As many of you have likely heard, the Magic community lost an amazing person, Judge, leader, and friend last week when Angela Chandler passed away after a 15+ month battle with cancer. She had a huge impact on judges around the world, and we wanted to find a way to help. While we wrote some words that morning, after talking to some of those closest to her, we’ve decided to put together an online tournament to raise money for the GoFundMe in her name. It was created to help with the cost of tests and treatment, and pivoted to supporting her outstanding medical bills, end of life care, and funeral expenses. Any leftover funds will be put into a trust fund that has been set up for her two beautiful children, Ben (8) and Emma (5) to help ensure that they are taken care of as best as they can be during this difficult time.

That tournament will be held on October 24th, the day after Angie’s birthday (October 23rd). We’ll have more details as we get closer, but here’s what we know:

• Format: Standard on Arena
• Tournament Software: Melee.gg
• Date: October 24th
• Swiss + Top 8
• So far, those committed to providing prizes include:
  • ChannelFireball
  • Pastimes Comics & Games
  • Card Titan
  • Top Deck Games
  • David Zimet

If you are interested in helping with this in any way (participating, streaming, commentators, donating, prize support, etc.) please let us know. Angie didn’t often have time to ask for help, as she was always busy caring for everyone else. While she’s now at peace, we hope we can honor her memory, and give back to someone who has given so much to others over the years.

Outside of that, this week, we started uploading the Competitive REL Policy classes on the L2 Skill Tree. So far, those classes include the videos, scripts, and quizzes for:

• Gameplay Errors I
• Backing Up (Or Not)
• Tournament Errors I

Finally, a quick note on the July Mailing: We’ve received some emails wanting to make sure that their promos are accounted for and that they are eligible, good to go, etc. As of the 15th, as we mentioned in the eligibility email, all of the member promos were en route to or are already at their distribution centers around the world. That said, those distribution groups then needed to actually receive the promos and then safely (both for the cards and regarding social distancing and safe practices for Covid-19) package then to prepare them for shipping. In past waves, this has taken about a week to prep when using a group of workers, so with less staff around, each part of the process is moving more slowly than normal. Since mailings are going to 2 large Hubs and 10 smaller regional distributors, we’ve done our best to coordinate with everyone to ensure we were getting updates and picking a reasonable “street date” for sending out the mailings (as it would not make sense to release mailings to individuals in the US the same day we sent promos on a week+ long journey to Russia, for example.

This week, mailings have started being sent out to members from those distribution centers. This meant that as of this weekend, as soon as the distributors are packed up and ready to go for the area they serve, we’ve now given them the okay to send the mailings out. We know that there are some regions of the world where that will take longer to make it through the mail system, through customs, etc., so we hope this has given LCs and the non-US distribution centers a chance to receive their supplies and prepare their mailings.

In short, to help clarify. The email you got was letting you know you were eligible, and telling you that promos were on their way to Logistic Coordinators or the other distributors (in addition to using the LCs, EU has one, Canada has one, and the US has one), but that there would be delays. As long as you received that email, you are on their lists and will be a part of the member mailing.

Due to the number of Judges we have, and the fact that I’d like to keep making progress on modules and other tasks, I’ll be pointing people with questions around the mailing towards this post first. If you still have questions and concerns, please let me know. However, I believe the biggest source of confusion is reading that cards were on their way to the different distributors, and instead processing that their individual mailing was shipped on that day, which led to some (definitely reasonable) concerns after a week and a half had passed. As we mentioned in that first email, we know that there have been delays and the Mid-July mailing is turning into a Late-July/Early-August mailing, but we also know everyone in the distribution process is doing their best to ensure that Judge Academy Judges are served as quickly and safely as possible.