Jym Resciniti
Thursday:
Arrived O'Hare Int. around 4pm
Found my ride about 6pm
Found my way out of the airport about 7pm
When I got to the hotel, the WoTC/DCI crew was finishing up player
registration. Everything was running smoothly. There was no noticeable
confusion which is to be commended since there was a lot going on. I went
to the judges meeting. This was the first one I've ever attended. I've
never before made it early enough. It turned out to be quite informative.
Some of the anticipated rules questions were discussed as well as the
newer of the Oracle wordings. I got to meet some of the judges I'd heard
of but had never seen. There was a broad spectrum of levels,
nationalities, languages, personalities, and beer preferences. Everyone
would get along well throughout the weekend with little mention of
Pokemon.
Friday:
Arose at the crack of dawn. Spent 20 minutes trying to figure out which
hotel restaurant was actually open. (This became a favorite weekend
pastime) Went to the PT arena and was assigned to Senior Judge Randy
Rierson, Lvl 3 from Bama.
The day went quite smooth. Couple of Academy Rector questions, a little
trouble with a player's sideboard sleeves being much newer then his main
deck. This was caught previous to sideboarding and was handled with a
caution. At the end of time (60 minute + 5 turn) there were routinely
three or four matches left out, not counting time extensions.
Around 1:00, I went to take the judge cert. exam, but we'll not talk about
that.
Saturday:
I started out on the PT floor. Then I found out about some seminars that
were being held, so I decided to attend. After my showing in the
interview, it couldn't hurt. I went to the DCI Reporter seminar. If you
ever have a chance to take this, DO SO. It is as good for beginners to
DCI Reporter as it is for seasoned scorekeepers. Basics were discussed as
well as shortcuts and "how to fix your boo-boos".
Back on the floor, later in the day, there was an interesting situation:
A player called for a judge. As judges looked his direction, he said, "I
need a judge who really knows the rules". We all looked at each other for
a moment, I said, "I'll give you an answer and if you don't agree, you may
appeal to Nat." The player, having by now attracted the attention of all
the judges (3) on the floor, asked, "If I cast Hurkyl's Recall, can I
respond by using my...umm...Do all the artifacts go into our hands at the same
time?". I said, "Well, you play it and may respond, if you and you
opponent pass....". "No", he says, "that's not what I'm asking. Can I
return some, use one, then return it?". "No, you may not", I said. Soon
after that, the player played a "Hurkyl's Recall" (foreign) and both
players began to pick up artifacts. I said, "wait, only one of you
returns artifacts. The spell targets a player." They both disagreed and
said it returns all artifacts. I thought they might be confusing it with
another spell, no one was 100% sure, so I checked the Oracle. This
cleared up the confusion. I gave a time extension and all were merry.
Sunday:
I got up late. Ambled down to the PT floor to find that side events were
doing fine without me. I talked with artists and vendors and got ready
for my flight back to Knoxville. Got to O'Hare quickly, got to Knoxville
slowly. But the airline bought me $15 worth of Johnny Walker Black for
the wait. It was the only decent service I got all weekend.
Props---
-WoTC for a smooth event.
-Nat Fairbanks, Chris Galvin, Scott Larabee, and THE Jeff Donais for their
faith in me.
-Guptil and Zantides for a great seminar, I learned a lot.
Slops---
-The hotel restaurants for never being open when I had time to eat.
-Chicago restaurants for rude, slow, and overbearing servers.
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