Max Kahn: A 5-Year Judging Retrospective
Exactly five years ago, I put my judge blacks on for the first time*. I was on my spring break from my freshman year in high school in Disney World, and SCG Orlando happened to be at the same time and same place. Back then, you could be staffed on these events with no prior experience, so after some emails back and forth, newly 15-year old me was floor judging an SCG Open event. And after passing the exam at the end of the day, I was officially a judge, and I began to judge at pre-releases and other local events.
Judging at the Khans of Tarkir Pre-release (September 2014)
Why did I even want to judge? Well first, I loved Magic. Second, I had already discovered that I was never going to make the Pro Tour. However, after my first Grand Prix, I found myself wanting to travel for Magic. And if I wasn’t going to place high enough to justify my flight and hotel costs, I might as well start working at the events. Third, I have and always will be a rules nerd. I was a baseball umpire for the Park District for a few seasons before I started playing Magic, and getting to combine a love for officiating with my love of Magic seemed like the perfect fit. And fourth, as a fifteen-year-old, the opportunity to spice up my trade binder with some judge promos and store credit didn’t seem like the worst idea either.
In the years since, I’ve been grateful enough to be given the opportunity to judge a bunch of different Magic events all around the country, literally from Orlando to Seattle. I’ve been staffed at Grand Prix events starting in 2015 and have judged at every level from PPTQs and Nerd Rage CTs to HASCON and Gencon. Here are some of my favorite memories from the last five years of judging Magic events:
Chicago was an amazing area to learn and develop as a judge, and I’m grateful for the help and mentorship I’ve received from these judges.
HASCON has been one of the most rewarding events I’ve judged so far, given the high caliber of the staff on the event and some of the fun memories I made, including meeting Magic’s head designer Mark Rosewater. You can read more about my HASCON experience in Part 5 of my “Summer of Magic”.
I’ve been grateful to have been on many judge staffs, but the judge staff at “SCG Waterpark” for the Winter 2017 SCG Regionals was one of the most memorable.
My first ever GenCon experience was for the convention’s 50th anniversary, which was anything but tame.
Seeing the NRG Championship Series grow from some monthly $1ks into a multi-state event series has been my personal greatest accomplishment in the Magic world.
You didn’t think I could get through all of these memories without mentioning Chains of Mephistopheles, did you? Read about this judge call (if you dare)!
Getting to visit Wizards of the Coast for the 2016 Super Sunday Series Championship was one of my favorite experiences as a Magic fan. Thanks to Alan Hochman for hooking me up!
In Seattle, I now work with the Washington Gaming Association as the Director of Magic: the Gathering.
My “So You Think You Can Judge?” judge conference presentations have been home to some of the most hilarious, wacky, and downright disturbing moments I’ve had in the judge program.
As you can tell, the reason I love judging is so rarely about the Magic. It’s about the cool places I’ve gotten to travel to, it’s about the fun stories you hear and tell, and most importantly it’s about the people. The judges that I’ve gotten the opportunity to interact with come from very diverse backgrounds and I’m so glad that I’ve gotten to meet each and every one of them. They have taught me new skills, inspired me to think about things in new ways, and have challenged me to be a better version of myself. For that, I am thankful.
When I started writing this article, I wanted to answer questions that people had about my perspective as a judge, and one of them particularly stood out. Dakota Clark asked, “What is the biggest difference in the program from 5 years ago, and what is your ideal image of the program in 5 years from now?”
The biggest difference is a huge question to tackle, so I’m going to break it into two parts: structural changes and rules/policy changes. Structurally, the judge program looks pretty different from five years ago. For starters, there used to be five levels of judge (six if you counted Rules Advisor), compared with only three levels now. Part of this was due to the New New World Order in 2016, which overhauled the definitions of each judge level and created the advanced roles. The other major structural difference that affected me was the organization of regions in the Midwest. When I certified for L1, Illinois was a member of the largest judge region in the world: a twelve-state conglomerate known as the Midwest Region. However, due to the size of the region, it was so hard to develop a sense of “regional pride” and even in-region events weren’t within a reasonable driving distance. Now, the Midwest Region has split into North, Central, and Great Lakes. While this isn’t a perfect solution, since the judging experience in Chicago is much different than in Kansas, for example, the region feels much more manageable and united.
The Midwest Region circa 2012.
The Central Region today.
Five years from now, the judging world will inevitably change. There’s a couple of lawsuits pending that may impact whether or not Wizards of the Cost classifies judges as independent contractors or employees, and the result can change the way we work with tournament organizers in the future. There’s also been talk of eliminating the level system entirely and moving towards each judge having certain certificates for each of their skill areas. I haven’t been involved in either of these discussions in great detail, so I’m unsure exactly how these two changes will affect the future of the Judge Program. I do know, however, that for as long as paper Magic is a fun, competitive, and financially viable game, that judges will continue to be necessary to run Magic events and that I will continue to serve my community as a friend, as a mentor, and as a judge. All we can wish for is that I have better-looking hair five years from now than I had five years ago. Until next time!
Max Kahn is the Event Manager for the Nerd Rage Gaming Championship Series and the Judge Manager for all Nerd Rage Gaming events. When he’s not answering your judge calls or working behind the scenes at your local event, he splits his time between Chicago, Seattle, and Twitter.
* Well, it was Star City judge “blues” if we want to get technical, but the point remains the same.
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