I want to become a judge, I currently live in Orlando and we have so many LGS in my area. What do you recommend is the best way to get my foot in the door?
A while ago, I made a video called “How do I become a judge” that outlined the steps to getting certified. With the change in landscape since that video was published, I have some changes in my recommendations. My current advice is to do the following: Step 1: Getting started Go to an LGS and tell the owner that you’re interested in helping out with their events. Be honest about your experience and knowledge level. Most game store owners won’t say no to someone offering to help answer rules questions at FNM for free. After you’ve built up your reputation and have established a pattern of delivering value, you can negotiate with them to start a more formal relationship. This might involve free entry to FNM’s that you’re judging, a drinks and snacks allowance, or perhaps some more substantial compensation, particularly if the store owner wants to hire you for more serious events such as RCQ’s or prerelease weekends. You DO NOT have to be certified by any organization to start step 1, although it might help with getting more/better opportunities. Step 2 (optional): The next level First off, if you have completed step 1, you are a judge. Maybe not a certified judge, but if you are judging events (i.e., helping run them and answering players’ questions), you are absolutely a judge by any reasonable definition. Many judges are content to stay at step 1 for the entirety of their judging careers, but if you have more ambitious goals in mind, for example judging at larger events, you can accomplish that by following exactly the same steps. You need to ask the organizer for an opportunity and convince them that you will deliver value to their event. Professional tournament organizers will have a more formalized process for doing this, generally involving joining their Discord and filling out a Google form. You can usually find out the details of the process by checking the organizer’s website or emailing them. Because these opportunities are generally considered more prestigious and better compensated, there will probably be more judges applying for them. This means you will probably get turned down a few times (or perhaps many times) before you get accepted. Here are some ideas that can help your chances: 1) Mentorship: If you can work with an experienced judge who is willing to vouch for your abilities, that can greatly improve your odds of getting your application accepted. 2) Certification: All of the major tournament organizers I know do NOT require certification from any of the judge organizations in order to be staffed. Especially if you are shooting for a non-judge role (see below). That said, being certified can improve your chances, especially if the TO has no other way to know about your abilities. 3) Go for another staff role: Magic tournaments require a lot of other staff to function besides floor judges. Scorekeeping (setting up events in the computer and helping enter results and turn over to the next round), registration (taking people’s money and helping them sign up to play), back of house (accounting for Magic product and preparing and distributing it to other departments), prize wall (exchanging players’ prize tickets for prizes), and setup/teardown (helping load and unload tournament materials from the truck and get them ready) are all needed at major Magic events. Consider if you might be interested in one of these, especially if you are not confident in your rules and policy knowledge or ability to deliver rulings to players. 4) Leverage your skills: Even if you are not experienced as a judge, you may have other skills that might help you get staffed, for example, being multilingual, being able to provide aid if someone has a seizure or needs CPR, or general customer service skills from a day job.
The biggest issue that stands out to me, hearing all this, is that there is no obvious path for someone interested in being a Consulting Judge or Tournament Organizer of an event to do so. There is avenue for someone to 'become' one of those veterans that the system is currently reliant upon. The 'vanishing middle class' is not just a problem of lack of certain skills now, but it implies that, as the existing veterans age out or retire that the whole program will experience a 'brain drain' of high-experience rules consultants, without an obvious way to replace them with competent replacements, particularly given the low rules-knowledge expectation on lower level 'organizer' types.
This is true, and has historically been a matter of grave interest to judges, and many TO's. It's one of the things we really need a good judge program for, to make sure that new judges can get up to a certain core level of competency before they get on the floor of a big tournament.
Thank you for making videos like this. It's a shame how much disdain WOTC corporate has for the judge program, and for people who want to help make their game work.
With what antics MTG judges get up to is it really any surprise? I'm sure to WOTC/Hasbro it's just another PR headache to deal with that doesn't make them any money.
I’d be pretty pissed if my volunteers decided to sue me over and over again and the government siding with them. I should go volunteer for disaster relief and sue the organization for compensation.
@babaganoush4046 It is basically a job where you got paid in foil promos to cover costs. The issue, and why the lawsuits make sense, is that you don't have employee protections. If you crash your car on the way to a tournament, kill someone and your insurance says "na, we won't pay the half million, you were 'on the job'" youd be on the hook for the payment. Also, disaster relief is a dumb comparison because they're non-profit
I'm practically brand new to MtG, and this is the first video of yours I've seen (I've since watched a couple others), but I wanted to take a second to say that I really dig your vibe. You're polite, authentic, and professional. Consider me a fan. Keep doing what you're doing.
As a long time judge that's still active, I really appreciate this video to give some clarity on what's going on with the judge program and how to look at it.
I mean once we get to that point, they will probably just change the rules so that whatever the JudgeBot says goes, similar to how it works on Magic online.
