Welcome back, judges! In case you are just tuning in, we rang in the New Year by asking the Regional Coordinators about what they are looking looking forward to in next 365 days of officiating. Today we have the last set of responses. In case you missed it, here’s Part 1.

Nicholas Sabin (USA-Midatlantic)

In 2017, I eagerly look forward to seeing the Mid-Atlantic develop as a community. We have a fantastic conferences lead in CJ Crooks . Also, Matt Braddock and Ryan Stapleton have done a great job of developing the idea of judge gatherings as a way for judges to spend time together, share knowledge, and enjoy how great of a game Magic is. We’ve focused our efforts on ensuring that L1s are fully and properly welcomed into the region and given the support they need to excel, and I think it’ll pay huge dividends in terms of bringing judges together.

On a program level, I’m really looking forward to seeing how Grand Prix events evolve in 2017. The leaps and bounds in which GPs have grown over the last several years have been really exciting to watch, as organizers have innovated new ways to delight players while managing the inevitable chaos that occurs when you try to fit several thousand Magic players into one event. I think we’ll really see GPs transitioning to conventions where the GP is an event, rather than an event where the GP is the biggest thing happening, and it’ll be a huge benefit to Magic.

Hans Wang (China)

2017 will be a challenging year for me, as it will be my first year as RC. We’re going to try a lot of new things in the region (like the Area Captain system, breaking conferences into area conferences, etc) and everything makes me excited! About the program, the Judge Program is one of the best things for letting us see the world and meet new friends. We have a lot of great judges in our region and I’m really glad to see them more willing to go out and see the world. Yes, I’m ready for 2017!

Sebastian Pekala (Europe-Central)

I’m excited about the regional judge shirts that we’ll finally have for Europe – Central. It took us a long time to get them done, but they’re finally coming!

For the Judge Program as a whole, I can’t wait to see how a full year in NNWO will work, with all these newly selected RCs, PCs and GPHJs. I love the transparency, focus on feedback and coordinated growth of our global community.

David Lyford-Smith (United Kingdom, Ireland, and South Africa)

2017 is an exciting year to look forward to for the UK, Ireland and South Africa region. We have several near-prospects for new L3s, some great plans of expanding conferences to more parts of the region. I am also very excited to have L2 Roger Holness bringing a new surge of energy into the South African community and with a first major conference in South Africa coming up too. There’s a lot to look forward to for UKISA 2017 🙂



Guillaume Beuzelin (France)

Two things are pretty exciting for my point of view for this coming year.

The first one is about the integration of a part in Switzerland couple of months ago in the French region. The goal for 2017 is to have the French-speaking Swiss judges feeling very comfortable to interact with the rest of the community. I hope we will be able to provide enough support to see a new generation of level 2 coming from this region.

The second challenge will be about the next wave of L3 in France. It’s like all the L2 candidates were hibernating for 1 or 2 years and now they all wake up at the same time. If 100% of the declared candidates pass the test we will double the number of L3 in France, which will ask you to do some adjustments in our way to manage the community. I’m very glad of our community and I wish the best for all this candidates. We will make sure to be ready to welcome them 🙂

From the Judge Program as a whole, I’m very interested to see the impact of the NNWO. In 2016, we saw many changes in terms of the person in charge but they didn’t always have the time to impact the program as much as they want or can. In 2017, we should see more clearly the positive impact of all these changes.

Cristiana Dionisio (Italy and Malta)

2017 will be a year rich of activities and project for Italy and Malta, I am super excited for the new spheres and leaders we created at the end of 2016, the new L3s Piero Nicolli and Luca Romano and the ones who will test for L3 in 2017. Two of them have already finished their checklist and two others are about to. Working together will be amazing! We also planned 6 conferences and one of them is in the beautiful island of Sicily. For the first time, the judges from Malta will be able to join the Italian judges and it will be a great weekend of knowledge sharing and community building!

David Hibbs (USA-South)

2016 saw many changes put in place for the Judge Program. We saw changes to the advanced roles, ways to apply for those roles, and to GP staffing — just to name a few! I look forward to seeing how these changes shake out in 2017; what works, what doesn’t, what can simply be fixed so that it DOES work. Also, as my first full year as RC, I look forward to finding new ways for judges to step up to leadership roles. If we are doing this alone, we are doing it wrong, and I anticipate a lot of help from my friends along the way!

Mitsunori Makino (Japan)

What I am most excited happening in 2017 are Conferences. They will be held in about ten areas widely in Japan. Conferences are the best opportunity for the first step to expand your judge experiences. Having area conferences also means we have plenty of opportunities for level two exams. L2 candidates, get ready!

Jarrod Williams (USA-Great Lakes)

With the NNWO changing the program, I think judges more than ever are able to find their role in the program and own it. I’m excited to see that play out in my region in terms seeing who pursues the L2 tester certification and who pursues the Team Lead Certification. I’m also excited to see the Great Lakes judges keep developing in quality. Our mini-conference system last year helped teach more people and I look forward to building on that success.

David Zimet (USA-Southwest)

For 2017, we have a new, bigger than ever GP Vegas, and that should certainly be fun and exciting, along with providing some new and interesting challenges. We’ll all continue to focus on improving our skills and rules knowledge of course, and I look forward to a great year of collaboration throughout the region and the world, and watching people step up to new roles and responsibilities. Personally, I’m very interested to see how the changes that the PCs have put in place influence the experience of being part of the program.

Due to some delays, we will update this post when we get responses from the remaining Regional Coordinators.

We here at Judge of the Week would like to thank the Regional Coordinators for sharing their thoughts and excitement for the coming year. Also to our readers, we wish you all a fantastic 2017!

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