3-slot
Chris Otwell
Head Judge: Karl Batdroff (Level 3)
Ass. Head Judge: Chris Otwell (me)
Special Judge: James D. Lee (DCI Level 3) ***
Other Judges: Bill Graham (Level 2) (Also was TO)
Scott Marshall (Level 0)
Chris ... (forgot last name - Level 1 from Utah)
*** James D. Lee was specially flown out from Chicago for this event, at
the expense of WotC, in order to do judge testing and possible Judge
recommendations, as well as to get a feel for the current problems with
Judging in Colorado.
Having never worked with Karl Batdroff or Bill Graham in an event before
this, I knew that a general learning curve to adjust to their style of
event organization was needed by not only myself, but also for Scott and
James. Therefore, I made sure that when ever possible, Karl, James, and
Myself were in agreement with how to handle things, and that I needed to
make sure that the 3 of us were on the same page, and reading from the
same sheet of music.
If something came up during the event that any of 2 of us had a differing
view point on, we always made a decision as a group, or Karl as Head Judge
would let us know how he wanted to handle the situation.
About 10:10 we assembled the players for deck registration. Karl gave the
usual spiel about making sure that the deck lists were correctly filled
out. Between deck registration and deck assignment and construction, the
judge staff proceeded to randomly fix about 15 to 20 incorrectly
registered deck lists. After that the players were reconvened and
assigned the decks. Different from what I am used to here, was that the
decks stayed where the players registered them. We went around fixing the
decks as where they were. I usually do a full deck collection from the
players, and this was different but definitely manageable.
Deck construction ends about 11:45. 1st round begins about Noon. 7
Rounds of play, with 98 players participating. Not as good of a turn out,
as I was expecting, but definitely acceptable. Lunch break at 2:00 p.m.
Dinner break @ 7:00 p.m. End of swiss @ 9:00 p.m.
James, Karl and I approached each situation as best we could. A few times
Karl needed to leave, and put me as Acting Head Judge for up to an hour at
a time. At one point, while Karl was out, James and I each made a
contrdicactory ruling with regards to the strictness of the "Tardiness
Rules". I am generally non-tolerant with the tardiness rules, where as
James was. I made the ruling based on my general concept of the events
and as acting Head Judge, while not considering to confer with James
first. Shortly afterwards we discussed the conceptual reasons for either
situation and when Karl returned we both desired his opinion. James
believed in a 3 minute leniency rule for tardiness. Karl was also among
the opinion of non-tolerance. So, we made a decision that would affect
the rest of the event.
At one point in the event, a game state ruling was needed. Since I
believe that after the game progresses a couple of turns into it, that it
is took late to repair. I had the game state stand. Of course, after the
end of the match the player that lost by my ruling was noticeably upset
and was needing some converting by his friends. James proceeded to drill
me over the ruling, the situation and my reasoning behind it. He gave me
the impression that I might of done something that he disagreed with, but
did not state that -- Instead James only drilled me for my reasons and
motivations and beliefs on why I ruled the way that I did. I never did
find out if he thought I was right or wrong in the end.
I ran the top 8 booster draft pretty well, with the exception of when I
started to say "pass" prematurely and then tried to catch myself in
mid-syllable. This confused the players briefly, but was recovered from
just fine.
In each match of the top 8, was monitored by a judge watching it, which
was good considering that we had more than enough to do this, through out
the event.
Of course, after the end of the event -- I was pretty tired and was not
able to clearly and coherently speak to James during a final interview
about me as a judge. After all, I am still pursuing a level 3
recommendation... I tried to do a quick follow up in email to James after
the event, but could only remember one of the questions that he ask me at
that time.
In the event, Bill Graham thought the event was pretty well run, and was
happy with the over-all effort and professionalism that was portrayed at
the event. However, I do not think that I would consider this one of my
better overall events to manage, and that I could of done a lot better in
the end. Hopefully, I didn't damage my pursuit of a Level 3 recommendation
too much.
Christopher E. Otwell
DCI Level 2.
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Believe in Randomness. Randomness works for you!
Christopher E. Otwell
(719)-392-6782 (Home) (719)-567-9506 (Work)
otwell@cos.wantweb.net chris.otwell-contractor@jntf.osd.mil
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