Thanks for this! It sucks because judges were always treated like employees, and they deserved compensation, but the way wizards was scared into cutting all support instead of continuing with at least promos to help for a low cost seems like it hurt everyone. I'm happy you could end on a more optimistic note though.
Magic cards have (officially) no monetary values. Otherwise, opening packs would legally be considered gambling and the game would be restricted to 18+ years old. Therefore, you can't pay people with promo cards. If Hasbro thinks having tournaments is good advertising for their game, they have the possibility of compensating judges with a fair wage (and all the employment benefits that go with it)
Of course we'll grow to meet the challenges. The question should usually be "we will be adequately compensated for this work and effort?" And usually beyond a level where you have 1 on 1 dealings with a TO the answer is "no"
You already answered your own question. "Adequately compensated" means different things to different people. At the beginning of the program, people were judging for just the prestige or to feel helpful, with little consideration towards any financial aspects. There's no reason to think the same thing won't happen again if it comes to that.
@@JudgingFtW but that's such a limiting factor. How many good judges locked out because they are refused pay or else for their time? How many others overworked and taken advantage of? You and I both know people who need help in these regards, I hope we stand up for them too. Thanks for putting out some of the most useful content on this stuff to date still. We're better for your help, in most games.
I'm not saying that should be expected of judges, only that it's reasonably foreseeable based on past events. A balanced perspective and striving to understand the goals of our counterparties is important for making sense of current events and planning for the future. For example, the opposite problem has already been brought up in many other comments: there being too many judges with too low an average skill level leads to race-to-the-bottom rates and hazards to players' confidence in the program when a higher rate of mistakes occurs.
@@JudgingFtW I guess for me, I am happy to let players reckon with a world without judges rather than ask myself and others to solve the problems of a company worth more than my entire genealogy. If that means we end up on nothing then we will know we went out not giving ourselves over to people who could afford to buy and sell us. I don't wanna see another bright eye teen burn out giving themselves up to stores and tournaments and end up sicker and poorer for it.
Judges have always been the technical support of a tournament. What people need help with has changed, but people will never stop disagreeing with each other and you want someone there to impartially resolve that situation. Let's not overlook the fact that 2020 took us from a Grand Prix every weekend to no in-person tournaments in about a month. The new Spotlight Series is going to increase the need for judges, even though what the judges are needed for us a bit different.
I got into Judging just before Academy folded... I was working on getting certified for Level 1, and got "stuck" as RA. But at my local store I'm one of the two go-to judges, with my L2 mentor being called for larger regional events, and I managing the RCQs alone. I'd like to be certified, but I wouldn't even know who to talk to in Hispanic America for that, and it would certainly require traveling costs to volunteer...
There is no longer any certification. It’s the Wild West. It’s functionally equivalent to having a college degree in a field that doesn’t require one. Just do your due diligence and your best and you’ll be fine.
I feel you there! I’m almost the same- I got qualified to be an L1 judge but never went through with paying the dues or attending any meetings, mostly as I was still in college and didn’t want to spend the money since I wouldn’t get the judge promos as I didn’t have time to help at the bigger events I would need to. Now I basically just call myself an L1 judge since for the most part there is no way to actually become one again
I started becoming a judge just as it was unsupported, however I wanted to go through the process to be better at the rules with my group, and I was still able to do that. There is a wealth of information on that page that I hope is never lost.
@@JudgingFtW FFMTG was created In 2004 ( I was just starting to play the game with warrior of Kamigawa) in colaboration with Hasbro france. It was a non-profit Organisation with purpose of promote The game, Organise tournaments and form/mentor DCI judges . I was DCI Judge lvl 1 around 2007-2010. FFMTG was Organiser of National Pre release , Protour Qualifers, Regional Championship, France championship, and Had a system for Rewarding Judges On top of the DCI Promo gift. We got FFMTG points With each event (depending of Lvl and tournaments° that we could exchange on the FFMTG site for product ( ex; Judging a prerelease = a display box of choice) the frenchy pre release By then was gigantic; each city ; event the modest one had hundreds of participant and a 3-5 DCI lvl 1-2 judges to Organise and making sure everything was smooth . I can' t remember when exactly but Wotc killed it With the official intend to give power back to Local stores. you can wayback machine ffmtg.fr; and i'm sure they are people with more knoledge than me to talk about it deeper.
I regularly "work" for one of the European organizers (that also runs magic events) as a Pokémon judge. Pokémon does have a global professor program so I think that if there is enough interest that is also possible. However, as you mentioned in the video, there is less and less interest and benefit in doing that.
I had been an L1 judge working on my L2 certification when judge academy became a thing, and unfortunately as much as I love the game I could never accept the idea of paying money to be qualified to run events for the game. I believe my historical judge status expired a few years ago and while I maintain an active understanding of the game's rules and the tournament policies, I have been hosting events at my LGS as a level 0 judge for years primarily in protest of this. I'm happy to be rid of the awkwardness this all came to, and no longer have to justify why I don't consider receiving a few game pieces and a non-functional title worth spending $100 yearly.
