HEAD JUDGE FOR THE STARCITYGAMES SUPER INVITATIONAL AT AMAZING DISCOVERIES!!!

 

Hey people!
I post today my very first HEAD JUDGE appearance...what a rush!!!
I had the opportunity to head judge the StarCityGames Super Invitational Qualifier during my visit to Tucson this weekend. Though I was very nervous, I did my best to keep it hidden, but having a L3 as a floor judge watching your every move, and knowing he WILL review me after this, the inner shakes were hard to keep at bay.
"Attention Magic Players, welcome to the StarCityGames Super Invitational Qualifier. My name is Michael Arrowsmith, and I will be your head judge today."
Whew!!! for me, that is the hardest part. Now that that is out of the way, let's get down to business!



We had 49 players for this qualifier, with a pretty decent variety of decks being piloted, with Donald Sheldon taking down the win with his R/G Aggro after 6 rounds and then Top 8.
The breakdown of meta was actually quite impressive, no type of deck overwhelming the tournament, which I love seeing.

Donald Sheldon piloting his R/G aggro FTW!!!

Here is the breakdown:

5 Wolf Run Ramp
4 Esper Control
4 Esper Delver
4 Naya Cloudshift
3 Wolf Run Black
3 RG Aggro
3 UR Delver
3 UW Delver
2 RUG Delver
2 UB Control
2 UW Control
14 Others

The judge staff for this event was as follows:
Michael Arrowsmith L1 (myself) Head judge
Eli Shiffrin L3 Floor judge
Alex Greengaard L1 Floor judge

Judges putting in work!!

There were very few problems at this event, only 3 deck registration errors, a couple of tardiness penalties, a caution to a player...nothing big, he was just a very animated player when it came to people he regularly played with, just asked him to tone it down a bit.
We had one "problem child", the player became very upset when his opponent missed a transform trigger on a huntmaster,and because at a prior event the judge on that event had ruled incorrectly, he became very upset. "SO YOU ARE GONNA JUST GIVE HIM THE 2/2 AND 2 LIFE???" "Yes." UNBELIEVABLE!!!
Then this player's day got even worse, when he was randomly deck-checked round 5, and had 2 extra cards in his deckbox...both playable in his deck, and he received a game loss.
I wish that I could feel bad for him, but the rules are the rules.
He then called for a judge, and Judge Alex arrived, and our player basically ignored him and wanted to get a ruling from me. I was on my way to the table at the same time, so I let that one go, but he could have been a little more respectful to Judge Alex.
We had one small hiccup at round 3, when I got a bit flustered, and did not have the decklists pulled for the swoop and deck check, but got it worked out in the end. Judge Eli suggested that I can delegate things to other people when I get slammed, and I took his advice, and everything regained order.
All in all, the event went smoothly, almost everyone had a blast, and with this event behind me, I am ready for anything that comes my way as a judge.

I wish to thank the Event Coverage Staff for Amazing Discoveries, I was very busy with the event, and was unable to get as many pictures as I wanted, but with their amazing coverage, I can share with you guys!
Thank you very much Eli Shiffrin and Alex Greengaard, without you guys on staff with me, I don't know how I could have survived.

Still trying to decide if I want to veg for a week, or head up to Madison, WI to play in the SCG Open series....feel free to comment with your suggestions!

UNTIL NEXT TIME!!!!!!
Michael