An announcement about the new Exemplar Program was recently posted. (JudgeApps account required.) It contains the following line:

in 2015, judges foils will only be available as part of the Exemplar Program.

This blog post is meant for one primary reason: to make sure how this affects Grand Prix events is crystal clear to all my judge friends:

Starting with the 2015 season, those who judge at Grand Prix events will no longer receive judge foils from Wizards of the Coast.

Obviously, this is a pretty big deal for a lot of judges – myself being anything but an exception! What does this mean in terms of you judging a Grand Prix in 2015 and onward? Frankly, we don’t exactly know yet.

When the 2015 Grand Prix schedule gets posted, and you start thinking about events you may want to judge, be sure to read the event details to see what compensation the PTOs are offering for your time and efforts.

Will I miss Grand Prix foils? Absolutely. Is this the end of the judge program and all of Organized Play in general? No – no it is not.

On a brighter note, I’m really looking forward to the new Exemplar Program. My fellow Senior Judges and I have spent a LOT of time working on it, and I’m genuinely very excited about it. Look for my extended thoughts on the Exemplar Program in the days to come.

Cheers