EXCELLENT video. Though I rule it does not have the characteristics associated with the "daily ruling" video type you stated up front :P MTG is the only paper TCG I'm ever likely to play, but this vid makes me curious how other major TCGs do it. You implied it may be just TO-led ad hoc arrangements with your note about Flesh & Blood; are there any other attempts at broader organized programs?
Off the top of my head, Pokemon has a Professor program? Honestly I haven't looked into it, but I know that it's explicitly mentioned on the official website somewhere.
The professor program is much more robust as I understand it. Especially since that position expects you to be dealing with young children frequently. I'm a judge for a few of the Bandai games (One Piece, Digimon, Dragon Ball), and those are largely TO-led as well. They have online certification tests for basic competency, but the rest is applying to TOs when they announce events. Bandai has judge-stamped cards, but they aren't tied to the judge program. Stores can just hand them out to whoever. The only other things of note are official judge playmats, which are only gifted at the biggest events run with direct involvement from Bandai.
I used to be L1 but now I volunteer elsewhere with my free time. I just felt like I had to struggle to earn the right to donate my time in magic. I hope the upcoming generation of judges can be provided a clear path to advance and improve
Sounds like a separation is required between training/certification which WotC could administer and give resource too but like you say not something they give focus. Then anyone wanting to be employed as a judge can deal with their own local laws and TO so no legal issues.
I wonder how Flesh and Blood legally gets around the laws that caused issues for WoTC. The FaB judge packs are rad as well. The level 0 test is apparently pretty easy. My friend took it so that we can smoothly run events when the employee that normally runs things is out.
2:57 - Was JA the WotC solution/idea? I remember it being - WotC ended partnership with 'Judge Program.' JA's founder created it as a way to both continue the braintrust of knowledge the old Judge Program had, as well as be able to certify for other games. did that founder come from WotC?
As I remember it, some people started claiming that, as judges, they should be considered employees of WotC, so WotC sold off the rights to be "official" MtG judges to a 3rd party that created the JA.
This sounds like a disaster and several lawsuits waiting to happen. Not having a central organization certifying judges anymore means it's pretty much the wild wild west and players will have a different experience at every event they go to. It's like hiring a IT professional to work on your server and just rely on what they tell you rather than looking at their certifications to say "Hey, at the very minimum, this guy knows x and y"
Your analogy regarding IT is very apt. That field also has several organizations granting certificates, and it's more or less a total crapshoot how much value any individual employer places on any individual one. For some, it's a veritable requirement, but for others, work experience or an internal skills assessment are more important. Just so, Magic TO's have various ways to evaluate judges who apply to work at their events. As far as I know, this situation hasn't caused any disasters or lawsuits in the IT field, so I doubt it would be any more severe in an arena (pardon the pun) with much lower stakes.
At 10:14 you mentioned "the reduction in quality that we've seen from their editors, templaters, and rules writers." What are some examples of that? (I'm guessing Wheel of Potential is one?) I'd love to see a video on that topic, if you don't have one already.
Nadu is the prime example. No time to test the change or seemingly to sleep on that change to figure out how bad it would turn out. I'd argue the quality of the people has not decreased, but the pressure to put out more and more product has lead to less time to develop rules and themes.
Off the top of my head, here are a few examples from the last couple of years. Any one of these would have been rather scandalous for the first fifteen years of my Magic career, so to see all of them so close together tells me WotC is really struggling in this area. If anyone from Wizards is reading this, please devote more attention to this very important, albeit often unappreciated, aspect of the game. I am willing to offer my own services if you would like my help in any capacity: The non-inclusion of Cave as a land type in the CR until the following update after it was introduced; the continuing non-inclusion of Quintorius as a planeswalker type in the CR; the continuing existence of an example in rule CR 118.3c which contains factually inaccurate information ever since the change of how suspend works (reference CR 702.62a); the printing of Henzie “Toolbox” Torre, which did not work as intended, requiring a change to the CR; the rules change not being sufficient to prevent a similar issue surfacing with Serra Paragon in the next Standard set, requiring another change to the CR; Wheel of Potential and Suppression Ray requiring errata; the Dress Down/Nadu interaction not having a definite answer until after Nadu was banned in most formats
The way you described what you wanted it to be does make me think you wouldn't get multiple triggers if for example something doubled the counters being put on the Saga. Which actually does come up for me as I'm playing 4 of Urzas Saga and some number of Innkeepers Saga in Hardened Scales in Modern and that would mean a level 3 Innkeepers Saga would make Urzas Saga skip the "tap for mana" level 1 effect as I understand it. Kinda don't want that to happen
They should have just promoted John Carter to Emperor and Supreme Leader of Judges back in 2005 and let him put together a team to figure out the optimal way to do a judge program that provided equity to judges while also being reasonable. Dude was sharp as anyone I've ever met and was passionate enough about the program that he would have been a good candidate. But I think the bigger issue is there's really just no way to avoid conflicts of interests without making literally every judge an employee. Whether they be an employee of Wizards, or of a third party LLC or whatever, it seems like the only way to actually be fair. The weird middle ground they sought was kind of the worst of both worlds.
