My one year anniversairy as a magic judge went by very fast. A year is not much but I feel like I established myself very well within the community and my region. I found my place and am proud to be where I am today.

I want to tell you of the best year of my life, about some experiences and things I learned that will prove great knowledge for what is ahead.

I can’t say for sure why I became a judge. After several magic events I attended as player and after having positive interactions with a judge I decided that I can imagine to be in exactly the same position. Helping your friends to have a great time. I had a great mentor and passed my L1 test with ease thanks to that judge.

However certifying does not make one a good judge. Everybody starts small. I was rather excited about all the new things ahead of me but I still feel small, sometimes too small for what is ahead of me. It is depressing to see what mistakes one has made and to see that others are apparently so effortlessly better than oneself. I know that many judges struggle with tournament and test anxiety. So do I. Every tournament makes me nervous, it is not rare that the anxiety gets so bad that I can’t eat properly and would rather just skip the tournament. I have not found a persistent cure but knowing that my friends are there to support me and knowing that as soon as the first judge call is in I feel like I am home helps in looking forward seeking new challenges. Every tournament is a challenge. A challenge I would not want to exchange for anything else.

What I realized very soon is that the support within the judge community is almost limitless. I thought maybe it is the way I am going towards others but the knowledge that for every problem, for every fear I have there is somebody who can help me, who will listen, who builds me up makes me endlessly proud to be part of this. We are not alone. We are one Community. I found a family I want to care for, everybody with their own strenghts and weaknesses. Everyone as individual.

We can learn so much from one another. And I am not saying that for the judge community only. I can count myself lucky to have many so much inspirational people around from whom I learn. Not only rules and policy but much more who I want to be and at what place I want to be in the future.

As a player you need luck more often because every game counts. As a judge you need luck too. Luck for me feels more like being at the right time at the correct place taking opportunities and handle them well. And luck was on my side. I fell into my first Magic Fest after I have been a judge for 3 months because my fellow judges knew about my excitment and eager and the judge manager needed more staff. In Magic Fest Prague 2018 I ended up headjudging 2 big sealed side events. I had no idea what I was doing but it worked well. A motto with which I go since then is that you don’t need to know what you are doing, others just have to think you know what you do. Fake it until you make it! For Magic Fest Warsaw I was staffed 2 weeks prior to the event for Prize Wall and that was very important for me as I believe the chances I have taken and how I managed them are the reason I nowdays get the opportunities to go to Magic Fests all over the world and there is nothing I enjoy doing more. Not only working there but making new friends including players and judges alike.

I often compare myself to other judges and just as often we forget what our own strenghts are which others might not have. There is a point for every judge where one feels like one is not doing good enough and pressure comes with that. I see judges losing their joy because of that but believe me, you are good enough. One of my friends told me when I was in training for L2 that I should not stop comparing but stop comparing with the judges that are already very good L2 Judges, L3 candidates. Looking around me to not my heroes but my fellow comrades made it clear that everyone as an individal has place for growth and as long as we acknowledge that we are in a great position.

I often get the question: “What motivates you?”, because you see…. I love judging and this is something others can see quite easily as I run almost every tournament with a wide grin jumping around like a bouncy ball. Knowing that there is so much ahead of me and acknowledging that I have flaws on which I can work is something very empowering just as acknowledging our strenghts and that we can build upon on them.

Being a judge is fun, a challenge and one can have a lot of impact if one wants too. I personally enjoy it more than playing and actually work less than 15 hours a week to make all the traveling happening for me. I found great joy in it even if I don’t earn “big money”. Becoming a magic Judge has been the best decision I have made in my life and I am happy about every positive and negative experience I had that helped me end up exactly where I am today.

This blog is meant to share some of my excitement, my future experiences, analysis of tournaments and conferences from a judge side. I am looking forward to this.