| UD Prerelease-Detroit, MI |
Memorial Day Weekend, 29-30 May 1999
James Lee
Greetings! My name is James Lee and I am a judge from Chicago having been
given the opportunity to serve the DCI in Detroit. A year ago, while
receiving instruction during my judge's exam with Jeff Donais and Mike
Guptil, I swore fealty to the House Donais pledging my life and my sword.
(I cannot say why I did not swear my honour to House Guptil except perhaps
that the most revered Mr. Guptil is a formidible man and Jeff's curly hair
is most disarming.) Since the Destiny Pre-release in Detroit was being
hosted by Mike Donais, it was natural that I made every effort to be there.
Historically, I have been doing pre-releases in the Chicago area since
Alliances, so the Detroit Neutral Ground venue was a new experience. The
most notable difference was the size of the event. A little over two
hundred were in attendance on Saturday and not quite one hundred came on
Sunday. The dynamic of a smaller event offers a judge what I believe to be
one of his most important roles - offering a point of personal connection
for the game and the sport of Magic. Again, as I have had the fortune to
observe time and again throughout the midwest, the judging staff amassed by
Mike Donais brought honour to the event. Each judge offered quality
assistance to the players and strove to be ready and available at the first
sign of need. One things that was different from my experience in Chicago
is that the Detroit players are more apt to simply raise their hands than to
cry out, "Judge!" This caused me to miss some initial calls, but Mike's
gentle tutelage soon had me developing a sharper eye. (Perhaps he has been
trained by the great masters of Shaolin?)
Whenever I have the privilege of experiencing the judging skills of someone
like Mike Donais, I try to watch for techniques that would be helpful to me
in my future as a representative of the DCI. As always, this event was no
exception. In the particular situation which arose, a player had a deck
which played suspiciously well. After some comments from the floor, and
consideration by the judges, Mike had a discussion with the player and
performed a deck check. As it turned out, the player's deck had an
additional rare card which would have reflected an anomalous pack. This was
not originally brought to the attention of the judging staff and this
contributed to the concerns expressed by the floor. However, after a
thorough observation of the player's matches and considering the evidence
available, there was no substantial indication that any intentional
dissembling had occured. Mike had a private discussion with the player on
policy and expectations regarding odd packs or starters in Limited events
and the pre-release continued. This demonstrates a quality of judging which
I have seen before from Mike and wish to emphasize in this report.
A DCI Judge must be a fair adjudicator of both the rules and the spirit of
the tournament. Ideally, this means a correct judgment with all parties
receiving the most righteous answer or result. However, this is not always
possible and many of the more ambiguous situations which arise test the
judge's ability in human relationships more than his ability to dig out the
truth. In the event describe above, Mike took a path which both preserved
the integrity of the event as it was progressing and protected the honour of
the player. There was no hard evidence of any wrong-doing and Mike gave no
overt indication of a negative judgment. In the end, all parties involved
were satisfied with the thoroughness of his investigation and no one lost
face as a result. All of this occured without inordinate delay or fanfare
and a spirit of peace and control reigned throughout the process. This
meditative confidence with a concern for the integrity and image of the
players is a quality worthy of emulation. I am honoured to have been able
to watch it in action at the Detroit Destiny Pre-release.
James Do Hung LEE
Judge Lvl 2
e-mail: <councillor@hotmail.com>
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