This feels like the kind of corner cutting that will not likely come back to bite the makers of this decision- at least, not before something else bites them worse. So from their perspective, it's a great move! What a sorry state of affairs
it seems so weird to have judges considered employees by law rather than as a class of consumer who is in an extra bonus group similar to how one can sign up to be a special customer for many products. I can see a way the judge program could be reworked to make it more directly classify as a sort of membership club to make it exempt from laws treating it as if it is unpaid labor since customer rewards programs that grant points rewards for going to events or answering surveys( in this case they would be about rulings or conduct as a judge)or a exclusive forum are common for membership clubs, having the judge program remade as such for legal purposes and having the rewards for those points being the judge promo's as well as booster boxes in order to equalize the cost of yearly membership could work out. I am not sure if what I described sounds good or not as I am not a judge and only know a bit from my best friend who was one for a while, I hope what I described could be a functional system to get around the legal nonsense bogging down judges from being able to be judges. I honestly really don't like how the laws have restricted being a judge in the way you say as it seems to me to be akin to preventing someone from helping someone else with a skill they picked up as a hobby by having it arbitrarily treated as if doing so would be them being legally treated as a professional doing unpaid work despite them not being a professional. this video explained a lot to me about why judges have became more sparse in recent years and it's really disappointing to hear it's such a complex problem sadly, I hope it can be fixed.
@@johannamegido8465 Indeed. While I'm glad OP is sympathetic to the judges, I can't imagine how you arrive at the conclusion judges are merely equivalent to being a regular player plus a few customer surveys. Judging is obviously a very different activity than playing the game - apart from the very nature of it, the former is in service of for-profit events that earn TOs and/or Wizards money.
@@johannamegido8465 why is this not a more common thought? I'm sure there's enough cash in the coffers of a multi-million dollar company to compensate judges. It may be a hassle dealing with international laws, but that doesn't stop them when they see "their" money sitting in our dirty peasant wallets.
4:32 maybe unexpected to a gullible, vocal minority. Many were saying, from the very beginning, that the costs would be prohibitive if judges became paid employees of Wizards (my educated guess was that the costs of organized play would roughly double).
EU is good at protecting workers. However, sometimes, its ham-handedness has unintended consequences, and it hurts otherwise well-oiled, peaceful machines that weren't hurting anyone.
For flesh and Blood, I feel that they should have been calling the inexperienced judges 'mediators'. If the goal is more for them to serve as an impartial third party that can resolve policy issues and help two players resolve issues with a fresh set of eyes and a bit of quickly looking things up, that's fine to have, but they aren't there to resolve the complex rules issues, so much as create a 'sensible person' barrier between the bulk of easily resolved issues, and the few people equipped to handle edge cases, right?
Would you be willing to help put together a 3rd party certification organization? The tech exists for us to run something similiar to a technology certification.
Not unless something major changes. Even putting aside the massive amount of work and stress it would entail, I respect the leadership of the current organizations too much to want to set up another one in competition with theirs. On the other hand, if any of the programs want to contract with me to provide content or perspectives, I'm happy to help out.
Magic players are like cockroaches. No matter how many times WotC just absolutely nukes their own game over and over, we'll still find a way to justify playing it and giving them money. I really wish I could experience the timeline where Hasbro never acquired them, I suspect it would look much more like what the players want it to look like.
@dicegamer3466 You could've just not responded if your plan was to be rude. Do you think I'm 5 years old? Obviously I know the world we live in is the one we live in. Jfc, it's a RU-vid comment, not a doctoral thesis on string theory. You know what I meant, as does everyone else, and telling me I have poor coping skills is uncalled for. The game would objectively look different if Hasbro hadn't acquired WotC. It's okay for me or anyone else to wonder what that might have looked like. Doesn't mean we're deluded into thinking we can go back in time and stop said acquisition, should we find that a more preferable outcome. But there will be more WotC's in the future. There will be more Hasbros in the future. We see similar trends in other industries, like film and television, and thoughtful discussion of hypotheticals like this can and do inform how we handle those situations, to whatever extent and capacity we can affect them. Next time you decide to be an unsolicited contrarian, why don't you just engage in healthy, intellectually honest discussion instead. And if you aren't capable of that, maybe you ought to consider shutting up.
