens while Osterberg had a Platinum Angel on the board, taking him to negative six life, followed by the big Ups.

(A side note here: All during the weekend, Sheldon was asking the other judges what their favorite State-Based Effect was, his being poison counters. My answer was the check when my opponent's life total was zero or less, which is what caught Osterberg here.)

At the conclusion of the judging workshop, one of the judges from Atlanta asked what brought each of us to want to judge at this level as he was looking for reasons to persuade some of his players to make the move to judging. It seems that they do not have enough judges to do all that he, as a TO, would like to do. Most of the judges expressed that the rewards of judging do not quite match up with the thrill of winning a Pro Tour or Grand Prix, but few winners of such are few and far between, while judges at a Pro Tour or Grand Prix are more numerous.

Additionally, number of us talked about the respect that we get judging at the higher events. I related what happened with me in the final round and mentioned that as a player, I would probably not receive the same level of respect that I received as the judge on the spot. I judge because I can do it well and help make events run smoother, which helps the game that I love. Without the judges, there would be no events. While this would not bother a good majority of the people who play Magic around the kitchen table, it would have an impact on the game in that without the high-level events, the visibility of Magic would be much lessened and in the end that would hurt sales and new development.

Later, while thinking about what the other judge asked, I felt that perhaps I could show a bit of what it was like to work a high-level event for the first time and perhaps show those players who might consider a shot at judging what it was like. One thing that I didn't mention was that there is a great feeling of being part of a dedicated team, with all of the joking and interest from your teammates that occurred during the weekend with the judges.

After all of this, I watched some of the semis before heading over to the Side Events area to get into one last draft. I drafted a fun deck, with all sorts of fun stack interactions. The key card in the deck was Power Conduit, supported by three Clockwork Condors, a Sun Droplet, a Forge Armor and my first-ever Spikeshot Goblin. (After fourteen drafts and two sealed decks I finally got one, and it wasn't even in a pack that I opened. I had not even opened one before getting this one). I lost in the first round against a double striking, pumped, Fangren Hunter... Twice. I did get to do all sorts of neat tricks with charge counters from the Sun Droplet and such, but it was all in vain. After this, I watched the finals and then headed off to the Judges dinner.

After each premier event, Wizards takes the judges out to dinner at a local restaurant. We stretched the budget a bit this time and twenty-six of us (twenty-four judges, plus the wives of Mike Guptil and Sheldon, both of whom had helped all weekend at Side Events) went off to K-Paul's, a reasonably famous restaurant in the French Quarter. The food, drinks, and conversation were a one of the highlights of the trip for me. After that, it was back to the hotel to rest up for a day of sightseeing and a night of drunken debauchery on Bourbon Street with StarCityGames' own Ferrett and a couple of friends before catching my flight out on Tuesday.

As always, if you have comments or questions, do not hesitate to contact me by email at the address below.

Arthur S Pruyn
The Baron of Scrubs
Level Two Judge
play.fair@sbcglobal.net