Hello Judges!
What an amazing start to the year. Membership renewals held steady while even more new judges continue to be brought into the fold. Our ever-growing judge community is something really very special. As the weather slowly gets warmer and we start to see more events sprout up, we are reminded of how incredible it is to have a global education network of folks so dedicated to running games that are fun and fair. We look forward to hearing even more stories about the spectacular things each of you are doing in your local communities.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Jacopo Strati – Medium Event Lead badge AND Policy Expert badge
Renato Spinelli – Medium Event Lead badge
Q1 NEWS AND BLOG POSTS
News: Updated Judge Regions for 2023: International Edition
Academy Blog: How Do We Actually Cast Spells?
News: An Update to Conference Applications
Academy Blog: Adequate
Academy Blog: Ambiguous Card Names
Academy Blog: What I Learned About Magic: The Gathering While Watching Monster Trucks Do Sick Flips
Academy Blog: Reliable
News: Q1 2023 Conference Bulletin
Academy Blog: Judge Jargon
Academy Blog: I Promise This Isn’t About Warcraft
REGION UPDATES
Some small updates to Non-USA regions were announced in January. Read more about those changes here. Updated USA regions will be rolling out this summer, likely at the beginning of June.
LANGUAGES
Judge Academy translations into Portuguese and Chinese are still underway. The Rules Advisor Test and Level 1 Final Exam are now both complete and almost ready to launch in both languages. Individual modules are next in line for translation, and are waiting on a few script updates. As always, we want to extend a huge thank you to the talented judges who are working so hard on making these translations happen for us!
TO JUDGE ENDORSEMENTS
A while back we teased an update to the endorsement process, giving approved tournament organizers the ability to write endorsements for Rules Advisors hoping to progress to Level 1 Judge certification. It took a little longer than expected, but that system is now live and functioning!
How does one get started? Here’s the super quick version:
- Complete the education module.
- Fill out the form.
- Wait for an accept/decline.
A separate article will be published this week to explain all the steps to that process in greater detail for tournament organizers that are interested in being considered for the TO Endorsement Writer badge. Keep an eye out for it!
PARTNERSHIPS
Judge Academy is proud to announce that we are partnering with MagiKids! Together we will provide education and certification for judges who are interested in learning more about demoing Magic to kids and new players. Judges interested in doing charity and non-profit work won’t want to miss out on these modules. Learn more about MagiKids and the extraordinary work they do over on their website: MagiKids.org
JUDGE MERCHANDISE
Exciting news!
During these past few months, we have been working on a new Magic judge merch kit.
Get more information from our social media pages as we release spoilers this week.
A lot of you are going to really love the theme of this one.
Release date is coming up very soon, so stay tuned!
TRAVEL
The Judge Academy team is looking forward to upcoming MagicCon events in Minneapolis and Barcelona, where hopefully we will get to meet even more of you in-person at our booth! Getting to spend time with you all is easily the best part of our jobs. Stop by and meet Samma and EDB if you haven’t had a chance yet. (They don’t bite. Usually.)
If you are a large event organizer who would be interested in having a Judge Academy booth or team member present at your event, please reach out to us via email to start a discussion and get the ball rolling: questions@judgeacademy.com
FINAL THOUGHTS
There are so many amazing new things on the horizon it’s difficult to keep all this excitement bottled up. Lots of articles with more information on the projects discussed in this newsletter will be made available soon to answer all of the burning questions many of you may have. As always, keep an eye on the Judge Academy Facebook and Twitter accounts for those more incremental updates. For anything not covered, reach out to the team anytime via email: questions@judgeacademy.com or on Discord: discord.gg/JudgeAcademy
Best wishes,
Samma + The Champions