SCG Open and Invitational INDIANAPOLIS!!!

Greetings again!

 This blog comes from beautiful Indianapolis, IN, where Peter and I were staffed for the SCG Open Series AND Invitational. This event was a blast, with 200+ Invitational competitors, almost 500 Standard Open competitors, and 300+ Legacy competitors!
I was slotted for side events on Friday, and while side events were a little slow, I was happy to be in my element. (side events) No real interesting judge calls, most of the players were not new to the game, and played accordingly.

Day 2 is where it got interesting.
Round 2 the Head Judge, Kim Warren, calls me to the stage. I arrive, and she says that she was putting me on side events...YAY!!!  BTW you have an L1 candidate shadowing you. AWESOME!!!!  I was going to request to be shadowed in Detroit, as I would love to have a hand in molding a new judge in my deadly image lol. I happen to think that my personal take on player-judge interaction, charisma, and general attitude are all things a new judge could take away from working with me.
My shadow's name was James Risner. He was a touch older than I, soft-spoken, with much legacy knowledge. The downside was that his presence as a judge was hidden by his timidness and nervousness. He ended up loosening up around our 3rd side event, and was handling side events with ease after that. Later, he took THE TEST.....and passed!!!! I am so happy to see a nice guy like James join the Judge family, and look forward to working with him again.

I was then moved back to the floor, and was instantly shadowed by a L2, Nick Rzeczowski, which I didn't mind at all, there was much I could learn from this seasoned judge. His way of explaining how things work was smooth, and he at no point became frustrated with me, and told me something that very much surprised me: Be confidant in your rules knowledge, it is not as bad as you think. You should test for L2. WHAAAAAA????? This is now the 3rd judge to say that, but I will return to that.

The Judge calls BLEW UP day 3, but one of my favorites that I got to handle was this:
AP controls SIGARDA, HOST OF HERONS, and attempts to MAELSTROM PULSE his opponent's TARMOGOYF. NAP calls for a judge, and asks if he understands this situation correctly. Can he cast MISDIRECTION targeting MAELSTROM PULSE, and pulse the SIGARDA?  I am pretty sure the answer is yes, but I really need to know how to properly explain it when the inevitable judge call comes. (SIGARDA has hexproof).

Luckily, a L3 judge pops out of nowhere to come to my aid. That judge was the Invitational Head Judge(and ninja), Daniel Kitachewsky, who was now working the floor for the Legacy open. He pulls me to the side, broke down the entire interaction to me in a very entertaining, and easy to understand way.
Pointing his hand high in the air, he proclaims "I CAST THIS ON YOU!!!!  then from above (pointing down) SOMEONE SAYS NO!!!, YOU WILL GO OVER THERE!!!(pointing to the left)."

The controller of the pulse doesn't change, just the target of the pulse. EPIC RULES EXPAINATION!!! Therefore, AP pulsed his own SIGARDA, and entered "SAD PANDA PHASE" (hiya Bruce Mills lol)
I wish I could have worked with Daniel more, as I feel I could have learned so much more from this stellar judge. Hopefully I get to work with him again in the near future.

My team lead for Legacy Open was a newer L2, one Nathan Stanley. This judge kept me cracking up all day, what an amazing personality! Nathan was very down to earth, and had no problem chatting with me about past judge calls, interesting situations, and how to further myself in the judge program. I had the most interaction with Nathan, and consider myself a better judge because of it.

The call of the weekend for me was in Round 7, when a player I was checking on because his opponant wasnt in his seat at the beginning of round said to me, "My opponent ran to the bathroom". I said, "He came to the table, and informed you of this?" he said yes and I instructed him to begin play swiftly when his opponent returned. I hear "JUDGE!!!"  about 7 minutes into the round, from the same player that I had just spoken to. I arrive, and ask him whats going on? HIS EXACT WORDS.....    "Judge, I kinda lied to you." WHAAAAA???????? "My opponent is my friend, and I dont know where he is, but I didnt want him to get into trouble for being late."
So he just lied to a tournament official.....DISQUALIFICATION. Those are the rules right?

Myself and another judge, Aaron Clay, take this issue to the Head Judge, one Michael Zimmerman, trying to keep a straight face the whole way. I cant see this being an actual DQ, I mean, what advantage can the player get from this? Sure he lied, I think that a proper talking to would be fine, and would hopefully make the player understand that lying to a judge is really bad!
Michael Zimmerman tells us to do just that, and doesnt give the player the DQ, based on the situation, the fact that this table was nowhere near contention, even for prizes, etc.
So, all in all, this was an amazing weekend of Magic, I feel that this event was the one that I learned the most from. With such a deep pool of judges to syphon information and knowledge out of, would you expect any different?
Now I head off to Detroit, for the SCG Open there this upcoming weekend. Oh and by the way, I am going to attempt to TEST FOR L2!!!! Hopefully there is no conflict in schedules, because with the judges that I have spoken to saying I should test, and my own personal will to succeed, the only thing that can stop me is not having someone to actually administer the test.
Wish me luck!!!!

Until next time!
Michael